SÉROZINC for everyone

I've been reading a lot about La Roche Posay Serozinc: how good it works, but mostly how hard-to-get it is...

I'll probably rejoice the ones that haven't got it yet (but want) and dissapoint the ones that got it by all kind of difficult ways: It's relatively easy to get by easyparapharmacie.com (here).

This used to be a complicated, French only site: Nowadays they are fully in English with various ways of payment, shipping & other uncomplicated webshop-la-la-la thingies.

Ofcourse, I added something more. The Phytokeratine travel set has been a mere €4.50 for a 50 ml shampoo &  mask. And here is that Lierac Bodyslim stuff again: I'm gonna try the nightime version.

DHL shipping is €10 for my region & it took only 2 days. It might be a lot but most of their products are slightly cheaper: eg. The Serozinc is €4.94 whereas on Dutch sites it's like €9. 

Ps: not promoting or affiliated with anything, just ask my creditcard company ; )

Innisfree @ sasa.com

Wonderful news for the Korean cosmetics lovers: Innisfree is available on the easy-to-navigate sasa.com (here).

Sasa.com also introduced the Skinfood a couple of days before, so they jumped on the bandwagon of the rising popularity of Korean cosmetics.

I am not familiar with Innisfree yet. but you can check some blog posts over here that discuss innisfree BB cream.

I am sure that we will find more reviews soon now Innisfree is easier to purchase on Sasa.

spenderella: shoes and co...

One of my first posts on this blog was declaring my admiration to a pair of F-Troupe patent flats with a couple of cute bows on top. I did the funny thing of re-reading my own post, and clicked on the F-Troupe site again....and WOW, my patent lust-haves were discounted: 50% off, which made them £35.00 instead of £70...I had to buy them, ofcourse...how strong do you think I am?

So they arrived this week, and are really cute....

I also bought some items on Urbanoutfitters.co.uk. I really fancied this boyfriend cardigan with lace:

And some green suede boots that were discounted as well: It looks like a have little Elf feet on this picture, LOL...

I also received a cute pink waistcoat from Topshop, but I haven't photographed that one.
Another item with a bow...I sure have a theme of clothes and shoes this week...

Mmm, I might list 'saving money' as a good year's resolution, don't ya think?

Cinderella's tailor

Modern age, oh modern age...sometimes I despise thee, other times I adore thee.

One of the things I love about our modern age is...how could I not? the internet, and secondly, the ability to find something that caters your need on the same internet...

So I found an online shop that triggers my feel-good buttons: you can create your own partydress with YOUR sizes and YOUR preferences, dare I say your own little bit of couture, for a highstreet price.

At least, that is the claim that Styleshake.com makes. I have not ordered from them yet, but I have created some items...it makes an awesome play-tool for creating your own dresses.

I have created....the Michelle O. (for a stylish woman who is bound to become the first lady of style)

The Mme Bruni-Sarkozy: a woman with a notorious past, but a presidential future...
And the Liverpool Party Girl: Everything is fair in war, love and party dressing...

The website is UK based, so the prices will be in pounds, but the exchange rate is really good right now and prices are not higher than 55 pound (without shipping).

I am not sure if they are able to deliver before Christmas, it is probably too late...but it makes a nice toy for playing around and doing-a-Lagerfield...or perhaps ordering your NYE dress???

Style it up: apc.fr

I love browsing at the apc.fr website. The clothes may be a bit higher priced than your ordinary high street brand, but they sure know how to style the models on the website...

Look at her: she looks like a modern day little red riding hood with her red cape and cute braid on her head.

Here she is showing the braid again. Don't you love the cuteness of that LBD with a cute bow in the middle? This pose, by the way, is so refreshingly unmodellingly (is that an English word?). She looks a bit like a young child that has to pose for a picture.

This is more a model pose. I like the dress, the skullcap, the boots and her necklace.

And I am totally in love with that green leopard scarf. Sure, leopard scarfs are all over the highstreet shops this winter, but I haven't seen a green version of that...

This model is quite funny, I think. She looks kind of moody/tough in almost every picture. I like the combination of clothes...very preppy meets french girl meets Scottish tartan kind-of-cool.

I have to declare her as one of my icons, because she is not afraid to look incredibly dissatisfied with everything!!!

Ok, so this is not my style: white tights and a frumpy short...but I like the other looks.

Check out yourself if the model is smiling on one of the photos @ apc.fr .
Hint, she is looking a bit smug on one of the pictures....

embryolisse: tutorial for buying at easypharmacie.com

A few weeks ago I posted something about Embryolisse Lait concentré cream...(click for the post). One of my commenters, Engmin, asked if I wanted to do a tutorial about how to order at the webshop I bought the Embryolisse from.

I bought the Embryolisse cult cream for 10 euros on easypharmacie.com. Shipping was a 13 euros flat rate, so you can pile op the products in your cart for the same 13 euro. That is a good price if you consider that other websites I have encountered had prices from $25 (beautyhabit.com) or about 20 euro on screenface.com.

The only downsite is that the site is in french, that explains the tutorial.

Click on the pictures (screenshots of websites below) for visual information.

1. I have linked the page that shows all Embryolisse products over here... so you can scroll down a bit, and you find the product that has become such a cult product. However, it is a French drugstore/pharmacie with some fantastic other products, so if you like you can find some other rare and wonderful cosmetic items. I have come across to brands such like Marvis toothpaste, Trind nailcare (love this brand), la roche posay or Kneipp body and bathing care...

So click on the picture below to see how to do a search... 2. So you have found the product you like. How to add it to your cart? Click on the green sentence of the product you want to have, so it will bring you to the product page itself. You can find some extra information on that page. Check the pictures below...

3. You will see this sign when you added the product in the cart. Click on 'OK' if you want to continue.

4. The next page is the cart. You can get there by clicking on the red block that says 'mon panier' (right site of the webpage). To continue shopping, click on the green button that says 'continuer vos achats'. When you want to go to the checkout, click on the green button with the words '

5. So you were able to thow in all the goodies in your cart and you want to check out. The next page will ask for the country you would like to ship your goodies to. French is not the easiest language, and some countries do not even sound remotely similar to the english words. I mean, the Netherlands means Pays Bas in french....

I will translate the most difficult country words from french into english, so you know what to choose

Allemagne - Germany

Autriche - Austria

Espagne - Spain

Japon - Japan

Pologne - Poland

Roumanie - Romania

Royaume Unie - United Kingdom

Suede - Sweden

USA - (ok, an easy one)

The red button is to go to checkout...I wanted to mention this again :D
6. The next page is for registrating yourself, or if you already done this in the past, log in and continue.

7. These two pages will guide you through the registration process...I have cut them in half, so it will be easier to read them.

8. This page is will let you review your data, so you can change anything. If anything is fine and dandy, continue by pressing confirmer and régler votre commande on the bottom of the page.

9. On this page you can choose the credit card you would like to pay with. They do not have a lot of options yet. Maybe they will change this in the future when they notice lots of internationals buying at their site :P

10. This page is for filling in your credit card details. They claim to be secure, and I think it is quite a secure page, as you can see on the picture below.

I filled in a ghost card with ghost details, so I do not have a complete checkout picture of the website. If you reached the last page and clicked on 'VALIDER', and your credit card has enough funds, you will receive your package within two week or so (not familiar with other countries yet, but please let me known if you have ordered and tell me how long it took).

I wil not do a review today, because I have already made a pretty long (and tedious?) post. I will do a small review this week.

skin(t)

When I suffer from a bit of stress, my skin is the first to suffer. For a vain person like me that is the warning sign for taking things a bit slower and easier: who does like to have dry patches and crazy-mad skin? I have never met such a person...if you do, please give me their phone number so they can tell me their secret.

Rest and Relaxation is the ultimate soother for my stressed out skin, but hey...sometimes you cannot run away from the Stress-monster, and then I seek refugee to special skinpotions.

In the last couple of weeks the skin around my eyes was acting up: it was getting more and more crease-y. I started to look like an old lady. My eyeshadows looked all terrible on me (all 500 palettes). I needed a cure.

lizard eyes only look good on lizards

So I came across Relastin eye silk and though that I should give it a try. Reviews were mixed upon this product, so it could be a hit or miss.

I hope it will be a hit; I have a stockpile full of not-so-good eyecreams which has cost me quite a bit of cash so far, which explains the title of this post...skint :-)

I ordered the cream online at essentialdayspa.com. I love this store for the same reason I love to buy on gmarket. They are really generous with their freebies. The next picture shows two items I have bought: the Cargo blush and the Relastin Eyesilk...the rest were all freebies.

I also received a standard 15% off any order. You can build up your discount by participating on their forum. Let me copy and past some info:

Starting today, and from now-on, active members of the EDS Forum will be entitled to automatic discounts on their future orders from our website. Based on your membership status & activity level, members will receive following discounts: 10-50 posts = Full Member = 5% discount. 50-250 posts = Senior Member = 10% discount. 250-1000 posts = Preferred Member = 15% discount. over 1000 posts = VIP = 20% discount.

The forum is quite informative when you have questions about skincare.

Anyway, I do not want to convince anyone to go order at that website, because skinstore.com and dermstore.com are fantastic stores as well. I just wanted to show you my reasons for ordering the eyecream at a certain place online ;-)

I hope this eye silk will do something good for me. It costs me $69 without the discount, so it better be!

gmarket third haul...

A couple of days ago I was still a bit anxious of the fact that the Customs had snapped up my gmarket package. At least, the shipping anouncement on gmarket page told me that they were "Handed over to Customs"...Fortunately, my items arrived last wednesday, so I was a happy camper with my new stuff.

I have been browsing on lotuspalace's blog in order to find a handy compact powder. I do my makeup in the morning, but my t-zone is stubborn enough to defy the powder in the afternoon.

I also wanted a pretty case for carrying around during commuting. Looks matter a bit, so I was really charmed by the beautiful Lotree Rosa Davurica powder pact, which comes in a stunningly beautiful purple case....(read Kathy's review over here)

Yum, and Kathy from lotuspalace announced that the powder had a rose scent. I love rose scented products, so the compact had to be mine (muuuaahaaa).

I bought a whole set by seller kp7793 on gmarket, as I also really liked the goodies that came with it.

A small sized BB cream.

A gorgeous cream blush in a colour that is uberflattering on me..

And I got 2 samples that are on the right site of the picture (purple sachets).

The blush was another lemming I acquired (courtesy of Lotuspalace as well). I really liked the mixture of peach and pink colors. Thus, I ordered this as well.

No freebies, but still a precious item. I bought this from seller miincos on gmarket (item no. 131673814).

The extras are, of course, the icing on the cake. It is one of those things that makes shopping at gmarket so addicting.

I have also ordered my fourth haul last week. Their tracking service is really precise: right now its status is "Departure from Airport....Flight date : 14:35 Fri 14 Nov 2008 (KST))". I even have the flight no, which is "Flight number : KL866".

And I cannot resist the fantastic products most of the Korean cosmetics designers make. They offer quality, cute designs and a reasonable price. For example,I really like how the imprint of the Lotree compact powder leaves its mark on the powder puff...

The colour is no 25.

Overall, I am a happy kid with my new items....and I cannot wait for the fourth haul to arrive!

lust-have: cute jewellery

I still suffer a bit from the awful credit crunch situation, so the reckless 'shop-till-you-drop' philosophy has been put aside for a while.

However, I still think that you can earn a lot of style credit with some cute and quirky necklaces. The average heart around your neck is a bit passé, and a nametag...how 1999?

Anyway, if you really want to add interest with your jewelery, why not wear something different.

How about a couple of moustaches in your ears?? Mustache Studs by Giles and Brother £43.00
Just add a barette and you are all set up for meeting a moustached, french man...LOL.

Or a beautiful butterfly made from fair-trade material

Butterfly Pendant by Verde Rocks @ adili.com £40.00


Embrace your dark and Gothic side with a bat-lace....Or, your love for batman?

Bat Pendant by Giles and Brother £52.00

Or peace-out with this CC Skye necklace


Swim against the stream with a salmon necklace!

Salmon necklace from Fifi Bijoux @ mineli.co.uk
£199.00

Show your love for springtime with a tiny bird in its nest

http://www.alexmonroe.com/product_info.php?cPath=49_51&products_id=395£108.00

Or reflect your hard-working personality with a golden bumblebee

Bumblebee gold £132.00 (silver £120.50) @ alexmonroe.com

Happy (window)shopping and showing of your beauties!

Life Little luxuries: perfume power

I love the little luxuries in life.

Even in these days, with the dreadful credit-crunch going on, I have the need to feel fabulous.

The luxury it-bag is a bit out of reach these days, but I can still pamper myself with an indulgence: a beautiful fragance.

Scent is most certainly the most powerful tool to influence mood, memories and it will give you a certain kind of aura that can even go beyond an expensive outfit. It even decides to what person you will feel attracted to (often subconciously).

Anyway, I am a bit too fickle in order to buy big bottles of signature scents...although I have a couple of them...I prefer to experiment with several samples and choose a little bit of luxury every day. Therefore, I am really delighted that several sites cater in my need. There are perfume sites that sell samples as well, such as luckyscent.com and ausliebezumduft.com.

Nowadays there are even sites that specialise on selling samples, such as theperfumedcourt.com.

I have ordered several times at theperfumedcourt, and I love their collection of perfumes. They even have sampler sets based on a basenote, perfume-hause, region or niche-ness.

Check them out if you feel the need to pamper yourself with a new fragance. You can roadtest some perfumes in order to decide if the scent is really you, or you can have the opportunity to suprise yourself (and your friends) with a new haute scent every day, without breaking the bank.

Embryolisse, French cult-cream...

Sometimes the most unatainable items are the most tempting to have.

A real cult-product is supposed to be hard to obtain, should have an air of mystery, and should be used by models or other famous persons...which makes Embryolisse quite a niche brand: at least, when you do not live in France.

In American press they call it the “24 Hour Miracle Cream”, of course, for its wonderful moisturizing proprieties.



Embryolisse is a product that is sold in French Pharmacies. The cult product is the 'Lait Creme Concentré', which, according to the embryolisse website, "immediately provides skin with essential nourishing components to replenish its lipids and rapidly repair it. Its formula, which has been used for decades, remains extremely simple and effective: nourishing ingredients, which can be taken up by skin to restore its barrier function and smooth away imperfections caused by cutaneous dryness."

As I mentioned before, this product has a great press, both in magazines as on review sites such as Makeupalley. Americans always love products from France. I think it has something to do with the mystery of the 'old world' and the allure the French have on the Americans. I think that a lot of British people consider the French to be sophisticated as well.

Personally, as a cool and collected (ahum) girl from the Netherlands, I am not thát impressed by French allure. Ok, I love some designers and they have lovely cities, but I would not buy something because it is made in France.

However, they have some lovely pharmaceutical brands that are simple and effective, such as La Roche Posay, Roc, Avene and Vichy.

On a sensitive skin, such as mine, simplicity can sometimes be the best thing. I really like all the extras in facial products that claim to prevent wrinkling/erase sunspots/diminish scars, however, during the winter my skin can be too sensitive. The only thing that helps is plain moisture without much additives and scent.

Normally I would reach for my Atopalm . Ofcourse, my curious nature is always a bit experimental and looking for improvement...so I really wanted to try the highly-recommended Embryolisse line -->just to test if it is as good as they say it is...

So, I had to look on the net. First I found an article in the November (or October) issue of the British Glamour. Christina Aguillera is supposed to use this product.




Glamour tells me that it is available for 28 pounds (excluding shipping) on Screenface.com.






Ehm, not that cheap...38 euros for a moisturizer. So I checked out the web for some more info.
Hey, blogger Grayburn mentioned something about the product being sold for a mere 10 euros in the French pharmacies...mmmm.
So I went to google.fr (google France) and searched for embryolisse online. HURRAY, and so I found a French webshop that sells the product for 10 euros, AND ships to the Netherlands (plus the rest of Europe). Shipping is not so cheap, 12 euros, but it is still cheaper than the British site....and I can put as much stuff in the box for the same amount...
Ok the site....easyparapharmacie.com. It is written in French, so my highschool classes French were quite handy. Otherwise, there are translation sites in order to make sense of the ordering process. (or I could make a tutorial??)
I only ordered 2 products to test if they would really deliver...ha ha, I do not want to splash the first time I order at a new webstore. I alse ordered the Klorane Dry shampoo. I like dry shampoos for emergencies and for a bit of volumizing.
Yeehaa, they delivered the package within five days! The parcel is sturdy and the products inside were carefully wrapped in bubblewrap.



Here they are...my two new products: the cult-item Embryolisse Lait-creme concentré and a Klorane Dry shampoo with Oat Milk.

And I found out that Lou Douillon (previous article) borrows this product from her mother (Jane Birkin) as well (read over here in French)...Both ladies have wonderful skin, so it sounds like a good product.

Mmm, I will keep you updated.