home touches // Next Home Sale

For the past two years my Mum heads off to the Next summer sale at the crack of dawn, quite literally with the thunder storms we've been receiving. Yet again I declined my invite to join her, staying in the comfort of my bed. As much as I adore you for your homeware Next there's no chance of getting me to wait in line while thunder crashes around. Turns out my Mum did pretty damn well for the teeny tiny section our local stocks.

The first candle find is the largest and my favourite of the home fragrances I have to share. Encased in a frosted glass jar are two scents that pair perfectly together to create a unique fragrance experience. Coastal Walk teams with Oceanic Woods to create a unisex scent, filling the entire room and beyond. It's not often I'm stumped to describe a scent but with this candle I am, it's fresh yet a little musky with a hint of citrus. With a burning time of 90 hours this candle was an absolute bargain at £3 down from £8, with the pot making an excellent DIY in the future.

The second candle Dark Orchid & Patchouli was another incredible deal as the scent is still being carried throughout stores with only the packaging of the line changing. For £2 with 55 hours of burn time and if I'm honest there's no need to even burn this candle, the room smells incredible with it sat on my shelf. If you love warm, touching on the sexy side of fragrances this one is for you. I'm repurchasing the entire line when this little guys used up.

Onto the diffuser side, we all adore Next diffusers in my family. They're inexpensive - especially in the sales and last for way longer than the boxes even state. A good diffuser is hard to find, most rarely scent the entire room, barely soak up through the reeds to evaporate or at the worst leak onto surfaces. Out of the two purchased my favourite has been Wild Pear 60ml (£2), instead of keeping it in it's original bottle I've poured it into the cream diffuser jar from last years sale. With top notes of pear and mandarin, middle of peonies and a base of amber it's perfect for the bedroom. Next Gold claims to contain golden nectar's, sweet vanillas and molten Amber's though I found the scent to smell very similar to my previous jasmine diffuser. Either way the scents are beautiful, much stronger than most brands and again for £3 you can't go wrong.

The last sale pick came tied in yet more ribbon. This set of four slate, heart shaped coasters were half price at £4. You can never have too many coasters especially if you're someone who burns a lot of candles or has many diffusers. I've experienced too many diffusers leaking oils and taking the top layer of furniture with them. Now if only they had the matching place mats.

Not fitting into this topic she also surprised me with a few Autumn-Winter picks that have me counting down the days until I can pull out boots and warm knits. I'm really not sorry. Did anyone else hit the sales as early as my Mum did? Or does anyone else send theirs off with an open list? Lucy xx