Jo Malone Peony & Blush Suede cologne

Introducing Peony & Blush Suede

The Essence of Charm

Peonies in voluptuous bloom,

exquisitely fragile.

Flirtatious with the juicy bite of

red apple and the opulence

of jasmine, rose and gillyflower.

Mingling with the sensuality of

soft, blush suede.

Luxurious and seductive.

Released in 2013, Jo Malone offered free 1.5ml (0.05 fl oz) samples when you designed a floral postcard and emailed it to a friend. Currently, this is available as a fragrance in 30ml and 100ml bottles, a 200ml body and hand wash, a 175ml body crème, and a candle (I have never seen a fragrance being offered as a candle before, but it's definitely an intriguing concept for fragrances).

The packaging of this sample is one of the nicest ones I've ever received. However, before I begin talking about the fragrance, I just want to mention about the customer service. With ordering samples, it usually takes several weeks before it arrives (if at all) - it mustn't have been more than two weeks when I received an email for Jo Malone, where they were apologising for me not receiving my sample yet as they had had an issue with mailing them out, but promised it would be sent out within the week. I must say that this is the most impressed I've been with a company that I've ordered a sample with, especially since I didn't spend any money with them. If I did order from this company in the future, I would have complete confidence that any problems would be dealt with both promptly and efficiently.

When I applied this, my initial thought was that it was definitely a floral scent, but in a mature way compared to some other fragrances which can be overwhelming with their sickly sweetness. The top note here is red apple, which adds a slight zesty element along with full-bodied fruitiness. Next, peony, rose and jasmine incorporate the floral elements into this fragrance that make it incredibly feminine and absolutely irresistible. Finally, suede makes up the base note here, helping to keep the whole scent velvety soft.

During the day, the scent doesn't fade at all, and the fragrance continues to be as pleasing as the initial application was.

Overall I give this 5 kisses out of 5 - a grown-up floral fragrance, which manages to perfectly capture femininity in its purest form.

Avon Perfect Kiss lipstick

So you might remember my previous post about the body spray that I got free from Avon. Well guess what - this was another freebie that came with that same order! I think I may have to start ordering from Avon a lot more in future...




This is Avon Perfect Kiss lipstick in the shade Lovey Dovey Pink, sample sized obviously. When I first saw the product, I was slightly worried that I wouldn't want to use it much because I'm not too much of a pink fan, but a freebie is a freebie, and I told myself that I would give it a go.





As I swatched it on my hand, I expected it to be quite a dark pink, but instead it was very light and subtle - I would describe it as a rose pink shade with silver sparkle hidden throughout. Definitely a lovey dovey shade.

When applying it to my lips, not a lot of the lipstick shade was noticeable (though the sparkle came through beautifully), and I would say that this lipstick is better to use for enhancing naturally pink lips to give a more natural look. For this reason, I would recommend using it in a flirty look, as the sparkle is sure to make your lips the centre of attention.

Throughout the day, the lipstick stayed on incredibly well, with almost none of it transferring whenever I ate or drank something - definitely a rare thing to find in a lip product that isn't from a premium brand.

Overall I give this product 4.5 kisses out of 5 - incredible wear throughout the day, but would have been nice if there was a little more colour to the lipstick.