My fall essentials

07.11.12

Navy is my black, my favorite and go-to color! I don’t look good in all black. I wish I had bought the scarf in navy so that I could dress completely navy from top to toe.

Here’s my list, tell me yours!

1. Black lambswool scarf from Acne.
2. Gray lambswool sweater from A.P.C. (similar here)
3. ‘Fleur d’oranger’ candle from A.P.C.
4. A.P.C. petit standard raw denim jeans
5. Navy double-breasted peacoat from Isabel Marant (similar here, here, here & here)
6. Best facial cream cleanser ever from Aesop.
7. Navy trainers from A.P.C. x Nike Air Max (similar here & here).
8. Navy ribbed lambswool and cashmere sweater from A.P.C. (similar here)
9. A pair of brogues from Church’s.
10. Navy merino wool cardigan from A.P.C’s previous spring collection. (similar here)

31 best-kept secrets

04.05.12

gomediazine.com

What an overwhelming response to the A.P.C. tote bags giveaway. Man, thanks a million for sending in all the incredible tips and secrets. Reading them was fun! Wouldn’t it be a shame not to share some of them with you? Below, I’ve picked out a few of my favorites that are new to me or which I’ve already incorporated into my oh-so perfect life. Haha. And in terms of best-kept secrets, one of mine is to never stop learning – be that as it may, there’s nothing more off-putting than coming off as a pompous know-it-all. Modesty is empowering, if you ask me!

Anyway, it’s a long post, so just scroll down to the bottom for the tote bag winners.

Again, thanks for entering the giveaway and congrats to the winners!

Continue reading →

Hair crush

11.10.11

(via jeanasohn)

I don’t know who the alluring girl is in this picture. She’s perhaps famous or something, as I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her somewhere on the interweb before. But one thing I know is that I have a major girl crush on her right now. Oh my! And I suppose it’s because of her hair. No, I really do have a crush on her hair. She makes me want to rummage my drawers for a sharp scissor and shed my locks right away, which is something I’ve been contemplating doing for a little while now.

Oddly enough, I’ve been feeling a compulsion to reinvent myself in terms of appearance as of late – I’ve already purchased a whole lot of new clothes, new spectacles (it was about time), and additionally I’ve put on 100 kilograms, so basically I should stop this reinvention before I go overboard with sex reassignment surgery and such, lol. And although I saw my hairdresser a month ago, I feel like I have to do something drastic to my hair pronto. But chopping off my hair is like a leap in the dark for me. These days, I wear my hair in a bun or a high ponytail, largely as it makes me feel and look less feminine. Not really sure whether or not it’s a good thing, but I’m currently all about looking boyish. Quite frankly, it’s more of a psychological matter on which I might elaborate another time – if I dare broach the subject myself.

That said, if I all of a sudden decide to chop off my precious locks, it’s going to be comme ça.

Hove essentials

25.06.11

Here are some of my festival essentials. So, in the midst of being the worst-case scenario of a busy bee, I have one way or another managed to launder my clothes and pack for 7 days of escapism from the real world. Tomorrow morning I’m leaving for the divine island Tromøy to attend the Hove festival. It’s going to be such a fun and interesting week, I can tell. Obviously, I’m overly excited, as I’m a virgin when it comes to festivals of this kind. Be that as it may, I have always prided myself on being a light packer, but in this case I think I may have overpacked a bit due to possibly unpredictable weather changes. I can divulge that this photo only presents 1/4 of the stuff I’m bringing. Thank goodness I have accumulated quite an amount of refillable travel-size bottles over the last few years of traveling – they’re such saviors, otherwise I wouldn’t at all be able to fit my bathroom’s cabinet’s top shelf into a small bag.

Anyway, I will most likely blog my personal approach to festival style every day next week. After all, I’m a festival rookie. On top of that, I’ll be tweeting daily snippets from the festival around the clock, only to make your life seem more miserable. He-he! On the other hand, I never got around to announcing the winners of the Hove festival passes giveaway: Olga from Warsaw and Jane from Toulouse. Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing both of you soon. Super stoked!

See you at Hove! (If anyone recognizes me at the festival; pardon my chronic bitchface that might repel you from saying hi, but please say hi regardless!)

–
My dad's old wife-beater shirt, two striped breton tops, cardigan from American Apparel, COS t-shirt, A.P.C. liberty print shirt, tailored shorts from Zara, Ray-Ban Clubmasters, disposable camera, Coco Mademoiselle perfume, Bumble & Bumble texture cream, Bumble & Bumble curl conscious reactivating mist, Kiehl's ultra facial moisturizer SPF 15, Neutrogena sunblock SPF 100, Chanel rouge noir lipstick, Kiehl's ultra facial cleanser and toner, writing pad.

Beauty investments

15.05.11

: Malin + Goetz jojoba face scrub, Kiehl’s ultra facial cleanser, toner and midnight recovery concentrate

Lately I’ve found myself obsessing over skincare and beauty products. Into The Gloss is partly to blame for the abnormality in my behavior. For me, beauty products are a little bit of inevitable everyday luxury, especially if they work wonders for my skin.

Anyway, I received my most recent beauty investments today. The Malin + Goetz face scrub is totally new to me and I can’t wait to integrate it into my skincare routine. The other Kiehl’s products are absolutely essential part of my day-to-day routine. As for the midnight recovery concentrate, I can’t stress enough the fact that it is a miraculous sleepless night savior. On top of that, Kiehl’s products always look good on your vanity table (I have a perennial penchant for nice, apothecary packaging).

Beauty reminder

10.05.11

(via gq.com)

I’m a firm believer that beauty comes from the inside out, and a radiant, flawless complexion is not only a strong reflection of your overall health but also essential for making the most of your looks. Great style and beautiful skin go hand in hand, I suppose. Sometimes external products aren’t enough to do the trick – beautiful skin really does take more than just a jar of beauty potion. Admittedly, I happen to fall into the trap of solely relying on cleansers, creams and such quite often. Turns out, the promises that come along with every beauty product are only likely to occur if you start taking care of the inside.

A couple of weeks ago, my skin was pretty much flawless (for the first time in years) and I didn’t need to conceal it with makeup. I, for one, was naively convinced that my recent beauty investments were the one factor that made improvements to my skin. Apparently, my improved skin was largely a result of dietary and lifestyle factors. Alas, I have unconsciously treated my body badly as of late. Although I’ve been using the same skincare remedies, no sleep, a lot of stress and irregular meals have resulted in an abnormal abundance of obscure sized pimples on my face and a dull, diminished complexion that takes a lot of effort to slightly cover up in the morning. I really loathe when my morning routine gets time-consuming. Therefore, having flawless skin ought to shorten such time-wasting processes.

(via intothegloss.com)

Yet, I do have a tendency to neglect the importance of sleep, water and nutrition when I’m in a stressed state of mind. While I don’t want to desist from all the fun things in life that might clearly have a bad impact on my skin, I can indeed improve my approach to beautiful skin by getting more sleep and balance out my diet by putting an end to the sporadic starvation followed by the occasional binge. Frankly, I would never stick to a strict diet or become a total abstainer from things like alcohol, cake, coke (not referring to the drug, lol), and the like just in order to get better skin. I’m not very keen on pursuing flawless skin at the expense of things that matter to me such as quality of life.

Enough beating around the bush – my complexion is an indicator of my health, and this post should remind myself to get a decent amount of sleep every night and take better care of myself even though other things seem to take over my life at times. Often, sudden acne breakouts and bad skin equal a sign of something off-balance. Additionally, I have to start drinking more water. I always forget to drink water. And yes, I want my almost flawless skin back!!

Frivolity

27.03.11

(via cokogalore.com)

“You’re considered superficial and silly if you are interested in fashion, but I think you can be substantial and still be interested in frivolity.” (Sofia Coppola)

“If you compare it with philosophy, [fashion] is frivolous. But frivolity may be something good, something that is part of our lives. So I don’t dislike it. And what I like is the mix — that in your life you can have serious things, more frivolous ones. Fashion is about beauty and the search for beauty, I think it’s a fundamental thing. No one criticizes if you want to do beautiful homes. No one criticizes if you want to buy a beautiful chair. But so many intellectuals still criticize why you want to wear beautiful clothes, and it’s only our body, so it must be important in a way.” (Miuccia Prada)

“There is always some frivolity in excellent minds; they have wings to rise, but also stray.” (Joseph Joubert)

“I think here’s nothing wrong with being interested in frivolity, so long as it isn’t your be-all and end-all. Physical things like fashion, architecture, design are important to me because they frame the life you lead – they’re the backdrop and settings that intersect when you form an emotional attachment or memory in association with them.” (Lin, out-of-the-bag.blogspot.com)

Style notice: Mlle Agnès – An unbuttoned Parisian

02.10.10

Below is an excerpt taken from an interview with the always-inspiring Agnès Boulard AKA Mademoiselle Agnès. She is fortysomething. While “most” women would anxiously make every endeavor to disguise their aging appearance and actual age, women like Agnès Boulard would rather embrace their age. What I like about French women is that most of them rarely alter their natural appearance contrary to.. for instance American women. They rather celebrate their natural beauty and they prefer to age gracefully. I think we all should learn something from French women. Personally, I think beauty comes with age. Every little wrinkle tells a story, may it be sad or beautiful. When I get old, I know that I will not use any anti-wrinkle creams or dye my gray/white hair – I’ll embrace the beauty of the old age.

STYLE CREDO I consider myself very Parisian: no makeup, natural hair, very effortless. I don’t like the idea to have only one style — it’s a bit boring. I like to change, mix things up. I go to the YSL show in Chanel, the Chanel show in YSL.

CURRENT OBSESSION Blouses. I have too many T-shirts in my closet, and I am a madame now. I also think they’re sexy. I like silk ones from Balmain. And black transparent ones from YSL. Or a Ralph Lauren cotton blue shirt — you know, easy. I never wear it buttoned up. I prefer to wear it open. One, two, three buttons. I don’t like to feel too eh-eh-eh. I get claustrophobic.

ON MY WISH LIST I love fashion, but I’m not a shopping addict. I’m never like, ‘I need these shoes by Miu Miu!’ I don’t kill anyone for this. I prefer well-made basics that you can keep: the right trench coat, a good leopard-print coat. Because, you know, it comes back every two seasons. I would love an Hermès bag. I have a lot of handbags, but no Hermès So all my friends have to do something about that for my birthday — it’s the fifth of November. I also like diamonds. There is a black pearl and diamond bracelet from Shamballa that I could buy for myself. I always buy my own jewelry. Sad, I know. But I’m an independent woman.

(excerpt from thenytimes)

Trois choses que je veux vous dire

24.09.10

(via thegentlewoman)

1. I need the second issue of The Gentlewoman but I must admit that I reckon the previous cover was better.

(via flickr/grepic)

2. I’m going to paint my nails rouge noir, the only nail polish I allow myself to wear. So chic. It would’ve been my signature look if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m a pianist and have to cut my nails all the time.

(via netaporter)

3. I’ve purchased a new jacket. So expensive but hopefully worth the expense.

Underrated

14.09.10

(via tfs, jak&jil)

1) Good lingerie
2) The watch
3) Eyebrows

Jacquelyn Jablonski = the epitome of perfect eyebrows.

I was neither blessed with amazingly thick oriental hair nor long European legs. But I try not to complain as there are people out there who weren’t blessed with dark, huge eyebrows. Eyebrows are such an underrated feature. At least I’m utterly happy with mine.

Grayzine

Dead Fleurette

Category Archives: Beauty