Review: Diptyque Feu de Bois Candle

In the past I have given Diptyque candles as presents but have never actually owned one and burned one!  Until last week that is!!!

I had £10 credit on my Space Nk NDulge card and decided to put it towards the small Feu de Bois candle, I often sniff this candle when browsing in Space NK and I love it, it smells like an open fire on a winters day - but a lot nicer!

Wow - this exceeded my expectations when I burned it.  Within 20 minutes or so the smell was wafting around the room without being at all overpowering.  I haven't burned it for longer than 2 hours at a time as I find that is all you need to make your room smell absolutely beautiful - it really fills the room without being too much.

The next morning I walked into the front room and could still get the faint aroma of Feu de Bois - amazing! 

Only downside?  I am going to have to repurchase this - I think I am addicted!!!

Review: Essie Leading Lady from The Winter Collection 2012

So its Friday and time for a new varnish!  This week I was excited to try one of the colours from Essie's Winter Collection.  I've had my eye on this colour and Snap Happy since other bloggers have been posting photos of these lovely colours!

Leading Lady is described as "a supreme deep red with glitter".  Its a bit darker than I thought it was going to be, I thought it would be more similar to Dear Santa which OPI brought out about three years ago but I like it - I think its a classy glitter polish if there is such a thing!

Sorry the light is not the best, I am not sure why but I have found it hard to get a good photo that shows this colour off to its best.  Here is one more, its still not great quality but hopefully it gives you and idea.

Please excuse my dirty keyboard......must get my marigolds out and give it a scrub!!

Are any of you going to try the Essie Winter Collection?

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone!

I've been thinking about blogging for a while!  I'm constantly reading other blogs and find them so useful, I love the reviews and opinions of others!  My blog will mainly be about beauty - both products and treatments.  Every now and again I may blog about random stuff - hopefully it'll all be interesting to someone out there!

I hate bad service - it really gets my back up!  For instance recently in Selfridges I experienced the most pushy Shu Uemura assistant in the history of pushy assistants!  I was at the counter to repurchase some items and her aggressive sales technique left me seething!!!  On the other hand sometimes I have had great service at beauty counters and that is always worth shouting about too!

A little about me - I'm female, 37 and live in central London.  I'm currently temping so have to try and control what I spend (eek) but its not going that well ;-)

Speak soon x

Review: Essie Varnish - Russian Roulette

I am going to start blogging about my favourite nails varnishes!  These tend to be either Essie or OPI - both have a fabulous range of colours and are so long lasting.  I can be a bit boring in the colours I wear - as you will find out I tend to stick to reds, I just feel like reds are the most flattering to my very pale skin colour. 

So here is one of my favourite Essie colours - Russian Roulette! 

Its a gorgeous vibrant red.  I really think this is a classic pillarbox red.  Sometimes I look at it and can see coral in it but thats only in certain light.  I don't think you can go wrong with this red and it looks great on pale and tan skin.

Here's another pic:

What do you think of this colour and what are your favourite nail brands and colours?

Farewell to Carmine Beauty Box

This is just a quick post to say I have just received an email from Carmine saying that the are closing their service.  They are encouraging people to sign up to Glossybox, which would be fine but I have already subscribed to Glossybox.

So now Feelunique and Carmine have both gone - they were my favourite beauty boxes so I am left feeling a bit "meh".  I subscribe to Glossybox and new beauty box on the block, SheSaid.  I have been thinking of cancelling my Glossybox and I wasn't overexcited by my first SheSaid box but I will give it another go.

Hmmm, is it wrong that I am now about to do an Internet search on what other beauty boxes are on the market - is it possible to be addicted to these subscription services?!?

Dermalogica Body Hydrating Cream

I was given a large bottle of Dermalogica Body Hydrating Cream at Christmas.  I am a huge fan of Dermalogica's facial skincare range so I was pleased to receive this gift but it ended up sitting on my shelf for three months whilst I used up other body lotions that had nicer bottles and nicer smells!

However I started using this cream last week and WOW its amazing!  It has a very subtle smell, I'm useless at describing scents but I do think it has quite a fresh smell, the smell does fade quickly though so there are no clashes with perfume.

It is called a cream but it has a very light texture and my favourite thing about this cream is that it absorbs really quickly into the skin.  I get dressed straight away after using it.  This is so important to me as I really detest any product that sits on the skin.

Since I've been using this cream I have noticed that my skin feels softer - I find that really impressive as I have used various body creams over the years and whilst some have smelt lovely and have definitely kept my skin moisturised, none have made my skin feel as soft as this one has!

Its not the cheapest product with a 473ml bottle with a pump retailing at £36.50 but as ever you can find this product cheaper online!  However I will definitely splash out in future as I cannot fault it! 

Clarins Face Treatment Oil Lotus

I've had my eye on the Clarins Face Treatment Oil for a while and recently they repackaged all the face oils and have been pushing them, meaning they are constantly in my eye line when I zipping through beauty departments - eek! 

Last weekend I gave in and bought it for myself.  I chose Lotus as I have combination skin and lotus is apparently naturally astringent and the blend of rosewood, geranium and lotus purifies and tightens pores and refines the skin texture.  Sounds good I thought.  I was particularly keen on the tightening of pores!

The Clarins assistant told me to apply a couple of drops every night for three weeks to see a difference and then use the oil when I felt the need thereafter.

I used the oil for four nights and.......have broken out in spots.....ok its only three spots but normally I (luckily) have clear skin so am not over the moon that I have any spots at all.  I've stopped using the oil but am wondering what to do.....should I start up again, is getting spots a normal part of this oil - a breakout and then mega clear skin?  Or maybe oil just doesn't work on my skin?

I've previously tried Shu Uemura cleansing oils and they did nothing for me at all and left my skin feeling slightly greasy.

Has anyone else used the Clarins Oil - did you have any breakouts or did you find it worked from the off?  I'm going to have a think about whether to use or whether to bung onto Ebay!!!

Space NK

I'm sure there are lots of you out there who love Space Nk, I live near one of their stores and was forever popping in there for a browse, sniff and spray (ooh that sounds wrong!)  It was the best shop to go and treat yourself in, they had great ranges of hard to find make up brands and skincare you couldn't find anywhere else.

I also used to really like that the assistants in Space NK were so knowledgeable, I would often trust them with finding me the exact shade of foundation I should wear or I would trust their opinion on colours of eyeshadows/lipsticks when I was unsure.

It pains me to say this but I just don't feel the same about Space NK any more.  I feel that things have changed and not for the better, my thoughts are below:-

1. The shop assistants have become more pushy.  An example, a while back I went in a store to ask about a Lipstick Queen lipstick, the assistant showed me the lipstick I was looking for (which I loved, Lipstick Queen is a fab brand) but then she proceeded to try and sell me a Chantecaille lipstick instead!  Surprise Surprise the Chantecaille lipstick is more expensive! 

This has happened more than once, they always seem to be pushing you to buy a more expensive product.  To be honest when they do this I just feel like walking out and not buying anything.

2. The brands and ranges stocked are no longer as exciting as they were.  I remember when Space NK used to stock items you couldn't get anywhere else and they were often introducing new and exciting products.  However to cut them some slack I see they have just started stocking Kevyn Aucoin make up which I'm pretty excited about.

3. Another gripe about the assistants is that they don't seem as acknowledgeable as they used to be, recently in the Westbourne Grove branch there was a boy working there (honestly he wasn't a man - at the oldest he seemed about 18/19) and I really don't believe that he would have been able to advise a thirty something woman on skincare.  Ok maybe I am wrong and he is a skincare/make up whizz and if thats the case I apologise!  Another time a different assistant put some Chantecaille foundation on me - well the result was shocking, it was waaaaaay too dark for me and looked horrible.  It was then that I thought it was wrong that I have more knowledge foundations than an assistant in Space NK!!

I hope things improve soon because at the moment I am much more excited about the beauty hall in Liberty and Fenwicks than I am at Space NK.