Everything related to nourishing and taking care of our bodies.
Этот крем просто подарок судьбы. На данный момент это идеал и лучший крем, который я пробовала и среди масс-маркета и среди более дорогих марок косметики. У него гелевая текстура, он очень легко наносится и впитывается также быстро. Он, действительно, отлично увляжняет кожу и обладает очень приятным ненавязчивым запахом. И Т-зона с ним не блестит. Также нет ощущения маски и кожа легко дышит. Must-have!
Nivea Aqua Effect Moisturizing Day Cream SPF 15 is for normal to mixed skin. It is perfect to use for fall and spring. During summer, it felt a bit heavy on the skin and I think that during winter, it’s better to use nourishing cream instead of moisturizing. Right now it feels great on the skin. The cream doesn’t have a strong smell, which is good.
Enriched with Vitamin E and Hydra IQ, it provides the skin intensive moisture and leaves it feeling fresh.
My routine is as follows: First I clean the skin and apply the cream gently padding with the fingers. It is quite quickly absorbed by the skin, but I still prefer to wait one hour before applying foundation. Before applying foundation or BB cream, I use a napkin to get rid of excess cream or oils.
Apply on cleansed and toned face by gently massaging in small circular motions.
The cream does a good job of moisturizing as I don’t feel any dryness in my skin during the day. There’s also a night moisturizing cream from the same line, but I haven’t tried it yet.
When you find a drug store product that works miracles that’s a double win because let’s face it: no one likes to spend a fortune on a product that you can’t show off (jk) and that will be gone in a few months time.
With eye cream I found my magic product – L’Oreal Triple Active Moisturizing Eye Cream. The cream has very light, gel-like texture, it is quickly absorbed by the skin and it smoothes out tiny wrinkles.
What is your favorite eye cream product?
Few weeks ago a beautiful, inspiring and strong young lady contacted me and shared her story with me. Her name is Heather Von St. James. Heather was diagnosed with mesothelioma 8 years ago – a rare and preventable cancer caused only by exposure to asbestos. She had just given birth to her beautiful daughter, when she was given 15 months to live. After the life saving surgery that included the removal of her left lung, Heather made it her mission to protect the innocent victims and spread awareness about mesothelioma and the dangers of asbestos.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that attacks the lining of the body cavity called the mesothelium. The only known cause to mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos. The sad fact is that asbestos is still not banned in all countries across the world.
Mesothelioma is dangerous because it commonly sits dormant in the body for 20-50 years after initial exposure to asbestos.
September 26th, 2014 marks the 10th anniversary of Mesothelioma Awareness Day and in honor of it, I want to share some facts and help spread awareness and I do believe that together we can help the victims and change the regulations related to asbestos.
What can you do to help? – Re-blog, share and spread the word on social media to raise awareness. One way you could do it is through Heather’s awareness page. You can also make a donation through MARF (Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation) donation form. For more information, see mesothelioma.com.
When it comes to hair products, I always look for something that will give me results without weighing hair down or making it greasy. I already told you about my favorite serum, and now it’s time to tell about my second favorite product – Volumizing Conditioning Spray by french brand Rene Furterer from their line Volumea.
The shampoo and conditioner from the very same line has been on InStyle’s top beauty products, so you can imagine the whole line must be good. I haven’t tried all products from the line yet, but this one deserves a mention. It is lightweight, has a very nice smell (which evaporates shortly, so it won’t interfere with your perfume) and it does exactly what it promises – gives volume boost without weighing down. I have naturally wavy hair, and what I especially love about this product is that it doesn’t straighten or weigh down my locks. My curls are bouncy and after air drying hair they have that perfect ‘sexy beach waves’ kind of look.
Here’s a little bit more info about the product:
DESCRIPTION
This leave-in volumizing conditioning spray detangles, tames fly-aways and weightlessly pumps hair with natural looking volume from roots to ends.
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS & BENEFITS+
- Natural Carob extract: Creates long-lasting volume
- Cationic complex: Detangles hair
AROMA+
Lemon, Thyme, Rose
FULL LIST OF INGREDIENTS
WATER (AQUA), SD ALCOHOL 39-C (ALCOHOL DENAT), VP/VA COPOLYMER, DEHYDROXANTHAN GUM (DEHYDROXANTHAN GUM), DISODIUM EDTA, FRAGRANCE (PARFUM), HYDROLYZED CERATONIA SILIQUA GUM EXTRACT, METHYLISOTHIAZOLINONE, PEG-12 DIMETHICONE, PEG-40 HYDROGENATED CASTOR OIL, SODIUM HYDROXIDE
DIRECTIONS
After shampooing, spray all over toweldried hair. Do not rinse. Proceed to styling.
I first came across Inglot’s brush cleanser a few months ago, when my dermatologist suggested it to disinfect the make-up brushes. Before that I used to clean them with liquid soap and warm water.
I have seen few videos on YouTube on cleansing the make-up brushes – basically they just squirt the spray on the brush and then rinse it off with the paper towel or a cotton pad. I find this method too harsh for the bristles of the brush and I think this way you can easily damage the brush and that would be a pity especially if you own expensive brushes.
So, here is what I do:
1. I squeeze out a bit of liquid antibacterial soap on the palm of my hand. Then I wet my brush in water and then in the liquid soap that’s already on the palm of my hand and gently move the brush around until most of the paint comes out of the brush.
2. Then I thoroughly rinse the brush with warm water till the brush is clean.
3. To disinfect the brush, I spray Inglot brush cleanser and then gently wipe it off the brush with paper towel.
4. I lay my brushes flat to dry.
This way has helped me to preserve my brushes in a great condition and I do such cleansing once a week or more, if required.
Inglot Brush Cleanser comes in a 150 ml bottle, which will last you for a very long time.
And here is the ingredients list:
What is your routine for cleansing the brushes and what cleanser do you prefer?
Vincent Van Gogh is definitely one of my favorite artists and the one I feel I can relate to the most. Apart from sharing the love for a bit exaggerated, magical colors and shapes, we unite on battling the same monsters. Depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, constant self-doubt and lack of confidence in his abilities and his works. I have experienced very similar feelings and fears since my adolescent years and battled them with varied success over the years. But, this post is not going to be about depression or sadness, on a contrary, there is a positive point I want to make.
I have done extensive research on the painting, the artist, his life, vision and meaning behind the painting and I want to bring the most interesting facts, quotes, and bits and pieces of information I found across many different sources.
Just as Van Gogh, I’ve always been attracted to the night. To him night was ‘more alive than the day’ and was the time of creativity, reflection and meditation after a day of activity and it brought with it a feeling of security and comfort. It was also kind of metaphor for the cycle of life. And he linked this with the changing of the seasons. However, van Gogh was aware that darkness could also conjure up feelings of loneliness and anguish.
The night sky is mesmerizing. It looks as the stars in the painting are swirling and moving within it’s frame. You feel captured in this magical place and you don’t want to leave. ‘Starry night’ is the mixture of imagination and reality. While the village and location of the stars in the sky might reflect what he really saw from his window at a hospital in Saint Rémy, the church resembles with his memories of his motherland, the Netherlands.
In a letter written to Émile Bernard in April 1888, Van Gogh expressed his desire to paint the night sky, and questioned whether he could achieve his intention by painting from nature as the Impressionists did:
The imagination is certainly a faculty which we must develop and it alone can bring us to creation of a more exalting and consoling nature … A star-spangled sky, for instance, that’s a thing I would like to try to do … But how can I manage unless I make up my mind to work … from imagination?
In Arles, in 1888 and 1889, van Gogh’s paintings took on a mystical, dreamlike quality. Straight lines became wavy, colors intensified, thick paint became thicker, sometimes squeezed straight onto the canvas from the tube. Some of these changes were later taken as a sign of his madness, and even van Gogh feared that “some of my pictures certainly show traces of having been painted by a sick man.” But there was premeditation and technique behind these distortions, as he tried to put a sense of life’s mysteries into paint. In a letter to Wil, he explained that “the bizarre lines, purposely selected and multiplied, meandering all through the picture, may fail to give the garden a vulgar resemblance, but may present it to our minds as seen in a dream, depicting its character, and at the same time stranger than it is in reality.”
There are various interpretations of Starry Night and one is that this canvas depicts hope. It seems that van Gogh was showing that even with darkness it is still possible to see light in the windows of the houses, and with shining stars filling the sky, there is always light to guide you. It seems that van Gogh was finally being cured of his illness and had essentially found his heaven.
Another popular theory is about the biblical meaning behind the ‘Starry Night’.
Perhaps the real reason why the Van Gogh painting is so famous and appreciated today is not due to the negative emotions that may have initially inspired the artwork, but the strong feelings of hope Van Gogh conveys through the bright lights of the stars shining down over the dark landscape at night. In 1888, Van Gogh wrote a personal letter in which he described “a great starlit vault of heaven…one can only call God.” With a theologian for an uncle, Van Gogh himself was also religious, even serving as a missionary in his younger days. Many art scholars believe there is a hidden religious meaning to Starry Night. In the painting, the moon and stars in the night sky are surrounded by large halos of light while a church steeple stands out above the smaller, less detailed buildings in the town below. In fact, some art critics find a biblical meaning in the number of stars painted in Starry Night that alludes to specific Bible verse in Genesis.
In a letter to his brother, Theo, van Gogh refers to Leo Tolstoy´s book My Religion and its lack of belief in resurrection. His use of the word ‘quiet’ and reference to Tolstoy´s book indicates that the night sky made him feel calm and brought to mind eternity.
Why did Van Gogh paint exactly 11 stars? By painting exactly eleven stars in the Starry Night painting, Vincent Van Gogh might have been directly referencing Genesis 37:9, a key verse in the biblical account of Joseph, a “dreamer” and an outcast in the company of his eleven older brothers. It isn’t hard to see why Van Gogh might have identified with Joseph in the Bible. In the Bible, Joseph was thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, and underwent years of imprisonment, much like Van Gogh did the last years of his life in the Arles asylum. No matter what Joseph did he could not receive the acceptance or respect of his 11 older brothers. Likewise, despite his best efforts, as an artist Van Gogh failed to receive the recognition of art critics of his day.
Van Gogh considered his now-iconic The Starry Night, which he painted from his barred window at Saint-Rémy, a failed attempt at abstraction. Before leaving Saint-Rémy, he wrote to Émile Bernard: “I have been slaving away on nature the whole year, hardly thinking of impressionism or of this, that and the other. And yet, once again I let myself go reaching for stars that are too big—a new failure—and I have had enough of it.”
Theo liked the painting but was worried. He wrote Vincent that “the expression of your thoughts on nature and living creatures shows how strongly you are attached to them. But how your brain must have labored, and how you have risked everything….” Vincent didn’t live to know that in his reaching for the stars, he had created a masterpiece.
While Van Gogh died a poor and disrespected artist, he is now one of the most famous and reproduced painters today. Within the madness, there was genius.
“It is inspiring to see how a man so plagued by sorrow and despair could turn his inner battles into glowing, vibrant canvases that still speak a message of hope and joy more than 100 years later”
Following the recent news on Robbin Williams death, I spent a lot of time thinking about how many lives could have been saved, how many wonderful things could have been created, if they did find the strength to say to themselves: “I am strong. I am valuable. I am worthy”. If only they knew the impact they have on the people around them, on the world and the Universe. If only they could see their problems from the perspective of eternal starry night sky. If only there was a family member or a friend holding their hand that would tell them: “I care for you. You are loved.”
If you came across this post and you’re battling depression and anxiety, I want you to know that I love you and you’re not lonely. While I’m battling my own hardships, I understand what you’re going through and you can reach me out to vent, to cry, to smile and laugh and while I’m no specialist, I will hold your hand and give you all the support I can give. My e-mail is 1happyblog@outlook.com.
If you have a family member, a friend or anybody else suffering from mental disorders, please don’t just ignore them. A lot of times we are seen as people with ‘personal weaknesses’ or ‘drowned in self-pity’ and our condition is not taken seriously. There are times when we cannot help ourselves and if we could, do you really think that we would stay depressed and miserable? Sometimes, a small gesture, a nice word or just being by our side, can mean the world. Spread some love and I’m sure it will come back to you multiplied.
For more inspiration, I urge you to watch Doctor Who: ‘Vincent and the Doctor’ (Season 5, Episode 10). It literally brought tears to my eyes.
I’m going to leave you with a tribute to Vincent, a song called ‘Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)’ by Don McLean.
“Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)”
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land
Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now
Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand
Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they’ll listen now
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night
You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could’ve told you Vincent
This world was never meant for
One as beautiful as you
Starry, starry night
Portraits hung in empty halls
Frame-less heads on nameless walls
With eyes that watch the world and can’t forget
Like the strangers that you’ve met
The ragged men in ragged clothes
The silver thorn of bloody rose
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow
Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they’re not listening still
Perhaps they never will
Beautiful soul, Vincent, I know I’ll meet you one day somewhere across the Universe and we’ll paint the sky purple and yellow.
For further reading:
I love having my hair curly most of the time. Luckily, it is naturally quite wavy, but from time to time when I want more textured and defined curls, I use curling iron or hair rollers. Considering the humid and windy weather where I live, I need really strong hair products to help my curls stay and not fall apart as soon as I leave the house.
I’ve been using hair products by Wella for a long time and was always satisfied with the results. Hairspray Wellaflex by Wella wasn’t exception. My curls stayed almost the same hours later. The one I’ve tried is Shiny Hold with strongest fixation – 5.
This is me right after I removed the rollers and sprayed my hair.
And this is me hours later 🙂
When it comes to hair, the task of finding the right beauty product isn’t an easy one. I was looking for a product that will bring out the color and shine, make them soft and at the same time won’t increase their weight and make them sticky or loose the volume.
I was beyond happy when I came across Instant Beauty Serum by Llongueras. It is very light, makes my hair silky and soft and in few seconds my hair looks like I just went out from hair salon.
Give it a try and I’m sure you will enjoy the results!
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