Zara Fragrances - Apple Juice and Zara Woman Gold

Happy Wednesday everyone!

It's almost the weekend! I've got plans to go to Tenby with friends so I hope the weather holds out and we can go to the beach.

I was absolutely gutted when my perfume was discontinued a few years ago. I have managed to buy it off a few different sites for a while since then but now the stocks have well and truly gone and it was time for me to find a new one.

Wish List: September 2016

Hello there! 

I've been writing a wishlist for weeks now and for some reason just haven't got around to getting it posted...in this time it has obviously grown but at least the items on it have a bit of variety.

The last year of house owning has ruined most shopping trips, planned or otherwise so writing a wishlist has been quite therapeutic. If I still want it after 6 months I obviously really want it...right??

Take a look and see if they match your wishlist items too! 

I keep seeing these beautiful gym leggings everywhere. As I'm tall I can struggle to find leggings that are long enough and also sit on my waist properly, but I'm still on the endless search for a long black pair with some sexy mesh panels in - just because I'm sweating doesn't mean I don't want to look good! 

I've seen some from Active in Style, the top ones are from Zanna Van Dijk's range and cost £85, the second are the Inda leggings from Daquini and cost £110.

Travel:

Image from Lonely Planet website

Forever dreaming of a paradise island getaway my latest focus has been pinning pictures from the beautiful island of Bali. Those white sands, turquoise waterfalls and 'once in a lifetime' sunsets are on my dream list. Keeping all my fingers toes and everything else crossed that one day I can actually go on holiday!

Palettes:

I mean it was extremely difficult to choose one palette from Sleek owing to their absolute corker of a collection right now (rivalled by another fave - Make Up Revolution, see below) but this highlighter palette is just all of the Pinterest/blogger/makeup goals right now.Amazing casing, flattering colour choices and apparently awesome blend-ability. 

All of this for £9.99?? Get me on the delivery list pronto!

Lipstick:

Image from UD website

Long have I lusted after the Urban Decay lipsticks but after their recent revamp and 120 shade uber collection I perve on them all the time.

I am still looking for the perfect red, this time a classic blue toned red. I either seem to repurchase orangey ones, or the super dark vampy ones but I always get it wrong!

F-Bomb looks the perfect shade, and is 100% on my wishlist

Browse them all by selecting this link, each comes in at a perfectly reasonable £15.

Chanel Chance:

Another dream - owning a Chanel perfume!

Chance is my favourite and I had another whiff of it recently, I still love it. At £68 for 50ml however I definitely need to save or wait for a rich man.

One day!

MakeUp Revolution: 

Last but certainly not least is Make Up Revolution. 

There are so many things I want....NEED to pick up from this brand and knowing they are affordable means I actually can. I'm waiting for some free time to go in store and browse myself as that's always the best part, but these rose gold brushes are high on the priority list

Five brushes for £34.95 sounds pretty reasonable to me and they are beautiful! So instagrammable!

What's on your wishlist at the moment??

Hopefully I can get some of these soon but it's always nice to dream!

L xxx

Miss Patisserie Citrine Roll On Eau de Toilette

Morning lovelies!

If you are a long time reader of this blog then you will know that I have a huge love for citrus scents - it's in my perfume, my shower products and candles and diffusers in my house. I can't get enough of it!
As soon as I saw the Citrine roll on in Miss Patisserie I knew it had to be mine.

The description for this scent from Miss Patisserie is:

A stroll in the garden on an exotic island is the inspiration behind this scent. Green mango, lotus, incense, calamus and sycamore wood are at the heart of this refreshing eau de toilette

I'd say this was pretty accurate, it's so beautiful and refreshing and takes me to a different place for a few seconds - which is sometimes exactly what I need!

The top notes are green mango and lemon, middle notes of lavender and lotus, and base notes of incense and sycamore wood - for those who need to know all of the details!

This has been perfect for me to put in my handbag for carrying around day to day, and also for taking on work trips where I can put it in my hand luggage and don't have to worry about exceeding the liquid limits.
I picked up the 10ml perfume which costs £6.99, there are also 30ml and 50ml versions too (£8.99 and £11.99)

I love this scent and how easy it is to roll on whenever I need a boost - this isn't just perfume for me to smell nice it's also a scent that gives me a mental boost. It smells like a holiday and takes me away to a paradise island for a few seconds, and everyone needs that right?!

I'd definitely recommend this scent, and I've heard that there is also a scent based on sea salt which I'd love to try as some floral scents can be overwhelming for me and my sensitive nose!

Have you tried one of the scents from Miss Patisserie? Which is your favourite?

L xxx

Lush Mother's Day and Spring Event

Hi there!

Last Monday we were lucky enough to be invited to a Lush blogger event, we always love attending these as they're a fun way to get to know all of the products and play around with them, as well as meeting lots of other bloggers too as there is always a big group of us!

The store is always such a happy and colourful place, its a pleasure to visit.

The latest range of Spring and Mother's Day themed products are so beautiful - the golden eggs and the carrots are so adorable! Who isn't drawn to something so glittery as the Golden Egg??




L was massively surprised that she really loved the smell of the Carrot Soap, she would have happily taken home a whole carrot!

The Mother Superior bubble bars were also amazing - how do they make them look so cute with their faces!








We also loved the Instagram frame that they had in store, you just know we were loving this. It's such a great idea for us bloggers who spend so much time on social media!

We also spent some time trying out the new scents that Lush have created, it's so interesting to see how the smell changes on different peoples skin and reacts to create different smells.










We both picked up a few things from the store (as always!) but were lucky enough to come away with a few goodies too.

Yummy Mummy is a gorgeous lilac shower gel, Secret Garden is a super cute bath bomb with flowers in and Golden Egg is just the most gorgeous glittery egg that I can't take my eyes off!

M has already used Secret Garden and here are some quick snaps:

The colours are so pretty! The pink and green are beautiful, you can't go wrong with swirls like these.

Have you been stocking up on the new Spring products from Lush? Which one is your favourite?

L and M xxx

Ted Baker Perfume - Mia*

Hey All

Another busy weekend for me. I really need more hours in the day. The last week I had the dude back after being apart for 7 weeks! Nothing beats the first hug and kiss after that long! This week I also decided it was time to take my kickboxing further so joined a local group and had my first sparring sessions! It was amazing. I'm totally hooked!

When the press release came through for this perfume I knew I had to try it. A perfume named Mia! (just realised we sign everything off M so some of you may not know my name is Mia!) I love the rose gold and pink colour scheme of this one. The colour combination is one of my favourites and such a pretty one!

I love the triangle boxes. These would make such pretty gifts. The bottle is amazing, I love the frosted appearance of the bottle and the little gem on top is a pretty addition. If you've seen the purses it's similar to that.

The Mia perfume is described as sophisticated and charming (it's like they know me ;-)! ha). I love this for a summer scent. It's fresh floral without being to flowery. I'm awful at describing perfumes. The floral scent comes from rose blooms and freesias with lemon, raspberry and blackberry to not make it over floral and golden amber and patchouli to provide warmth to the scent.

I love the size of these to just throw in my bag for a night out or if I'm going out after work.

The Ted Baker Perfumes retail for £15 and are available from boots.

Love M

xxx

Benefit's Bathina Body Oil Mist

Hi all!

I was super lucky this week and won Benefit's brand new Bathina Body Oil Mist in a twitter competition. I was so shocked as I never win anything and I was having such a bad day.
After a routine trip to the doctors on Monday morning I was stuck in traffic during the morning rush hour. As part of my morning commute I had to stop for a while in traffic next to a car crash and had to watch people being cut out of their cars which was terrifying. I'm not squeamish at all ( I work in a lab with bodily fluids, it doesn't bother me at all!) but it really shook me up.

After finding out I won the competition it made my day! Once I'd got home and had a cup of tea with my mum and found out I'd won I felt so much better so thank you to Benefit.

Alyson Rowe has told us lots about this new body oil mist and had us stroking her arm at the Cardiff Benefayre back in August so we were looking forward to this coming out.

I love the cute packaging, its girly but also seductive looking, especially with the tag line of  'soft to touch, hard to get'.





Benefit say:

Silky, sexy skin is impossible to resist. This super-fine body oil mist absorbs instantly for immediate hydration. It includes sweet almond, olive and avocado oils to leave skin feeling soft & moisturized…and vitamin E known to help keep it firm. With a seductive sheen and a hint of tempting fragrance, it’s lust at first touch!

Benefit have called this a Silky and Seductive body oil mist and I would definitely agree with this.
The bottle contains 75ml of product which is quite a lot for a product of this type. They normally come in small bottles even for cheaper makes so this is definitely good value for money.



I also love that its got French on the box, I'd love to speak it and anything with it on is very attractive to me!

It is also a very sexy language so is perfect for putting on the side of a product like this.

The bottle itself is really simple yet still beautiful:


Its a pink bottle with spray device at the top. It has the same logo as on the front of the box but is otherwise just plain pink which I think is really nice and simple.

It could be the perfect item to stand on a dressing table and look more luxurious like old times; I'd love to have a dressing table like that! 

The spray is a medium size so you get enough product out to use but doesnt swamp your hand with oil that you get it everywhere! 

It's also really sturdy and unlikely to break if you're anything like me and are a little bit clumsy.

The easiest way for me to show you what the product is like was to spray it onto the back of my hand (anywhere else may be a bit weird!)

This photo shows 1 full spray:



And this is the one spray lightly rubbed in:



And again with flash:

You can see it sinks in super fast and leaves a lovely sheen without it being heavy, oily, sticky or gloopy and leaving a mirror like grease shine on my skin.
I wore it out on the weekend for a night out and my legs (if I say so myself) looked really good, my skin looked healthy and moisturised.

This also smells gorgeous, just like maybe baby and is a bit powdery which is really nice as I'm not a strong scent fan. I would use this for nights out (i.e. tonight as me and M have a reunion to go to!) particularly on my limbs and collarbone area and for nights in too.... ;) You can apply it straight after a shower to lock in moisture straight away (I loved this!) or pretty much any time your skin needs a bit of va va voom.

Bathina Body Mist Oil is a luxurious product that would be the perfect present - to yourself or a friend/partner.

I can see me getting a lot of use out of this over the Christmas party season when my limbs need a bit of help to look better on those wet and windy evenings.

What do you think of Bathina Body Oil Mist? Will you be snapping it up?

You can buy it on their website now for £26.50 :)

L xxx

Benefit Crescent Row Minis (Christmas Perfume Set)

Every time I go up to the Benefit Counter I find myself smelling the perfumes. I kept telling myself I'd treat myself to one soon but was holding out for the release of the Christmas set as I knew last year they had a set of the mini perfumes.

When L and I visited the new Benefit Carnaby store last week and they showed us the Christmas gift sets I couldn't resist snapping this one up. This is the crescent row minis set. The set retails for £29.50 for 4 x 10ml perfumes. You get more for your money with this set as one Benefit Perfume is £29.50 for 30ml. I absolutely love the packaging how it's displayed like a store front with the windows. It's so cute!!

On the back of the packaging it has description of the perfumes. I love how all the perfumes have quirky names and in the set is a good selection of scents from sweet and floral to wintery and woody. 

Each perfume bottle comes with it's only little box so you can even split it and give the perfumes out to different people. The boxes are so cute with printed doors on to match the 'personality' of the perfume. The perfume bottles look the same as the full size bottles and have funky packaging. The only downside is that the bottles don't have sprays on them so you have to pour the perfume.

Under My Spell Noelle

This is Benefits newest perfume and was recently released for Autumn winter time. Under my spell Noelle is described as a woody, exotic, floral scent. This describes it well. It's a great one for winter and almost makes me feel warm and rich smelling it. This is a stronger scent and not one I'd usually pick due to the woody notes but I've actually been converted since the weather has taken a turn for the worse.

I love the packaging for this one in all the gold and bronze colours and the animal print give it a real luxe feel. I love that each of the perfumes have their own poems to describe the scent!!

My place or yours Gina

This perfume is describes as woody oriental and is my favourite in the set. I love fragrances like this lately that have underlying sweet notes but not in a sickly sweet way. (My all time favourite perfume is Viktor And Rolf reviewed here) I can really smell the raspberry in it and I love that it contains peony as it's one of my favourite flowers.

The simple black pink and gold packaging always appeals to me and I love this colour combination!

Laugh with me LeeLee

Laugh with me LeeLee is described as woody floral with a citrus edge. The citrus really keeps this scent fresh and makes the it not too overpoweringly floral. I can see this as more of a summer scent. Light and not too overpowering but still one you'd notice.

The blues, greens and pale colours on the bottle make me think of summer too. It's definitely one I'll be saving.

Ring My Bella

Ring my bella is described as fruity, floral and seductively sweet. This is definitely a floral scent and may not be to everyone's taste. I really like it though. It's girly but not sicky sweet and I definitely understand it being described as seductive. With top notes of lily and rose it is the most floral of the set.

This is one of my favourite bottles package wise. I love the purples and greens and the floral print to it. 

I'm so glad I picked up this set and finally have some Benefit perfumes. I'm definitely still thinking about So Hooked on Carmella. Come spring time I think it'll have to be a treat.

This is part of the Christmas Gifts and isn't available online yet but can be purchased in selected stores.

Have you tried any Benefit Perfumes? What's your favourite type of scent?

Love M

xxx