Boudoir Privé October box

I received my second Boudoir Privé box through the post on Tuesday (by a lovely Sheffield lady postie. Sheffield people are so friendly!) I spoilt it for myself (again!) by reading blog reviews like Lilys, but I was still looking forward to it.

The products in this month's box were: Rose&Co Rose Petal Lipsalve, Studiomakeup eyeliner pen in black, Cetuem Illuminating skin mask and Créme de Lite, Leonor Greyl Huile de Palme pre-shampoo conditioner, Korres Quince body butter and Mémo Paris Les Echappées parfum.

I always enjoy products that I can start using right away, and I was happy to see a liquid eyeliner in the beauty box as I had been meaning to buy one. My liquid eyeliner skills are not great so I'll have a bit of practice before showing you the results of this.

I was happy to receive a lip salve, as my lips do suffer in winter with the dryness of air-con/central heating, however the container of the Rose&Co Rose Petal salve was made of a metal-like material (a bit like vaseline tubs) which I find a turn-off as it can feel greasy to touch and consequently I'm never sure whether the container is clean. I much prefer lip balms to come in tubes.

I really need to start using up my hair treatment samples otherwise I will end up with a backlog from my beauty boxes! In this month's box was a pre-shampoo conditioner for dry and damaged hair from Leonor Greyl. It is to be used before washing your hair as a leave-in treatment from 5 mins to overnight. I think I will give it a try overnight next time my hair is due for a wash. A little looks like it would go a long way with this hair oil.

I really like the packaging for the Quince body butter from Korres, and that really makes a difference to how inclined I feel to use it! (Am quite a visual person). The body butter goes on really smoothly, like a thin cream and sinks into your skin well. The smell is quite mild with a hint of avocado and what seems like rose. It is described by Boudoir Privé as: "An extremely rich and soothing cream for dry and chapped skin. The combination of vegetable oils has excellent compatibility with the skin, allowing for easy absorption. It provides uplifting and long lasting moisture."

The Memo Les Eschappées eau de parfum was my favourite product out of this month's box. I always enjoy different scents and the varying affects they can have on our memory, mood and feelings. This scent is described as "A spicy tuberose underlined by pear." I really liked this perfume as it is so different to my usual scents (citrusy). This perfume is spicy and deep, a little musky, and would be great for winter. It reminds me of drinking mulled wine and eating toffee apples.

What did you think of this months' Boudoir Privé box? Are you subscribed to any other beauty boxes?

Garnier B.B. Cream (Miracle Skin Perfector)

I was pleased to receive a free sample of Garnier's new B.B. Cream Miracle Skin Perfector in the post today. B.B. Creams (short for Blemish Balm) are predominately an Asian beauty product that is only just beginning to be featured in the UK & worldwide markets. B.B. Creams aim to smooth and refine the skin, often by providing light coverage.

Garnier's BB Cream seemed to be hotly anticipated, with a high-profile ad campaign. Garnier's B.B. Cream is an ambitious product which, according to their website aims to provide the following: 24hr hydration, UV protection, and sheer coverage, resulting in smoother, luminous, smoother and softer skin.

I was particularly interested to try it as I don't like wearing a full face of makeup, but I do want my skin to be soft and free of imperfections, often with a light coverage. My skin is also quite dry so it needs moisturising and I appreciate a foundation that has SPF for this reason. Garnier suggests that you can use BB creams as a primer or on its own. Garnier's B.B. Cream only comes in two colours at the moment; light and medium, and I ordered the light shade.

I found that I had to use a moisturiser underneath it as I have dry skin. Once I had applied moisturiser it went on smoothly. Its coverage is very light; it isn't a foundation but does what it says it aims to, which is to blur imperfections. I applied a little more over the areas of my skin that needed it. My skin still needed some mattifying afterward so I applied a loose powder. It doesn't give full coverage, so if I was going to an event I would use it as a primer. I think it would be very effective as a primer as it goes on and sets smoothly. On the packaging Garnier suggests that a time you may want to use it is post-gym, where you don't want a full face but you do want to smooth out the redness on your skin. I think the product would be very effective for use then, but I would still need to use moisturiser underneath.

Garnier's new TV ad- I could only find it in French, despite it being shown on UK TV

Another thing I liked about the product was that in the sachets there was enough product for more than one use per sachet, so I should be able to test it another 4 to 5 times before I decide whether to purchase it. Overall, though I liked the product.

There are loads of fab and informative reviews of Garnier's B.B. Cream from beauty bloggers out there: just google to find more. :)

Boudoir Privé September box

I received my first Boudoir Privé box yesterday. Unfortunately I wasn't at home when it was delivered so I had to wait until last night to pick it up. For those of you who don't know Boudoir Privé, I will give a brief description.

Boudoir Privé offers a monthly subscription for £10 of 5-6 sample sizes of luxury beauty products delivered to your door. I think the concept is great as I know lots of us spend too much on trying+testing full size makeup products that turn out to be not right for us. I also particularly like the Boudoir Privé website; they have their own blog and have a useful video about this month's box.

The box comes beautifully wrapped with black paper tissue and a pink ribbon. In this month's box was: Agent Provocateur L'Agent perfume, Macademia hair repair, Tropic Skincare Body Smooth, Colbert MD Nourish Eye Cream, Zoya nail polish in Marina, Cargo Cosmetics Boogie Nights Eye Pencil in purple and Mai Couture Blot & Bronze blotting paper.

Also contained in the box was an information booklet with some information about the background and use of each product which I found really helpful. Each product was listed underneath a category: bodycare, haircare, skincare, fragrance, lifestyle, and makeup.

Bodycare: Tropic Skincare Body Smooth
When I first read the reviews of this month's box, I thought that the Macademia hair repair would be my favourite product as I love a good hair treatment, but the body polish is looking to rival that. I can't get enough of its smell! It is infused with Sea Minerals, Jojoba and Macademia Oil. The brand is Tropic Skincare which was founded by Apprentice finalist Susan Ma. Being an avid Apprentice follower this was definitely an added interest for me. The full size version of this product retails at £19.95.

Fragrance: Agent Provocateur L'Agent perfume
I love trying different perfume samples, so I was excited to recieve this in my monthly box. The scent, as described by the Boudoir Prive girls in their video would be most fitting for an evening. It's very musky, and the scents that really hit me first were rose, sandalwood, and ylang ylang. This is definitely a scent where less is more!

Skincare: Colbert MD Nourish eye cream
This is a brand I hadn't heard of before, but it has an impressive celebrity client list, including HRH Catherine Middleton and Sienna Miller. The information booklet says it reduces dark circles so I'm looking forward to trying this. The full size version of this product retails at £90 so I can imagine I will be using it sparingly!

The last piece in the box was an information booklet about Zoya nail polishes and a swatch of their smoke and mirrors range. In the boxes this month we could have had a selection of the polishes from the mirrors range. I got the Marina shade which is a really nice dark turquoise shade.

Boogie Nights Eye Pencil There were four colours that could have been included each box, and I was really pleased with the colour in my box; purple 03. It was as easy as your average eye pencil to apply on your inner eyelids but I loved the easy way it slid onto my upper eyelid and it slid quite easily into a mini cat flick eye. My eyes are a natural green-blue but I think this purple colour would suite a browner iris. At £13 for a set of 5, Cargo is definitely a brand I would consider in the future.

Overall I enjoyed the excitement of having a pretty box delivered to my door and loved the luxury feel of the ribbon, tissue and box as well as the samples themselves. However this was my first box so I don't have previous experience to compare it to. Did you receive this month's box? How do you think it compares with previous boxes and other competitors?

Harajuku Lovers: Baby Perfume Product Review

In 2005 Gwen Stefani launched her clothing, stationary and perfume collection 'Harajuku Lovers' based on the style of cuteness (kawaii) common in Japan. The collection features 4 girls with distinctive personalities: Love, Angel, Music and Baby, in addition to Gwen herself.

Harajuku (hara joo koo) n.1. style and attitude of Japanese girls from Harajuku, Tokyo.
n. 2. anything goes, outrageous, layered, and eye-catching.

Harajuku Lovers Fragrance N.1. A Fatal Attraction to Cuteness.

snow bunny (snoh) (buh neh) N.1. An uber fashionable girly-girl who uses the snowy streets of Harajuku as her own personal catwalk.

For Christmas I received the Winter limited edition Snow Bunny 'Baby' perfume. I can see why my mum bought it for me: it is so kawaii! I love things in miniature and a miniature Japanese girl that is also a perfume appealed to me so much. And for anyone who is an aesthete with their fragrances, both the perfume itself and the box it comes in are very aesthetically pleasing. Baby is dressed in a snow bunny outfit for the Snow Bunnies winter edition collection. She is a great addition to my perfume collection and watches over my other perfumes for me. :P

To get to the perfume you pull Baby off the stand by her feet. The base is the actual perfume, so the bottle itself is very small (10ml). The box itself that it comes in features cute slogans like: "A fatal attraction to cuteness" and a definition of cuteness. Gwen Stefani's website details the ingredients of the fragrance as: "Vanilla floral- with white peach, red apple, pink freesia, pink plumeria, lush orchid, jasmine petals, glowing amber, sensual musk and creamy sandalwood." The scent itself is very musky- not dissimilar to The Body Shop's White Musk- but with more woody overtones (I guess the sandalwood). When I smell it I think of Japanese flower gardens with cherry blossom and women in white coats doing manicures.

For teens or Japanese-lovers I'd say this is a perfect product, as it's fun, funky and a little bit different.

I hope you liked my review and it helped you with your product choices. Do you have any of the Harajuku Lovers perfumes? Do you like the fragrances of the other characters (Love, Angel, Music, Gwen)?

The Body Shop White Musk - Product Review

I received this gift set for my birthday, and wow, what a blast from the past! Most of you who know The Body Shop know that its iconic scent is White Musk. It was very popular in the late 90s, and although I don't think it was discontinued, it seems to be having a revival. This set contains: White Musk Sumptuous Silk Shower Gel 250 ml, White Musk Smooth Satin Body Lotion 250 ml and White Musk Eau de Toilette 30 ml

First: the Shower Gel. The Body Shop website promises: "a sumptuously sensual soap-free body cleanser with a silky smooth gel texture that creates a creamy, foamy lather in the shower and leaves skin feeling cleansed, refreshed and subtly scented with...White Musk." The scent is lovely and prominent as soon as you open the bottle. It slides across your body well and works into a soapy lather. However the scent doesn't remain on your body as much as I would want it too; after a few minutes in the shower you can't smell it anymore, and I wanted it to last longer. The bottle itself is a good size and easy to keep clean. Positives: texture and ability to clean. Negatives: scent doesn't last.

Second: the Body Lotion. In contrast to the Shower Gel, this smell does last on your body for a long time. It also scents the room you're in when you put it on. I would recommend this body lotion as it glides on well, there's no complicated dispensing, and it rubs in smoothly, with no marks and doesn't colour the skin at all or leave it feeling sticky.

Thirdly: the Eau de Toilette. The scent of this also lasts a long time. White Musk, like it says on the tin, is a musky, strong scent. It is a very clean smell, and makes you think of washing your hair at the hairdressers or running a bubble bath. I like to use this perfume to stay fresh when I might be going somewhere with strong smells, like a food market.

Overall I enjoyed this gift set. At £3, I would definitely buy the shower gel again. The perfume and the body lotion are a little steeper at £9 each, and I don't think I would buy them on their own. The gift set is currently in the sale at £15, which I think it's worth (and it comes in a pretty box with a ribbon).

I hope this review helped some of you. Do you have any White Musk products? What do you think of them?

Neal's Yard Remedies Geranium and Orange Product Review

Like any female over 12 years old, I've been inundated with soaps and 'smellies' over the Christmas season. Smellies as gifts are often derided for being from the unimaginative gifter, but recently I've come to think that the best smellies come from the people in life who know you the most. My boyfriend's family (well let's face it, his mum) got me some gorgeous smellies this year. In previous years we haven't known each other too well, so we've tended to buy each other gifts that we like, hoping they will like it too! Do you guys ever find that? That's not to say it's a bad thing- we obviously like our own taste, and hope others will too. With that in mind, I'm going to do a product review of what she got me.

Neal's Yard Remedies: 'Vibrant'
Includes: Geranium & Orange Shower Gel 200ml, Body Scrub 200g and Body Butter 200g

First: the Shower Gel.

I think that the Geranium and Orange smell is an aquired smell. It smells much more like your flower garden than your bathroom cabinet. This makes it a bit different and sets it out from the rest as a mature, together, woman's body product. As for me, I like it. A lot. It's unusual, and my first introduction to Neal's Yard, it's a smell I will remember.

The shower gel itself is nicely packaged, the branding and design of the labels is very effective, original and aesthetically pleasing. It says on the label for this particular shower gel: 'can also be used as a shampoo'. I was intrieged by this as the notion of my hair smelling like geranium and orange appealed to me. I added a little in with my original shampoo and I have to say, it worked very well! It worked better, even as a shampoo than it did as a shower gel! The texture is more like a shampoo; liquidy with some weight and no soap suds (though it didn't weigh my hair down at all, it gave it a smooth silky texture). So I would recommend this as a shampoo, not a shower gel. For the record my hair, despite its terrible condition -which even my hairdresser commented on, despite it never being coloured- is fairly normal, on occasion dry.

Second: the body scrub

The body scrub I love. I just can't get enough of it. It's so addictive, I have it on my desk while working and when I need a pick-me-up, I scrub it on my arms and hands. You're supposed to wash it off afterwards, because it has dead sea salts in it that you can feel on your skin, but I usually brush them off (I am lazy).

Third: the body butter

I have to say I'm a bit biased with body butter because imo it is the most useless product in the world. Who uses it, and more importantly, why do you use it? What is it for? I don't think I will ever understand body butter, sorry world! I guess if you just want your body to be smooth and perfumed but not exfoliated, then choose the body butter over the body scrub.

Overall I would say it was a perfect gift set and well worth the price (particularly if you look at the cost of the items individually, it's a steal! I think I might buy a gift set for myself now!

A little bit about Neal's Yard...

Neal's Yard brands itself as an extremely ethical and environmentally responsible brand. This can lead people to be very critical of their medicinal claims. (When uncomfortable questions about the claims they make regarding alternative/holistic medicines and homopathy were put to them by Guardian readers, they failed to respond.) I don't support treatment without scientific evidence (especially if the scientific evidence actually supports that the product may harm!) so I won't discuss their treatments here.
Their makeup and skincare, personally, is another matter which can often and happily be discussed away from politics. By some of the product reviews on their website some people find their products help their skin so by all means, have it as an option, but if you have skin problems, see your GP/doctor first guys! Their products are high-end, with shower gels ranging from £9.30-£38.90. Think Bridget Jones' mum (and probably yours)- she'd love it.

Do you like Neal's Yard Remedies? What have been your favourite products? And (I would be particularly interested to know comments on this one) have you used any of their remedies, and what was the result?