Happy Valentine's Day - Jo Malone Blue Agava and Cacao Cologne Review

Yesterday I did a bit of perfume shopping with my boyfriend. I really wanted to try something by Jo Malone as there are so many different fragrances available, I thought there must be something to suit everybody. Now usually I like to be surprised with gifts, but perfume is one of those things that you can get so horribly wrong so I went along to choose, I wanted to smell as many as I could before deciding! Blue agava and cacao is not a fragrance I would usually be drawn to. To be honest, the reason I even wanted to check it out was because I had read in a magazine a while ago some celebrities favourite perfumes. I think it was Amelle from the Sugababes that chose this one, and it was the only perfume I had not heard of. I usually go for very safe, girly, floral scents, and it was hard actually to not just buy the Rose cologne that they had decorating every corner of their shop in aid of Valentine's Day. Blue agava and cacao is not a safe or convential fragrance for me in any way.
The fragrances on the Jo Malone website are divided into categories, this is under the floral category. There is also a light floral category, which I guess would be where I normally lean towards, this is more of a heady floral. Also, it's not floral in an obvious way, there are a lot of other notes in there to keep this interesting. For example, I can smell hints of cocoa and vanilla. It is described on the website as "Inspired by the rhythm and vibrancy of latin music" and I think I can see what they mean by this. It's a passionate, interesting scent which I'm sure will have a few people asking you what perfume you're wearing. It's a little overwhelming at first, because it is so different from the perfumes I'm used to wearing (to give you and idea, my favourites are YSL Elle, Chanel Coco Mademoiselle and Givenchy Very Irresistible) but after the top notes fade, the smell that lingers through the day is not overwhelming at all. There are supposed to be hints of lime and grapefruit, so this becomes a pleasant mix of warm yet fresh.The cologne is priced at £32 for a 30ml or £64 for a 100ml. Not extortionate I don't think, I'd expect to pay that for a brand like Chanel or Dior and this is definitely a little piece of luxury on par with those brands. Apparently this is a brand popular with a few celebrities, when I was in there, Graham Norton walked in, he was looking at the bubble bath, I found this really amusing for some reason!

I love the presentation when you buy from Jo Malone, the little box had a ribbon around it, and in the bag, the paper was sprayed with the Rose cologne, it's the little touches that matter.

Maybe this fragrance isn't for you, but I think there's plenty on offer for anyone to find one that is. Happy Valentine's Day ladies, I did the whole dinner and wine thing on Friday night, so not really going to do much tonight, how are you spending yours?

Recent MAC and Topshop finds

Really all I wanted to buy this weekend was a new lipstick, but it's hard to buy just one thing! I was after a bright pink shade, a la Cheryl Cole, one that I can wear for going out, or any time I'm feeling a bit more daring. I rarely stray from safe nude shades on my lips so felt like I wanted to experiment a little. Pink Nouveau was my lipstick of choice, it seemed to me a perfect barbie pink, not the brightest pink I saw, but what I'd describe as the "truest" pink. It's a satin finish which I find has a lot more staying power than the Lustre finish. It's also more matte which I find I really need to be careful with because it can be a little drying. Along with this I got a blusher in Peaches, which is a sheertone blush, without shimmer. I'd describe it as similar to Springsheen but without the shimmer, it's very matte which I think makes it more appealing to most people.

Above is a swatch of the blush on top, and the lipstick below. I will at some point do a more detailed review/comparison of these products. Now on to the Topshop goodies. First up, this layered short sleeved top which is a mint green colour. I bought this to go with the high waisted black skirt I showed you as this top is cropped and the shape will complement it nicely. I'm loving all the pastel, nude colours that are about at the moment, it's very flirty and feminine. I like wearing this top to smarten up jeans too, and although it's cropped it doesn't really show much which I like, possibly because of my shortness! I'm not sure how I'd feel about wearing this if I was taller. This is not the best background for the top to be against for you to see it properly!Here's another staple top I bought. Again this is cropped. I like the loose sleeves, and the button detail down the middle. It's just a basic top but looks great with jeans, and it's available in a range of nude and earthy tones.

I love this jumper too. It's very simple, just a plain black jumper, but I love the gold button detailing on the sleeves. I think it's a really nice touch. This is what I love about Topshop, the little details. I like to wear this with a black waisted belt, just because it's not very fitted, and the belt helps to give a nicer figure.

Finally, I had my eyes on these a while ago, but for some reason or another, managed not to buy them. I had to go back to buy them this weekend though because I think they are quite unique. The pattern reminds me of peacock feathers, but they're on a thin piece of metal which is a nice twist, I've not really seen any like this before.

In other news, I went to the Affordable Homes Show in Westminster yesterday to find out some more information for people buying their first home in London. It was quite interesting, if somewhat of a mindfield, there's so much to take into account when buying your first flat. Me and my boyfriend had our first viewing today and it was so exciting thinking about getting our very own place. I love my flat where I live now but it can get a little tedious sharing with another person. At least now the ball's started rolling and I can feel more excited about what's on it's way. Hope everyone's had a great weekend, enjoy what's left of it!

Make-up Product of the Month: January - Yves Saint Laurent La Laque in Bleu Nuit

First up, sorry for the poor quality photo. It is starting to stay lighter later as the spring is on it's way but still not light enough for me to take decent photos after work. I mentioned that I purchased three YSL nail laquers in another blog post, and the one I have kept coming back to is this one: Bleu Nuit. It's not just the poor quality of photograph, in real life this nail varnish verges on black. Unless you really look closely, it doesn't really appear blue at all. You can only really see the blue when the colour is held up next to black. I think that's what I like about it though, black nails are incredibly harsh looking and not pretty. With a touch of blue this shade manages to look quite sleek and classy. Take my word for it; looking at the picture where I've taken it immediately after painting, pre-washing off the excess, it does not look too classy I know!
What I love about this varnish the most is the quality. This is a high end product so I expect as much, but sometimes you don't always get what you pay for. The varnish retails at £16 but I picked up three for £18 at TK Maxx so that equals excellent value for money! I need only two coats, and this lasts at least 2 days completely chip free, but I could get away with 3 or 4 with a top coat.
This is definitely a staple colour for me, perfect for winter time, and one I will continue reaching for, while I can still get away with wearing it.

Yum

I know this is not beauty related but food for me is up there in importance with beauty! Yesterday I discovered the Chinese cash and carry that's near me. I wasn't too sure what to expect, I was hoping it wouldn't be the sort where you have to buy crates of everything. Luckily inside it was more of a supermarket selling all kinds of eastern asian foods which is my absolute favourite kind of food. I love how cheap it is, so much better value than the Asian isle of your regular supermarket, and more authentic! I got 3 huge bottles of Soya sauce on 3 for 2, Teriyaki marinade which is great on chicken and salmon, rice noodles, miso soup (it tastes amazing!!), a whole load of chopsticks for only 90p. I also wanted to try out some snacks and found something called Pocky which are chocolate flavoured sticks similar to Mikado. They're ok, but the chocolate is not that tasty. I also got some pineapple chips, which are just dried pieces of organic pineapple! Quite unusual taste, but I could get used to them. I also went to Greenwich market yesterday, one of my favourite places to mooch around on the weekend. They have some great stalls there and sell a lot of quirky and kitsch clothes and jewellery. I found this great stall I wanted to mention where I found these super cute button earrings! 3 pairs for £5 which I thought was a reasonable price to pay for something original.

The girl who makes them also designs cute jumpers with writing on them, as well as tote bags. She's very talented and her products have been featured in Grazia magazine. Please check out her website at http://www.lauralaura.net

Fini!

Hurray it's finally complete! I know that there are a lot of people who already own multiple palettes, but MAC is pretty pricey in the UK so I don't go crazy and buy a load of make-up from there at one time. Since this is my first (and maybe only?) complete palette, I was a little excited about it! I'm not sure if I will go on to start another palette, I got this because it's great for travel, with 15 eyeshadows I can create a variety if different looks without having to pack a load of separate containers. I'm finding myself reaching for this pretty much every day though since it is amazing quality. So I paid a visit to the MAC store on King's Road, I usually go to the Neal Street one which I prefer guess I wanted a change of scenery, I go there far too often! Before I got there I thought I knew which eyeshadows I'd be buying, I blogged before about how I wanted this to be a neutral palette, but I'm also a big fan of green eyeshadow so wanted to throw a bit of green in there too. I wanted to get Humid, to compliment Greensmoke and create a smoky green eye. So I thought I'd get that, along with Wedge which is a great neutral crease colour, perfect for whatever eyeshadow combination you do and really good at softening any harshness. Finally I thought I'd get Expensive Pink, because I'd seen it around the blogging world and thought it looked stunning. Not a true pink, but a goldey pink, which has a two tone effect (similar to Patina), but in the store I thought this was too dark for me. Instead I got Da Bling, the bright looking pink shade you can see. I don't really know what possesed me, other than maybe the influence of the MUA in the store. I mentioned Expensive Pink and after she showed it to me and I decided against it, she started pointing out all the other variations of pink. She was also sporting a rather lovely pink eyeshadow look herself and I guess it threw my neutral ideas out the window. I wasn't really sure if it was a good decision, but honestly I'm so glad I took a gamble with it, because this is a great shade for my skin tone (pasty at the moment) and my green eyes. I'd recommend it to anyone with green eyes, it compliments them perfectly. I wear it with Twinks in the crease and Hush as a highlight, it's a perfect pink combination.

Top row: left to right - Typographic, Espresso, Twinks, Wedge, Humid

Middle row: left to right - Satin Taupe, Patina, Da Bling, Tempting, Greensmoke

Bottom row: left to right - All That Glitters, Woodwinked, Hush, Nylon, Shroom

Beauty Product of the Month:January - Lush Sugar Babe scrub

Yet another fantastic product from Lush and this one is both innovative and practical, exactly why I love Lush. Sugar scrubs, or an exfoliant of some description are an important part of skincare, I wouldn't say essential because for some they might be harsh on their skin, but most of us will be left with better conditioned skin.

This is a solid sugar scrub, the only one of its kind to not need any packaging. I'm all for recycling, but I think it's even better when products just don't need packaging! There are two scrubs to choose from, which I felt was a bit of a shame because I thought Lush could do a lot more with this product and introduce many more varieties. There's the green one called "Sugar Scrub", which is supposed to help tackle cellulite. I haven't tried it, so I won't knock it, but I am somewhat dubious of it's cellulite fighting properties. It didn't smell that great either, so when it came down to it, I had to choose the nicest smelling one. "Sugar Babe" smells divine. It contains coconut oil so this is one for leaving your skin really soft and moisturised, but the smell is floral since it's also made from ylang flowers and mimosa blossom. It's a very girly smell, although I let my boyfriend use it and he loved it too! It's ok because he never reads this.

At £2.60 for 100g I think this is really good value for money from Lush. After using it a couple of times in the shower, the scrub went a little softer and I was able to squish it into an empty Body Shop exoliator pot to make it easier to use, and last longer. I'd recommend this for use a few times a week, probably not every day because since it's sugar, it is kind of rough. It does a great job at exfoliating, so if your skin isn't too sensitive then it'll work just fine.

Nearly finished MAC palette...

My palette is slowly making progress. I had three new additions for Christmas, Nylon, Greensmoke and Espresso. I’m finding it more and more difficult to choose the final few colours. I look at blogs and the MAC website and think I’ve decided on the colours I want, then go in to the MAC store and walk out with completely different colours.

With flash.

And without.
I really didn’t think I would ever buy Nylon. I’d seen pictures of it, watched videos about it, thought it looked pretty but decided that since I had Shroom, I didn’t need another highlight colour. Obviously I was wrong because here I am with it in my collection. There’s just something really attractive about this colour, it has a frost finish, compared to the satin finish of Shroom and has almost a creamy texture to it and is very shimmery. I think the shimmer at first put me off because I’m not really into that look, but sometimes a bit of shimmer is just necessary and the shade also has enough of a hint of beigey gold in it to not look too brassy as a highlight.

Greensmoke is my new favourite eyeshadow. Green is by far my favourite colour to wear (if it’s not neutral!) and I love a green smoky eye, hence Greensmoke. As a lustre, it’s not amazingly pigmented but it is buildable. I like to wear this either on the lid with Espresso in the crease for a dark green smoky eye, or wear it in the crease with a shade like All That Glitters on the lid, for a lighter look. I’m thinking of getting either Swimming or Humid to wear with it, but not sure which would work best.

Espresso is probably one of the most popular shades by MAC. It’s pretty universal, making a great crease or outer corner colour for most people. Whether you’re just starting out with MAC or have a tonne of it, I’d recommend adding this to your collection. You can never have too many browns now anyway, can you?

(top row,l to r: Typographic, Twinks, Tempting, Greensmoke, Espresso, middle row, l to r: Satin Taupe, Patina, Woodwinked, bottom row, l to r: All That Glitters, Hush, Nylon, Shroom.)

I suppose this looks like a very unadventurous palette so far but neutral/earthy tones are my favourite and suit me best so I keep going back to them. There are some amazing and unique colours by MAC but I wanted my first palette to be full of staples I will actually use. If anyone has any recommendations for my remainder pans please let me know! I’d love to know what colour combinations work for you.