Smells Like Christmas 1 - NEOM Christmas Wish

It's December, and to get into the Christmas mood this year, I'm mainly scenting the flat with the flavours of Christmas.  We don't have much of a budget for decorations, and, being the creativity-free zones that we are, scent works much better for us.  So, for this week and next, I'll be bringing you a series of mini-reviews of the products (including candles, body products, and other fragranced products) that most bring to mind the smells of a traditional Christmas.

 

 And where better place to start than with the ur-scent of Christmas, the NEOM Christmas Wish Candle? A 3-wick behemoth, this burns for up to fifty hours.  It is scented with mandarin, cinnamon and tonka, and it sits where ever you put it, gently scenting the air with spices even before you burn it.

I adore the NEOM formula, which has to be one of the cleanest burning wax blends on the market, and the scent blends are amazing.  This is the most pricey candle I'll be showing you, at £42, but I buy one of these every year, and have never regretted it.  Each of the candles sold makes a donation to the Make-A-Wish foundation, so it's doing good, too.  Plus, it will last you right though the festive season and well into the new year, it's a great investment.

What's your favourite scent of Christmas?
   
The Fine Print: Purchase.

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Wedding Prep with Braun Gillette Venus Naked Skin IPL

Following on from my last Wedding Preparation post where I talked about the Slendertone Face, this week I'm going to talk to you about armpits.  Specifically, my armpits.  I spoil you guys, I know.  You see, my wedding dress has no sleeves, and I've now spent approximately two thirds of the entire wedding budget (not even nearly joking) on shrugs, boleros and other items in an attempt to hide my bingo wings, and then I remembered that I need to do something about my armpits.

 You see, in winter (for I am the laziest of people) my armpits get neglected.  It's a benign kind of neglect, admittedly, I keep them clean, and feed them all the deodorant they can eat, but they get tucked up in sweaters and left to ... well ... fuzz up for about four months.  No chance of that this February, for, whilst I have no objection to hairy pits in general (and I don't, mostly), my fuzzy pits decidedly will not go with the official #LippieWedding colours.

Yes, we have an official colour.  Shoot me.  You wait till you find out we have a theme for the music. Oh. Bum.

Anyway.

Pits.

    
So, when Braun  and Gillette got in touch about their Gillette Venus Naked Skin IPL kit, there is a small chance I discussed my dress-pit dilemma, and they agreed to let me trial the new system, which you can see above.  I've had an IPL unit before, and gave up with it very quickly, as the cord between the base unit and the handset was far too short, which meant I had to use it bent double, and that got old very quickly.

No such problems with the Venus Naked Skin system, there's a good couple of feet of lead there, which is very handy.  And the window for the laser is pretty big too:

So, what is an IPL system?  Simply put, IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light, and the system works by essentially exposing your hair follicles to an extremely bright light, which interrupts their growth cycle. In effect, this means that hair grows back finer, and eventually, with repeated use, the hair stops growing entirely.  

The system works best when there is a big difference between the colour of your hair, and the colour of your skin, so, the darker your hair, and the paler your skin is, the better the system is likely to work for you.  It doesn't work well on darker skins, but there is a colour guide on the packaging that gives examples, plus the unit comes with a skintone sensor too, which measures the melanin in your skin, and decides on the best level of light for your skintone.  Hopefully this means you will never burn.  On my armpits, I use level three, which is one of the lower power levels.  Oddly, my armpits are darker then the rest of my arms, but I figure better safe than sorry, frankly.

 To use the Gillette Venus Naked Skin system, you shave the area you wish to treat - this feels a little counterintuitive for some reason, but it is basically so the light finds its way directly to the follicle area - then apply a thick layer of the provided conductive gel onto the area (pits, in my case), but don't rub it in, it's there both to amplify the effect of the light, and cool the area down, as intense lights get hot.  You then put the light sensor nearby, and press the button at the top, which tells the handset which level of power to use.

  Once the system tells you it's okay (you get a steady white light on the handset), you apply it onto the first place you wish to treat, and - looking away - press the button.  There will be a slightly red flash, and you'll get a warm sensation in the spot you've just treated.  Give the handset a few seconds to recharge, then repeat the process right next to the last spot you blasted.  Carry on till you've treated the entire area, but don't overlap spots.

And that is basically it!  I treated both my armpits in less than 20 minutes and I was very impressed with how simple and easy it was.  Also, it didn't hurt, which was nice.  Will it keep the fuzzies away?  Well, it's got ten weeks to sort those out!  Hopefully, just having to use it once a fortnight won't be too onerous ... The Gillette Venus Naked Skin IPL system costs £399.99 from Boots at the moment, I'll keep you posted on how I get on.

The Fine Print: PR sample.  Armpit stories all my own.  You're welcome.

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Jo Malone London Christmas Crackers

There's nothing quite like the cream and black livery of a Jo Malone London package to get the heart racing, and a gift of one of these crackers is a lovely treat for any Jo Malone fan.

Containing a miniature Lime Basil & Mandarin cologne, a tiny orange blossom body creme, and a weeny Pomegranate Noir bath & body wash, these are a little treat for anyone who appreciates a small but luxurious treat.  On the pricey side at £28 each, they're nonetheless a cute and aromaful present for a fragrance fiend in your life.

  
I've been layering the Lime Basil & Mandarin over the Orange Blossom Body Creme, and the combination works very nicely.  It makes up for the lack of party hat, at least ...

So, what are you getting for Christmas? 

The Fine Print: PR Sample.  I'm a heathen and cracked it open early ... 
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Body Shop Ginger Sparkle Collection (and a little hint ...)

The sharp-eyed amongst my readers might have noticed a tiny Christmas flavour sneaking into Get Lippie this week,and you'd be right.  I'm only posting about those presents that have genuinely caught my eye though, and yesterday's giant lip balm, and today's giant gingerbread man have both made me laugh so I thought they were worth a mention.

Chock-full of shower-gel, body polish, soap and body butter all in the addictively spicy Ginger Sparkle scent, this comes in at £15 which is an absolute bargain in anyone's book.  They're the usual Body Shop quality, and quite highly scented, so don't buy this for anyone who doesn't like ginger.

Now, no gift guide is complete without the writer dropping a little hint about what they would like, so if anyone was interested in buying ME an early Christmas present this year, I'd like this please:

This little beauty is the Masters of Malt Ginvent Calender which contains 24 3cl bottles of gin.  I like gin.  I like Christmas. And frankly, what could be better than the gift of gin EVERY DAY in the run up to Christmas?  (Actually, I know what the answer to that is, and that would be the gift of champagne every day in the run up to Christmas, but I suspect we'd have to rob a bank for that one to happen).  Anyway, this costs £79.95 AND I WANT ONE. In fact, I WANT TWO.  Make it happen, people.  Pleeeeeeeease?
 
 The Fine Print:  PR sample, and a begging letter.  I like to multi-task.

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Burts Bees Giant Lip Balm Tube

I love a good lip balm or two (or five, or ten, or twenty or so) and I was delighted when this giant tube of beeswax goodness turned up from Burts Bees recently, I may even have clapped my hands a little.  I'm a sad old ... person, sometimes.  But, there's something about the glee you get from an oversized version of a small product that's very happy-making.

This limited edition tube contains eight Burts Bees lip products:

  
All the products are beeswax based, but the different variations included in the tube are:

• Original Beeswax Lip Balm Tube
• Original Beeswax Lip Balm Tin
• Honey Lip Balm
• Nourishing Lip Balm with Mango Butter
• Replenishing Lip Balm with Pomegranate Oil
• Rejuvenating Lip Balm with Açaí Berry
• NEW Refreshing Lip Balm with Grapefruit
• NEW Ultra Conditioning Lip Balm with Kokum Butter
• NEW Ultra Moisturising Lip Treatment 

The tube retails for £24.99, which is a saving of around £8 on buying the products separately, and it's the most cheerful lipbalm this lip-obsessed blogger has ever seen. The lip balms are good too, I've used them on and off for years (I find the peppermint-scented tin is surprisingly good on your cuticles), and I always have at least one tube on the go.

Of course,  me being me, I've now filled the tube with the rest of my lipbalm collection. You know it made sense.  It'd make a great gift idea for the lip balm obsessive in your life too ...

The Fine Print: PR Sample. You will never know the struggle I've had not to simply repeat the Eddie Izzard "I'm all covered in BEEEEEEEEZZZ" routine here.
 
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A Charitable Christmas List

This time last year, I wrote a heartfelt post about homelessness and, and how Give as You Live are helping charities by enabling you to do your Christmas shopping quickly, easily, and allowing you to donate to the charities of your choice at no extra cost to you.

Well, it's time to remind you of Give As You Live once again,  and talk to you about the charity I've chosen to support this year.  In a nutshell, Give As You Live collects money from retailers to donate to a charity of your choice, at no cost to you.  You can either shop through the Give As You Live website, or through their toolbar, which you can download to your desktop, and use through your browser.  You select your chosen charity, and shop away to your heart's content.  The full cost of the charitable donation is borne by the retailer, which include brands such as Amazon, Debenhams, Liberty, and hundreds more besides! 

Both the website and the toolbar act as price comparison tools too, so you can actually save yourself some money, and do some good for charity too!  Give As You Live have already donated more than £3 million pounds to charities in the last year and a bit, which is amazing, but there's room for more.

This year, the charity I'm supporting though Give As You Live is Diabetes UK.  In the interests of disclosure and transparency, I should let you know that I work for the organisation (I look after the accounts for several different sections of the charity).  However, this isn't why I've chosen them this year.  What I didn't realise before I started working for Diabetes UK is that diabetes used to be a death sentence. Even now, when medical research is such that we can control the condition a lot more easily than we used to, diabetes is still an incredibly serious, and incurable, condition.  10% of the entire NHS budget goes towards dealing with diabetes, and it's complications -which include amputations, blindness and kidney problems - and that is an astonishingly high figure.   

I'm choosing Diabetes UK because, in the short time I've been there, I've come to understand the value of what they do to support the lives of people with diabetes, and I hope that, if one day my life is touched by the condition - I'm a prime candidate being short and fat and rather elderly,  though I'm hoping the diet I've been on in the last six months will help lessen my risk - they'll be around to help me too. I already know they'd help anyone who is a current sufferer, and their families.

Anyhoo,Give As You Live and I have put together a little gift list of things that have caught my eye over the last 12 months, and, if you decide to buy any of them through the links on this page then a donation will be made to Diabetes UK.  No pressure though, if you want to donate to anyone else, feel free! 

OPI nail polish ‘I’m Indi-a Mood For Love’ £11

A brilliant and beautiful pink, which will raise £0.11p for charity with Give as you Live

UGG Australia Trainers £95

Heaven for your feet.  The pair I bought last year haven't been off my tootsies since they arrived. Raises £2.37 for charity with Give as you Live

OPI ‘The Top Ten’ £28.50

Ten of the most popular nail varnish shades from one of the most popular nail varnish companies around. Raises £0.28p for charity with Give as you Live

Chantecaille Just Skin Tinted Moisturiser £57

Simply the best tinted moisturiser I've ever tried. It will raise £1.42 for charity with Give as you Live.

  

Zelens Moisture Infusion £85

I'm in love with Zelens this year.  They haven't - yet - knocked my adoration of Kate Somerville off it's perch, but as KS has just been discontinued in the UK, and Zelens are still here, it's only a matter of time. Raises £2.55 for your charity with Give as you Live.

Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation £27.50

The most popular foundation in the UK, and the most popular foundation currently in my flat.  Make someone's day and buy them one now. Raises £0.82 for your charity with Give as you Live.

Le Snob: Perfume £6.75

A witty and well-written introductory guide to fragrance by the writer of Persolaise.com.  I love my copy, and have been begging MrLippie to read it for weeks so he stops describing everything as "orangey" or "flowers". Raises £0.16 for your charity with Give as you Live.

Clinique chubby stick £16

The original, and still the best lipstick/balm hybrid, in the twist-up pencil.  Lovely stuff.   Get one for your lipstick-phobic best friend now. Raises £0.64 for your charity with Give as you Live.

Tom Ford Eye Colour Quad ‘Titanium Smoke’ £62

Everyone needs a bit of Tom Ford in their makeup bag, and this is my favourite palette out of the four I have, it's probably the most versatile, too. Raises £2.48 for your charity with Give as you Live.

  
 This post: A Charitable Christmas List originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper