The Library of Fragrance Perfume

If you hadn't guessed by now, one of the most popular items in this household bwteen Beautykinguk and I is something smelly - either a candle or some perfume/aftershave, infact between us, we probably make The Perfume Shop look half empty! When I heard about the new launch of The Library of Fragrance, I was really excited, if you are a US reader then your version is called Demeter. The Library of Fragrance here in the UK has a massive collection of 101 different fragrances to choose from, and secondly, each of the 101 fragrances have been designed to smell exactly like an object and experience from life so imagine my difficulty when it came to selecting a scent!

I looked at each and everyone within the catalogue to choose from and randomly rattled it down to five - Jasmine, Holy Water, Bulgarian Rose, Peony and Rain. All of which to me sounded like scents I would love. That said Thunderstorm, Fresh coconut, Fireplace, Wet Garden and Play Dough are all quirky enough to have caught my attention.  So if you do struggle to select a scent and want to order a few, then you can actually layer these scents one over the other to create your own individual scent - how amazing is that?  This is the first time I have heard of doing something like that and it is definitely something i am going to try.

I was sent the Jasmine scent which happens to be my favourite scent currently and it is every bit as amazing as I was expecting it to be. firstly the packaging, it is such a great rectangular shape that it stands out immediately, then the label which is quite old-fashioned but clear to read, with everything you need to know being visible right on front of you. described as follows:

"Jasmine – exotic, sweet, warm and heady. Our Jasmine fragrance is the experience of the living flowers picked on a beautifully fragrant spring night – at night because this is when the jasmine flower opens its petals and bestows us with its most intoxicating fragrance.

Captivating and seductive, jasmine is one of the flowers most valued by perfumers, and is largely grown in the French region of Grasse, the home of perfumery. Jasmine’s mood-inducing scent is one of the most distinct of all natural odours. If you like your fragrance to make an impact and to announce your arrival, our Jasmine is the scent for you"

I absolutely love this scent and have worn it a lot since it came into my possession, it isn't over the top when first spritzed but it does last a good 4-5 hours before you need to re-apply and given the size of the bottle, it is a handy size for carrying around in your handbag.

You can purchase The Library of Fragrance's scents from their own website, or you buy from selected Boots stores. Each of The Library of Fragrance perfumes are 30ml in size, and cost just £15 each.

What do you think to this concept? Has any of the scents caught your attention?

Ruby Red Cosmetics Natural Skincare

Ruby Red is a company I came by after an opportunity arose in an email and I have to say, if you want a product to make you go "Wow" then read on.

The brand Ruby Red is a combination of Mike’s surname (Ruby), the owner and Red for their London roots. Ruby Red as a company believe that healthy, radiant skin needs vital nutrients from the outside as well as the inside. Their Skin and Body care ranges are full of plant nourishment combined with distinctive pampering aromas made from oils without SLS, parabens, sulphates, petrochemicals and dyes as well as never tested on Animals.  

I was sent two products in the form of a Reviving Body Cleanser** and a Renewal Shea Skin Cream** which as you can see below arrived really well packaged and inside two very different containers.  

The Body Cleanser, which was a finalist in the Best Shower Gel category at the 2014 Beauty Shortlist Awards is described as follows:

"Botanical glucosides found in sugar and coconut makes an effective cleansing agent which does not irritate the skin; botanical extract of Aloe Vera soften and soothe the skin. A warm, invigorating, citrus aroma of Lime, Red Mandarin, Coriander and Cedarwood boost circulation while toning and refreshing the skin"

The first thing about this cleanser is the scent, it is absolutely phenomenal, one of those scents you need on a morning when you feel really sluggish, annoyed that you have had to leave your bed and a morning when no amount of caffeine is going to wake up - well this product will! To use you simply apply a generous amount onto your hands or onto a cloth and then massage over your damp skin whilst in the shower, as soon as the clear looking gel leaves the bottle the scent wakes you, but when it hits the steam you become more alert than you probably have done in a long time, after wahsing you simply wash it off, again using a damp cloth and it leaves your skin not only squeaky clean but smelling so good and the scent lasts pretty much all day, even as it fades it is still wonderful. it is also worth noting that this Reviving Body Cleanser can also be used as hand cleanser, something I am yet to try.

The second product is the Renewal Shea Skin Cream which is in this 60ml glass jar and when I first removed the jar, I didnt find what I was expecting. I was expecting to find a runny cream not a solid, so I was very much intrigued to use this. It comes with the following description:

"The healing enzymes in Lemon and Honey work together to improve cell renewal while Vitamins A, E, & F in our pure, hand processed organic Shea butter help to restore the skin’s elasticity lost through dryness or sun-exposure. A small of cream amount will moisturise, softening and smoothing the skin".

Even though this skin cream contains lemon and honey, the scent isn't as strong as the body cleanser, but it is subtle enough for me to absolutely love it. To use you simply warm a really small amount in your hands and on the Ruby Red site they make a point of stating that by small they mean no bigger than a raindrop, the reason being that as soon as it comes into contact with your skin it begins to melt, so it literally absorbs without no amount of effort on your part and as you massage it into the skin, the lemony scent comes to life and reminds me of sherbet lemons, a scent I happen to adore. Once massaged onto the skin, within a matter of minutes there is no trace that anything was actually there, instead you have soft, smooth skin. If like me you spend a lot of your working life, days and sometimes evening dealing with paper, I find it dries my hands out, hence my love of hand cream, well I have been using this for the last 2 months and it is a perfect remedy for my dry hands, not to mention I use it on my shins, elbows and feet as well.

These products I cannot rate highly enough, they have caused no adverse reactions to my skin, they smell more wonderful than I can give them credit for and I absolutely love using them.  You can find more information about Ruby Red on their website which is HERE and their products can be bought online through the Ruby Red shop or from places like Amazon, Fortnum and Mason and soon to launch in Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge.