Miscellaneous

Holidays

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

My apologies for neglecting my blog, summer has been really busy. I have no intention to quit my blog but I can’t seem to find the time right now so I’m taking a leave for a few weeks. I’ll be back soon hopefully so keep checking back!

I hope you all have a wonderful summer, see you soon!

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dbeautyshop review Pop.C Grey

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

I have another circle lens review! I was really excited about these, they’re bigger than the last ones and a different colour. They’re from the brand Pop.C in the colour light grey. They’re available at dbeautyshop.com at €31,92 and last up to a year, I’m guessing the size of them is why they are slightly more expensive than other types of circle lenses. Circle lenses are a trend from Asia, in particular Korea and Japan where anime or manga eyes are very desirable and having a different eyecolour a nice change from having dark brown eyes like everyone else.

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Each purchase comes with a free lens case.

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I really loved the design of these when I saw them online and I wasn’t disappointed when I received them, the Geo Nudy Blues were very pixelated, these look much better I think. I really like the thick black rim on the outside.

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In comparison! As you can see, they’re much bigger than my own iris, these lenses are particularly large at 15.5mm!

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In close-up. You can see my natural colour behind the lenses as my pupil is small because of the flash, when lighting is less bright you can’t see any brown whatsoever.

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They’re very comfortable to wear, I think they are more comfortable than the Geo Nudy lenses, despite these being so large. I can feel they’re there but only slightly. They don’t look very natural, I’ll be honest, they’re really dramatic and in person slightly scary even. My mum’s reaction to seeing them for the first time was “my daughter has turned into an alien”, I couldn’t stop laughing. I’m not sure I feel comfortable wearing them out though, as people might stop and stare or ask “what the hell is wrong with your eyes?” but I think they’re perfect to use in pictures. In pictures they look interesting and mesmerizing whereas in person they’re dramatic and a bit eerie. Overall I really like these, much better than the blue ones, they give you a youthful look and a doll-like appearance and they’re real good fun.

website: www.dbeautyshop.com

I was sent this product by D’Beautyshop for review purpose. I am not in any way affiliated with this company nor am I being paid by them. All opinions stated are honest and my own, as always.

Summer holidays

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, summer’s been busy and very hot! My boyfriend’s been here a lot, he passed his exams so we’re enjoying a 3 month holiday together! We had lots of plans for the past few days but nearly all of them fell through, it’s simply been too hot to do anything lately. Though last Tuesday it wasn’t as hot, so we decided to go shopping in Antwerp. I bought tons of dresses and he bought at least six T-shirts cause he had several stolen at the Rock Werchter festival.

While he was at Rock Werchter I went to my sister’s birthday party. This is what I made her, a shoulder bag, a pencil-case and a wallet. Besides the wallet the fabrics are from IKEA, when I saw them I knew she would love them! The wallet is from an old fabric her mum bought for my mum in Africa years ago. We’re half sisters, hence… I really hope she liked them and will enjoy using them.

presents

In Antwerp I bought this stunning lace jacket at H&M, it was a bit expensive at €39,99 but I just fell in love with it.

lace

Ignore the clutter behind me, I’m in Dries’ room and we had to rearrange it completely so we could put two mattresses together, yay for the Simpsons pillowcases!

The black dress I’m wearing in this picture is also from H&M, and because I loved it so much (and because it was so cheap! Just €6,95) I bought it in several of other colours as well. Only the black one and the green zebra print were a size small, the others were a size medium and too loose fitting  so I’m going to take them in a bit.

dresses

peach, a blue print with hummingbirds, turquoise, black zebra print, green zebra print and white

Last week we also went to the house of his departed grandparents, the house still needs clearing out and cleaning up before it’s being sold. We went alongside his parents to see if there were things we wanted that would be chucked otherwise. I found this gorgeous snake skin clutch, I’m not sure if it’s real or fake, though I’m guessing it’s genuine.

clutch

I cut Dries’ hair on Sunday cause it was bothering him, on the back of his head it tends to grow all wonky so I cut it straight, after that I took some passport photos for his new ID!

Passport

Note the nails! Will be posting a tutorial on them very soon. :love:

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The left one is the one we picked eventually, though the one on the right would have been way more awesome! Oh god, how I love my dorky boyfriend :)

Lashes! Madame Madeline part II & AII Beauty

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Huge post about lashes! I promised it to you a while ago and finally it’s here. Took me blood, sweat and tears but I finally finished it. These are a few of my lashes, mostly the more natural looking ones, but I added one of the more dramatic ones as well. My apologies, not all of the pictures are 100% sharp but you will get the idea.

natural

These are my natural lashes without mascara. They’re quite short unfortunately so false lashes are a great alternative for me.

mascara

These are my lashes with my favourite mascara, the falsies volum’ express by Maybelinne. Makes a huge difference doesn’t it? I always curl my lashes with a lash curler which is a very important step. First you curl your lashes, grab them and squeeze several times, then apply your mascara.

andrea
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Andrea Modlash in 53, I received these from AII Beauty. I really like them, they look very natural and suit my eyes. Excuse my sloppy application, the inside corner of the lash band isn’t close enough to my lashes (happens to me a lot) but it’s fixed by applying eyeliner most of the time. The pictures really tend to magnify everything unfortunately. Also, in none of the pictures I’m wearing eyeshadow because this way you can see the lashes better!

andrea
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Andrea Accents 301 from AII Beauty. These are great lashes too and again not close enough to my lash line (sorry!) which shows up very clearly in close-up but not so much with a full make-up look on.. They just give a little added accent to the corner of your eyes, a little flutter of lashes as it were. I like wearing them a lot and they’re a lot easier to apply than a full strip of lashes and they look great.

revlon
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These and the next Revlon lashes I received from Madame Madeline. They’re very lightweight you can hardly feel them there. They look very natural and there are 2 pairs in one pack which is great. Thumbs up for these, I really like them.

revlon
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Revlon short natural. These are criss-cross lashes which I didn’t see until I received them, “that’s not going to look very natural” was my first thought but they do look nice! However the lash strip itself is a very hard band, you can really feel these sitting on your eyes which isn’t comfortable. Look great but I have trouble wearing them unfortunately.

andrea
lashes

Andrea Modlash 82 received from AII Beauty. I’m so happy with these pictures, especially the top one. :love: These are quite dense and definitely for evening or a night out. I find wearing really dramatic lashes harder as I have hooded eyelids but these are very wearable especially teamed up with a dramatic eye make-up. I’m definitely a fan of these!

andreaperma
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These are the only individual lashes out of my entire list. Andrea Permalash flair combo black. I think they need specific glue for individual lashes though I applied them with my regular DUO lash adhesive which worked great as well. I applied seven knots of lashes, four of the shortest and 3 of the medium sized lashes. I still have to really practice with these because I don’t think I applied them that good. They look natural but I prefer strip lashes like the 53s for application. I didn’t cover them with mascara which you definitely should, it will attach your own lashes to the false ones and it will just make it look a lot better but I didn’t want to ruin these just for picture purpose. :)

Hope you enjoyed my entry on lashes, all besides the 82′s are available at Madame Madeline. If you order with them don’t forget to use my coupon code for a free gift and 8% off, FALSIES.

I was sent these products by Madame Madeline and AII Beauty. I am not in any way affiliated with these companies nor am I being paid by them. All opinions stated are honest and my own. All lash images courtesy of Madame Madeline unless they have my watermark.

Beauty Lexicon!

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

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I know most of my readers are Belgian and speak Flemish, still I decided to write my blog in English. To me, writing in English comes very naturally, I would even say my English is better than my Dutch! I know for some of you it may not come this natural and I thought it would be nice to have a little summary of specific beauty words I’ve been using of which some of you may not know the right translation.

Typical make-up related words:

Blend = uitvegen
Prime, to prime your eyelids = voorbereiden door oogschaduwbasis aan te brengen
Crease = de vouw van je ooglid
Tight lining your lashes = oogpotlood aanbrengen net onder en op je bovenste wimpers waardoor je wimpers er veel voller uitzien, dit doe ik zelf bijna altijd
Blemishes = onzuiverheden, puistjes of rode plekjes op je gezicht

Typical nail related words:

Opaque, when a nailpolish is opaque = dekkend
Sheer = het tegenovergestelde van opaque, doorschijnend
Streaky = streperig, wanneer nagellak niet mooi effen dekt maar strepen nalaat
Chip, chips = afgebladerde nagellak
Cuticles = nagelriemen

Other words:

Dense, when a brush is dense = veel haar dicht bij elkaar
Haul = vangst, wanneer je producten gekocht hebt
Swatch = staaltje of voorbeeld hoe het product er op je nagels/huid uitziet
DIY, Do-It-Yourself = doe-het-zelf
Moisturizing = vochtinbrengend
SPF, sun protection factor = zonnefactor

If there are other words you have come across of which you do not know the translation please ask and I’ll add them to this list! I also added this list on the left of my blog so you can always come back to it if you need it.

The Sweetest Follower award

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

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The lovely Laurein gave me the sweetest follower award! The purpose of this award is saying thank you to all your kind followers who give sweet comments! I’m very excited about this award because I’m always really happy when I get comments from you guys it really does mean a lot to me I appreciate it so much. So thank you to all my readers and followers and in particular the people who always bless me with their kind words.

Thanks,

Caroline, Laurein, Severien, Ellen, Jolien, Liese, Natalie, Jasmieni and of course my boyfriend Dries.

If you read my blog but never place any comments, don’t hold back, I love hearing from each of you and if you ever have any requests please let me know!

And I also would like to wish Caroline a Happy Birthday! Thanks for being a great friend, I hope you have a lovely day. :love:

Book Festival

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Yesterday I went to the Boekenfestijn (Book Festival) in Antwerp with my boyfriend and my mum. Last time I went it was in Leuven and I bought 12 books and paid €48, this time I bought 11 and paid €56. My mum didn’t find ANY books whatsoever, she found tons last year so she was very disappointed. We went on a Saturday and that wasn’t the best idea, it was really busy and I think the best books were already gone. Dries did also found a few great books, though he didn’t find as many as last year. I was also slightly disappointed with the turnout and reached for the more expensive books as they took to my liking more hence why I paid more this time compared to last. I could easily spend over €100 there if I had the budget but I didn’t. Saw some really amazing art and photography books, priced at €30 that would’ve normally cost twice that, still a great bargain but too much for me.

Here’s what I found! (Warning: lots of pictures!)

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THE ART BOOK, lots of great artists listed in alphabetical order with a short biography and a photo of their work. This normally costs €50 and I paid just €9, it had a few rips and tears in the dust cover but nothing too bad.

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Live, Laugh, Celebrate by National Geographic. I bought the love version of this one last time, the love version is better though I still grabbed it as it was only €5,95.

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Pop Art Book, I really loved the cover of this one and the inside has got some cool bits and bobs as well. €9,95

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Anatomy for the artist, just €4,99. I never had Anatomy lessons and I deeply regret that we didn’t get them at school, anatomy is so interesting!

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A book about baroque from Taschen, I also have Renaissance and Portraits in the same series, I really love these books. €6,99

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I think this is one of my favourites, 1001 paintings you must see before you die. I also have 1001 books you must read before you die in the same series, and Dries has 1001 albums you must hear before you die, we paid €30 for those, I paid €4,99 for this one! They often retail for €30, the English editions do at least, I think the Dutch ones are €10 or €15 at Boekenvoordeel but I only want the English ones to be honest. :D

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…isms, understanding art. This one is really cool, all about artistic styles for just €3,99!

Lots and lots of art books! I also shopped a few other things.

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A biography of Douglas Adams the writer of the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy. €3,95

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A few Children’s books from Wordsworth Classics! The Wizard of Oz, The Jungle Book and Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I want to raise my children in both Dutch and English so I of course need a few English books to read to them. They’ve also got really nice illustrations inside.

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Close-up from the inside of the Wizard of Oz.

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Close-up from the inside of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

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They always have rows and rows of stationary at the Book Festival, I grabbed some HB pencils for €0,99.

That’s it! All in all I’m happy with what I found though most of it was more expensive than other times. I’m looking forward to the next Book Festival in Ghent in December! I have no idea where to put all of these, my shelves are about to collapse already… Off to stamp them now! See you at the next edition!

five things…

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

I stole this off Laurein’s tumblr page! I always loved doing surveys on myspace and on facebook, I never posted something like this on my blog but I thought it’d be fun! Here goes,

five things you will find if you open my bag:

  • Samsung Corby (I hate that phone so much, I want a Nokia E72 White Edition but it’s too expensive)
  • my gorgeous Topshop wallet
  • Go-Pass (my train ticket)
  • Labello lip balm
  • chewing gum

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five things in my bedroom:

  • a jar with buttons
  • a teddy bear my grandma made, I called him Brutus ♥
  • a wooden drawing model
  • Frida Kahlo exhibition poster
  • A huge amount of cameras

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five things I’ve always wanted to do in/with my life:

  • move to the UK
  • own a pug dog
  • get married and have a baby with Dries
  • do something with my photography
  • be happy!!!!!!

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five things that make me very happy:

  • my boyfriend
  • taking pictures
  • sunshine
  • being with my family
  • cooking

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five things I’m currently into:

  • photography (my true love that will never die!)
  • sigma brushes
  • circle lenses
  • blogging
  • twitter

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five favourite movies:

  • A Clockwork Orange
  • The Fifth Element
  • Amélie Poulain
  • The History Boys
  • and I’m a sucker for the Harry Potter movies as well :D

5th
The Fifth Element

five favourite artists/bands:

  • Arctic Monkeys
  • The Sunshine Underground
  • Milburn
  • Late Of The Pier
  • The Hoosiers

hoosiers
The Hoosiers

Which are yours?

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Have you girls been enjoying the wonderful weather as well? I sure have! Summer is finally here though weather forecasts predict that our sunny spells will be over tomorrow so I’m trying to enjoy it as much as I can while it’s still here. I hope you all had a nice weekend. My mom had a birthday party on Saturday and our family came round. We had the most gorgeous weather so we were very lucky, we planned a garden party so we would have been very sad if we had to do it indoors.

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Her birthday is actually tomorrow, 25 May, but me and Dries had bought her a gift and we couldn’t wait till then. Dries was only here this weekend so we wanted to give it to her together. The wrapping paper is his fault! :) and sorry mommy I put a picture on my blog with you wearing your old fleece sweater, people won’t mind, I promise!

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I wouldn’t normally go for gifts like this but she absolutely adores her Kneipp Lavender scented products so this was the perfect gift for her. It included a show gel, body lotion, massage oil, effervescent tablet and a fluffy bathing sponge. :D

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It wouldn’t be personal if I didn’t make or draw something myself so I drew her this card. Left is the back and right is the front. I used Chinese ink and watercolour.

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Me and Dries relaxing after dinner, we had a cold buffet and three different desserts. Everyone really loved the food it was really amazing, though my mom wants to keep it simple next year, it required so much work and preparation.

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Maarten (who is technically my uncle as he’s married to my mum’s sister, though I don’t call him that) took amazing macro images of my eyes for my last post on circle lenses. It’s a lot of fun being a model, though having a bright ringflash blinding your eyes isn’t. :D

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Dries taking fisheye pictures of me. My mom really loves that fisheye lens and so do I. I wish I had one but it’s very expensive, it’s around €800. I’m very lucky and grateful I can borrow Maarten’s from time to time.

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This is an actual fisheye image. Me and Dries in the garden behind ours. I have taken lots of my past pictures there, the woods are very inspiring to me and are a great setting for photoshoots. You can see my dad taking a picture of us behind me.

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This is from my dad’s point of view!  In between the trees you can sort of see our greenhouse and our house.

I enjoyed this weekend very much, sunny weather really brightens up my mood and having family around is always nice.

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Happy birthday mommy, I love you and I hope you’ve enjoyed this weekend and will have a nice day tomorrow. ♥

Smile!

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

Totally random post this, but I added new smilies to my blog and I love them so much! I got so sick of the standard wordpress ones, they looked really bad. But these are absolutely adorable! :love:

:) ;) :p :love: :nod: :sweat: :$ :x :dance: :D :naughty: B-) :? :no: :smug:

Aren’t they the best? :dance: