Review: Village Candles

I love candles and for a long long time I have always swayed towards Yankee Candles, they always seem to carry the best scents, the jars are lovely, and they fill your whole house with gorgeous fragrance.

While shopping in York a couple of months ago I found a shop on Davygate owned by a very lovely and helpful lady, I can't for the life of me remember the name but it is near Accessorise. The shop sold a range of Yankee candles, but none of  the fragrances really jumped out to me and to be really honest I had tried a fair few of them.

After having a little chat about what type of fragrance I liked she pointed out Village Candles, and directed me to try a scent called 'Cinnamon Bun'. It was PERFECT! Everything I liked in a candle and fragrance, and for a large jar was £14.95, whereas a large Yankee Candle jar can be priced anything upward from £19.99.

The similarity between the two companies is uncanny, they're both American and the jars are virtually identical.

However the major difference is that the Village candle is dual wicked, meaning when lit it burns much more evenly, and also seems to kick off a lot more scent. 

'Cinnamon Bun' smells identical to the real thing, although the colour of the wax itself may put some off it actually goes quite well with the colour scheme of my bedroom. Also the colour of the wax relates to the fragrance of the candle, so if you didn't like the colour you could choose a different fragrance.

Overall I think Village Candle's are really fantastic, and can't wait until I'm shopping in York again to pick up a different scent. There are also various sellers on Ebay, but I would always recommend smelling a candle before purchasing, as everybody is different and what I like somebody else might hate - like with perfumes!

If you are in York city centre and love candles I would definitely check out the shop I mentioned, they are also getting their Christmas fragrances in towards the end of August which would be great as gifts!

I'm still on the fence as to which brand I prefer best. I'll keep you posted! :)

Thanks for reading!

Hannah -ox

Estee Lauder's DayWear Advanced Multi-protection Anti-oxidant Creme

I am a huge fan of Estee Lauder, if I had to pick one brand to use for the rest of my makeup days, I think Estee Lauder would definitely be it (that's quite a bold statement for me haha). 

I recently got a sample of this day cream and instantly fell in love. 

My skin is combination and fairly oily through the t-zone so I tend to be really fussy when it comes to moisturisers as I have had some disasters in the past including breakouts and makeup meltdown.

I use the normal/oily version, although there is also one that is aimed at dry skin as well.

I love the packaging in particular as it is a nice weighty jar and looks quite pretty sat on my dresser. 

It's a fairly rich cream, with the typical 'DayWear' range scent of cucumbers which I find really nice and refreshing first thing in the morning, however I can imagine some with quite sensitive skin may find this an irritant. Some of the 'DayWear' line in the past has also irritated my eyes but so far I have had no problems.

I also love the fact it has an spf of 15 as I always struggle to find spf's that do not irritate my skin!

The only time I do not reach for this is if I am planning to go foundation free as I have found that by the middle of the day you can start looking quite oily. 

When buying moisturiser I always try to find something that will hydrate my skin without breakouts, and major oiliness. I feel that this works perfectly along side my double wear foundation, which can sometimes be quite drying when wearing it for a full day. 

I feel the main downside to Estee Lauders DayWear cream is the price as many would probably not want to fork out £40 for a face cream.

However they are always very helpful at counters with giving samples and this product regularly features when a counter is on 'gift' (free products given when you buy two or more items). 

Personally I will definitely continue to purchase this as I'm a huge fan, and I would recommend to any body looking for a new high-end face cream.

Thank you for reading.

Hannah -ox

Review: Kerastase- Ciment Thermique

This little green tube has soon become one of my new best friends. 

I purchased this a couple of months back when my hair had just got into such terrible condition I had no choice but to have around four inches cut off. After the traumatic experience I was determined not to have it happen again, so I began searching the internet and reading hair care blogs. 

Everybody raved about this product because helped to protect and rebuild the proteins in your hair... and here's the best bit, you could still use heat! 

By applying a walnut sized amount to damp hair, then blow drying and heat styling as normal it helps to lock in the proteins, preventing the breakages and damage that are linked to heat styling. 

The product itself is a white cream, I just rub it through my hair then comb and style. 

It doesn't weigh my hair down in any way (which is common as I have thin bleached hair) and it is non-greasy. 

The smell isn't fantastic but it is virtually unnoticeable once your hair is dry. 

It is available HERE from feel unique for £15.95 and I would highly recommend to anybody who is trying to grow their hair but does not want to cut out heat styling or colouring. 

Overall this is an awesome product and I'm very interested to try further products from Kerastase!

Thanks for reading, Hannah -ox

Review: Sheet Masks

So once again I'm taking a hit at blogging...

I thought I'd start off easy with a review on a product that was actually bought to my attention by one of my favourite beauty bloggers Karen or as others may know her Liverpool Lashes.

I was intrigued by a post she had done on sheet masks, at the time of reading it I was wearing a tea tree and witch hazel peel off mask and I always hate the task of having to remove face masks (it's just messy and gross).

I immediately searched for the masks on Ebay, found them -I also found some other dodgy items that I won't go into, I purchased the sheet masks (none of the dodgy items!) and they soon arrived. 

Here they are the Sexylooks Sheet Masks, I ordered six for around £7.00.

The information on them is all foreign, so I guessed and applied one to newly cleansed skin for around 10-15 minutes.

Although I don't get a wow affect and there are no really noticeable differences in my skin I do notice that my skin looks brighter and definitely softer. 

I would definitely recommend to anyone who likes a good pamper now again as they are so easy and fuss free, there's not additional scrubbing or washing and they are not overly pricey. You can also send people scary snapchats and remind them of the 'Mrs Doubtfire' putting her face in the cake moment! 

Attractive ey?

Anyway Thank you for reading,

and if you do purchase these I hope you enjoy a lovely pamper!

Hannah -ox