FRAGRANCE

Ooooh, Pretty: V Day from Lush

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I love Valentine’s Day. People seem to get really angry about it? I think it’s all about perspective. If you feel like you have to go out and spend a bomb on a meal that would normally be kinda cheap, then yeah, you are going to be annoyed.

If you want to observe the event chez nous, then I can’t imagine a better accessory than this: PS I Love You, a box of sensual delights from Lush. From bottom left:

> Soft Coeur Massage Bar
> It’s Raining Men Shower Gel
> Silky Underwear Dusting Powder
> Sweetheart Soap

I have first-hand experience with the Raining Men, and it is gorgeous. I am also familiar with massage bars of the past, and have always found them to be fun and easy to use {TWHS}. Woo, I am losing the plot!

As far as the dusting powder is concerned… hmm. I’ve dipped into this sample, and I think it may be a goer. We’ve been warned off powders containing talc, which is a good thing because, hello, talc is related to asbestos and is completely toxic. I vaguely remember a time in which powder felt like an integral part of my post-shower routine; I’ve smoothed some this on and I don’t know, maybe. We’ll see.

What else? Oh, the soap. It smells like candy. I better put it in the soap dish before I take a bite.

Also: the box! This was the inspiration for the title of this post. I mean, seriously, so pretty. I will empty it, and reuse it, with pleasure.

So, if you’re a heart day fan, I can’t think if a better treat to ask for. Because you should always ask for what you want.

€23.50/£16.95/will let you know if this is avail in the States> it is! $34.95

Sweet Sixteen: L’Occitane Almond Line

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WHAT IS THIS ABOUT, AGAIN? There’s a full explanation here; in short, I wanted to do a Personal Top Ten Beauty Products of All Time, but found the list sneaking up to Top Twenty; then it fell short at Eighteen, which is like, what is Eighteen, so I decided that Sweet Sixteen was the way to go.

It’s good to be queen.

Ahem. Here is number — hang on — lucky number Thirteen, ladies and ladies. Continue reading →

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…

Sweet Sixteen: Jo Malone Body Créme

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Everything about Jo Malone feels rich: the beautiful cream-and-black branding, the boxes, the ribbons, and most particularly, the heavy glass tub that contains the luxurious body créme.

There is absolutely nothing like the Jo Malone Body Créme. I don’t like all the scents — and frankly, I wouldn’t blame you feeling completely suspicious of me if I did — but the ones that I do, I adore. Unconditionally. Without reservation.

Lime Basil & Mandarin. Pomegranate Noir. Amber & Lavender! Oh, I forgot about that last one. I went to swap the places of LM&B and PN, but I can’t. I don’t think I can. Can I? No, not possible. Even though I layer PN with pleasure, and everyone knows what it is, and I don’t mind everyone recognizing it, because it is so delightfully sensuous, and something of a signature scent for me … I still can’t put it first, because it wasn’t my first.

Lime Basil & Mandarin. I had no idea that this Sweet Sixteen was going to be so nostalgic, but I have just gone off into a mental video memory of the first time I got a whiff of the stuff. I had been hanging with some pals, enjoying the bubbling hot tub at the SPORTSCO Leisure Centre in Ringsend {why do I remember it as the ESB gym?} and then after repairing to the changing room, one of the women passed around the body crème. Its heavy glass jar immediately communicated its splendour, and an obsession was born.

I had to have it. I had to have it for myself. I didn’t care that I was suddenly smelling that scent everywhere I turned; rather, it became the clarion call of a little club of ladies who knew what was what when it came to self care, and about splurging a mad amount of money of a thing that didn’t last for an appreciable amount of time.

Ah, now! That last bit is not so true. Because it so well-crafted, you need less than you think to enfold yourself in the fragrant goodness that is a Jo Malone body crème. So all of us who were amongst the vanguard were less annoyed at smelling ourselves coming and going {oh, dear, that sounds nasty} and more keen to appreciate the savvy of our fellow Malonistas.

It’s like being a member of a club whose only agenda is to smell gorgeous. I consider myself to be a lifetime member, with honours.

€63/£48/$75

Sweet Sixteen: Lush’s Karma Line

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When I first received Lush’s Karma perfume, several years ago, it came in a kind of… well there’s no way to say it nicely. The bottle was ugly. It was squat, the label was unappealing, and its presentation was very, very ‘meh’. I gave it a cursory spritz, somewhere around my breastbone, and promptly fell in love. Continue reading →

Haiku Review: Madame Glamour

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Oh, Madame Glamour!
As cheap as chips, and fragrant —
You fade all too soon.

Lidl, who do so much for us already — the ‘American Style’ peanut butter is a guilty pleasure, and they do a delicious bottle of prosecco for, like, no price at’all — have given us a bargain fragrance that does not smell cheap.

Smelling cheap… well, it’s best to be avoided, isn’t it? Oh, God, the scents I used to wear in my misguided youth! I like to think that Coco by Chanel came along just at the right time to save me from all those drugstore brands {chemist! the power of nostalgia! I forget my new words!} that came on strong and faded away in the blink of an eye, or rather, the twitch of a nostril.

Lidl’s brand is called Suddenly: Madame Glamour. I take the colon to be implicit, because otherwise this has two names. Anyway, UK-based Lidl enthusiasts have been merrily spritzing away with this, to the tune of £2.90-ish, since May, and the perfume arrived on Irish stores just in time for Christmas. It’s been making a splash, both over there, and here:

Two independent consumer panel blind tests carried out in the UK by the Perfumer’s Guild on the Lidl Suddenly Madame Glamour perfume against the hugely popular designer branded perfume revealed incredible results – 50 women in the first test voted overwhelmingly for the Lidl Suddenly perfume with 89% saying they would prefer to wear it over the designer brand.

And, 90% of the 100 women who blind tested the perfumes in the second round said they also preferred the Lidl perfume. A blind test was also carried out on Newstalk’s Tom Dunne Show on Friday 2nd of December with the Lidl fragrance beating Chanel again live on air.

I love the design of the bottle: it’s delicate and feminine, and perfectly handbag-sized. The thing is, you will have to have it to hand, because otherwise, you’ll find that in a short time, you will be fragrance-free. Which is not the point of wearing fragrance.

Okay, seriously, at €3.49, you can buy enough of these to rig up some sort of perpetual spritzing machine, but is even that low a price a waste of dosh? I wouldn’t go that far, because the scent, which apparently contain ‘citrus and floral notes, incorporating bergamot and jasmine’* is really refreshing, and… optimistic. Yeah, it is really quite youthful, yet confident, and I love that about Madame Glamour. I suppose if there was a body cream of the same scent, that layering might help with the staying power… just an idea…

*I would like to learn more about how fragrance works. Is there a course I can take???