Frangipani by Ormonde Jayne

Frangipani. This perfume is the first one I tried out of the Ormonde Jayne line and to this day, is my favourite perfume in the world. I wore it on my wedding day and perhaps that is why I love it so much as the scent is now closely tied in with the memories my wedding day and the exciting run up to it. It reminds me of the wonderful taffeta Pronovias dress I wore, the warm sunny days in Cambridge, the blue hydrangea bouquet I loved so much, the happiness, feeling so in love... It always puts a smile on my face. But happy memories aside, this is undoubtably a stunning perfume.

The scent begins with a tart, lemony-lime burst which is fresh and invigorating. It then settles into a floral composition, which I assume is the smell of frangipani. Unfortunately, I never have had the chance to experience the natural scent of the frangipani flower. The perfume has a creamy, jasmine-like scent but without any of the strong pollen-y edge which I always experience with jasmine. The scent also has a note which reminds me a little of Umeshu (梅酒), a Japanese plum liqueur. I would say the perfume is predominantly floral but with a splash of fresh fruitiness that's almost dewey. I find that on my skin, the scent remains fruity-floral for a long time and later on has the added dimension of a warming vanilla-wood base.

It's a beautiful perfume.

The notes that Ormonde Jayne have published are as follows:
Top Notes: linden blossom, magnolia flower and lime peel
Heart Notes: white frangipani, jasmine, rose and tuberose absolutes, water lilies, plum, and green orchid oil
Base Notes: amber, musk, cedar and French vanilla absolute

Rose cupcakes

This time it's an edible rose post!

I love baking and one of the things I love to create are cupcakes because they can be made to look so pretty really easily.

Photos from the fruits (sweets?) of my labour: rose, chocolate orange and lime coconut cupcakes

The recipe I normally use is from the Cupcakes book by the Primrose Bakery so I probably shouldn't post it here (copyright restrictions and all...) but what I can say is that you can easily recreate it by adding a teaspoon or so of good quality rosewater (it depends on how strong the particular batch of rosewater is and also how strong or subtle you like the flavour to be) into a standard plain cupcake recipe. The icing is just as easy, add the rosewater and a little drop of food colouring to the usual butter and icing sugar mixture!

So I think that now completes the journey into rose scented and flavoured things in my life that I enjoy. I'm sure I'll come across new things in the future though! And if anyone ever has something to recommend, I'm all ears!

Amandopondo by Lush

So today's post is about one of my favourite Lush products: Amandopondo.

I've had quite a funny relationship with Lush. I think I first found out about it when I was shopping in Birmingham back in my undergraduate days and was really put off by the insane smell of the shop. Because Lush is a big believer of reducing waste, many of their products aren't wrapped and stand around in the shop and this creates the most unbelievable odour. It's so strong that I can often smell a Lush shop meters away. Although I was put off on that first visit, I bought a few products but neither of them wowed me. If I remember correctly, I got a lemony soap called Bohemian and Candy Fluff Dusting Powder (which I think has been discontinued). The soap was a bit boring and unfortunately the dusting powder made me sneeze and itch every time I used it. So after that experience, I just wasn't interested in Lush, until a few years later when one of my friends was telling me how amazing Lush is. I wasn't really convinced until she brought along a fresh face mask to a girly sleep over and I was completely converted. I think that was the start of my love affair with Lush. Even though my first encounter wasn't successful, I am now a big fan.

So, Amandopondo. This product is one of Lush's bubble bars. It's a very sweet looking product, a creamy round bar with a dried rose bud on top. It smells lovely, of roses and citrus oils. But it really comes to life in the bath tub. Lush's bubble bars are used by crumbling under running bath water. I normally break up one of these bars and use a quarter per bath (so at £2.65 a bar, we're looking at about 66p per bath - and if your bath tub's on the small side, you might even get five to six baths out of one bar!). I'm always amazed at how much bubbles this product produces. Even by just using a quarter of it, it creates masses of bubbles and I usually sit blissfully under a good 20cm of bubbles. It really feels luxurious and the smell is divine. It is quite a subtle scent, quite sophisticated, smelling gently of roses, oranges and lemon. It is also gentle on the skin and makes for a fantastic relaxing bath before bedtime.

Photo from: https://www.lush.co.uk/product/23/Amandopondo-Bubble-Bar

I think Amandopondo is a fantastic product and one I always end up buying when I visit Lush.

I still can't stand the smell of the shop though.

Rose hands

There is a rose product that I use everyday and it is Baylis & Harding's Wild Rose and Raspberry Leaf Hand Wash. Unfortunately, having done a Google search the other day, it seems as though Baylis & Harding has a bit of a bad reputation which I wasn't aware of until my search. "Cheap copy of another more high end product" (in a derogative tone) seems to be the words I come across often. Well, I don't quite agree. It's true that it's cheap but only in an affordable way and yes, it's true that the packaging looks uncannily similar to Molton Brown's packaging, right down to the silver neck and shape of the pattern on the bottle. That is perhaps one thing that annoys me a bit about Baylis & Harding, as I don't like products that try to fool the customer. I'm sure a few people that aren't too switched on would mistaken Baylis & Harding as the "posh liquid soap", while thinking of Molton Brown. That's not very honest. But other than that, I have nothing against Baylis & Harding. In my opinion, the products they make are actually very good.

It's clear that the Molton Brown products seem more luxurious but Baylis & Harding doesn't fare too badly either. Okay, it's not going to be at the same level as Molton Brown (but how can you expect it to be at £2 for 500ml for Baylis & Harding as opposed to £15 for 300ml for Molton Brown - that makes the Molton Brown 12.5 times more expensive!) especially in terms of exciting fragrance combinations, such as  pomegranate with essential oils of ginger, black pepper and cardamom (pictured below) but Baylis & Harding's is also very good quality, especially when considering the price.

• Molton Brown
• luxury product
• exciting fragrances that contain essential oils (however, remember that these essential oils make up only a tiny part of the whole product)
• £5 per 100ml

• Baylis & Harding
• affordable product
• great fragrance
  [I am currently waiting for an ingredient list from Molton Brown customer services so that I can compare it with that of Baylis & Harding and see what the difference is. EDIT: this is now on my new post ] 
• 40p per 100ml

The Wild Rose and Raspberry Leaf hand wash is actually really lovely. The rose scent is very well done, being fresh and fruity enough not to smell tacky and well... "cheap". I'm not entirely sure where the rasberry leaf is in the fragrance but perhaps it refers to the slightly green feel to the smell, which I feel is part of making the rose smell like good quality rose water. I think fragrances don't need to be made out of essential oils to smell wonderful. Many perfumers make use of synthetic fragrances and will fantastic resutls. As for the soap, it doesn't lather up as much as some of the other soaps that I have used in the past but I believe that is one of the reasons why it is very gentle on my skin. As I tend to over wash my hands, it's a good thing. The scent lingers on for just long enough to be pleasant but not in an obtrusive way. (I hate it for example when I can smell soapy smells when I'm trying to enjoy my food).

So all in all, this hand wash does exceptionally well and I love it because it's so affordable. As much as I love luxury products like Molton Brown, I really can't afford to use something so pricey on a daily basis. And it's certainly much better than all this antibacterial nonsense I keep on coming across in supermarkets and pharmacies. Since when do we need antibacterial handwash when simple soaps and handwash will do? These antibacterial handwashes tend to stress out my skin and unless you're working in the laboratory or in a hospital, it's really overkill.

Oh and one more thing, the packaging in pretty and looks lovely in my bathroom :)