I wrote about Vera Wang Rock Princess a while ago and finally gave it a spray on my wrist. I still like it a lot but it reminds me very strongly of Unforgivable Woman, a perfume I already own. I think it’s the coconut note. Despite the cute bottle factor (cuter than Unforgivable Woman) I probably won’t buy it.

I also visited Kohls and checked out Dianoche Ocean, another one of Daisy Fuentes’ perfumes. (See my review of Dianoche Love here.) I liked it enough that I caved and bought it. It was in a gift set with a free body lotion, on sale, so that’s my excuse! Dia (the day part) has notes of mojito, bitter orange, watery splashes, beach flowers, orange flower, jasmine, and sandalwood. I get the mojito and bitter orange burst right away and then it settles into a nice tropical flower scent. Lasting power is excellent. Noche (the night part) has notes of bitter orange, dewy greens, vanilla orchid, jasmine, gardenia, patchouli, and golden amber. Noche is a warmer version of Dia with the hints of vanilla, patchouli, and amber. It also has good staying power. I totally dig both of these scents for warm spring and summer days.

I popped in to Victoria’s Secret to check out the new Parfums Intimes and was pleasantly surprised. Generally, I don’t care for Victoria’s Secret scents, they are usually too sweet or fruity for my taste. These four new scents are more sophisticated, in my opinion, then the usual offerings, and I quite like them! Lace Orange Flower is my favorite so far, because it really does have a strong orange flower (or neroli) note. The bottles are also really pretty. The store was quickly overwhelming my senses with that generic VS smell (headache-inducing), so I only sprayed the Lace Orange Flower and the Cashmere Vanilla Jasmine on scent strips and then fled. Cashmere Vanilla Jasmine is nice too, although not as good as Lace Orange Flower. I’ll have to make another incursion to try the other two fragrances and give Lace a try on skin.

Given the length of time to ship things, it’s not too early to be thinking about Mother’s Day gifts. Here are some of my favorite ideas.

Lush has two cute gifts, already wrapped for you! Sugar Mama has a bubble bath bar and their new Vanilla Delite lotion. The MUM Gift is a little bigger and has everything your mom needs for several nice baths.

If baths aren’t really your mom’s thing, try some shower gel sets! The Peach Shower duo from L’Occitane features the new Peach products, which smell really great BTW.  Philosophy has several great smelling shower gels, including some I haven’t tried (and want to). Blackberry Sauce, Vanilla Wafer, and The Frango Mint Diet all sound great.

Origins is having their Friends & Family Sale this weekend, 25% off with code FF (enter at checkout), so do check them out too. The Ginger Touch gift is nice for Mom. Pangea Organics makes nice herbal face and body care products too, and they are offering 20% off the site from May 1st – May 15th. Enter NutureMom in the promo code box at checkout.

Candles are good gifts for moms too, for a nice smelling room. Check out Candle Delirium and Chesapeake Bay Candles for lovely, upscale scents.

For a cute, more lasting gift, try cinda b bags. I think the cosmetics bags are adorable, and the X-Large Cosmetic Bag  has a really cool closure. All the prints are colorful, and the bags are supposed to be really durable. Even better, get a cinda b bag and put some nice bath products inside! Mom will love it.

Have fun shopping for mom!

I purchased a couple of things from Angelface Botanicals to try and wanted to share with you how nice they were! A few weeks ago I had bronchitis and was so uncomfortable from being stuffed up and congested. @SpaGoddess, Angelface Botanical’s owner, suggested I try an Aromatherapy Shower Steamer, so I placed an order.

The Shower Steamers are basically a mini bath bomb that you place on the floor of your shower. The water from your shower makes it fizz, releasing the essential oils and producing a nice steamy scented shower. The eucalpytus one was great for my stuffed up head and chest, I liked it a lot!

I added a Pure Fresh mini scrub to my order as well because the description sounded great. It’s a salt scrub with ylang ylang, grapefruit, and eucalyptus. I really like the scrub formula – it’s scrubby and oily but not so oily that your shower becomes a slippery hazard zone.  I wish I loved the scent more – it smells overwhelmingly of lemongrass essential oil to my nose or maybe litsea cubeba EO. At any rate, not my two favorite essential oils. I will definitely try the other scents though,  like Tahitian Glow. Not a scrub, but the Chamomile Exquisite Crème sounds awesome too. It seems like something that might really help with the itchy rashes I get sometimes.

Check out Angelface Botanicals! They have a lot to offer and everything is handmade.

I always cruise the body wash aisle whenever I’m at Target or Fred Meyer. I almost never buy anything, because the vast majority of the products don’t smell good to me. I’m very picky about scent, and pretty much stick to boutique products (L’Occitane, Lush, The Body Shop, etc) because the scents are much more appealing. I’m pleased to report that I’ve found a line of products that has some scents to please even a picky nose like myself!

Nivea makes a line of body washes with different scents, and almost all of them smell fabulous. Each one has a “Touch of Adjective” name like Touch of Happiness, Touch of Bliss, Touch of Smoothness, etc. The two that I have purchased so far are the Touch Of Beauty and Touch of Bliss.

Touch of Bliss has an apricot scent. The formula is cool because you can use it either with or without a bath poof. I’ve tried both so far, and while I do prefer the poof way, the gel is thick enough that you can get a good lather without using anything else. The apricot scent is SO good, it reminds me so much of fresh apricots and cream. It’s not drying, my skin feels good after my shower, and it smells amazing while bathing. Score!

Touch of Beauty has a fig scent that I find REALLY enticing. I love how creamy it is too, this one is the “Cream Oil” formula that is extra moisturizing.

Overall, I’m really pleased to have discovered these Nivea body washes! They are good scents at a budget-friendly price.

Our Softlips Giveaway has a winner! Rebecca L. wins a tube of Softlips Pure Pomegrante Organic Lip Balm and two tubes of Softlips Lip Protectant SPF 20 in Raspberry. Congratulations Rebecca!

Don’t forget to enter our Ecotools Brush Set Giveaway! It runs until May 2nd!

I picked up a few more makeup items on a recent foray into The Body Shop, and I’m really pleased! I went in specifically looking for blue eyeshadow, and left with the eyeshadow as well as some body butters (to get the free gift!). The gift with purchase included a new mascara, so of course I had to try it!

I wanted to check out the eyeshadows, because I’m looking for a pale blue. The one I got isn’t exactly the shade I’m looking for, but was close enough. It’s one of the Eye Shimmers, the Indigo shade. The Eye Shimmers are cool – they all look basically white in the pan, but with a definite colored sheen, and they go on the skin in an iridescent glow of color. Very pretty!

The day I shopped, they were offering this as a gift with purchase in store, with $25 purchase.  The gift includes a medium size clutch, with a travel sized Vitamin E Moisture Cream, a mini High Shine Lip Treatment in Gold, a mini Divide & Multiply Mascara, and a mini Total Energy Exhilarating Body Wash.

The mascara is pretty good. Apparently while I was off being obsessed with Bourjois mascaras, the rest of the cosmetics world was busy developing their own really good formulas. This one is supposed to really separate and lengthen your lashes, and it gets the job done. It’s not my favoritest new favorite of all the mascaras I’ve tried lately, but it’s worth checking out if you’re shopping at TBS and need to add something to get the gift with purchase…

The new Wild Cherry body butter is pretty nice, although the scent doesn’t light my fire like the Raspberry one does.  I got a mini one in this trio gift set, although I really kind of wish it had a Strawberry instead of the Pink Grapefruit – I know, I want everything, don’t I? Also annoying me right now is the fact that I just finished a mini Strawberry butter and I have another one here somewhere… but I can’t find it! Argh! Anyway, The Raspberry still reigns supreme in my heart, closely followed by the Strawberry, and then the Wild Cherry.

It’s a good time to hit the Body Shop, they have 25% off gift sets, so you can get your favorite products at value prices. Score!

The weather is getting warmer here in Oregon, and I’ve actually considered cracking out my capri pants… except… oh yeah, I’m really lazy and don’t shave my legs very often. That’s where the Gillette Venus Embrace comes in!

One of the reasons I don’t like to shave is the inevitable nicks and cuts I get. I am a well-rounded girl (in more ways than one, but in this case means I gots me some chubby legs) and trying to shave a rounded surface is tricky. I think I may have found my holy grail razor!

The Embrace has FIVE blades, yes FIVE! This means fewer swipes are needed to really get the job done, and fewer swipes mean fewer chances of nicks. The handle is perfectly shaped for an easy grip, no slipping or dropping it. The razor head has a very nice flat shape that also seems to really help with preventing cuts, and a “ribbon of moisture” to help with glide. You will still want to use a shave gel or cream of some kind, but if you just want to do a quick touch-up pass, the moisture strip is enough.

Also very high on the cool features list is the pod it comes with, that has a suction cup to stick to your shower or tub. The pod holds your razor in place and also opens up to reveal storage for extra blades. Sweet!

It’s pricey, but if you hate cutting yourself shaving, check out the Gillette Venus Embrace razor. It rock!

When I think of eco-friendly beauty brands, Kiss My Face is one of the first to come to mind. They’ve been doing their thing for a long time, and they make some great products!

They are currently offering 30% off storewide, and a free Kiss My Face tote with any purchase – through April 30.

Kiss My Face has also introduced two new face creams, Brightening Day Creme and  Intensive Repair Night Creme. I’ve tried samples of both and they are really nice products. They’re perfect if you are looking for something more natural, since they contain no parabens, phthalates, SLS, artificial colors or fragrances and are not tested on animals.

With the 30% off, I highly recommend checking out the new Lip Shines and Shimmers. They rock!