The 2013 perfumes in my collection!

There have been so many fantastic fragrances released in 2013.
Here are 13 that I have added to my collection.

I bought the 3 DKNY Be Delicious Art editions. I love the design on the bottles.

Escada Cherry In The Air also comes in a cute bottle with a cute bow around the neck. It also has a lovely design on the box. It is a lovely summer fragrance.

Jimmy Choo Flash is my favourite perfume. I love the bottle and the scent is so unique. I love it. I can't wait for the new version, which is due for release on 3rd February 2014.

Jimmy Choo Exotic is a delicious scent that I wanted for months before I finally got my hands on it.

Miss Dior released their scent as an eau de toilette early this year. I got this for Christmas from my other half this year.

Cacharel Amor Amor is a lovely limited edition of the original Amor Amor.

L'eau Jolie is a lovely fresh, clean scent that smells very similar to DKNY Fresh Blossom Art, but it comes in an even nicer apple-shaped bottle.

I was mega excited to see the release of Vera Wang's latest addition to the Princess range and this is a lovely sparkling scent, well represented by its bottle.

Marc Jacobs Sunshine Editions were supposedly released in 2012, but they certainly didn't turn up in my local Boots until February 2013:

Marc Jacobs Daisy Sunshine is an amazing scent. I absolutely adore it. I hate the fact that this was a limited edition.

Oh Lola Sunsheer is delicious. I find it so difficult to say which of this Marc Jacobs range is my favourite as they are all amazing.

Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh Sunshine was the first scent that I purchased from this range and I ended up going back to Boots the same day to buy Daisy Sunshine. These three are joint second favourites after Jimmy Choo Flash!


2013 also saw the release of Chanel Chance, Chanel Chance Eau Tendre and Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche in large 150ml bottles. They were previously only available in smaller bottles; 100ml and 50ml.
I bought Chanel Chance and Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche in 150ml bottles, but I already had a nearly full 100ml bottle of Chanel Chance Eau Tendre and I didn't have another £80.00 to spare.

Disappointing sales shopping and my few bargains!

I hope everyone enjoyed Christmas and were as spoilt as I was. As well as lots of lovely presents I got plenty of money to spend in the sales as well.
I haven't actually headed to the shops yet as I'm trying to be good, but I have done plenty of browsing on the web.

I haven't been impressed at all.
My current obsession, in case you haven't noticed, is perfume and all over the net perfume retailers are pretending their perfume is on sale, but the prices have not gone down.

On allbeauty.com they list the RRP and the current price rather than the price they were selling it for before and since the beginning of their 'sale'!

On theperfumeshop.co.uk there are just 20 items in their sale 'for her', 10 of them being gift sets, most of which have 30ml fragrances in, some of them have 50ml, but nothing larger than this.

Three of the individual fragrances are celebrity perfumes. J-Lo Glow and J-Lo Live, which now both cost £19.99 for the 100ml bottles are on sale reduced from the laughable recommended retail price of £48.00 each. There is also Sarah Jessica Parker's Lovely 100ml, which they are selling at the sale price of £24.99. Its recommended retail price is £42.00.

I only have two celebrity fragrances although there are more that I want. I have J-Lo Glow, which was passed on from my sister and Beyonce Midnight Heat, which I received a sample of and liked it so my fiance kindly bought it for me.

I don't like J-Lo Glow to be honest - it is unbelievable how well advertised it was considering it doesn't smell very good.
I have never tried Live by Jennifer Lopez, but it seems to be quite popular.
One of her other fragrances, Deseo seems to be quite popular as well and I've heard people rave about it so I want to try that one. I also want Glowing despite having never tried it. I saw it on a youtube video in someone's perfume collection and the larger 50ml and 75ml bottles light up when you spray it so that's it pretty much sold to me. Haha! I know that's sad. It does sound nice from description as well. It is supposed to be a clean and earthy scent with a dark, woody element to it.

I have a rule never to pay more than £20.00 for 100ml of a celebrity fragrance as the price always comes down to less than £20.00 eventually even if it is a higher price when it first comes out.
I think paying £48.00 for 100ml of a Jennifer Lopez fragrance would be outrageous and I've never actually seen one selling for that price.

I did manage to find some bargains on Christmas Eve when all of the sales started online.
On tescodirect.com I managed to find a 100ml bottle of  Alexander McQueen My Queen for £17.50. I think it has now been discontinued and it is quite difficult to find, but the recommended retail price is around £60.00.
It occasionally comes up on allbeauty.com for around £30.00.

It is said to have four layers rather than three like most perfumes, but I think that is nonsense.
It opens with the sweet and powdery scent of violets, which is really uplifting and summery and it dries down to a lovely warming, woody scent with the subtle scent of violets still drifting through it. There is little in between. It is a lovely scent with contrasting top and base notes, but it doesn't smell expensive as the supposed four layers might suggest.
The supposed four layers are composed of violet and almond, which open up the fragrance. They then slowly turn into the pure scent of orange, white musk, heliotrope and white flowers. The third layer promises patchouli, cedar and vetiver and then the final layer has notes of iris and vanilla.

I also bought Nina Ricci's Love In Paris. It is a fragrance I've wanted for a while. Although I'd never tried it prior to purchasing it I had read some really good reviews. I also like the bottle and it is quite inexpensive.
It is available on allbeauty.com in a 30ml bottle for £16.65 (RRP £26.00) or a 50ml bottle for £24.85 (RRP £35.00).
I managed to get the 30ml bottle on tescodirect.com for just £11.10.
The bottle design is slightly different for the 30ml and 50ml bottles.
I prefer the 30ml bottle with the little heart after the words, 'Love in Paris' and 'Nina Ricci' in small lettering underneath rather than the word, 'Nina' in large letters across the bottom of the bottle. I also like the shape of the bottle and the lid.

The fragrance is really pleasant. It is quite a green scent. It is also quite mature. It has notes of bergamot, green violet, rose, star anise, jasmine, apricot, sensual woods and vanilla.

My final purchase from tescodirect.com was a gift set I spotted with a 100ml fragrance and a 75ml body spray for just £3.30! It was Revlon's Charlie Red. I haven't used the eau de toilette or the body spray since I was about 13 and I kept meaning to buy a Charlie Red body spray so that I could remember the scent.
When it came it was not exactly what it said it was. The website had said it was an Eau de Toilette, but it is actually the Eau Fraiche Natural Spray. I didn't notice this until after I'd opened it though, but I have emailed Tesco to tell them.
It is still the same scent. It isn't too bad, but it isn't as nice as what I'd remembered. It reminds me of sun screen and holidays.
The top notes are orange blossom, gardenia, plum, blackcurrant, violet and peach.
The middle notes are carnation, tuberose, orchid, jasmine, ylang-ylang, lily-of-the-valley and rose.
The base notes are honey, sandalwood, amber, musk and cedar.
I wouldn't hurry to buy it again.

bergamot, green violet, rose, star anise, jasmine, apricot and leads on to seductive and subtle warmth of sensual woods and vanilla
Read more at http://www.tesco.com/direct/nina-ricci-love-in-paris-edt-spray-30ml/470-4867.prd#0mdxolhP3HMWqDof.99

You can see from the picture that the fragrance box says 'Eau Fraiche Natural Spray' rather than 'Eau de Toilette', but Tesco had listed it as an Eau de Toilette. I notice that they are selling Charlie Red Eau Fraiche 100ml for £3.70 so you can pay 40p more for no body spray or outer packaging, but they do seem to have ran out of these gift sets now.

That's all my bargains for the moment. I'll keep you updated with any more fantastic finds.

New releases for 2014!

So 2014 is fast approaching and in my mind I have already spent hundreds of pounds on 2014 new release perfumes that I am already desperate to get my hands on.

I was going to mention in my previous post that Nina Ricci will be releasing La Tentation de Nina early next year. The bottle is quite cool. It has a golden bite out of it, which makes it a different shape from the other Nina Ricci releases. The bottle isn't my favourite shade of pink, but it will be a welcome addition to my collection.
The fragrance promises top notes of bergamot, heart notes of Nina macaron (raspberry, almond, Bulgarian rose, lemon) and a base of vanilla, sandalwood and musk.

I also fancy the new Marc Jacobs duo.
Marc Jacobs Daisy Delight and Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh Delight are also due for release early next year.

I absolutely adored the Daisy Sunshine and Daisy Eau So Fresh Sunshine Editions, which I bought early this year. Both scents are gorgeous so I hope that these new releases will not disappoint.

Jimmy Choo's Flash was my favourite perfume of 2013 so I am super excited about Flash London Club. I'm not a massive fan of the name, but the bottle is quite exciting with a frosty textured bottom half.
According to Jimmy Choo's press release, "It is said to embody the spirit of the London party scene, night clubs and entertainment, since London is one of the focal points of electronic music."
It has top notes of bergamot and lychee, a heart of tuberose and base notes of blonde woods and musk. I can't wait to try it out.

I'm sure there'll be plenty more newly released perfumes added to my want list in the new year.

Naughty December spending - all for me!

I can't stop shopping this week. Every day there is an inbox full of emails from dozens of retailers desperate to persuade you to part with your cash in their shops or on their websites!

I put a large order in for some fragrances yesterday at www.allbeauty.com. Their stock changes slightly every day. I have noticed because I go on the website every day! I'm addicted!
I noticed that they have restocked some of the older fragrances, which have become quite difficult to find elsewhere so I ordered Truly Pink (100ml for £32.95 RRP £52.00), Sheer Veil (100ml for £36.95 RRP £59.00) and Anniversary (100ml for £36.50 RRP £75.00).

I love the shape of the bottles and I love Vera Wang's fragrances as you may have guessed by my blog name.

The original Vera Wang by Vera Wang is gorgeous.

Lolita Lempicka's Eau Jolie is currently on special offer on allbeauty.com. The 50ml bottle is £21.95 (RRP £40.00) and it is the only apple shaped Lolita Lempicka bottle on their site that I don't have.
I love the bottles. They are gorgeous.
I do prefer the scent of Lolita Lempicka's midnight fragrances, but this one is still lovely.
Also this may sound a bit sad, but I haven't seen any of these Lolita Lempicka apple shaped bottles in the 50ml size. I have a 30ml bottle and an 80ml and a few 100ml bottles, but I haven't seen the size of the 50ml bottles so I am looking forward to 'trying this out for size'!
They are also selling the 30ml bottle on allbeauty.com for £18.95 so the 50ml bottle is a really good deal.

I love the original Gucci Flora, but I don't yet own a bottle.
Recently the Flora by Gucci Garden Collection has overtaken the original Gucci Flora on my want list. The two that stand out to me are the Gorgeous Gardenia and the Glorious Mandarin so I started my collection off with the Gorgeous Gardenia, which was just £37.85 for 50ml (RRP £49.00).
Also in the collection there is Genourous Violet, Glamourous Magnolia and Gracious Tuberose.

I prefer the smaller 50ml bottles as I think they're really cute. I love the shape of them and the black bow around the neck of the bottle is a nice touch as well.

Another purchase I made was John Galliano by John Galliano. I recently watched a youtube video where someone was showing their perfume collection and said that this scent was one that had to be tried and I was intrigued.
The eau de parfum was recommended, but allbeauty.com only had the eau de toilette so I thought it couldn't be too dissimilar.
You can buy the eau de parfum at www.fragrancedirect.com for £36.50 for a 40ml bottle (RRP £43.00), but my 40ml eau de toilette from allbeauty.com was only £14.50 (RRP £36.00), which I thought was very reasonable especially since it was a blind buy.
Larger bottles of this fragrance are quite hard to come by.
I do prefer the colour of the bottle for the eau de parfum.

I also ordered Nina Ricci's Nina Elixir, which cost £31.75 for 80ml (RRP £55.15 apparently). I mentioned in a previous post that I suddenly decided that I want every Nina Ricci fragrance ever released and I do love this one and it is very reasonably priced.

Later on last night I started looking at the other Nina Ricci fragrances in the lovely apple shaped bottle and I managed to track down Pretty Nina, which is quite difficult to find now.
I bought it for £45.00 for 50ml from www.freemans.com, which is the website for the British catalogue clothing retailer so I expect it to be the real deal.
The bottle is really pretty, but I do think these 50ml apple shaped bottles look rather small. I'd love to see one of the 30ml bottles. They must be tiny!
On the subject of size I love the fragrance poster campaign with this oversized bottle in it. I would love to own a giant bottle of perfume!

... Anyway back to my allbeauty.com order.. After my purchase last night, this morning I logged in to one of my old email accounts, which I used to use to order from allbeauty.com (when it was cheapsmells.com) and what do I find in my email inbox? An email from allbeauty.com, which they sent me yesterday morning saying, 'We miss you' and when I opened it up:

I was rather irritated by this. Us loyal customers receiving no such email, when I could have saved £20.00 with two separate orders and these codes to hand as I'd spent £85.00 twice over.
I thought about cancelling my order and reordering, but there is no cancellation button like there is on some websites and it would mean emailing customer services and the codes expire today so it seemed like a lot of hassle.

I didn't want to miss out though, so you won't believe what I did.. I put in another order!

I ordered the other Gucci fragrance that I wanted; Flora Glorious Mandarin is currently on offer for £44.95 (RRP £53.00).

Nina Ricci's Ricci Ricci Reflets Mysterieux is another that I can't wait to receive. I love the original Ricci Ricci so will be pleased to welcome this to my collection. It cost £39.62 (RRP £55.00).

With less than £1.00 needed to make up the £85.00 and with a rapidly decreasing bank balance my third purchase was just £3.49 (so I got my £10 discount).

It is strange because I was just looking at really old fragrances this morning on www.fragrantica.com, the online perfume encyclopedia and this one came up: 4711 Original

The fragrance was originally launched in 1792 and it is unisex.
My £3.49 gets me a 25ml 'watch bottle' of the eau de cologne.

Sparkle at the Christmas Party!

I have noticed a few clothes shops don't seem to have much in the way of party dresses at the minute, which is disappointing since there are always nights out and parties to go to during the run up to Christmas and over New Year. Dorothy Perkins and Topshop seem to be particularly bad for partywear this winter.

Here are a few shimmery party dresses that I have managed to find online.

This ASOS Sequin Bodycon Dress in the colour 'ink' is available from their website, www.asos.com for £55.00.

This Kelly Wrap Sequin Bodycon Dress is £35.00 online at www.boohoo.com. I love the exposed zip down the back.

This Jane Norman Sequin Cowl Back Dress is reduced from £50.00 to just £37.50 online at www.houseoffraser.com.

This gold (although it looks silver to me) Debbie V Back Sequin Dress is available for £35.00 at www.boohoo.com.

ASOS.com have this ASOS Sequin Top Skater Dress available in navy for £50.00.

This French Connection Spectacular Sparkle Dress is amazing, but I cannot justify the £160.00 price tag that it carries at the minute. It is available at www.frenchconnection.com or www.very.co.uk.

I am not really an occasion buyer. I don't go shopping for an outfit for a specific occasion. If I see something I like I buy it, knowing that an occasion will come up when I could wear it.
I think I'll have a look to see if this comes up in the sales and I'm sure an occasion will arise in the New Year.

This French Connection Siberian Stripe Sequin Dress is available from www.frenchconnection.com for a whopping £280.00.

As for shoes and clutches that sparkle, a few items have caught my eye while I was browsing online.

Shoes (left to right):
1) Quiz Silver Crystal Glitter Peep Toe Platform shoes £19.99 reduced from £34.99 www.quizclothing.co.uk
2) New Look Black Lace Peeptoe Court Shoes £24.99 www.newlook.com
3) Red Or Dead at Schuh Lindy Hop Glitter £68.00 www.schuh.co.uk
4) Irregular Choice Iced Gem Abigail £82.00 www.schuh.co.uk
5) New Look Silver Glitter Metal Panel Platform Court Shoes £29.99 www.newlook.com

Clutches (left to right):
1) Accessorize Animal Clutch £45.00 www.accessorize.com
2) Jimmy Choo Cayla Champagne Glitter Clutch Bag £625.00 www.jimmychoo.com
3) Quiz Silver Glitter Clutch £21.99 reduced from £26.99 www.quizclothing.co.uk
4) New Look Black Scallop Bead Clutch £19.99 www.newlook.com
5) New Look Green Embellished Holographic Box Clutch £19.99 www.newlook.com

The Irregular Choice Iced Gem Abigail boots are my my favourite of the sparkly shoes and I love the New Look Green Embellished Holographic Box Clutch. I saw someone with the box clutch on a night out recently and I really liked it, although it is quite small.

The Jimmy Choo clutch is one that I was looking at this time last year in more of a glittery silver rather than a diamante design. It was reduced to around £400.00 in their summer sale this year, but it wasn't reduced in the glittery silver I had liked and £400.00 is still way too much for me to spend on a clutch bag.
I love the metal sided magnetic flap on the top.

Let's Buy Shoes!

The current range of shoes by Irregular Choice are not finding their way onto my want list!

There are shoes that I like, but I don't like them enough to want to buy them. Here are a few designs that I like from their website.

The website is currently selling lots of trainers as well. They look as though they are aimed at teenagers though and I am not a massive fan of them.

Many of Irregular Choice's older designs have disappeared from the website, but their outlet website, www.letsbuyshoes.com is full of gems at massively discounted prices.
Frustratingly I already have many of the styles on there, which I paid for at their full prices.
These are the designs I have in my collection.

They are now priced between £25.00 and £39.50, but are available in limited sizes.
I love all of these designs, but my favourites are We Found Love and Can't Touch This. I haven't had the chance to wear We Found Love yet, but I love the colour and the pretty flowers on the front.
I have Can't Touch This in about 10 different colours including these three. I absolutely love the design. The ones in the middle are my favourite and they are now only £29.50, which I think is an incredible price for them.

There are plenty more on the site that I don't have, but quite fancy.

I love this lot. Slam Dunk look amazing. They are also available in black, but I prefer coloured wedges as I always find some other shoes for black outfits.
I have posted about Cookie Club in the past. You can also get them in black and white, but I prefer these two colours. Unfortunately they don't have my size in either colour or else I'd snap them up.
I have also posted about Look At Me before, not being able to choose between the two colours.
I have two pairs of Abigail's Party boots already, but these ones caught my eye today. I think they'd go really well with jeans.
Eyelash Flicker are a cute pair of polka dot heels, which are priced at just £25.00!

I have used www.letsbuyshoes.com in the past, but their stock has never been so great! The designs they are selling are better than the ones on the main website, www.irregularchoice.com, although not all sizes are available.

Christmas adverts 2013

One month today until Christmas and less than a week to buy an advent calendar. I am feeling pretty unorganised.

I was doing so well, having sorted out most of my sisters' presents a few months ago, but since then I haven't bought much at all.

I haven't been overly thrilled with this year's Christmas adverts to be honest, but I do like a few of them.

Boohoo's advert is probably my favourite as it's full of sparkle.

I also quite like the Boots advert and wish someone would leave a bottle of Marc Jacobs Honey on my doorstep!

The Marks and Spencer advert is atmospheric and fun.

The John Lewis advert cost £1m to make and is part of their £7m Christmas advertising campaign. It is nice enough, but a bit overpriced if you ask me.

Nina Ricci fragrances and limited edition fragrances in general!

I'm a bit obsessed with perfume at the minute. I have my eye on all things Nina Ricci as I am in love with the Ricci Ricci perfume my sister bought me a while ago as a birthday gift.

The bottle is gorgeous. The scent is even nicer with top notes of rhubarb and bergamot; heart notes of moonflower, Indian tuberose and Centifolia rose and base notes of sandalwood and patchouli.
It is sweet and bitter at the same time. It is quite a heavy and mature scent. I would definitely recommend it.

Even though I have had this for a while I have now got it into my head that I need all of the other fragrances in the range. The fragrance was first launched in 2009.
This fragrance, Dancing Ribbons, first launched in 2010, has an equally gorgeous bottle.

I really want this. I was a bit concerned that one of the notes in this is ginger as I find that it can be too harsh for me, but a lot of the reviews I have read say that it doesn't dominate the fragrance and it is not too harsh or overpowering so hopefully I'll love it as much as the gorgeous bottle.

The top notes are listed as ginger, raspberry and rhuburb; the heart notes are tuberose and rose; the base notes are sandalwood and patchouli so it has quite a similar composition to the original, Ricci Ricci.

The 2011 release, which I hope to add to my collection very soon, was this Reflets Mysterieux (which translates to Mysterious Reflections).

Another gorgeous bottle and a similar composition.
Its top notes offer rhubarb accords.The heart notes are Centifolia rose and moonflower and the base closes with a sensual and elegant patchouli trail.

There was another fragrance added to the collection in 2012, Mademoiselle Ricci, which seems to move away from the original composition in favour of something a bit different. This fragrance has top notes of wild rose and pink pepper; heart notes of nerium oleander, rose hip and laurels and base notes of white wood and musk.

2013's summer release was Mademoiselle Ricci L'Eau, which came in a pink frosted bottle.

This offering has notes of rose, peony and lychee.
I have been looking for this fragrance, but cannot find it to buy anywhere on the internet, which seems ridiculous as it was only released this summer.


On the subject of fragrances that are difficult to find, I have been wanting Vera Wang Flower Princess for ages now. I have all of the other Princess fragrances in the range, but Flower Princess was first released back in 2006, the same year as the original Princess was launched and was available as limited edition world-wide, while permanently available to the Asian market.
On Friday I was browsing www.allbeauty.com, formerly known as cheapsmells.com and they are selling the 100ml bottle of Flower Princess for just £34.00.
I was over the moon and my other half kindly offered to purchase it for me there and then so I am very excited about it arriving in the post in the next few days. It'll be great to finally complete the set.

There are a few other fragrances, which I really want, but you can't buy anywhere. There is Cacharel Amor Amor In A Flash, which came out at the beginning of 2013, but by the end it is nowhere to be found.

There is also Marc Jacobs Daisy Silver edition, which was released back in 2009, but is now impossible to buy.

There are loads of DKNY fragrances that I'd love to own too, but they are impossible to find limited editions.

A lot of them are only from last year or the year before and they're no longer available.
It's annoying how limited the limited editions are these days. I hope I manage to find a few of these to add to my collection.