Jo Malone Nectarine Blossom & Honey Cologne

One of my birthday presents was this laaarvely Jo Malone perfume. I've only recently got into these - my Mum has been raving about them for months but I was always too blinded by my love of all things Chanel to see (or rather, smell) how good they are.

I went into the shop in York a few weeks ago with my Mum, fell in love and picked out a favourite - Lime Basil & Mandarin. I decided I wanted a fruity summery scent as all of my perfumes are floral or musky. I found it surprisingly difficult to find a fruity scent but Jo Malone have a lovely selection of fruity and citrus fragrances. This one smelt like a tropical island (description stolen from my Mum). I couldn't get enough of it!

I dropped a few subtle hints to my boyfriend as it was pretty close to my birthday although I wasn't sure he'd be able to remember the name and thought he'd probably get a little overwhelmed trying to choose one by himself. So I really didn't expect the pretty Jo Malone bag with black ribbon to be placed in front of me on the morning of my birthday. Eeek!

The first thing I noticed when I opened the cute box was that he'd bought me the bigger (and rather expensive) bottle, and then that he'd got a different one to the one I'd originally picked out. It was the Nectarine Blossom & Honey cologne. He told me that he couldn't remember which one I'd said that I liked and so chose one himself and BOY was I impressed!

I think I like this one even more than the one I chose first. It smells SO yummy and makes me feel so happy whenever I spritz it on. It's quite a light, refreshing fragrance with just the right amount of fruitiness. It just smells like Summer, fruit salads and cocktails on the beach. I think I'm a little addicted and have worn it every day since my birthday. As an added bonus, the bottle looks SO perdy sat on my dressing table.

So the moral of this blog post is to trust your boyfriend's perfume choices (sometimes over your own), and get this bottle of summery goodness in your life now! It'll last much longer than the brief English Summer.

Anyone else have any Jo Malone favourites?

Birthday week

So it's my birthday this Sunday (30th) and even though I really don't want to be 25 I've decided I'm going to just embrace it and enjoy the celebrations!

I'm going to London next week for 3 days with my boyfriend. It's kind of a birthday thing as it was his birthday on the 20th and we've been going for a few years now. I'm looking forward to lots of yummy food and cocktails, and just being in London is good fun anyway, isn't it? We're going to go on the London Eye as we've never been on before so that will be good, and hopefully not scary. Other than that we don't have too many set plans. I can sometimes be a little tour-guide-esque and feel the need to know what we're doing each day but I think I'm just going to be spontaneous and see where the days take us :)

What do you like to do in London? Any hidden gems anyone knows about?

Quarter life crisis?

I am 24 years old. On June 30th I will turn 25, and this kind of terrifies me. 25?! How did that happen? It seems like I blinked somewhere in my teenage years and suddenly I'm supposed to be a grown up and do grown up things and just... Grow up! Am I supposed to settle down and start having children, or should I just go with the flow and see what happens? But if I do that, will I end up being too old by the time I decide I do want kids? Arghh! Such turmoil. Which got me wondering... Is there such a thing as a quarter life crisis?

I do realise that I am in fact still very young and a crisis over my age sounds extremely melodramatic at this stage but I do wonder if there is a kind of transition period between young and... not so young. Recently, I've found that I've "rediscovered" a lot of things from my youth - books, TV shows, etc and delving back into that world has felt strangely therapeutic, but also made me a little sad that those years are now behind me. On the other hand, I've also been thinking more and more about the "grown-up" side of life - having children, and a husband and all that. This also terrifies me. Even though I don't feel like I'm ready for "real" adult life to begin, I also don't feel like a teenager anymore - as much as I miss it, I have moved past that stage. So basically, I'm kind of stuck somewhere in the middle. Limbo.

I once read an article in which the author said she hated her twenties because she didn't feel settled and only really began to accept herself in her thirties. So maybe that's it - once I hit the big three-oh I'll feel pretty sweet. But that idea is way too scary right now. 30... years... old... Excuse me whilst I go breathe into a paper bag.