Look what Mr Postman brought me. I never thought of myself to be a fragrance fan, but from looking at my ever growing collection it seems that I am, so to try out the new fragrance from Burberry was a bit of a treat. 

Burberry Body Eau De Perfum 60ml Retails for £55. 

Here's what Burberry say's about their new fragrance:

♥ An effortlessly sensual, feminine fragrance with an eclectic combination of refined ingredients.

♥ Top notes of fresh green absinthe, illuminating peach and delicate freesia.

♥ Floral heart notes of natural rose absolute, iris and warm sandalwood

♥ Base notes of woody cashmeran, creamy vanilla, amber and musk

I've always been slightly put of from Burberry due to their 'Chav' label which I'm not sure if they will ever shake, but I cannot refuse a freebie and I'm impressed. As you'll probably know if you 'liked' Burberry on facebook you got a chance to try out their new fragrace Body, and mine came yesterday. Now I'm useless with describing scents but to me I feel that it's a perfect autumn/winter fragrance. Though I believe that it's quite a mature smell and I can imagine it's something my Mum would wear, or even someone around the late 20's that has a more elegant dress sense than me. (Pretty much Burberry's target market, or what I would assume to be their target market.) Saying that I will give it a go and if it's not me I'll pass it on for someone else to enjoy. 

I like the bottle but that's probably because it's miniature and I love anything travel size. If this is the full size design I'm not sure if I'd be over the moon with it sitting on my dressing table/living room shelves. haha. 

Overal I'm very grateful for the free sample and cannot wait to try it out, maybe tomorrow will be the day. I hope that I don't fall in love with the scent because I'm not sure that I could afford the high price tag, but for a high end fragrance it's pretty average.

What's your favourite Autumn/Winter scent?

Speak Soon,

Katie 

x

All product information taken from the burberry website. I'm not being paid for this review (I wish) I was just sent the sample along will many other lucky followers.  

Fighting Spots Head On!

I'm sat here catching up on my daily reads after removing all of my make-up. I'm currently having major skin problems and nothing seems to be helping. I've used so many different skin products designed for sensitive skin, acne prone skin, you name it, I've tried it. So with at least 10 huge, painful lumps for spots all around my mouth/chin area I decided to take drastic action and after work today I picked up some Quinoderm. 

Now if you've never heard of this before, it's a pharmacy only product and is rather strong. The main acting ingredient is Benzoyl Peroxide 10% which is very strong indeed. I didn't really want to try this at first as it's renowned for drying out the skin, and basically this is how it works, only problem is that not only will it dry out the spot itself but it will also dry out the skin around it or anywhere else you just happen to pop it. Originally I wanted PanOxyl 5 gel, because as the name suggests this is half the strength of the Quinoderm at only 5% and if you can get hold of this then please try this first because it really is better for your skin, but unfortunately they are having problems getting the stock at the moment in certain pharmacies. 

Initial Reaction

I must say that my first reactions are pretty good. After removing all my make-up (apart from my waterproof mascara which is refusing to budge) I firstly moisturised then applied the thinest layer of Quinoderm to each individual spot taking care to avoid the surrounding skin. Almost instantly I felt a slight burning sensation where the cream had been applied, proving that the product is slightly too strong for my delicate skin, but that gradually faded, taking with it the pain from my acne. I can deal with the burning sensation if this is the result. You see I'm not overly bothered about the look of my unsightly spots because I don't have to look at my face all day, but what does bother me is the throbbing pain. 

15 minutes later...

After 15 minutes or so the pain has subsided so I can actually wiggle my jaw and the obvious redness and soreness of the break out seems to have calmed down slightly. Don't get me wrong it's not a miracle worker and neither did I expect it be, but after only 15 minutes of applying the product my skin has dramatically improved. Maybe it's all in my head because I wanted it to work, but I don't think it is. I'm going to apply one more layer before I go to bed and see how it is in the morning. I think I will still be on  the look out for the weaker strength, but for the mean time I have to say that this cream is fantastic. I'll keep you all updated on it because you never know I could end up with a rash and or more spots in the morning, so we wont count out chickens just yet. 

You can buy Quinoderm from most pharmacies. I got mine for only £2.65 for a 25g tube. 

How are you dealing with your acne prone skin?

Or are you one of those lucky buggers who never breaks out?

either way..

speak soon, 

Katie

x

The Gloss, The Matte and The Ugly

As I'm sure you're aware Michael and I were married 2 weeks ago and of course we had many, many pictures taken. (Like you didn't know. haha.) I'd saved some McDonald's Monopoly vouchers for 50 free photo prints from snapfish. Now I'd never heard of this company before, but I thought, "well if I'm getting summet for nowt then I might as well see what they're like."

Now they are not 100% free, you do still have to pay for postage, but for 99p delivery you really can't complain. I placed my order on Friday and I received my packages on Wednesday morning. I was pretty impressed, and seen as I had never used this company before I half expected that I would never receive them. Does anyone else think like that when they buy from somewhere new or is it just paranoid little old me?

Now I would say that I choose three different styles on purpose but if I'm honest I didn't. Instead I was too much of an eager beaver and failed to check my order before completing. But for the purpose of this review then it worked out pretty well. Now before I go any further I thought that I'd add that though I got these prints for free (because, thank you McDonald's, I won them) I am in no way getting paid for this review. I wish that I was but unfortunately not. Anyway lets continue...

This picture kinda bugs me.. I really should have lined the pictures up better!

I choose standard glossy print, glossy with border, and finally matte with border.

Firstly the standard glossy pictures. 

Now the quality of these turned out great. I only got 20 of these because I used the companies offer of 20 free prints for being a new customer, so I choose to print off the pictures I wanted to hand out to people in their thank you cards. I'm pretty impressed. Though since having borders on the majority of my pictures and seeing just how professional they all look I'm not that keen on standard prints anymore. I didn't know that you could be a print snob, but I guess I am. haha. 

Now for the glossy prints with border.

I love these. Every single picture turned out perfect. The quality is amazing and they really do look rather professional. I love the finish and they just make out wedding pictures look just that little bit more special. 

And finally the matte prints with border. 

These I think are my favourite finish. Now I think the finishes of matte and gloss is just personal preference, but to me having a matte finish gives the pictures that added bit of charm. The only problem I have found with a matte finish is that I want to stroke them. This has started to worry me. haha. Anyway... we had one picture from the matte pile that came out a little wrong. One picture shows Mike having a blue ink splodge on his right ear, which he didn't have. They were free so I'm not going to complain, but I believe that they should all be hand checked before they are sent out for delivery. Yes someone may think that he actually had that ink splodge there and it wasn't a print error, but we were in church... on or wedding day, so I doubt it. 

Overall I'm pretty impressed and I think I would go ahead and make a paid order when the time comes. But for now I still have two more vouchers for 50 free prints so I'm going to go ahead and use them. I love McDonald's Monopoly vouchers, and though I didn't win £250,000 or whatever the prize was, I did win my wedding photos... so in my world that makes me a pretty big winner. It's definitely the small things in life. 

Speak Soon,

Katie 

x

These boots are made for walking

I've been on the look out recently for a new pair of boots. Since the end of winter, beginning of spring I came to realise that I had no practical shoes. I either own, ballet pumps, trainers, converse or wellies. If it rains I'm stuffed. Unless I have the wellies on, but most of the time I want something a little smaller. In fact the last time I wore them was when we had the major downpour of snow.

So the hunt began. 

I've noticed that there has been a recent fashion, where most of the boots made, have no zips. I struggle with this as I can't for the life of me get them on. And if I do manage to get one on, I get cramp in my other thigh as I proceed to fight with the other boot. No matter how much of a good offer these boots seem at the time, I can't buy something I can't get on my feet. I wish I had a high instep, or at least some sort of excuse as to why I can't get these boots on, but really I'm just pants at putting on shoes! 

I also have rather large calves so knee high boots are a big no, no. One day I may find my perfect knee high boot, I'm just hoping they come with a zip. Haha. 

Anyway, last week I was browsing on the New Look website, and came across their shoe section. As usual they have some sort of sale, so I thought I'd take a look. 

And there they were, my new boots...

Now these don't have a zip.

But I can get them on my feet! 

And I love them. 

I noticed on the picture on the website that at the back they had a slit, and I was hoping this would make it easier to put the boot on. I was right, and now I have the most gorgeous new boots that fit. 

They are pretty comfy, but I've only worn them in the house so far. I'll test them out properly soon.

But so far I'm very happy. I love the colour and the buckle detail. And I seem to have unintentionally saved the best bit till last... the price. £12.50.

The delivery was quite reasonable at £3.95, and it only took three days from placing the order to receiving my item in the post. The only fault I have with the actual delivery is that they left it outside our door in full view of the street, but I guess that's not New Look's fault, it's their courier service. 

Does anyone else have this problem?

We always find ours either outside our front door, on the window ledge, or in or around the bin.

I'm pretty happy with my boots and I won't need a new pair for quite some time now. I know from all the recent posts it may seem like I shop all the time, but in reality I don't. I've just been very lucky recently being able to find things that I actually like. I also like to wear things to death. I generally won't bin anything unless it's falling apart. So this is just a warning that there won't be many new clothes posts for sometime now, I'm all spent out. But be sure to expect more wedding posts. With less than 8 weeks until the big day I've got plenty to do... and blog about. 

Katie 

x

Power Adapter Failure

Today the worst thing that could possibly happen... happened. Our power adapter gave up the ghost. Now it had been on it's last legs for quite some time now, but we had always kept that hope that it would survive a few more years. But the worst did happen, and this morning with a dead macbook, and a broken charged we had no other option but to bite the bullet and buy a new one. Now to some this would seem anything but tragic, but wait for it we had to fork out £50 for it!

Loving the background, lets all give thanks to the British Passport. Haha.

As you can see, there was no doubt that this was going to die, but what bugs me is that this is less than a year old, and what gets me even more is that they have re-designed the end.

This is our shiny new one, and if you take a look at the connector, they have completely changed it. In other words, they must have known that there was a major wear and tear issue with their product or they wouldn't have needed the re-design. Because, 

'why change sommet if it aint broke?' 

*spoken in a broad Yorkshire accent*

Rant over, the fact of the matter is that we left it until it got this bad, had we have taken it back when we first noticed the problem, we could have received a free replacement. I would say lesson learned, but I can't honestly say that. Haha. I also love Apple products so I'm not going to moan about them any more. Plus to be honest the universal power adapter we had to buy a few years back when out Sony one died cost £70, so really you could say (with gritted teeth) that £50 is a bargain. 

 Katie 

x

P.S How could I have possibly gone anymore than a few hours without blogging, or reading blogs?

Haha, I love that the only person who's happy about the clocks going back, is the guy on T.V. He's looses an hour at work, we loose an hour in bed!