FRAGRANCE

Free Thing! via Exclusive Magazine: NEOM Pillow Mist

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Yay, free thing!

NEOM Luxury Organics, on the back of the Dublin edition of Exclusive Magazine, are offering a free NEOM Organic Pillow Mist (worth €12) if you say the following magic words: Exclusive Neom Mist. Uh, you have to be buying something else at the time, you can’t just rock up to the counter, let’s be clear about that.

I don’t know if you have the same taper-and-tealight obsession that I do, but these ones are good for you and your home: made from vegetable wax and essential oils, they release only healthy scents that freshen your living space and your head space. Candles in general burn off the toxins that are made in the making of them {yuck}, and they also release soot, which is not nice.

These look nice:

The one on the left is a travel candle (€16.25), and the three-wick job is the Home candle (€50.80). To put that last into perspective, because, whoa, 50 squid: the candle weighs 1kg. ! Me, I would very much like to fire up this bad boy, the Sensuous Home Candle, with its infusion of my personal faves, ylang ylang, frankincense, and patchouli.

Brenda McCormick, editor of Exclusive, says, “I am a bit obsessed with NEOM candles, and since discovering them no other candle will do me at all. They smell so natural as they burn, and I love the fact they’re designed to work as aromatherapy treatments, too.” She also suggests checking out the body oils. I quite fancy the one called Refresh, infused with the essence of Sicilian Lemons & Fresh Basil. I’d quite fancy a holiday as well, apparently.

I’d say the pillow mist runs along the same essential oil lines, meaning: it is soothing and natural, and also, bound to help you if you have trouble falling asleep. In general, I’m finding that room fragrance is really quite refreshing, without being gross like those sprays you get at the supermarket.

Don’t forget the magic words! Exclusive Neom Mist; this offer is only available in Brown Thomas, Dublin.

Go here for a look at the entire issue!

Speaking of God

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

No, really.

I’ve got all manner of things ranged across my desktop — the actual wooden surface of my desk, not the screen of my laptop — and one of the lot is Breath of God by Gorilla Perfume, which has been named one of the top 100 fragrances of all time.

No insult to the Deity, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

It’s strong {not surprising, lol}, but when I first used it, I sprayed it alllll over myself, and had a headache by the end of the day. Right this second, I have sprayed the tiniest amount, half a pump {yes, it’s possible} on the pulse points at my wrist.

Simon Constantine, perfumer at Gorilla, devised this scent upon returning from a trip to Tibet. The main notes of the fragrance are neroli, lemon, melon, jasmine, rose, vetivert, sandalwood, cederwood, amber, and musk. {I am still on the lookout for those perfume lessons.} Anyway, to me, without having any fancy knowledge about this sort of thing, there seems to be a terrific elemental balance to this fragrance, and perfect balance of masculine and feminine. In fact, I would very much like to squirt a dude with this, I bet he would smell yum-my.

I am finding that the eeensy amount I’ve sprayed is just enough. Every time I scooch up my glasses or play with my ponytail — lost in thought — I get a whiff off my wrists and it’s lovely: fresh; a bit sharp; invigorating, but not in a pushy way. Or, as the crowd who wrote The Little Book of Perfumes: The 100 Classics put it:

Surreal combinations – lemon ham, grape leather, bubblegum tobacco, loquat vetiver – rise from its depths each time it comes to attention, hour after hour.

Whoa. Lemon ham? I wish I even knew how to smell like that. Wow.

This is very intense, and even now, some time post-spritz, this is making its presence felt in a different way, as mentioned above; rather than fading, it feels like it’s getting stronger. Which is weird. So, if you are looking for a scent that lasts for, well, an eternity, I can recommend this one without reservation.

€39/£32/$42.95 for 30g

Little Book of Perfumes: The 100 Classics (2011) by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez can be purchased at all usual online outlets. I’ve just wishlisted one myself…

Oh, Lush, Why Do You Do This To Me?

/ MANY BRAVE FOOLS / 1 Comment

Not that I don’t want you to send me things — OMG, don’t stop sending me things! — but I swear, anytime there is a thing inside another thing, I go cray-zee with wanting to play!

The Immaculate Eggception is a double-layered bath ballistic, and you can hear the thing inside the thing rattling around. I made myself sit down and breathe, which allowed me to enjoy the Lush-y scents of vanilla absolute, ylang ylang, and grapefruit, and also to get a grip.

Not on the egg though, with the view to OPEN IT AND SEE WHAT IS INSIDE, but in order to calm down, because my water heater is waiting to be replaced and I can’t draw a bath.

Dammit.

The plumber is in tomorrow, and so I will have to just hang on til then. And given that the weather is bright and sunny, like, it is so not bath time, right?

{You just keep telling yourself that, love.}

€8.75/£7.99/12.95

It’s Leap Year, and You All Know What That Means: Reprised*

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Right? You know what that means? If not, get this:

On the British isles, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years. While it has been claimed that the tradition was initiated by Saint Patrick or Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland, this is dubious, as the tradition has not been attested before the 19th century.

Wha’? I don’t even — it’s an Irish thing? This is from Wikipedia; naturally, I took that with a grain of salt and went off a’googling. Now, it occurs to me that the internet is just a massive self-fulfilling prophecy, in that information is taken from one website and put in another, because where else are we going to get our information, and everything you see on a screen is true. Right? I don’t know, it just hit me, that this is so, and made me wonder about the things we think we know… I’ve always been easily led, but today is the day I question everything.

From about.com:

St. Bridget’s Complaint
It is believed this tradition was started in 5th century Ireland when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait for so long for a man to propose. According to legend, St. Patrick said the yearning females could propose on this one day in February during the leap year.

Plus the whole Sadie Hawkins thing started in a comic strip? Really?

I didn’t really get Lush’s Leap Frog Bath Ballistic. I mean, he smelled fantastic, and was made of all of my fave essential oils: jasmine, neroli, ylang ylang, sandalwood and rose. < Seriously, all of them in one place, I couldn’t believe it. He looked to be a good size, one that would keep fizzing until he melted, rather than fizzling out. LOL.

The Leap Frog’s particular thing is that he comes with a special message inside. Now, let me tell ya, there is nothing like the promise of a secret thing inside another thing to get me going. Or a prize of some sort! Lucky Dip, Cracker Jacks, piñatas — holy wow, watch me go for it.

The special, secret message, though, has to do with being a female and popping the question to the male? I have no use for such a message at this stage, but: I HAD TO KNOW WHAT WAS IN THE FROG. And if I got the special, secret message that’s supposed to help you go about proposing {???} then I would put it aside for future use. Maybe. I already been married, sistuhs, so, you know, no big deal.

BUT I HAD TO KNOW WHAT WAS IN THE FROG. I needed a bath, anyway. Are you the kind of person who needs baths? I prefer showering for cleanliness, but need baths for relaxing and unwinding. So, into the bath I went, with the Frog, who was as fizzy and fragrant as promised and although this was a scenario designed to create the relaxing and the unwinding, I was completely focused on the disintegrating Frog, waiting for the SPECIAL MESSAGE.

When it appeared, I couldn’t read it anyway because I had the candles going and I didn’t have my glasses. Did not relax or unwind much because I COULDN’T READ the special message that I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR.

<This is what I got!

Okay! I am down with this! I actually had a dream a couple weeks ago about a dude called Robert! WILL THIS SPECIAL MESSAGE COME TRUE?!?!?!

€3.50/£2.95/No sign of this in the US

Are you superstitious? Don’t go here.

*I first posted this on 23 January — what was I thinking? I was thinking, ‘Hey, I get stuff from Lush all the time, and never seem to stay caught up with reviews.’ So there I was, being all efficient, and this got buried. So here it is again, a little over a month later. Still no sign of Prince Rob, *sob*.

♥Day: A Rose By Any Other Name…

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… is a bit of a cliché, but clichés are clichés for a reason. Not only because they are fail-safe, go-to solutions! Okay, maybe only because of that.

In the course of surfing about, I’ve discovered that the auld dozen long-stemmed red rose gambit has been getting trashed from here to New Zealand. Me, I like all sorts of flowers, and can see the point of the giver maybe getting a little more creative. And rosy scents, well.. they can have a bit of an old biddie vibe.

As you can imagine, the 14th of February releases an avalanche of rose-related objects, and I’ve culled a bunch {LOL} that I think can cover the rosy bases without making it tragically unoriginal.

This is great — it’s a lip balm by ANDREA GARLAND. The Valentine’s Day Silkie Brooch with Rose Essential Oil (£26; purchase on http://www.andreagarland.co.uk) keeps your lip care handy, pinned right there to your jacket or your jumper, and it is infused with our friend the rose, as well as benzion, grapefruit and lavender. Refills are a fiver, which is a snip. If you’ve suddenly decided you’re going to start kitting yourself out exclusively in vintage clothing, this is the perfect accessory to such a look.

Rose Otto is is an essential oil, and it is highly prized because it takes about 60,000 roses to produce one ounce of oil. Seriously! And, like, one drop of the stuff is equal to two and half dozen. Sheesh! I found that the REN Morrocan Rose Otto Ultra-Moisture Body Oil (€40/£34/$65) was really effective on damp, just-out-of-the-shower skin. By contrast, the offering from AROMATHERAPY ASSOCIATES Renew Rose Massage Body Oil (€43.50/£36/$61) is aces on a dry bod. I’ve experienced many of the oils in AA line, and they are excellent.

Top off your rosy outlook with PERCY & REED Splendidly Silky Shampoo and Conditioner (€17.60/20.10/£14/16). I promise I won’t link to that post again {hint: search for My Name is Susan… on this site, if you don’t know what I’m talking about} but to recap: I am addicted to haircare products and naturally would not pass up the chance to try a new one. This has rose in it, along with apple, citrus, amber, ivy… the list actually does go on. I found the shampoo to be a bit drying, and so needed extra conditioner to mitigate that, but the result is indeed splendidly silky, and shiny. And manageable, which I never really thought of what that meant — given my devotion to this line of stuff, that seems ridic. I felt this made the mane manageable because I haven’t bothered flat ironing it, and it looks pretty boss. Plus! Second day hair was remarkably fresh and fabulous.

Last but not least, let’s shed some sweet-smelling light on the subject of roses with a Red Roses Home Candle from JO MALONE (€50/£38/$65). The scent is comprised of not one but seven different long-stemmed beauties, along with some other scents (violet leaves, spearmint, lemon) thrown in. With a burn time of 45 hours, wowee, you can get a lot of mileage out this one: Jo Malone candles fill the home with fragrance, and the gorgeous smell lingers long after you’ve put out the flame. And here’s hoping your partner d’amour does the same…

Looking for a good deal? cloud10beauty.com are offering a free REN Body Wash or Body Cream when you buy any 2 REN products. so load up on the Rose Otto!

♥Day: Smelling Good is Its Own Reward

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Yeah, well, you know what? Every day really is Valentine’s Day, for me at least, because I love fragrance and I love smelling good.

I keep meaning to investigate the psychology of scent, to see what the opinions are. Does one spritz habitually out of low self esteem {ooh, I am so stinky I must mask it} or out high self esteem {I am a beautiful flower, come and admire me}? I don’t ‘do’ signature scents, I mean, Jo Malone’s Pomegranate Noir is something that people recognise as ‘me’, but I think I use scent more as an indicator of how I feel on the day. There are days when I’m feeling zesty and youthful, and days when I’m feeling deep and mysterious. Sweet and sexy day? Karma by Lush. Sentimental? Coco by Chanel.

Right, so: I’ve gotten my hands on a couple things that are in the deep, mysterious, and sexy category. Those who favour the zesty and clean and sexy stuff I’ll refer to this post.

Perhaps it’s simply because I am easily led — perhaps I am a package designer/marketeer’s dream girl — but could there be anything sexier than Emporio Armani Black Carat for Her (€61.50) and for Him (€53.50)? I ask you. And this may go back to the ‘easily led’ part, but they smell sexy too. Especially the one for Him. I just had this flash, this mental image, of me running around town spritzing dudes, just so I can smell how yum this must be on a guy. I wonder if that behaviour is actionable…

Just for the ladies, Thierry Mugler’s Alien (€30) is terribly appealing, and manages to combine some dark and sexy bits with a floral finish. I always associate flowers with light scents, but I don’t think that’s always the rule. Must also chase up that perfumery lesson… Anyway, love the bottle! It does look like a wee alien! Adorbs!

Actually, perhaps once I take that lesson, I can maybe get a gig writing the copy for fragrances? It looks like fun! It seems to me to be the same as writing about wine — about which I also know nothing, except that some is white and some is red and some is somewhere in the middle. I was googling, based on personal experience, a lovely — I mean, manly — fragrance for a dude, and remembered how much I liked Eau des Baux by L’Occitane (€44). I love the copy on the site generally, but this description really rang my bell:

In Provence, the knights from the village of Les Baux chose the cypress tree as a symbol of their strength and honor, and a bright star in the sky as their guiding force. In honor of their courage, L’OCCITANE has created a sensual and mysterious blend of cypress and incense named Eau de Baux.

Fantastic! And the fragrance is, too: earthy and musky and masculine. It is a bit risky, purchasing fragrance for another, and especialy if yer man doesn’t normally wear eau de toilette… but maybe you can get wee samples or something? Or employ my strategy as outlined above… or maybe not.

Bois, Oh Bois…

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

Do I love this kind of thing or what! The levels that the following products appeal upon are many, and alliterative! and summed up in the following: France, Fragrance, Flask.

When I lived in Paris*, I was mightily taken with Roger & Gallet. As a former graphic designer, I am a sucker for a lovely package {TWSS}, and everything about the historic brand speaks to elegance and style. My favourite thing was the soaps that come in the little plastic holder? Perfect for travel! And useful when the soap is done, for containing, uh, paperclips and elastics — elegantly.

Nothing like an elegantly contained paperclip.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the brand, three limited edition fragrance flasks have been created, the design of which was inspired by Napolean Bonaparte’s bespoke {ohh, another excellent word!} Eau de Cologne bottle. You can’t tell from the photo, but the back of the container is flat, which had been designed like that so that NP could slide the bottle into his boot. His horseriding boots, I am sure!

The celebratory line of fragrances has been named Voyage of the Senses, and No. 1 in the  line-up, Eau de Cologne Jean Maire Farina, is the eau that was favoured by the man himself.  I absolutely love that this is available to us today. Oh, and just to keep things interesting, this has another name, Italian Freshness, which appears on the bottle. Pictured in close up is Eau Fraîche Parfumée Bois d’Orange, or, The Magic of Alhambra, and the third and last, No. 3, is the Eau Fraîche Parfumée Fleur D’Osmanthus, aka A Ceremony of Happiness. Whew! I’m too worn out now to list all the ingredients, but there are plenty in each, all blended in that mysteriously alchemical way that parfumiers have of creating a cohesive whole out of disparate parts.

Each of the three comprise a category into which one can fit oneself. They’re all sort of outdoorsy and natural, but No. 1 seems to be lush and exotic, No. 2 obviously citrus-y, and the last… well, it’s green, so it’s perfect for those who like pastoral scents. Seriously, I’ve just spritzed myself with No. 3, and I’ve come over all meadow-y and sunlit. And No. 2 smells orange, but not so orange-y that you’ll feel like a walking fruit bowl. I like it, and I didn’t think I would.

In the memoirs of Mme de Rémusat {circa 1802-1808, love it!} she notes that the Emperor used up to sixty flasks a month. Yeah, well, I can see why: if you’re going for all-day staying power, these are not the fragrances for you. But being able to slip this into your boot means that you can top up as necessary.

Now, I’m not so big on history, and sadly, anything I know about the Napoleanic wars, I’ve learned from romance novels set in the Regency era, the reading of which is the guiltiest pleasure ever. So, clearly not an expert or anything, but nevertheless I had this thing where I was like, ooh, you know, Frenchman lays waste to Europe in the nineteenth century — but let’s just frame this as a testament to the man’s good taste in Eau de cologne, and as celebration of the staying power of a diverse brand.

Me, I’m pleased by the fresh fragrances, the Frenchness, and the flaskiness. And I don’t know why I like the word ‘flask’ so much, I just do.

€41/£34

*For a very short time, many years ago…

Haiku Review: Lush Exclusives

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Many tiny scents!
An option for every sitch.
Staying power: low.

Okay, let me just get this out of the way: I am too susceptible to packaging design, and must express my deep loathing for the display font that Lush use. Oh, how I hate that class of scripty-brushy font!

But oh! how I love Gorilla Perfume Miniatures – EXCLUSIVES, a cleverly designed little box ‘o’ fragrance. The brown cardboard is sturdy and I wouldn’t hesitate tossing it into my handbag. Which I would have to do because the scents don’t really last all that long. This is a bother, but not a ginormous botheration, because you can bring it along because the box is so sturdy you can just toss it into your bag… see how that works? It is a little bit of genius.

Each of the eight scents have a genius touch as well. I don’t like all of them, which is normal, but the ones that I do like, I like unconditionally and unreservedly.

These are:

*1000 Kisses, which is sounds sweet because the name is sweet, but it actually has weight.

*B Scent, which goes perfectly with that sexy, sexy Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner I love.

*Cocktail, which: need I say more? Also: ylang ylang which = sexy.

*The Smell of Weather Turning, which OMG, smells exactly like a rain-washed forest. I adore this.

So, 50% ‘like’ for me, that’s pretty good. And it’s really not that big a drag to carry them around and to keep applying one’s scent of choice — something about dabbing on fragrance is unutterably sexy.

Lots of sexy in this post — Lush are on to something!

€24/£19.95/$24.95

Sweet Sixteen: Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Multi-Use Body Oil

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I am sensing a trend.

I really like things that smell nice.

I don’t know, maybe there are people out there who don’t care about how things smell? Or disagree with me as regards what constitutes a pleasant fragrance? I can understand the latter, but the former? No way.

Anyway, here’s another extraordinarily lovely-smelling thing, and it is also a thing that comes in another version with sparkle in it. Can it be more perfect?

I love it so much, I can actually spell Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse without looking it up. Continue reading →

Sisterhood of the Travelling Products: The Winnowing

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Hmmm. Is this really any improvement a’tall?

Three lip things — there’s the Lush Latte yoke that didn’t make the last photo; one foundation {although I expect the Eau Thermale Avéne compact I’m reviewing will slip itself into a coat pocket}; one hair thing, one brow thing… a new thing {upper left} that came in the fabbbb Kiehl’s gift box that my sister-in-law gifted…

I don’t know, I guess this is a good edit.

The long shiny rectangular yokie is Clinique’s Black Honey Colour Surge Eyeshadow Quad, must share my opinion on that officially. Hint: it is excellent. The product, that is, although my opinion is excellent, too.

Well, I think I did do an okay job:

Yeah, fine. Oh, and I googled the Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Recovery Mask {bottom left} and they’ve redesigned the packaging. Yup, I knew it was old, but…