The Library of Fragrance

From September 2014 you may have noticed a new product range available from 400 Boots stores around the UK.

You may not have seen them yet and you may not be familiar with the brand, so allow me to introduce you to the hugely popular US Fragrance brand, The Library of Fragrance.

 

This is no ordinary fragrance brand let me tell you, oh no. Established in 1996 it launced with an iconic capsule of just three scents. These scents were ‘Grass’, ‘Tomato’ and ‘dirt’.

 

Yep, really.

Their mission is to capture the scents that surround us in the everyday, and they truly smell spot on!

Today, they boast over 300 scents, ranging from fairly typical fragrances such as ‘Jasmine’ or ‘Freesia, to the far more unique and unusual, such a ‘Baby Powder’, ‘Gin and Tonic’, ‘Fireplace’, ‘Pizza’, ‘Play Doh’ and the one I tried, ‘Pina Colada’!

Before you all shout at me ‘But who wants to smell like an alcoholic beverage or dirt?’ allow me to explain further.

The idea is that you can create your own signature scent from their vast range of smells.

The Library of Fragrance enables its wearers to ‘layer’ the scents and wear them together to create new and unique iterations. The most basic rule of thumb is that if things smell good together in real life, they will smell good on you.

For example, ‘Grass’ + ‘Sunshine’ + ‘Vanilla Ice Cream’ smell incredible worn together, whilst ‘Gingerbread’ + ‘Marshmallow’ is a comforting duo that gourmand fragrance fans will fall for.

It gives you the opportunity to customise your own scent and indeed the company and Boots encourages you to do so with its ‘2 for £25’ promotion (Each fragrance costs £15 alone.)

You all know how much I love sweet scents so I gave Pina Colada a try and boy does it smell like it! Its amazing and so realistic smelling, I adore it! I would say that on its own, it is VERY sweet smelling, but if combined with a more subtle, musky scent such as vanilla or even peach, would be much more wearable.

A capsule collection of 28 of the brand’s best-selling scents are available at Boots stores and a more extensive collection of 101 fragrances are available from the brand’s UK website.

DKNY Delicious Delights

Eeek! DKNY has revealed its limited edition collection of fragrances for spring.

Available from March this 3 piece collection Is inspired by cool and refreshing sorbet.

DKNY Delicious Delights Fruity Rooty is creamy and sweet, opening with notes of blackberry, mandarin and blackcurrant, a heart of rose petals and violet flower with a base of orris, vanilla and musk.

DKNY Delicious Delights Dreamsicle is a feminine fragrance that opens with mandarin, raspberry and blackcurrant, with a heart of green apple, peach nectar and apricot sorbet, and a base of cedarwood, sandalwood and vanilla.

DKNY Delicious Delights Cool Swirl is a fresh scent beginning with notes of blackcurrant, violet leaves and coconut water, a heart of magnolia, jasmine and pistachio sorbet onto a base of heliotrope, musk and patchouli.

They sound yummy, I’ve got my eye on Dreamsicle!

Each fragrance will be available from The Perfume Shop and cost £37 for 50ml.

Benefit's Puff Off!

Argh I LOVE a Benefit product launch!

I love a Benefit launch even more when the product is EXACTLY what I need in my life right now, so Puff Off!, I am sooooo happy to see you!

This ridiculously cute new product is designed to reduce puffiness and creases around the eye area, offering a satiny smooth look instead.

My tired eyes have never needed this more, but in typical Benefit style, they’ve not just made a fab product, they’ve created an iconic looking one too!

HOW cute is their ‘custom Ironing tip’! 

This gorgeous little mini-iron cools the eye area on contact, helping reduce puffiness as the tip smoothes and glides the product onto your skin

 A peptide blend helps to reduce the look of puff while light diffusing particles help to smooth away the appearance of fine lines.

The product itself is a delicate pink in colour and beautifully  light and silky in texture. Applied before your make up, I found it worked as a pretty great base.

While ‘cooling’ applicators are nothing new (most are in the form of rollerballs) they do work wonderfully well to help cool and sooth the skin and Puff OFF Is no different, but it is a lot cooler looking that’s for sure, 'scuse the pun!

While I can’t say that it made a big difference to the appearance of my fine lines, I will certainly  sing its praises for calming my puffy eye bags!

Well done Benefit, you’ve done it again guys! A super cute product that not only looks fabulous, but works too!

Bravo!

Benefit’s Puff Off is available to buy from 31^st January and will cost £22.50.

Clinique Anti Blemish Solutions Clinical Clearing Gel

One of the biggest problems I have with my sensitive skin is dealing with a pimple breakout.

 So many products out there are too strong for my skin and leave it a sore shade of red, feeling burnt and generally looking a lot worse than the original break out did.

Not good.

I’m lucky that when I do get a break out, nine times out of ten its just one or two localised spots, not a whole face full, so really I only want to target that specific area.

I thought I’d tried every spot treatment out there until someone pointed out to me that one of my fave brands actually had one.

How had I missed that!

Clinique’s Anti Blemish Solutions Clinical Clearing Gel is a daily treatment which is designed to help reduce blemishes and promote healing while simultaneously working to help prevent new breakouts occurring.

It has a unique 4 in 1 clearing complex which works in the following way;

Anti-Blemish: Salicylic Acid clears away dead surface cells that clog pores to help resolve and prevent breakouts.

Control-oil: Laminaria Saccharina helps normalise the excess production of oil.

Non-irritating: Sea Whip Extract calms and soothes skin and helps reduce surface redness.

Exfoliate: Salicylic Acid promotes healthy cell turnover.

I approached the product with caution, applying only a very thin layer onto the offending bump, just in case my skin reacted badly to the product.

The gel itself is light in texture and dried really quickly, leaving almost an invisible barrier on my skin.

I didn’t experience any horrible side-effects  such as burning or stinging and come the morning my bump was definitely smaller in size and much less red. Result.

I’ve tried several spot gels and by far this is the best thanks to its light texture- others often feel like you’re wearing a face mask and come morning have peeled off on your face, not pretty!

A little goes a long way with this bad boy, even if you were to use it on your skin as a preventative measure rather than just a localised breakout, so I’d say its pretty good value for money.

You can grab your Clinique Anti Blemish Solutions Clinical Clearing Gel online, in Boots and various department stores and can grab a 15ml for £14 or 30ml for £20.