Review: Love & Toast Hand Creme

I discovered Love & Toast while I was in SpaceNK in London - what caught my eye was the whimsical packaging and the light scent and formulation of the creme (as well as the cute name!) It was a spendy 14 GBP, but I thought it was something that I could only get there! When I brought it home and looked at it carefully, I realized that it's a Denver based company and that I could've paid $9 for a tube here in the States versus the crazy $22 USD that I spent over in London! YIKES!

Anyways, I've been looking for the "perfect" hand creme - I loved Aveda's Hand Therapy, but think they may have changed their formulation because now it just feels way greasier than it used to be! I've tried L'occitane's Shea Butter Hand Creme and find it slightly greasy as well. Then I tried Love & Toast and fell in LOVE! The scents are very light & feminine and the formulation is also light and sinks in perfectly to leave your hands soft and non-greasy. The price is comparable to your L'occitane hand cremes, but it can be hard to find since not all retailers carry it. The tube is similar to L'occitane as well - being metal (or aluminum) so it folds and crinkles up in weird shapes sometimes. Not a complete fan of the packaging since I feel it can be hard to get every last bit out of these types of tubes. The tube is also sealed with a thin metal film that you have to prick open but they don't provide you with anything to do so, which is annoying. I ended up prying it open with some scissors, so please be careful!

I've only tried the paper flower scent - which is a very light citrus and floral fragrance. But I'm totally excited to try them all! And now if you purchase from their website, they have free shipping from 11/26/10-12/23/10! http://www.loveandtoast.com/
Have you tried these yet? They're my ultimate favorite hand creme! Let me know which scents you love!

Review: Philosophy Apricots & Cream Body Lotion

I was taking a tour of Sephora and happened to glance at the Philosophy section and came upon a tester bottle of their Apricots & Cream body lotion. I thought nothing of it as I sampled a little bit, but when I got a whiff of it, my heart literally skipped a beat. I was in love! The smell is so delicious - sweet, feminine, and more like peaches than apricots. It is divine! I was being good and decided not to go ahead and purchase the bottle, but as I drove home, I just kept smelling my hands over and over again! I could literally nibble my hands off - it was THAT good of a smell!

Naturally I succumbed to my temptation and bought a bottle since I couldn't stop obsessing over it! It's $24 at Sephora for a 16oz bottle (and it's limited edition - which always makes you buy more than you should, right?) The texture is light and creamy - perfect for everyday normal use, but may not be sufficient for those of you with really super dry skin. It doesn't have an oily finish either, so it's good for your hands as well. The bottle is huge and should last you quite a while - I've been using mine continuously for the past 2 weeks and have barely made a dent in it. All I can say is . . . PLEASE don't ever discontinue it!

What do you think? Have you tried it out yet? What scents are you obsessed about?