TrendLife Beauty

Scentsitive. Definition: Personal enjoyment derived from the smell of a fragrance. I have in fact just coined this term, but I certainly think that it is one that ought to be added to The Oxford English Dictionary. Scents are appreciated worldwide, revealing personalities, customs, cultures and identities of individuals and congregations across society.

In offering the very best in essential oils, absolutes, carrier oils, culinary oils, perfume oils, medicinal and culinary herbs and spices, gums, resins, botanicals, fruit extracts and tea, Luminescents is quite simply, “scentsational”!

I always wondered, when the Eurythmics sang ‘Sweet dreams are made of this’ what exactly they were referring to. Since 1983, Lennox and co never divulged what made their slumber time so sweetly satisfying, though it has recently become clear to me that they’d penned lyrics about Luminescents Winter Mistle Body & Pillow Mood Spray to a catchy tune, bagged a number one and achieved worldwide fame in the process. Annie, I certainly don’t blame you for raving about this number. I only wish that the 80’s dance crowd who took it to the floor and boogied in their appreciation of sweet dreams had known what they were getting down for, they would’ve been spraying and laying some serious shapes on the tiles.

A mood spray formulated to be used as a pillow spray, room spray, or body spray, ‘Winter Mistle’ is part of the seasons range. Its combination of essential, fragrance and absolute oils, blended with herbal extracts creates a calming aroma to aid a good night’s sleep. With its woody notes, it is a fresh, clean and masculine fragrance to see your man through the winter months. If however, you girlies are single, Winter Mistle is a warming wintry scent to spray throughout the home.

£18.00

www.luminescents.co.uk

'Twas 9pm on a Wednesday night circa 2005. The curtains were drawn, the bath had been bathed in, the kettle had been brewed and I was seated ready for my slice of American Pie; The O.C. When 10pm came, to bed I would retreat. GCSE's did not gain themselves; here in Blighty us teens needed brain power; over the pond in the sunshine state, girls like Marissa and Summer slumbered for beauty sleep and dreamed about boys, make-up, clothes and parties. In amongst my own teenage dreams (Katy Perry: I'll let you have this one) of bunsen burners, French vocabulary and the English coastline, I longed for the lifestyle of an all-American girl.

I wanted to live the American dream; it seemed so fun, so luxurious, so far removed from the goings on at The Ashley Centre in Epsom on a Saturday afternoon. With a few buck to my name, I set about it. The O.C was sponsored by some perfume that looked quite nice, Summer and Marissa probably wear it, girls in America probably like the smell of it. I'll have it. And so it was, on the Christmas list of 2005, Christian Dior Pure Poison - Eau de Parfum.

I gave up on America when I realised me and a ton of others were all in the queue for a green card. The O.C finished after four seasons in 2007. One thing remained; the perfume that has endured a six year love affair with me, myself and I. CD and CBL make such a perfect fragrant friendship. Poisonous this aint- seductive it is. Featuring a floral note, a calabrian bergamont top note, an orange blossom heart note and a white musk base note, Dior is numero uno as my perfumery preference. Based on orange blossom, jasmine, gardenia, amber and sandalwood, its delicate and modern scents can come out at night or during the daytime.

Fragrance is eternal. Teen dramas are temporary. 

Price: £44-£85 (30ml-100ml)

Vanitas, the latest fragrance from the fashion oligarch Versace, represents the brand through and through with its heady murmurs of beauty, self-assurance and femininity. 

The combination of zesty lime and freesia with exotic solar tiare flower makes Vanitas a sensual fragrance and it evokes memories of heady and seductive summer nights with its cedar wood finish.

Trend Life says – buy it!

Eau de Parfum £60 for 50ml

www.versace.com

Space NK introduces a brand new fragrance Laughter Jour, a delicate scent inspired by a spring day in an English countryside.

With a bouquet of peony, lily of the valley, violet, jasmine and rose, punctuated by bergamot and green pear, it gives a refreshing twist on this new and exclusive scent at Space NK.

Also available as a body lotion, shower gel and body scrub.

Price: £45.00

www.spacenk.co.uk