Week in Perfume - August 2015 (The Sample Size Edition)

I'm a huge fan of travel sized perfumes, both for their handbag portability and the fact that they allow me to try a range of scents without encumbering me with 100ml bottles to store in my beauty room. Inspired by Larie's recent 'Scents of the Week' and a discussion we had in the comment section of the post, I went about gathering up a few perfumes to set aside and use for the week. It wasn't until I got to number 5 that I realised I had only chosen sample and travel sized scents - seems this sample trend was meant to be!

Kim Kardashian - Kim Kardashian EDP

This is a strong, sexy white floral that I really enjoy wearing. I've gone through a full bottle of this in the past and when I saw this travel rollerball in Las Vegas last year I jumped at the chance to buy it in this format - one of my favourite things about visiting Sephora and other American stores is the huge travel size selection available! It's something we definitely miss out on as Australian's!

Candide Bath & Body Chocolate Macaron Fragrance Oil*

This smells just like I've baked something delicious...in fact, not long after applying it I popped into the kitchen and whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I just couldn't help myself! The rollerball leaked a little bit before it got to me so it's a slippery little sucker to open, but delicious nevertheless.

 

Urban Rituelle Caramella Petit Parfum*

After the immense success of the Cotton Candy parfum (one of my all time favourites!) this was a greatly anticipated release from the team at Urban Rituelle! It's definitely sweet and the edge of caramel gets me comments each and every time I wear it (much like Cotton Candy, actually)

 

Lush Lust Gorilla Perfume*

This scent is definitely full on - wear with caution! I originally had the solid perfume in this strong jasmine scent and had wanted to pick up the travel spray, so when I was offered a wee Lush spree at an event I took the opportunity and love that a little spray goes a long way with this stuff.

L'Occitane Sun Verbena EDT

This was the scent I wasn't expecting to like as much as the others, verbena isn't typically a scent I wear as perfume very often...but as it turns out, I quite like wearing a citrus scent! I have a feeling the orange blossom note in this is what turned it from a cleaning product to a happy little jolt of sunshine on my wrist. I think it was my first time using a perfumed towelette to apply a scent sample - that was a pretty interesting experience! Sadly I just found out this is a discontinued scent - L'Occitane do have a regular Verbena scent though!

 

Do you change your perfume daily, or do you have them sorted into work/weekend scents? Are you equally fascinated with travel sized sprays, or is it just me?

-Emma

 

 

*Marked items provided for consideration. Honesty, always.

December/January Empties

I had so little to show for December in the way of empties that I decided to roll it all over into the next month. Most of this is my new year empties!

L’Oreal EverPure Moisture Conditioner- this is sulfate free and smells of rosemary and mint. Adored the sample so much and bought a full size, which is waiting in the wings until my current conditioner bites the dust.

Weleda Sea Buckthorn Replenishing Body Lotion- this smelt wonderful, and was thicker and more moisturising than I had originally anticipated. Big thumbs up!

Kiehl’s Orange Flower & Lychee Body Cleanser*- this was insanely good, it really did leave my skin soft and the smell was divine. Looking forward to repurchasing this, or perhaps one of the other scents from this collection.

Korres Guava Little Showergel- I bought this at a discount store in Sydney, and was very excited at the prospect of a new Korres love. Dismally disappointed, this smelt a little bit off, but when I sniffed the tester at Kit to see what it was meant to smell like…it smelt the same. Milky, didn’t get any ‘guava’ and I wouldn’t repurchase.

Haus of Gloi Ghost Puffs Sugar Exfoliant (sample)- love the caramel popcorn smell of this, and while I prefer the soft bubbling scrub formula from this company, this was quite nice as well.

Haus of Gloi Olde Cider Haus Sugar Exfoliant (sample)- this smelt so good, like apples with an edge of something else. The description says “old oak, sweet drying hay fields, apple pulp and vanilla husks.”

Haus of Gloi Pumpkin Queen Soft Bubbling Scrub (sample)- love the formulation of this lathery scrub, and to me it smelt of pumpkin, nutmeg and amber. Really nice, though I do see how the scent wouldn’t appeal to everyone.

Rexona Girl Free Spirit Deodorant- I prefer the Tropical Energy version of this (my very favourite) but this did the job and smelt alright.

Evian Facial Spray- I bought this in Thailand way back when, and it took so long to finish because the spritzer shot such a crappy spray that it ruined my makeup every time I tried to use it. Not sure if mine was faulty, but I’ll be sticking to my beloved Uriage either way.

Kim Kardashian Perfume 30ml- I loved this strong and sexy scent, I am normally not one to go for celebrity scents but this one sat nicely on me. Mum purchased a big bottle of this in duty free on a whim and it gives her headaches, so I think I am going to claim the new bottle as my own.

 

Aesop Reverance Aromatique Hand Balm- Review here (LINK), I am still undecided on my feelings for this. I have another sample sachet to use up, though I don’t know if that will help my decide either. Do you ever feel that way about a product?

Priceline Re-Balance Facial Cleansing Wipes- They changed the packaging and it doesn’t feel as nice as it once did, but the wipes inside are still my favourite.

Beauty Care Co Makeup Remover Pads- Did the job, not as great as the Priceline ones. I feel like these are in every single empties post? I’ve started using other methods of removal, so maybe these will not appear each month now.

Dermalogica Skin Prep Scrub- Not sure why I wasn’t expecting much from this as I have been enjoying some other Dermalogica things lately, but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. I got two uses from this small sachet (and have a sample tube on the go right now) This left my skin really, really smooth, and didn’t make me break out or anything like that. Will be dedicating a whole post to this soon!

Did you get through much in the first month of this year?

*Marked products were provided, and the samples were obviously not purchased but obtained in various ways. Honesty, always.

Sydney Skincare // What I Packed for IMATS & BBU

As those of you who follow me on Twitter (here!) would know, I spent the last week in Sydney to attend IMATS and Beauty Blogger Utopia. IMATS is a trade show for makeup artists that travels the world and is a haven for makeup lovers, while BBU was organised by Makeup Utopia and is a beauty bloggers conference to learn more about both beauty and blogging, while spending time with likeminded folk. I was a good girl and took care of my skin while on holiday, and thought I'd share what I took with me!

Oh, there is also some haircare and body care in there, but ya know they have skin too!

I knew that this wasn't going to be like my tropical holidays where I take basics and make do. I wanted my skin to look its best for the weekend, but as luck would have it my skin decided to be a little shit anyway. At least I tried my best! As you can see a lot of these are sample or travel sized products, most of which I use at home but some I just brought because of their size. A sidenote, the tub of Alpha-H is actually my Kerastase Nectar Thermique sachets decanted ;) Cheeky!

It is only when I get my skincare together for its family photo that I realise how French-heavy it is-what can I say, I love the stuff! Kiehls is also heavily featured (though most was left at home for this holiday) and I am enjoying trawling through their products and finding what my skin likes to snuggle with. The Bioderma Sebium H2O is similar to the Crealine cleansing water but contains more ingredients, colour etc and is therefore not eye safe. I decanted some of my (crappy) Garnier eye makeup remover to use on the eye area as a substitute but it leaked before we even left for the airport! I went to a store and bought some Clinique dual phase eye makeup remover to replace it and I am impressed so far.

Had to bring one of my Haus of Gloi sample pots along for the ride, I used this a lot while lounging around in the hotel room and the Ghost Puffs scent is approved by Chris' nostrils as well as mine! The Jurlique mask tube is neverending, it's the Intense Recovery mask and I use it to hydrate (and say sorry to my skin if I have a glass of champers!) I couldn't go anywhere without my Mario Badescu goodies, I pop the Drying Lotion on any spots before they erupt to make them vacate, and I use the Buffering Lotion every second evening to stop the bumpy skin action from happening!

 

So this turned into a skincare ramble (I love to read these, hope you do too!) but if you would like to know details of products I took with me, ask away in the comments below and I can elaborate (ie chat away some more with you!)

 

Hope your skin is lookin' ace today!