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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Penhaligons Peoneve and Jo Malone Blackberry & Bay Review

Two scents I've been really enjoying wearing lately are the lush floral Peoneve by Penhaligons, and the slightly astringent, green and very intriguing Blackberry & Bay by Jo Malone.

If you've ever buried your face into a bunch of peonies,  you'll know their blousy blossoms have a big juicy, lush and very pink scent.  Almost fruity, in fact, but delightfully fun and refreshing.  I adore this ladylike, but not too old-fashioned fragrance.  I've smelt it on a number of people, and it smells of various ingredients on them, on one of my friends this dries down to a salty vetiver scent, grassy with a hint of the ocean, and on others, there are the creamy musks at the end, but, on me, this stays a bright, fruity, and almost juicy floral scent almost right through the entire wear time.   Perfect for bright summer and spring days.

But, I've noticed that the nights are beginning to draw in now, and Jo Malone's Blackberry and Bay is perfectly timed for the beginning of autumn.  It captures the scent of blackberry leaves in an almost photo-real fashion, and has just a tiny hint of fruit, for which I am thankful.  As it dries down it captures just a hint of the soapy-notes that blackberry leaves can contain, but dries down to an intriguing almost savoury herbal green scent that I adore.  This is a fragrance that every single time I spray it, Mr Lippie asks me what it is, he likes it so much.  I wear so many different fragrances that he never usually bothers asking, but this one has captured his imagination in a very big way.

Both are definitely worth a sniff, but I suspect I'll be buying up all the supplementary products in the Blackberry and Bay range -  I definitely think the candle is one I'll love.  Peoneve is available now, and Blackberry & Bay is available from mid-September.

Penhaligons are great at bringing out little videos about their fragrances and the Monty Python-esque Peoneve one made me laugh, so here it is:

The Fine Print: PR Samples.
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

My Pick of the Christmas Candles

I love candles, it's no surprise to anyone reading this blog, really, I mention them a lot.  For a variety of reasons, we're not having a lot of Christmas decorations this year, but one thing I couldn't countenance was not making the new flat at least smell of Christmas.  Here are my pick of the best festive fragranced candles to make your house smell wonderful over the holidays:

Jo Malone Roasted Chestnut

  
Woodsy, slightly smokey, and with just a tiny hint of sweetness, this evokes evenings by a real fire.  The scent is wonderful, but I do find that Jo Malone candles produce quite a lot of soot compared to others, also, this is a large, single wicked candle, which means that if you don't take care of your candles properly, it could be prone to runnelling.  Worth it for the scent and excellent burning time though, I've had this on the go for the best part of two months now, and still have over a third left.

Annick Goutal Noel 

Fizzy with the scent of citrus and pine, this is a wonderful evocation  of a crisp wintry walk in the countryside.  Meant to evoke a Christmas tree decorated with dried fruits in the European fashion, this is a beautifully uplifting fresh scent, and manages - wonderfully - to avoid smelling of pine toilet cleaner.  It reminds me a little of sherbet lemons when you first sniff the jar, I love it.


Elemis Starlight Spa 

The most "traditional" Christmas candle on this list, this is bursting  with oranges, cloves, cinnamon and vanilla, it smells of pomanders, mulled wine and ... well ... Christmas.  If it were any more edible, you could call it mince pie flavour and no one would argue with you.  I adore the silver jar too, which flickers in the candlelight as the wax inside burns down, to a very lovely effect.

Diptyque Epinette and Perdigone

Epinette, in its green glass holder is a "spruce" scent.  Less crisp with citrus than the similar-sounding "Noel" above, this has hints of bosky tree bark underneath the intoxicating pine-needle fragrance, making it a little darker, more reminscent of a pine forest at dusk than a crisp wintery day.  Still wonderful though.


Perdigone is a spiced plum affair, hinted at in its red glass holder.  Less redolent of clove and cinnamon than the "Starlight Spa" candle, it smells how I imagine old-fashioned sugar plums would.  It's slightly sweet and fruity (but not offensively so) and more "perfume-y" than the other four, but it makes a very good compliment to the others, rounding out their various quite sharp scents, and forming a good counterpoint to the smokiness of the Jo Malone too. Yes, I do burn them all at the same time, it's quite addictive!


My only regret about the Diptyque candles is that I went for the mini sizes, and I'm scared I'll burn them all up before Christmas itself ...


What's the scent of Christmas for you guys?

The Fine Print:  A mixture of PR samples, and purchases.  There will be repurchases of most of them for next year though, you betcha.


This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Scents of Winter

I don't know about you, but I spent the summer drenched in sunshine! Not literally, but I did wear a lot of  Clarins Sunshine fragrance.  When I first smelled it, I had an instant sense-memory of my first ever foreign holiday, it was so redolent of Ambre Solaire, the beach, and bubblegum, that I was instantly ten years old again, right there on the shop floor. For me, its instant summer in a bottle, no matter what the weather!

Sadly, I can't keep deluding myself that it's not winter any more, and the changing season seems to call for deeper and darker scents.  My usual winter perfume of choice is Aromatics Elixir by Clinique, I love the depth and unusualness of it, and the fact that it doesn't simply smell of fruit and/or ozone like so many modern perfumes.

This year however, instead of going back to an old faithful, I wanted to try something different.  I've been wearing a lot of Kesu by Tsi-La recently, it's a lovely spicy blend of woods and incense, and  it smells like a sexy church according to those I know who've smelled it on me.  But much as I love Kesu, I think I'm going to be alternating it with Jo Malone's latest: Vanilla & Anise.  I smelled it last night, and despite being somewhat leery of vanilla scents, I fell for it.  It's not at all sweet, unlike so many vanilla-based perfumes, and it's very spicy.  It has a powdery top-note from the vanilla and has notes of cinnamon and cloves underneath it, I love it  (I may have tweeted something about a dentist covered in custard at the time, but let's keep that under our hats, shall we?)  It's just that little bit different to my more incense-y favourites, and I think it's going to become a new staple.

Do you change your perfumes with the seasons?