My 2014 perfumes!

I have built up quite a collection of new fragrances in 2014.

I have bought 19 new releases from this year.

Marc Jacobs released more limited edition Daisy fragrances, Daisy Delight and Daisy Eau So Fresh Delight, both of which I love.

Daisy Dream came afterwards with a unique bottle design.

Jimmy Choo have had some fantastic releases in 2014. Exotic was re-released in an orange bottle for 2014.

Flash London Club was a fragrance I was really excited about. It has a similar scent to the original Flash, which is my favourite.

Stars is a limited edition release from Jimmy Choo. It was probably the last thing my fiancé ever bought me before becoming my husband and it was a great gift. It has a scent along the same lines as the original Jimmy Choo fragrance and the longevity is just as impressive.

Cacharel Noa L'Eau was a limited edition release for the summer. The original Noa fragrance is one of my favourites and this version is a light, fresh and slightly aquatic interpretation.

DKNY's MYNY was released in the summer and it is something really different from DKNY. I have lots of fragrances from the Be Delicious range, but this is a lovely, sophisticated, floral scent. I haven't heard much hype about it, but it really is a lovely scent.

DKNY did release a few new fragrances from the Be Delicious range, which I bought into.
There was Golden Delicious Sparkling Apple, Be Delicious Sparkling Apple and Be Delicious Fresh Blossom Sparkling Apple. In the UK these fragrances are only available from The Fragrance Shop.
They are all lovely and fresh, but they do smell similar to previous releases from the Be Delicious range.

Vera Wang Forever Vera is very difficult to get hold of. It was supposed to be exclusive to Kohl's in the USA. It is a really nice, well balanced fragrance. It is quite a mature scent.

Vera Wang's Princess Power is the latest release from the Princess collection. Like last year's release, Pink Princess, Princess Power is only available in 30ml or 50ml bottles, which annoyed me. It is a lovely, crowd pleasing, fruity-floral fragrance.

Vera Wang Be Jeweled Rouge is another 2014 release. It is really sweet and fruity. I love it.

Lolita Lempicka Minuit Sonne is an amazing fragrance. The deep liquorice flower note seems more prominent than in the original Lolita Lempicka fragrance. I love the fragrance, but the bottle has glitter on it, which comes off onto your hands, which is a bit annoying.

Tom Ford Velvet Orchid is a strong, warming fragrance. I love this fragrance. It is unique, mature and lasts well.

Nina Ricci's La Tentation de Nina is another beautiful scent. It is bakery-sweet and really different to other Nina releases. I think this was a great offering and I look forward to trying next year's Nina Ricci fragrance, Les Délices de Nina.

Juicy Couture's Juicy Couture Malibu was released for the summer alongside Couture La La Malibu, which I have not picked up yet. Juicy Couture Malibu is a lovely summer scent. It is similar to the original, Juicy Couture fragrance, but is a bit less harsh. It has a very light, fresh feel to it. I really like this fragrance, but I have to admit it isn't the longest lasting fragrance.

Chanel No 5 Eau Premiere isn't technically a new fragrance for 2014. It was originally released in 2007, but in 2014 it was released in the classic, rectangular Chanel bottle. It is a lovely scent. It is similar to the original No 5, but this one seems lighter and has a more sparkling opening.

2014 has seen the release of many other lovely fragrances that I have not managed to add to my collection yet and I hope 2015 will bring lots of new and exciting fragrances that will no doubt mean my collection will grow and my shelf space will shrink!

What I Got For Christmas 2014 And A Little Bit Of Sales Shopping!

I was totally spoilt this Christmas and I love every gift that I received.

My husband bought me the new Tom Ford fragrance, Velvet Orchid, a gorgeous green floral dress from New Look, a Lord and Berry lip crayon, McBusted's DVD (I was a huge Busted fan) and a beautiful sapphire necklace.

As you may know I am a huge fan of fragrances and I got a few for Christmas.
As well as Tom Ford's Velvet Orchid from my husband I got a FCUK gift set, which has a lovely, fresh scent.

Lovely is a fragrance by Dainty and Heaps, a UK based company that I hadn't previously heard of. The fragrance has notes including star anise and liquorice and the scent reminds me of Diesel's Fuel For Life Unlimited. It's warm and spicy.

Avon's new fragrance, Christian Lacroix Ambre is one that I wanted as I have the other three Christian Lacroix fragrances by Avon; Rouge, Absynthe and Nuit.
Ambre is a lovely scent and the fragrance came with a Christian Lacroix make-up bag and a lipstick and eye shadow. 

I also received a mini fragrance gift set with miniatures of Moschino Pink Bouquet, Ghost Deep Night, Lipsy London and Ted Baker Sweet Treat Polly, which I thought was a lovely gift set as it allows me to try out lots of new fragrances and they are great for carrying around in your handbag. I already have Ghost Deep Night, but I adore it so I'm pleased to have a mini bottle of it now as well.

I received so many gift sets.

I hadn't tried Soap and Glory's new sweet lime scented products until I received the gift set on Christmas day and I love it.

The Baylis and Harding gift set I received is sweet mandarin and grapefruit scented, which I love.

Baylis and Harding also make the Beauticology gift sets and I received a Beauticology gift set (to the
left of the Nivea gift set) with vanilla frosting foot lotion and strawberry frosting foot soak crystals with some red and white fluffy socks, which I took out of the box as I have already worn them.

I received another Beauticology gift set (bottom right) with a cranberry body wash, which smells lovely and a gingerbread sparkle body wash, which has glitter in it and smells lovely. There is also a strawberry frosting scented soap in the set.

There are two gift sets from Next. One is a set of 4 lip glosses and the other is from the Gold range, which includes a small rollerball of the Gold eau de parfum, a scented hand cream, a shimmery nail polish and a pot of nail gems.

I also got plenty of candles. The Glade warm spice candle is really strong, but I love it!
The set of three candles with the silver floral patterned holders are very pretty and they are vanilla and roasted chestnut scented. They smell really nice, but I think the scent will be a lot more obvious when I start to burn them.
The set of three purple tealight holders shown at the bottom of the photo are a lovely design as well. They look very festive. 

As well as my green floral dress I got a few bits and pieces of clothing including a gorgeous grey bird print scarf, some white slippers, some black and pink gloves, which will be great for the rest of winter as I intend to take up running, some big thick Lipsy socks and two pairs of pyjamas.
I love both pairs of pyjamas. One pair are Disney with Winnie The Pooh on them and the other pair have patterned bottoms and a lovely fox on the top, which I think is such a cute design.
I was not disappointed in the slightest to receive two pairs of pyjamas.

I got lots of other bits and pieces shown in the first photo including a clock, a calendar, a purse, some floral note cards, bubble bath, a Tangle Teezer, sweets, a bottle of wine, a wine bottle holder, some ageing cream, a glass Christmas tree decoration, hand cream and a memo block.

On top of all this I got lots of Christmas money, which I bought an emerald and diamond cluster ring with from the Ernest Jones website. I mentioned the ring on my blog over a year ago as I have wanted it for so long, but unfortunately I had to take it back because I found the emerald's imperfections distracting. It looked like there was a crack running through it and I didn't want to pay so much money for something that I was a bit disappointed with.
To me this ring is the perfect design so I am not too pleased that I remain emeraldless after lusting after this ring for so long and even after finally making the big purchase.
I have thought about buying it again and hoping for a better emerald, but it was on sale when I bought it the first time and now it has gone back up to full price so the idea isn't too tempting.    

Finally on to what I got in the sales. I haven't been to the shops, but I have had dozens of emails from online retailers, whose websites I have used in the past and I ended up resisting spending on most websites, but I did make a few purchases from boots.com.

One of my favourite ever perfumes is Marc Jacobs Daisy Sunshine, which was released in Boots in early 2013, but as it was a limited edition fragrance it is no longer available.
I loved the Sunshine range from Marc Jacobs and managed to get a second bottle of Oh Lola! Sunsheer and a second bottle of Daisy Eau So Fresh Sunshine, but Boots were selling Daisy Sunshine again on their website on Boxing Day so they have maybe listed old stock they have found and it was only £22.50 (originally £45.00)!
I already have the fragrance, but I never ever wear it because I'm too scared of my bottle running out and it was the same with the other two scents from the range, but now I will be able to rest knowing I have a spare bottle if my first bottle runs out.

Boots.com has actually sold out of Daisy Sunshine already, but hopefully they will still be able to fulfil my order.

I also ordered a mini Smashbox gift set with a mini mascara, a mini under eye primer and a mini foundation primer, which was £12.50 reduced from £30.00. 

I had asked for the Lord and Berry lip crayon that my husband bought me and I really like it. I found a set on the Boots website with two Lord and Berry lip crayons. It is actually called the lip library gift set. You can get different colours, but I ordered the a red and a pink. The colours are called Fire and Fucsia (a foreign spelling of Fuchsia!?)
I'm hoping the pink isn't too bright as I think pinks can sometimes look really tacky, but the gift set was £13.33 reduced from £20.00 so I'm happy with that.

I also bought a few fragrances from allbeauty.com on Boxing Day to put away for my sisters for their birthdays because they had a deal on where if you spent £85.00 you could have £10.00 off.

I always say this, but I am going to try not to buy much in the sales because I've been spoilt so much this Christmas and there is nothing that I really need so hopefully I'll be able to resist the temptation to look online or in the shops.
It is the most difficult time of year to give up shopping, but I'll do my best.

2015 perfume releases!

I am excited to try the new fragrances due for release in 2015 especially Jimmy Choo's new fragrance, Blossom.

It is to be released in the same bottle design as Flash, but with a deep pink bottle.
Flash is my favourite fragrance. I love it! I have bought it as a gift for lots of my family and friends as well since it came out at the beginning of 2013.

Flash London Club was released earlier in 2014 and that is another lovely scent, which is similar to Flash, but I think Blossom is going to be something rather different.
The top notes of citrus and red fruits of which raspberry dominates.
The heart notes are sweet pea and rose.
The base notes are sandalwood and white musk.

It sounds interesting and I can't wait to try it, but for me I don't think anything can live up to the original Flash.

Nina Ricci's 2015 release sounds like it is going to be super sweet and the bottle helps to illustrate this. The fragrance is called Les Délices de Nina.

It will be available in 50ml and 75ml bottles. Usually Nina Ricci releases 30ml, 50ml or 80ml bottles.

The bottle makes me hungry just looking at it and the fragrance sounds like a bakery-sweet, gourmand.
The fragrance has top notes of mandarin and lemon, heart notes of strawberry and caramel and base notes of raspberry extract, praline and white musk.
I'm excited to give this one a go. I think it'll be lovely, but I tend to find sweet fragrances like this don't last long on your skin.

I mentioned in a previous post that Marc Jacobs will be releasing new limited edition Daisy and Daisy Eau So Fresh fragrances next year.

I have been really impressed by the Sunshine editions and 2014's Delight editions so I don't think the Sorbet editions are likely to disappoint.

Daisy Sorbet has top notes of pink grapefruit, pear and passion fruit.
The heart notes are wisteria, jasmine and lily of the valley.
The base notes are violet, wood, cedar and musk.

This one sounds gorgeous. I love the scent of passion fruit and I'm sure this fragrance will be done well. I think the floral and woody notes will give the fragrance a bit more depth so that the passion fruit isn't too sickly sweet.


Daisy Eau So Fresh Sorbet will be released by the side of Daisy Sorbet.
Daisy Eau So Fresh Sorbet has top notes of mandarin, apple blossom and lotus.
The heart notes are magnolia, jasmine and violet.
The base notes are woods and musk.
A lot of the heart and base notes are similar in the two fragrances. I think Daisy Eau So Fresh Sorbet will be the softer of the two and Daisy Sorbet will be bolder.

I am looking forward to trying these fragrances too and will probably end up purchasing them both.

So it looks like we have some lovely spring scents to look forward to next year. I'm sure there'll be many more wonderful fragrance releases announced in the new year as well.

My Black Friday to Cyber Monday fragrance and beauty haul!

I had a great weekend for shopping.
I have just about finished my Christmas shopping so I have spoilt myself this weekend.

On 'Black Friday' I managed to get a 100ml bottle of Dior J'Adore eau de parfum for £76.40 from boots.com. I had eyed it up for a while. It was still full price in store at £95.50 and the day before it was on offer for about £85.00 online, but then they further reduced it online on Black Friday meaning I saved £19.10, which I think is amazing.

At first I was gutted when the website said they had sold out, but I managed to get one with the gift wrap box, which is sold at the same price.

I also fell for Debenhams' charm and bought a 75ml bottle of Guerlain Mitsouko for £64.58 and I had a £5 voucher so I only paid £59.58. The 75ml bottle usually costs £77.50.

I received an email on Sunday from Selfridges to say they had 10% off fragrances so I ended up ordering Creed Love In Black.
75ml usually costs £165.00, but I got it for £148.50, which I was happy with.
I absolutely love Love In Black and have been waiting for John Lewis or Selfridges to have fragrance on 10% off as £16.50 is quite a big saving and also buying it when it is at a reduced price helps me justify the purchase.

My most exciting purchase came today, 'Cyber Monday' when I was browsing the Debenhams website.
Last month I bought an Elizabeth Arden lipstick, which I love and was keen to get some more. I found this 'Elizabeth Arden Lipstick Color Christmas Gift Set' for just £31.20.
It has 4 full size 3.5g lipsticks all in very wearable colours. One of these lipsticks usually costs £20.00 and here is a gift set with 4 in for £31.20! It gets better...
When I get to the checkout I know I have £5.00 of Beauty Club card points to spend, but it turns out I now have £15.00 of points to spend so I only had to pay £16.20 for these 4 amazing lipsticks!
I am so excited to receive them!

UPDATE 07/12/2014: It turns out Debenhams could not fulfil this order so they have refunded me and I have managed to find and reorder this gift set from House Of Fraser's website where it was also on offer for £35.10. I still think it is well and truly worth it and will have to find something else to spend my Debenhams points on.

I feel like I have done really well this weekend, but I do feel a bit guilty for spending so much money.

Hopefully there'll be no more splurging until the sales after Christmas!

What to buy a woman for Christmas

Most women are easy to buy for, but if you are a fairly clueless man left to your own devices, shopping for the woman in your life could be quite a daunting task.

I have put together a few ideas based on a budget of £100.


If you have not received any hints, I think it would be difficult to go wrong with a bottle of Chanel Chance which can be purchased from Boots (or boots.com) for £85.95 for the 100ml eau de parfum. It is a beautiful scent, which I think would appeal to almost everyone.
To reach (and go over by 95p) your £100 budget this grey loose knit snood looks super cosy and will cost you £15 from River Island or riverisland.com.

Another gift that you may want to consider is this set of 3 limited edition Diptyque candles. It is a great gift for a woman who loves her candles and it will set you back £78.00 and is available from Harrods or online at harrods.com.
To make up the gift to £100 most women would love this Urban Decay Naked Basics palette full of neutral every day colours, which is available from Debenhams or debenhams.com for £22.00.

This silver cubic zirconia and synthetic sapphire necklace is gorgeous if you want to blow the majority of the budget all in one. This costs £95 from Beaverbrooks or beaverbrooks.co.uk.
Coming in just under budget this cute pack of two pairs of cosy slipper socks are available at New Look for £3.99.

New Look have some lovely socks out for Christmas. I saw these adorable gingerbread man and candy cane design socks in New Look today. They are only £1.99.

Anyway my final gift idea is this lovely Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb gift set, which comes with a 50ml bottle of the eau de parfum, a body cream and a shower gel.
It currently costs £73.00 from Boots so I have paired it with these festive Me To You design pyjamas with, 'Feeling Snug' written on the front. They are available from Next for £25.00. There are lots of nice pyjamas on their website. Last year I struggled to find nice pyjamas anywhere and ended up eventually finding a Disney pair in Asda.

Stocking fillers haul for £1.00 or less!!

My sisters and I agreed we wouldn't spend too much on each other this Christmas.
I really enjoy buying for them so I haven't exactly stuck to my word. I have bought them each a perfume, a top, a scarf and some jewellery and I have bought one of my sisters some Lush goodies, which I mentioned in a previous post and the other will be getting a new handbag.

I wanted to get them a few more little treats for them to open and I have found that you can get some fabulous treats for just £1.00!

For chocolates I raided the Poundland for the smallest box of Milk Tray known to man and a box of orange Matchmakers (they also had mint ones).

The Thornton's Classics bags are lovely too without so much unnecessary packaging and they only cost £0.99 from Home Bargains.

Poundland also had Herbal Essences hair masks, which smell amazing. I couldn't resist getting one for myself as well. £1.00 is amazing for a hair mask.

Superdrug are currently selling Impulse for £0.98 for a full size 75ml can. Sweet Smile and Secret Smile are my two favourites so I got them for my sisters to try.

In the other pound shop, Poundworld I picked up a can of Sure deodorant for just £1.00, which I think is great as, in my opinion, it is the best deodorant on the market and you will pay more than double for the same can in Boots!

Finally, Wilkinson's Fruits range had a crowd gathered around it last time I went to Wilkinson's so I took a look for myself and made quite a few purchases.

This is kind of cheating because these products cost £1.50 each, but they are permanently on a 3 for 2 deal so if you buy items in multiples of 3 they are only £1.00 each.
I bought more products than are shown in the photo below, but some were duplicates so I didn't want them to be in the photo twice.

The range have soaps, shower gels, scrubs, bath bombs, hand wash, shampoo, conditioner, bath foam, face masks, body butter, lip balm in their unique flavours.
Their flavours are quite unusual. The photo above shows a passion fruit and melon scrub, a strawberry and pomegranate bath bomb, an orange and pomelo soap and a lime and ginger shower gel.
It is difficult to smell the soap through the plastic wrap, but the shower gels and bath bombs smell amazing. They remind me of bath and shower products from the 90's that my friends and I used to buy for each other's birthdays and for Christmas and they had lovely, fruity, quite obscure scents that you don't find a lot of products in such as dewberry.

There are lots more scents from the Wilkinson's range.
I bought all of the different soaps. There is rhubarb and vanilla (amazing), lemon and black pepper, coconut and vanilla and finally blueberry and grape. I think they all sound amazing and I will definitely be trying this range for myself.
I know my niece will love these fruity products so I have reserved some for her as well.

I would be really pleased with any of these gifts and I think most women would be pretty pleased with them, but I think the hair mask is the greatest gift for the price!


Other items that would be nice to receive in your stocking and cost just £1.00 are these novelty products.
Coca-Cola or J20 flavoured lip balms and Tango shower gels and hand washes are nice little novelty ideas. They can usually be picked up from pound stores.

 I noticed that Claire's are selling Kellogg's Rice Krispies lip balm for £3.00. I think the packaging is really cute for these lip balms.

A while ago I picked up this set of 5 Swizzels branded lip balms in the flavours of Refreshers, Double Lollies, Drumstick, Double Dip and Rainbow Drops!
B&M's website, www.bmstores.co.uk shows that you can get this set at B&M's for £2.99.

Pretty Dresses!

I have seen loads of really nice dresses recently.

I really like this black one from Topshop. I love the cut. It looks lovely on the website, but when I saw it in store I didn't like it as much. It is still nice, but it isn't what I was expecting.
Where it looks like there is a seem at the waist it isn't actually a seem. The material on the top overlaps the waist so it doesn't hang very nicely. There are also cut out sides, which are mostly covered by the overlapping material.

The photo of the model wearing the dress shows that the dress isn't as flattering round the waist as it could be.

I also quite like this black dress from Topshop. It has a flattering shape and I like the twist detail on the front.

I don't usually get too excited over little black dresses, but I love this one from New Look too.

My husband has just bought me this green dress from New Look as part of my Christmas present. I love it. It also comes in navy, which is also gorgeous, but I love the dark green. The cap sleeves are really cute and I love the cherry blossom print.

New Look have so many nice dresses and I love their boots that they have in for the autumn/winter too. The last of my picks from New Look is this patterned sleeveless skater dress.
It comes in red or green and I'm not sure which one I prefer. It looks like a really comfortable dress, yet it is quite smart at the same time.

A website I hardly ever check out these days is boohoo.com. They used to email me, but I seem to have dropped off their mailing list. I got some gorgeous summer dresses on their site last year so I like to have the occasional look on their website to see what they have.

I think velvet can be very hit or miss, but I like this navy velvet dress.

It looks gorgeous on the model.

I also quite liked this printed dress from boohoo.com.

I am trying my best not to find more goodies for the ever-growing wish list, but I'm bound to see loads more gorgeous dresses before Christmas.

Marc Jacobs Daisy Sorbet and Daisy Eau So Fresh Sorbet

Yesterday it was announced that there will be two new fragrances from Marc Jacobs, Daisy Sorbet and Daisy Eau So Fresh Sorbet.

Daisy Sorbet has top notes of pink grapefruit, pear and passion fruit.
The heart notes are wisteria, jasmine and lily of the valley.
The base notes are violet, wood, cedar and musk.
I love the sound of this. I love pear in a fragrance and passion fruit is one of my favourite scents. I find a lot of the Marc Jacobs Daisy scents have a nice woodiness in them too so it will be interesting to see how this one compares to previous releases.

Daisy Eau So Fresh Sorbet has top notes of mandarin, apple blossom and lotus.
The heart notes are magnolia, jasmine and violet.
The base notes are woods and musk.

I have liked all of the fragrances from the Daisy range so far and these two sound rather delightful. I look forward to trying them out.

There is no indication of what date they will be released. They are supposed to be 2014 fragrances, but the last ones they brought out were at the beginning of 2014 so perhaps these two will not be released until 2015.