Is that you, June?

This was supposed to be the first (summery) June week, a long-time awaited period of warm sunny days I expected to be full with pleasant walks, picnics and some delightful swimming. But of course June had its own plans.If you thought this post was about all of those beautiful things, I am sorry to disappoint you – please, feel free to blame that son of a biscuit. 

Blogmas Day 3: Festive nails.

Hello everybody and welcome to day 3 of Blogmas!

I think I never mentioned it before, but I have been stalking the Christmas manicure tag on Tumblr for years. Actually, it has been so much time that now it looks like FOREVER.

In the past I made too many attempts of giving my hands a festive look, just to get disappointed about my poor inexistent nail art skills. This year, however I did my very best and took it really seriously... And before you start singing praises... I FAILED AGAIN. I have a very embarrassing picture to prove it, but with your permission that one is going to remain in the bottom of the "shame photographic file" where I keep all the documented mistakes I commit far too frequently. THANKYOUVERYMUCH.

Too Faced palette review

I have been looking for a nice eye shadow palette for some time.

However, as I invested uncountable spare evening haunting makeup stores, I noticed the high street barely launches any with gothic-friendly colours: you can find nice nudes, as well as plenty of pastels and neutrals, but darkest tones are always an issue, and it was quite hard to find nice products without spending a little fortune in luxury products.

Lately, this tendence has changed, though.

More and more brands have been hitting interesting packs for the last year and a half, and many shops are receiving their stock, even in their little and more modest affiliated locations.

A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon the Too Faced shopfront at the local Sephora store, and casually their Return of the Sexy palette caught my eye. Although I find the name REALLY awful (The Return of the Sexy? C´mon! This is not the nineties anymore...) the colous were quite pretty, dark and also very versatile from my perspective. Nevertheless, the price was a bit over my budget at that point and I decided to wait. Nonetheless, as I have been recently attending different formal events as a consequence of all the wedding preparations, I thought I was finally able to justify the expense.

So this babe came home with me last Friday.

What I did in January

Oh, Jeez... February is on its last week already (WHAT? Is it almost over?)

and I can´t believe what a soft and nice Winter we had.

You see? There´s no way to complain about the weather anymore, as it has been quite warm comparing with last year around here...

Anyway, it´s time for another monthly round-up episode.

Do you want to know what I did in January?

Dark circle beaters for pale girls

I am pale. Very pale. 

Actually, in words of my family almost traslucent, (which is not a total overstatement if you consider you can see my veins through the skin in most parts of my body, oops...) Now, you can think that´s suppose to be desirable, something of a natural fashion on any alternative lady who wears black, mostly. 

Sure: white skin, dark hair, red lips. Dita von Teese and all that jazz.

Glamourous... Theoretically.

 When you are that pale you have a double chance to suffer from dark circles, or more exactly, to suffer from very distinct ones.

 On top of that, I have been experiencing sleeping issues lately. The morning result is a tired-looking and puffy-eyed Violette, whose dark circles are observable from around the International Space Station.

Yeah, not so glamourous, right?

Xes a Devil beta tester box

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the nice people at Xes a Devil, a little and brand new gothic-friendly company. They wanted to know if I would be interested on receiving a pack as a gift, in the hope I would write an honest review.

On the first place, this was not a normal box but a beta tester box, which basically means the company is on the previous stage of launching their online shop and they are curious about potential costumers honest reactions.

Actually, I liked the idea of testing a sample selection of their future catalogue products, so I decided to give it a go.

Sephora red carpet eyeshadow review

Following my current red shade obsession in the search of gothic-friendly items is not new stuff, is it?
But it´s not actually my fault guys, I swear! Lately it looks like, wherever I go, there is some beautiful red item craving to be picked by me.
And you can´t simply say NO when the universe tries so hard.
That would be quite unmindful!
(Not like if I were looking for excuse, ahem...)

Seasonal auburn nails tutorial

At the very beginning of the Autumnal season, I posted a picture of my auburn manicure on my Instagram account. 

A follower asked me to make a tutorial of it, as it was a bit more elaborated than a simple coat of nail polish. I didn´t think think too seriously about it, as I have little experience on the tutorial-art-land. However, I have been asked repetedly since then, so I finally decided to give it a chance.

I hope you will find it helpful!

Vampire blood lips

If you were asked what is my favourite colour, I am quite sure you would bet for black. 

Mostly because a good 95% of my wardrobe belongs to that tonality.

Nevertheless, you would be wrong. My absolute fav is red, specifically a type of red shade dancing between burgundy, ruby and crimson BUT it is so difficult to find pretty clothes on that colour to match with black... so I basically focus on red lips instead of red clothing. 

The long hair axiom

Please, raise your hand if you have got or had got long hair at any point of the past and you do think hairdressers totally hate long hair.

Right, it wasn´t just my own impression then!

I had planned a lovely post here about the magnificent views of the lakes around during the early days of the Summer  (because ey, the warm weather is finally here!), as well as the ton of precious parks you can find in Bucharest (no worries, there will be more about that coming, anyway) when "The long hair axiom" stumbled upon me.

Enchanted

I managed to collect all the wonderful pictures I could find about the great Lolita event from the oficial photographers. It looks like somehow all my own photos looked blurry and quite dark.

But the important thing is that here they are: FINALLY.

I do hope you enjoy my lolita adventures as much as I did, darlings!

I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year

It might be not surprise if I tell that we´ve been invaded by a box flood. 

It´s more like an ocean, actually.

 There are so many boxes at home right now that there´s hardly any space for us, and we (poor souls!) have to swim among the cardboard waves to do anything.

Ok, maybe I am exagerating a tiny bit (me, really?), but The Gentle One and I are feeling a little bored about all this packing up madness. Indeed, a couple of days ago we started needing  to do something else than placing our personal belongings into boxes, so cheerfully decided to go out for a coffee or at least some fresh air.

That´s the good thing about Spain: you always find the opportunity of having both things at the same time, even on September. 

For a few more days, we won´t feel the coldness of Autumn coming. Instead, we can still wearing summer clothes while we have cool drinks on a sunny terrace. And that´s exactly what we did, we flew to our favourite private garden, a place where you can spend the evening surronded by bunches of precious flowers.

Sunglasses : Primark  / Dress and belt: New Saks /  Tights : C&A /   

Shoes : H&M/
  Bag : DIY (mum´s work) /  Necklace: DIY (me) / Tiara:Claire´s

 We were just enjoying the day and taking the chance to make a smallie photoshoot when I heard the most funny comment coming from a lady: 'Oh look, she is all dressed up. She must come from a wedding!'.

She was staring (and pointing an inculpatory finger) at me as she passed through the street with a friend.

Believe me or not, it took me a couple of seconds to understand I was the focus of such a comment.

Well, I think this person was not being intentionally negative.
She couldn´t just assume that my clothes were a normal/daily outfit to me. These days anything other than jeans is considered "overdressy". And if someone judges you are overdressing, it automatically means you are a frivolous person, who is looking for extra attention and can´t be interested about serious issues. After all, if someone makes such an effort to dress up, this person must have no responsabilities at all, right?

Over the years, I have dealt with tons of comments like that (and not to mention about the gothic-look).

Not a long time ago I received a similar comment from a colleague: 'Don´t you feel akward on your dress with this rainy weather?' No, I didn´t. Indeed, I think stocking tends to get dry easier than jeans.

The way in which we judge other people´s appearance is mad, making all kind of weird assumptions.
 Are you a goth? You must be promiscuous!
Do you pay "too much" attention to your look? You must be superficial!

I consider myself a well-balanced and professional person. I have lots of other interests apart from fashion, and (oh, surprise, surprise!) dressing up is not an effort to me. In fact, is not dressing up at all. It´s just my way of dressing. I don´t know why, but I find more comfortable wearing dresses and skirts than trousers.

I don´t like being judgemental, but maybe those comments come from people who feel a bit threatened, only because they mistakenly think you did some effort to look nice and they didn´t.

For instance, in one occasion I even heard a girl excusing herself for wearing non-gothic clothes (I was wearing a black silky dress that day. We had met the previous weekend on a gothic-friendly party, where she would wear a very radical outfit). Of course, I didn´t care about her clothing. I don´t pay too much attention to other people´s look, but this girl kind of felt bad about her appearance.
 Obviously, that was her fault, not mine, but it was a little sad she thought I was judging her...

I´d like people to stop asking if I have a job interview, a Halloween party, or a fancy cocktail just because of my outfit. Clothes represent an artistic and creative way to externalize my personality, but it´s not the only one.

Wouldn´t be everything better if we could forget about first impressions?

Wouldn´t be everything better if we could just be ourselves?

'Cause, you know, baby? Life is my palette

There are many bloggers I love out there.

 One of them is the gorgeous Magda, whose last post made me think about what products I would choose in the case of someone asking about my favs.

I am not a favs person. 

I mean, I like many films, books, writers and music bands, but it is truly difficult to me selecting the very best. Indeed, I always feel a little weird when people ask me about it: 'What´s your favourite actress?' or, 'What about your fancied food?' are just not a good way to start a conversation with me (and sometimes people can become very insistent about this type of things). 

As a logical consequence, I have chosen the cosmetics that I use currently, rather than my front-runners (because well, I simply don´t have a clear list of them).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my top ten in cosmetics!

♥ Eyelashes. I don´t really care about brands as long as they feel cozy. The ones here are a cheap pair from Primark Beauty. They are called 'Full Look Lashes'.

♥ Nail polish. A very basic, right? I am in love with a relatively unknown brand. Leticia Well offer a stunning finish with these raven black (colour #227) and sparkling ruby red (# 231).

♥ Eyeshadow. I have never been a huge fan of eyeshadow, but pigments are a different universe (and I am on the boat of liquid eyeshadow too). Right now I am very fond of Detrivore´s Livor Mortis (a very dusty purple with powerful undertones).

♥ Enlightening concealer. Totally sold to the natural look you get by using it. When I want to keep it simple, this is always my first choice. I use Softfocus Concealer by Kiko Milano Makeup.

 
♥  Liquid black eyeliner. Kind of my personal signature, I'm sure you've already noticed that. The bottle in the picture belongs to H&M cosmetic line and I bought it last week during an eyeliner urgency. Usually, I prefer Yves Saint Lauren Eyeliner Effet Faux Cils Shocking, but as I mentioned I ran away of it in the last minute before an important event.

♥ Vegetal moisturizer cream. Nothing like vegetal oil to keep your skin silky. The specimen here is Yves Rocher Organic Vanilla Lotion.

♥ Lipstick, lipstick, lipstick! My current two favs are Kiko´s  Rouge A Lévres, and Revlon´s Va Va Violet (ey, ideal name for me!). 

♥ Fluid Comfort Foundation. Don´t try to look for it in the picture, I totally forgot to include it! However, it´s the very basic product I use everyday. Yves Rocher makes a fantastic product called Couleurs Nature. My tone is Teint Trés Clair.

♥ And of course I had to include the main tool that helps me with the basis of my everyday look. That´s the Real Techniques Stippling Brush by Samantha Chapman. Ok, it´s not a cosmetic itself but, what could I do without it?

So tell me, darlings, what are your cosmetic favs at the moment?

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

I have been frequently asked by many readers about how do I manage to have healthy skin and what is my care routine. To be honest, at the beginning I was not sure about posting on this particular subject. 

I used to think that I had no big wisdom to share. 

'My beauty secrets? - I thought -  No big deal at all! '
 But then I started surfing the net to look for any tips from bloggers all around the world.

What I mainly wanted was comparing my own perception with some other people´s criteria.

And do you know what? We had diametrically opposed views.

I went totally perplexed when, after reading more than a dozen beauty blogs, I realized about (and this is just a personal opinion) the bunch of big mistakes they comitted. The most of them were focused on making reviews of semi-professional products which were supposed to be essential for daily skin care regime. From my point of view, there were too many of them in every single post, kind of a cosmetic avalanche. And I started thinking:

'This makes no sense. Why are those ladies so obsessed with getting every new product? This won´t make their skins healthier by itself'.

So I decided I could have something to share after all.

These are my tips for a pretty, young and healthy skin.

This can sound like an obvious principle, but we need to hydratate ourselves both internally and externally.
 The suitable quantity of  liquid to drink is around eight glasses a day, but they don´t need to be exclusively water: juices, infusions, softdrinks or smoothies are good options too. However, remember that drinks containing  caffeine, alcohol or big amounts of sugar do not count. Indeed, they contribute to dehydratation.
If you don´t feel like drinking that much, you can get a reasonable volume of water from fresh fruit. Watermelon, kiwis and oranges contain huge liquid portions. Water helps to eliminate toxins from our body and makes our skin to look younger.

In relation to external hydratation, big companies insist on selling really expensive and useless lotions to us.
Many scientific researches show that the most effective products are those containing big shots of C Vitamin. There are many good brands offering this type of treatments for no more than 10 euros.
Personally, I tried many different creams over the years (my skin is really sensitive) and I finally found the perfect one for me in an unexpensive body + face lotion from Kinesia. I get it in my current supermarket and it costs four euros. Yes, that´s right. Only four euros. The regular bottle lasts for two months or even more, (even if a share it with my man). And on the top of all it, it is cruelty free.
 I can assure that my skin feels young and fresh since I use it.

A good nutrition is as important as a good hydratation.

Anemia is a fast track to a bad look (and better not to speak about health problems).

Try to make your diet complete and well-balanced:

Do you eat fresh veggies three times a week at least? Do you have fruit everyday?

A recent research demonstrates that women who consume big portions of C vitamin show less wrinkles when they turn thirty. This substance is present in citrics, but also in strawberries, kiwis and blueberries.

Having a healthy diet can make us feel a little lazy, but there are simple ways to achieve success.

If you do feel really bored about cooking green stuff every day, well, you can try green smoothies. 

And the same is applied to fruit. One of my favourite smoothies right now contains freeze blueberries and soy milk. 

Really yummy! 

And don´t forget that you can get extra vitamins and minerals from pills. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that multi-vitamin pills do not substitute natural elements. Our body doesn´t synthesize a hundred per cent of artificial vitamins. Keep that in mind!  

Seriously, do you think you need those twenty five beauty bottles that you storage in the bathroom?

Skin PH is very sensitive, and the excess of chemical substances do not help.

If you want to reduce the impact of chemicals in your skin there are several things you can do: first and most obvious, do not saturate your beautiful face with lots of products. Think a little bit about it. 

Exfolitation followed by a mask, followed by hydratation.  

Really?

If you want to feel your skin softer you can eventually substitute your current chemical mask for a homemade natural product once in a while.

 Greek Yoghurt is a miracle, you can trust me.

My personal skin care treatment consists in three basic products:

1. Moisturizing cream (the one mentioned above).  Avena Kinesia Moisturizer.
2. Anti-oxidant Mask (I just apply it once a week). Gisèle Denis, Maque antioxidant au thé blanc.
3. Gentle scrub lotion for both, face and body (once every two weeks). Payot Paris Gommage Douceur & Sanctuary Warming Detox Mask.

Yes, every goth lady knows that.

Excessive sunlight contributes to premature aging. Of course I am not suggesting you totally hide yourself from it (we need it to synthesize vitamin D), but a good parasol and sunscreen on summer will help to make you look younger.

 

Of course it does!

So please, don´t forget to remove all your make up before sleeping. 

During our dream, skin regeneration process takes place. When we clean our skin, and help her breathe, we also remove dead skin cells, excess sebum and pollution accumulated during the day.

♥ My top secret product for a clean and healthy skin is Vichy Purete Thermale.

Besides, let your skin to breathe with no make up on it once in a while (I do it every time I stay at home, specially on the weekends). When I stay at home and I want to keep it simple, I just wash my face with water and a natural Shea Tree soap which has ultra-hydratation power. 

This makes the skin healthier.

 Yes, having good rest also helps to be pretty.

I am sure you notice the difference between a dream session of seven or eight hours to another one of five or six hours. When you don´t sleep properly not only dark circles appear, but also skin feels dry and tense.

Make a favour to yourself and have sweet dreams every night.

Okey, lovelies, this is what I basically do for keeping my skin healthy and young.

I´d like to know what do you think about this.

Is my routine very different from yours?