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Friday, August 30, 2013

Dutch Time Out




 Hi, my fellow beauties!


If you follow me on Twitter or watch my YouTube channel you may or may not know that I spent two weeks at my parents' place in the Netherlands. Due to working issues my father recently moved there and my mother is commuting between there and our house in Germany.
Having finally some free time from university, the first time since I signed in actually, visiting them in their new home was a must and I'd like to share some pictures with you if you don't mind!



My first Fish & Chips ever!

A little tour around the town my parents live in, SO wet!
Welcome to Amsterdam!
May I introduce my mother and brother to you?
On our way to a fancy dinner in Den Haag, it is so nice there.
Being my little brother, he's actually quite tall.




That was the first half of the first week (I didn't take any pictures in the second week) and when my brother left because he had commitments at home. 


Wooden shoe madness!
That's what the Dutch cabs look like. Fancy, isn't it?


After my brother had left, we went to a flower parade that took its way through our city. I had never seen the like before and it was gorgeous!




We also visited a little island called Terschelling, the only Dutch island to grow cranberries. Apparently there was a shipwreck a few centuries ago during which cranberries got onto the island and managed to make themselves comfortable there. Although it was so windy, it was such a nice place.

Three-quarter of the family!

The rest of the pictures are a bit random, taken here and there, out of this reason and that. Enjoy!

Sun cream! Happiness in an orange bottle.
I haven't been at the beach for four years, this was so cool!
And beautiful as well. Isn't it so nice?
Just your average bakery.



Wow, that were a whole lot of pictures! If you made it this far, congratulations and thank you! I hope I didn't bore you to death but I enjoy your company so much as I did this holiday that I really wanted to share a little bit of it with you.
If that's not enough for you, I also did a vlog (my first one, eek!) on my YouTube channel, check it out if you want to make my day. You can also make me very happy, however, if you'll leave me a comment here and tell me where you spent your holidays this year, I'd love to hear!


Have a splendid day!
xx










































Friday, August 23, 2013

Sunbathing like a Boss, Part 3: After-Sun Care



Hi fellow beauties!


Today's post is about what you should take care of doing after a day spent in the sun / on the beach / a few hours of sunbathing.

The sun deprives your skin of much of its moisture in any way and if you by any chance caught a sunburn, moisturising afterwards is even more important. There are special after-sun lotions out there that are designed to return a maximum of moisture to the skin, cool it after the continued heating in the sun and prolonging/intensifying your tan.
They normally contain cooling and soothing components such as aloe vera or mint but to make them work properly it is most important to get rid of every bit of sun cream that is left on your body. Simply washing it off isn't sufficient because waterproof or not, a small percentage will remain on the skin.
I usually use either a body peeling with moisturising effects or a peeling glove. Either is fine it depends on your mood and preferences.
Also I don't wash my hair every time I lay in the sun because that is way too much effort for me especially if I know that I will do the same the next day. I simply get it wet and put a bit of conditioner in there whilst in the shower and some nourishing leave-in conditioners or hair oils afterwards.

These are the basics I do every single time before using after-sun products. I don't own as many as I do sun creams but that's because I'm rather content with the ones I already have and they really go a long long way.




Nivea Sun Pflegende Apres Lotion: This is the lotion I find myself reaching for most often these last weeks. Its smell is fantastic, I can't define it but it basically smells like a really expensive and luxurious cream. It applies beautifully and lightly and a small amount goes such a long way which is why I'm not sure I'll ever be able to finish this bottle. The aloe vera in it helps to cool and soothe the strained skin but I'm not positive about it enhancing the tan. It isn't explicitly said on the bottle but I was told that is actually a basic feature of an apres lotion, may that be true or not.












Garnier Ambre Solaire After Sun: This lotion basically claims to do the same things as the above one plus moisturising the skin for 24 hours. Well, I think we all know it won't do that. But it does cool the skin and nourishes it, especially if you got your skin burned. It also contains aloe vera and has quite a pleasant smell. I really love that it comes in a 400 mL bottle so you can use it excessively without it getting empty too fast.














Lancaster Tan Maximizer: Lancaster's Tan Maximizer is one of the products that flooded our perfumeries (do you call high end beauty stores that? I can't seem to find out!) this summer. I've seen it everywhere and managed to get my hands on this sample. It basically promises to enhance your tan even more than regular after-sun products but only if you use it daily for at least two weeks. I haven't done that because the weather wasn't stable enough or it was simply too hot to even go outside so I can't report on this fact. Apart from that it is a pretty ordinary after sun lotion and I wouldn't choose it over the above ones. But maybe the tan enhancing complex is totally amazing and I have missed out on the product of my life? Tell me if you tried this!









So that was it for my Sunbathing like a Boss-Series! If you have missed out on Part 1 and 2 you can find them here and here.

Please tell me, if you liked those longer posts and found them helpful. For my part, I really enjoyed writing them because we all like to tan and it's so super important to protect yourself. Also, please tell me what your favourite products and sun bathing tips are, I'd love to hear them!


Have a splendid day!
xx






Friday, August 16, 2013

Sunbathing like a Boss, Part 2: Additional Protection



Hello, my beloved fellow beauties!


So this is the second part of my Sunbathing like a Boss mini-series (you can find part 1 here).
Today I wanted to talk to you about what else you can and should do to protect your skin aside from putting SPF on your body and what I personally like to do to be able to spend more time in the sun without burning myself or getting a headache.

So the first thing you really need to do is protecting your face. When I head out to buy a foundation or moisturiser I always look for ones that include a SPF. Luckily there are many out there by now that do although most of the time it's only SPF 15 which really isn't much but on days when you're only outside to get from A to B it's okay. There are some products though, that have an higher SPF of 20 or 35.

Aside from these daily measures there are sun creams especially designed to protect the thin skin of your face. Many people don't see the point of buying and extra product for the face but you wouldn't put your body lotion on your face as well, would you? I don't really understand why people make a difference when it comes to sun products there.
The skin of your face is way thinner than on your body and more sensitive so it has different needs and that is why a facial sun cream only makes sense.
The same goes for sun creams designed for the sensitive eye area / lips as well by the way!


Here are the two sun creams for the face I use regularly:


Lancaster Sun Beauty Velvet Touch Cream Radiant Tan: 
This lotion is out of the same range as my Lancaster sun cream I mentioned previously. It is much easier to apply though and has a lighter texture whereas the SPF 30 and additional qualities match that of the regular sun cream. It protects from UV A and B rays and has the Lancaster infrared technology as well as the beloved signature scent. Due to its lightness it doesn't make your face feel sticky or greasy which many people hate but it's quite an expensive little guy which is why I only use it when I'm not at home, for example at the lake with my friends.










Nivea Sun Anti-Age Sun Cream: 
This again is corresponding to the sun cream of the previous post. Same as the Lancaster one, it has a SPF 30, protects from UVA/B and additionally promises to prevent wrinkles caused by the sun and is waterproof. 'Waterproof' doesn't mean waterproof in the common sense but that after bathing for 20 min more than 50 % of the product is still there.
Contrary to the Lancaster sun cream this formula is slightly thicker and a little bit more sticky though not as much as the Nivea sun creams. It does give a bit of a greasy feeling after putting it on, however. The reason why I prefer this one while tanning at home is simply because it is only a fraction of the price of a Lancaster product.







Since the last sun-related blog post in which I stated I wasn't able to find a suitable protection for my eyes  so far, I was actually able to get my hand on a product that looks very promising but I haven't had any chance to try it yet so I won't be telling you anything about it yet. Where there's no wear, there's no opinion, right?


Douglas Hair Sun Protection Hair Spray:
What is still true is that I haven't found a product that protects my hair from the sun that I really like. In a surge of desperation I bought this hair spray last year. And that's what it really is, a hairspray and nothing more.
Although it states it would protect from UV rays and everything, I'm pretty sure it doesn't. All it does is make my hair very textured which is why I often use this as a styling tool. I imagine this might have the same effect as a salt spray, I have never seen one of those around here and while I'm curious to try one, I guess this basically does the same. It has a wonderful peachy scent though, to say at least something nice about it.










Labello Sun Protect SPF 30:
This is the last actual product I will be talking about. As you probably have already guessed, this is a protective lip balm. When I bought this, I didn't do so because I had heard so many amazing things about it but simply because it was no other thing available. I find this really annoying, there are loads of sun creams and tanning products but when it actually comes to protecting your eyes and lips, there is nothing there!
Anyways, this is a very simple and plain lip balm with a SPF 30. It doesn't have any particular scent or colour or anything. It's just bare functional.
I don't really like it because I feel like it's drying my lips and gives them this horrible white coat that you  sometimes got with the sun creams years ago, do you remember those? But I'm quite willing to endure those negatives because it's way better than risking burned lips. A friend of mine managed to burn hers once and she told me it was beyond horrible.
I probably will be searching for another one in the winter months when the skiing season starts again. You should protect your face in the mountains even more than on the beach because due to being higher up the sun light gets more intensive and the snow reflecting it is making everything worse.


Protecting yourself is all very well but, let's be honest, we all like to lie in the sun and tan. Personally I find it quite annoying if I'm relaxing and after ten minutes I feel a headache creeping up on me, accompanied by a naughty dizziness.
The following tips are some things I like to do and that work for me to prolong the time I can spend in the sun, I don't guarantee they will work for you or are particularly healthy, so please, if they don't help you, just move out of the sun and into the shadows.
A tan is never worth the risk of a heatstroke!


  1. Drink! Drinking is vital in every situation you can get into but especially if this situation involves being out in the sun. Your body loses a lot of moisture by sweating and it is so important you give it back. Best is drinking water or some warm drinks. I know, I don't like drinking tea or stuff when it's hot as well but in fact your body can cope with the warm temperature much better than when you drink something coming out of the fridge. In the worst case a too cold drink could cause circulation problems.
  2. Keep your head protected. When I'm tanning I often find I get dizzy or a headache although I'm drinking loads but I just don't want to move out of the sun just yet. What I do then is moving my sunbed or whatever in a position that my head is in the shadows but the rest is still exposed to the sun. Most of the time it gets much better that way but if it doesn't there's no point in it and I have to get myself out of the sun.
  3. Careful with the water. I got my worst burns whilst swimming. This is because water acts as a lens and intensifies the UV rays and that makes your skin burn faster and worse. The tricky thing is that you'll probably only notice when it's too late as the water of course is cooling everything and is pleasant anyways. But bear that in mind when you're swimming. Also, you should properly dry yourself after getting out of the water.
  4. Wet clothes. Another thing I like to do to cool myself down a bit as get my shirt or anything wet and then simply wear it over my bikini. That is not advisable if you're at the beach though, haha.
  5. Vary your parting. Now that may sound a bit weird but in fact I do not now how to protect the skin on my head where I part my hair properly because, let's face it, who wants to put sun cream on their head? Because I'm really lazy when it comes to my hair do I wear it most of the time in the same fashion and that results in very frequent burns on my scalp. If that happens it is important to change the parting, perhaps to the other side or to the middle of your head, best is on a daily base. To prevent a sun burn you could also just wear a hat or style your hair in a fashion that leaves no parting to be exposed to the sun. 
  6. Don't forget to protect your ears! That's pretty much self-explanatory but is still a thing I keep on forgetting all the time so I thought I'd better put it in here as well. No one likes burned ears, right?


Remember, these things work for me and aren't based on any research I did or medical / biological facts or are particularly healthy. Not that I know they aren't but please, just mind that.


That's already it for the second part of this series! I hope you enjoyed it and will stay tuned for my After Sun Care-post next week. 
Also, I'd love it if you would tell me your favourite sun tips in the comments! I get dizzy in the sun and heat so fast and I'm always eager to try new tips and tricks to be able to stay out longer.


Have a most splendid day!
xx








Friday, August 9, 2013

TAG: My First Time




Hello, my fellow beauties!


Wow, this has been a long time that I have been absent from my blog, I'm honestly so sorry for that. The last weeks of Uni were totally hectic but now I'm on holiday at my parents' place in the Netherlands and have plenty of time between sightseeing and stuff to write down and film the things I have planned.

For today, my friend Sinead kindly tagged me in the "My First Time" tag that was initially invented by Sprinkle of Glitter on her YouTube channel. It is not about some juicy secrets that we all keep to ourselves but of simple things we did for the first time in our lives, but you will see for yourselves.

I actually find the idea of doing a tag post to come back into a regular blogging rhythm really good which is why it won against my Sunbathing Part 2 post, I'm still working on the fineries of that one. I just want to present the very best to my beloved readers!


So, without  much further ado, these are the rules:

  1. Give the stories of the following first times.
  2. Tag 10 other bloggers (as always, I'll try to fulfil the 10)
  3. No tags back!

Here we go!


First Best Friend
Although I can't remember too much of that time, before we moved to the town we live in now, I was pretty close with our neighbour's daughter. I was five when we moved away and the contact totally died but I'd really like to now what happened to her.
My first real 'self-declared' best friend was the first girl whose name I caught on my first day of kindergarten. We were like sisters throughout kindergarten and primary school but then we went to different grammar schools and broke apart. I met her recently and we literally had nothing to talk about, which is pretty sad but we both have moved on.


First Kiss
Well, this depends on how you define a kiss. If 'first kiss' includes a peck on the lips, it was with a boy in primary school who shined on me. If it means first real kiss with me actually knowing what I was doing it was with my first boyfriend after a we watched all Pirates of the Caribbean movies in one night.


First Concert
I went to my first concert with about 13 or 14 with my mum and a friend, I still have no idea why she came along as it wasn't her cup of tea at all. The band was Vanilla Ninja (oh, the name!), an Estonian girl rock/pop band. Thinking about it now, they were really kind of awful and split up a few years later I believe. But I loved them to death, I even had a folder where I kept every single bit I found in magazines about them.


First Celebrity Crush
I just can't remember that. This may be because I got into celebs rather late and think my first celebrity crush isn't the first at all but what I definitely know is my first anime crush and I had a lot of those, haha. It was Shinichi from Detective Conan (or Case Closed, as it is called in English I believe). To be honest, I'm still a huge fan today, of the series as well as of that particular character.


First Word
I asked my mum and she told me it was 'Mama', which is, in case you don't know, like 'Mum' in German. That's pretty natural for me I guess, I always was and always will be so close to my mother as is possible really.


First Pet
Hm, not sure if that really counts but a colleague of my father gave him a goldfish once at work as a birthday gift. He brought it home in a plastic bag and I named him Mr. Fish and put him in our little garden pond. He died though because that was just not the right place for him to live. My first proper pet was a black bunny with a white nose called Tia (after Tia Dalma from Pirates of the Caribbean). I got her as a little bunny-baby and raised her but sadly she got a tumour in her stomach and had to be put down. :(


First Job
I'm yet to get one! Aside from having very little time right now, I'm fortunately in a position that allows me to live at home and study at the same time. Studying is not as expensive as it is elsewhere because our tuition fees have been abolished a few months ago, at least in Bavaria where I live, in other parts of Germany they were abandoned years ago. Also, my parents and grandparents luckily have enough money and kindly support me. I don't want to show off guys, that's just how it is, please don't take me wrong!


First Phone
Oh my, what kind of phone was that? I think it was by Siemens and originally belonged to my mother who gave it to me when I entered grammar school. My school was in town and there was hardly a bus connection to our village so the phone was given to me to be able to reach her in case I missed my bus home. I don't remember much but its case had sea animals on it, that's about all.


First Tweet
Let me look that up. Okay, apparently it was "Finally on the train. Time to get warm again!". I remember this, it was on my way to Uni and the week had actually been very hot so far so I only wore a very thin jacket and the wind that morning was so. very. cold. Brrr, still shivering at the memory!


First Make-Up
Haha, okay, NO idea! The transition between me using my mum's make-up and me using my own was very fluent. Probably some mascara, though.


Wow, that's it! On to the people I tag:


  1. Rachael from Rachael Victoria
  2. Andrea from RosyChicc
  3. Holly from Touch of Crimson
  4. Chlo from Chlo O'Donnell
  5. Michelle from Mash Elle

Again, I can't make the full 10 bloggers, but I got 50 % that's better than the last time. If you are one of the girls I tagged, please let me know in the comments if you've decided to do this tag.
If you're not, let me know if you liked it and what some of your first times are!


xx