Fragrance Shop Discovery Club - Summer Edition 2014

I am a huge perfume fan, love it and I am one of thoe people who loves perfume samples.  What better way to decide whether or not you like the scent of something? We do it with make-up, so why not perfume? Back in April 2013 I brought to my blog a new subcription box from The Fragrance Shop Discovery Club which you can see HERE and again in June which is HERE and then September which is HERE, then the final box of 2013 HERE if you didn’t see it.  Already in 2014 I have had the spring edition which you can find HERE.

For those of you not in the know this is the description of the box, which is a subscription:

"If you love fragrance, then you'll love our Discovery Club.

Our exciting new club allows you to explore the very latest fragrance launches from the comfort of your own home. For just £5 per quarter, each edition comes with fragrance samples for you to try, details on each of the fragrances included, as well as discount vouchers so you can make some big savings on all the scents featured."

This quarter I have the Summer Edition 2014 which includes both male and female scents and this is what is in the box:

So I have seven different samples this month and I am quite excited by some of them.

Prada Candy Florale - Evolved from the concept of an imaginary flower created especially for Candy. Candy's fantasy flower must be unique, embodying her many facets: the fragrance’s light airiness puts the sparkle in her, tender powdery notes echo her grace. A whisper of warmth & honey reflects sensuality.

I have seen this perfume everywhere but have never found a bottle with any in it to try it out.  So having now been able to try it, with a name like 'Florale' it comes as no surprise that it is lightly floral yet sweet and a scent I actually really like.

Paco Rabanne Lady Million Eau -  The Million freshness is an episode of luxurious delirium and an over-the-top celebration, provoking an exhilarating euphoria. Lady Million, immersed in a state of freedom & ecstasy follows her instincts; flirtatious, eccentric and more mischievous than ever.

If ever there was a scent talked about so much, it is this one.  I was really not expecting to like it at all, I am not really a fan of the female Paco Rabanne perfumes, they usually have an odd scent to them and I dislike the male version intensely but I quite like this. It wouldn't be a perfume of choice because the woody notes are too strong for my liking once it has settled on the skin.

Agent Provocateur Fatale - Enticing and seductive it has a irresistible signature personality, that embodies the Femme Fatale. A blend of Pink Pepper, Mango & Blackcurrant. A heart of Gardenia, Orris Absolute & Patchouli. On a sultry base of Musk, Vanilla Orchid, Chocolate Gourmand & Labdanum.

Having already had a sample of this in my You Beauty box and as a scent I liked it, quite floral and fruity at the same time and it tends to last quite a long time on my skin.

Givenchy Dahlia Divin - Like an Haute Couture gown this golden fragrance envelopes with its divine golden hues for a lasting enchanting memory. Dahlia Divin makes its perfumery debut with notes of golden fruit; Mirabelle Plum. Entwined with the aroma of a bouquet of white flowers, highlighted by Jasmine like a ray of pure light.

I am a huge fan of Givenchy perfumes having fallen in love with Irresistible not too long ago.  Dahlia Divine is a scent which I neither like not hate, it is quite floral smelling and takes quite a while to settle down, but I love the scent of Jasmine and once the scent has settled down, it is quite lovely.

Ghost Eclipse - Invigorating, dynamic and fresh, Eclipse, the brand new fragrance from GHOST, will awaken the senses and evoke a feeling of femininity. Eclipse, resonant with sunlight, but is now joined with the darkness of the Deep Night fragrance. Capturing the warm energy of the sun, and the sultriness of night.

This scent I really don't like much at all, the woody notes again are too strong for me and take over the floral scent which is actually really nice from the first spritz.

Then we have two male fragrances which is also nice to get, particularly when you live with BeautykingUk who is obsessed with aftershave.

Lacoste L!ve - A fresh yet deep fragrance blending edgy style and authenticity. Energetic,creative and cool. The ingredients are expertly blended, but also stand out individually.The zesty notes of this fragrance reflect the unique nature of LACOSTE L!VE: energetic and bright.

He says - "Incredibly subtle with a slight hint of zest, though you wouldn't know it was lime".  

Givenchy Gentlemen Only Intense - Gentlemen Only Intense offers a sensual, powerful and subtle version of Gentlemen Only. Complementing its predecessor, this new fragrance reaches new heights, where the seductive power of a rich, almost hypnotic scent naturally asserts itself.

He says (after smelling the wrong arm!!) "It is quite light and fresh with a slight zing, you can tell it is going to be spicy as soon as you apply to the skin, once settled it creates a really nice fragrance" 

Once again, I am really pleased with this box and I love the fact I have new samples to test and try out without having to go into a shop and cover myself in perfumes to see if they smell okay on my skin, yes I am that lazy.  

Within the accompanying magazine which tells you about all of the fragrances is also an offer of £5 off each fragrance if you purchase them online.

If you think this is something you would like to sign up to, you can find the link HERE along with further information.

So what do you think to my box? Are you a subscriber? 

Are any of these perfumes/aftershaves ones you own?

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Collection Cosmetics Lip Butters

I am a huge fan of lip crayons, I daren't even count how many I have, but I love them, they make a nice change to lipstick and are often easier to carry around in your bag. I was recently sent some of the Collection Cosmetics Lip Butter Pencils to try.

These Lip Butter Pencils come in four different shades which are:

01 Popping Pink,
02 Cappuccino,
03 Vintage Rose
04 Perfect Plum.

I have three of the shades which you can see below in Popping Pink, Vintage Rose and Perfect Plum.  The pencils themselves are quite thick in design, making them easy to hold. They are slightly fatter than the Clinique Chubby sticks and do feature a wind up bottom, so that as soon as your lip butter begins to disppear, one quick twist and more colour appears.

For me, all of these shades are stunning to look at.  They have a really creamy and very pigmented texture not to mention incredibly soft on application.  They have a wear time of between 2-4 hours at most, which for the bargain price of £2.99 each is pretty fantastic, I have some high end lip crayons which cost almost 5 times that price and they last nowhere near as long.  

L-R Vintage Rose, Popping Pink and Perfect Plum

My favourite shade of the three, or the one I wear the most is Vintage Rose which I would describe as being a coral pink and it looks great in the evening and in the daytime.

These Lip Butters were released on July 2nd and can be found at both Boots and Superdrug

Have you tried any of these Lip Butters? 

 Do you have a favourite brand of Lip Butter?

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How I promote my blog - Part 1

I thought I would write a series of blog posts about blog promotion, it is subject quite a few people ask me about on a regular basis and as with all things blog related, it is a continuous journey of learning, improving and remembering - so it is always a good idea to make notes, re-read them, refer back to them and add to them.  You can never have too many notebooks, you will never stop learning and you cannot remember everything.

When I write a post, I don't bash something out on the keypad and publish it, I think about it, mull it over, re-write bits and once I am finally happy with it, I press that magic button. Once that button is pressed, I could just leave the post, but if I did, not many of you would read it and not many of you would probably come across it, even the most fastidious of you who reads every post on your Bloglovin, blog roll and favourites page.

So what do I do?  Well most of this will probably come as no surprise, you probably even do this yourself and you might even have a few hints and tips to share with me in the comments below as each post appears, but today I want to focus on Twitter.

Possibly an obvious choice I know, but for me Twitter is the most important tool that I use to promote my blog and it isn't just a case of relentlessly tweeting my latest post. What is Twitter?

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and coworkers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called "Tweets" of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search

If you have a blog and don't have a Twitter account for it, stop reading this post and go and set on up, it will be one of he best things you ever do. 

Twitter is a magical little tool that not only helps you to promote your blog to other bloggers but also to companies, PRs, brands and in some cases the actual person behind a product not to mention journalists, media publications, non-bloggers and members of the general public.  There are over 645,750,000 people who use twitter worldwide and the number grows by the day, everyday around 58 million tweets are tweeted which is around 9000 per second. 

Twitter is a constant conversation globally and it allows you to do and see tweet updates, breaking news, helpful info, and converse with many different people from many different countries, backgrounds, races, creeds, religions, ages in 140 characters. Basically, you just never know who might be reading your tweet and where it can lead!

I use twitter to also interact with a lot of different people, not all of them bloggers, some are friends, family, journalists, brands, PR companies, animals (yes they have accounts too) and with some are people who have never blogged in their life. All of this helps to drive traffic to your blog.  

Twitter Chats are one of the things I enjoy most about using Twitter.  A chat is where a conversation is focused around one unique topic and has a hashtag. 

If you don't currently take part in any chats, I urge you do so.  I find them quite important for my blog because it gives me a chance to promote who I am and what I am about, as well as meet and chat to like minded bloggers.

There are almost daily Twitter chats such as the #bbloggers chat for beauty bloggers which are 8-9pm on Wednesday and Sunday, #fblchat for fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers which is on a Tuesday from 8-9pm and other chats whether you are a parent blogger, lifestyle blogger, plus sized blogger, student blogger, teen blogger all take place and this is a quick low down of what takes place and when:

• Mondays and Thursday #fbloggers 8-9pm for fashion bloggers
• Mondays #psbloggerschat from 8-9pm for plus sized bloggers
• Tuesdays #fblchat: 8-9pm. For fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers.
• Wednesdays and Sundays #bbloggers: 8-9pm. For beauty bloggers
• Fridays #tbloggers and sbloggers: 8-9pm. For teen bloggers and student bloggers
• Sundays #lbloggers: 7-8pm. For lifestyle bloggers

If all of those aren't enough there are a whole host of other chats which are now taking place and some of them are:

• #mybchat: which is Market your blog chat, held on Tuesdays between 7-8pm 
• #bloggersdoitbetter: General chat for Bloggers every Monday 7pm and Friday 8pm
• #timetotalkchat which is held on Thursdays between 9-10pm
• #Beautychat held Fridays between 7-8pm to talk about beauty
• #socialbloggers: which is held on Saturdays between 6-7pm 
• #blogbrunch which is the first Saturday of the month between 6-7pm
• #30sbloggers held on Sundays between 9-10pm for bloggers in their 30's

The ones I have listed are the ones I have either seen on Twitter or taken part in and you can find more Twitter chats HERE in a helpful post created by Blog Branch.

Just because your blog might solely be about beauty, doesn't mean you cannot take part in other chats, I do it all the time and have come across some fantastic blogs to read by doing this.  So the hashtag is an important part of tweeting and blogging and it is something I discovered quite late when I started blogging.  Whenever you write your blog post and want to tweet about it, simply writing:

I blogged about my new lipstick - www.beautyqueenuk.co.uk/MAClipstick 

The chances are only a handful of people would see that if their Twitter feed wasn't very busy and if it was something they had been interested in.  If I instead write:

New post - I have a new @MACcosmetics lipstick - http://buff.ly/1p13Q5n  #bbloggers @FemaleBloggerRT #fblchat #makeup

By adding the hashtags I am already reaching out to three different groups of people - beauty bloggers, fashion beauty and lifestyle bloggers as well as people who might be interested in Make-up.  I also tweeted MAC Cosmetics which again allows them to see and look at what I have bought and again people who are looking for MAC Cosmetics could potentially see my tweet. 

I sometimes also tweet companies and PR companies who look after brands if I have written a post about one of their products.  It is yet another way to engage with people and help build relationships.

A hashtag is this symbol # which is used to identify those messages, topics, subjects taking place within that chat, so if a chat is taking place about flipflops for example you would see #flipflops appearing within your feed quite regularly and if you click on the hashtag you will see all the messages, points and comments people have to say about them.  If it is a chat about beauty then you could see hastags such as #bbloggers and #beautychat at the end of tweets.

The one hashtag most of you might have seen but never used is the #FF tag. Follow Friday is what it stands for and it obviously happens every friday. I use it to mention my favourite bloggers that I think people should follow.  I also use it to mention the brands that have featured on my blog for the previous week and I usually always have a special #FF for my hubby over at www.beautykinguk.co.uk because he is obviously very important to me and I want him and his blog to do well. 

Retweets - A retweet is when someone you follow takes another person’s tweet and retweets it. There is a button you can press if you want to pass along a funny joke, helpful tidbit, a good piece of information, an upcoming sale etc and ive shown the retweet button below:

Scheduling Tweets - This is something I am quite new too.  I schedule my blog posts a few times a week because I have a busy working life outside of blogging and I am not always available to ensure posts go live.  A few months ago, I discovered the joy of scheduling tweets and it is fantastic.  There are many different apps that you can use to do this:

• Hootsuite
• Buffer
• Twuffer
• Futuretweets
• Twittimer

Those are just some of the ones I have come across.  The ones I use most of all are Hootsuite which is on my iPad and Buffer which is on my iPhone.  

Buffer is the one I find really easy to you.  You simply compose your tweet, schedule it for the time you want it to go live and then select buffer where it will show in your queue of tweets and at which time it will go live.  It only allows you to schedule 10 tweets at any one time, but that is more than enough for any one day.

Shout-outs/Tweet Promotion/Retweets - There are a few accounts on Twitter which you can use to help promote your tweets, by that I mean a simple mention of another site and they automatically retweet your tweet.  Some of the ones I use are:

@FemaleBloggerRT who have over 10.5k followers on twitter and by simply putting their twitter handle within your tweet guarentees a retweet to those 10.5k followers

@UKBloggers1 which has been going for a short time, has almost 1000 followers and runs alongside a really nice bloggers forum to get involved with (more on that in a future post). 

There are of course more than those two, but they are the ones I use the most.

Competitions - The final thing I use my twitter account for is entering competitions.  Some are held by other bloggers, some my companies, PR companies and brands.  Again, as well as a chance to win some amazing prizes (just look at @davelackie from whom I have recently won a prize) you are also promoting your blog to those individuals because they will see that you have entered their competition and many of my blogging relationships with brands and PR companies started out that way.  

I entered a competition with one brand, they then went and looked at my blog and emailed me to ask if I would like to try some of their products and from there a relationship was born.  I only enter competitions if I like the prize on offer, but each person is different.

Finally a list of things your Twitter should do.

1. Ensure your profile picture matches your blog in someway - mine is my blog logo
2. Include a link to your blog in your bio, it is clickable therefore easy for someone to get to your blog
3. Use your header image to advertise your blog - mine is my blog header
4. Think about how often you want to tweet and what you want to tweet about.  Your Twitter feed will be constantly changing, so ensure you use your tweets wisely for retweeting, asking questions, making a point and so on
5. Always respond to people who tweet you
6. Look at what is trending regularly, if it fits with something you are blogging about, it is worth using that hastag in your tweets
7. Take part in Twitter chats
8. Post pictures - one good thing about Twitter is you can tweet pictures and everyone loves a good photo
9. Use hashtags
10. Schedule tweets especially if you are really busy, this is something which is new to me and something I find important.

Hopefully you will have learnt something from this post. There are many more ways to use Twitter than I have included within this post, I have concentrated more on how I use it. If you think I have missed something obvious and important, please do leave a comment to let me know and I will add them into my post and credit you with it. The main point I wanted to get across in this post that is regularly using and constant engagement with others, using hashtag will all become a good way to bring traffic to your blog.

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July Glossybox - Stars and Stripes and a bit of drama!

I had been really looking forward to this months Stars and Stripes themed Glossybox, I already knew I would get one Lipstick from Bellapierre Cosmetics Ltd because there had been a big announcement, but when my box arrived, it looked as though every person who had handled it had trodden on the outside of the box and inside, I was gutted, the box has been torn down one side and I had items missing.  So, I emailed Glossybox to explain my woes and they rapidly sent me some replacements.

For the purpose of photos, sellotape has been used!

So, inside my box I should have had:

• Bellapierre Lipstick
• ABSOLUTE New York Perfecting Eyeshadow Primer
• Carmex Lipbalm
• Colour Club Glossy Seal Nail Polish
• Pur Minerals Dirty Girl Detoxifying Mud Masque

What I had was this:

Pur Minerals Dirty Girl Detoxifying Mudd Masque - Dirty Girl is said to unclog pores, Cleanse the skin and gently exfoliate. Pascalite Clay absorbs pore-clogging impurities while Salicylic Acid removes dead skin for a visibly fresher, more radiant complexion.  This has an RRP of £18 for a 120g tube and can be found in M&S.

Colour Club Glossy Seal - This Nail Polish is made in New York and is made only without non-toxic and cruelty free ingredients.  My shade was Baldwin Blue and it has an RRP of $8 for 15ml tube.

ABSOLUTE New York perfecting Eyeshadow Primer - This is an oil-free, ultra-creamy formula which evens skin tone around the eye area and keeps eyeshadow crease-free and colour-true for a lasting look.  This has an RRP $4.99

So those three items are the ones in my box and when my package from Glossybox arrived these products became my additions:

So I was re-sent the nail polish in the same shade and the eyeshadow primer but the additions were:

Wei Royal Ming firming and hydrating cream - It is said to nourish the skin with elements that improve luminosity and texture. You apply it the face and neck after cleansing and is designed for normal-dry skin. The tube is fairly small with just 4ml.

BeautyUk Posh Pout Lip Crayon - This shade is 'How Nude' which has a pinky colur to it and it has an RRP of £2.99.  I am a huge fan of lip crayons so am looking forward to trying it out.

Elizabeth Arden Sachets - I have to admit, I am not an Elizabeth Arden fan, I hate the 8 hour cream, I put it on par with Vaseline, so I was excited by these sachets, they look like something you get free in a magazine, which contain - Visible Difference Gentle Hydrating skincare for dry skin and then a cleanser, serum and a smaller version of the hydrating cream.

Bellapierre Lipstick - I did get one but in bright red, the one colour I would never ever wear, so hopefully I will find it a good home.  The shade is Ruby and it is stunning, but just not for me and it has an RRP £20.  Described as being a cult American favourite, it is formulated with waxes, mineral pigments and antioxidents including vitamin C and E.  

So there you have it, my box at the end of all the drama!  Whilst I might not be too over-joyed with the contents, have homes to find some of the products, I am really glad that Glossybox did reply to my email and did send out replacement products super quick.

Did you get this months Glossybox?  What did your box have inside?  Do any of these products interest or excite you?

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