Brasil 2014 / L'Occitane Au Bresil

Brasil 2014 has been a popular inspiration for LE Collections this season.

Inspiration from south American culture with the energy and artistic predisposition, as well as rich natural resources and ingredients, indigenous of these lands.

The two new plants at the heart of L'Occitane Au Bresil Collection are: Vitoria Regia and Jenipapo. 

Vitoria Regia is a water lily found in the Amazon river that sleeps during the day, to protect from the sun rays and blooms at night, revealing pink petals and a delicate scent.

Its dual life has been perfectly captured in L'Occitane Vitoria Regia Day Flower - fresh and light with citrusy notes and the acidity of the green apple. A proper summer scent!

And L'Occitane Vitoria Regia Night Flower - with more powdery under-notes, dominated by musk and sandalwood and a hint of peony.

If you’re a L’Occitane aficionado, the consistency of L'Occitane Vitoria Regia Day Flower Handcream* is thinner than the shea butter counterpart and perfect for warmer months. It absorbs instantly and leaves the hands velvety soft and hydrated.

L'Occitane Vitoria Regia Night Flower Soap* echoes the decadent scent with the gorgeous engraving on its surface; it's fantastic and nearly too beautiful to use. The formula doesn't strip the oil on the skin and leaves the hands nourished and clean. 

Both scents come also as 300ml and 100ml Eau de Cologne bottles too.

Jenipapo is a citrus tree from the Cerrado region that basks in the sun its entire life and rapidly grows above the rest of the savannah to absorb the sun's energy.

The protective and moisturising properties of the fruit are well known to the native populations and they have now been used by L'Occitane to create this suncare line for the face & body.

L'Occitane Jenipapo Lip Balm Spf25* comes out as a clear gloss and it has a green and fruity mouthwatering flavour: you'll find exotic notes of watermelon, pina colada and vanilla.

The line also includes Body Jelly Milk Spf20, Shower Oil and Perfumed Oil Roll-On.

Local artists helped create the pretty illustrations of the flowers on the packaging and they are worth of turn-of-the-century Impressionist paintings. 

L'Occitane Au Bresil is out now in store and on Loccitane.com

Introducing / Korres

First of all, I order these on Lookfantastic.com - yay or nay?

It was actually an ordeal! Basically, they sent me 2 wrong/faulty items and I contacted them straight away to check how to proceed. After three days still no answer (mind you, I emailed them every 24hr) so I phoned them up (0845 number, not happy about that!) and I was asked to email the pictures of the products that required replacement. Fine, no problem at all and in fact I sent the pictures the same day.

Another three days go by and no sigh of package or reply from them, so I phoned again and FINALLY they agreed to send me the correct items.

Not sure its worth ordering again from them, to be honest - ok, I admit prices can be good (for example, I placed this order because I received a £5 off on orders of £30); also, in their favour I got to say they didn't ask me to send back anything (suppose as they don't do free returns) but if something goes wrong, its a really hassle. 

Poor, poor customer service!

What about you guys? Any bad experience with them?

Anyway, I wanted to try Korres for a while now and here's what I got:

- Milk Proteins Cleansing & Make Up Removing Wipes: nothing exciting about these wipes, good when travelling and milk proteins are renewed to be good for the skin.

- Lip Butter in Pomegranate: I read many good reviews about this one. Quite nice balm and colour is really bright, in fact so strong that you must be careful when apply and use a mirror. I really like the packaging.

 - Yoghurt mask: this mask is for normal to combination skin and it's describe as "ultra-soothing and cooling mask for long-lasting hydration and comfort to oily, yet dehydrated skin". 

This is my favourite item of the lot - it smells amazing, truly amazing and feels even better on the skin.

In the picture, you can also see the day cream of the same collection because they originally sent me the cream instead of the mask. The cream seems a bit too rich for me and its probably better for mature skin, so I will pass it over to my mum.

 

- Milk Soap for Stressed Skin: as you can tell, I like milk (and derivates) in my face products. :)

Usually, I don't use solid soap on my face but if I end up not liking these, they can also be used for the body. They come in a nice box and carving on the bar - pretty! 

Samples! always welcome, especially Dermatologica's ones.

Finally - in the same order - I bought the followings:

- Ole Henriksen's African Red Tea Foaming Cleanser: this is another hyped product in many blogs, but it has failed to impress ME for now. I've been using it for a week now and I would say my skin is 'a tad' worst; I had same breaks out on my chin which, lucky, is quiet unusual for me. I think I'll give it a rest and try it again in a few weeks. I like the foaming pump tho. 

- Murad's Blemish Spot Treatment: as just mentioned above, I don't usually get spots so I merely bought this because it was down to 2 pounds and I needed to reach the minimum amount to use my coupon. :)

It can always come in handy.