Review of Tommy Bahama Scented Candles

I haven't had any luck finding a nicely scented candle that I really liked...until Dale bought these
Tommy Bahama Classic Tin Filled Candles for us

Candles tend to smell nice when I sniff them...once I light them it's a different story. Either it's not fragrant at all once lighted or it smells a bit different. I find this to be the case with many cheaper candles so I avoided scented candles for years. Now that I've found scented candles I love, here's a review on them.

For the Tommy Bahama kiwi lime scented candle - it leaves a mild fragrance in the room. The scent is a bit sharp because of the lime. I think this is nice for variety since sometimes I'm in the mood for a certain scent, but this is not my favourite of the lot.

I prefer the Tommy Bahamas Pineapple Cilantro scented candle over the Kiwi lime candle. It has just enough tartness to the scent yet a bit of sweetness from the pineapple. It's a very unique nice scent and I would repurchase this one again

If you're a huge fan of The Body Shop Satsuma scent and you're searching for a candle having that scent, I think you'll love the Tommy Bahama Maui Mango scented candle. I find the two very similar and I do like it for variety, although it is not my favourite of the bunch

The sales lady did mention her favourite was the Tommy Bahama coconut mango scented candle  

I must say, this time I whole heartedly agree with the sales rep

It smells sooo nice and it's fragrant 

Dale first lighted this candle while we were at Deerhurst and whenever I smell this candle, it just reminds me of so many warm memories ;) But really, the vanilla in it helps with that

So I highly recommend the Tommy Bahama coconut mango scented candle if you like a cozy, warm, calming scent

It's definitely my favourite scented candle so far (and that's a first!)

Although the candles look a bit small they're good for 32 hours, which is quite decent

The quality of all the Tommy Bahama Scented Candles are great. None of them smell synthetic or cheap. 

As a note, be careful how you put out a tin candle since a lot of hot wax can accumulate in the tin

Do not blow out the candle because you can blow hot wax onto yourself or others

Use a candle snuffer or a clean metal spoon to put out the candle safely

Do you have a favourite scented candle? 

What other ways do you add fragrance to your room(s)? 

Or do you prefer no fragrance?

Skincare Haul & Reviews

These are some of the skincare products that Dale bought for me in the past month - so sweet of him ;)

This is a quick re-cap of what I think of some of these products. 

For the products that I did not do a write up for, I just haven't used them long enough (2+ weeks straight). 

I Love...Strawberries & Milkshake bubble bath & shower gel

-the scent is nice. It's more on the mild side - but I can definitely smell the strawberries and the creaminess to it (the milkshake part I guess?)

-lots of suds! Great for a bubble bath or even a shower gel if you love lots of lather

-it is a tad bit drying on my skin. I need a more moisturizing shower gel than this one. But this is great for a bubble bath once in a while. So I do recommend it as a bubble bath

-they sell this at Shoppers Drug Mart for fellow Canadians

 Nivea Good-Bye Cellulite  

-Dale picked these up for me as a surprise and I have gone through 5+ tubes of this in the past

-one thing I really like is the perfume scent. Other than that it's just okay. I have already reviewed this product here

-I currently love my Sanctuary Spa Covent Garden Sculpting Anti-Cellulite Treatment more than this Nivea product (Dale initially bought me the Sanctuary Spa Covent Garden gel during our London England trip at Boots. Since then, he ordered a shipment of the creams for me through the company website as I don't believe it's sold at stores in Canada) 

I initially discovered this Fruits & Passion Cucina Coriander & Olive Tree line of products at my older sister's place.  I absolutely love the hand wash from this line! Dale knows how much I love it so it was so nice of him to surprise me with the set & another back up hand wash :) The scent is much more of coriander than it is of olive oil. Thank goodness because the one time I used olive oil on my hair as a deep oil treatment, I could not stand the smell of it and had to rinse it out almost right away

The Coriander & Olive Tree Deodorizing Fragrant Kitchen Spray and Coriander & Olive Tree Regenerating Hand Cream are both great. The scent is just amazing and consistent throughout the line of products. And yes, the hand cream as well as the hand wash are moisturizing (they don't trigger my last lingering bit of eczema). Plus, the hand wash removes any unpleasant lingering scent on your hands that you often get from preparing certain foods :)  Bonus!

Burt's Bees Coconut Foot Creme 

-I love Burt's Bees products because all their products I have tried have been compatible with my sensitive skin. Plus, they use natural ingredients and few chemicals

-I love their coconut foot creme! It is not synthetic smelling at all and the scent is just so yummy. I love the thick consistency of it. It's very moisturizing. I slather it on & put socks on before bedtime

The Body Shop Vanilla Body Lotion 

-I must have mentioned this at least two other times in my blog, but I LOVE The Body Shop Vanilla lotion. This is purely for the scent. I have tried numerous vanilla lotions which have all smelt synthetic to me compared to this one - I don't even experiment with other vanilla scented lotions anymore. If there's any scented lotion that gets me in the mood, it's this one. Not that I need a lotion for that :P 

-the moisturizing properties of the lotion is of course, like 99% of other scented lotions - it just doesn't come close to my HG Aveeno Daily Moisturizing lotion. So what I do is I mix half of The Body Shop Vanilla Body Lotion in the palm of my hand, and mix half of my HG Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion (review here). Voila - a beautiful warm scent and long lasting quality moisturizer in one!

The Body Shop Vanilla Bath & Shower Gel 

-I like it, but it's not a must in my skincare routine like the vanilla body lotion is

-unfortunately it does not suds up as much as the I Love...Strawberries & Milkshake Bubble Bath & Shower Gel

-it's not a moisturizing shower gel. The scent is not as "warm" as the vanilla body lotion if that makes sense. So I really could do without this product

The Body Shop Almond Body Butter

-again, I love this just for the scent. It's a bit oily even after it's been rubbed into my skin. So as I mentioned above, since nothing comes close to my HG Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion I use half of the Aveeno mixed with half of this scented body butter. This is how I apply any scented lotion by the way. And by doing this, it also makes my skin a lot less oily since I'm using less of the body butter

The Body Shop Guarana Lip Butter

-I had not heard of the guarana berry until Dale got me this lip butter. I don't even think I know how to pronounce the word! :S

-omigosh this stuff tastes so yummy! I think I ate most of it haha 

-it is moisturizing although not HG status for moisturizing. This one will be one of my favourites just for the flavour though 

*****

If there is any product you see here which I did not write a review for & you'd like me to review it, please let me know and I'll work on a review for you :) 

Costco, Walmart and others

These are all more lovely gifts from Dale - some of it going back 4-5 weeks now :S

He's really such a sweetheart 

Dale is so sentimental
You know, I sometimes call him "Danielle"now and he calls me "Kevin" :P

He gave me this card about 3 weeks ago and I giggled when I saw that it's a Valentine's Day card
He picked this up last minute at a grocery store in Huntsville (a small town) so I guess the only sentimental cards in the store were all for Valentine's day
All joking aside, it doesn't matter that it's a Valentine's Day card - what he wrote was very touching

Two dozen of my favourite coloured roses *sigh*

Awww look at the calendar Dale chose out for me
He said it reminded him of Bobo and he had to get it ;)

Tommy Bahama candles - quick review to come 

Dale bought me the pair of thermal socks which I love

About a year ago, Dale caught me with a hole in one of my socks so I guess that's a bit of a running joke. Plus, even though he makes me more consciously aware of holy socks, he still caught me with a hole in one of my socks when we were up at Deerhurst Resort. I really don't know how since I make sure to toss all holy socks now....so when we were at Costco he picked up the pack of 6 pairs of Buffalo socks for me

Silks pantyhose

Other hosiery from Costco - Silks pantyhose.
There's six pairs in a box and I couldn't decide which of the three colours to get (black, hint-o-black, nude). So Dale picked up one box of each colour for me

I know what you may be thinking - wow, you go to Costco for hosiery?
No not really
I like Costco because they have a lot of house supplies that are in bulk size such as these 3M Scotch Brite Kitchen cloths
Surprisingly, Danielle Dale loves to clean! I think he's cleaner than me and I'm pretty clean to begin with... he was the first one to pick this up and look at them.
Mind you, for kitchen/bathroom scrubs I only buy Scotch Brite scrubs because they don't fall apart

I went with Dale to Costco in December to buy this exact Oster 2 Slice Retractable Cord Toaster as part of my older sister's Christmas gift
But I had only remembered to give him back the cash for my sister's gift when I saw Dale again in January - and as soon as I paid him back he insisted on getting me this toaster since it's an upgrade from my old plastic one. I really love the brushed stainless steel finish on this as it matches my other stainless steel kitchen appliances - plus the retractable cord and wide slots are great

I do not own any tupperware and had been borrowing from my parents or using Glad Cling Wrap. I prefer glass tupperware over plastic so Dale bought this Glasslock tupperware for me at Costco as well.
I really like them!
Just note that when they say "10 pieces" they are counting the lids as a piece

When Dale took me to Deerhurst Resort last month, he was really sweet to pack extra ski gloves for me. I don't own a pair of ski gloves which would be required for outdoor winter activities.
So when we were at Costco, Dale picked up these Head Ski Gloves for me
And I'm happy to say that these gloves will be put to use shortly as Dale has booked another trip to Deerhurst for us next week with lots of winter activities lined up again

I pointed out to Dale that I use this Aveeno Eczema Care Cream (my review is here) since he also has a stubborn patch of rough skin on one of his hands. At Costco there was this joint pack with the Aveeno Eczema Care Body wash, which I have not tried so Dale picked this up for me

Speaking of soaps, I don't think I'll be using any other bar soap except for Dove (review to come)
This particular Dove Shea Butter soap smells so nice...it was one of the things Dale picked up for me

Dale had picked up a lot of groceries for us because we had a condo suite booked at Deerhurst with a full ensuite kitchen. This was one of the grocery products I wanted to mention - wow, how had I not seen this instant Nescafe Espresso before? It's good and it works

I wanted to pick up some extra body piercings so I went to Ardene with Dale and he helped me pick out a few
He personally chose out the bottom left one

My younger sister bought this Waterpik Power Flosser as part of my Dad's Christmas gift. Ever since, I've been eying one for myself. I found this when Dale and I went into Zellers
So a review is to come on this product

These are some random nail products which I chose (Dale purchased) from Walmart and Sally Beauty Supply
I think the only thing Dale actually chose out were the two hot pink nail polishes on the bottom row - he loves that nail polish colour


If there's any product you'd like me to review first please let me know

At Home Beauty Remedies

Just found an old Chatelaine magazine clipping on how to make a few easy, common, beauty products from using household ingredients

I wish I had some diaper rash cream handy as I have a couple of stubborn zits now - have you tried using diaper rash on a zit before?
Personally I use baby powder as dry shampoo and to also add a bit of texture & volume
And I love the honey + sugar lip scrub - yum!

I'm going to remember that vinegar rinse the next time I need to get product build up out of my hair ;)
White vinegar is also great for cleaning out calcium build up in a kettle by the way

Have you tried any of these homemade beauty recipes? 

Do you have a homemade beauty recipe that is not listed in the article?

Vacation + Review: Bio Life Oxygen Bleach

Later this evening I'll be heading to airport & on my way to Bangkok Thailand :)

I will not be blogging much while I am on vacation and I will be away a full month.

Back in Toronto Sunday October 24th.

Thank you so much for reading my blog so far ;) I'll keep in touch when I can!

Gosh I miss blogging already haha

A quick review of something that came in handy for me this morning -Bio Life Oxygen Bleach.

I think this is exclusive to Shoppers Drug Mart

I really like this bleach because

(1) it has no scent (I really do not like how typical bleach smells)

(2) it's a more environmentally friendly household product. Even if you're not too concerned about the environment, it's better for your health so you're not exposing yourself to more harsh household cleaning products

(3) works on coloured fabrics...not just on white fabric

(4) works well to remove stains! Got rid of those red wine stains from drinking too much last night

In fact...the bio life bleach works better than this other stuff I have in my laundry closet

See you! xx

FOTD & A few purchases....

Today I went to go get my hair trimmed because my younger sister commented on how my long hair was pulling down my face...yes, that's how she put it. I'm sort of biased towards long hair on myself and she's biased towards shorter hair on herself so I kind of saw this comment coming. Anyhow, I was due for a trim so although I intended to only have 1" max taken off, 2-3" really came off. Don't you always find that 90% of hair stylists don't listen when you ask them to only take off a wee bit and even use your fingers to show the length that you want off?

Anyhow, today I opted for one of my favourite MAC eye shadows - MAC Star Violet. I love plum/purple eye shadows on me and this is definitely a favourite of mine. I even like the texture very much.



Terrible. I need to learn to crop pictures and edit them so I can get rid of that one armpit exposed look! LOL

And yesterday I met my girlfriend at the mall. For my eye shadow I ended up using a favourite green eye shadow of mine - MAC's Sumptuous Olive. On me it has quite a bit of gold undertones to it which is nice because although a lot of people say gold coloured eye shadow compliments brown coloured eyes, gold coloured eye shadow really doesn't look good on me.



I dressed pretty casual to the mall:



I only ended up picking out a couple of small things from Forever21. One was actually this dress that I saw online on their website:



It's actually pretty cute on.....and I love how it has a halter top.

And I picked up a couple of earrings. These turquoise coloured earrings were the last pair...I like jewels and I like turquoise/teal colour so I grabbed it as soon as I saw it!



And well, I like earrings similar to this style when I go out for dinner or clubbing so of course I picked these up too....



Don't you just LOVE Forever21???!!

The last thing I'll mention here might get you bored. I've been looking for a "greener" alternative to Mr. Clean or Lysol multi-surface cleaners. Mr. Clean and Lysol definitely get the job done but um, there's a lot of harsh chemicals you're inhaling when you use it (even though I turn the fan on if I'm in the washroom using it). So I went to Shoppers Drug Mart and picked up this multi-surface cleaner for my bathroom:

I believe the brand Method might be sold exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart - I can't be sure on that one though. What caught my eye were a few things: French Lavender scent, non-toxic, and the cleaner is biodegradable.

Okay, I have no idea what french lavender is suppose to smell like but if it's suppose to smell like regular lavender then this product does NOT smell like french lavender. The cleaner smells distinctly of lemons.

I'm not sure if it's really gentle enough to use this cleaner without gloves on. Any bit of slight irritation on my hands can irritate and trigger the bit of eczema that I have on my hands so I didn't take a chance on that - I still used disposable latex gloves with this product. But the fact that it's probably gentle enough to use without gloves is a nice thought (and practical for most other people too).

And it actually does clean pretty well. So I'll be buying this cleaner again for sure! It seemed like the most "green" solution out of the other multi-surface cleaners they had in stock.

So, I hope you're having a lovely Friday! Let me know if you're doing anything exciting this weekend!

=) Karen