Neutrogena Wave Duo
By my early twenties I have already come to a conclusion that the beauty products are the last things on which I can economize! I love L’Occitane honey and milk scrub, Shiseido wet clothes – they come in handy when I travel or go out and can’t carry a full bottle of toner. What else? I can’t live without a bottle of Caudalie’s grape water- it’s great in early mornings when I need a wake-up call or when I travel South, meaning the sun exposure. And of cause, Complexe aux Résines Tropicales combined with Soin Teinté Phyto-Hydratant (all by Sisley Cosmetics) as a daily moisturizer and “foundation”(which is, in fact, a moisturizer as well only with a hint of color). I admit that all these products are not cheap (some of which are far way from being even moderately priced!) – but what can I do! I am picky and want the best for my skin!
However, I was pleasantly surprised on my last trip to the near grocery store when I treasured an amazing product out of the cosmetics isle! I must say thanks to my mum (yes, she is my steady companion to that store!) because it was her who pointed to this novelty to me. So – thank you, mum!
Neutrogena is one of the few “grocery-store” cosmetics that I still rate. Now to the product itself – it’s called Neutrogena Wave Duo. This is some sort of a machine with exfoliating pads. It’s got 2 speeds – one for everyday use, the other one (higher speed) is for the more intense level of cleansing. The appareil is small and very easy in use. The price is great ~ $17 plus extra pad refills for ~ $15. I don’t know if it will last too long but it’s a great change to my nightly routine! I am quietly lazy, so now on, all the work will be done by “power-cleanser”!
image from www.neutrogena.com
Pasta Carbonara
My carbonara
I did not really plan anything special for today - just another plain boring rainy Sunday. This morning I did not feel like waking up and doing anything – just another “pre-”Monday depression: “G, another week of “hard” labor is coming soon, very soon.” It’s my usual Sunday morning mood. So, I stayed in my bed until 2pm instead of doing my rather annoying homeworks for UNI (how productive I am).
One moment I am still in my bed, another I am at grocery store with my mum who luckily decided to get me out of the house. Then it hit me – I have to make dinner for the entire family tonight! Since I don’t know much about cooking, my conclusion was that I had to make a pasta! This summer I made pasta au pesto for couple of times (until I bought pin-nuts from China and it got me the salty taste in my month for about 2 weeks, only then I stopped). This time I went with carbonara…not complicated:
for 4 persons servings
1) spaghetti / fettuccine / rigatoni / bucatini , choose which you prefer, mines are bucatini
2) ~ 10 slices of bacon or pancetta
3) 4 egg’s yolks
4) Romano or Parmesan cheese ~ 4-6 tbsp
5) Italian parsley ~ 4 tbsp
6) olive oil ~ 4 tbsp
7) 15% cream ~ 8 tbsp
Preparation:
Boil the spaghetti (or whatever you have chosen), don’t forget to add olive oil in the boiling water!
While your spaghetti is boiling, put another pan on the cooker, add ~2 tbsp of olive oil and leave for couple of seconds to heat it up. Chopped your bacon and add it to the pan with your olive oil in it, render the bacon – cook until the fat is melt. Turn off the heat.
Now, combine the other ingredients: mix yolk, cheese and cream all in the same container.
When your pasta is cooked (it takes around 7-10 mins) drain it through a colander. Then transfer all of your pasta into the pan with bacon and stir. Then add the egg mixture, the warmth of the pasta will cook the eggs ( but make sure that the pasta is not going to overheat the yolks – you will end up with scrambled eggs). Stir. Add the desired seasonings and the parsley.
Serve and enjoy!
Bon appetit!
Serve and enjoy!
Question of the day: Victoria Beckham’s style is glam or slam?
I see her on all the different blogs and fashion news portals – people admire her style, they call her a fashion icon. I must be insane to say that I don’t buy it. I really don’t think that she has any kind of extraordinary sense of style. All I can say is that she looks great and always pulled together – what is not very hard when you have that much money! BUT she is boring to me. She has no edge. I don’t try to criticize her but give me a break…Why people think that she is a fashion icon!!!? Her standard outfit: YSL tribute platforms, some sort of a Oscar de la Renta dress with a super tight waist, huge sunglasses and an assortment of Hermes Birkin or Kelly bags. There are some variations on the theme…sometimes…rarely I’d say. So, please explain to me the Victoria Beckham effect? What is so special in the way she styles her cloths?
Shop ’til’ you drop!
May be it’s been a week since I promised to post pictures from my Friday night’s shopping BUT I have finally recovered my camera and as a result all the photos taken last Friday!
It wasn’t a bad trip…after all. I had a lot of fun going through tones of designers clothes for less! (Yes, may be it’s not from the latest collections but they still worth much more than they ask at hat place!)
My absolute favorite was this furry white MaxMara waistcoat, I could not resist it…I had to get it! (and I did eventually) I think it’s a good find considering the tough winters back here in Canada. This waistcoat is adorable with skinny jeans and boots (consider the ones with heels, may be something like this ones, Pierre Hardy for Gap).
MaxMara
In general this place i not the best choice if you are looking for something particular – simply because there is almost no chance that you will find it there! The best way to shop there is indeed to go there and just look around. that’s eventually what I did last week. I am one of those freaks who can’t shop with friends (or even worst with family) – I need to be alone. Yes, back to this place, it’s called Winners as I already mentioned in my previous post and it’s a Canadian store which does not necessarily specializes on the luxury brands or on any brand at all. Yet, once more, if you just come there, looking for nothing BUT knowing what id your particular style and (hehe) your brands, you can always (well almost always) find something special just for you!
Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti
Something else that I love about this store is that it’s populated by all these unaware people who can just pass by an amazing Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti read coat… and never even look at it!
Oh and I almost forgot! THE best thing about this store is its prices! Almost entire designer section is so well priced that nobody would ever guess that your Missoni blazer was only $120! However there are certain caveats as well - there are some exceptions when I found a piece which was more expensive than it should have been. The other thing is that every fifth thing that you find there is either broken or ripped or is permanently stained! So, be aware of those things while shopping there!
On my personal list of places where I love to go this places stands almost on top (not to say on the top-most position). Now you know all you have to know about it and how to make your shopping at that place enjoyable and profitable!
Now, the most interesting part – what is the assortment there! I think I did a great job trying to picture all of the things that I was trying on that day! It was a wonderful day, the shelves were collapsing from the amount of designer cloths – some of which I’d rate as vintage!
Here are the pictures:
This Robert Rodriguez dress impressed me with its incredible weight! It’s probably around 4 pounds!
The price is not that bad huh? If you know any other places where you can get a Missoni silk dress for only $400, please tell me ASAP!
Keep going! It’s not all…
This psychedelic tye-die pattern looks kinda cool on this Versace top 
Quick update!
In Alexander McQueen for Puma post I forgot to mention that the collection consists not only of shoes but of bags, gloves, tshirts, pants and griffin belts and cool punch bags!
Some pictures:
images from www.alexandermcqueen.puma.com
Tight on Tights!
As the fall progresses (officially it starts only tomorrow but I am already in the proper mood and have already worn my tights once!), I pay more and more attention to the weather and the way it affects my clothes! Thanks God, there are tights in the world and even bigger thanks for all those different kinds of them that populate the underwear section’s shelves! One lovely afternoon (which was actually today) I spent an entire hour going through all kinds of DIMs and Filodoro’s (unfortunately I did not have enough time and money to go the H&R to get a pair of Wolfords but I am tight on money and have to stick with budget versions, plus tights never last more than 2 week with me anyways!).
Well I did not plan to get anything fancier than a pair of 15 den black tights BUT I was lucky enough to bump into a sale container (yes, it was a container!) where piles and piles of new DIMs were thrown, each of which was (and still is) for only…$4.99! I was hysterical! Let me explain - I did not go to an ostentatious place where luxury brands are being sold. No, au contraire, I went to a regular place (hint: Sears or Zellers) where tights are not the most popular product amongst younger people. Indeed these sections are usually occupied by elderly women who probably don’t care about high fashion anymore (it’s not prejudice talking here but rather my personal observation, purely empirical in the sense!). Now, all these is just to make sure that you are able to imagine how the entire situation seemed for a stranger – me, dancing in joy around the container while calling my friends on my cellphone to spread the news around (I have quiet a lot of friends who are tight freaks and who would love to get their hands on a cheap pair of DIMs).
Now to the point, I got the great “couture” tights – you know, there is a stitches black line at the back (so eighties!), another pair with lace waistband (not my usual choice but for $4.99 why not?!) and my third pair is just the plain boring black tights but with an invisible toe – very important when you wear sandals or any open-toe shoes (what fashion does to me?! I would consider this a mauvais-tone couple of years ago!). I am pretty sure that there will a second round of tights shopping in near future – loved grannies’ places to shop, pure economy!
PS:
When I was in Paris this summer, I found a great tights brand - they make the craziest tight patterns and designs – very quirky but I loved them. It’s called les queues de sardines, they are not available in the North America (well to my knoweldge)but you can fins them on www.upfactory.com (just checked, all of them are already sold out! ;(( ).
the ants design tights:
image: www.thelipstickdiaries.com
the veins tights:
images from www.zoshow.com
Object of Desire: Alexander McQueen for Puma
I am glad to announce the newest so far collaboration that actually drives my interest and is worth mentioning!
The new fall collection of the sportswear brand Puma features the running shoes designed by Alexander McQueen. So far there are only two models which have been released to public! Since then the stir that they produced in the net around the globe can be hardly described. I bet that they are going to sell off in milliseconds but the rumor has it that the shoes have already been sold out via the pre-order in hours after their reveal! Well, I still believe that they will hit the shelves (may be not for a long time but they will!)and I will be one of the proud owners of McQueen’s Pumas for $251-276 a pair! Cheers!
images from www.alexandermcqueen.puma.com
…My Appologies…
And yes, I broke my promise…did not post my Friday night’s shopping photos I feel so bad now when I actually have to admit that I forgot my camera with all the pictures taken at my best friend’s house…I will do my best to get the camera by tomorrow (I still need to go to school and make sure that my friend is at home when I arrive). So hopefully I will be able to upload them tomorrow night (or the latest Wednesday night!).
But I have good news, read then here.
Sneak Peek
I’ve been pretty busy this week (as much as last week) doing my comp sci assignments, and I must admit that this weekend does not seem much like a relief for me right now – I will be finalizing all the papers and assignments for the upcoming week . BUT it does not mean that I can’t go budget-shopping on my Friday night! I will not be heading to the street fashion centers like Zara and H&M, but I might still check them out – my target is cheap designer pret-a-porter. Montreal has its great bargain stores like Winners where you can get (if you are patient enough AND know your brands) some great pieces. Ads an example Catherine Malandrino summer dress which retailed for $300 (including a sale portion) in other stores, was only $120! Rumors got it that there was a huge pile of MaxMara jackets hanging on Winners’ supports which were just waiting for me to come and adopt them! Surely I will not forget about some very nice vintage stores in the neighborhood (where once I found stylish Fendi pants for only !!! $20!) So, I’ll post my report on my “magasinage” by Saturday!
PS: unfortunately there is still on news on my Penhaligon’s catalogue. I am still waiting!
Object of Desire: Solange Azagury-Partridge’s jewelry
While I am on tough budget right now I could not resist and not to mention this sassy and funky British jeweler whose designs are as pricey as they can possibly get!
I found out about this designer while I was going through one of my multiple issues of Vogue magazine. There was a picture from her latest ad campaign displaying adorable rings of which the most brilliant was the lips-shaped red enamel ring. What I always do when I need more info on something new what I’ve just found out is of cause is that I immediately google it! And so I did. Solange Azagury-Partridge is British jewelry designer with quiet edgy style. She’s got some cute things – like those “live” bangles and necklaces from “filigree” collection, but most of her styles are pretty Goth and dark with a slight touch of humor – for example croc skull rings.
As highlight: my all favorites are the red enamel silver rings (which come in 10 different colors – from dark purple to bright yellow), the chandelier earrings “Xanadu” from her “Black Rainbows” collection made from Titanium and colored diamonds as well as her cure little bone 18K gold rings from “Random” collection.
All these are just a few picks from her wide range of jewelry which worth going through. I am quite sure that everyone will find an original and exquisite piece made just for you!