Bronze Goddess - A High Street Dupe

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As soon as the sun starts to show it's face I reach for Estee Lauders Bronze Goddess as my 'summer scent'.  Yes it's cliched and I tried to resist jumping on the bandwagon but when I finally gave in two years ago and tried it for myself I was sold and now it makes smile whenever I wear it and reminds me and my friends of fabulous holidays over the years.

Being a Summer scent it's lighter than what I usually reach for but that doesn't make the scent any less powerful and I find even as a smoker it doesn't get lost. Only the other day someone commented on how nice I smelt and it was Bronze Goddess I was wearing.

I've mentioned Bronze Goddess on my blog many times and my usual gripe is that despite over the years them expanding the Bronze Goddess range to feature many products with the familiar scent (currently I have my eye on the Cooling Body Gelee when I head to Dubai in September) they do not have a travel version. It baffles me. A Summer scent that doesn't come in a bottle that will slide easily into even on of those crappy plastic bags you can pick up at the airport before going through security. I even purchase my favoured Chanel Mademoiselle in it's travel version as whilst not as pretty on the dressing table for travel or simply throwing into my handbag it's the practical choice.

It was Zoe who alerted me to the Next dupe, Summer Sun, available and whilst I'm reluctant to buy things simply to blog about or indeed felt the need to purchase a fragrance dupe, especially when I've just opened a brand new bottle, my interest was peaked when I saw they had a travel version for £4 - worth a try surely?

I popped into my local branch of Next and was amazed and how alike it's 'inspiration' it was and did indeed purchase the travel version. This now sits in my handbag and allows me to top up my higher end scent should I wish - even better it's not a rollerball but a spray which I prefer.

There is a whole Summer Sun range of this Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess dupe and I'm even keen to dabble in the gift sets featuring body lotion, hand cream and most tempting the body oil and mist. Whilst I can appreciate the luxury and long lasting scent from Estee Lauder for the aforementioned products I could buy them all for less than their higher end counterparts.

Whatever your feeling on dupes sometimes a more affordable version of the accompanying items can be welcome to layer your fragrance without breaking the bank. In fact it was Next Summer Sun I showed a friend only yesterday and she's subsequently gone out and purchased Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess and like me, Next Summer in it's travel size for her handbag.

Do you have a favourite scent you reach for in the Summer?

#mydubai | Day 3

The problem with a much anticipated trip to somewhere like Dubai is that you put a lot of expectations on it. Someone like myself will research and plan to the letter including watching the second Sex and the City movie to get oneself in the mood.

Yes I realise that the film features a trip to Abu Dhabi and was in fact filmed in Morroco but still, I wanted that wow moment when they arrive at the hotel. Whilst our hotel, Le Royal Meridien was amazing and there was a wow moment, it was the wow moment. That came when we visited the Madinat Hotel, part of the Jumeriah brand.

As we pulled up in our taxi for dinner that evening I knew this was the arrival I was looking for. The hotel was the, maybe cliched, vision of Dubai I had in my head. The above photo is taken in the entrance to the hotel a space decorated with water features, plush sofas and traditionally dressed staff and a lot of horses!

Skirt & Top from Next

The hotel is huge and slightly difficult to navigate but that gave the perfect opportunity to soak up all the details of the hotel from more water features, huge sparkling chandeliers and beautiful flower decorations.

We eventually found our restaurant for the evening, Al Hambra

Al Hambra was a gorgeous and relaxed setting for our evening of Spanish tapas and it felt like we were in our own Spanish villa due to our outside seating area with few others around us. We went for the all you can eat option which gave us an opportunity to try a little of everything and it's safe to say we over ordered, ate too much and some of us drank a little too much sangria. 

The staff were fantastic and helped us make our selections and would bring additional plates as we requested and had the right mix of attentiveness whilst leaving us to chat and enjoy our food.

After dinner we went to enjoy our view and take in the gorgeous hotel - then we discovered the 'magic carpet' and much fun ensued from poses to serenading.

You'll see a lot more of the Madinat hotel  as we visited twice more during our trip so stay tuned for those posts. I should also mention this was the point I gave up carrying my camera with me and battling with the low mood lighting or trying to snap multiple photos of food. Any photos you see in further posts (and to be fair those previously) will be a mixture of iPhone snaps and those taken by our hand photographer Ben.

All that was left was to head home and start our tradition of an end of the night life selfie.

I hope you're enjoying these posts from my trip to Dubai and apologise for how long it's taking me but there are A LOT of photos to wade through!