Clinique Skin Care

The current weather conditions keep reminding me of how important and essential a good skin treatment is. And so, I finally got the chance to write a post about my daily routine, which -as I mentioned before- consists of using exclusively Clinique-products. Ever since I did my first internship at the brand's headquarters, my skin never looked better.

Although I am Italian, I have a very pale and sensitive skin type, so it's crucial that I use products fit my basic skin needs: sun protection and allergy tested. 

So this is how I start and end my day with; 

3 Step Skin Care

First I make sure to clean my skin properly. One of my favorite products is the Facial Soap-bar, since it makes my skin feel refreshed. At home I use the bar, yet since I travel so much back and forth to my dorm at university -I always leave the big bottles at home, and just refill the 'sample sized ones-, I always make sure to pack the liquid version. Next I exfoliate with the Clarifying Lotion. Even though I'm a skin type 2, when it comes to the exfoliator I use number 1 since it is more gentle for sensitive skins. Lastly, I moisturize with the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion, which suits its name perfectly. 

Once a week I scrub my skin with the 7 Day Scrub Cream Rinse-Off Formula, because it's really important to remove dead skin regularly. Sometimes I add to that a mask. 

Pore Minimizer Refining Lotion

Before I started my internship, I always believed that it was impossible for a cream to reduce pores. Yet, I decided to give the Pore Minimizer a try and this serum-like lotion really makes a world of difference! Plus it makes my skin feel incredibly soft. 

Superdefense SPF 25 Age Defense Moisturizer

During my first internship at Clinique, I wrote a press release about the updated Superdefense-moisturizer. I really love its creamy texture and lightness, and I always take my jar with me in my carry-on luggage whenever I'm traveling, since it keeps my fairly dry skin hydrated at all times. More importantly, it helps your skin face everyday stress and pollution, which may cause your skin to age faster. But for me, the best feature of this products is that it protects my pale skin from the harmful rays of the sun (very very important for every skin type by the way)! I try to replace this product in the evening with Super Rescue Antioxidant Night Moisturizer, but I usually end up using the Superdefense again. 

All About Eyes

Again, before I started my internship I didn't use an eye cream on a regular basis. But when Clinique's Education Manager pointed out that it is crucial to start reducing fine lines underneath your eyes before the actual damage is done -'yes, even when you're only 22 years old' she said-, I've been applying a layer of this pinkish gel every single day. Plus, it's a must during exhausting exams. As you can tell from the picture, I need to head over the store the get me a new large jar, asap. 

Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief

I wish I could bathe in this gel! Moisture Surge actually feels as it is featured in its ad campaign; like a splash of water across your face, when you apply it. 

My boyfriend regularly asks me where I find the patience to apply seven different skin care products, every single day and night. But actually it only takes up a few minutes. And even if it took me a full half hour to apply all these creams, gels and lotions I would still be doing this, since your skin is an important part of your immune system and I also would like to age beautiful ... I therefor use make-up products that are equally protective and good for my skin. And so: next up - My Clinique Beauty Routine... 

Part of my daily Clinique-routine - Click to enlarge

Tiffany & Co.

I'm loving this warm weather. The temperature is just right, perfect conditions to wear all of my favorite dresses that were too hot for me to wear in humid NYC.

Too bad it still is too warm outside to be wearing a tight pair of jeans, which means I won't be wearing my new favorite Topshop-pair I showed to you earlier. One NYC-souvernir I've been wearing all the time since I got back is my new Tiffany & Co.-charm. I bought it so I could update my Return to Tiffany & Co.-heart bracelet. I got the piece 4 years ago but I hadn't worn it for a while, because I thought it was too 'sweet'. So I got this large and quite heavy Return to Tiffany-charm to give it a extra bit of cool. I love the Return To-line, not because it has the company's name on it, but simply because it has my name on it. When the sales assistant at the shop saw my name on my credit card, we were joking that I will never have to engrave any of my Tiffany-jewelry. My only concern is that in time, the bracelet will ruin and scratch my watch heavily, but I hate wearing jewelry on my other wrist. Maybe I'll just hang the charm on my Tiffany Key-necklace.

This weekend I'm heading to Lille in France, and on the way over we're stopping in Brussels so I will definitely visit the Tiffany & Co.-shop again this Saturday. If I didn't think the charm itself is too plain, maybe I would get the Class of '10-charm, since I will be graduating from university next weekend. I'm looking forward to that, big time!

New York City - Part Four

After spending 4 out of 6 days shopping, my boyfriend and I decided that it was time to do something else, non-shopping related. And every time I find out that there's a zoo nearby where supercute panda's live, I absolutely need to visit it. Although the Central Park Zoo isn't the home of the large panda, I was excited to see the red panda, one of my favorite animals, along with the snow leopard.

The sea lions was the first to catch our attention, since the animals were playing so pleasantly in the basin. But the little panda really stole my heart. I love that little fox-like face. You could definitely tell that it was too hot outside for him since he was breathing heavily and couldn't find a cool place for him to sleep, so I also kinda felt sorry for the poor creature. Same thing goes for the snow leopard.

After our lovely afternoon at the zoo, we decided to try and find the Alice in Wonderland statue, since I've never been there during my NYC-trips. The statue was three times as big as I imagined it. Oh and if you want to make up with your boyfriend for nagging to him for days about shopping and fashion items you want and need, just take him to the pond across Alice and let him play with the motorized sailboats for a while!

New York City - Part Three

One of my favorite streets in NYC is West 14th Street.

The Apple store there is a lot more pleasant to shop, because it's not as busy as the one on 5th Ave. The Alexander McQueen store is definitely a must whenever my boyfriend and I are in town, and eventhough I don't exercise, I always visit the McQueen/Puma-shop next door wishing I did. The Jeffrey-store is always amazing, and it's where I spotted the Chanel Temporary Tattoo's I got for my sister and where I saw the Chanel-necklace I'm planning to get later this month. Across the street there's DVF and just a few minutes away you can find Bleecker Street (think: Marc Jacobs!). What's not to like?

This year my boyfriend and I took a shopping break in High Line Park, an old elevated railway track transformed into a little and quiet oasis. It looked amazing, and you can tell that hours and hours are put into keeping the 'park' as nice as possible. The view from up-there is great too. Too bad that the weather wasn't that great that day.

Afterwards we headed to Bleecker Street to hit the Marc Jacobs-stores on our way to Red Bamboo, another nice vegetarian restaurant with the most amazing soy chicken salad. But while we were getting over there, we noticed that -contrary to last year- there wasn't a two hour-line at Magnolia Bakery. There was actually nobody inside the shop. I'm not one to try out stuff just because it's been on tv or something but I blame that sweet smell of freshly baked cakes for luring us into the shop. Although both the chocolate vanilla and the vanilla cupcake was very good, I was too sugary for my taste. But if you happen to walk by, and there's no ridiculous waiting line outside, go right in and get the vanilla one..

W. 14 th. Street

I bet the view from the Standard Hotel (behind me) is amazing

Wearing a tank top version of the Rue Blanche-shirt I got last winter, my new favorite jeans from Topshop (the Ultimate Skinny Jamie), my all white Converse and my white Balenciaga bag

Magnolia Bakery

New York City - Part Two

On tuesday I read on my sister's Facebook that there was an amazing designer outlet nearby NYC and since it was too hot outside to go to the Central Park Zoo -all animals would be too lazy to even move- we decided to give it a shot and check it out.

The shuttle bus would pick us up at our hotel at 11AM so we still had some time to hang out at Bryant Park, one of my favorite locations in the city and just 2 blocks away from our hotel. The yoga classes at the park seemed like fun.

After a stop at a look-out over the Hudson river and Harlem and a one hour-drive, we arrived at the outlet. I must admit that the outlet in my hometown tops the American one qua look and feel. This one didn't even have trees or green areas. The brands at the Woodbury Outlet are very cool though: Balenciaga, Chanel, Dior, YSL... My boyfriend did some amazing deals, I on the other hand found nothing that I liked. Again, not much in my size. And I wasn't just going to buy anything just because it's 75% off. But it was nice to see another side of NY/New Jersey, since I never visited a traditional US town before.

That evening my boyfriend and I picked up some (healthy!) food at the local deli and dined in Bryan Park again. There were even more people in the park than there were in the morning, yet the atmosphere there was even pleasant. We spent our entire evening there that day and it really is my favorite moment of our whole trip, just the two of us hidden in the megacity.

PS: There is something wrong with the battery of my Macbook Pro so I'm taking it to the shop to get it fix. So I probably won't be able to put up any new pictures or posts for a couple of days.

I love my boyfriend's Alexander McQueen shirt

At Woodbury 

New York City - Part One

First day, first pictures.


NYC at this time of year was so much fun. The weather was great, comfortably warm -yet a bit humid from time to time. By the way, can someone explain me why all stores on the island put their AC on 0°C? Like last year, I ended up with a cold thanks to those glacial temperatures inside.

Sales had started, which was great. Up to -60% off, even at some of the most expensive luxury fashion brands. But off course that also meant that there was no size 38 in shoes left in whole Manhattan. The Proenza Schouler-dress I wanted was on sale too ($ 1 520 > $ 900), but once again no sizes left that fitted me -although 6 is usually my size when it comes to PS... Nor could I find the DVF-dress or the Rodarte-shirt I was looking for. And basic items at most european fashion houses were about 30% more expensive in NYC than in Brussels, so I'm planning to buy them here in Belgium.

So I did a lot of shopping, but didn't end up buying a lot, certainly not as much as I did last year. Even though I was a bit disappointed shopping-wise, I had a great time with my boyfriend. I still can't believe how he manages to be in a good mood even though he was as jet-lagged as me (think: waking up at 3AM).

More pictures and a video will follow...

57th and 5th Ave. // Tiffany & Co. store behind me

Soy & Sake is the best vegetarian restaurant ever

Puerto Rico-day in our street

Gossip Girl Palace

Bryant Park minus the fashion week

YSL NYC

I tried to post this message while I was in NYC but I couldn't find the upload-picture-button for Blogger.com on my boyfriend's iPhone.
But since I haven't blogged in a long time, I'll post this as a start, to kick off my NYC-series...
First up, 120 mails to check, 300 blogposts to read on Bloglovin and going through hundreds of pictures.



--- posted on the 12th of June 2010 --- 

Teaser: my sister's gift.

My jetlag is even worse than last year. I woke up at 3am today. Heading to soho now. Blogging from an iPhone is hard.

Off to New York City

I'm studying for my film history exam, which is tomorrow afternoon and is my last exam ever.
Therefor I've been supernervous for the last couple of days. The professor is also the promotor of my thesis so off course, I want to make a good impression.

At the same time, I'm also very anxious for tomorrow to come since -as I mentioned before- my boyfriend and I are leaving for New York City on saturday morning. I still have a million things to do and I haven't even packed my bag yet. Every time I go to my aunt's to borrow her super-sized luggage, she says: "Honey, you don't need to carry along so many things, you just need your passport and your credit card!" But last year, during our previous NYC-trip I learned the hard way, how much damage a VISA can do.

I'm still wondering if I should bring my little Chanel-bag. At least so I won't be tired dragging my bag around after a whole day of walking. My boyfriend on the other hand, prefers the Balenciaga cause that way he can drop al his stuff in my bag and don't have to worry about his wallet getting stolen...

Anywho,
I'm back to my studying. And I'll say goodbye with images from my new favorite "store/blog": The Bergdorf/Goodman-blog! I'll be back next weekend with some NYC-pictures...



The Sex and the City 2-windows at Bergdorf!

(source: Bergdorf Goodman Blog - Pictures: Julia Chesky)

Btw. what will Chanel come up with next? Chanel cotton pads for 20$, crazy!

(source: Bergdorf Goodman)

Sex and the City - in my opinion

So it has been a week now since Sex and The City has been released in Belgium. I hope you all have seen the movie by now, so that I don't ruin your fun by revealing the movie plot.

(picture: imdb.com)

So, that's why you can read the review after the jump:
*spoiler alert*

Street Style Report 'The Sartorialist' by I Love Fashion News.com

Dutch fashion website I Love Fashion News.com's street style report of The Sartorialist-'blogger meeting' last month. What a fun day that was...

I love my Proenza Schouler-dress! 

(source: I Love Fashion News.com)

Rodarte

Just a quick post about another designer duo that was inspired by film; the Rodarte-sisters have designed another shirt-collection (remember their sweatshirts earlier?) and this time to honor the 50th anniversary of À Bout De Souffle, yes another fashion film. The duo will remake the iconic New York Herald Tribune-shirt Jean Seberg wore next to the Dior dress (Bruzzi, 1997, p. 7).

In just a few days the shirt will be available at Barneys. Yes, I'm adding it to my NYC-wish list, since I will not able to get the Fashion's Night Out-shirt this year.

(source: steven torres)

(picture via style.com)

Wishlist: DVF

Until today I didn't really know what I wanted to get for myself when I'm in NYC later this month.

(Okay, I know what I would get if just won the lottery, but for now I'm still a student (read: no income) and besides a Nintento 64-bit I haven't won much.)(Oh, and I need a good yet small wallet to fit in my mini-2.55.)

I just came across this cute summer dress and I think it's fun and cool at the same time. Plus it's a great way to inject some more color and prints in my wardrobe. Well done, Miss Von Furstenberg. Now let's hope your shop still carries it and it's not sold out like pretty much everything else on the island.

(source: Pialla Dress by DVF)

Tomorrow, I'll try to write a review of Sex and the City 2 and the so called 'ladies night', but for now I'm still anxiously preparing tomorrow's thesis-presentation... 

Getting ready for Sex and the City 2

So tonight, my sister and I are finally going to see Sex and the City 2 at our local theater. We've got tickets for a so called 'Ladies Night' so I'm curious to see what all the fuss is about that kind of events.

Only thing is that my sister has a fever and she's been sleeping on our couch for the whole day now, but she still wants to come along. Hopefully the movie will exceed my expectations so she'll be able to think less about her feeling bad, and more about all the clothes (read: product placement) she wan't to have...

Since I'm in a Tiffany blue kind of mood today, I decided to try out the Chanel Le Vernis Riviera-nailpolish, also because I hate wearing 'matchy matchy' colors (Nouvelle Vague is practically identical). The color is perfect, I always love raspberry-inspired nail polish.

Louis Vuitton and the FIFA World Cup

Who says sports and fashion do not mix?

Sure, I'm not that kind of girl that picks up running or will go cycling "just because it so much fun, and the weather is nice and I love to get my hair all messy from time to time...". But there is one thing I look forward to every two years; soccer's european championship and the world cup!

I off course cheer for the Italian team! My dad says they won't win this year, since 'coach Lipi has put together the same team as four years ago, which already won and therefor isn't motivated enough to do its very best!" And this while all the eyes will be on the current world champion for sure.

So if not Italy, who will take the world cup home? Well, whoever will be so lucky to win the cup will surely have the most stylish traveling case for it, since Louis Vuitton has created a special case for the golden statue!

Please let it be Italy!

(source: Style.com // Photo: Mazen Saggar - Louis Vuitton)

Since I will be in NYC, I will probably miss Italy's first game against Paraguay. But my boyfriend keeps on nagging about how he wants to see the game in a American sports bar, but you guys don't watch soccer right? Right? NYC is made for shopping, not for watching european sports!