Lou's Reviews || Diptyque Travel Collection

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

A few weeks ago, I was invited to a very beautiful smelling event with Diptyque. As is customary (and a brilliant perk) of blogger events, we were sent away with a gorgeous little goodie bag of Diptyque products to test and play with.

I don't always feature the products I am gifted, sometimes because they aren't all that amazing or sometimes because they don't really suit the genre of this slice of the web, but these had to be shared. It's love. Super scented love.

This set is The Art Of Body Care Travel Collection which retails for £35.00.

It consists of luxurious body lotion, hand balm, revitalising bath and shower gel and a little pot of smoothing body polish. I have spent a few weeks trying all of these out and have thoroughly enjoyed them. With many beauty or toiletry products it is a matter of, 'do they work? do they do the job in hand?' and if they do then it's happy days. With this little kit it has not just been a matter of functionality but it has been a pleasure to incorporate them into my beauty regime. 

The hero product from this set for me is the hand balm. With a gentle scent of apricot, this hand cream soaks in beautifully leaving no greasy film (urgh, I hate that), my hands feel smooth and plump and most importantly, thoroughly moisturised. I love that this kit supplies it in a miniature which is perfect for popping in your handbag or keeping in the car glove box for quick applications on the go. In times of need I've also used a little bit of it on my face and thought it was lovely, although clearly this is not it's main purpose. 

The other three items in this travel kit have all been above par and I really do feel that the price tag reflects the quality of these charming little pamper products. All in all, I am thrilled with this beautifully packaged back of gorgeousness.

Have you tried any of Diptyque's products? Would you pay a little bit more for luxury?

Toodlepip!

xx

little miss

Sweater: Milly. Skirt: Alice + Olivia (old). Shoes: Stuart Weitzman (also buy here). Purse: Valentino. Sunglasses: Karen Walker 'Number One'. Trench: Banana Republic (old). Jewelry: David Yurman, Stella and Dot, Hermes, Pomellato, Chanel, YSL.

fling

Top: J.Crew. Sweatshirt: Zoe Karssen. Skirt: Kate Spade. Shoes: Madewell (old but amazing boot version here). Sunglasses: Dior. Jewelry: David Yurman, Hermes, Pomellato, Jcrew, YSL. Lips: Make Up Forever Professionals #40. Nails: Essie 'Lollipop'.

Treasure

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

 

 

Ooohhhhh I love a little rummage through ebay. I'm not really one for second hand things (I don't mind charity shops because I can really get a feel for the item) so tend to stick to new products on there, and these are plentiful!

This week's (not sure if I will make this a regular feature or a once in a while thing) ebay treasure is Silver Moon. This is a little eshop full of cutesie shabby chic bits and pieces to make your house feel like a home. 

I love all the cute storage items and candle holders, not to mention the love blocks!! Squeee!!

Are you an ebay fan? If you would like to run this feature on your own blog, do feel free to use my image but please do link it back to this blog. 

What's the best thing you have ever bought from ebay?

Toodlepip!

xx

move it

Dress: Marna Ro. Purse: YSL Muse. Jacket: Jcrew (old but similar here). Shoes: Pierre Hardy. Sunglasses: Burberry. Lips: NARS 'Schiap'. Jewelry: Micahel Kors, YSL, Pomellato, David Yurman, Hermes, Jcrew.

Summer Summary

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

To me, September symbolises the rise of Autumn and the fall of Summer and a happy transition from sandals to pumps to boots. Hurrah!

It seems that this weekend is firmly in the Summer camp with warm weather, the smell of neighbours BBQ's and the sound of lawn mowers lingering in the atmosphere.

I thought I would take this seasonal opportunity to sum up Summer 2012, tuck it into it's low tog bed and look forward to a time of orange leaves and cosy blankets. 

 May was a good month. I forced myself to take time out and be creative. I absolutely love crafting but all too often a million other things on my 'to do' list push it to the bottom on the pile and I never have a moment to whip out my needle and thread and enjoy it. As part of my '7 Things' series I challenged myself to create and made this very easy no-sew tutu. Yay.

June was a sunny month but not too hot, thank goodness. I made my Dad and Matt some arty-photo Father's Day gifts which they both loved. Aside from the usual things like seeing chums, spending time with family, playing with Baby Glitter and trying out lots of lovely beauty products, the thing I enjoyed most about June was mine and Matt's rather windy (the in-the-sky kind of wind, not the bottom kind haha!) patio date. It was just blissful to sit, eat and not think about the day to day gripes of life. We have been doing that more often and very much benefiting from it.

July was the month I went barmy and decided to write 2 blog posts a day. I kept it up for about 4 weeks but then I came to my senses and realised that although it was a fun short term challenge, it wasn't a realistically sustainable long term goal! This month I pouted away in Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balmstains and after having my Instragram pictures printed, made this huge framed collage for the landing.

August was my crazy-busy-don't-sit-down-for-a-second month! We spent a happy week in the North, greeting our brand new baby niece, shopping, mooching round museums, letting Baby Glitter spend quality time with her Grandparents and I took a little break from the internet. Then, after some relaxed family time it was all systems go and Zoe and I trotted off to London for 2 amazing days at Summer In The City (a rather fabulous YouTube gathering) where we were able to meet so many of our brilliant YouTube viewers and see our other YouTube chums and catch up on all their news. Lots of other things happened this month which you can see on my blog and channels but those were the two biggies and I won't bore you by going on and on. And on. And on. Etc. 

And here we are, September. A time of back to school enthusiasm, my wedding anniversary, blogger events, the dilemma of 'do I finally treat myself to some good quality boots?' and a whole heap of blogger motivation!

I feel like I am brimming with ideas and posts for the next few months and am itching to put finger to keyboard and get going!

How has your Summer been? What are you looking forward to this season?

Toodlepip!

xx

Instagram Effects

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

As a lot of you with smart phones may know, there is a photo sharing social network app called Instagram which, in my humble opinion, is AMAZING.

My username on it is @Sprinkleofglitr (like my twitter) and I go on it, scroll through, 'like' things, comment on other images and upload my on photos multiple times a day. I think it's fair to say, I have an addiction.

At least once a day, I am asked what effects I use to make my pictures look the way they do and so I thought that this might help a lot of people who enquire (although I will continue answering on Instagram too for those that don't read this blog).

For images like the three above, I have simply used the filters that Instagram offers. I find these to be full and varied and enjoy the different warmths of colour you can create. You can really make images feel cosy. I tend to stick to 'Rise' (brightens the image with a buttery tone), 'X-pro II' (darkens round the edges and increases shadow depth) and 'Walden' (adds a cool tone). Once you have the app, you can play around and see which filters you find appealing and you'll develop your own insta-style. Oohhh, see what I did there? Haha.

After a while, you might want to spread your wings a bit from the Instagram-provided filters and stretch your wings a bit to something more fanciful.

You can create these filters and light effects by downloading an app called Picfx from the app store. I believe it is about £1.49 (app prices often vary over time) but I think it was money well spent. This app is simple pimple to use, has a huge array of filters and plenty of light effects to choose from. It also automatically crops your picture to instagram size so you can rest assured that whilst you are creating your masterpiece you won't loose any of it when you upload it. Instagram images are always square. 

I absolutely adore the sense of magic and whimsy you can add to your snaps with these effects. Even if you aren't on Instagram, you could buy this app and play with your existing pictures just for your own amusement. It certainly makes you feel like a little photographer!

 

 

And then there are all the other little tricks you can do on your phone to make interesting or fun instragram pictures. I'm sure there are a million and one different things you can do, but above I have features some of mine. 

The top picture is a collage I made on Nostalgio (this app was free when I downloaded it but I believe you have to pay for it now) and Picfx. I took a picture of myself (vain!), played with filters and saved 4 images that I liked the colours of, put the chosen 4 into Nostalgio in the collage format I liked (a simple quad) and tada! Uploaded to Instagram. I thought it looked a little pop-arty and I felt so artistic!

The second picture is a really simple way to share blog images (I use picmonkey.com to hlp with those) and all I did was hopped onto the internet on my phone and took a screenshot of my blog. By doing this you are sharing a sneak peak of your new blog post with your instagram audience and can let them know there is something new to read if they fancy it. It's a double bonus because you are playing on Instragram (which suits my addiction) and promoting yourself too! Yay!

The last image is a new app I have found and is a whole heap of fun! This is 'Tiny Planet' and it allows you to take any picture and turn it into a (as the name would suggest) tiny planet! It's not something I use on a lot of my photos as I tend to take a lot of close up pictures but I think it's really fun for far away shots and makes for interesting results!

As well as the artistic license that Instagram affords you, I really love that you can link up all your updates to other social networking platforms (facebook and twitter to name but two) as this allows you to share the joy a bit and also means you have more places to nose at other people's creations.

In summary, I'm an instragramaholic and like any good 'aholic'!

Are you on Instagram? Would you be interested in playing a little Instagram-Blog game with me? Feel free to leave your Instagram name below too.

Toodlepip!

xx