Friday, March 31, 2017

The London Haul 2017

There it is again: a haul! I've shopped quite a lot the past couple of months and I'm here to say that this will probably be one of my last hauls for the next few months. I just buy way too much!
When I'm in London I can't resist going to Oxford Street and pop into Primark and Boots. So that's what I did. It's not as much as last time -which is what I always say- but I did pick up a few bits and pieces that I enjoy using a lot. Some old favourites, some new classics and a lot of stuff in between. Enjoy!

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Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Collection Contour Kit


For a few months I have been obsessed with the NYX Highlight & Contour Pro Palette. There is one colour in there that works well for my skin tone and makes my cheekbones pop. The only problem is that the palette is huge and not practical for travelling at all. That's why I added this Collection contour kit to my travel make-up bag. I picked it up on my last trip to London and it was the perfect opportunity to try this baby out whilst I was overseas in Scandinavia.

The packaging is not anything too fancy, just your average drugstore kit. I do love the mirror in there. Normally they always skip that with designing the packaging, but I have to say it's always handy to have something like that in a powdery product. I have to say I'm really impressed with the contour shade. Sometimes it can be hard to find a product that's not too orange on the skin, but this contour powder has that perfect cool-toned brown shade. It's very pigmented which can be a bit difficult from time to time but I always make sure to remove the excess powder on the back of my hand. I squeeze my Zoeva Luxe Face Definer Brush a bit so it fits perfectly in the hollow of my cheek and then I start blending. It leaves the perfect touch of ''yes I contoured my face but it looks naturel'' kinda look. 
The highlighter is not one of my faves. I already knew this when I bought it, but I just wanted a compact contour powder that I had never tried before. The highlighter is very subtle and leaves a shimmering sheen on the skin. Going from my Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Moonstone to this is a huge difference so I was happy to have my Tanya Burr Peachy Glow Palette with me too -the highlighter and bronzer in there are fab!- 

For the price (£4.19) I think it's a lovely kit. The highlighter is not that sparkly, but that’s my taste in highlighters. The contour powder on the other hand is really good and I will definitely keep using it. Especially when I hop on a plane with only a cabin bag. I am just not made to squeeze all my stuff in a small suitcase, but I will keep trying for the sake of saving money!

What is your favourite contour product?


Monday, March 27, 2017

The Amsterdam Food Hotspot: Sticky Fingers


When I scroll through Instagram I always have a look at where people are eating. I even screenshot it for future references and I overall enjoy seeing where people go and what food they serve there. One place kept popping up in my feed and that was Sticky Fingers. Because of the pink wall it was hard not to notice it when I looked at my feed and I instantly knew: I have to go here. 

A few weeks later it was finally time: I met up with a friend at Sticky Fingers for a big catch up. It was easy to find and the café is actually part of the Conscious Hotel. Besides being the new big thing in Amsterdam it wasn't that busy when my friend and I entered the pink space. When we had our drinks and baked goods more people entered so I guess it’s just luck. 
Sticky Fingers is an organic bakery where you can get hot drinks and yummy pastries. If you are really hungry I advise you to go somewhere else, but for a coffee to go, friendly catch up or solo laptop club sesh it's the most ideal place. It's quiet even when there are a lot of people there sipping their latte and talking which makes it a perfect place to work in. Bring your laptop and you are good to go.
Now onto the food, besides the pink wall one of the important parts. I went for tea and picked a flavour out of their tea bar. I sniffed every tea and finally picked one. It can be so hard sometimes! Because I skipped breakfast -I know bad me- I had a croissant and a banoffee pie. This all together was €10 which I think is a bit expensive. The banoffee pie was amazing though and I will totally come back for that. They have a lot of other flavours too like lemon meringue which I have to try. 

The overall vibe, as I said, is very relaxed. The wall with pink tiles behind the counter is definitely a big eye catcher and you cannot skip this place without taking a quick snap of it. Everything for a pretty insta feed, right?

What is your favourite pastry?

Saturday, March 25, 2017

A Chatty Saturday

Catching up with friends is one of my favourite things to do. I have been lunching and brunching for the last couple of weeks and although my bank account is less happy with my splurges on food, my tummy says otherwise. There is just something about discovering new hip places, eating delicious food and reminiscing about the good ol' days and the exciting things to come.

On Saturday a friend and I went to a place down town for some food, ginger teas and hot chocolate. I decided to go for a comfortable outfit. Weekends screams comfort to me and also the fact that I felt crappy because it was that time of the month was why I went for my velvet wide leg pants from Topshop
What I like about these -there is a blazer as well, but I decided to separate the suit- is that they look incredibly stylish but are comfy too. I actually saw a stripy pair at H&M that has my name all over it and can't wait to try them on.
I combined my velvet pants with -surprise surprise- a Topshop jumper. Shall I say that working at Topshop definitely has its perks? I love the pop of red and although it's not that visible in the photo I am really wearing it underneath my big fluffy coat. I brought this coat with me on my Copenhagen & Sweden trip and I must say that I have fallen madly in love with it. I picked it up at a flea market last year but never wore it out as much. Copenhagen has definitely been a game changer for me on many things, including my love for bright blue leopard printed coats. 
To make it even comfier I put on my Adidas Stan Smiths. I love wide leg pants with white sneakers, so I might have made a naughty purchase last night at ASOS and ordered another pair of Adidas sneakers. They had 20% off so I also looked at other stuff but I held myself together and only went for the sneakers. 

Wide leg pants are definitely the key piece for me this spring/summer season. Comfy, stylish, perfect for cycling, typical Dutch weather and amazing for lunch dates with friends!

What are your thoughts on wide leg pants?

Saturday, March 18, 2017

The Copenhagen & Sweden Trip

There is nothing more exciting than visiting a country you have never been too. For me that was Sweden. I always wanted to go, but never hopped on a plane to go there. Luckily one of my friends moved there so I decided to meet up with her and be a tourist at the same time. The closest airport to where she lives is Copenhagen Airport and since I have never been there either we decided to make it into an exciting Copenhagen/Sweden trip.


After flying down there and walking to the hostel we decided it was time for some food. I spotted this café La Esquina on Instagram and it looked pretty good. We went over there and had an amazing avocado sandwich, berry waffle and an interesting cuppa ginger tea –it was spicy af-. I loved this little café and after a lot of chatting and demolishing all the food we walked around Copenhagen to see Nyhavn. THE harbour that is as pretty as in the photos. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that amazing, but I imagine that with some blue sky and sunshine it is the perfect spot to sip a drink next to the water. It started snowing, not short after that so after walking back to the hostel and lying down for a bit we took the bus to this place called Souls. A vegan restaurant with the most delicious food. Since it was already dark the photos that I took weren’t that amazing. But I highly recommend paying a visit.



The next day we walked to Møller Kaffe og Køkken. Another amazing place that I spotted on Instagram. The point is that you order everything separately. So we had some bread, avocado, fried eggs, cheese and chai lattes. The food was good, but the staff wasn’t that friendly to be honest. After our tummies were full we walked to this artsy park called Superkilen. The part with the stripes on the floor is pretty cool. Especially when you stand on the hill and look down.
Some few hours later we dropped of our luggage at the train station and were heading again to Nyhavn. I forgot my big camera the day before so I wanted to film some stuff. There is actually a food market near the harbour. It’s really big and full of different types of food. We went for vegan pizza and salted caramel cheesecake and as you may now I’m a real sweet tooth and I have to say the cheesecake was SO GOOD. We then headed to The Little Mermaid statue. A must for every tourist that visits Copenhagen. That was the last thing we did. We picked up our luggage and took the train to Sweden. Since it was dark I didn’t see much, but we did went to a sweet shop called Hemmakväll. I immediately became very happy when I saw all the candy and filled up my paper bag with too many sweets. We also bought a falafel wrap and ate all those things while watching Dirty Dancing 2. It´s one of my faves and really makes me want to visit Cuba and learn salsa dancing. 


The following day the sun was shining and I was ready to see what Sweden had to offer. She showed me her university in Lund –the buildings there are so gorgeous- and we brunched at this cute bistro called Inkognito. They had so many cakes and besides the toastie that I ate I had to try out this liquorice caramel pie. It sounds weird but it was actually pretty good. 
We then took the train to Malmö and did a bit of shopping. If you ever go to Sweden you have to go to Lagerhaus and Granit. Especially Lagerhaus was the store of my dreams. So many interior things, cute wrapping paper and stationary with donuts on it. And you know I love donuts. To do even more shopping we hopped on the train to a big shopping centre called Emporia. First stop was Joe & the Juice and I then spotted Sephora and spend way too much time in there. I only bought something from NARS, so I did quite well. 
After our shopping trip we went to the supermarket. I love foreign supermarkets. Mainly to see what they all have. I picked up some pastries and salt and vinegar crisps –my fave- and we then went back to her place to watch YouTube videos. 


On my last day in Sweden I went on my own to Malmö. I had no idea what to do so I decided to sit at Espresso House –a Swedish kinda Starbucks- and ate a yummy mozzarella sandwich and drank way too many chai lattes. They had amazing Wi-Fi and a charger near my seat so I was a happy gal. I then took the train to Copenhagen airport and was quite sad to leave this amazing place. Especially on a day where the sky was blue and the sun was shining. I did a bit of shopping at the airport, had an awkward encounter with the cute guy behind the till who said ''have a nice flight'' and I responded with ''you too'' -It doesn’t seem that bad now but I felt a bit embarrassed at the time. I had another Joe & the Juice, watched some YouTube videos and flew back to Amsterdam. I felt a bit sad when the airplane went into the air and Copenhagen became tinier and tinier. 

I definitely want to go back to Copenhagen one day. There are still a lot of cafes that I want to discover and especially around the summer time it would be awesome to rent a bike and discover Copenhagen even more. Stockholm also seems like an amazing place so maybe I can combine the two next time?

Have you ever been to Copenhagen or Sweden? What was your favourite thing?


Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Benefit Roller Lash Mascara


Mascara is one of the things that can change your entire make-up look. It's like contouring your face where you make your cheekbones stand out or hide your double chin -love this trick-. Mascara can give you that Bambi eye look and I'm all for that. Thanks to my mum and dad I am gifted with quite some good lashes of my own but a few coats of mascara never heard anyone. 
Now for years there is only one mascara in my life and that is the Max Factor False Lash Effect in black waterproof. It separates the lashes, gives them volume and doesn't make me look like a panda, hence the waterproof. Sometimes I do like to try a new mascara, but usually I always go back to my old fave. Today is one of those days because I'm giving you my review on the Benefit Roller Lash mascara.

I found this cutie in a goodie bag once and it took me a very long time to try it out. Not because I don't like Benefit or the mascara wand, because Benefit as a brand is so good and their eyebrow products are the bomb dot com. Also the wand looks totally fine by me -I'm a plastic mascara wand kinda girl-. There is just one problem: it's not waterproof. 
There are some things that I do like though, the packaging is absolutely stunning and it actually does amazing things for my lashes. It makes them long, voluminous, separated and they give me that whole sexy vibe where all I need is some winged liner and red lipstick to complete the look. The only thing is that my lashes won't stay up and after a few hours I am rocking a panda look that I didn't even know about. 
With waterproof mascara you know the drill; your curl your lashes, coat them in mascara and they will stay the same. With this mascara I can slowly see them dropping down and that's not what I want. 
Also the fact that I wore it when I went to the cinema to see Lion was not the best idea I’ve had. Even though it was the second time I saw it -such a good film go and see it- the tears kept popping up and I cried all the way till the end. The end that I already knew was coming, but still that film is such an emotional roller coaster for me. Or any sad Disney film for that matter. I cry at everything. When we walked out I was left with mascara everywhere and streaks in my foundation. Thank god that it was dark outside because together with my sniffling it didn’t look pretty.

My conclusion: the Benefit Roller Lash is a good mascara; I just wished they brought out a waterproof formula. If you are not that keen on waterproof this might be the one for you. Also, it's very easy to take off after a long day of work -or procrastination-. But as a girl that likes to have her curly lashes that are ready for the day I do have to go back to my old fave.

Have you tried the Benefit Roller Lash mascara? Any thoughts?


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