Marni Rose: The Dolly Purse Spray

marni rose doll purse spray perfume

Oh, oh, OH! This little purse spray came through the letterbox and I couldn’t believe how cute it was with its dolly bottle and cool packaging and then, as if things could get any better, I caught a whiff of the fragrance and it was MARNI ROSE! One of my favourite fragrances of the year; beautifully delicate and old fashioned but at the same time slightly masculine and dangerous. You know, if you read regularly, that I love a “dangerous rose” fragrance – that fruitiness and spiciness that you get when you mix warm, woody and musky notes with true, fresh rose. It can be exotic and heady or surprisingly feminine, but it’s always interesting.

War of the Roses: Marni vs Jo Malone… 

marni rose doll purse spray perfume

You can read more about my thoughts on Marni’s Rose eau de parfum if you click here, but I do think that it’s a winner if you love a fruity, full-bodied rose. This has raspberry and cassis as well as the Rose Absolute and Bulgarian Rose, and there’s a gorgeous musky undertone with a sexy hint of cedarwood and patchouli. This little purse spray version would make a wonderful Christmas present with its Bambolina doll styling and cardboard outer tubes – there’s something rather playful and childlike about it and it’s very different to most of the usual Christmas offerings. I’m not sure how long this version is going to be about for, but it has 10% off at Escentual.com until tomorrow, making it £22.50 instead of £25, with free delivery. Full details here – use the code ESCENTUAL10 to claim the discount.

More fragrance posts…

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Supersonic Face Masks

anti-ageing face mask

Kicking off the new week with some brilliant, powerful face masks. These are the kind of masks that you can rely on to give your skin a proper overhaul in a very short amount of time; brightening, smoothing and plumping, brilliant for erasing signs of fatigue or over-indulgence. (Basically, what I am getting at here, without being too direct, is that they are all GREAT if you have a hangover and need to look normal.)

So, my Supersonic face Masks from left to right:

The Meso Mask from Filorga, £38 at Marks and Spencer. I discovered this last year and it instantly became one of my favourite skin treatments – I am on pot number 3 already. It feels incredibly gentle and soothing, but it somehow leaves the skin looking as though it’s been very thoroughly exfoliated. You don’t have to worry about leaving it on for too long – I fell asleep with it on and woke up two hours later to baby soft skin and not a patch of redness. I really rate Filorga products; I have quite a few different treatments (including the amazing overnight exfoliant, Sleep and Peel) and nothing has ever disappointed me.

The 3 Minute Facial from SUPER has unfortunately been discontinued. In fact I can’t find anything from SUPER, which was Perricone’s more affordable skincare line, so I’m assuming that it folded in its entirety? A shame, as there were a couple of products that I really enjoyed using. The 3 Minute Facial was one of them – it was a great moisturising mask. Probably not amazing enough to be in my “Supersonic” line-up, if I’m being completely honest, but I liked the way it said SUPER on the label and the retro mustard-yellow styling really floated my boat.

Read more face mask reviews….

The Transformer mask from Zelens is something of a miracle worker; it exfoliates, lifts, tightens, plumps, brightens and pretty much anything else you can think of, providing a one-stop solution to most beauty woes. It’s also very expensive – at £95 a pot it’s not the kind of product you’d want to make a mistake with – but I’ve had absolutely shocking facials that have cost more than that. So I’d rather have multiple applications of a brilliant mask at home than some useless namby-pambying about in a salon that’s playing whale music. I reckon that you would get around ten very generous applications from one pot – many, many more if you spread it on in a frugal manner. (Question: does it make a difference if you apply things in a “thick layer”? Or is that just marketing to make you use up your masks faster? I wonder if there’s ever a good reason to apply something thickly… I shall have to research!) You can find Transformer at Cult Beauty – they currently have a stepped discount going on. If you spend £40 you get £5 off (use code CHOOSE5), £60 and you get £10 off (CHOOSE10) and if you hit the £100 mark it’s £20 off (CHOOSE20).

Ah, my old friend Liquid Gold. The ultimate exfoliant and one that has a special place in my beauty cabinet. (Read about it here.) The original exfoliant is a liquid containing glycolic acid that you sweep over your skin and leave overnight; the Liquid Gold Smoothing and Perfecting Mask needs to be left on for just ten minutes to get brighter, tighter skin. If you’re feeling battered and rough, this gets your skin back into shape in the shortest amount of time possible. It’s great for clarifying if your skin feels clogged up and greasy, but it also works wonders on dry, dull skin too. Just an all-round superhero. You get a whopping 100ml for £46 (Cult Beauty) making it one of the best value masks on the market if you’re looking for something incredibly effective and fast-working.

What’s your favourite face mask? Do you tend to opt for a moisturising mask, a deep cleansing one? Overnight masks seem to be the new “thing”, but I haven’t really used any that have blown my socks off… Let me know, I always like to add things to my research list!

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Welcome to the New HelloAnnabel…

Hello! I’m back!

Thanks for sticking around and clicking to have a read today. What a craaazy couple of weeks/months it’s been over here. New house, new job, new computer! It’s all happening.


We ended up moving almost a month earlier than expected so it was a huge rush to get everything sorted, and then we’ve had all sorts of snagging problems with the house that we’re still waiting to be fixed! I’m also working 3 days a week, which is a perfect re-introduction to working and still getting to spend most of my week with the baby! The baby who is now 7, almost 8 months old! Yes, time really is going by that fast. Whenever I think about how old he is I also realise that’s how many months I’ve not had a solid nights sleep. I think my brain is mush at this point.

I have SO many blog post ideas in my drafts for you, so much beauty content, but also a few different things that have taken my interest. Ethical living, home decor, parenting, vegan food and more. I always want to blog about these topics but I tend to stick to what I know and publish beauty posts instead.


I now have about 3 hours a week totally to myself when I get home from work that are baby free and I still have some energy left, so here we are, I’m making a promise to myself, that on the days I don’t nap, to blog!

I’m feeling inspired and motivated to get back to it now that I have a new, speedy computer to use again. I’ve deleted some old posts that don’t belong (mostly embarrassing content from 2014-2011) and refreshed my layout to be beautiful, simple and clean (I do hope you like it) for HelloAnnabel 2.0. Removing the sidebar was scary for me, but now I LOVE it!

I’m also reviving my monthly newsletter because I do love a good newsletter these days. Especially because I find it difficult to keep up with all the blogs I follow, so this way it’s like my favourite bloggers are sending content just to me to make sure I don’t miss anything. To subscribe just scroll down a little! The next letter will hit inboxes at the end of July! It will be extra special!

Normal and the new normal content will resume.. tomorrow!

See you then, xo