Jo Loves: Candle Shot

There's no doubt whatsoever, that Jo Malone is the queen of packaging, every brand she has been involved with has understood the power of making boxes and bags so pretty (for every purchase, at every price point) that they're ideal for gifting, making the concept of "gift wrapping" totally redundant in the process.  The latest launch in her newest brand, "Jo Loves" takes the concept up a notch, allowing you to create a "bespoke"  shot candle in a very simple process (which was actually three years in the making), and have lots of fun doing it, too.

Tucked away in the back of the brand's flagship store in Elizabeth Street in West London, is the Jo Loves Shot Candle studio, and here you pick a "base" scented candle, and a complementing "shot" to go with it.  The two are then fused together in one large candle jar, and presto, your own bespoke scent!

In the glass is the base scent, and you pick a "shot" to go with it

The bases are available in four varieties: Mint Mojito a fresh and bright minty scent, Charcoaled Lemons, which is both authentically citrus and slightly smoky, Tahitian Gardenia, which is flowery, waxy and almost bubblegummy in the glass, and finally Fig Tree, which reminded me of nothing so much as Diptyque's Philosykos in candle form, it being green and figgy and woody and rather delicious.

You then pick a shot to complement your base scent.  You can either choose from the four bases as already mentioned. or from three other "shot only" scents, Mango, an almost photorealistic slice of mango, lemongrass (something my nose didn't like at all, sadly) or petitgrain, which is reminscent of orange blossom, but with an added hint of wood and leafy greenness.

Once you've selected your base and your shot (you're given the scents to smell on painted canvas tiles), your candle is created. Using a blow torch to melt the base candle, the plug-shaped "shot" is pushed into the jar, and pressed down to create your "bespoke" candle, then the whole caboodle is packaged up ready to either burn for yourself, or to pass along to someone else as a present.

Whilst there's nothing particularly new about separate cores in candle making (it's a particular bugbear of mine when you buy a "handpoured" candle, only to find when burning it that all they have done is "handpour" a tiny amount of fragranced wax around a separate - unfragranced - core and wick.  It's why many people don't think scented candles actually smell of anything when they're burning. I shan't name names though) the presentation here is beautiful, and as both the shot and the base are scented, it's actually a rather nice present for anyone, including yourself.

If you can't make it to the Elizabeth Street store, you can make your own shot candle online at http://www.joloves.com/shot-candle/ where they will cost £75 each.

As for me, I chose Tahitian Gardenia and Petitgrain.  But I'm rather coveting Charcoaled Lemons and Fig Trees for my next one ...

 The Fine Print: PR Sample


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Helena Rubinstein Wanted Stellars Lipstick - 304 Cosmic Purple

 And now for something you definitely can't buy in the UK (there will be more next week, don't worry), Helena Rubinstein Wanted Stellars Lipstick in Cosmic Purple.  It's not really purple, it's really a sort of bright berry shade, and I fell in love with it at the airport and refused to leave without it.

It's another sheer shade, but not unpigmented, and one packed with beautiful gold and blue micro-shimmers:

I miss Helena Rubinstein cosmetics a great deal, part of it is sentimental attachment, Helena is a beauty idol of mine (she was short, fat, sarcastic, and didn't have any time for the more frou-frou elements of the beauty industry, she's been a huge influence on my blog. She was also a genius, sadly, I can't even slightly claim to follow in her footsteps there), and Helena Rubinstein the company was responsible for many of the beauty innovations we take for granted today, mascara in a tube with the brush built in, anyone?  They withdrew from the UK a good few years ago now, and it's only when I go abroad that I can stock up.  So I have ...

Anyhoo, back to the lipstick:

It's another glossy one, as you can see here in the post-swatch pic.  It's a bolder colour all-round than the Dior lipstick we featured on Monday, and it's rather lovely, if less subtle:

Here you can really see the micro-sparkles catching the light, but here's another swatch from a slightly different angle:

On the lips its a deep rose, or berry shade, made multi-dimensional from the sparkles.  It doesn't feel gritty on the the lips at all (as you might expect looking at the amount of glitter in the bullet), and it doesn't look "glittery" in wear either, you just get a bit of a blue flash, or a gold gleam, depending on which angle you're looking at it from.

It's beeeyootiful, and I'm kicking myself right now for only having picked the one of these up, believe you me.  Anyway, next time you're near a duty-free, check out Helena Rubinstein, you could do a lot worse ...

The Fine Print: Duty Free.  I love a bit of duty free.  Sorry.  Not sorry.

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Guerlain Meteorites Compact - Medium

I'm a bit of a Meteorites completist, I admit.  So, when I was brutally mugged by this compact at the Guerlain counter at Vienna airport recently, I didn't mind too much.  I love Meteorites, and have almost every edition they've done in the last ten years.  It's very sad, as I rarely use them, because they're not very portable.  I do love the glow you get from the little pearly balls though, there's nothing quite like them.

The Meteorites compact is very prettily embossed, and, because it's plastic (boo!), it's actually quite light, which improves its portability.  I chose the shade medium as it contains a little more yellow, which is good for covering up my redness:

It still has the same incredibly finely milled texture, and slight pearlescent glow that you get with the beads, but they have been pressed flat in the compact, which contains apricot, lavender, white, pink and beige which are meant to correct redness, sallowness, and dullness on the skin.

Once swirled together, however, these shades blend together to form a translucent powder which is excellent for setting a slightly too-dewy foundation, without leaving your skin "flat" or chalky-looking.

So yeah ... couldn't resist. It's actually in stores now and will cost you £40.  It'll last you practically forever though.

The Fine Print: MOAR Duty Free!


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Dior Addict Tie Dye Lipstick 003 Hypnotic Plum

 If you're going to accidentally check-in far too early for a flight home, then you can do much, much worse then spending three hours at Vienna airport, to be honest.  It is huge, mostly deserted, and the shopping is fabulous.  There is also a branch of the amazing bakery Demel, so you can spend your last few hours in Austria in sophisticated comfort with a hot chocolate and a cake or three ...

Did I mention the shopping?  I did go a bit mad in duty free, so prepare yourselves for a couple of posts where I talk about things you can only buy abroad for a day or two, but first I couldn't resist picking up this Dior Addict lipstick in Hypnotic Plum.  I love that it has the Christian Dior logo running right through it (somewhat contrary to what you might expect from a collection labelled "Tie Dye", but I digress), and the colour is very natural, and great for a "My Lips But Better" look.

A sheer plum, with a sheer peach section running through the centre - this isn't just an embossed logo on the top - this is light and exceptionally glossy, and a perfect lipstick for people who hate opaque shades (strange people though they are), but who still want to look slightly polished.

You can see from the bullet just how glossy this is after one swipe, Hypnotic Plum is a perfect rosy mauve on skin, ideal for just evening out paler lips, and adding just a whisper of colour to darker ones.  Lasting time is rather slight, this being both sheer and glossy, but it doesn't dry lips out.

For my liking, the other shades in the Tie Dye collection from Dior are rather wishy-washy pastels which I would have trouble wearing, but Hypnotic Plum is rather lovely.  The collection is in store now, and the lipstick will cost £25.50, which is rather on the pricey side for something this sheer, but it is a nice, caring formula on the lips. 


The Fine Print: Duty-free, bitches!



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Cire Trudon Josephine Candle

 
Me, I can't resist a candle at any time of the year.  I know that some people think candles are just for winter, but in this dark and damp late "spring" that we're having at the moment, it seems like an ideal time for having candles around to brighten up the dark afternoons, and cool evenings.  Josephine, the latest fragrance from Cire Trudon (long one of my favourite candle brands), is perfect for summer. 

Prettily clad in pale frosted blue, instead of the brand's signature dark olive glass, Josephine is a soft and gentle floral composition, a slight departure from Cire Trudon's slightly heavier and usually rather masculine scents.

Inspired by the gardens of the Empress Josephine (she of the "Not tonight ..." infamy), it's a really very pretty, very flowery and very lovely candle indeed. The smell has hints of citrus from bergamot and kaffir lime, then I mainly smell powdery rose and iris. Ladylike is definitely the word that springs to mind.

As always, Cire Trudon candles burn cleanly and evenly, dispersing their scent both throughout their burn time and just when sitting wherever you put them. 

The blue glass version is limited edition for the summer, but the scent will be in the permanent collection (in the green jars) later this year.  All in all, a lovely way to bring a beautiful garden indoors in this sun-deprived "summer" we seem to be having this year ...

The Fine Print: PR Sample


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I aten't dead!

 

No, really, I'm not!  I just have impingement in my shoulders caused by severe bursitis (basically, I can't move one arm much at all) and typing is a bit of a problem at the moment ... oh, and I've been away!  The above picture should give you a clue where I've been ;) A bigger post coming up about Eurovision later this week, hopefully.  

Doctor assures me normal typing can resume next week, so fingers (gently) crossed! 

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Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum - Get Lippie Hall of Fame

Apparently, just writing "I LOVE THIS STUFF" doesn't make for a proper review, but I've always been a bit woolly on what constitutes a real, "proper" review, so that will have to do.  I've tried other hair serums, of course, but only the Paul Mitchell Super Skinny seems to weigh my hair down enough to keep it from frizzing up at even the tiniest opportunity, without weighing it down so much that my hair goes lank and flat.

It wasn't the first serum I ever used, of course, that would have been John Frieda, but this is the only serum I buy over and over and over again, and it works whether I'm wearing my hair curly or straight - I've found that some serums are good for one or the other, but rarely both, and as I never know what mood my hair is going to be in till I've woken up, it's good to have versatility in my styling products! 

What's the one styling product you'd never be without? 

 The Fine Print: PR Sample

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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