L'Occitane Pivoine Delicate Hand Cream

My last L'Occitane review (for a while anyway) is for the Pivoine Delicate Hand Cream. Also launched as part of the Pivoine Delicate collection for spring 2012, and comes in the same pretty flowery packaging as the rest of the collection.

The hand cream has the same peony scent as the fragrance, but it's not too strong and fades away quite quickly. The cream is lightweight, non-greasy and gets absorbed quickly. At the moment my hands are not dry, but they can always do with a bit of moisture, and this product does that nicely. It's a very nice hand cream and I'll be happy to use it all up. You get 75 ml for £14 which is a bit too high for me for a hand cream, I kind of draw the line at £10.

There is one more thing I'm not too keen on and that's the packaging. The cream comes in a squeezy tube and the cap of the tube isn't removable, but has a small hole in it and by twisting the cap you open and close the hole. When you squeeze the cream out, you can get it all over the cap if you're not careful, plus when you twist to close, a bit more cream escapes. Since I prefer storing it standing up on the cap, this can result in quite a bit of mess, so I've decided to keep the sticky label on the opening (that it came with) to avoid getting the cream everywhere. Other than that it's a lovely product.

The collection is now available from L'Occitane both online and in-stores.

See more pictures after the jump!

L'Occitane Pivoine Delicate Eau De Toilette

First of all, I'd like to point out that I'm rubbish at describing scents, and that is why I don't normally do fragrance reviews. But since I was sent the new Pivoine Delicate Eau de Toilette from L'Occitane's new spring collection of the same name, I thought I'd give it a go.

I can describe the packaging, it's very pretty, pink and feminine. All the products I was sent from this collection have the lovely peony flower detail on the outer packaging. On the inside, a fairly simple glass bottle with pretty pink fragrance inside it. Now for the fragrance. I think it's best if I copy what it says on the (tin) box:

And that's pretty much spot on. A delicate flowery fragrance that after a while smells a little soapy on me. It's quite nice, not offensive, and despite being quite delicate, lingers on for most of the day. I'd say it would make a lovely spring daytime fragrance if you like roses and peonies. For me it's just a little too powdery, but fragrance is so personal, that is why I don't really like reviewing it.

You get 75 ml for £35 which isn't too bad, it's the same as L'Occitane's Pivoine Flora EDT. It should be available soon on the L'Occitane website and in stores. 

See another photo after the jump!

L'Occitane Pivoine Delicate Lipstick Review and Swatches

As I told you earlier, I've received some products from the new Pivoine Delicate collection by L'Occitane. First up is one of the lipsticks, this is shade 2, Pivoine Delicate.

Don't you just love the packaging? So pretty. Both the outer box and the tube itself have the gorgeous peony flower details, all very pink and girly. The lipstick itself is a pinky beige shade with some very fine shimmer. The colour is hardly noticable when applied, it is very sheer, almost just adds sheen rather than colour. You will see swatches below, those were taken after I swiped 10 times! The listick has a subtle flowery scent (peony) which I don't find too overpowering, but it's definitely there, so if you don't like your lip products scented, then this isn't for you.

Would I buy this lipstick myself? No, I wouldn't. It's just too sheer for my liking and it disappears completely after about an hour. £12.50 is just too much to spend on a lipstick that is hardly noticable and needs reapplying every hour. I would rather buy a Revlon Lip Butter to be honest. Maybe the other shades are more pigmented, I don't know, but this one certainly isn't.

See more pictures including swatches after the jump!

L'Occitane Pivoine Delicate Collection for Spring

Launching this April is L'Occitane's new collection Pivoine Delicate and it has some lovely products. The collection is made up of two parts: fragrance collection and make up collection.

The fragrance collection contains Pivoine Delicate Eau de Toilette (75 ml / £33), Fresh Mist (50 ml / £13), Hand Cream (75 ml / £13), Shimmering Powder (8 g / £22) and Eau de Toilette and Gloss Duo (2 x 5.5 ml / £14).

The make up collection contains 3 Lipshines (8 ml / £11.50 each) and 3 Lipsticks (3.5 g / £12.50).

I was sent a few products to try out including the Eau de Toilette, the handcream and a lipstick, so I will be reviewing them over the next few days. For now I leave you with a picture. I just love the packaging of these, don't you?

L'Occitane Shea Butter Defense - Supreme Winter Protection

So what happened to spring? Just the other day I was wondering what springtime fragrance I should wear as the weather was getting milder (well, the whole winter had been pretty mild in the UK to be fair, up until now that is) and my Harajuku Lovers holiday fragrance was beginning to feel a bit out of place. And then bang! The temperature suddenly plummeted and last weekend it even snowed. So what better time to be sent some lovely shea butter face care products from L'Occitane to try out.

Firstly I'd like to point out that I don't normally suffer from dry skin (on my face anyway), my skin is normal with oily bits (T-zone). But even so, when the temperature is near zero and the wind is blowing in your face, a bit of extra moisture doesn't hurt anyone. I was sent two kinds of face creams to try out, the Ultra Rich Face Cream that contains 25% shea butter and the Ultra Gentle Moisturiser that contains 8%. First one is recommended for dry to very dry skin, so I thought I'd try it as my night cream, in case it makes my face more oily, and the second one as a day cream as that is recommended for normal to dry skin (and also sensitive skin). I was also sent a 100% pure shea butter beauty balm that is handy on the go and ideal for chapped lips.

Carry on reading to find out what I thought about these products!

The Great 30 Day Lipstick Challenge - Week 3

Now that I'm into the second half of my 30 day lipstick challenge, I am having more of a difficulty picking out the lipsticks I want to wear. Even though there are approx. 60 lipsticks in the box with a variety of different shades and finishes, I feel that I find it hard choosing. Also I want to make sure I choose from different brands, so it's not too boring for you either. This week I actually used lipsticks from 6 brands and managed to choose a variety of shades too, so not too bad. We'll see how the last 9 days go, although this has been good fun, my Guerlain and Chanel lipsticks are calling my name. It's funny though as I suspect many of you out there don't even have 60 lipsticks, but obviously I get bored quickly and need to have a lot of them to keep me happy.

Anyway these are the lipsticks I wore this week:
1. Lancome L'Absolu Rouge in shade 350
2. No7 Moisture Drench lipstick in 50 Cameo
3. L'Occitane Pivoine Flora lipstick in 02 Rose Pique
4. Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in 440 Cherries In The Snow
5. Maybelline ColorSensational lipstick in 148 Summer Pink
6. Mac Sheen Supreme Lipstick in Full Speed
7. Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in 415 Pink In The Afternoon

Find out what I thought about these lipsticks and see swatches (including lip swatches) after the jump!

L'Occitane Pivoine Flora eyeshadow palette, lipstick and lipgloss review and swatches

Today I would like to show you my rather small haul from L'Occitate's new summer collection called Pivoine Flora. I got the rather lovely eyeshadow palette (Petals Eye Quartet), a lipstick (Rose Pique) and a lipgloss (Pointe Grandine). There are also some nice eyeshadow duos in the collection, some of which I considered getting, but the shades weren't unique enough and there was no pretty pattern on them, unlike the Petals Eye Quartett.

The palette contains 4 soft, beige, pink and purple eyeshadows with raised flower pattern on them, and also come with a small mirror and double ended brush/applicator. The eyeshadows are nice and soft, and a bit shimmery, just as I like them. I haven't actually worn any of these products yet, so all my opinion is based on my swatches.

The lipstick is a nice rosy pink shade, it's nowhere near as bright as it looks in the tube, in fact it applies rather sheer. The lipgloss is more true to colour, it's a nice reddish shade, and it actually delivers quite a lot of colour. It also has a nice subtle shimmer to it and it's not sticky at all. The lipstick has quite a strong flowery scent (I think it's peony, it's very similar to their Peony shimmer powder's scent that I got last year), but it's fine, I don't mind it.

All in all, a nice little collection, worth checking out. Available online and in L'Occitane stores. The eyeshadow palette costs £22, lipstick £12, lipgloss £11.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

More L'Occitane make up!

My local L'Occitane has finally got the eyeshadow duos in, so of course I bought them all! :) They come in 3 colours, light purple with dark purple, yellow with brown and light pink with burgundy. The bigger, lighter coloured half is more of a highlighter / all over colour, little bit shimmery, and the darker bits are more crease colours. They are all pretty, quite sheer, really lovely. My favourite is the light pink / burgundy duo, especially as the burgundy is a bit shimmery as well, really lovely colour.

I also picked up one of the lipsticks, shade number 03. I think they didn't have this one last time because I really like this and the lipsticks I tested last time I wasn't too keen on. It's a lovely shimmery pinky-coral shade, quite sheer, but really glossy. Lovely. :)

I'm still ooh-ing and ah-ing about the bronzer powder, but I think I will leave it as I've already bought way too much from this collection.

See some product and swatch photos below...

L'Occitane Peony Make Up Collection Haul

I told you about L'Occitane's upcoming make up collection here and now I'm happy to report that the collection has arrived in the UK. I have a L'Occitane in my town, so when I walked past it today I spotted the stand with all the pretty make up, and couldn't resist to check it out. They didn't have everything including the duo eyeshadows due to the recent travel disruption, but they should have the missing things tomorrow, so I will go back and check. I came away with the pretty illuminating powder, a blush, two lipglosses, the cheek and lip stain and the shimmering beauty powder (which I didn't know about until now). They're all packaged it beautiful flowery paper bags that remind me of the packaging of flower bulbs, and the powders are in cardboard boxes just like Paul & Joe powders. The lipglosses have paper/card on the outside of the top of the wand but plastic on the inside. They all look really pretty. The Beauty Powder is absolutely huge (40 g), it's for the body, but will last forever anyway, it comes with a huge fluffy puff and is housed in a tin rather than cardboard. I tested the lipsticks, but they are too sheer for my liking and the two lighter lipglosses weren't very interesting to me, but might suit others more who like sheerer colours. There's also a lipbalm that is a very light pink colour which I also didn't get. They were missing a blush (no. 03), so need to check that, they also didn't have the bronzing powder, but I probably won't want that. Below are some photos of what I did get and some swatches too. Couldn't really swatch the illuminating powder as it's very light and doesn't really show up other than a sheer glow. Tried to show you how gorgeous the shimmery beauty powder is, but the camera just couldn't capture its beauty. You need to check it out in person! ;) Oh and there's also a new perfume called Peony which smells absolutely gorgeous, but as I'm on a perfume no-buy until I use up at least 3 of my existing perfumes (honestly, I have at least 30!), I sadly have to give it a miss right now.

The collection is also available online on http://www.loccitane.co.uk/ and you get free delivery on orders over £59.

See photos of products and swatches...

Illuminating powder

Blush shade 02

Blush swatch

Lipglosses no. 03 and 04 and lip and cheek tint

Lipgloss and lip and cheek tint swatches (same order)

Huge powder puff for the Beauty Powder

Beauty Powder

Beauty Powder swatch

L’Occitane En Provence Peony Makeup Collection

There is another collection coming out in May that I'm really excited about and it's L'Occitane's new make up collection. It contains gorgeous powders, blushes, duo eyeshadows and lip products in beautiful packaging, all named after types of peonies. Not available in the UK yet, but should be coming out in a few weeks time I believe. I got these images from the American website usa.loccitane.com and from Musings of a Muse . Aren't they products are just so gorgeous? They remind me a lot of Paul & Joe's powders and eyeshadows. I particularly like the pink Illuminating powder and the pink and purple duo eyeshadows. I'm very much looking forward to checking them out in person, and will be back with the details. See some photos...