Yardley introduce Royal English Daisy (and a quick peak around their store)

Yardley.  A brand that brings back memories of sneaking a peek at my grandmother putting on her signature Lavender scent.  So fine tuned are my olfactory senses (I was just waiting to get that word out) to the smell that I can sniff it out quicker than a shark sniffs out blood.
 
Keen to appeal to a wider market, the brand has recently undergone a makeover.  Where once the Yardley flower girls took pride of place, there now stands a white background and a sleek, elegant typeface with both the Royal warrants thrown in for good measure.
 
In this vein of transformation and to commemorate the engagement of William and Kate (Katherine) Middleton, Yardley have released Royal English Daisy.

An elegent, green floral, dewy fresh scent,  Royal English Daisy boasts top notes (which to my shame, I only found out recently meant "the first thing you smell") of fresh green leaves and apples.  The heart/middle notes (the ones that you get once the top note vanishes) consist of hyacinth and white rose and the base notes are a mixture sandlewood and musk.  I didn't think the fragrance would smell as light as it does as musk is usually a heavy smell but I smell fresh as a dasiy all day with this.  See what I did there? Please, hold your applause. 

All Yardley scents are based on one or two key linear notes which means that one note remains constant through the fragrance.  This is softened and shaped by the added top, heart and base notes.  This approach is consistent throughout all the scents so the body spray smells exactly like the perfume.

The shop has also undergone a makover..it's nice and bright but manages to have a homely kind of feel for me as my mum has this kind of setup in her dressing room..a room I can't even enter because I'd mess it up.  Which is true..my mum is as tidy as I am messy..and I'm compelled by law (the law being me) to say that I don't even have a dressing table *grumble grumble*

The Royal English Daisy range is priced as follows:

· Eau de Toilette - 50ml bottle - £9.99
· Body Spray - 75ml bottle - £2.49
· Moisturising Body Lotion - £5.95

If you want to visit their store then it's super easy to find.  All you need to do is get the First Great Western Train to Windsor and Eton Central.  I went from the Paddington side, if you go that way, you need to change at Slough and change for the train to Windsor and Eton Central.  Once you come out of Windsor and Eton Central station, get your eyes in gear (I only say this as I got lost which is typical me) and you will see the shop across the road on your right).  If you're prone to getting lost like me then you can also check out Woods of Windsor and Yardley online.

The Body Shop Summer 2010

This summer, The Body Shop are making some changes and welcoming some noobs to the vast range of products they sell.

Alongside additions to their Vitamin C skincare line and the reinvention of their haircare line, they are  releasing the brand spanking new Baked to Last and Delipscious collections.

I was invited to a bloggers event this past Friday to check out the products.

Me and Karleigh decided to meet up at the station and get to the hotel together..we got there about 20 minutes too early and stood outside discussing Dolly Parton.  Yeah, I know you wish you were cool like us.

We ventured inside and were greeted by the lovely Headstream and Body Shop ladies.  We were whisked out onto the veranda where it was really nice and cool (I mean weatherwise but it still pretty cool checking out the London skyline, despite the million and one cranes dotted around the place).

We were supping our orange juices (can you sup cold things?) and discussing our favourite old school Body Shop bits.  I seem to be the only person who doesn't get on with the banana conditioner but we all seem to love the ice blue shampoo.

The haircare range.

The range is now more benefits led as opposed to ingredients led as it's easier to decipher the benefits of a shampoo which says "shine" on the bottle as opposed to "olive".  The products are now also free of silicones, parabens and colourants. 

The hair butters are what excited me the most as you know by now that I love deep conditioning my hair.  It smells heavenly, looks very thick but feels light..

The Vitamin C range.
Keep your peepers peeled for a microdermabrasion scrub, an eye roll on/brightener combo and a skin radiance powder mix.  The skin radiance powder is, according to me, a skincare renegade as I have never ever seen anything like it in the shops before.

The bottles at the bottom left of the screen are both the powder mix.  You push the white button down, this releases Vitamin C powder into the liquid.  Give it a good shake, take off the white part and fix on the orange pipette thingy.  You're meant to use it immediately for 10 days and it promises to perk your skin right up.

The Baked to Last collection.
We were then introduced to Chase Aston (who I wanted to take home with me) and he introduced the Baked to Last collection and showed how to use the products and take your look from day to night.

The collection consists of baked eyeshadows, blushers and a highlighters.

The Delipscious lip collection.
Apparently, an average woman eats about 281 lipsticks in her entire life..which is why I was glad to find out that the Delipcious lippies were made from 100% food extract.  They're very lightweight and the amount of pigment is just perfect for summer.

Then it was cupcake time! I was going to make my way over to them but got waylaid talking to Chase as I had a million and one makeup questions to ask him.  He applied one of the baked shadows on my eyelids and they looked fantastic..I would never have used pink/red/black on my skintone but the colours worked really well.  I totally forgot to take a photo of them though..

We took our seats and were told about The Body Shop's latest charity partnership.  The Body Shop have teamed up with Epcat..which I won't discuss here but there will be a post up about in the very near future but I will say that if you buy the Soft Hands Kind Heart handcream, £3.45 will go towards preventing child trafficking to the UK.