The Tuesday Book Club: IN Fashion

Today's book was one of the first fashion books I ever bought, back when I was still in high school:

ANNEMARIE IVERSON - IN Fashion

This book is like the how-to bible for everyone that wants to break into the fashion industry. It not only features essentially important information for basically everything you need to know about this industry but also helps you finding YOUR part of the industry as it covers several areas such as Retailing, Writing, Designing, Runway, Marketing, etc. The book also features surveys to show you where you best fit in, has tips and stories from fashion insiders, lists of schools that feature the best education regarding whatever interests you in fashion but also adresses for finding jobs etc. To keep it short: If you want to be in this industry, get this book! And again, this one has a foreword written by the infamous Diane von Furstenberg.

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: I love your Style

Today's book is all about fashion and finding or improving your own style:

AMANDA BROOKS - I love your Style

This is also one of the books I purchased during my stay in Sweden and it is just amazeballs. This book not inly features some of the most iconic style icons of the past decades, it also has amazing tips on how to make the most out of YOUR individual style and features historic information to it but also shows iconic fashionistas that share your sense of style whether you're grunge, preppy or french classic. Also, as he title page reveals, this book contains a foreword written by Diane von Furstenberg, one of my favourite designers but also multiple pictures for those who do not like tons of reading ;-) Plus, it makes an excellent coffetable book as well!

xx, V

The Tuesday Book Club: The Swarm

Today I confront you with my all-time favourite science fiction book:

FRANK SCHÄTZING - The Swarm: A novel of the deep

This is one of the books in my collection i re-read the most. I think in total I read it four times and still everytime it totally blows my mind. The book takes place mainly in Europe but also North and South America and talks about how nature and it's animals mutate and basically strike back agains mankind that has kept on abusing mother nature for centuries. I don't want to give away too much of the content as I really think this is a book that one needs to read without a doubt...all I can say is, no matter how "science fiction" the book at times seems, in the back of my mind I always kept wondering "Wouldn't that be possible for real? Can this happen?" and it really makes you reflect on how much we abuse nature, especially with things such as a waste island as big as the state of Texas floating aroung the sea and it shows how much we actually depends of the sea and water in general. Now enough of my blabbing about the awesomeness of this book...now go out and get yourself a copy! 

xx, V

A little something from MAC

So a couple of weeks ago I got a coupon for MAC and there were some things on my list that I needed. First and foremost I went there to get a foundation pump for my Clinique Superbalanced Foundation and I was considering getting a highlighter. While there I stumbled across this lipstick and I think it is safe to say after YEARS of looking for the perfect deep, neither blue or orange toned red...I finally found it!! At the MAC Counter they had put it on Display as kind of a re-release. It is the Original MAC Viva Glam number 1. It is the most beautiful red lipstick I ever came across and I think this one is universal, meaning it fits all skintones, haircolors, eyecolors...everything. It almost has a brown-ish undertone and I absolutely love it. Ever since I purchase it I've been wearing it almost all the time. It lasts superlong and has a matte finish which is what I prefer in lipsticks. Another nice thing is the fact that all the money that I paid for the lipstick goes directly into MAC's very own HIV fund. AMAZING! The other thing I purchase was the Mineralize Skinfinish in "Soft & Gentle" which is of their permanent collection and I wore this every single day since I bought it. I love the finish it gives, like that dewy glow. I think this one will work fine whether I am tanned or pale. Even though at 27€ this was rather pricey I already know it will take me years to get through this as you only need sooo little when applying it. I also think it has amazing staying power, after an entire day of work it is still visible and barely vanished which is very good in highlighters. While I do love my Benefit "Sunglow" (more in the summer though) I do think that it doesn't last on my cheeks nearly as long as the MAC highlighter does. So again, kudos to MAC for making awesome products!

What highlighters do you use?

The Tuesday Book Club: Classy

Today's book is a rather fun read and contains some very cool tips on how to free the inner lady in us and say good-bye to the outer tramp haha...or something like that:

DEREK BLASBERG - Classy

Derek Blasberg is a fashion writer and Blogger (follow him on twitter!) and this book is probably his attempt to free the world of tramps once and for all. I bought this book ages ago and instantly read through it once I got it...now I did not remember everything that's in the book which is why from time to time I just love to pick it up again and screen through it. The book cover's fashion but also behavioural and lifestyle aspects of the ladylike life and everything Derek writes feels a bit tongue in cheek to me (whether it was his intention or not) but also convey's a good portion of sense of humour and that's why I like the book so much. This is not some old-school 50's wome's guide on how to behave in a men's society, it's just a fun read about how to make the best out of yourself whether it be at the airport or at a social gathering but also features some cool day to day tips for the extremely modern lady ;-)

xx, V

Sunday Tunes

Have a lovely Sunday everyone :)

The Cure...

...? I think before I start into this post I really have to give a huge shoutout to my former roommate in Sweden, May Ingvild, who is a worshipper of the Korres brand and basically introduced me to it. Don't get me wrong, I've known about this brand before but I always found it to be rather pricey to just "try out" stuff. Last winter May gifted me a Body Set from Korres and I totally loved it. About 1 1/2 months ago I came across this brand at my local drugstore, Müller, and I don't really know why but for some reason I was drawn to their hair shampoo section. I kinda liked that their shampoos did not contain silicones which I find to be quite damaging to the hair plus the worst ingredient when you have greasy hair...and I have very greasy hair! So I ended up buying their shampoo for oily hair which contains liquorice and urtica and I am ABSOLUTELY HOOKED! Out of all the tons of shampoos against greasy hair that I've tried, this has got to be the best damn thing I put on my scalp so far. I mean let's keep it real, I still can't go 3 days without washing my hair but when I wash it Monday morning I can easily go through the entire Tuesday and my hair doesn't look like an oily mess. Before, my hair was only nice on the day I washed it and the day after it already looked kinda gross and dirty. Now with this shampoo, my hair still has some texture to it and doesn't look greasy on the second day which for me is a MAJOR WIN! The instructions on the bottle say to shampoo your hair twice. So first I will just put this on my roots, especially around my face where I get oily very quickly, then I rinse and the second time I really lather it up and wash it down my ends...magic! I do recommend though to use some sort of hair oil for your ends or some conditioner because it doesn't leave your hair feeling super smooth, but that is exactly why it works! I just put my Macadamia Nut Hair oil or some coconut oil spray into my split ends and thats about it and then I shortly blowdry my roots and that's it :-) I really recommend this shampoo even though it is not cheap...

What do you use for your hair? And have you tried the Korres brand before?

xx, V

The Lady in Black

Dressing in Black makes mornings just so much easier...just pick whatever black garments you have and throw em all together and somehow the magic always works :-D I guess the fact that now that mornings get darker and darker and colder outside does influence my dressing habits aka meaning I just want to get dressed in a heartbeat. And I am definitely not the kinda "I am putting together my outfit the evening before" person! So that's why recently I find myself always grabbing clothes from the black portion of my closet (which is the biggest) and totally neglecting whatever colorful stuff I still have in there because I am just too much of a lazy ass to think about color coordination and stuff like that :) Oh and I have to mention I loooove these new Zara Boots. I needed new ones after I practically worn out my flat shiny ones I bought about a year ago in Sweden at Dinsko...I must have some weird shaped legs because the soles of my shoes tend to wear of in a very one sided manner if you get what I mean...anyways, these ones are super fierce and comfy and stylewise very reminiscent of a pair you can find at ACNE at the moment, but I just couldn't/didn't want to splurge on the real deal so I went with the obvious choice, Zara. I JUST LOVE THESE SHOES!!!!

Ok, now I need to get dressed (in black I suppose) and then head off to work...

xoxo, V

The Tuesday Book Club: Cheap - The High Cost of Discount Culture

In this week's book club I present a pretty critical book about today's high consumption - low cost culture:

ELLEN RUPPEL SHELL - Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture

This book was featured in one of my courses for my Fashion Master's degree at the Swedish School of Textiles and boy was I happy that it was. This book is such an eye opener. It basically talks about today's ways of consumption of massively cheap products and how this negatively affects not only the environment but basically every aspect of life and that buying cheap comes at a very high ultimate price. The book covers all kinds of industries from food, to fashion all the way to furniture. It talks about sustainability and the quintessence of the book is that we as consumers need to drastically change if we want to keep on living on this planet earth. I highly recommend reading this book as it really subconsciously does affect shopping behaviour or at least the next time you find yourself in a store makes you question yourself if you actually need this and if it's really worth the money. I know this book is written in English but the language is very simple and easy to understand so I am convinced even people who aren't pro's at the english language can grasp the message of this book. An absolute must-read!!!

xx, V