Yankee Candles

So today I have a day off work, and am relaxing at home :-)

A surefire way to help me relax are scented candles. But alas, as I'm sure you may have experienced, most scented candles smell nice if you sniff them but don't actually fragrance a room. Annoying, especially when you spend a lot on them! Jo Malone candles are always yummy and a different class but cost waaaaay too much for my candle budget. For years now I have been buying Yankee Candles which is an American brand, though you can find some stockists in the UK.  I think their range of scents are lovely and they regularly bring out new flavours (so to speak). Some of my favs include Black Cherry, Midnight Jasmine, Juicy Peach, and Egyptian Cotton.  These candles last a long time (they generally come in small, medium and large jars) and do really scent the whole room. Some new flavours this year include Country Lemonade, Garden Hideaway, Pink Lady Slipper, and Vanilla Lime which are all fresh and summery scents.

Check out their UK Shop at http://www.yankee.co.uk/

Bourjois Effect 3D Volume and Shine Gloss

Hello Lovelies.

Seeing as it is still very cold and dreary in London I thought I'd treat myself to one of the new Bourjois Lipglosses to brighten my Sunday afternoon :)

Bourjois have been making these glosses for a while now, but have recently brought out a whole new collection of gorgeous colours. I bought "Rose Romantic" which is a dusky pink with gold glitter sparkles. It is a lovely (if a little sticky) lipgloss with the signature sweet Bourjois scent. The colour is very nice and warm and the gold accents add a nice touch. This gloss is supposed to last 8 hours but, of course, it doesn't. I don't know of any gloss (yet) that lasts more than an hour without reapplication!

Overall this is a nice product and I must say the new collection of colours are gorgeous. Currently priced at £4.99 in Superdrug (ususally retail at £7.99). Try it and let me know what you think! :)

http://www.bourjois.co.uk/catalog/make_up/lips/gloss/nouveau_gloss_effet_3d

Curly Girls

Hello Poppits! Are you having a nice weekend?

Today I popped out shopping in search of some shampoo and conditioner. My hair is naturally curly and also quite dry and fine. I find that the most popular hair products weigh my hair down and almost leave it greasy (I find the Elvive range is the worst for this). I am quite fussy when it comes to haircare, especially since reading a book that changed my life; "Curly Girl" by Lorraine Massey (if you have curly hair I highly recommend!)

I like to buy products which aren't too harsh on my hair, so have to look carefully at the ingredients in both the shampoo and conditioner. Today I thought I'd try L'oreal Professionnel "Nature" Shampoo. Apparently 99% of the ingredients are from natural sources with no added parabens or silicones. At £9 it wasn't cheap but I am pretty impressed so far. My hair feels very fresh and properly cleansed (and not weighed down) and also soft.

I have been using it along side the Body Shop's (new-ish) range of haircare, namely the Rainforest Moisture Conditioner (again no silicones, colourants, parabens), and the hair butter. Again, I like these products as they are not too heavy on my fine hair but do the job of a good conditioner, and leave it soft and curly. What are your favourite hair products? Any recommendations? :-)

Swarovski Sparkles

Swarovski have some gorgeously sparkling goodies at the moment that might just brighten your cold, wintery days! I particularly like their rings which are quite chunky to say the least, but b.e.a.u.t.i.f.u.l! Some of my favorites are below:

Top (black) Athena Ring £72 , Middle, Nirvana "Emerald" Ring £130, Bottom "Night Time" Ring £125

They are not particularly cheap especially seeing as they are not silver or gold. Also, you have to be careful with these rings as the crystal (particularly on the chunkier rings) can smash quite easily! Apart from that I think they are lovely and with nails painted a nice shiny nude colour, will look pretty fierce with any outfit :-)

Alexander McCall Smith

Years ago I worked for London Libraries (across the London Borough of Waltham Forest). During this time I noticed that there seemed to be a craze for slim paperback books with brightly coloured covers by an author I had never heard of- Alexander McCall Smith. During this time I was a student and could barely be bothered to read my textbooks, let alone added reading for "pleasure" so I left these books well alone although I was intrigued. Fast forward about 9 years to me underground at Bank Station where I saw a poster for Corduroy Mansions by the same author. Again I was intrigued and decided to give it a go. Turns out it was a bloody good book- not particularly mind blowing plots but a nice, well written and cute book.

So then I decided to give the Number One Ladies Detective Agency a go. This series follows a traditional Batswana woman named Precious who starts up her own Detective Agency. I'm only 3 books in out of 12 but I do love them. They give a good insight into African life (the nicer side than what is generally reported in western media) and also into human behaviours and relationships. I think McCall Smith is a very good and different author and would definitely recommend. His new book from the Detective series "The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party" came out today:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saturday-Big-Tent-Wedding-Party/dp/1408702584/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299170550&sr=8-1

Easy Tasty Magic!

The Easy Tasty Magic food range by Laura Santtini aims to make cooking a bit more ‘magical’. The crown jewel in the collection is the Taste #5 Umami Paste. This paste claims to make any savoury dish taste better, with its combination of all the things that you might usually add to a dish to bring out that extra ‘oomph’. It contains tomatoes, parmesan, porcini mushrooms, anchovies (you can’t taste them, I promise), black olives (you can taste these) and balsamic vinegar. I bought the £2.99 paste in Selfridges, and took it home to try in a homemade stir fry sauce. I tried the paste on its own and it has an interesting flavour, some of the ingredients you can taste but some you can’t. I tasted my sauce before adding a small squeeze of the paste. After whisking my sauce I tried it again – and was pleasantly surprised. This paste really does set your taste buds alight and whilst you can’t taste the paste itself, it just made the sauce seem so much more flavoursome. Add to that the long shelf life of the paste (which isn’t reduced once it’s been opened, you just then need to keep it refrigerated) and you really understand why this should be in everyone’s kitchen to add to all of those home cooked (or not so home cooked) meals.

The entire range features a number of other products that claim to crank up your cooking by a few notches, such as edible glitter sprays and various meat and fish rubs. The Alchemical Larder contains 16 of these rubs, so you can get really creative in the kitchen. This is next on my list of purchases, priced at £25.00. Easy Tasty Magic is available at Selfridges http://www.selfridges.com/en/Food-Wine/?freeText=easy+tasty+magic&template=3

This is a guest post by KC, find her blog at www.whyamisofabulous.co.uk

R. Kelly "Love Letter"

Afternoon dearies! Here I am sat at my desk minus a cheese sandwich or avocado wrap :( It is sooooo cold here in London I can barely contemplate leaving the office!

Anywho- Music. I am a MASSIVE R.Kelly fan and have been since I first heard his "12 Play" album a long time ago. Since then I have followed his career and bought every album he has released. I would say my all time favorites are "R" and "TP2.com" though they are all very, very good. R. Kelly's latest offering is "Love Letter" which is exactly what I anticipated it to be. A great, uplifting album of love songs reminiscent of Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder (another two favs of mine). My favorite tracks include Love Letter, Number One Hit, Lost inYour Love, and Just Can't Get Enough. This album is feel good, classic soul music and I would definitely recommend. Love it!