Origins Clean Energy Cleansing Oil

In my quest for better skin and with my new love of all things Origins, it was time to find myself a new cleanser. I knew, thanks to Caroline Hirons, that I needed a non-foaming cleanser and I've wanted to try a cleansing oil for a long time now So this seemed the natural choice.

I bought this to accompany the rest of my skin care regime and I'm really pleased I did as I love it.

This bright yellow oil, smells gorgeous and contains Sunflower, Sesame and Safflower oils. It dissolves every last scrap of my make up and leaves my skin soft and clean with no harsh foaming agents. This is suitable for all skin types as it's not at all heavy and doesn't leave any trace of oil on the skin after use.

To use, you just massage in to the skin, then add a splash of warm water to transform the oil into a milky lotion, and rinse away, although I wipe away with a clean muslin each time. Lovely stuff.

I do have one gripe though, the bottle needs a pump. It's just a screw top lid and you have to pour some out into your hands. If I don't lose some straight down the plug hole then it drips all down the sides of the bottle, its not a great design for the product. That aside it was £17 well spent.

EDIT: I have since been informed that you can buy a separate pump for £1. Which I now have and its fab, I now have no negative comments to make about this product.

Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Fragrance Chronicle

Christmas is coming and the beauty blogger is eating too much Stollen and looking at and getting excited about Christmas items from a variety of brands. Today I'm looking at Jo Malone and in particular one of the Christmas gifts I was extremely lucky to be sent. And I do mean extremely lucky. I feel lucky to be sent samples all the time but occasionally I am so lucky I actually feel like I shouldn't blog about something as it seems so huge I feel like I am bragging.

I'm not bragging, I'm reviewing a product I've been sent as I would with any other product but there's no denying this is one special sample.

The English Pear and Freesia Fragrance Chronicle from Jo Malone (RRP £72). This a beautiful gift presented in the form of a hard backed book as the name would suggest and all tied up with a red ribbon.

When you until the ribbon and open up the book you are presented with, on the right hand side, four bottles of fragrance. A 30ml bottle of English Pear and Freesia Cologne and three 9ml bottles, King William Pear Cologne, Freesia Cologne and Patchouli Cologne.

And then on the left hand side you'll find descriptions of each scent along with suggestions for layering to create new dimensions and scents. Please feel free to enlarge and have a read.

At first I wasn't sure I'd like  the main scent, English Pear & Freesia, it's certainly nothing I would ever choose for myself but actually it's beautiful. Probably because along with the pear and freesia, theres a dollop of rose, amber, my absolute favourite patchouli and woods. They are subtle, very subtle but it adds a dimension to the fragrance (which still remains light and fruity) that really appeals to me.

The three accompanying scents are all different, the King William Pear adds more fruit and touch more floral in shape of peony and an extra dash of rose. Freesia Cologne is beautiful, violet, water jasmine and freesia and lastly and unsurprisingly my favourite, Patchouli Cologne. Warm leather, creamy vanilla, musk and earthy patchouli. Beautiful. And unsurprisingly again it is the Patchouli Cologne layered with the English Pear and Freesia that is my favourite and most worn. It's beautiful which surprises me as I'd never have guessed that Pear would be a scent I'd wear, which makes me all the more grateful to have been sent it to try.

If I've not sold it to you, or it's a bit more than you'd like to spend on perfume then there are plenty of other Christmas gifts from Jo Malone this year, at a variety of prices. I'd love to receive the Christmas Cracker containing 9ml of Grapefruit Cologne, 15ml of Lime Basil & Mandarin Body & Hand Wash and 15ml of Pomegranate Noir Body Creme for £28, and oh my gosh, the Roasted Chestnut Deluxe Candle a snip at £80 and therefore forever out of my league.

Shop online now at www.jomalone.com

*Disclosure - in case you didn't pick this up from my post, this is a PR Sample*

My Chanel Holiday Shopping Spree

I have to say Chanel Holiday collection didn't really appeal to me on first, second and third glances. The eyeshadows looked nice but not very exciting, the lip colours didn't excite me, the Feerie powder looked stunning but useless for me and that lovely  Lumiere Sculptee de Chanel highlighting powder looked gorgeous but didn't really call my name either. But the more I looked, the more things I saw that I really liked and then before I knew it'd placed a little order for four teeny weeny things. And all were a bit of a gamble if I'm honest as I'd not seen any of them in person and I wasn't at all sure they'd work on me. Turns out I'm absolutely thrilled will them all, one thing in particular.

Lets have a look!

First up, Rouge Allure Laque in Empire.

 My first Rouge Allure Laque, It's a beautiful formula and a gorgeous everyday colour. I'm so happy with this but it really doesn't look on my lips anything like it does on swatches. I don't know if that's just me or not and it's not a grumble. In the swatch a bit further down, you can see if you look closely there are gold sparkles in the swatch, but I can't see them at all on my lips.

Next,  the Soft Touch Eyeshadow in Blazing Gold.

 The first of the two pictures is more colour accurate. This is a very yellow gold which is what appealed to me about this shadow. It does have a tendency to be a bit chunky but I've not had any problems with the application, in fact I really like it. A good purchase. It's shimmery but it's not sparkle city.

Next the Soft Touch Eyeshadow in Beige Lame.

 The second, out of focus, shot is the colour accurate one and although it's out of focus I've included it because it shows off the true colour of this shadow. It's a warm beige on me full of minute pink, green and gold sparkle. It's absolutely beautiful and I really like it. The sparkle is very special and it isn't invisible once you put it on, you can see the sparkle, admittedly only if you're close, but it's there and very pretty. I must say though that within a few hours under my eyes and the tops of cheeks were covered in tiny pink and green specks of sparkle. So yes there is fall out, not on application, but over the course of the day. I don't mind though, it's not like it's big chunks of sparkle.

Finally, my absolute favourite the Liquid Eye Liner in Or.

It's a bright yellow gold and so far as I'm concerned the absolute highlight of the collection. I've pretty much given up on black liquid liners, I've tried gels with brushes, felt pens, fine brushes and all sorts and I never get a decent line, black is just too unforgiving for my wobbly hand. When I discovered Illamasqua's Glister Precision Ink I fell in love with a lighter look liquid liner on my upper lid. And to date Glister was my most favourite liquid liner ever, until now, Chanel's Or is perfection in application, consistency, and colour. But only if you don't mind your golds very yellow!

Here are swatches of all of the above:

Do you agree with me about the lip colour swatch, it looks much brighter and deeper in the swatch than it does on my lips? It's not a complaint, I love it.

So here are the shadows and liner on my eyes, Blazing gold all over, Beige Lame in the crease:

And my full face, including the Empire Rouge Allure Laque. I don't know why I'm looking a bit orange in the first one, given that in the third one its not so orange.

 And the last picture is a shocker of a photo but I think it does a good job of showing accurately the colours.

Beautiful products and well worth a second look if you'd previously dismissed this collection as a bit dull. I love the combination of the products and find them incredibly flattering.

Oh and before I forget, they sent me a sample of the Vitalumiere foundation which is unfortunately the wrong shade for me, but the finish is gorgeous and it's an absolute dream to apply!

All products were bought by me from the fabulous http://www.garden.co.uk/ which is not an affiliate link, just one I recommend!

Christmas with Aromatherapy Associates

Looking for lovely smelly Christmas gifts for the important people in your life? Well look no further than Aromatherapy Associates this year with the usual array of gorgeous products with something for most budgets.

My top pick HAS to be the Little Star (£10.00).

A star shaped tree decoration housing a little 7.5ml bottle of the best oil ever, Deep Relax Bath and Shower Oil. If you don't already know how much I adore this stuff then read all about it here! Not only a great little treat for someone special but if you're doubtful about spending £37 on the full size bottle then it's a great way of trying it out, it'll last for ages if you use it like I do, on your pulse points at bedtime.

But then for £5 more you can get two bottles in a lovely red box (but not a tree decoration). Two 7.5ml bottles, one each of Revive Morning and Deep Relax. Depends whether you want the star shaped box or not, this gift is definitely better value.

Taking a big price leap up, there's the three wick Comfort Candle (£45), 42 hours burn time.

I have the smaller £24 version of this which I keep on my bedside table and it's nearly dead... this would be a great replacement! Damask Rose and Ginger and it's gorgeous.

But if that's out of your budget (and it's definitely out of mine) then there's a little set with two small candles in Relax (myrrh and West Indian bay) and Revive (pink grapefruit and petitgrain). I might put that on my Christmas wish list.

And then there's the most expensive gift. The Ultimate Bath and Shower Oil Collection (9 x 7.5ml, £49)

It's a larger version of the Miniature Bath & Shower Oil Collection which is gorgeous. Alas, I won't be getting one of these but if anyone I know is feeling flush and doesn't know what to get me for Christmas then....

All gifts are available from the Aromatherapy Associates Boutique and Treatment Rooms in London, Liberty, Space NK, Fortnum & Mason and of course www.aromatherapyassociates.com.

Orly Sweet Peacock

Just a quick and rare Saturday post to share this polish with you. I've already shown you two polishes from the Orly Birds of a Feather collection but I was just sent Sweet Peacock and put it on immediately (at the time of writing).

It's a bright blue silver foil with a splash of silver in it which I haven't captured too well in my pictures but it is there. If blues are your thing then this is gorgeous. I don't love blues as I just feel, as I've already said before, that I'm too old for them, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the beauty of a good blue and this is a great blue.

Without Flash, sorry this came out a bit out of focus:

And with flash:

Lovely. It's also worth mentioning that I found the other two shades from this collection tricky to work with and wondered if they were a bit old, whereas this one was perfect in application.

*Disclosure - PR Sample*

Lush Lips for Christmas!

When Lush make things I like, I REALLY like them and whilst so much isn't for me since I decided I only like showering these lip products for Christmas are great... I'm actually contemplating back ups!

So first up the Pow Wow lip scrub (£4.75). It's a seriously unattractive colour but don't let it put you off. It's a lime scented scrub full of sugar and popping candy. In addition there's ginseng and caffeine to help you party all night and then there's organic jojoba oil, rose hip oil and argan oil. I admit it's not the easiest to use for a few reasons. Firstly my pot seems to have a bit too much oil in it so when I dip my finger in the pot I mostly get oil with a few bits of scrub. That's ok, it's super moisturising but it is very green and if it goes over the edges of your lips you WILL see it on your skin because it's green. Then the other thing is that the popping candy is not the easiest to scrub with because of the shapes and sizes. That said it tastes and smells gorgeous and it leaves my lips so incredibly soft and flake free, even if they were flaky to start with. A great product with loads of gorgeous ingredients and a little kick to help you through the part season.

And then there's the Celebrate Lip Tint,  also £4.75. A tinted lip balm in pale pink.

It looks so pretty in its tin but actually that popping candy on the top is a bit irritating because it sticks on your lips. That aside, this smells gorgeous, and for some reason it was a hugely nostalgic smell for me, I've not been able to work out yet what it reminds me of, maybe it's just sherbet lemons or something but it smells gorgeous.  It's supposedly  cognac, lemon and grapefruit, I just get fruity loveliness. The colour of the tint is gorgeous and so is the texture. I've read reports that some people have found it a bit drying, that's not been the case for me at all, maybe because I'm using it regularly in conjunction with the scrub, but my lips are definitely kissably soft. You just have to inspect closely to make sure you don't have lumps of popping candy stuck to your lips!

It's a pink with a very subtle golden lustre.

And I'm sorry about this horribly unflattering photo you're about to see, but it's the only one I took that came out in focus...and I just wanted to show the colour in the context of my face.

Love it and although I'm considering back ups of both products it's the tint especially I love.  Only next tin I get I'll scrape the extremely pretty popping candy off the top first.

I am also fancying very muchly the other two Christmas lip tints, Snow Fairy and Chilli Tingle. It's the latter that's really calling my name though, jojoba, cocoa butter  and chilli... and it's orange. Looks gorgeous on the Lush website.

There are some lovely things from Lush this Christmas, some old favourites and some new but the lip products are my absolute favourites.

Go have a look, https://phoenix.lush.co.uk/

*Disclosure - PR Sample*

Ellis Faas Clips!

Now this little thing here is an Ellis Clip. It's completely ingenious! Do you have more than one Ellis Faas pen? I do.

These little plastic clips join together like this:

And then your pens just slide in like so:

It just looks so cool and you can just slide out the pens that you want and slot them back in when you're done without having to undo the clips.

The whole point being that you can keep them all together easily and the above just rolls up for easy portability. It's so simple it's brilliant!

 You can just easily keep your pens together and sling them in your bag or whatnot, I'm so impressed with such a simple idea. I've wanted one of the Ellis Holder's for ages, but I prefer the clips!

The clips are £2 each and available from www.ellisfaas.com.

*Disclosure - PR Samples*

Japonesque Brushes now in Boots!

You've probably heard of Japonesque. If you're anything like me you'll know they make accessories that are highly regarded and viewed largely as a professional brand and that certainly is the case, until now.

Japonesque were inspired by the professional make up tools used in Japanese Kabuki theatres which were of superior quality and were originally made, as I suspected, for make up artists but now you and I can get our hands on these beauties at John Lewis and Boots.

Not only are they the creators of their own brand tools but are the go to designers and manufacturers of tools for some huge name retailers, such as Nars and Mac. So it's a pretty awesome pedigree.

The range available in stores are the Travel sizes but Japonesque promise that the short handled travel brushes are the same standard as the full sizes using the same quality materials and craftsmanship. I can't compare as I don't have any full size brushes, but all I can say is Wow, these are amazing!

It's a pretty extensive range and I've been lucky enough to try out most of it. First of all I must tell you about the packaging. It's relatively plain and functional which I like but on the back of each brushes box are all the details you need. It tells you whether the brush is natural or synthetic and how best to use it to apply your product, it also gives you diagrams showing where to place your product. It's a great actually, very helpful and I've read the back of each box avidly trying to learn as much as I can about product application and blending. I've always considered myself something of a dunce when it comes to the application of make up so I'm someone who really appreciates clear, concise instructions, which these are.

The range itself, as I've already said, is extensive and a mixture of synthetic and natural. All are extremely soft. A problem I've had with some natural brushes in the past is that they irritate my skin leaving me a little red and blotchy. I'm not sure what these natural brushes are made of but it's incredibly silky and soft and causes me no irritation.  I've been using them for a few days now and I've not had any shedding while they are in use. I washed a couple the other day and I lost one hair which didn't concern me in the slightest.

These are not very cheap brushes but they aren't extortionate either and I would say they were perfectly priced given the standard of them.

Here's a quick run own of the brushes I have:

Brow/Lash Comb £9.75
Angled Foundation Brush £19.50 (this is FAB!)
Eye Shadow Fluff Brush (Medium) £14.75
Angled Eyeliner Brush £12.75 (so easy to use!)
Brow Definer £10.50 (perfect for applying powders to my brows)
Retractable Lip Brush (I don't have a price for this right now)
Powder Brush £29.25
Smudger Brush £14.75
Eye Shadow Crease Brush £12.75
Concealer Brush £10.50
Blush Brush £24.00

So its a wide price range with the powder brush being the most expensive at £29.25. All are worth it, you can tell when you're using these that they are quality brushes and I've really enjoyed using them. I won't hesitate to buy more to add to the set if there are any I don't have. Particular favourites are the smudger brush which I use daily, and the crease brush. I'm also loving the  brow definer and foundation brush. They are all great though, I suppose I don't really use the brow/lash comb as I use other tools for those jobs but otherwise there's nothing there that I don't use regularly or wouldn't buy other than perhaps the lip brush which I only use occasionally as I'm a straight-from-the-bullet kind of a girl.

Very highly recommended brushes and actually I think a high quality range of brushes is something that I think has been lacking in high street stores.

Available from Boots now.

*Disclosure - PR Samples*

MeMeMe Blush Me! Pink and Sultry Eyes Trio

I talked about the MeMeMe primer last week which I really really loved, and when I was sent the primer, I was also sent a few bits from their cosmetics line to try out. Having only tried a couple of things in the past it was nice to be given the opportunity to try some more bits. I'm a terrible make up snob and I really don't look at high street brands as much as I ought to if I'm brutally honest with a few exceptions (hello Rimmel Hide the Blemish). I was sent the Blush Me! Pink blusher and the Sultry Eyes Eye Inspire Classic Trio.

I was especially keen to try out the Blush Me Pink blusher.

It's a mid pink in the pan, but it looks bright too if that makes any sense. It also looks shimmery. So in short it's a little daunting. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view), its actually much softer than it looks.  As you'll see from the swatch pictures at the bottom of the post it's actually a very soft pink with  shimmer, but the shimmer is very fine indeed so it's not too disco ball. It's actually very nice when you want only a subtle touch of colour and a little bit of glow. It's really nice. This retails at £8.50 but is currently on the website at an extremely reasonable £6.50.

I was also sent the Eye Inspire Classic Trio in Sultry Eyes.

This eyeshadow trio is slightly less warm than in my photograph. It's a nice trio, neutral colours. I found they performed extremely well. With the colours being easy to apply and blend and they wore well on me, lasting all day. I've been looking at the other colour ways available and there are some really great trios, I'm particularly loving the look of the Candy Eyes Trio featuring a mint, lilac and pink. The one I've got is nice enough though, I'll show you the swatches below along with the blusher. Again, this is a really reasonably priced product, costing £5.50 normally but on special offer at £4.50 on the website at the time of writing.

I've used the shadows here, with the dark used as a liner.

Swatches:

And both on. I found using the two products gave me a really natural look, soft and subtle and actually really rather nice for every day. I'm sorry you can't see the blusher too well in these, it's very subtle!

I've got a few more bits to try out and review for you, but overall I'm really impressed with what I've tried so far, the primer is fabulous and so are these two bits. I know there are some high street brands that I've tried that have done nothing to change my my snobbiness, but MeMeMe might just be the brand to convince me that not everything I buy needs to cost the earth!

*Disclosure - PR Samples*