You Beauty Discovery Box February 2015

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I am a huge fan of You Beauty Discovery Boxes because they are not only amazing value for money but the actual concept is brilliant.  Most of us love Beauty Boxes and subscribe to them, most of the time not knowing what an earth you might find.  With You Beauty Discovery, every month you get a menu to choose from and then you also get one or two treats as well.

This month the list to choose from was again amazing and I was chuffed to find two products listed that I have wanted to try for some time and this is my box:

Every month within the box, which cleverly fits through your letterbox, is a little magazine to read and it is one I always read cover to cover.  This month we are told that the products we have had to choose from are for the Red Carpet, which is interesting as I was expecting a Valentines Pamper box theme, so it is nice to get something which is both unexpected and great at the same time.

The freebies or little treats this month are ones I really like too and they are and as you can see there was a mini box of Lindt chocolate (now eaten) and a sample of Bare Minerals Bareskin foundation.  I have never used anything from Bare Minerals, so I would I have liked a bigger sample to use so that I could have properly tried it.

The products that I actually chose this month was again a tough choice as there was quite a few that I loved the sound of and this month I had never tried any of the products in the box!  So I chose:

INFUSED Coconut Body Scrub which comes inside this beautiful gold 100g sachet, which is huge and packed full. It is described as a product which incorporates a natural blend of Robusta Seed Coffee and brown sugar that help to eliminate dead skin cells and impurities such as stretch marks, and dry skin.

It's natural oil base is enriched with coconut oil and healing clays that help to maintain moisture whilst removing impurities from the body.  A 200g sachet retails for £18.99 so this being half that size is worth around £9.50 which I think is a really generous offering and a review is coming soon.

Kiss The Moon Love - After Dark Bath Oil.  This is a little 3g vial of the product which is described as follows - A 100% natural beauty oils to help you prepare for a good night's rest, nourishing your skin and soul whilst you sleep.

This oil is made from a blend of coconut oil, combined with a generous helping of nutrient rich jojoba oil and white tea seed oil to leave the skin smooth and well-nourished.  To use, you simply squeeze two full pipettes into a still, deep, warm bath, or in this case 3-4 drops from the vial. For a more intense experience, massage lightly into skin before stepping in to the bath. Take three slow breaths and relax. Step out lightly moisturised from top to toe and ready for a perfect night’s sleep.

I have seen Kiss The Moon popping up all over my Instagram and Twitter timelines so curiosity has got the better of me.  To me, this oil sounds absolutely divine and I cannot wait to give it a try.  A 100ml bottle retails for £38 and my sample is worth about £1.15.

Now this box cost just £6.95 and look at the contents, isn't that just great value for money? I think so and I would love to know if you also subscribe and what you chose from the list!

Hugo Boss Woman Perfume

When it comes to perfume, I know what I like and what I don't like. Every now and again a fragrance will come into my possession and takes my by surprise and this is one of those fragrances. Hugo Boss Woman was sent to my Hubby to review and we decided that he could do he make version which you can find HERE and I would do the female version.

Hugo Boss Woman is not a scent I ever thought I would like, my last encounter with this brand of perfumes was a short lived affair with Deep Red, a scent which I liked until it hit my skin and then it smelt just awful. So I was slightly nervous about giving this go. 

The perfume comes inside this bright vibrant red box and inside is a rather rotund looking bottle which encompasses the box design by taking on-board he red and silver colouring,  Being a see through glass bottle, you can see the fragrance inside and it looks as though it is tinted red, but in actual fact it is just down to the clever design of the bottle.

Described as being "a fruity floral fragrance with an unconventional boyish twist. The scent is a contrast of feminine and unexpected masculine notes creating a contrast of tones and sensations. HUGO Woman is the scent for modern, stylish women who live life their way and follows the motto to invent yourself". 

The scent itself uses top notes of ripe boysenberry, sparkling Italian mandarin and Himalayan red grass. Top notes are those scents that are perceived immediately on application of a perfume.  The middle notes which are the ingredients used to make up the perfume, and can range from plant and flower extracts to fruity extracts and in this perfume we have Jasmine sambac and plush, darkly fruity black plum and Indian black tea.  So the base notes, which are perhaps the most important because they determine how long a fragrance will last, and most fragrances have similar base notes which often include sandalwood, amber, musk or vanilla. The reason being is because there are only a certain number of notes that will last long enough on the skin to form the base of a fragrance. So within this scent, those Base Notes are Sandalwood laced with cedar, warmed by feminine amber.

I would describe Hugo Woman as being a mixture of both fruity and floral, one the first spritz the fruity scent is really dominant and it soon settles on the skin to become much lighter and more floral.  Infact, it has really good wear time because I can still smell it hours later on my way home from work, which is a good 8-9 hours later.  I had expected this to be a really heavy fragrance, the kind which makes your nose wrinkle as soon as it is spritzed, but it isn't at all, it is one of those fragrances I would want to wear in the springtime because it is so fresh smelling and floral

Overall I really really like this scent, I never expected to find myself saying that but I do and it is just lovely.  It is one of those scents I would put into the versatile category which means you could wear it as a day fragrance, for a night out, on a date or whenever you fancied because for me it meets the criteria of all the above.  This scent is available from Fragrance Direct and 30ml costs just £29.99

Have you tried this scent?

Shabby Chic from the flower Garden

Life for me at the minute is pretty chaotic and between work life, home life and blogging, it is sometimes really hard to find the right balance.  This month is super busy and we are only just into February and I am already exhausted. 

Coming home in an evening on the off chance I have no plans what-so-ever, I like to ensure I get time to sit back, relax, have a hot bath, read some blogs or my Kindle and generally wind down and leave my day behind.  So once dinner is out of the way, the bath is run and the bubbles are flowing, I like to ensure I have some mood music and some candles lit around the bath, perhaps a nice glass of chilled wine, a facemask and away we go.  Failing that, a nice lay down on the bed with my iPad to watch an episode of Brothers and Sisters in total peace and quiet is also good.  

Whichever way I choose to relax, a candle or two are always part of that process because I find them deeply relaxing and they help create a nice atmosphere.  Candles are one of my favourite items to be gifted, given or things to buy.  I was sent this Shabby Chic From the Flower Garden Gift set and it's such a lovely gift.

The set contains two votive candles nestled in these beautifully designed glass holders and a 50ml diffuser with fragrance notes of Cassis, Red Fruit, Jasmine, Lily, Rose and Musk.  The diffuser is really lovely, to use it you put the decorative flower head and reeds into the oil to absorb and diffuse the fragrance throughout your room, it is said to last up to 4 months and the scent really is just lovely, it isn't too overpowering but it is strong enough that you notice it.

The candles have a burn time of 10 hours which is really good and the scent that they give is again not too overpowering, but strong enough to be noticed.

I think this is a really lovely little set and it is still available from House of Fraser it would make a really lovely gift.