SMOONSTYLE

Perfume is more than just a scent. To me it is strongly connected to memories. It is a powerful tool that enables you to relive those memories.
It can be like an armour,  make you feel strong, sexy, empowered and the list goes on. I think you can get my point.

The signature NIVEA scent is known all over the world. It's scent has accompanied many of us in our childhood. Oliver used to use the classic cream many years ago when we first met. I bought it just so that I could smell it, I never really used it.

The base notes of the NIVEA parfum are Lily of the Valley, Lavender, Ylang Ylang, Freesia, Mandarin and Sandalwood.

To me it smells 'clean' if that makes any sense. It gives me the feeling of just coming out of the shower.

Oliver told me I smelled good. I told him it is the signature NIVEA scent. He normally doesn't like perfume, except for me secret signature scent. If I switch my perfume, he mostly doesn't agree and tells me it is giving him a headache haha!

I love this scent so much that I already got a back up from the Nivea website. They have a great offer at the moment where you get some extra goodies as well.


NIVEA SET


The making of these shots was quite challenging but fun. There are many outtakes of me pulling a funny face, because the perfume bottle fell on the floor. For a moment I thought about glueing it to my shoulder. I am glad I didn't do that. Kudos to Nivea to make a lovely and very sturdy bottle that survived this shoot.









Shot with a Sony a7 Mark iii with Sony 55mm 1.8.
Retouching by Lydia Tzirkova
Lipstick: L'Oréal Rouge Lumière 393 Sublime Red*






Not a sponsored post. All products purchased by me.
*Pr Sample

Yesterday I played around with a brand new eyeshadow palette that I've bought a while ago.
It is the Soft Glam palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills. I sold my Modern Renaissance because I didn't think I would make use of it, so it now has a new home. The Soft Glam palette has more colours that suit me for day and night time.

First off, this palette has a lot of fall out. When I created the first look, I had already applied my base. Knowing about the fall out, I would now first do my eyes and then my base. The cleaning up took a while and I was also not really happy with how the look turned out. I decided to tone things down and  came up with this look.

A couple months ago I blogged about Jacks Beauty Line and introduced you the gorgeous brushes from Miriam Jacks.

She created two travel brush sets, containing all the brushes you need to create a complete look.

Who doesn't want a set of high quality brushes in a cute bag?  I know I want the pastel set :)
I fell in love with these tiny brushes.  Don't think that the quality might be less than original brushes. This is most definitely not the case. The only thing that is different is that the handle is shorter. The quality is just as amazing as with the normal brushes.


What do you get?




Leave a comment below this post and you are qualified to enter the giveaway. I have two sets that I can give away. The give-away is world wide.

Don't worry if you don't win. Miriam gave me a discount code for you where you can get 20% discount:  SIMONE20JBL

www.jacks-beautyline.com

Good luck everyone!

First of all thank you for the lovely feedback on my HALLOWEEN video!! As promised, I have enlisted all the products that I've used to create his holographic skull/Catrina.

Creating this look was so much fun! Originally I wanted to do a smoky glittery skull look, but it ended in a 'Dia de los Muertos' Catrina look.

For this Halloween make up I didn't buy any new products, but 'shopped my stash'. I knew I still had some sequins left from a Pat McGrath purchase that I made a while back. I've kept the packaging with the sequins, because I knew that they could still be useful one day.



* PR samples

One of Stuttgarts many beautiful sights is the Rosenstein Park. At this time of the year it is even more beautiful than it normally is.
We walked through the park to the Rosenstein Palace which has a museum inside. Vincent was intrigued by the skeletons and insects. I can't help but getting an itch when I see certain insects. Must be related to the fact that I mostly get an allergic reaction when bitten by any insect.

On our way out of the park we passed another museum located at the 'Löwentor', the Lion's Door.
There you can marvel at dinosaurs. Oliver and Vincent have been there a couple of times, but I haven't. Vincent wanted to go inside, but it was almost dinner time.

Time to go to one of our favourite restaurants 'Noodle One'. We had two young female students as our neighbours. They ordered the same dish as Oliver and I. Since we were sitting so close to each other, we could easily hear what they were discussing.
One of the girls complained about hair in her food. She couldn't talk about anything else. She then asked me if I also had hair in my food. I asked if I could take a closer look. My suspicion was that they were fibers of lemon grass, which was one of the ingredients of our meal.
She then asked the waiter, and he confirmed. He said; our cook doesn't have any hair ;)

After we filled our bellies, we took the train back home. It was a lovely day!

La Butte Marshall

Last time I went for a walk I took my camera (Panasonic GF7) and a tripod with me. Took some shots and here they are!

Walks through the forest have been somewhat medicinal for me, especially around this time of the year. If only the leaves could stay like this.

L'Oréal recently released 'Les Chocolates' which are chocolate scented liquid lipsticks and I tried tested them for you.
There are nine shades that vary from a beige nude to mauve pinks to reds and to browns. I am sure there is a color here for everyones taste.

Tasty Ruby caught my eye, because I love to wear a nice red every once in a while. The mauve and pinks I didn't swatch on my lips, because with my hair and skin tone they won't look nice. Besides that I don't know why they are included in a chocolate themed Limited Edition.

They do smell like chocolate. It is not overpowering, nor very artificial. I prefer lip products to not have a strong scent to them, but I can live with that. The scent goes away quickly once applied on the lips.

I can tell you that they are very long-wearing.  I wore the Tasty Ruby for a couple of hours, had dinner and I tell you it didn't move!

Overall conclusion:

+ Long Lasting
+ Comfortable
+ Opaque, great pigmentation

- Shade range
- Need to use a lip brush for precise application

Right after application and still wet.

Dry

My two favorite colors from these are Tasty Ruby and 70%Yum.

864 Tasty Ruby

856 70% Yum

*Pr Samples

This is part II of Chit Chat #25

Our backdrop got soaking wet too and needed to dry in the sun the morning after.

During out taxi drive from the plane to the bagage claim I continued to help the mother with her children. The bus was filled to the brim and the little girl couldn't see anything, nor did she have anything to hold onto. I lifted her up and sat her on one of the higher parts of the bus and made sure she would't fall off.

The mother asked me to help her get her luggage, but when we arrived at the baggage claim, we were welcomed with an 'EPICA' sign and I couldn't join her.
There was no official goodbye and no thank you either. She must have forgotten because of the stressful flight.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We were taken to one of the lounges where they would take care of our immigration process. We were hoping that it would speed up the whole process, because we were running out of time due to the delay.
This ended up taking so long that we were the last ones to go through immigration.

At the baggage belts there was no sign of any suitcases, it was utter chaos.
With the long drive to the hotel and venue, we were really afraid that we might miss the show. Our crew still needed to prepare the stage. The clock was ticking. The crew went straight to the venue and the band to the hotel to freshen up and have a quick dinner.

Our hotel was gorgeous. Unfortunately, there was only little time to enjoy it. We ordered some room service and had to eat quickly because we had an 'early' lobby call to drive to the venue. Rob's dinner came so late that he had  in the car on the way to the show.
On our way to the venue I thought I saw planes descending, but it turned out to be thunder....

Police men, driving on motorcycles were escorting us to the venue. It felt like we were in a movie. It was so surreal!

Our backstage was lovely decorated, we had plenty of snacks and a coffee machine we didn't know how to get working haha! I was in desperate need of some coffee to keep me going after a short night and long travel day. My energy level was non existing at that moment.

Then it happened, the rain came pouring down the skies. It was bad luck. The only time it rains in Bizerte was 30 minutes before our show. All of the equipment got soaking wet and the organization decided to cancel the show. Everything stopped working. Electrical devices don't do well if they get water on them.

All of us were standing in our stage outfits, ready to go on stage. When we heard the bad news it felt like the ground was pulled from beneath us. We worked so hard that day despite of the huge delay, our exhaustion to make the show happen, but it was not meant to be.

The least we could do was walk on the stage to tell our fans in person that we were forced to cancel the show and that it was out of our hands. We really wanted to perform and have a good time with our fans from Tunisia. Arien tried to talk to the crowd, but was struggling a bit without a mic. I admire his courage, I was at a loss for words.

I want to thank the fans for being so understanding and hope we will see each other really soon in Tunisia again!

At this moment we are looking for a new date to come back and we WILL play.


xo


Simone

It is time to introduce you the beautiful make up brushes from Jacks Beauty Line by Miriam Jacks.
Miriam is and I officially met at the QVC Beauty Night last summer. We also saw each other briefly at  some L'Oréal events, but there was always so much going on, that there was little to no time to talk.

The last time we met, was during an event in Cannes. We noticed we have a lot of common ground. Our love for our sons, make up, both being working mothers, lead to a lovely breakfast conversation.

I knew that she has her own line of make up brushes and asked her if she would be interested if I would review them on Smoonstyle. She asked what my favorite colors were, and a couple of days later I received a parcel filled with these colorful beauties.

From the get go I can already tell you that they immediately brightened up my day.  Yellow and orange are my favorite colors. They just make me happy. It's that simple.

These brushes painted by hand, 100% vegan and made in Germany. Each brush is unique.
On her website you can chose which colors you would like the brushes to be.



These are high quality brushes, the bristles are super soft and they don't shed any hairs.
The handles have the perfect length and really fit well into my hands, not too heavy nor too light-weight. I will say it again, they are so beautiful. A real eye catcher on your vanity.

After playing around with these brushes, I can tell you more about each individual brush.
Starting at the top of this picture:

#10 'Highlighter' 

This is officially a highlighter brush, but I like to use it as a setting brush to apply loose or pressed powder on my t-zone, as the finishing touch. For highlighting it is too big and feathers out too far.
I can imagen that this would also work great as a contour brush to chisel the cheekbones and to define the jaw line.


#8 'Concealer'

Works great as a concealer brush. You can really buff in the concealer or pat it on. For smaller faces it might be a bit on the large size, but on my face it works well.


#2 'Fine Eyeliner'

From all the eyeliner brushes that I own, this is definitely the smallest. I got really excited when I laid my eyes on this beauty. This is as the name suggests, a great eyeliner brush. It applies gel eyeliner like a dream. What I will probably use it for, since I am a big Kat von D 'Trooper' eyeliner fan, is for spot concealing. It has the perfect shape to do pin point concealing.
I do warn you, don't conceal after you've applied eyeliner. You will look like Pippi Longstocking, but with black freckles.


#13 'Blush and Contour'

A very densely packed brush which is great for powders. I do have to warn you, it packs on a lot of color. Use a light hand when you dip in to your blush and also when you apply it.
A little tip that I'd like to give you, is to hold the brush more towards the end. Like that you automatically have a lighter hand and will avoid the heavy blush look.


#6 'Eyeshadow'

Reminds me a lot of the maccosmetics brush #239 or the Zoeva #234, but then the slightly bigger version. Does the job, the bristles grab on to a lot of product. Great for packing on any type of eyeshadow.


#7 'Eyeshadow'

Hello bigger brother to #6. You can use this for blending, as well as for packing on eyeshadow.
It is flatter than a maccosmetics #217.


#1 'Eyebrows'

Here is a nice big spoolie to help you brush those brows in place. Another great way to use these, is to comb through your eyelashes after you've applied mascara to get rid of any clumps.


#11'Small Foundation'

Great for buffing out edges and getting in to the corners of the nose and around the eyes. To apply liquid foundation, I prefer to use a larger brush.  I use this to apply creme blush. It could work great with creme contour as well.




 Conclusion

I am really happy with these brushes. The quality is top notch, they are so fun and colorful. I already loved applying make up, now I love it even more. I will be heading over to her website to check out the rest of her brushes and all the endless color possibilities.
What I love as well, is that each brush is unique. There is so much love put in to each individual brush.



Available here:

Jacks Beauty Line

Hello beauties!

In May I was spend a couple of days in beautiful France with L'Oréal to attend a workshop with Val Garland and explore a world of new products from the 'Wake up and Glow' collection.

When I saw they organised a workshop with Val Garland, I was delighted! She is one of my favourite make up artists. Meeting her was definitely one of my highlights of that weekend.


After we arrived in Antibes, Karin and I went out to get some lunch. We found a lovely Lebanese restaurant. On our way back to our hotel, we found an ice cream shop. Both of us are great fans of the mint chocolate chip. We enjoyed our ice cream while looking at the sea. It's the little things that make me happy. Ice cream any time of the day!

Time to freshen up a bit and go out with Johanna and Meggy for cocktails and a little spontaneous photoshoot. The majority of these pictures are already up on the blog. I am still glad that I put on that dress and posed for the camera.




Fun fact, I have never slept in the Martinez Hotel, I only used the restroom once a couple years back.
Shortly after this photo was taken, we ran in to Aishwarya Rai who was on her way to the L'Oréal studios. She is drop dead gorgeous!



Val Garland in action.


Val showing off her head banging skills. She nailed it!


Meeting Val was a dream come true. She is an icon in the make up industry and very down to earth.
She created a beautiful make up look on a lovely model, using new products that are not on the market yet.

At the end of the demonstration there was still time to ask her some questions. One of my questions was how she applies mascara and uses the eyelash curler. Something I still find rather challenging when I am applying make up on clients.
Her answer was: just get in there and do it. Be confident and just do it.

She gave two helpful tips:

1- Apply lavender perfume (or any perfume of your choice) on your wrist.
This will 'distract' the client and put them at ease. This is something that I always do when I apply make up on clients. I myself don't like lavender, but I know that it does have calming effect.

2- Put your hand on the model/client's shoulder.
When you are applying make up, you are very much in each others space. If you don't know the client, it immediately creates a sort of trust and takes away the 'awkwardness' of being literally in someones face.


From left to right: Olesja, Johanna and Nadine




After my bath with lipstick photo session it was time to go to the L'Oréal Villa for more workshops.
The first workshop was at the Glow Station with make up artist Philipp Verheyen. He told us how to achieve the best glow for the skin and his favourite way to do make up.
After his workshop I had to go online to purchase an item from Net a Porter. What this item is, I will show in another future blogpost.

Time for the second workshop. This time with photographer Philipp von Rohr. We had the chance to play around with a cool gadget that would turn your the camera lens on your phone into an instant macro lens. I own a couple of these at home, but these are very tricky to work with. I prefer to use my  dslr when I have to take product pictures.

This little face chart is what I came up with in the end. Nothing special, but I liked the idea of using the highlighting drops to create the hair.





A big thanks to the L'Oréal family for inviting me again! I got to know some new lovely people and got to meet Val Garland!!!