Vanilla perfumes... Love or Loathe? The ULTIMATE Vanilla fragrance!

Anyone who knows me will know that I love anything that smells of Vanilla. My perfume taste for the moment anyway, doesn’t get much more sophisticated or deeper than that.

Having said this, the search for the perfect, warm vanilla fragrance has been both physically and emotionally impossible! Having tried a long list of hopeful contenders, including...

• Shalimar by Guerlain – to powdery, not really vanilla like to me. Disappointed
• Vanilla by Molinard – far too sweet! More cotton candy, than dry vanilla. Disappointed
• The body shop vanilla – Nice, but smells more of musk in my opinion. Disappointed
• Bath and Body works vanilla sugar – Also nice, but smells slightly synthetic and yucky.

So far I only had one favourite vanilla scent which was Tom ford Tobacco Vannille. “A modern take on an old world men’s club. A smooth Oriental, Tobacco Vannille opens immediately with opulent essences of Tobacco Leaf and aromatic spice notes. The heart unfolds with creamy Tonka Bean, Tobacco Flower, Vanilla and Cocoa, and finishes with A Dry Fruit Accord, enriched with Sweet Wood Sap.”... 

Such a complex and sensual scent, I absolutely loved it. The £120 price tag for 50ml...Not so much. As much as i loved the fragrance, there was no way I could afford this mega price tag. So I just enjoyed my 1ml samples now and again that I grabbed myself off eBay ;) and the quest for the perfect vanilla fragrance continued...

I was looking for pure Vanilla, no other neighbouring ingredients fighting for my attention. However i didn’t want a tacky, synthetic, sugary Barbie-ish vanilla that you can get in kids play sets for £5, either. I wanted that strong, rich smell of pure vanilla essence! Sometimes i felt as though i might as well just do this! Haha!

Until i stumbled across this brand.... COMPTOIR SUD PACIFIQUE

A beautiful, simplistic brand that have a huge range of unique scents, most of which include vanilla... Apricot Vanilla, Vanilla Amber, and Vanilla coco. However the fragrance that grabbed my attention was of course, Vanille Extreme. After reading a huge mass of rave reviews I sought out to grab myself a bottle of this heavenly stuff, after searching the web I found that the cheapest place was here

I thought the bottle was simple and elegant, not the most glamorous of bottle's but frankly, i didnt care as long as it smelt good! And With the first whiff of this stuff, I was in love. <3 Pure, sweet, warm, cake like vanilla! It smelled like the finest  vanilla extract. Just amazing. Such a comforting, yummy smell. I have gotten so many compliments on it, and couldn’t be happier with the way it smells, it deserved its very own blog post!

This fragrance, for me truly captures the smells of a beautiful French or Italian bakery filled with the yummiest cakes! Its combined ingredients make it the perfect concoction for any vanilla lover, mixing all the element to create the perfect scent.

- Vanilla sugar – for that sweet, “just baked” element!

- Vanilla absolute – for that strong, perfect vanilla smell!

- Tahitian Vanilla bean – for the dry richness and spicy-ness!

SO GOOD! I would recommend it to anyone who wants a pure vanilla scent, with no fighting notes, just plain good ol’ vanilla! Also, this is cheaper than most perfumes, with 97ml retailing at £37 you would probably pay that for only 30ml with a more "fancy" brand, and this smells way better than them anyway! Happy days!

Thanks for reading this and..Happy Smelling! Haha

Evelyn x~

Xen Tan Review

Fake Tanning, Granted, it’s not for everyone, but personally I love it! It does wonders for my confidence, knowing that I look healthier, with that sought after “summer glow” to my skin. Many people use Fake tan in different ways, some use it to go to that deep dark, mahogany colour. Personally though, I feel if you’re not that dark to begin with, that can at times look way OTT, and a little fake. I love using fake tan to achieve a healthy, medium bronze glow and I find the perfect product to use for this, is Xen-Tan Dark Lotion.

  Xen-Tan have many fabulous products in their range, and specialize in three different levels of tanning – Light – Medium – and Dark, depending on your own skin tone. This picture below gives a good indication of the tan intensity at different levels.

Although I mentioned above I love a medium, natural tan. I do always opt for the DARK lotion, as opposed to the medium. The reason being is that my own skin tone is slightly darker than normal with olive undertones and I find the dark lotion gives me a great colour. However I think the Dark Lotion would work well on any pale, medium, to dark skin tones, as you can choose how much you apply and how long you let the tan develop on your skin, before washing it off. However if you are considerably pale, I would advise checking out their great range of medium or light/gradual self tanners.

Now on to the Dark lotion!

It retails at £28.99 for 236ml of product and is widely available both online and in department stores.

The company claim it’s “A favourite of A-List celebrities and beauty editors alike, our best-selling Dark Lotion gives you a rich, natural olive tan that looks great for up to 10 days. Easy to apply, it goes on evenly, smells delicious and instantly creates a gorgeous streak-free finish you'll love.”

I completely agree that it does deliver an olive looking tan, with green and brown undertones, this tan will not turn you orange if applied correctly. When I first applied this I was scared as the colour was so green, giving more of a swamp creature look! However this did help when applying the tan as I could clearly see where the colour had gone. Also it applied very smooth and evenly, without having to rub my skin. Luckily as it devolved the colour turned from a deep greenish/brown to a gorgeous rich, olive colour and when I washed it off after i had healthy rich golden brown glow that looked so natural with its olive undertones. No orange or yucky streaks in sight! (And I’m bad at applying tans, so if this worked for me, I have strong faith it will work for you too!)

However, this tan does not last 10 days, it lasts seven and after that it does start to fade, but I didn’t notice it going patchy at all which was impressive. Thus I think the price of £28.99 is very reasonable, although its slightly more pricey than L’Oreal, Garner, or rimmel tanners, it does a much better job and lasts longer as you can get around seven whole body applications, thus giving you seven weeks of tan! J Also, it’s cheaper than St Tropez (£30.64) and fake bake, and gives such a better, natural looking colour, in my opinion. Also you can use this lotion on your face, saving you money as you don't have to buy separate "face tanners".

I also agree that it has a delicious smell; it smells exactly like a cherry bake well tart – one of my favourite things! J So yummy! No other fake tan on the market smells as good as this. However once i washed it off I couldn’t really smell it anymore, but it didn’t have a yucky biscuit smell either. Hooray!

All in all, I think this tan is the best one on the market if you are looking for an easy to use, natural, authentic looking tan with a beautiful rich, olive colour at a reasonable price that doesn’t go orange or streak. Even celebrities agree with me that this tan is great! :) And just in case my opinion isn't enough, you can read the rave reviews on their website!

Hope this helped and happy tanning! :) 

Evelyn ~ x