100% Vegan & Cruelty-Free – Marks & Spencer Warm Neroli Eau De Toilette

Hi there! Today’s post is about this Marks & Spencer Warm Neroli Eau De Toilette. I bought this a few months ago when I sampled most of M&S’ new(ish) fragrances. You could say I had a power sniffing session. Whilst I disliked most of the fragrances I sampled that day, I thought this fragrance was nice. It’s been living – unused – in my stash since then. But I finally started to use it. And here’s what I think.

This fragrance contains the following notes: neroli, bergamot and musk. I generally like fragrances with these notes, but this one is an exception. This fragrance is just bad! What did I think I was smelling when I tested it? I guess my nose was confused after sampling so many fragrances…

What is this fragrance like? When you spray it, it’s immediately harsh and unpleasant – and breathing in this fragrance will make you cough. It’s awful. Once the fragrance has settled, it smells like an unrefined and cheap mess. It reminds me very much of those questionable bottom shelf hairsprays from the 90s. I wore this fragrance for one day only, I hated it instantly, and even my husband asked me if I could “forget” this fragrance at the office. Yes, that’s what I’ll do!

If you’re interested, Marks & Spencer Warm Neroli Eau De Toilette is available as 30ml for £6 and 100ml for £10. Also, this fragrance is vegan and certified cruelty-free (it carries THE Leaping Bunny logo).

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

100% Vegan & Cruelty-Free – Marks & Spencer Water Jasmine Eau De Toilette

Hi there! Today’s post is about this Marks & Spencer Water Jasmine Eau De Toilette. I’ve previously given this fragrance a quick review. So I could have written today’s post under the “Revisiting Old Favourites” tag. But the heading just didn’t look right. And this fragrance deserves its own stand-alone review.

Anyhoo, back to this fragrance! The notes for Water Jasmine are citrus (top note), jasmine and rose florals (heart note), and soft musk, cedar and amber (base note). Sounds fresh and summery! 😍

What’s this fragrance like? It’s a burst of citrus freshness. It’s like Light Blue – but Light Green. I am in love with the fresh and unisex citrus aroma and the transparent shades of jasmine. This fragrance is a delight, not just on hot days. I’m glad I bought 2 big 100ml bottles which I know I’ll enjoy!

I cannot recommend this beautiful fragrance enough. If you’re interested, Marks & Spencer Water Jasmine Eau De Toilette is available as 30ml for £5 and 100ml for £9.50. Also, this fragrance is vegan and certified cruelty-free (it carries THE Leaping Bunny logo).

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

100% Vegan & Cruelty-Free – Marks & Spencer Spiced Bergamot Eau De Toilette

Hi there! Today’s post is about this Marks & Spencer Spiced Bergamot Eau De Toilette. This post could be filed under “Revisiting Old Favourites”, but the heading would have been clunky. Regardless, this fragrance is an “old” favourite, and here’s why…

Let’s start with the notes! Spiced Bergamot has the following notes: bergamot, lemon and orange flower (top notes), white flowers and cardamom (heart notes), and cedar, amber and musk (base notes).  Sounds good!

Spiced Bergamot is an amazing fragrance. It’s starts very fresh – with lemon and bergamot. I can’t smell any orange flower or white flowers, but I can smell cedar and musk The fragrance lasts for about 3-4 hours (it’s a skin scent after about 1 hour) and I can sniff out some cardamom as the citrus notes disappear.

This fragrance remind me of Light Blue. It’s definitely NOT the same as Light Blue, but with lemon and cedar being such prominent notes, and with its cool, refreshing and unisex feel, Spiced Bergamot makes you think of Light Blue! Having said this, Spiced Bergamot is definitely “pink”, and it also has a more transparent feel. If you think of Light Blue as lemon and water, you could think of Spiced Bergamot as lemon / bergamot and air.

I cannot recommend this beautiful fragrance enough. If you’re interested, Marks & Spencer Spiced Bergamot Eau De Toilette is available as 30ml for £5 and 100ml for £9.50. I bought a special edition 200ml for £6.25 (half price post-Christmas clearance). Also, this fragrance is vegan and certified cruelty-free (it carries THE Leaping Bunny logo).

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

100% Vegan & Cruelty-Free – Marks & Spencer Alphabet Personalised Beauty Gift Set

Hi there! Today’s post is about this Marks & Spencer Personalised Beauty Gift Set. They had a few random letters left on sale (half price = £6.25), and I opted for J over X or Q. This gift set contains 3 items – a fragrance, a hand cream and a lip balm. All of these products are vegan and certified cruelty-free – they carry the Leaping Bunny logo!

Let’s start with the fragrance which contains the following notes: red berries, pomegranate and musk. On paper, this doesn’t sound bad. However, this fragrance is the stuff of nightmares. They forgot to list one major ingredient – cloves! I’ve never smelled such a disgusting mess of cloves and overly ripe fruit.

I sprayed it once, smelled it, then I washed my arm and threw my cardie in the washing machine. The stink lingered for hours despite the window being open. I couldn’t and wouldn’t gift this to anyone. This fragrance is rubbish!

Onto the next product, the hand cream! The hand cream smells like an extremely watered-down version of the fragrance. Fortunately, the scent is very weak and fleeting, so it doesn’t stink up the room. The formula is very rich and nourishing. However, after the fragrance nightmare, I wasn’t too keen on the hand cream. So my husband is using it as a foot cream – and it works well.

And here’s item number 3 – the lip balm. This is the surprise of the month! Wow, what a beautiful lip balm! It’s very similar to Boots No 7 Protect & Perfect Lip Care! This beautiful lip balm has a very subtle vanilla scent, it glides on, it’s very lightweight, and it’s incredibly hydrating. I love it! 😍 One of my favourite products this month!

All in all, whilst the lip balm is the absolute bomb, I had to bin the fragrance and I’m also not using the hand cream. I would hope that M&S will bring back the lip balm next Christmas, or that it will be available to buy on its own!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde 💙💛

Small Haul! Boots, Wright’s, Little Soap Company, M&S, Botanical Lab & Nivea

Hi there! Today’s post is about a bunch of products I bought recently. It’s not that many. And here they are:

Boots Glow Banana Toner, 100ml for £5 (plus “points received” for buying this products – I would have bought it anyway, so the points worth £1 were welcome).
Boots Rose Toner, 150ml for £1.75. This rose toner will replace my used-up Garnier rose toner.
Wright’s Traditional Soap With Coal Tar Fragrance, 85p. Finally!
Little Soap Company Sweet Orange Soap, £1.85. I liked the look of this soap!

Boots Botanics Revive & Protect Postbiotic Facial Mist (100ml) and Boots Botanics Refreshing Toning Spritz (150ml) – these were £11.98 together (Buy 1 Get 2nd Half Price deal, usually £7.99 each).
Nivea Refreshing Face Wash, 150ml for £2.10. This face wash has been around forever, but this is the first time I bought it!

Botanical Lab Neem Leaf + Salicylic Acid Gentle Face Wash, 150ml for £2.
Botanical Lab Pumpkin & Papaya Enzymes + AHA Daily Tonic, 200ml for £3. Both of these products were half price with Tesco Clubcard!

M&S The Fragrance Collection Vanilla & Woods Eau De Toilette, 2 x 100ml for £10 each.
M&S Spiced Bergamot Eau De Toilette, 200ml for £6.25 (half price post-Christmas clearance sale).

M&S Alphabet Personalised Gift Set, £6.25 (half price post-Christmas clearance sale).

They had all sorts of different letters in the sale. I picked a random one. The contents of the set would always be the same.

And this is everything. A bunch of cheap and cheerful items that I look forward to giving a try!

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

Small Beauty Haul!

Hi there! Today’s post is about a mini haul I did over the weekend. Let’s look at the goodies!

Danielle 2 in 1 Jade Dual-Sided Facial Roller – £9.99 at TK Maxx.

M&S Black Amber & Wood EdT, M&S Vanilla & Woods EdT, 100ml each, £12.50 each at M&S.

Max Factor Face Finity Foundation 40 Light Ivory, £4.99 at TK Maxx.
Esfolio Hyaluronic Acid With Peach Essence Mask Set, £7.99 (10 masks) at TK Maxx.

Farm Skin Superfood For Skin Mask Set, £6.99 (7 masks) at TK Maxx.

Imperial Leather Tropical Rainforest Reviving Shower Gel, 500ml, £1.49 at B&M Bargains.
Imperial Leather Toucan Tango Limited Edition Icons Hand Wash, 475ml, £1 at B&M Bargains.

A nice little mini haul. I look forward to using the facial roller and the new face masks, and I love that I found a big bottle of the wonderful Imperial Leather Tropical Rainforest shower gel AND the matching hand wash! 😍

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

100% Vegan & Cruelty-Free – M&S Fragrance Collection Mimosa & Bergamot Eau De Toilette

Hi there! Today’s post is about this M&S Fragrance Collection Mimosa & Bergamot Eau De Toilette which I bought as part of a fragrance duo. The other fragrance is Peony & Rhubarb, and I’ve already reviewed it.

But let’s focus on the Mimosa & Bergamot fragrance now. According to M&S, it contains… bergamot, pink grapefruit and coconut water (top notes), ocean breeze (?), fig leaf and violet (heart notes), and sea salt, sandalwood and musk (base notes). M&S doesn’t mention “mimosa” in the notes. 🤷

I think this fragrance is good. But unfortunately, it hasn’t wowed me.

Ler’s start with what it smells like – the bergamot and musk notes are very strong. The bergamot note in particular gives the fragrance a rather masculine feel. This fragrance smells like a summer edition of a “for men” fragrance.

I don’t really mind looking at fragrances as unisex – I love the pink Joop “for men”, and I’ve been obsessed with Midnight in Paris – another “for men” fragrance – until it was discontinued. At the same time, I love it when my husband wears D&G Light Blue “for women” – which, I think, is THE most perfect unisex fragrance ever.

Having said all this, Mimosa & Bergamot is a lot more masculine than any of the fragrances I listed above. I also find it more masculine than CK Be. I do like wearing it, but I actually prefer this fragrance on my husband. Why am I saying all of this? Well, I was hoping for another sweet and cuddly fragrance like M&S Vanilla & Woods. And if you have the same expectations, you’ll be disappoined. However, if you love the sugarfree zest of bergamots, this fragrance might be right up your street.

If you’re interested, M&S Fragrance Collection Mimosa & Bergamot Eau De Toilette is available as 100ml for £12.50. I have a 50ml special edition from a gift set. Also, this fragrance is vegan and certified cruelty-free – it carries THE Leaping Bunny! 😍

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

HAUL! New Products From Boots, No 7, Sanctuary Spa, Marks & Spencer, Fragonard, Olay, Westlab, Radox, Dead Sea & More

Hi there! Today’s post is about most of the stuff I bought since the post-Christmas sale started. I’m saying most of the stuff because I always forget a lot… OK, let’s take a look at the goodies!

Boots Skincare Treats The Discovery Collection – this was £10 on Boxing Day. I bought 3 of these. The 2 moisturisers are worth £25 alone! The set would have been great value for full price = £20, but it was the most amazing bargain for half price on Boxing Day!

I bought more face masks – but what else is new? Some half price Disney masks, some £1 masks from B&M Bargains.

The Sanctuary Spa Celebration Hamper – this was £20 on Boxing Day and it had the following goodies:

These look amazing!

And these too!

I bought a few more products from Boots’ discontinued Live + Be range. The cheapest item was £1, the most expensive item was £1.75.

A few more Live + Be products.

I also bought fragrances from M&S. The first 2 were £9.50, the third was £12.50. All of them are repurchases.

I bought a number of different Westlab bath salts, the one above was £2.99 at Boots.

I also bought more Radox bath salts. The one above was £2.25 at Sainsburys.

2 more Radox shower gels – these were about £1.30 (or so) each at Superdrug.

Fragonard Belle De Nuit fragrance – £20 at M&S, the Olay Face Wash was £2.09 at Boots, the the Botanics Face Scrub was 33p (£2.33 plus 200 Advantage points for buying a Botanics product).

I also rescued 2 Dead Sea Natural Mineral Soaps from the clearance bin.

And this is it! Quite a bit, eh? Well, what can I say. I’ll always be a bargain hunter! Thanks for stopping by today! 😊

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

100% Vegan & Cruelty-Free – M&S Discover Water Jasmine, Fresh Lychee, White Coconut

Hi there! Today’s post is about a fragrance set that I picked up about 4 weeks ago – M&S Discover Water Jasmine, Fresh Lychee, White Coconut. On the back of the pack it reads that these fragrances are suitable for vegetarians, but the actual product pages for the individual scents confirm that these fragrances are suitable for vegans even. And they’re also certified-cruelty-free as they carry the Leaping Bunny logo! 😍

M&S Discover Water Jasmine is my favourite of the bunch, and I’ve already bought the big 100ml bottle. The notes for this fragrance are citrus (top note), jasmine and rose florals (heart note), and soft musk, cedar and amber (base note). The fragrance smells like… a green version of D&G Light Blue! This means that, within the Discover collection, M&S has made 2 fragrances which are reminiscent of D&G Light Blue (the other fragrance is M&S Spided Bergamot). Outstanding stuff!

M&S Discover Fresh Lychee lists lychee, pear and jasmine as top notes and amber and musk as base notes. This fragrance is the one that should have been called Water Jasmine! It has a very clean (and watery) and transparent jasmine note with hints of lychee and pear. It’s really nice too, and of all the 6 fragrances from the Discover collection, this is the 3rd best, in my opinion.

M&S Discover White Coconut has sea-salted coconut and exotic white flowers as top notes, sweet blossom and iced citrus nuances as heart notes and vanilla musk, sea moss and amber as base notes. I don’t like coconut scents and flavours, so I was expecting to hate this fragrance, but it’s actually not bad – the coconut note is on the transparent side, and the salt and the citrus notes are strong too, so the coconut note isn’t overpowering. This is actually a wearable fragrance!

Based on my experience, I would recommend this M&S Discover Water Jasmine, Fresh Lychee, White Coconut set. I picked it up when M&S ran a pre-Christmas 30% off promotion on certain gift sets, but even at £9.50, this is a total steal! Even if you end up not loving every single one of these fragrances, I’m sure you have a friend or colleague who will be happy to have it. If you like any of the individual scents, they’re available as 100ml for £9.50, and I’ve now also seen smaller 30ml bottles (same size as in these gift sets) for £5.

And now that I tried all the fragrances from the Discover collection, I’d rank them in this order (3 yays, 3 nays):

Water Jasmine(I already purchased the 100ml)
Spiced Bergamot (I already purchased the 100ml)
Fresh Lychee (I might repurchase it)

Soft Iris (I liked wearing it while the 30ml bottle lasted, but I won’t repurchase as it’s not very special)
White Coconut (I have better fragrances to wear, so I think I’ll give this one away)
Pink Pepper (I absolutely hate it and will give it away)

If you want to read about the other 3 fragrances, click here.

Mrs Strawberry Blonde

HAUL! New Products From No 7, M&S, Boots, Superdrug, Herbal Essences, Radox, Imperial Leather, Garnier & More

Hi there! Today’s post is about the majority of the products I bought before Christmas (or so). I’m saying majority because I didn’t take photos of everything I bought, and there’s some stuff I know I’ll only remember after posting. Without further ado, here’s the stuff:

Boots No7 Skincare Stars The Star Of The Show – this incredible set has products worth £149, but it was £39 for a few days in the run-up to Christmas.

Marks & Spencer Discover Spiced Bergamot, Pink Pepper, Soft Iris – these fragrances are vegan and certified cruelty-free. The set was £6.65 (30% off offer), but even the full price of £9.50 is a total steal for 3 x 30ml. I already reviewed this set.

M&S Discover Water Jasmine, Fresh Lychee, White Coconut – I’ll review this set soon. Same price and amount as above, and all these fragrances are vegan and certified cruelty-free as well!

Radox Perky Peach, Radox Mint To Be – I’m looking forward to trying these shower gels, although I made a mistake with the minty one. I ignored the name and the mint leaves, and I somehow assumed it would be a lime scent… 🤦‍♀️ These 400ml shower gels were about £1.30 each.

Imperial Leather Wild Thing, Imperial Leather Shake Your Bambootay – these 2 cute 250ml shower gels were 99p each. I’ve been using them for almost 2 weeks now, and the review will be up tomorrow!

Herbal Essences Bio Renew Micellar Water & Blue Ginger Shampoo & Blue Ginger Conditioner – these are in use too, and the review will be up on Friday! Oh, and these were £3 each!

I also bought plenty of face masks – but they were too many to list. I’ve already tried and reviewed some of them!

Boots Live + Be Awakening Glow Shower Cream, Boots Live+Be Beautiful Connection Bath Soak – I bought these and lots of other Live+Be products as it looks like the entire range is going to be discontinued. Really sad (and typical because I just discovered these last month). I already reviewed the 2 products above.

Superdrug Vitamin E Skin Care All Over Body Cream With Lavender – I bought this when Superdrug ran a Buy 1 Get 2nd Half Price promotion. They’re usually £4.99. I already reviewed this body cream.

Superdrug Vitamin Skin Care All Over Body Cream With Acacia Collagen (also £4.99) was the other product I got with the Buy 1 Get 2nd Half Price deal.

I bought 2 Superdrug Vitamin E Moisturising Shower Creams. I’ve never seen these before but it was time Superdrug finally made a shower gel with their iconic Vitamin E fragrance. These were £1.20 each (Better Than Half Price offer). Garnier Body’s Intensive 7 Days Ultra-Replenishing Lotion With Shea Butter was a repurchase. This is a big 400ml, and it was £2.49 (B&M Bargains).

Superdrug Vitamin E Skin Care All Over Body Cream With Hibiscus Extract was on a Save 1/3 offer. It’s usually £4.49 for a 465ml, but I paid £2.99.

And lastly, Boots Ingredients Glycolic Acid Toner, Boots Ingredients Niacinamide Serum and Boots Vitamin C Brightening Cleansing Gel. The first 2 products were £5, the cleanser was £4 but was actually free (3 for 2 offer).

The No 7 set was a bit more expensive (it wasn’t if you consider the actual value of the products in it), everything else was rather cheap! Have you tried any of these items? Would you like to try any of them? What have you bought recently? Feel free to get in touch via the comments. And thanks for stopping by! 😘

Mrs Strawberry Blonde