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Posts tagged Sample
Chocolate Tasting for Millennium Hotels
7Last week I received a very special delivery from Millennium Hotels… A goody bag stuffed full of Hotel Chocolat treats! Millennium Hotels are a luxury hotel company who have many hotels and resorts in exciting locations all around the world. To add something a little extra special to every room, they are currently trying to choose a luxury chocolate to place on their pillows for their guests, and I was asked along with a few other bloggers to help them choose by sampling each chocolate in the goody bag. How could I say no to that?! Here is what the bag contains…
From Left to Right:
Smiley Lick.
Eton Mess Slab.
Salted Caramels.
Chocolate Gemstones.
Billionaire’s Shortbread.
Choosing a favourite out of these five delectable delights is very difficult (I am a chocoholic, after all), as they are all different, and all extremely delicious. However, a decision has been made! Read on to see what I thought of each one, and to see which one is my overall winner.
Smiley Lick
The Smiley Lick consists of a disk of thick milk chocolate on a lollipop stick, which is happily adorned with a smiley face. This one is fun to look at, fun to nibble and it really shows off the high quality of Hotel Chocolat’s chocolate. The chocolate is extremely smooth and has a rich, sweet flavour. I gobbled this up rather quickly in one sitting, and was left wanting more. Delicious, but I don’t think it’s quite right for a hotel pillow as it’s a bit too bulky looking!
Eton Mess Slab
The Eton Mess slab is absolutely beautiful to look at, as the pink chocolate swirled with cream and scattered with strawberry and meringue pieces makes it look like a work of art. The chocolate itself is strawberry flavoured, with vanilla chocolate running throughout. It isn’t as smooth as the milk chocolate as the real fruit bits give it a bit more texture, as do the little chocolate cookies hidden inside (which I wasn’t expecting when I first bit into it!), but it is divine!
If you have a sweet tooth then this is definitely for you – it smells and tastes just like a strawberry milkshake. I can only handle a little bit of this at a time, but at least that means I can make the bar last and savour it. This would be the winner if my sister had a say – it was her favourite out of all five choices.
Salted Caramels
I have always enjoyed the contrast between sweet chocolate and salty caramel, and these are the best salted caramels I have ever tried – the balance of flavours is perfect! When you first bite into the chocolate the caramel comes oozing out, and you are hit with a toffee sweetness which has a slight tang of sea salt. These perhaps wouldn’t be to everybody’s taste, but I think they’re a very sophisticated little treat and I’d definitely have these again.
Chocolate Gemstones
Hotel Chocolat’s Gemstones are made of white and dark chocolate drops, which have been fused together to create silky and shiny little spheres, which melt slowly on the tongue. They might be small, but each one gives big flavour, with a creaminess from the white chocolate and a bitter edge from the dark chocolate which stops them being overly sweet. Out of everything in the goody bag, these are the ones I keep going back to… They’re very moreish!
Billionaire’s Shortbread
Last but not least, Billionaire’s Shortbread. These unusual truffles are made of milk chocolate, and have a caramel praline inside which has a lovely soft texture. Each one is also sprinkled with little pieces of shortbread cookie, which add a delicious crunch to every bite. These really do taste just like the dessert of the same name, but their delicate size makes them that little bit more refined. My other half absolutely loves the Billionaire’s Shortbread chocolates and I think these would win if it was his choice!
Though I like everything in the goody bag, my overall winner has to be the Gemstones! They might be the simplest chocolate of them all, but I think that would make them suitable for any guest to enjoy, and their beautiful taste and dainty size make them the ideal snack to nibble on throughout the evening, whilst you lounge in your comfortable hotel room. Bliss!
If you fancy a stay at a 4 Star Millennium Hotel (I know I’d love to stay at the London Mayfair hotel myself), now is a good time to book… They are currently offering 30% off room rates until the end of March, and with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, this could be a lovely way to impress your loved one! Click here to find out more, and don’t forget to treat them to some Hotel Chocolat chocolates too.
Naomi x
*The Hotel Chocolat Goody Bag was sent to me by Millennium Hotels for review purposes. All opinions expressed are honest and my own.*
What’s In My Handbag
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8 years
by Naomi in General
Hello all,
Believe it or not, this post isn’t actually about the contents of my handbag… You’ve probably all heard of it already, but ‘What’s In My Handbag’ is actually a website which enables its members to discover the beauty products that other people love that you may not have heard about. The jist of it is this… You can upload a photo of what you have in your handbag, and tag all the beauty products. People will then be able to browse your bag and share your beauty secrets, and of course, you can do the same to hundreds of other bags! When you find a product you already have, you can mark it as ‘Have This’, and if you want it, you mark it as ‘Want This’. These products then get added to your beauty cabinet.
Possibly the best bit about What’s In My Handbag is that you can sign up to ‘Try’ exciting beauty products for free. There is a new free product to try each week, and all you have to do is register to try it. You aren’t guarateed a free product every time, but it’s worth giving it a go!
I’m not sponsored by What’s In My Handbag or anything, and I haven’t been asked to promote the site… I just thought it was a good idea and I wanted to share it with you all! If you want to join, I have unlimited invites here – please let me know if you sign up, it’s good fun! It’s international as well, which is great news for all my overseas followers 
Naomi x
Garnier Intensive 7days Challenge
1Hi everyone,
Last week I received my free Garnier Intensive 7days Challenge pack in the post and I couldn’t wait to try it out! Each pack contains 7 individual 6ml sachets of Garnier’s new Intensive 7days Softening Lotion…
and two Skin Readers…
The challenge states that before you use any of the sachets, you have to press the sticky part of Skin Reader 1 onto one of your shins for 3 seconds. You are then left with an idea of how dry your skin is by how many white skin cells there are left on the reader. I have to say, there was quite a lot of white on mine (as you will see later), but I wasn’t too shocked or surprised as I know I have fairly dry skin anyway, which is why this challenge is perfect for me!
Once you’ve used the Skin Reader, it is time to start moisturising! Every morning for seven days I used a sachet of the lotion on my legs. There was a very generous amount of product in each sachet to the point that I had enough left over to use on my upper arms too! And that’s saying something because I’m 5’10” so have a lot of leg haha. The sachet says that the lotion contains shea butter so I was expecting it to have that distinctive shea butter smell, but it didn’t. In fact, I found the scent to be fairly unremarkable, and somewhat non-existent! The texture of the lotion was quite greasy, which I don’t usually like in a moisturiser, but it absorbed quickly and easily so I didn’t really mind in the end.
The challenge packaging says that Garnier Intensive 7days ‘leaves skin hydrated, feeling smoother and softer’, so after the 7days I used Skin Reader 2 to see if the product lived up to its word! This was the result…
The Skin Reader on the left is Skin Reader 1, and as you can tell there is a LOT of white skin on the sticky bit. The Skin Reader on the right is number 2, and obviously has far less skin on it that the other one. I know the results look good, but I wasn’t too pleased with them at first as the second reader had a big patch on it which wasn’t sticky, so obviously any loose skin wasn’t going to stick to it! I don’t know whether it was done on purpose, but I think I’ll give Garnier the benefit of the doubt on that one and focus on the bits that were sticky. And well, yes, my skin did seem a lot less dry after the challenge, and felt smoother as a result, which is always good
It’s been a few days now since I completed the challenge and I’d say that the Intensive 7days lotion has DEFINITELY made a big difference. My legs still feel really soft and smooth, even though I’ve not used the lotion for a couple of days. The fact that it has made a long term improvement is the best thing about this in my opinion, as it proves it doesn’t just leave a layer of grease on your skin, but actually gets to the root of the problem. Because of this, I think I am going to invest in a bottle to use throughout the summer to keep my legs looking nice for when I wear dresses and shorts!
Have you completed the 7days Challenge yet? If not and you want a challenge pack, you can find out how to get one here.
Naomi x
Another Garnier Freebie!
2Hi everyone!
I know this is my second Garnier freebie post in a row but I like to let you all know when there’s something good up for grabs! Garnier are giving away yet ANOTHER sample kit for free, this time of their new Intensive 7days Moisturiser. To get your sample, visit the Garnier UK Facebook page, hit ‘like’ and then click on the ‘Tips, treats & more!’ tab at the top of the page. Then just follow the form through to get your free sample pack.
Enjoy!
Naomi x
PS. I know it’s been a while since I posted a review but I have a lot of exciting posts to come, starting tomorrow!
Sample: Garnier Skin Naturals B.B. Miracle Skin Perfector
4Over the last month or so I have received a LOT of make up and skincare samples in the post, so today I thought I’d review one of the samples that has intrigued me the most – Garnier’s Skin Naturals B.B Miracle Skin Perfector.
Garnier’s new product is described as a ‘Daily All-In-One B.B. Cream’. B.B. Creams have been all over the place lately and I have seen several variations on what the B.B. actually stands for! They’ve been called Beauty Balms, Blemish Balms and Blemish Bases, and Garnier have settled for the Blemish Balm title. I have to say, on first impressions I found this sample quite confusing. Is it a Skin Perfector? Is it a B.B. Cream? Is it a face cream? Or are they all the same thing? I decided to do some research and found that, in short, a B.B. Cream is a hybrid product that merges the light, softening elements of a moisturiser with the pigmentation of foundation, to give brightening, smooth, flawless coverage of the face. It can be used on its own, or as a primer for make up, so basically they are all the same thing! I thought the B.B. Cream sounded quite similar to a tinted moisturiser, which I’ve tried and disliked before so I wasn’t expecting miracles from this sample, but you can’t always judge a book by its cover.
What first hit me about this sample was the smell. It has quite a strong, fresh scent, almost lemony, with a nutty undertone. I didn’t like the smell at first but once it settled down I found it quite pleasant.
I tried the product on my hand to start with and was slightly worried by how orange it looked. I always use the lightest shade in foundation ranges, and though this was ‘Light’, it definitely didn’t look as light as the other products I use. It sat in the creases of my hand too which is never a good thing. However, after remembering that B.B. Creams are somewhat like moisturisers, I decided to rub it in as I would a lotion, and luckily it blended in nicely to more suit my skin tone.
I have slight dark circles under my eyes and a few open pores on my nose, so as Garnier’s Skin Perfector is intended for the face, I then tried it out on my problem areas. As with most people, I have fewer fine creases on face than I do on my hands, so the product obviously gave better coverage on my face. It blended quickly and definitely softened my skin which is a plus. Surprisingly, my dark circles were left lighter and my pores were also noticeably smoother, which is pretty impressive for a cream. It is not as good as a foundation though which is what I was expecting really!
After trying this Garnier sample, I’m not sure I’d use a B.B.Cream on its own, but it was infinitely better than I expected and did what it claimed, which is never a bad thing. I would, however, consider using a B.B. Cream as a primer. The face perfectors I have used in the past have been quite heavy and have irritated my skin, but the light formula of this B.B. Cream seems to agree more with my skin.
Naomi x
Sample: ‘L.I.L.Y’ by Stella McCartney
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As you may have gathered by now, I am a sucker when it comes to freebies, so when I saw this fragrance sample advertised on the Boots Samples website, I just had to send away for it. I was expecting a tiny little vial or one of those scented sheets you get in magazines, so I was pleasantly surprised when I received a generous 1.5ml glass spray bottle of Stella McCartney’s new fragrance, L.I.L.Y.
The card which came with the sample says:
L.I.L.Y is a journey through the senses.
It begins with the smell of a spring
morning, dappled sunlight through the
trees, a vision of delicate lily of the
valley. It is the passage of time
across a forest floor.
From this description, I was expecting floral and fresh, and quite rightly this is what I got. The perfume has an initial heady aroma of lily of the valley, which over time fades to a more delicate and light flowery scent – L.I.L.Y obviously has a sophisticated set of notes to it. I was quite impressed with how long the perfume actually lasted too. I applied it in the morning and could still smell it on my skin in the evening.
I don’t usually wear floral perfumes as I prefer ambery scents, but L.I.L.Y. is definitely quite pleasant. I can’t say I’ll be rushing out to buy a full size bottle of this, but I’ll be keeping the sample in my handbag for spring/summer evenings out. For those of you that like floral fragrances though, this is for you, and I think this will become a key scent this year.
Naomi x
