When summer comes banging on the window, boot‑kicks the door open and slaps me awake with 30 °C before breakfast, I know it’s time to reshuffle the fragrance wardrobe. The weighty, sticky gourmands get tucked in for their seasonal nap, and out march the lighter, brighter bottles—usually sparkling citrus or breezy florals. After all, no one cheers when a heavy scent wafts past them in a sweaty supermarket queue… unless your idea of validation is people swooning at your feet for all the wrong reasons. L’Occitane Rules the Heatwave So every June I start itching to unsheathe one of my all‑time…
Pink Fig Beauty
Even though my very first impression of Guerlain Shalimar was something close to shock, I’ve long since learned that first impressions with perfume mean nothing. You need to give a scent enough time and a few test runs to really know if it’s destined to be a lifelong love—or a complete disaster. Honestly, this kind of patience and a strict ban on impulse buys has probably saved me a small fortune. I’m especially cautious when it comes to love at first sniff. Whenever a perfume seduces me instantly and I get that familiar itch in my hand, ready to pull…
Today, I’d love to share my impressions of a beautiful new fragrance from Roberto Cavalli – Florence Amber. And even though I haven’t yet had the pleasure of wandering the streets of Florence in person, I feel like I know the city by heart – thanks to books and travel documentaries. I can practically picture every little alleyway… and I might even recognize a few locals by name! A Tuscan Treasure Drenched in Amber Florence Amber is the latest creation from Tuscan-born designer Roberto Cavalli and a follow-up to his 2017 fragrance Florence – both of which are available at…
My love affair with the French Provence is no secret, and L’Occitane embodies its essence in every product. From the moment I tried their solid rose perfume years ago, I was hooked. Their products are a reliable choice, boasting beautiful packaging, luxurious textures, and, most notably, their unforgettable fragrances that quickly become addictive. For this review, I’ve selected three tried-and-true favorites that I regularly indulge in, plus a new addition (at least to me) that I decided to test for the first time. All four belong to L’Occitane’s long-standing Almond line, one of the brand’s most beloved and best-selling collections.…
Would you like to impress me with skincare? Tell me it’s from Croatia. Want to reel me in for the long haul? Add something about natural ingredients and a family business. Want to see total excitement? Mention it’s from Istria! Oh, yes! NASHE organic skincare is handmade natural beauty from the historic city of Pula in Istria. The products are made using only the finest natural ingredients, free from parabens, silicones, and artificial fragrances. The brand is cruelty-free, tested exclusively on people—most often on the founders, Meri and Monika, who create both the formulations and design. Their dream was to…
Harper’s Bazaar played me like a fiddle. With their June issue came a freebie—actually, two freebies. And not just any random minis. No. These were from L’Occitane. The only brand I mysteriously forgive for not being 100% natural. I don’t even have a logical reason for this. It’s like when someone asks why you fell in love with that person—you’re not going to reply with a ten-point checklist titled “His flawless family tree.” Love is blind. Period. Subconscious devotion, wrapped in aluminum tubes and Provençal dreams. The gifts? Two little joys from the Verbena line: a body lotion and a…
Back in September last year, I found myself deep in a late-night Google rabbit hole, looking for something – anything – to help with the rough, bumpy skin on my arms. The kind that just begs to be picked at (I know, I know – don’t judge). That’s when I stumbled upon rave reviews for CeraVe SA Smoothing Cream. The price? Reasonable. The ingredients? Promising. I checked the time. The pharmacy was closing in 20 minutes. I needed that cream now. Cue: car, screeching tires, in-and-out mission. Success. First impressions I started with the smaller 177 ml tube (there’s also…
Prada Paradoxe wasn’t love at first sniff. In fact, when I first tested it on a paper strip at the perfume counter, I jumped back like I’d touched something cursed. The scent didn’t speak to me at all. I had no idea what to make of it. Too sweet, too bold, too loud, too… generic. It felt like too much of everything. Something about it made me take a cautious step back and declare, quite dramatically, that we were never, ever, EVER going to get along. If someone had told me back then that just a few months later we’d…
I’m quite curious about the creation process of the JouJou Marshmallow Rose Hydrating Cream from the luxurious Croatian brand JouJou Botanicals. I imagine they had a brainstorming session in Zagreb, and the brief went something like this: “…we want to create a lightweight, yet noticeably nourishing hydrating cream that won’t burden the skin. It won’t be sticky or crumbly, and the skin won’t sweat under it, even in hot weather. It would be great if it could brighten the skin—maybe like the effect when a customer removes our ultra-fine Floral Filter Face Mask. And the scent—we can’t forget that! It…
Funny how makeup priorities change over time, isn’t it? I used to have a meltdown if my skin looked patchy or if someone noticed I was blushing. A pimple on my forehead? I wasn’t leaving the house! Forgetting mascara? Oh dear, tragedy of the highest order—I’d look like a sickly raccoon! But no matter how far back I scroll through my teenage multiverse, one thing I never cared about was… brows. Plucking them? [Big UNFORTUNATELY, yeah.] Sure. But filling them in with a pencil or powder? Never crossed my mind. And yet—just like mascara—a well-shaped brow works miracles. It instantly…