Jewel candle review & giveaway

When the lovely people at Jewel Candle got in touch and asked me to review one of their candles, I couldn't help but squeal - I'd been eyeing their candles up for a while but hadn't taken the plunge yet to actually buy one.

Each of their candles has a piece of jewellery in, worth between £10 and £250.  You get to pick from either a ring, or earrings.

After virtually leafing through their online catalogue, I finally settled on their passion fruit ring candle from their classic edition - these seem to be quite large candles compared to others in their collection.  I'm a sucker for sweet, fruity, zesty scents like this, and a sucker for a pretty ring.  My only concern would be if the ring fitted, but fear not, it did :)

On the back of the candle there is a picture of a ring, and on the other side of the glass, in the candle, some foil which the jewellery is wrapped up in.  I'm not kidding, it must have taken 10+ hours of burning to get down low enough to get the jewellery out, and that was burning maybe a quarter of the candle, so there's some serious burning time to be had with this one.

The scent is lovely - it didn't 'fill the room with scent' but when you were near it you could really smell it, and I loved the bright happy colour of the wax.  The ring is made of sterling silver and has the appropriate hall marks and is arguable very pretty!  It's quite light, so I would hazard a guess that it's at the lower end of the value scale, but the only way to really find out is to take it to a jeweller to appraise it for a value.  That's probably my only niggle with this - it'd be nice if the value was printed on the tag attached to the ring, but that's a minor niggle.

Overall I'm really impressed with the candle and the novelty of having jewellery inside.  The burn time on the candle is great - even if you buy one of their smaller ones you'll get a decent amount of hours out of it.  If you're looking for something more seasonal, they have some festive themed candles from their classic edition too, like cinnamon bun, santa claus and merry christmas.

The lovely people at Jewel Candle have also offered one for one of my readers to win, so it's giveaway time!  All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning, is follow Jewel Candle and me on Twitter - there's other ways to earn extra entries too.  The giveaway will run for 1 week from Sunday to Sunday, and the winner will be picked at random after the giveaway closes.  The winner will have 48 hours to reply to my email once they have been notified of winning, once that happens the winner will pick which candle they want and their details will be passed to Jewel Candle to dispatch.  If the winner does not reply within 48 hours, a new winner will be picked.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow me on Google Plus | Bloglovin | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Kiehl's midnight recovery concentrate

I wanted to give this a good road test before reviewing it for you - something I like to do with skincare as they can seem great over the first few days, but over weeks of use you might change your opinion.

I'm someone with very oily (combination) skin and as much as people have always told me that the best thing I can do for my skin, is to use something like this, an oil, I've never believed them, it just sounded crazy - adding oil to oily skin to make it less oily? Crazy!!

So it's fair to say I started trying the Kiehl's midnight recovery concentrate with a lot of reservation - the first time I used it, I expected to wake up in the morning with very oily skin, more so than normal, but did that happen?  Nope - I woke up in the morning with velvety soft skin, less greasy than it'd normally be!  All I could think was what is this sorcery?

Figuring it was a fluke, I continued to use it when I was heading to bed after cleansing my skin (something it says you must do, cleanse first).  Typically when I do this my skin feels quite dry, and I can feel this inject some much needed moisture in (and makes my skin smell divine!), with just 3-4 drops of oil - I normally use 3 drops, but if my skin is feeling very dry I use 4 drops.

As for the product inside, it's 99.8% natural (you can't get much better than that!) and paraben free. It boasts ingredients such as evening primrose, omega-6 fatty acids, lavender and more.  It'll set you back £36* for a bottle, which is a lot, but considering you only need 3 drops a night, it really will last a long time, making it worthy of the price tag.

Have I noticed a difference?  Most definitely, before I started using this, when I'd get up in the morning my face would be super oily, really not a good look - but since I've started using this at night before I go to sleep, I wake up to normal skin that has a velvety soft finish and texture, and feels hydrated.  I was so dubious before, seeing as I have such oily skin, but it really has worked.  It's certainly earned it's spot on my bedside table.

Follow me on Google Plus | Bloglovin | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

*This post contains PR samples

October 2014 Favourites

It's fair to say, during October I haven't worn much in the way of makeup thanks to having a newborn baby to look after, and being in labour for the first part of the month.  I have however established some firm favourites of recent, and here's a better look at what they are.

Glo & Ray blusher in Halo pink*

This is a perfect dupe for the NARS Orgasm blusher (which I own, but have lost, sadface).  It's from a new high end makeup brand called Glo & Ray - I know I've said it's a dupe and high end, but the price point is significantly cheaper than NARS (£11*), but equals it in quality.  There'll be a full review coming soon :)

MUF HD Foundation

I can't help but love this foundation.  I have a couple of firm favourites, like the Chanel velvet foundation and Bourjois radiance renewal, but this is up there with them.  It has great coverage, a great finish and lasts really well and barely needs a touch up.

NARS blusher in Dolce Vita*

Such a beautiful autumn blusher, it's a gorgeous deep berry shade, again, this will be reviewed very soon on the blog :)  

Dior BB eye cream

I've had this a while and have recently re-discovered it.  It corrects the darkness under my eyes and helps to conceal my epic bags, all while being very lightweight and with minimal creasing.  I don't know if they still make it, it's not cheap, I think it was just over £20 but in my opinion, it's worth it :)

Bourjois liner pinceau

Such an amazing liquid eyeliner, I love that it's jet black, that it doesn't transfer or melt and that it stays put until I'm ready to remove it at the end of the night, and what's more, it's a hell of a lot more affordable than my old favourite (Chanel ecriture - £25) and realistically, equally as good.

Benefit Browzings in light*

I'm a recent convert to the way of Browzings!  I think I've been wearing brow powder that's too dark for me for a while now and this is much lighter and looks much more natural, but still while giving fullness and definition.

Makeup Revolution Flawless palette

For me this is more of an autumn palette, but realistically it'd look fab at any time of year.  It's become my go-to palette since I bought it.  The pigmentation is great, they blend well and last well, to be fair though, this is the quality I've come to expect from Makeup Revolution, so I'm not surprised that I love it :)

Not a whole lot of favs, but I've been saving the best one for last.  If you haven't seen, in October (6th) I gave birth to my first baby, a little boy :)  So it's fair to say, he's definitely my October favourite :)

Follow me on Google Plus | Bloglovin | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

*Post contains PR samples