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. 

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it

Well, it looks like the boxaholic period has finally begun.

Just before last weekend we got some of these awful cardboard boxes and started packing to face our future. I´d like to say that we are making a wonderful job but actually, the ONLY things we´ve packed so far are The Gentle One´s books. Just his books, not mine. Didn´t even try.

'Why?', I can hear you intelligently asking.

And the reason is, to be completely honest, that I don´t want to do so.

Please, do not get me wrong.
I am dying to move to Romania and start this atonishing adventure, but if only we could wake up one fine morning in our new apartment without all the Last-time drama...

The idea of packing it´s truly hard to me because, as soon as I place the first book, dvd, or framed picture in a box, I´ll be saying goodbye home and I am not ready, not quite yet anyway.

I might get started to freak out a bit here. A little bit. OK, maybe a huge bit.

We are supposed to be moving in less than a month. A MONTH, do you understand? And by then I won´t be sitting in front of this desktop computer anymore, I won´t bake cupcakes on my old oven, I won´t read books by the window (here we go with all the Last-time drama again...). Indeed, in less than a month I´ll have left this house forever.

Yes, I know this house is old (older than Matusalem, actually), and we (well, that´s The Gentle One) spend a lot of our spare time fixing up ruined supplies, but the thing is that we´ve been living here for the last seven years and a half. This house was our first house, the place where we first moved when we started our relationship. 

This shabby house is our home. And now we must leave. OMG.

Ok, I´ll keep breathing, I promise.

[Uses the asthma medicine again]

So, I decided to start documenting the little things that make me happy all around the apartment.
Like my summer reading refuge by the window, the light in my boudoir, or the glowing purple colour we painted the walls many years ago. Because someday I won´t probably remeber the place clearly, and then I´ll have my pictures at least.

Exams and other apocaliptic things

I wish I could say that this little period of blogging inactivity is due to many wonderful events running through my life recently. 

But the truth is that I have been dealing with big dosis of stress as well as very narrow schedules. 

These last two months have been a bunch of kicking-in-the-ass plans, including lots of work to be done, helping my students to prepare their Cambridge level exams and so on.

 And now, in the top of all that, it´s time for my university exams ( which I am very far of being well-prepared for).

That´s the reason why I haven´t been spending much time in the blogosphere lately. Besides, I think world has enough hysterical blog posts anyway. You don´t need me complaining here all the time.

So I prefer to look for some good stress-killers right away.

And I can say I found a perfect anxiety saviour in visiting art galleries.

♥A spot of modern (and unintelligible) art: Fringe-like cars and spiderweb case.

 Yes, sometimes I spend my spare time at museums, even if I don´t like the artist or the collection, because then you can find a chance for having fun and laughing a bit.

For instance, the contemporary gallery here in my town can be really awful sometimes, but I keep visiting. After all, bad art might be really crazy and a good stop on funnyville (and much more productive than eating tons of ice-cream or compulsively buying books that I don´t have time to read).

And oh, I forgot! 

Empty bright corridors are an aceptable place to take some quick outfit pics. You might even consider it the first episode of the saga "Violette over-dressed in a total weird location". Yeah, it could be funny to cast places such as abandoned supermarkets and zoos where you could see how unsuitable is wearing high heels.

Mmmh... totally promising!

Sunglasses : Primark  / Coat: Los Telares /  Tights : Pamela Mann  /  Shoes : Mary Paz /
  Bag : New Look (old)/ Necklace: Random shop

 

 

So tell me darlings, what are your favourite stress-killers?

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?