My Perfume Collection.

I wear perfume everyday and in the same way that I like to change my clothing to represent my mood and whatever I am going to be doing on a certain day I also like to wear different fragrances depending on my mood and activities. I don't think that I will ever be someone who has a 'signature scent' as there are simply too many fragrances that I love!

Most of the time I am happy experimenting with the numerous samples and minis that I have but there are certain fragrances that enchant me enough to invest in a full sized bottle and I like to use these at the weekend or if I am going out in the evenings. 

I'm aware that perfume is a luxury item, it's not cheap by any stretch of the imagination and it's something that you want rather than need. Although my collection is fairly small it's a somewhat decadent indulgence that I greatly enjoy.

There's a perennial best seller, a few more unusual scents and a trio from my favourite perfume house Diptyque. 

CHLOE Eau de Parfum.

This is by far the most conventional fragrance that I own, a well loved powdery floral scent that is very popular. It is a very feminine blend of rose and peony that is a little heady and heavy on application although I find that this fades away pretty quickly on me as it develops. This is my most 'everyday' type of scent and I will often grab a spritz of this on my way to work. I'd also reach for it if I was wearing a dress!

FRESH Patchouli Pure.

I've had this for quite some time, so long in fact, that I think it may not be produced anymore. I like this but it is very strong and it continues to wear strong even as it develops. I find I don't need to use much of this at all and I don't need to reapply it throughout the day. 

As it's name suggests it is pretty much a pure patchouli scent. It has the soap-y-ness that I like in patchoulis but it also has hints of mint and orange which makes it suitable for any time of the year. This is quite a masculine scent, almost after shave like but I like that about it!   

MIN New York Shaman.

This is another strong patchouli fragrance that lasts well on me but it's quite different from the Fresh one. MIN New York is a wonderful perfumerie in Soho, New York that sell a wide selection of niche fragrance brands for both the body and the home as well as producing their own perfumes. Hand blended in limited quantities these perfumes are unique and very special. Shaman is a magical mystical patchouli with notes of violet, rose and frankincense. It retains patchouli's signature soap-y-ness but this is a very feminine patchouli. It is pungent and sensual - a very sexy scent! 

Commes des Garcons Parfums Series 3 Incense Avignon.

I adore the scent of incense and this is a heady blend of frankincense and myrrh sweetened by a touch of vanilla. There's also a good whack of my old friend patchouli in here that I love! This fragrance is intensely smoky - an intriguing and unusual fragrance that smells very 'church like'. It's another one that goes on strong and lasts well on me. I particularly enjoy wearing this in the winter months as I find it to be very warm and comforting.

  

Diptyque Oud Palao.

Diptyque may well be my favourite perfume house! I have three of their fragrances and there are more that I covet. Oud Palao is their newest launch and as soon as I smelled it I was obsessed! I have been looking for an affordable oud fragrance for some time but I wanted an oud that had been softened a little, for as much as I love it, it can be a little too woody and heavy. Oud Palao is heavy on the oud but it has been softened by the addition of rose and vanilla notes. This is currently my most reached for scent, I find it to be deliciously smoky and very wearable.

Diptyque Eau Duelle.

I like vanilla accords in fragrances mainly because they are so good at softening the scents that I prefer such as patchouli, incense and oud. Eau Duelle is heavy on the vanilla but its not at all sweet or sickly. It is a spicy vanilla that feels warm. A little woody and a little musky I enjoy it's cardamom notes and find this to be very wearable. I wear it year round but it comes into it's own in winter when I want a softer scent. For me this is the olefactory equivalent of a cashmere jumper!

Diptyque Philosykos.

I love Philosykos, it's the perfect, summery, warm weather scent for me - it's light and refreshing but still somewhat unusual. It's a pure fig scent but it's not too sweet or fruity and somehow manages to be warm and woody yet sharp and green almost a little fizzy all at the same time. It's ever so slightly coconut-ty - there's a bit of a beach thing going on that makes it very wearable yet it is still grown up and sophisticated.

As you can see my collection definitely favours smoky spicy scents - most often with a dash of patchouli it seems. I don't have any plans to add to my collection in the near future but if I were to top of my list would be something that smells very summery almost like suntan lotion on warm skin - something such as Tom Ford's Soleil Blanc for instance. Following that I would like to buy a couple of things from the innovative perfume house L'Etat d'Orange Libre - their powdery floral Putain des Palaces along with Fils de Dieu a refreshing yet spicy blend of asian flavourings and florals would be good to start off with.

In reality I think that seven fragrances are quite enough to be going on with, my perfume collection is (hopefully) going to be a strictly one out/one in affair....  

Empties May 2016.

I was expecting to use up a few more things than I did during May. There aren't as many empties as usual but even so I did use up eight full sized items (that includes a couple of mini bag sized hand creams) and twelve samples.

Body and Perfume.

I didn't finish any hair products this month and the only body item I used up was a Rituals T'ai Chi Foaming Shower Gel which was very nice - it had a light green tea type fragrance so it felt very clean and fresh - perfect for this warmer weather.

I did use up two hand creams however: another Crabtree and Evelyn Hand Therapy in 'Lavender 'and a Burt's Bees Hand Salve which was also lavender scented. The Burt's Bees Salve is very good but also very oily so I could only use it last thing at night as it takes time to sink in.

I used two perfume vials. I loved the smell of Jo Malone Mimosa and Cardamom but it was another Jo Malone scent that had no longevity for me I'm afraid.

Make Up.

I managed to finish four make up items, four, I know! 

Another Hourglass Mini Film Noir Mascara and yet another Chantecaille Just Skin. 

I liked Sunday Riley Effortless Tinted Primer a lot. It is a little oily but it made a lovely even base for make up and felt moisturising. I will certainly get this again after the Summer. 

I wasn't a huge fan of Trish McEvoy Beauty Booster Lip Gloss that came as part of a Blue Mercury GWP. The formula was sticky and seemed to dry my lips and the tube became messy after a few uses... but it was an easy one to throw in my bag and use on the go.

Skincare.

Oskia Perfect Cleanser is a thick balm. It is very effective, it does an excellent job of dissolving make up and rinses off very nicely but I don't think that I would get it again as I found it a little too stiff and heavy feeling when I massaged it on my face.

Kiehl's Ultra Facial Toner is a staple for me I love it so much! But I wasn't overly impressed with the other toner I used up, Pixi Glow Tonic. The huge bottle did last a long time but there are plenty of other exfoliating toners and pads that I prefer. Maybe this is a product that suffers from being over promoted and I had unrealistic expectations but it was just OK for me and left my skin feeling a little bumpy.

From the skincare samples I used I loved Radical Eye Revive Cream. It managed to be rich but not greasy, didn't irritate my eyes at all and it did an awesome job of hydrating my under eye area.

I also enjoyed Mila Moursi The Firming Cream and Evan Healy Lavender HydroSoul Tonic.

Finally, whilst I liked both of the products the samples of Caudalie Resveratrol Serum and 111Skin Bright Eye Lift Gel were both packaged terribly with, respectively, a useless pipette and pump. 

I feel bad complaining about free things but as samples are the introduction to a product or range I think that they should be perfectly packaged...

Space NK Autumn Beauty Edit GWP September 2015.

Saturday was another great day to shop for beauty items as it was Space NK Autumn Beauty Edit.

This is one of my favourite events to shops as in addition to the amazing GWP pictured above - just look at it! - there are various vendors offering treatments in participating stores. This year I had a lovely mini facial with Tracie Martyn products and a hand and arm massage featuring MIO products.

Whilst the Barneys Love Yourself event sees me stocking up on make up items and things for Mr C&C I generally buy most of my skincare from Space NK. This year I bought two serums: Sunday Riley Good Genes which I've talked about a million times and Chantecaille Vital Essence, a wonderfully light serum that smells faintly of rose and plumps and hydrates skin whilst soothing redness.

I'm also just about out of texturing sprays for my hair so I picked up a large Oribe Apres Beach  Wave and Shine Spray. This gives the same results as a salt spray but leaves you with tousled locks without any 'crunch' and (like other Oribe products) it smells gorgeous.

I already had some NDulge points saved up and as I preordered my bag by the time Saturday rolled around the points for that day's purchases had already applied. I used them for the Surf Shampoo and Conditioner from Bumble and Bumble - more products that I love and have mentioned a million times before.

SpaceNK always have the best goodie bags as gifts and I think they really outdid themselves this time! Inside a large clear plastic toiletry bag there were thirty three products that were all either full sized, travel sized or very generously sized samples.

And there was a great selection of products...

Five for the body (although the James Read Tan Accelerator and Hampton Sun Hydrating Aloe Mist can also be used for the face) including a full sized Leif Hand Balm. Three lip products including a full sized Lipstick Queen Chinatown Glossy Pencil in the shade 'Catalina' and two mascaras. 

There was only one perfume sample but it is a generous 12ml handbag sized spray of Diptyque Tam Dao which is a warm, woody perfume with spicy notes - perfect for the autumn and just the type of scent that I love. (There were a variety of different scents available).

There were also six haircare products and sixteen skincare items. As ever I'm thrilled by the skincare items - two cleansers, three eye creams, three serums, a couple of moisturizers and six targeted treatments.

It is a truly superb gift bag that I am overjoyed with.  There are a few products here that I'm familiar with alongside lots of new things to be experimented with. I'm sure I'm going to discover a few must haves to add to my shopping list in the future!

Barneys Love Yourself GWP September 2015.

Barney's Love Yourself event started on Wednesday 9th September and of course I hot footed it over there to pick up my purchases and bag of goodies... and then I was so frantically busy that its only now on Thursday evening that I've opened up my bag and had a good rummage around it. Madness I know!

There were a few bags a while ago that weren't too exciting for me but the last two years have seen more and more items stuffed into the Love Yourself bag and some exciting step up gifts from individual vendors. Plus this time, as last, saw the spend amount for the bag at $200.00 pre tax (down from $250.00). 

The verdict? 

A fabulous must have GWP!

I always use this event to stock up on some basics and indeed the items I bought aren't really that different from the last time. There's always a Chantecaille Just Skin in there and this year I also bought two Chantecaille lip glosses - a Brilliant Gloss in 'Modern' which is my go to MLBB gloss, and one that I highly recommend if you have never tried it, and a Luminous Lip Gloss in 'Framboise' which I discovered in a GlossyBox and added to my wish list.

 I always stock up on some Kiehl's products for Mr C&C. There's almost always something from the Facial Fuel range, either the wash or moisturizer, very often a huge tub of Ultra Facial Cream and usually an eye cream of some sort - this time it's the Powerful Wrinkle Reducing Eye Cream.

Kiel's really outdid themselves with their step up gifts this year - 250ml of Grapefruit Body Cleanser and 250ml of Grapefruit Hand and Body Lotion.(There are different gifts depending on the amount that you spend).

Chantecaille had a 'Protect the Wolves' ecosack in place of their usual cosmetic bag along with deluxe samples of Rose de Mai Oil and Cream, a deluxe sample of their amazing Rose Eye Make Up Remover and a mini Faux Cils Mascara.

The Love Yourself Bag contained a whopping 30 samples most of which are deluxe along with two full sized items - Rituals Sakura Spring Foaming Shower Oil and Lipstick Queen Vesuvius Liquid Lips. (I received the shade 'Blush').

There are way too many samples to go into in detail but as usual there's a little bit of everything: seven make up samples, seven perfume samples, two for body, two for hair and twelve lovely skincare items.

The event runs until the end of Sunday (unless they run out of bags before then...) and if you can't make it to a Barneys store you can also shop online at www.barneys.com

Go on you know you want to!

Empties April 2015.

It's been a bit 'bookish' around here lately but once again 'empties time' has rolled around so here's a beauty post. This month the stars and planets in the empties galaxy were in perfect alignment... something landed up on the empty pile every day - twelve full sized products and twenty-two samples were finished!

I used up a lot of  full sized cleansing/cleaning products this month: two shower gels, a body scrub, a big pack of face wipes and four face cleansers.

This month I loved Sarah Chapman Skinesis Ultimate Cleanse and Clinique TTDO Balm, these two are both among my favorite facial cleansers/ balms - simply lovely products that feel pampering yet are really efficient.

I'm sad to have finished both Sunday Riley Good Genes and Sarah Chapman Skinesis Intense Hydrating Booster. This was a combination of serums that worked so well for me and kept my skin healthy and glow-y throughout the winter. (I used Good Genes at night and Sarah Chapman in the morning).

I was a little cautious of Goldfaden MD Dr's Scrub Advanced as it felt very abrasive when first applied. I'm generally not a fan of physical exfoliators but this left my skin feeling so beautifully soft and smooth that I was impressed.

Two more facial products that I loved were Radical Extreme Repair which was a fabulous moisturizer for morning or night - it sat really well under make up -  and Sisley Black Rose Cream Mask which is going straight onto my 'when I'm Rich fantasy shopping list'. The mask was so good, it felt cooling and soothing, it hydrated and plumped my face and smelled amazing. It's also ridiculously expensive although I did get four treatments out of a 10g sample tube so its not as extravagant  as it first appears.

At the other end of the price range C. Booth Honey Almond Body Butter is so good I repurchased it straight away! It's a thick rich cream but it absorbs really well and despite it's richness it's not at all greasy. It smells so delicious and leaves a light lingering scent on the skin.

Atkinson's 24 Old Bond Street EDT was right up my perfume street, warm and spicy yet not overpowering and it lasted well on me.

The only product I disliked this month was Glamglow Powermud DualCleanse. I'd heard so many good things about this and was excited to try it - the idea of a mask that turned into an oil cleanser was intriguing. However, it tingled a tad too much on my (not normally sensitive) skin and left it feeling tight and temporarily red.

April was a great month for products for me. I discovered some really rather wonderful new things, worked out an effective cold weather routine and finished up a whole heap of products!    

Walmart Beauty Box Spring 2015.

My Spring Beauty Box from Walmart arrived  at the end of March. 

These cheap and cheerful boxes ship seasonally (four a year) and cost just five dollars each. That's right - five dollars! -  for the price of a Starbucks coffee you get a little present in the post of samples, full sized products and money off coupons. (In actual fact the box and its contents are free and the five dollars is the charge of the shipping). Sure, the items in the boxes are drugstore rather than high end but I think these little boxes are fantastic value for money and they always contain things that I will use.

The big ticket item in this season's box was Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara. This full sized product contains 'procapil' that allegedly promotes eyelash growth. I'll get back to you on that!

There are deluxe samples of Dove Go Fresh Body Wash which smells deliciously of mandarins, Neutrogena Healthy Skin Booster Face Cleanser which promises to lather and cleanse without drying and Schwarzkopf (that name always makes me laugh) Essence Ultime Shampoo and Conditioner.All of these are good travel sized items and I will use them all. 

There's a sample of Lady Gaga Fame EDT. Sachet samples of Nivea In Shower Body Lotion, Garnier Ultra Lift Sleeping Cream and Maybelline Fit Me Foundation. I'm keen to try all of these. I'm not sure how effective a rinse off body lotion can be, I've yet to try a sleeping mask type of cream and I am constantly surprised by how good Maybelline products tend to be. 

There's also fourteen dollars worth of coupons in the box and you can use them anywhere, not just in Walmart.

Once again I'm happy with my Walmart Beauty Box and look forward to getting the next one!

Samples Galore!

Recently there seem to have been samples galore up for grabs. As you may have noticed beauty samples are some of my favourite things, so I sneakily planned some of my Christmas shopping to take advantage of a couple of GWP's... 

Following on from their 'Season Sets' Sephora (www.sephora.com) offered a make up bag with 12 samples. Whilst they are all foils (except for a mini tube of YU-BE) there are another 3 that come as standard so that's 15 altogether! There was a nice mix of brands in this gift and a good mix of skincare, body care, make up and perfume - there was even something for the guys - and this time the bag itself wasn't terrible.

Blue Mercury (www.bluemercury.com) had this lovely GWP on cyber Monday. Isn't that a great selection of products? It's practically half a Barneys Love Yourself bag! Featuring skin, hair and body care it also has a mini Laura Mercier highlighting powder. 

I'm especially excited to try the M-61 and Skinceuticals samples, both of which are new brands to me and there's a Revive sample  which makes me very happy...

Empties November 2014

After last months bumper crop empties were a bit thin on the ground this month. Still I did manage to finish off more than I was expecting to!

Good Stuff:

No surprises here as I give shout outs to Chantecaille Just Skin, Bumble +Bumble Surf Shampoo and Sunday Riley Artemis, all of which would be on my desert island product list. 

I'm also a big fan of Neutrogena's Oil Free Acne Wash. I like it as a morning cleanser, and have been mixing it with a dab of Caudalie Deep Cleansing Exfoliator, I find it cleans and preps my skin without stripping it. 

A new addition to that list would be the Rodial Stem Cell Hand Cream. I loved this, it's very much a deluxe hand cream, soothing yet not greasy and I was impressed by the packaging which was both glam and practical. 

OK Stuff.

There was nothing I really hated this month but there are a few things that wouldn't make it onto my shopping list!
 I found the Verso Day Cream made my face feel a bit too greasy and shiny and whilst I did like the effects of the NIA24 Rapid Exfoliating Serum (this sample lasted a long, long time - another plus) it had a weird funky smell to it that I disliked.
The Clinique Chubby Stick (Curviest Caramel), had been in my lipstick pot for a while and I made a concentrated effort to finish it up this month. I have to say that it just didn't wow me - I found it hard to get good coverage and although it felt quite moisturizing it didn't last very long on me. I think it's just one of those products that I don't get along with as I know a lot of people who love 'em. I like the concept of them but the product underwhelmed me.

I was also underwhelmed by the Noble Isle Bath and Shower Gel. The scent of this one 'Fireside' was a lovely warm, spicy, winter scent but I was disappointed that something that's kind of pricey still had so much bad stuff in it and even though it contained sulphates it produced a really feeble lather so it just didn't feel that luxe.

Finally Mio Boob Tube+... it's a perfectly lovely rich body cream with a light citrus scent but I hate the name and the marketing of this. If it had been branded as a body cream I would have liked it but the whole idea of a 'boob lifting cream' is just really off putting...

Empties September 2014

Well, well I'm patting myself on the back for a good job, well done as far as the September empties go! Ten - yes - ten full sizes and eighteen samples. 

There are a few old and new favourites here: Fenjal Body Wash, Rimmel Just Let It Go, REN Clarimatte Toner and Dr Dennis Gross All-in-One Cleanser and Toner all of which will be repurchased at some point or another.

I was sad to use the last drops of Diptyque's Eau Duelle. I'm not normally a fan of vanilla based scents but this is warm and spicy, not at all sweet or sickly and I love it for either summer or winter. (I also prefer these old classic square Diptyque bottles to the new oval ones, do you?).

Farmaesthetic's was a brand that I had not tried before but I fell in love with their Nourishing Lavender Milk which was a soothing night time moisturiser. I also enjoyed Rodial's Bee Venom Moisturiser, despite the scary name!

Revive's Intensite Volumizing Eye Serum is probably the most expensive eye product I have ever used. Whilst the sample I had lasted a long time I didn't find it outstanding, it was really just ok for me. Also on the 'meh' pile were Clinique's Laser Focus and Cle de Peau Brightening Serum Supreme. Again nothing wrong with them but they just failed to 'wow'.

The only thing that I disliked here was the REN TZone Balancing Gel Cream which was a huge surprise to me as I am a big fan of REN as a rule and love the Clarimatte Toner in the same range. This had an intense lavender aroma to it, which normally I'm ok with, but this made my eyes sting and smart  -  even though I didn't apply it to my eye area.

Finally a shout out to Bobbi Brown's Smoky Eye Mascara. If I ever manage to use up the eleven (!) mascaras that I have in my reserve make up bag I'm def buying this. It's the best mascara I've used in a long, long time.

The Best Way to Buy Perfume.

So I have often seen these boxes of perfume samples on sale in Sephora but what I did not realise until I was idling around on the Sephora website recently is that they contain not only the samples but also a voucher for a full sized bottle of your choice of one of the fragrances in the box. How did I not know that? I decided to investigate.

 I chose the 'Favorites Fragrance Sampler For Her' which retails at $65.00 and contains 14 samples.

It also contains the following make up bag (handy for keeping your samples in!)

The bag is actually much nicer than it looks in both my photo and on the Sephora site. The back is plain black whilst the front is made up of a laser cut layer in an intricate flower design which is laid over a gold and black 'crackle' effect layer. It has a sturdy zip and is lined with black cotton, it's a keeper!

As I said before the set contains a perfume certificate to swap for a full size bottle and also a booklet that describes each of the perfumes* and contains their print ad on the adjacent page to the description/notes.

*Great for people like me who have a hard time describing perfumes beyond 'it smells nice, like flowers' :)

'Florabotanica' was the perfume that I intended to buy when I purchased the box but after trying it again just to make sure I found that it reacted oddly with my skin and disappeared without trace within 30 minutes...which was really saddening as I loved the scent...but at least I found that out before I purchased it thanks to the box. Luckily there was another fragrance in the box that I love which was this...

The box allowed me to get a 1.7oz Eau De Parfum spray. Look how pretty the bottle is!

Of course this being a Sephora mail order I also got to pick some samples.

I chose a Nude serum, a Dior primer and a Tokyo Milk hand lotion. There was also a promo code for Marc Jacobs perfume and a sample of Bulgari after shave thrown into my order.

And there was also a weekly free gift to choose, I opted for this

A cute Pucci like ziplock containing yet more perfume

samples!

Honestly, when I look at all of this I can't believe what a fabulous deal this is. I have a bottle of perfume that retails at $105.00, 20 perfume samples, my regular sample selection and a cute new make up bag all for $65.00.

I think this is a great idea if you want to try a new perfume for yourself and it's a brilliant idea for a gift. Why not take a look at these in Sephora or check them out on sephora.com, they have various sets containing different perfumes, they even have a male version.

Now if only there were a Diptyque sampler set I really would be in heaven!

Glossybox May 2014

So after last months venture into the world of subscription boxes I did indeed dip my toe into the water again. 

When I saw the online spoilers for the May Glossybox I just could not believe what a great deal it was and had to have it. Glossybox is a monthly beauty box that costs just $21.00 a month (total inc. tax and shipping) and like PopSugar you can purchase just one box. May's box was a collaboration with Bergdorf Goodman.

I filled in a short questionnaire and based on my answers they selected six generously sized deluxe samples. Also included in the box was a $25.00 Bergdorf Goodman gift card... yup, that's right $25.00.   Basically the box, it's contents and the shipping were free and I'm up $4.00, win, win all round!

The box itself is, indeed, glossy and very nice. I am keeping it and using it for storage. The samples were just fabulous, there's not one thing that I disliked in there.

The Alterna CC Caviar Cream for hair adds moisture, shine and protection. I'm on the lookout for a new leave in hair treatment and if I get along with this I may buy a full sized one - it smells great BTW.

The Napoleon Perdis Auto Pilot Primer (despite having a silly name) is very light in consistency and feels almost like a serum on application. It has good slip, I can feel it gripping my base and it's not at all silicone -y. 

Next up are two eye creams that I have yet to try, but I'm super thrilled to get eye creams and especially the ReVive Intensite Eye Serum. The full size of this serum retails at a whopping $350.00 for a half ounce so this sample alone is worth $50.00! There's almost $20.00 worth of Lancer Eye Contour Lifting Cream  here as well.

The Atelier Cologne sample is 'Rose Anonyme', and I really like it. It's not an overtly rosy scent and is really quite incense like so it's right up my street.

Finally, I love all things Chantecaille, as you may well know. The Luminous Gloss in 'Framboise' looks super bright, but actually goes on as a clear wash of colour, leaving behind a subtle pink high gloss.

Overall, I'm super pleased with my Glossybox. Unfortunately this box is sold out but June's box is now available. Why not take a look at glossybox.com ?