A Sale Fave for the Cozy Candle Collection

Winter keeps most of us in the house so the house should be a comfortable place. I love using more candles during this period and to create a specific mood with a composition of fragance.

I had been quite curious about Timothy Dunn when I bought my Rituals candle (here). I was eager to buy it when it got on sale: I picked Mille Fleurs (a thousand flowers) as it's reminiscent of Bangkok's Flower Market and the plethora of  heady flowers being sold...

The composition is really flowery in a niche perfume manner: heady tuberose, a dainty 'white' note of lotus and some flowers I couldn't really sort out with my unpracticed nose. I think it evokes a spring-like mood. Winter has been soft and rather sunny so I expect the 'blue' of next monday to be a bit lighter. Adding the Thai flower-market scentual atmosphere it's simply a gorgeous first step towards spring...

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I bought the Mille Fleurs candle on beautybay

Fave Summer Oils: Face, Hair & Body

I think oils are often limited to winter...

Such a waste because the best oils can be superb for the warmer summer period:

So I am going to discuss a couple of my fave summer oils!

FACE: Aesop Fabulous Face oil

half-way on the Aesop Fabulous!

Perhaps this one is a tad too heavy for the summer period. Some might like a lighter oil, something I will discuss soon.

For me the reason I picked up on a slightly heavier oil is the unsteady skin I had for a while: I gotten more eczematic, dry spots because of the change of weather and a weaker diet. Balming up with a heavy oil on the dry spots makes my skin look smoother in the morning.

I have been discussing the psychological effect of scent in various posts (eg here) and this one really agrees with me. Night-time oils should feel like a harmonizing and comforting blend, and perhaps not everyone's is into lavender so it's often still personal. Aesop Fabulous Face oil has Ylang Ylang as it main (scentual) proponent and I love the sensual and drowsy effect of this essential oil, which makes it easier to relax and drop off to sleep.

HAIR: Leonor Greyl Palm Oil

This oil has a weird consistency in that certain temperature between solid (hard) & liquid (melting) that I just have to show here below ----->:

When it is solid it is perfect for travelling on hand-luggage only (lots of European discount airlines) because it will not count as a part of the poor 100ml anti-vanity strategics the airports maintain these days.

I kind of like this oil for it's moisturizing properties too, and it's divine scent that I can detect as something Tiara-esque. However, for a better review I will guide you to Pink Sith, which connected her fantastical mind to a fairytale of hairness to it (here).

One warning: it does take a clarifying shampoo to take off the pre-oiled tresses and not ending up in a post-shampood-but-still-oily-mess! Which is slightly the downside to this oil: Sometimes I like a plain macademia/argan oil often just as much, but those perennial liquids count as a part of the 100 ml impecunious-ness the vain & often beautiful have to compromise on when travelling by handluggage only. So for that sake, and the perfect scented concoction, I take this beauty along.

BODY: Caudalie Huile Divine (divine oil)

I placed this multitasker under body because I still needed to fill this category.

Besides, body includes face & hair anyway, and this one does as well.

Defined as a grape oil,  It's also a dry oil and therefore penetrates quickly after applying.

It has a floral fragance with I'll define as tropical paradise (ofcouse, scentual preference is always subjective). However, it's quite heady so I personally would not plunge it on my face that fast due to my sensitive complexion.

Besides smelling & feeling divine (though not completely natural nor organic), it's quite friendly to the environment too:

I only have this sample (perfect for the hand-luggage vanities) but I will get a larger bottle soon.

That sums up my fave 3 summer oils for 2013 at this time being...

Always curious for more vanity adventures, I might add more until the end of summer is near and will blend into autumn...

Coconut Hut Beauty haul: bit of Hawaiian-ness bodycare

Before I became a beautyblogger I was an avid visitor or makeupalley.com. The different boards lured me into various excellent brands and ways of pampering.

One of my favourites for a while was the bath and body board, and from that board I came to enjoy one of my favourite brands: Coconut Hut Beauty.

Made in Hawaii by Lena they radiated the idea of tropical paradise. I first ordered from them in 2006 or 2007 and, even though there were lots of new etailers, I returned to them for their lovely formulas.

I hadn't ordered from them for a couple of years, but I really felt like ordering something tropical in some kind of escapism against the winter. I really like the bloggers fave of the moment, Haus of Gloi, too, but their scents really have been too wintery for me and I just wanted some plain Hawaiian zest that I used to love.

So do I still like the products?

Yeh, absolutely. Let me introduce their Hawaiian Icing Whipped Sugar Scrub first:

I talked about scrub last week. Actually, about Rituals Hot Hammam scrub (here).

This is something entirely different. Uh, not so different that it isn't scrub but the effect is different.

On Coconuthutbeauty's site:

A Coconut Hut Best Seller and Lena's Favorite Scrub! A luscious blend of Organic Cane Sugar, Golden Brown Cane Sugar, Granulated Cane Sugar, skin nourishing Cocoa Butter, and precious oils of Coconut and Jojoba. This scrub is truly unique in texture[...]When applied this amazing sugar scrub turns into a creamy lotion, rinsing clean without any greasy residue.

Indeed, it looks like a Whipped Icing blend:

So it is a smaller grain scrub made from SUGAR which turns milky when applied to moist skin. It really is wonderful for parts of the body that need a bit of exfoliation, but not the large (and somewhat scary) grains of seasalt that is present in the Rituals Hammam scrub.

So yeh, it is just for what aim you decided to put it for. I like the salty grains of Rituals Hammam on the 'wobbly bits' and the rest can be pampered with the TLC scrub or Hawaiian icing.

The scent is delightful: I love how the lemon is zesty enough to remind me of a warmer climate but the ginger is still wonderful for feeling warm and that bit of spice. Such a delicious combination.

You can find more info on the scrub over here

Coconut Oil in Blood Orange (travel size)

 Something new I missed on the last couple of years: their 100% Coconut Oil in liquid form.

I picked their travel-size in 1 oz, which was still rather big and economic in use. 

Coconut everything has been really hyped lately, in beverages, cooking oils, ect. On the skin it is a real treat as well. I often use oils for nourishing my hair, but I really liked the thin-ness of this oil and the fact it rinsed out really good (unlike the pesky olive oil). 

My hair looked sleeker and less frizz-prone afterwards.

It was also a real treat on the skin and thin enough to keep you from being a greaseball but nourishing enough against winter cold and central heating.

Love and a repurchase too (more info and the product itself over here)

I also got a little freebie in the form of a Cocoa Cabana Whipped Body Souffle. Yummm, I love mango and Mango Madness really whisked me away into a tropical vacation (for a couple of seconds). Their formula of body cream is still really good.