My lovely boyfriend bought this for me for Valentine’s day, and I’ve been saving it to use ever since. Hopes were high for this as a lot of people really seem to rave about Diptyque being the best candles out there – they certainly have a price tag which demands good results at £38 for a 190g candle…

To be honest though, I do actually feel a little bit mixed about this candle. On the plus side it has a good burn time of around 60 hours (about 60p per hour burning…). I also thing that scent wise this is a really great candle – it smells of real rose, not a hint of synthetic scent at all, which for me, is really the only way rose products should be. It also looks the part – the Diptyque packaging in simple but chic.

However, there are definitely a few negatives with it too. The packaging claims that as long as the wick is trimmed short prior to each burn, the candle will burn evenly and cleanly. Sadly in my case neither of these claims proved true. Before burning my candle I have been religious about trimming down the wick, however after a week or so of use, I was sad to see a nasty patch of soot developing on the rim of the glass.

I’ve also been disappointed to find that the candle has really not burned down evenly. I know this is a little odd, but this is totally a pet hate of mine. I always end up waiting for it to cool down and then prodding the uneven bits down in a bid to make it look “right” again – am I the only one who does this? I always find though that this doesn’t really help, just makes an expensive candle look cheap.

Apparently the reasons for the uneven burn and the soot are one and the same – the wax in the candle is paraffin based, rather than the more eco friendly and evenly burning soy wax.

Frankly I do feel a little bit disappointed with this candle – especially when brands like NEOM are producing such high quality soy based candles for  around the same price. I think I had super-high expectations (which are probably justified given how much they cost), which the candle failed to live up to. If you are looking for a well scented candle and things like soot don’t really bother you, then these might be right up your street, because, as I say, fragrance wise these don’t disappoint. For me though this candle failed to live up to my expectations.

Disclaimer – This was a gift.

For me, Neom are one of those lovely luxury brands, which rarely let me down. Their reputation is largely due to their fantastic candles which are amazing – they burn long, they burn cleanly, and they burn down really evenly, without exuding soot all over the place. Everything I want in a luxe candle, and their scents are delicious too. I’m hoping a certain bloke in a red suit with white trim brings me one for Christmas this year actually! They are as I mentioned a luxe brand, but that makes them a great gift to bear in mind for this time of year – perfect for a best friend, sister or mum.

As I mentioned I’m a massive fan of Neom’s candles, and I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that they also do reed diffusers. I was very lucky to be sent one to try – I’ve had it out in my bedroom for over a month now,and there is still plenty of the oil left, so I’d anticipate one of these lasting 2-3 months, which makes the £35 price tag a little easier to bear…

The reed diffusers are available in six different fragrances – Happines, Sensuous, Inspiration, Complete Bliss, Real Luxury and Refresh – there is also a special LE Christmas Wish scent (£37), as well as refills for the diffusers which are £18 each.

I was sent the Happiness fragrance, which is White Neroli, Mimosa and Lemon – it’s a lovely fresh scent and really uplifting, definitely the sort of thing I would choose as I like cirtussy and floral scents – this is a lot more floral than I expected, but that’s no bad thing.

The scent diffuses well, and my boyfriend even commented on how nice it smelled. The life of the diffuser can be extended by using fewer of the reeds, and the scent can also be made stronger by turning the reeds regularly. This would look really pretty on a fire hearth or mantelpiece, but unfortunately as I have two very investigative cats, I have to keep it out of reach of curious paws in my bedroom.

Another thing I love about NEOM is their organic, nasty free and cruelty free credentials…

I’m definitely planning to pick up a refill for this, but I would also like to try a few different scents as well – I especially like the sound of the Refresh and Sensuous scents… I’m also kinda tempted by the Christmas Wish scent, as although I often find festively themed scents a bit cloying, I trust Neom enough to do Christmas tastefully…

You can buy Neom direct from their site HERE, as well as Look Fantastic and John Lewis.

Disclaimer – PR Sample.

Hello everyone,

How are we all? Well I hope?

I just wanted to do a quick update for you all explaining where I have been for the last three weeks and why there have been  zero blog posts – Oh, and if you have emailed me about anything, why I appear to have been very very rude and not replied…

Basically three weeks ago, after yet another “amazing” shift at work, I was driving home on the M57, and all of a sudden, a large plume of smoke came out of the exhaust of my car (formerly known as “The Duchess”, now just referred to as “the pain in the ass”). Immediately after this, the car basically slowed right down (thankfully I was in the inside lane), and lost power. Cue me waiting on the embankment near the hard shoulder while various dickheads  witty young people drove past honked their horns at me (Yeah, look at me! I still have a working car!). That was fun.

Car was towed to my local garage, and a week later the mechanics told me that there was something wrong with the power steering pump.

Except that wasn’t the problem. There was actually something wrong with the radiator.

Anyway, during the time which passed whilst the mechanics stood around scratching their heads, and not really knowing what to do, I had to stay at my parents.

And I didn’t have a lot of internet access. Hence the lack of posts and email replies.

So basically this post is just to apologise – I hate not replying, or posting about things when I want to post. This came at such a frustrating time, because as you all know I was just getting back into blogging, and starting to love it…

But anyway. My car problem has now been sorted – My parents were planning to buy a new car, and have now managed to do so, and I’m getting their old one. This means I can finally stop paying for blinking car repairs on the rustheap-formerly-known-as-the-duchess every few weeks (seriously – since xmas I’ve coughed up for a new engine, and new spark leads, as well as various other fiddling little bits of rubbish) *deep breath*

So, I shall be back at home (I’m currently in London celebrating my boyfriend’s birthday) on Saturday, and I am hoping to get lots of lovely posts done, including a review of the new Urban Decay “design your own” palette, and few lovely book reviews…

Au Revoir til then my little Cherries!

xxxx

These are a few of my favourite things… (at the moment anyway!)

Reading and my Kindle. I bought this as a little pick me up and treat for myself just before Christmas – I’d wanted one for ages, but told myself that I didn’t need it/it was a waste of money/there’s nothing quite as great as a “real” book, but really I knew I was just kidding myself. I impulse purchased a new style Kindle and I loves it!

Its great for travel (better still if you can get yourself one of those lights to attach to the device as it isn’t backlit…), and in general the books tend to be a little bit cheaper than the paper versions. The only thing I wouldn’t really recommend using a Kindle for really is reference books, recipe books and the like, because you need to be able to flick through those types of books, which is difficult on a Kindle.

And is it just as good as a “real” book? Well, yes, and no… Yes, because it’s not as heavy, and you can basically carry the equivalent of three bookshelves or more about with you without any backstrain… but, there is definitely something to be said about picking up a lovely copy of your favourite book and you can’t beat the whole charity shop second hand book vibe either. Personally I’m loving mine, and I’d highly recommend if you like to read a lot, want to reclaim some bookshelves or travel a lot. (Disclaimer – I did buy two books in a charity shop today and I’m thoroughly looking forward to reading them).

Oh, and impulse buyers might want to think twice before buying one too – they make fast purchases far too easy if you have poor self restraint!

NARS blushers (and eye shadows, and lipsticks…), specifically cactus flower, which is the most delicious raspberry pink-red cream blush with a subtle shimmer. I’ve been ill recently with a typical winter bug, which drained the life out of my complexion, and with a runny nose and watering eyes. I had a word with the wisdom of twitter and was told in no uncertain terms that bright blusher was the way forward. Oh twitter, you are wise!

Forgive the terrible blurred picture - this is the only one of the millions I took that in any way shows the colour properly...

To the makeup drawers I hastened and rediscovered this beauty, which had lain unloved for far far far too long. I now cannot get enough of this lovely colour, which can be applied subtly or built up for drama.

Basically, even if all I can be bothered is to slap on a bit of foundation, mascara and lipbalm, this blush brings me to life, and stops me looking like an extra from The Walking Dead… The swatch above shows the real dimension and sheen in this blusher – I love it!

And speaking of TV programmes, yay for the return of Being Human on BBC3 (Boo for the departure of so many core characters though) and also for season 4 of True Blood…

Oh, and a special mention this month goes to a gem of a magazine called “Oh Comely” – Strange name, fab mag. I discovered this through Alex’s Blog – If you aren’t already following her then I highly recommend it!

Anyway, this magazine is published six times per year I believe, and is available in WHSmiths. It costs £4 but I’d personally much rather buy one of these than something like Elle, which just seem to be made up half of ads, and half of “how to make your man happy” articles (Clue – If it’s so difficult to “make him happy” then , maybe you just aren’t right for each other… also, er, hi, relationships are a two way thing!)

Love the fact that the cover girl is refreshingly “normal” and non-photoshopped looking, and also love the different content…

What can’t you get enough of right now?

I’ve been AWOL for quite a while now, as you may or may not have noticed (a week is a long time in blogging and I’ve been away for months…).

So where have I been? Well, to be honest I just needed a break. Blogging didn’t feel like much fun for a while back there – I started to feel like I was blogging for other people and not for myself, and it was getting to the point where even thinking about blogging gave me an enormous sense of dread.

So, I took a break, and I started to miss having a little ramble after a while, so here I am, giving it another go.

I’ll never be the greatest blogger in the world in terms of numbers of posts or amazing photo’s, but I never blogged to get lots of followers or thousands of hits anyway. I started the blog because I enjoyed it, and that’s why I want to carry on.

So here’s to a fresh start?

Oh, and the cats say hello too…

… As you can see, they have been as active as always….

When Blackberry had a little “meltdown” a couple of weeks back, jokes were cracked aplenty regarding the superiority of the iPhone V’s the Blackberry.

“iPhone users – replicate the Blackberry experience by activating Airplane Mode in your settings”… Oh how we laughed.

Well, actually, not all of us did. I’m an iPhone user, and I regard the wonders of this particular smartphone in much the same way as I do my car – great when it’s working, but a complete bitch when it’s not.

I am unashamedly addicted to social media. Rarely a half hour will pass when I don’t check my twitter account, and/or post some sort of banal observation about my life (hey, I never claimed  to be a philosopher…). Or I’ll check my emails, or while away a quiet five minutes on angry birds…

Just like my car though, I’m increasingly certain that at some point, soon, somethings going to give up and die on the phone. So I was one of the very few non-laughing iPhone users. Not only was I acutely aware of the inevitable data and app losses when IOS5 for apple was launched, but I just had “a bad feeling”.

Unfortunately, my pessimism was proved correct today when I suddenly noticed that my phone felt very hot. Then, within the space of 20 minutes it dropped 20% of its battery… Now iPhones are notorious for having a crappy battery life, but 20% in 20 minutes is totally Not A Good Thing.

I phoned up the shop where I bought my phone and was advised to go to the Apple Store for advice. Fear gripped me, but I steeled myself, and went in. Those Apple stores are scary. It kinda feels like  cult. Full of smiling  Apple advocates and fans fawning over the latest offering from the mighty Apple Corp… Scary.

Anyway, the long and the short of it was that my trip wasn’t totally fruitful (see what I did there? I did a fruit pun)… I got told to make an adjustment to my settings and “give it a few days”. More disturbingly, I was told that if the problem didn’t resolve then I should “book an appointment online” for their “genius bar”…

Genius Bar?! Exccuse me, but basically, isn’t an apple store a place that sells technology gizmo’s? Now, believe me, I have all the respect in the world for the knowledge that has gone into the development of Apple and their thingums, and this post is in no way meant to be disrespectful to the late Steve Jobs.

That said, that whole Genius Bar thing? There aren’t words… I mean sometimes  I want to slap myself across the face and scream at myself “ITS ONLY A PHONE!!! FOR GOD’S SAKE, GET A GRIP!” but then, I remember that without my phone, I might have to go a whole TEN HOURS without sharing something significant* (* for significant, read insignificant) about my life. I mean where would people be without knowing that I cricked my neck today? Or that there’s a bloke in work who like to imagine that he looks like Matthew McConaughey. Where I ask you?

It scares me how much we rely on these little gizmo’s and gadgets. The smartphone, the satnav. God forbid I should actually have  to use a map. Or read a newspaper rather than find out live on twitter about the breaking news.

The worst part of it all? I’d love a new model. With more battery power. One day, I might become a crack head. CrackBerry, obviously. Not that I’m an addict or anything. I can give the handset up anytime I want to..

Well I’m back on nights – Thankfully I finish on Friday morning and I’m hoping to feel human again fairly soon after that!

Just wanted to make a quick post to say I hope everyone is OK – The things happening in the UK right now terrify me to the core – its scary how fast society can seem to just go tits up. On the otherhand though, I’m amazed at how people are fighting back against the moronic yobs wreaking havoc in many cities by organising clean up operations.

These people and the police dealing with the fall out from the riots are heroes.

This must be that famous “Community Spirit” we used to hear about hey…

Picture sourced HERE.

Anyway, I’m rambling. A totally cocked up sleep pattern does this. But I just wanted to say, I hope you are all safe, and I hope you all stay safe.

Hugs from me and belly rubs from Ren and Coco xxx

Hi Peeps, just a very quick post to let you all know I’m still here!

Unfortunately I am struck down with the curse of night shifts at the moment so resemble either a caffeined up robot (which is how I am at approx 3am…), or a zombie (think the hours between 5am and 8am…), and the rest of the time I’m just tired…

Picture Sourced HERE

I’ll be on nights for the next three weeks (boooo), but on my days off (I work a three nights on, three nights off pattern – yay for tonight being the last one in this set!) I’m brimming with ideas for blog posts, so expect as many as I can physically do. As well as the usual beauty reviews, I have a couple of giveaways and another book review coming soon (I am LOVING getting back into reading!) so I hope you’ll all “bear with” as they say on Miranda!

Hope you all have a fab weekend!

xxx