A Life In Scent

Hello sausage!

‘Tis Skincare Sunday mon petit jolis amis!

Hear me now, I love me a double-cleanse in the evening. I’m not overly picky about my oil cleanser. I figure that the product is on my face for less than a minute. I shouldn’t be overly analytical.

On the surface, the 1025 Dokdo Cleansing Oil by .lab is an easy to use, and effective oil cleanser. It’s very lightweight, watery and spreads easily. When it emulsifies, it rinses off easily, taking surface products and the day’s accumulated grime with it.

So good right? Does the job it’s meant to do ✅

My gripe is that it has sooooo much fragrance in it. Specifically a lot of bergamot oil, sage oil, limonene and linalool. I knooooow it’s only on my skin for a short time but I DO get nervous knowing that it may trigger my rosacea and my acne.

It’s clear that this chap is an effective oil cleanser. But I am reluctant to use it whenever my skin is struggling with something in case it exacerbates the issues. You know what I mean?

Folks, I don’t know. I think there are plenty of options out there for everyone and I think, this one just wasn’t the right one for me 🤷🏻‍♂️

You know what they say - “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Downton Abbey”. I think we can all draw a great deal of strength from this.

Go in piece. Namaste and Tsatsiki.

Steve

Hello sausage!

Every Storm a Serenade is one of my favourite fragrances by It’s a glorious aquatic perfume with refined balsam wood moments.

A salty sea squall, much travelled from the open water, finally expends its energies in the arboreal embrace of a fir forest glade. There, softened by bark and pine needles, it sighs and breathes its ambergris last moments into the woody arms of spruce and eucalyptus, and finally to rest on the blades of smoky vetiver.

Every Storm a Serenade is an established favourite for me. Long may it reign ✊🏻

Steve 🌊🌲

Hello sausage!

Have a Skincare Sunday why don’t ya?

Yes my widely acclaimed professional writings on skincare products, is NOT dead. Rest ye easy my friends. So here we go once more 😃

I recently purchased these two products from the ever so lovely

I purchased the Pure-full Calming Herb Toner (PFC) and the Super Glowing Essence (SGE) mostly out of curiosity.

I rarely buy anything new as I tend to stick to the products that I have identified as being good daily products for myself. I fancied exploring a little however, and these are my thoughts.

The Pure-full Calming Herb Toner is quite lovely! I’ve been using it before my First Essence stage to help calm my skin down post cleansing. I fully believe that this isn’t necessary to do but, it really can be nice. PFC has some great ingredients that gently help your skin become soothed and hydrated. Some standout inclusions are Centella Asiatica Extract, Houttuynia Cordata Extract, Licorice Root Extract, Glycerin, Arginine, Allantoin, Betaine & Panthenol. It doesn’t have a fragrance despite some of the natural elements being potentially fragrance-bearing, and I’ve not detected any scent profile. It’s quick to absorb, water-like, subtly hydrating, and pleasantly soothing.

The Super Glowing Essence however is quite the different story. Packed FULL of fragrance elements, the scent is almost overwhelming and very distracting. I’ve abandoned the idea of using it on my face and I’m just using it on my legs and arms now. It has a lovely sheen to it and if you want to build a glow, this is definitely worth including in your recipe. I just couldn’t get past the overwhelming scent of geranium. It’s pleasantly hydrating and has a melted gel texture.

Neither has a real must-have place in my routine unfortunately, but out of the two, the Pure-full Calming Herb Toner was genuinely lovely and I’d re-purchase it if there was something missing from my routine.

I think trying something new now and then has its value so I’ve ordered some new things to try. The experiment continues 🤪

Steve 🤗

Hello sausage!

It’s time to get ma on!

Now listen, the fusion of music and fragrance is a special one. Both are invisible art forms,and both connect strongly to memory. How wonderful then to have this Discovery Set sent to me by the ever-delicious so I might explore the collection at my leisure.

With the launch of the newest addition, 54, I am reminded that the core collection is already a delight and a treasure.

So far I’m very taken with Beat Café and Black Powder. Both are very much a direct tease to my senses, with incense and smokey qualities, layered with gourmand deliciousness and boozy elements.

Beat Café in particular is a standout fragrance for me and, I’m popping it on the full bottle purchase list. I really enjoy the cognac, to***co and leather, and the chilled vibes that labdanum, benzoin and vetiver deliver to my senses.

This rebellious, hedonistic fragrance is a real joy and, as I’m taking my time with the collection, I just keep coming back to Beat Café.

It’s also a fantastic autumn fragrance choice.

The journey continues mon petit jolis animale aquatique nocturne, but a refuge has already been mapped 👌🏻

Steve 🤗

Hello sausage!

Some twitchy w***h pulled me aside in the street yesterday. Her eyes spun about in their sockets at about ninety miles per hour and she declared that “Autumn is ‘ere guvn’r”…. I politely, and demurely, removed myself from the clutch of her harpy talons, and went about my day.

I wondered to myself. Had I fallen into some Fagin fever dream and was about to dust off my favourite canal-side strumpet garb? Or was I more likely to select a favourite Autumnal fragrance from my stash? The local constabulary were looking a bit on edge so I opted for the fragrance… For now.

Enter Atlas by . It’s kinda spot on for this time of year, it’s spicy and warm and full of lovely notes of to***co, rum, vanilla, hay, cinnamon, black pepper and ginger. Since 2011 this British perfumery has created a compact collection of fragrances that are pretty damn unique. Grab a Discovery Set if you can!

They’re very well priced and their devotion to environmental responsibility is something to be admired.

I’m keen to experience their newest fragrance Helios as it sounds a bit delish 😋

Gather thine pashminas my sausages, Autumn is here, and those b***y shorts just won’t cut it moving forward.

Steve 🤗

Hello sausage 🤪

It’s nearly Autumn. Indeed it is. And Autumn is my favourite season because *insert self-body shaming excuse here*.

I also like the mixed weather polarities in Autumn so, with that in mind, it’s an opportunity to wear Mixed Emotions by

Mixed Emotions is a concept fragrance meant to reflect the nature of our polarised times. Strong notes of juicy black currant dominate this beauty. It’s vibrant and fruity. It has smokey notes of maté in there as a contrast but, honestly, I don’t detect it much. Which is totally cool by me because the perfume grabs you by the nostrils and leads you through Black Tea, Papyrus, Birch and Violet.

If you love Tea fragrances, it’s safe to say you’d enjoy this one. The Tea in Mixed Emotions is really nice. Like, really really nice. Like, seize-you-by-the-scrotum, nibble-your-earlobe nice.

For myself, the black currant and tea outshine the complex background notes of this perfume and that is 💯 cool with me. It’s beautiful.

What Autumn vibes influence your fragrance choices babs? 😃

Steve

Hello sausage!

It just dawned on me, that over the course of today, I’ve eaten a whole pack of coleslaw.

But I was wearing Verdant by so I smelled REAL good. More on that later 🤪

Steve 🫶🏻

Hello sausage!

I’m having a cosy evening with some recent treasures I gathered from

It’s Father’s Day and that means it has been an evening of reflection, and an opportunity to allow memories to flood my thoughts. A moment or two of questions unanswered but yet more moments of happy nostalgia. Golden memories. Golden moments.

This is where Gilded by stepped in this evening.

A glowing eau de parfum, warm and silently glorious. Shafts of early sunlight streaming through the open window into the room, there striking golden surfaces, until your small space is filled with gently glowing, shadow-banishing light.

Gilded is an opulent goldgasm, filled with tart notes of lemon and civet sandwiched between layers of saffron, incense notes, cedar and leather. A tinge of a metallic gold accord lingers and lifts the journey during the transitions. A golden chameleon.

Gilded is from the very impressive debut collection of fragrances from Boujee Bougies. I kinda wish I’d purchased the others while I had the chance as I remember Verdant being an outstanding little beauty too.

Gilded is working its charms upon me this evening and I’m gonna continue wearing it tomorrow to preserve the reflective vibe 😃

Steve 🫶🏻

Hello sausage!

I’m having a little Atlantic moment.

Atlantic by is a gentle neroli moment that freshens as it warms on the skin, to then offer up vanilla and cinnamon warmth as the journey continues.

For me, Atlantic offers up a unique citrus experience that transitions, so very elegantly into a mellow sunset warmth. It is a journey of moments in a bottle.

If you’ve not tried any fragrances by Thomas Clipper before, I’d encourage you to buy a Discovery Set. Despite the intention of the fragrances being designed for men, fragrance needn’t be for any gender and these specific fragrances have a lot to offer, to everyone.

Steve ✨😎✨

Hello sausage!

It’s been just over a week since and I’m still collating notes 😅

One of my highlights was FINALLY meeting the beauty that is Olivia from ! Olivia was hot off releasing Citrus, the most recent addition to their already giddy fabby lineup of fragrances, and I was flibberty jigglesome to be experiencing it for the first time!

For now, I’m going to leave this rather lovely photo of us being total loons together, while I read up on my notes. I’ll give my full thoughts on Citrus shortly. Spoiler alert, it’s a bit lush 🤪

Catcha asap sausage!

Steve 🍋‍🟩🍊🍋✨😃✨🍋🍊🍋‍🟩