Friday Favourites - Luxury Perfumes

With spring (and even summer) on our minds, we at The Amazing Blog are rounding up our favourite perfumes that represent both our personalities and our surroundings!

Not only representing personalities but also expressing the character of the city are the Londoner fragrances.  After uncovering her love affair with London, beauty industry expert Rebecca Goswell seeks to capture the essence of her inspiration. Londoner fragrances represent the urban society; each scent is named after the postal code of the distinct part of city it captures.  We really appreciate that all of the brand's scents are androgynous, encompassing the character of either male or female which allowed everyone in the office (even Jose) to give feedback on the scents.  Our favourite scent in the line is the N6 Urban Fragrance with its notes of crisp bergamot, English fruit, jasmine and caramel.  Not only does the scent capture a bold yet classy personality, but it represents the elegant character of the Highgate Village as well. Other Londoner fragrances include W1X, EC2 and SE1.  Explore the city without leaving your home with the Londoner fragrances which are available here for £81.

Taking us on holiday to the Italian Mediterranean with every spray is Blu Mediterraneo by the classic Italian perfumers, Acqua di Parma.  Blu Mediterraneo’s first impression is energetic but is later complemented by a soothing aroma after settling on the skin.  These characteristic are captured with notes of juniper, bergamot and spices which are complimented with hints of sage, cypress and Virginia Cedarwood.  After the first spritz, we couldn’t stop passing the fragrance around the office.  From the ocean-blue colour of the bottle to the scent of the perfume, Blu Mediterraneo is the perfect escape!  Find the Eau de Toliette here for £54.

Another beautiful perfume to add some colour to your dressing table, is the innovative brand Aura-Soma Pegasus. An interesting idea, you choose your perfume based on the colour of the bottle as opposed to the scent. The concept behind the brand is that the colour you select is a reflection of your mood and personality, and the fragrance you get will act in harmony with your spiritual and emotional wellbeing. The office favourite is 75, which has a wonderful orange flower aroma. Its combination of turquoise and magenta helped to create a peaceful environment in the office.  Aura-Soma Pegasus perfume are more than just cosmetic; they are intuitive. On top of this unique feature, the perfume is the only one in the world to contain organic alcohol, an aspect we greatly admire. Aura-Soma Pegasus perfumes are available to buy here for £85.

Friday Favourites - Mother's Day

Guess who? She often deprives herself, yet makes certain you have the best of everything.  That’s right, it’s Mum! Our mum’s really are the best and deserve more than one day during the year to be celebrated and appreciated.  All of us here at The Amazing Blog want to help make your mum’s special day perfect, so we have a few original ideas up our sleeves. Ranging from candles to cocktails, there’s something for every mum!

A burning candle is a great way to set the tone for a relaxing afternoon or evening.  Wick & Tallow candles offer the luxury of a home accessory with a touch of British individuality.  Constructed from scratch by product and interior designers, as well as a biology graduate with an interest in botany, Wick & Tallow Waxsmiths intrigue candle-lovers with their contemporary twist on both the candle's packaging and scent.  The original black matte colour of Wick & Tallow packaging (with a vibrant highlight colour) coordinates flawlessly with the unique scent of the candles, which last up to 50 hours!  The Patchouli & Grapefruit Candle, for example, is a calming yellow (perfect for mum!) which flawlessly matches the notes of garden floral and tart grapefruit in the burning candle.  Find the Patchouli & Grapefruit Candle here for £35.00. And as a Mother's Day treat, Wick & Tallow are offering a 20% discount on this candle when you use the code, MUMSTHEWORD. Make mum feel young and modern while relaxing to the scent and design of Wick & Tallow candles.  A variety of candle colours and scents can be found here.

On her special day, mum deserves to sit back, relax and pamper herself with a fun cocktail in hand!  To make her job a bit easier, Pontoon Cocktails have designed pre-mixed, frozen and unpasteurized cocktails which guarantee the same freshness as the day they were made!  Offer your mum the fun and frilly Angelica mixed drink from Pontoon Cocktails!  With a mix of contemporary and traditional ingredients like Ketel One Vodka, Cocchi Americano and Regan’s No.6 orange bitters, Angelica is a hand-crafted pink plunge of citrus and flowers.  Perfectly packaged with a ribbon tied around its top, the Angelica mixed drink from Pontoon Cocktails is a perfect gift for mum!  A 500ml of Angelica is £34.99 and can be found here.

If drinks aren't your mum's style, maybe she'd prefer a chocolate treat. Like most women, mum certainly loves clothing and shoes, but gifting clothing or shoes to mum can be a challenge.  Why not combine her love for shoes with the sweet temptation of chocolate with a La Signorina Chocolate Stiletto! La Signorina specialise in fair-trade, hand-made chocolate delicacies in the shape of shoes, bouquets and chess sets.  These Italian style dark chocolates give personality to each piece with their fair-trade chocolate beans, and La Signorina kindly sent The Amazing Blog the Fortuna Chocolate Stiletto!  Fortuna was the Roman goddess of fortune, promising mum good luck in the months to follow. Not only is the shoe the size of a wearable stiletto (UK size 3), but the inside of the slipper is detailed with the La Signorina insignia and is finished with a chocolate flower on the toe.  Specializing in chocolate gifts, La Signorina lets mum have her shoes and eat them too!  Select the perfect chocolate stiletto for mum for only £40 here.

If your mum grew up during the 60s or 70s she is probably familiar with Aqua Manda, after smelling the perfume on her own mother!  This nostalgic perfume is the ultimate memory jogger, taking mum back to her flower power days. Aqua Manda uses the psychedelic colour orange to reflect the era in both colour and scent!

Made with essential oils of mandarin, ginger, lavender, patchouli, cinnamon, and other aromatic herbs, Aqua Manda consists of an abundance of fruity scents.   The refreshing and light smell is a great pick me up and works perfectly as a summer fragrance. The oriental and spicy base notes give a kick to the perfume which can help in the mornings if you get up early and need something to wake you up. Once applied, the perfume sits on your skin all day and only fades slightly. Take mum back to childhood with this happy, fruity and fun scent!  A bottle of Aqua Manda is £39.99 and can be purchased  here.

The Apothecary Room – Lavender Room Spray

During busy seasons here at The Amazing Blog, we crave uplifting refreshment for our bodies and spirits, and The Apothecary Room Lavender Room Spray offers just that!  In a single spritz, the Lavender Room Spray engulfs our office, filling the room with health and beauty benefits.

Specialising in hand blended products for both the home and body, The Apothecary Room specifically uses essential oils from sustainable and organic sources to revive the body, mind and spirit from the stresses of modern life.  The Lavender Room Spray is free from preservatives (like all other Apothecary Room products) and includes impressive ingredients like Lavender, Bergamot, Patchouli and Juniper Essential Oils.  This combination of natural and paraben free oils has left our office with a fresh, clean, floral yet woody scent in the air.  We really appreciate that The Apothecary Room applies their passion for nature and the environment to every aspect of their products, even the creation of the bottle.  All Apothecary Room containers are made of PET plastic which is 100% recyclable. Other home and lifestyle products by The Apothecary Room include diffusers and linen sprays.  The Apothecary Room Lavender Spray can be found here for £12.

The Apothecary Room also specialises in products directly for the body including facial oils, cleansers, toners, body oils, bath salts, hand and nail oils.  These additional products can be found here.

The Perfume Studio – Design Your Own Fragrance 'GIVEAWAY'

If you’re like the girls here at The Amazing Blog, you’ve likely been searching for the perfect perfume, but have been unable to find the exact scent that expresses your personality.  Luckily, we have found a very original solution: designing your own fragrance!  The Perfume Studio invites you to Design Your Own Fragrance with the Oriental kit to capture the essence of your individuality.

The Perfume Studio’s master perfumists have spent years developing 18 blends to capture the essence of all personalities.  These high-street inspired fragrances are enduring on the skin with their combination of top, middle and low note scent extracts.  Lasting for up to three hours, top notes include refreshing scents like Citrus, Green, Aldehydic, Fruity, Herbal, and Amber.  The middle note fragrances, which the Perfume Studio argues are the most important part, linger on the skin for up to 12 hours.  These include scents of Ozonic, Fresh Flora, Rose Floral, Tonic Sport and many others.  Low notes by The Perfume Studio last even longer, with a scent-life of 24 hours!  This assures a constant yet luscious scent without continuous reapplication.  These low notes are represented by the scents Woody, Balsamic, Musky, and Mossy.  All of these diverse scents are represented in The Perfume Studio boxes Oriental, Fresh, Floral, Master Perfumer and Diamante Master Perfumer here. The Perfume Studio classes also feature all of these high, middle and low note scents.

We too had the chance create our own fragrance!  We tested the Oriental design kit by The Perfume Studio which includes 3 pipettes and 6 tester blotters to assist in becoming a perfumer.  This set contains the scents Woody, Citrus, Spicy, Amber, Floral Floral and Musky.  The ingredients of each fragrance express a distinct emotion.  Woody, for example, is primarily made of Sandalwood and conveys and elegant yet mellow emotion.  With seven easy to follow steps, the ideal fragrance is yours in no time!  This do-it-yourself, Oriental perfume kit can be purchased here for £29.95.  The Perfume Studio has been kind enough to award the FIRST FIVE  readers who email The Amazing Blog, press@amazingpr.co.uk, with a complimentary, do-it-yourself Oriental Perfume kit*.

Though we find The Perfume Studio kits to be super innovative, we especially love the pampering The Perfume Studio offers through their creative classes.  The Perfume Studio sessions are hosted by master perfumists who assist attendees in their selection of premiere scents.  Group Scent Events for wedding parties, groups of girlfriends and even men are just a few of the events sponsored by The Perfume Studio.  This exclusive experience can even be brought to the comfort of your home when hosting a ‘home fragrance party’.  With nationwide locations, and an annual event in London, The Perfume Studio offers their sessions in numerous salons and day spas.  Theses exclusive sessions which ‘Capture the Essence of You’ start as low as £39.95.  All of The Perfume Studio events can be found here.

*In your email please include your name and post address with the subject line "Perfume Studio Giveaway". We will announce the winners on our Twitter page @AmazingPRltd on Tuesday 11 March by 12.00!

Terms and Conditions:

• This giveaway is free to enter. No purchase is necessary.
• Entrants to this giveaway must be aged 18 or over and it's open internationally.
• The giveaway prize is : 1 do-it-yourself Oriental Perfume kit
• Employees and the immediate families of The Perfume Studio are not entitled to enter this giveaway.
• The Perfume Studio reserves the right to amend and/or withdraw the giveaway at any time without prior notice.
• This giveaway closes at 12pm on Tuesday 11^th March.
• In your email please include your name and post address with the subject line "Perfume Studio Giveaway". We will announce the winners on our Twitter page @AmazingPRltd on Tuesday 11 March by 12.00
• No cash option or alternative to prizes offered.
• The winners will be notified on the 11/03/2014 by email. This must be acknowledged by the winner, by telephone or email within twenty-four hours of end date. Failure to respond means an alternative winner will be selected from all valid entries received.
• Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules and to agree to be bound by them.
• We will not pass on your personal details to any other organisation without your permission, except for the purpose of awarding the giveaway if necessary.
• The judge's decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
• The promoter of the giveaway is The Perfume Studio. The name and region of the winners may be obtained by writing to the following address after 11/03/2014: The Perfume Studio Giveaway, Amazing PR, Worlds End Studio, 134 Lots Road, London SW10 0RJ.

Friday Favourites - Valentine's Day

To quote Robert Smith (lead singer of the Cure) “It’s Friday and [we’re] in love!” Yes, today is the day when lovers all over the world will be showering their loved ones with heart-felt messages and gifts. Don't worry if you don’t have a partner, why not just treat yourself! But for those of you that will be spreading the love, we here at The Amazing Blog have compiled a few of our Valentine’s Day favourites to help get you on your way.

Let’s start by setting the mood or the ‘ambiance’ for this special date night. Ancienne Ambiance is a British luxury brand that produces luxury goods and utilises fragrances that are inspired by ingredients and techniques from ancient times. They offer an array of beautifully candles, soaps, bath salts and oils. Their products are hand-poured and delivered in elegant purple (our favourite colour!) hand-crafted gift boxes. The brand has recently introduced the Lavendula Collection, which features top quality, pesticide-free lavender which is produced in both France and UK. From the Lavendula Collection, we particularly love the soaps and bath salts which immediately fill the office with an aroma of calming lavender (much needed to calm our hectic days...). The Lavendula Beauty Gift Set in full of lots of gorgeous goodies that  include a pillar candle, three soaps, bath & body oil and salts. The set is a perfect way of giving your loved one a relaxing evening and can be found here.

Given that Ancienne Ambiance specialises in the art of luxury candle making, we must mention their limited edition Valentine’s Day, Red Eros Rose Scented Candle. This premium three wick candle is scented with the most delicious Damascan Roses. It uses slow burning beeswax and best of all has no wax dripping issues. The Damascan Roses are used in particular to make a variety of rose-scented products due to their rich, floral scent therefore this candle is sure to fill the room with a sweet and irresistible fragrance. The candle is available here for £34.

If you want something a bit more unusual, why not give your loved one a unique one-of-a-kind vase filled with allegedly a 'thousand rose petals’. Ashleigh & Burwood creates home fragrances that are meant to beautify and enhance your home’s ambience through fragrance. Ashleigh & Burwood offers the Decadent Diffuser Gift Set which includes the scent of a ‘thousand rose petals’ in an artisan-made vase with mosaic detailing, guaranteeing no two vases are ever the same. This diffuser gives off a velvety, red rose scent that is enhanced with warm subtle spices and a twist of exotic ylang ylang. Ylang ylang is found in Southeast Asia and is used to relieve stress, induce happiness and act as an aphrodisiac. The diffuser gift set is available for £22.50 and can be found here.

Next we have a sweet treat for your date night courtesy of Charbonnel et Walker. They are the  purveyors of fine chocolates and have been crafting chocolates since 1875. For Valentine’s Day they offer various gift sets for that special someone. We were lucky enough to try the Truffle Kisses box which includes the signature Pink Marc de Champagne and the new Raspberry Marc de Champagne Truffles. We were excited to try these and they didn't disappoint with their decadent champagne kisses! The truffles have a hard pink chocolate shell that unveiled a delicate, chocolate filling, which was infused with hints of raspberry and champagne perfect for a romantic night in. The chocolates are hand-made and follow a traditional recipe which is couverture (which means the chocolate has a higher cocoa butter content) giving the chocolate a unique richer and silkier taste. The boxes come with complimentary gift wrapping thus making the presentation beautiful and hassle free!  The boxes are available in store or online here for £20.And if that dose of sweetness was not enough, pick up a box of Macarons by Babette. Babette is relatively new (launching in March 2013) and they supply to various cafes around London including Le Pain Quotidien  restaurants. Le Pain Quotidien offers macarons in boxes of two or six, but Macarons Babette takes on much larger orders depending on the occasion and event. If you really want to go over the top and ‘wow’ your partner, Macarons by Babette even offers a whole tower of macarons! Whatever your needs this Valentine’s Day, Macarons by Babette are sure to have a flavour for you. You can order yours online or find a supplier here.

Lastly, we have something that incorporates everything  for Valentine’s Day. It is an all-inclusive hotel that showers you and your lover in chocolaty delights. The Chocolate Boutique Hotel is located in Bournemouth, Dorset. It  houses 15 chocolate-themed rooms. They are offering three packages for Valentine’s Day but recommended the double room package as it includes a one nights’ accommodation, breakfast, a bottle of their Exclusive Spanish Cava, their Belgian Chocolate fountain with strawberries and marshmallows to dip and a slab of chocolate with your very own personalised message.  There is also a chocolate workshop allowing you and your partner to learn about the origins and art of chocolate-making To book your night and see which package is right for you, go here.

 Whatever you and your partner decide to do tonight, we hope our suggestions inspire you!  We here at the Amazing Blog wish you a fun, passionate and decadently sweet evening!