The Sweet Sparkle of Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream Blush - Fragrance Review and Giveaway

-Raises right hand- I'll admit it. I have an addiction for collecting pretty fragrance bottles...but I told you this back in December when we first talked about the launch of the new limited edition blush flankers from the Marc Jacobs Daisy line. My favorite of the new flankers...Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream Blush.

You see, I've built a relationship with Daisy Dream that has developed quite nicely over the years. When the original Daisy Dream fragrance first launched in 2014, I was drawn to it as it boasted its fresh and fruity, wispy floral notes. In the summer of 2015, Daisy Dream forever was released as an Eau de Parfum enhanced floral and fruity explosion. And now...I'm here to introduce you to it's sparkling little sister - Daisy Dream Blush.

Encased in this gorgeous, pretty-in-pink bottle, Daisy Dream Blush is an Eau de Toilette with an airy bed of lush floral notes that are blended together to create a sweet, feminine sparkle. It is filled with accords of pear and violet leaves as its top notes, followed by heart notes of water lily, rose and honeysuckle that is rounded up with base notes of clean musk, bergamot, freesia and vetiver.

And now you know it's coming...something this beautiful is, of course, limited edition so grab a bottle as soon as you can. It retails for $78 (1.7oz) / $90 (50mL) for a limited time at Sephora and Ulta.

But I'm ready to hook a few lucky subscribers up with their very own bottle of Daisy Dream Blush with a giveaway here and on Instagram!

Blog giveaway (Two winners) To enter this giveaway, simply follow/subscribe to this blog and leave a comment on this post telling me why you need this fragrance in your collection. Scroll down to find my subscription box or look to the to right of your screen to follow/subscribe. *Please note - Don't worry if you don't see your comment right away. I have to approve most of them :-)*

Contest ends Sunday, August 14^th, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. I will choose two subscribers at random from those who commented on this post. The Instagram winner will be chosen separately.

No giveaway/spam accounts. Open internationally; 18+ to enter. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Good luck to all!

Instagram entry (One winner) To enter this giveaway on Instagram, please head to over to this photo and follow the rules listed to enter.

Good luck everyone!

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Light Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds - Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream Fragrance Review

There really isn't too much that I can say about Daisy Dream that hasn't been said already. This fragrance really got my attention in 2015 when it won the Consumer Choice Awards (2015) and the Best Packaging of the Year (2015) awards from The Fragrance Foundation. I mean just look at the bottle.

Like its sister scents, Daisy Dream is best described as a fresh and fruity, wispy floral fragrance. It was created by Alberto Morillas, the original creator behind the first Daisy fragrance, in collaboration with Ann Gottlieb, who was responsible for Marc Jacobs’ Lola, along with Marc Jacobs himself. The notes include:

Top notes: Blackberry, Grapefruit and Pear Heart notes: Jasmine, Lychee and Blue Wisteria Base notes: White Woods, Musks and Coconut Water

Even though this EDT is about 2 years old now, I was inspired to do this blog post because out of all of the fragrances I own, this is one of my go-to scents for the summer. It's fun, light-weight and it gives me a splash of sweet fruit on my skin without being too over bearing for the summer - perfect for these longer summer days.  

The bottle is adorned and decorated with vinyl white daisy motives, which to me makes this this cutest bottle from the line. I do wish that the scent lasted longer because everything seemed to dissipate on me after about two hours. Again, it is an Eau de Toilette so the concentration wasn't designed to make it last all day but I do wish that I could get at least 4 hours of wear out of it. All in all, that wasn't a deal breaker for me - the packaging really sucked me - however, do keep that in mind if you are planning on purchasing this.

I do recommend it, especially if you are a bottle collector or ever in the market for a fragrance for someone who is younger. It is as available as a 30, 50 and 100 ml Eau de Toilette with an accompanying body lotion, shower gel, rollerball, and minis.

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The Fragrance Foundation Consumer Choice Awards 2016 - It’s Time to Vote!

If you would have told me when I first started blogging that I was going to become the fragrance aficionado that I am today, I probably would have laughed at you. But here we are...some hundred bottles into my collection later... :-D As you have joined me on this journey, we have explored some of the most designer and niche fragrances and now is the time where we as the consumers get a chance to shine the light on some of our favorite scents. That means that it's finally time to vote in the The Fragrance Foundation Consumer Choice Awards for 2016!

Beginning on Monday, March 28, 2016, you will have the power to vote in the following categories: Men’s, Women’s Popular and Women’s Prestige fragrances that launched in 2015. The nominees are: 

Men's - Dior Sauvage; Prada Luna Rosa Sport; Ralph Lauren Polo Red Intense. Women’s Popular - ARI by Ariana Grande; Victoria’s Secret Forever Sexy EDP. Women’s Prestige - Jimmy Choo Illicit; Marc Jacobs Decadence; Versace Eros Pour Femme; Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium.

So there are only two ways that this could get any better. For one, all voters will be entered to win select fragrances from each category in a random-selection sweepstakes (32 of you will win)! Secondly...well you know we have to dive into all nine of those fragrances before the voting period ends right? That's right! So from now until May 27, 2016, we are going to be diving into all of them as a group and as an individual fragrance to find out the story behind the scent. So why not get to know them a little bit more intimately before voting?

What can I say about Black Opium from Yves Saint Laurent that I haven't already? This fragrance literally took over my life from October 2015 to the start of the New Year. Seriously, I think I gave everyone this fragrance for the holidays. And everyone thanked me because of its addictive notes of rich coffee accord, orange blossom and sensual vanilla.A little bit of elegance, a hint of class and a blast of decadence. Marc Jacobs Decadence is a woody eau de parfum with hints of bulgarian rose, jasmine, liquid amber, papyrus woods, iris flowers and vetiver. The glamour of combining all of these notes together in such a stunning bottle design is what really made this fragrance my winter scent. ARI by Ariana Grande is one of the newest fragrances to my collection and I can tell you that I was first drawn in by the bottle. This is a sweet and soft scent that I'm looking forward to wearing more this spring as the notes remind me of a fruity and floral explosion. They include: crispy pear, pink grapefruit, juicy raspberry, soft muguet, rose buds, vanilla orchid, blonde woods, creamy musk and marshmallow - yum!

I'll be honest and tell you that I never smelled Jimmy Choo Illicit until the announcement of these awards. I cannot believe that I let such a good fragrance pass me by for so long too. Illicit is an alluring fragrance with noes of ginger, feminine sambac rose, turkish rose, bitter orange, honey-amber and sandalwood. I absolutely adore how rich the scent is and how it settles into my skin.

Versace Eros Pour Femme is a powerful floral fragrance with hints of citrus that has notes of Sicilian lemon, Calabrian bergamot, pomegranate accords, lemon, sambac jasmine absolute, jasmine infusion, peony, sandalwood, ambrox, musk and various cedars.Created with golden thread of Amber, Forever Sexy by Victoria's Secret is as beautiful as the lingerie. It has warm juicy notes of belladonna orange, creamy gardenia petals and warm golden amber.Prada Luna Rosa Sport is a flanker to already popular Prada Luna collection. Just an FYI - in the fragrance community, we normally refer to a newly created fragrance that shares similar attributes of an already existing fragrance as a flanker. These similar attributes may include the bottle design, the packaging, the name or even similar notes that were taken from the pre-existing fragrance.

Prada Luna Rosa Sport has citrusy notes with a tart blend of ginger and leads into the sweetness of juniper berries. The heart notes are enriched with lavender while the base notes of tonka beans and vanilla warm up and smooth out the fragrance.

Ralph Lauren Polo Red Intense is a fresh and spicy woody fragrance for men with notes of blood grapefruit, cranberry, lemon, saffron, ginger, coffee, sage, lavender, amber, red cedar and leather. This is definitely more of a concentrated and masculine scent than its predecessor Polo Red.

Dior Sauvage was created for a daring man who loves the outdoors. It was created with carefully selected natural and fresh ingredients of Calabria bergamot, ambroxan, precious ambergris and cedar.

Don't forget to click here to cast your vote and remember to come back every week to talk about one of the featured nine fragrances!

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Marc Jacobs Genius Gel Super-Charged Foundation Review: Cocoa Light, Cocoa Medium and Cocoa Deep

Marc Jacobs Beauty - a luxury beauty line that still has a long way to go - as far as women of color is concerned. Don't get me wrong, I love the majority of the products in the Marc Jacobs Beauty line: the lipsticks are amazing, I love the new Velvet Noir Major Volume Mascara but as far as the range in the selection of foundation - well there's not much to be desired. Let's take the Marc Jacobs Genius Gel Super-Charged Foundation as our example. This foundation is described as a "breakthrough gel foundation that easily builds from natural to full coverage. The Buoyancy Gel™ technology enhances the performance of this long-wearing, anti-aging formula, which includes antioxidant vitamin protection." Sounds great right? You want to try it out right? Awesome! Let's head online to shop.

Hmm...there's only 16 shades? It looks like there are 3 made with African American women in mind...I think? Maybe?Cocoa Deep is the darkest that it goes?

So that's the problem. There is this remarkable foundation that you may want to try but unfortunately, there is not a lot of shade range to choose from. However, I wanted to review the 3 darkest shades in the line - Cocoa Light (Color 82), Cocoa Medium (Color 84) and Cocoa Deep (Color 86) -  in hopes that it may help you decide on what to do. So let's dive right on in...

Cocoa Light (Color 82), Cocoa Medium (Color 84) and Cocoa Deep (Color 86)

This foundation is a gel like formula that is designed to melt into your skin and not settle into your facial lines. It comes in this sleek glass bottle in 1.0 fluid oz and comes with a pump. It is a light to medium coverage which is great because you can lightly wear it to go out and run errands or you can build upon it for maximum coverage. It does has a light fragrance to it, so please keep that in mind if you are sensitive to smell - it is not a very powerful though.

Cocoa Light will be well suited for you if you have neutral, light golden undertones. Cocoa Medium will be well suited for you if you have golden/orange undertones. Cocoa Dark will be well suited for you if you have red/deep red undertones.

And even though I give you guys as many swatches and review comparisons as I can, I always recommend going to the store and swatching these for yourself if you are able to. Don't forget to swatch any foundation that you're testing out on your jawline and let it settle in for about 5 minutes before making a decision. Also, make sure that you swatch a range of 3 colors so you can get a better idea for the color range and the one that finally disappears into your skin is the one that you want to go with.

If you're not able to make it to the store or you're just shopping online, make sure that you watch this video below so you can get the best view of the foundation colors on my skin tone under different lighting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3BxmjzXsRM

So what do you think of the shade ranges in this foundation line? Let me know below!

Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream Blush Fragrance

Dear Mr. Marc Jacobs, I'm writing this open letter to you because I am really going to need you to stop creating these gorgeous fragrances that I have to add to my collection simply because of how cute the bottle is!

This is a shot of the new and rumored Daisy Dream fragrance in Blush that is supposed to launch in February.* There is also news floating around of two other new fragrances called Daisy Blush and Daisy Eau So Fresh Blush! I'll keep you updated on any new news once I receive it!

*Date subject to change.