My little treasures of May 2014

Hi there :) 

I went shopping.. And this happened :) 

I actually need black working shoes (in which I can stand and run around the whole day), but after a couple of shopping sprees, I just can't seem to find the right pair.. So I got a bit bad and bought this lovely pair designed by Chiara Ferragni and Steve Madden. Chiara is an Italian blogger I have been following on and off for over 7 years. I looked from time to time at her Flickr account before she started her blog, and before blogging was a "thing".. I remember seeing her pictures online and thinking who is she? I don't understand :) But I liked her style and soon I got sucked into the blogging world and checked out her blogs on a regular basis. Back to the shoes: I have spotted them a while ago and I thought they looked different and had nice detailing, so when I saw them again, I tried them on and the leather is actually super soft and the heel is chunky which makes it easier to wear. I absolutely LOVE these heels for summer! 

This is a picture of my first catsuit I own :) Aah I am so excited, cause I have actually never really understood this fashion trend and when I tried out a suit, it looked weird and unflattering. This one is the first one that fits like jogging but looks very smart. 

I have always loved a touch of hippie boho chique style, and these shorts are the perfect touch of that. They are from H&M and feel very expensive (but they aren't :)

Last but not least: my little forever21 treasures :) I have been looking for bows for about 3 months and finally I saw them in store. I went a bit bow crazy and bought a black and pink big bow and smaller white and black bows.. The small ones aren't very easy to use because they don't have a good grip on the hair. 

The first two t shirts and this one are all from Forever21 as well and fit very nicely. I actually tried on a tee at COS and fell almost from my chair in the fitting room when I saw the price: 45 euros for a stupid tee without anything on it!! What?

Luckily I saw these ones that are a lot nicer and a crap of a lot cheaper!! 

Hope you liked my little treasures of May. 

Lots of Love 

XL

Smashbox Full Exposure Palette Review

The Full Exposure palette from Smashbox falls in the same range as the Urban Decay naked 1, 2 and 3 palettes: you have a lot of neutrals for a reasonable price. 

I was hesitating between getting the Naked 3 or the Full Exposure palette, and because I am suuuuper happy with the pigmentation and colours of my Fade Out Smashbox palette (I did a previous blogpost on it), I decided to go for the Smashbox one. 

To be honest, I love my Naked 1 palette, but I rarely use the Naked 2.. Just too much shimmer and the colours are too cold for me.

The amazing thing about this palette is that the colours are matched: one matte goes with the shimmer on top. I love this idea and for some reason, this palette inspires me to do a lot of versatile looks.

The left side of the palette are more warm toned browns and the middle shadows are very nice buttery beige / ivory sheen and matte colours. On the right side, you find rather cool toned taupish/beige/brown colours and a matte black and a black/navy/grey shimmer. 

Newest makeup tutorial: Khloe Kardashian & J Lo 's glowy skin

This is one of my favourite looks ever. 

Glowy skin and an orange undertone red lip.

The secret to looking great and fresh, especially for all you bright eyed ladies out there, is finding the right red lip, a lot of bronzer, and LOADS of highlighter ;) 

I know everyone always says you can't exaggerate with makeup, but this time, we can definitely make an exception :)

 

I decided to combine a fresh looking mauve/lilac eye with Lady Danger from Mac, which has a matte finish and stays put all day (even after eating!) 

I am loving the Define-A-Lash at the moment from Maybeline, which you can build up endlessly without getting clumpy.

I used Bobbi Brown eyeshadow and sparkle eyeshadow to create this look and finished it off with a combination of Mac Nude on beach/board bronzer and Hoola by Benefit to contour my face.

In the video I explain how to contour your face without it looking weird, patchy or too obvious.

I completed the look with my all time favorite highlighter in What's up by Benefit and Dior Amber Diamond on my Laura Mercier Fan Brush.

I think this will be my go to look for summer :) 

Xl

NYC fashion haul

Hi there :) 

Today I quick link to my newest video where I show you everything I got when I was in New York on a city trip. 

I have to say though: everything (except for the jeans I believe) was on sale, AND I really put aside money because I knew I was going to shop, so that is why I let myself go a little bit :) 

I am planning to do another blogpost on what I bought from Mac cosmetics, where I will review the products I bought together with some swatches. 

Lots of love 

x

Talk soon

New York City beauty haul

Hi guys, 

Because a lot of you told me you liked my Malaysian beauty haul video, I decided to do another one of these after I got back from my trip to Manhattan, NY. 

I bought some fun stuff I would like to share with you, so if you have some time, sit back and click to play the video :) 

A clothing haul is following very very soon!

Lots of love 

X

Hairdressers rant: From hair fiasco to loving the hair again!

Ok so, 

Where to begin?

I wanted to write this blogpost since a couple of weeks now, because I feel like I must not be the only one with this issue: 

Hairdressers.

Sigh. 

I don't understand most of them... 

So, for those of you who are new on my blog I'll give a quick recap: 

I am a natural ashy blond, got sick of my bleh color and decided a couple of years ago I wanted to dye it, so I did and I went to a salon to get my hair dyed. 

I asked for a Mary kate Olsen colour which is something like this:

 (the one on the middle) 

Let's say a Venetian blond. I got weird purple/brown. Yuk. That was the start of my mess, because it had purple/red pigments in it, up til a year or so ago I always had to deal with this weird red shine in my hair - this has been confirmed by professionals: red is the hardest to get rid off. 

So scroll forward in time: After a couple tries, I discovered this awesome girl at Tony & Guy who did both my friend and me, and we looked - well the hair :D - reaaaally awesome, exactly what we wanted. The celeb style blond a la Jeniffer Aniston/ Jeniffer Lopez / Sarah Jessica Parker. 

Love it.

Then I moved, so I was obliged to go to a different hairdresser, so I went with Aveda in New York. Good lord... That was some story: I had to pay +200 dollars (the plus stands for the extra 20 ish percent tip, if not more) for a hair color that was just completely messed up.

I asked for this:

(I cant find the exact picture, but it basically came down to this:)

My favorite eyeshadow palette: SMASHBOX Fade Out purples

This is my absolute favorite eye shadow palette since a couple of months now. 

It is called "Fade Out" and it is a product made by SMASHBOX.

See how beaten up this product looks like? haha, proof that I use it all the time. You can choose not to believe me, but I really spent about ten minutes trying to clean the surface and it just wouldn't come off, so sorry about that you guys.. But makeup reviews are only good when they are real, right?

I bought this a while back when I went to Paris and went to visit Sephora on Champs Elysees. 

I think I might have made a blogpost about that trip or mentioned it in one of my videos over on my YouTube channel (http:www.youtube.com/awomansaffair). 

I am not super wild about purple colors, but I was drawn by this palette for several reasons: 

How To: highlights at home | Ombre hair | dye your hair at home

My promised hair pictures <3

I started dyeing my hair in 2010 and continued coloring it ever since, apart from 2 times where I decided to go to a hairdresser because I was bored of my color, and wanted something new.

Those two times, I've been the most disappointed I have been in these last 4 years. 

I will tell you a bit about it now, and then I will explain to you step by step what technique you could use to avoid having to spend money while you can do the exact same (or better) at home. 

To start, I would like to admit that there are really awesome hairdressers out there, but to find them is a real quest and it is very rare you will bump into one that does exactly what you asked for, and even more. 

I once had the pleasure to work with someone called Sandrine who worked at Tony & Guy, and she was the best colorist I have ever met. I wanted J Lo meets Jen Aniston hair with a lighter color at the end of my hair points, something I had naturally, but I wanted to exaggerate that look. Maybe a little bit of a semi ombre "avant la lettre".

I showed her some pictures, and to me, it is even more important to stress what you don't want. 

I went with my best friend, and, even though we were both kind of demanding customers (I want this this not that definitely not that, and I do not want to walk out of here with a bill exceeding 200 dollars kind of customer) we really got a great customer service.

We both got about 10 minutes to talk to her, and she was super lovely, she explained the process, she spoke about the color range, showed us several hair samples, explained how we could reach that hair color, you know, something where you normally hear:

"that is not possible miss, your hair is too dark for that, the only way to go blond is to put in highlights, and this way you will come back every 2 to 4 weeks and after a while you will get blond".

MAC DAZZLEGLASS Rags To Riches

Hey! 

Happy 2014! Yay :) 

I hope everyone started it out great. 

I went shopping this weekend and was trying to find a Chanel gloss number 139 for EVER (seriously, I did I think about 15 stores and the product was just gone). 

Apparently, it has been deleted out of the makeup line and will no longer be made. 

Why, Chanel, why? I don't understand this. About 10 years ago I was obsessed with this blush called "tea rose" and "be pop" I think. And then, out of the blue, Chanel decided to stop producing it. Why? I have no clue. So many people got upset over that and now, the only perfect color range in their glossy lippies is again cancelled! Agr. So frustrating. 

If you know what color I am talking about and you have it at home, you are one lucky person, if not, just forget about my rant here or go get this (much cheaper, but not so cheap) gloss by Mac. 

It is called Rag To Riches and it is this reaaaaally pretty pinkish glittery gloss. 

Plus sides: 

A fresh start

Happy New Year! :) 

I hope everyone has had a great time celebrating going from the old in to the new year and I hope you all have food babies just like me haha

I chose this picture to go with my title "A fresh start" because I feel like a new year, as cheesy as it sounds, is a perfect way to start all over. At least, if you feel like some parts of 2013 could have been different:

hair color update

A month or two after my last color session, I decided I wanted something new. 

I've always colored it in the 7 - 8 range with a 20 developer. 

About a year or so ago, I used this L'oreal Preference Ombre kit in number 3, which is the girl on the right of you (the one with the long hair and the lightest blond). This is the color I initially used, because I have natural blondish hair and my ends have always been lighter than my roots. So no need for me to go for the kit for darkest hair to begin with. 

However, before I will continue, I will quickly say that, last time I used this kit, I was SUPER happy about it: no brassy hair color, really pretty ombre effect going from a dark blond/brown to a warm toned mid blond and then lighter blond ends. I cannot exactly remember what technique I used to apply the color, but I wanted to avoid the two colored chopped hair, so I used a technique to gradually get the hair lighter, which, at the time, really worked out for me. 

Now comes the however part :) 

Get a glimpse of my interior

This is my latest furniture: two really pretty desk lamps that I put next to the fire place, and a holder that says News for newspapers :) 

I was on the hunt for these kind of lamps to have next to my couch but I only found really expensive ones. These are a good alternative: they still have a similar interior deco effect without being overly expensive. I think I paid about 20 dollars for them. 

The news stand cost me 15 dollars. 

As the theme in my house is rather "white" based, I really like to always grab similar light colors. I just get bored very easily with colors.. Sometimes, I wish I liked it, because then I could go wild and crazy with what I pick for my interior, but... It seems to stress me out more than be beautiful to the eye :D

They give a very decent amount of light, and in the evenings, I prefer this lighting instead of my ceiling lights, it just gives that extra cozy vibe I absolutely LOVE! 

Here, you can see my table I transformed when I talked about 4 months ago about re inventing an old coffee table. I scratched off all the old paint and dust and started from the bottom up. I decided to paint a striped foot piece with the help of some tape and verrrryyyy pretty golden bronzed paint. I did not want to make it too messy and aggressive, so I chose not to paint the same pattern on the sides. There, I decided to go for egg white / ivory paint that is suitable for wood. And voila, my table is done :) 

I think this is a 40 year old table btw... 

On top of that is an Ikea plate, I absolutely love black and white stripes. It feels a little colonial to me.

I placed a Zara home vase with some fake flowers for Christmas, and next to that I put a Zara home Christmas candle which has the same color as the flowers, and in real life, also as the paint on the table.

Behind that you will be able to see my couch. You can guess my colors are basically grey and white, with some hints of gold :) I like to make my couch extra comfy by placing a million cushions. I can then also alternate between several pillow fabrics to change up the mood in my apartment.

It is a great and very affordable way to spice up your deco. Pillows can be found at Ikea for about 6 dollars, and the textile, you can even make yourself! It is really not that hard..

Merry Christmas everyone!

If you are into vlogs, maybe you will like my Vlogmas video I will put up on my Youtube channel later on today.. You will have a sneak peek of what my life looks like :) 

XXX

OOTD December 2013

I bought these pants in River Island, and I fell in love with how the sequin is not too much out there. Every girl loves shiny things, and that's why I just needed to have these pants in my life haha :)

I paired them with Zara boots, which you can barely see on this picture.. A white tee from Topshop, my cardigan with leather sleeves from Maje and my new necklace from Zara. 

Today was Christmas shopping day, so we went out to the city for some good old fashioned Christmas gifts. However, once we arrived in the city, I think the whole country had the same idea.. There were queues EVERYWHERE. Nevertheless, we took it upon us to just go with the flow and buy the gifts we had in mind. 

I also purchased new tea and coffee, because if there is anything I can get equally excited about as make up, it has to be tea :D or fake coffee (coffee with LOADS of milk and foam Njum!) 

I bought rose tea, which I am obsessed with atm. Rose infusion tea, rose earl grey tea, you name it, I have it or have to buy it :) 

Speaking of tea, today is Sunday, and I am about to put the kettle on for a cup of tea with a biscuit and watch The Heat. I started watching it a couple of days ago but never got around to watch it to the end, but I laughed out loud on my own several times, which means it is a good movie! 

Lots of love x

Next post will be a collective haul of what I bought in Rotterdam!

XL

Christmas time!!!

 Look what I bought today! :) We went quickly for breakfast and in the shop my eye fell on this little fellow. How cute is he? It came with a set to make a hot cocoa with marshmallows, njum! I think I will make myself a cup of that now. 

This morning, I already felt better (I explained this in my last video:

And so, because Ikea is having a special sale on their Christmas trees (1 for 5 euros!!) we went quickly to Ikea to get our Christmas tree. There were already a lot of people in front of us... We were sure to be the first ones coming up very early to the store, but I guess we were wrong :D 

I already pulled out all my Christmas deco to decorate the tree tomorrow or on Sunday! 

My colors will be red, white and golden. I love it! 

Now, I am going to drink my hot cocoa, because a storm is coming and I just want to curl up in my blanket and rest some more. 

Talk to you soon! 

Xl

Black Friday Haul (and a little rant)

Hi there! 

I went shopping.. and I went big hahaha. 

At least, for my wallet I went big :) 

So first I started buying these awesome wooden heeled boots at Zara which are very similar to the Jeffrey Campbell ones but slightly more payable. 

I will have to pick them up from the store today so I will make a blogpost about that later in an outfit look or something. I am already COMPLETELY obsessed with those boots (yes, I have eyed them several times online ever since I bought them) so I will definitely want to share them with you guys :) 

Next, I bought some furniture or deco stuff at Zara Home. It is my absolute favorite deco store to shop: stuff is super original, not tooo expensive, and good quality. 

I bought a new lamp cap because mine was just random in plastic from Ikea (barf). This one is black and white striped and looks like this: 

Giorgio Armani makeup class

Heyaalll, 

A couple of days ago, I went to a Giorgio Armani makeup class. 

It lasted for about 3 good hours, and I learned all about their newest makeup and treatment line.. 

Let's get right into it :)

Small disclaimer: You are about to read my honest opinion about the products I used and learned about.. You might not like how honest I am but I just want you to save that penny for something better I think... So here we go..

Travel tips: Malaysia shopping, hotels, restaurants

Look at that view....

That was my holiday in Malaysia, such a pretty country. I promised I'd do a blog post on my holiday - so with a little delay, here it is :-)

 We decided to try out different hotels, so we ended up choosing around 5 or 6 in total, going from Kuala Lumpur, to Penang, to Langkawi and back to Kuala Lumpur. In all, we stayed there for about two weeks. This is a picture taken in Langkawi where we stayed at this really pretty hotel with a Jacuzzi, swimming pool and a beach front view. If you opt for beach front rooms, you will get a nice little patio for yourself with chairs where you can hang out and look at the see :) 

They are also specialized in making it EXTRA romantic because when it is good weather, you can sit on the beach at a table looking at this view:

MAC Devine Night Holiday Colour Collection 2013

Hi there! 

Today I am back, and I can proudly say: Oops, I did it again. :-)

I went shopping at Mac for another load of makeup I probably don't even need... But it is like candy to kids, so I simply cannot resist it. 

I saw Mac came out with the Devine Night Holiday collection, and I was eager to go and buy that really pretty pink nude lipstick. If you read parts of my life, or watch me on Youtube, you might already know that the most fun thing for me to buy are lipsticks.. so I just add them to my collection, cause I know I will wear them a lot. (Probably almost every day) 

TUMBLR OBSESSED

My little Dream World

If you click the title of this post (My little dream world) it will redirect you to my newest Social Networking Site: Tumblr. 

It is so crazy. I have seen so many tumblrs but never really thought about having one of my own. 

I now don't understand why I didn't give this a shot sooner. 

I am completely obsessed :D - guilty...

I registered under my name, Awomansaffair, about 4 hours ago and I kid you not: I've been on it non stop ever since.

I looked for a lot of pictures that I like, which brings me in a specific mood, or just describe or make me feel exactly the way I once have felt (or a couple of times) or feel at the moment. 

Such pretty pictures, and some funny movie quotes too :) haha. 

Do you guys have any tumblrs? I really want to find new ones cause I can spend days and days on this! 

AAaaaah I should go to bed, but something tells me I won't be able to stop collecting photos 

Sweet Dreams

Xl

Lookbook Diary: 3 wearable looks for fall

Hellow :) 

These are three looks I wore the other week and they kept me nice and warm during fall! 

I really like wearing over the knee socks but it is always a struggle to find a wearable outfit without putting it "all out there" - if you know what I mean :)

The two on the sides are more laid back looks that feel like wearing a jogging but outside, I love me some leggings haha. It is really our little secret of just looking ok but seriously feeling awesome: no tight jeans cutting off your circulation, no high waisted nightmares, just soft material giving you the space to breath :D