ENTERTAINMENT // MARCH.

A few things I’ve enjoyed this month.

I can’t believe March is already coming to an end, but at least, I can look back and think about some of the things I truly appreciated. This is not a proper “favourites” post, because I’m not going to pick items from different categories, but rather focus on entertainment.

So here are 5 things I loved.

#1 The Danish Girl. I saw this movie on the plane, which is such a shame because the filmography was absolutely break-taking and I would have loved to see it all detailed, on a big screen. But that didn’t take away from the actual movie, if anything it’s an invite to watch it a second time. The main characters are played by actors whose work I really admire: Eddie Redmayne in “The Theory of Everything” was unbelievable, and Alicia Vikander, in Testament of Youth and Ex Machina, was also incredible. So if you put the two of them together, you know it’s going to be good. The whole story, the acting, each setting… everything made it up to be an absolutely great movie. I was blown away. The same day, on the plane back to Japan, I watched Carol first, and already there I felt like I had seen a masterpiece, but after watching The Danish Girl, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. I loved it.

#2 Strange Weather in Tokyo. This book was recommended to me by a marzipan here on my blog. When I saw her comment I instantly went on eBay and ordered myself a copy. I’m glad I did – I decided to keep it for my trip to Japan, just so I could immerge myself even more into the story. Not going to lie, I did peek a few times before the trip, but managed to keep most of the book unread until then. And so when I was on the train from Tokyo to Kyoto for about 3 hours, I had the perfect chance to read it. It’s such an unusual, sweet and slightly sad story – just the way I like it. It’s simple, yet rich with deeper meanings. If I find myself looking for a pencil to underline something on a book, that’s how I know it has touched me on a personal level. And this book did. Not because I could relate to it, but just because it carried messages that I felt were somewhat important to remember.

#3 Hanabi. A card game, based around fireworks. PJ, Sophie, Felix and I had been playing this game for months, until eventually, while in Japan, we mastered it. It’s a super fun game that requires team-work and lots of attention, and although the concept is quite simple, the game is hard enough to keep you wanting to do better each time. Basically, you have cards in your hand that you can’t see – only your teammates can – and depending on the suggestions you get, you need to play your hand. The goal is to put up a firework show, and to do that, you have to line up cards from 1 to 5 of each colour. Let me tell you, it’s frustrating at times, but it’s incredibly addicting!

#4 Good Morning Call. A fairly new show on Netflix. I gave it a go after my friend Emma texted me saying how insane it was. It’s a Japanese drama, and if you are familiar with Korean dramas, you know how they easily tend to overreact to things or really mark the smallest things by adding dramatic music, slow-mo and different angles of the same thing. It’s hilarious, but this show brought it to another level. It’s based on a manga, and that’s why it totally feels like it’s an anime “in real life”. It’s a bit silly, but you will get a good laugh out of it!

#5 Stand By Me. This song isn’t new at all. It’s one of my absolute favourites as I remember listening it to when I was really young on Timon & Pumbaa (although it obviously was edited to fit the cartoon). My mom told me it was a real song, and since I’ve found out, when I was probably around 10, this song never left me. I actually believe it’s the first song I ever knew the correct lyrics for (considering I’m Italian, that was a big deal). It just brings me back memories and it sounds so nice; it makes me happy. And this morning at 8am, while I was working out at the gym and they played the song, I had to pause to put up a mini show for Felix. He just stood there laughing while I danced and sang around him – it didn’t even matter that other people where there – I just had to. That’s what this song does to me.

Do you have any recommendations for me? Any books, songs or movies I can check out?

Back to Netflix, Marzia.

THE PLACE I CREATED.

… In my imagination.

It’s 6.40am and I’m opening up my laptop; sleep can wait, I just had a dream I have to share with you. I need to write it down now before I forget, I even woke up Felix just to tell him about it, as I needed to know if this happens to him as well or not: I build places in my head, that in my dreams, I’m able to go to.

I had a vivid dream just now, and this time I visited an Inn. But this is not just like any other: it’s located in a town that reminds me or Rye, but the way to get there is pretty peculiar.

Basically, to me, in my dreams, this is the Inn Felix and I like to go to any time we feel like taking a break from the city and relax. And so when today, while dreaming, I couldn’t seem to find Felix, I decided to go see if he was staying at the inn on it’s own.

When you arrive to the old town, the road is very confusing: you can’t find the right pathway unless you visit a semi-hidden china shop. When you get there, a lovely old lady greets you; she is usually napping on her chair, on the left corner of her little cottage/shop. In my dream, today, as soon as she awakes I cheerfully say hi and hand her over a map, saying “Here, as promised, a map of Japan” – she quickly grabs it full of excitement and opens it up. I continue “We just got back from our trip”. She looks at me, saying “Oh, I know that. Thank you for this, you know I can’t travel, but at least I can see places this way”.

She points at the back door, inviting me to exit, politely.

I do, and see the pathway opening in front of me.

I follow it. Nature prevails. Until The Inn, with it’s darkened salmon-pink and red brick walls contrast the scenery. By the time I arrive, the sky has darkened, night is approaching.

I enter and see the usual tall, blonde guy at the reception. He wonders if I’m here to join Felix, hinting that he is already staying here. I nod, and he hands me over key n.4, which opens the door to our usual room.

Interestingly enough, the place only has two rooms, n.3 – Tower View (which doesn’t look out at a tower but is rather shaped as one); and n.4 – Sunset View.

I thank the man and turn around, ready to walk the steep stairs up to the room.

Before I manage to get outside, I hear him saying “I know you have been working on a few products, lately”. I look at him with a smile. He goes on “Do I get to try out some of them? I would love some lipsticks.” – “Sure”, I say, meaning it.

I’m now in front on the door. I open it, and Felix is there.

The dream ends here, but I just love how I’m able to visit places I created in my dreams, over and over again. I remember dreaming about the same place before, but that time I was going there for New Years Eve to celebrate.

Do you have any special places you dream about more than once, and always go back to?

Sweet Dreams, Marzia.

SLEEPING TO STAY AWAKE.

Still fighting the jet lag after coming back from Japan.

Felix and I woke up at 7am, went to the gym, and decided to spend the afternoon napping, since tonight we wanted to hang out with friends. We have been falling asleep at 9pm for the past few nights, and so the only way to stay awake was to sleep a bit during the day. I’m happy to say it worked, because it’s now past midnight and I’m here writing.

By the way, can you spot Edgar in the picture?

After waking up, I received a package with a few items of clothing I’ve ordered. Here is piece n. 1 – a pair of boyfriend jeans with patches all over.

I like how strange they are! You can find them here.

The second piece I bought is a dress, which I actually decided to wear tonight.

I love the simple cut and the contrast between the white lace and the rose detail. I wanted to make it a bit edgier, so I paired it with some over-the-knee boots and my usual faux leather jacket.

Also, I met Emma for the first time after the trip, and she looked so adorable! She cut her hair and she looks even cuter now, if that’s even possible.

Today was a rainy, cold and super windy day, so we went for the “dinner + cinema combo”. We let Felix pick the restaurant, and I’m not going to lie, it seemed a bit sketchy (although highly rated). Just to give you an idea, here is what I was sitting in front of while eating my meal.

Doesn’t that look creepy? I didn’t mind it, it was fun to look at it. It was just a bit… odd, that’s all.

The name of the place is E-Kagen. None of us really finished the food in our dishes so I don’t think we will be going back, but it was fun to try out a new restaurant.

But then it was time for the movie. I pushed on watching “The Boy”, which I have waited for so so long to see. I remember seeing the trailer a while ago and after seeing the first 10 seconds of it I knew I had to see it.

And so we did.

I wasn’t expecting it to be the greatest horror of all time, I actually had pretty low expectations: cheap jump-scares, the usual cheesy storyline (which I would have been fine with, because I love the horror genre that much that it doesn’t even matter if it’s bad)… but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed it; I would probably rate it a 8.5/10.

So if you do enjoy scary movies, give it a go! And if you have already seen it, did you like it?

Okay, it’s 2am – the time just switched 1 hour ahead – I better go to sleep now. I wish you a wonderful weekend.

Happy Easter, Marzia.

SKINCARE.

This is me this morning, with no makeup.

Necklace: Jenny Bird

I’ve been asked plenty of times to talk about my skincare routine, but never did for a few reasons that I will explain in this blog post. The picture up here hasn’t been retouched so you can see me and my uneven skin complexion (although the light definitely reduces the redness). I’m pretty comfortable with showing my skin now, but it wasn’t always like that, and to be completely honest, some days I still don’t feel like showing my bare skin when I’m outside.

I have been dealing with mild acne for many years now, and today I want to share some of the things I’ve learned and the products I use. During the past two weeks my skin has been acting up (it’s starting to clear up now), because after 9 months of being on birth control, I suddenly stopped and my skin reacted accordingly. This is why I felt like it was a good time for me to share my experiences, and show you how my skin naturally looks like without any “help” or medications.

So before I talk about actual products, let me give you some information: during my teen years I had some periods of mild acne, nothing very noticeable, which eventually stopped once I reached my twenties. For about a year my skin was lovely, no breakouts, not oily and not dry either.

When I moved to Los Angeles a few years ago, for work, something changed: I woke up, one morning, thinking that I had some kind of allergic reaction – small red and itchy bumps all over my face. I decided to give it a few days, but those tiny spots became much bigger, painful, and even cysts formed. In a week, my skin was a mess: not really knowing much about acne and what products to use, I went to the super market and bought all the things I could find, trying out way too many things at once, causing my skin to get more irritated and overall worsening the situation.

My skin was peeling, bleeding, while being oily and painful. I never felt more embarrassed in my entire life, and so I closed myself inside my room for about two weeks. Then it was time for me to go back home, in Italy, and when I showed my mom how bad the situation was, she promptly helped by giving me iron, vitamins and told me not to worry and just take some time off and relax.

That made a big change, and in another few weeks my skin started to clear up: it stopped producing spots, and it left me with marks and a few little scars, that with time luckily disappeared. I was happy that things were getting better, but after months my complexion was getting really oily and uneven.

In this period I tried almost anything, from working out, eating a very clean diet, using only natural products as skincare, to stronger treatments available like “Exposed” and the “Clinique Acne Solution” (to name some). Trust me, I tried so many different things, hoping they would make a difference. I even kept a journal in which I wrote daily to track any progress.

I gave it time, but at one point I just wasn’t happy with it anymore. I made the decision to see a dermatologist, which helped me a lot in terms of understanding what condition I had and what products I should use in my skin and what not to. She told me I had mild cystic acne, that could hopefully be cured by taking antibiotics and a topic treatment.

These two combined (Tetralysal and Epiduo) gave me amazing results very quickly: my skin had no redness, no spots what so ever. The only thing I couldn’t get rid of was the oiliness, but that didn’t bother me all that much. After doing my 3 months as suggested using these products, I had to take a break. A month later, I was dealing with acne again.

My dermatologist prescribed me more antibiotics, but the problem is that you can’t just keep taking them forever: I needed something that wouldn’t cause side-effects on the long term, but that would still be effective.

That’s when I started to look into birth control, having heard that it does work for some people when it comes to curing acne. I went to the doctor and asked for it; I was explained how there are different ones available and what they do, but wanting the pill mainly for obtaining a better skin, she suggested I would take Dianette. She informed me it’s a strong pill and could give me severe side-effects, but I should try it for 3 months and take it from there.

And so I did, and at the beginning, it was incredible. My skin stopped being oily, it looked wonderful, no acne. I was incredibly happy to have found something like this, because it also, obviously, made my periods regular and less painful, while helping with my skin problems. I kept checking in with my doctor as I was taking it, but failed to notice one thing: I started feeling nauseous after a few hours from taking it, every night; and any time I would stop a week to allow my period to come, I would have terrible nausea. I never connected the fact that the pill might have been the cause of this, mainly because I travel a lot and I always thought it was just due to the jet lag and stress.

I’m not sure you are aware of it, but my biggest fear is to vomit. I can’t deal with it, it scares me so much, even just the idea of it.

And so 3 weeks ago, for the first time in 9 years, I did vomit. And I realised that my body couldn’t handle the pill anymore. I stopped taking it instantly and decided to take a break from it for a month. I’m going back to my doctor in a week to switch to a different one, hoping that it will be less strong but still cure my acne. If you are in the same situation and know about a pill that gets the job done, do let me know, so I can ask my doctor about it!

But for now, I would like to share with you the products I love to use, and sorry for taking so long to get to this point.

In the evening I make sure I clean my skin really well, no make up residue allowed. I put a few drops of Bioderma on 3 different cotton pads – two for my eyes and one for the rest of the face – and remove everything. I wash my face with warm water and use a towel to pat it dry. I then apply this Tarte eye cream, which gives me more moisture compared to the one I use in the morning; move onto oil, currently the Black Pomegranate one from Skin Food; and finally apply a layer of moisturiser by Nars.

Once or twice a week I will pamper my skin, starting with a scrub – either the one from Vasanti if I want something very fine, or the one from Skin Food if I really need something strong to get rid of dead skin – and then move onto a face mask: my two favourite ones are the ones shown below. I will use the Garnier one if I’m having breakouts and oily skin, because it does miracles to my skin (I have been using it for years and also works great as a spot treatment); instead I will go for some Manuka Honey if I notice that my skin is starting to get a few spots or is dryer than usual, as not only it makes my skin feel super soft after, but it also calms any irritation and kills bacteria.

One thing I can’t forget is to apply a spot treatment at night, when needed, and for the past 6 months I have been using Evanhealy, which isn’t too strong and does a good job.

That’s all for my skincare, I hope this can help someone because I sure know how difficult it is trying to find things that work. Obviously, everyone has a different skin type and products that work for me might not be good for you, but being asked to talk about this topic for a long time, I wanted to take my time and really explain as much as I could about my situation.

Do you deal with acne? Or any other skin conditions? If you do, make sure you share in the comments what helps you, so that we can all help each other out!

Either way, one thing that helped me feeling confident even if my skin isn’t looking too great, is to remember that we are always more critical about ourselves, and something that might seem awful for us, might not even be noticed by others. So instead of stopping yourself from going out because you feel a bit self-conscious, forget about it, smile and enjoy your day. It’s worth it!

Marzia.

JAPAN.

Tokyo, Kyoto & Nara.

I landed a few hours ago in London. I’m very sleepy because of the jet lag, but I couldn’t wait to share with you some photos I took and the overall experience. This wasn’t my first time there – it was my 5th, actually – but this time we stayed longer, experienced more, and went with our friends PJ and Sophie!

DAY 1

We begun with some of the most known districts of Tokyo, particularly Akihabara and Harajuku: the first one is a modern area dedicated to video games, figurines and collectables; the other one is more focused on fashion.

After doing a bit of shopping in Takeshita Street, we walked in Yoyogi Park.

Leaving this last one, walking towards the station, we spotted a cat café, and so we decided to check it out. Not going to lie, I don’t love cats, I’m more of a dog person, but I’m glad we went there as the experience was so surreal and relaxing at the same time… plus the cats were cute, I have to admit.

On the way back to Nishi-Waseda (the area we stayed in) we stopped by the underground mall in Tokyo Station and had fun browsing through all the shops. Quickly enough, the day was coming to an end, as the energies were abandoning us, and so we went back to our AirBnB.

DAY 2

Time to do my yearly visit to Ueno Park, one of my favourite places. Being there in the middle on March meant that we caught a glimpse of some cherry blossoms; the area was being prepared for the event.

We didn’t spot that many, but the ones we did see were absolutely stunning.

The park is pretty big, and not only there are several shrines and a zoo, but there is also a lovely lake you can rent boats at and go around in. We spent most of our time in Ueno, and then had dinner in Korea Town.

DAY 3

Disneyland! Oh, and DisneySea!

That’s right… we went to both.

I had only visited one in the past, but I really wanted to check out DisneySea this time, as it looked so beautiful in the pictures I had previously seen.

We were lucky enough to have a guide showing us around, and so we managed to get most rides done at Disneyland, but when we got to the other park the weather became really windy and the jet lag started to kick in. We only did 3 rides, but one in particular, “20’000 Leagues Under the Sea”, made the entrance to the park totally worth it – not to mention how spectacular each area was!

DAY 4

We took the shinkansen (fast train) from Tokyo to Kyoto. We got there at midday, checked into the Japanese style room we booked for the night, rented some bikes and rode around the city.

We reached the Golden Temple, which was absolutely stunning, and strolled around the park. We weren’t able to do much more, but the day was so much fun because it really felt like an adventure.

DAY 5

From Kyoto, we moved to Nara. We were all looking forward to check this location out as it’s known to be full of deer living in its ground. When we got there, we were so surprised to see them walking all around the streets, not just the green areas, and they were fun to look at: they could be dangerous, sings were placed everywhere so you would be careful, but overall I found them to be very playful and polite. Fun fact: they taught them to bow before receiving food.

Shrines and pagodas are scattered across the main park, and although we couldn’t possibly see everything in just a few hours, we all agreed to get tickets to see the Great Buddha.

The statue is safely stored inside a massive temple, alongside with many others. It was so big we ended up getting lost for about 40 minutes; the panic was real, but luckily we all found each other at the exit.

DAY 6

Back in Tokyo. Our trip is coming to an end, and so we must make sure we visit all the places we are interested in: next in the list, Asakusa and the Sky Tree.

We went out early in the morning as usual, despite the fact that at this point PJ was getting ill and we were all exhausted by walking hours and hours each day. We thought the market place would be fun, but we didn’t realise it was a National Holiday and because of it way too many people were there.

We moved out of the area pretty quickly and decided to go to the Sky Tree, thinking it would be a relaxing activity. Wrong. It took us hours of standing in line before we could get in. But eventually we did, and the view of the city from up high was incredible.

DAY 7

Our last day in Japan. The plan was to visit the Imperial Palace and Shinjuku Park, but little did we know that due to the holiday both would be closed… not sure what to do, we ended up chilling by the park in front of the Palace, playing card games and eating snacks.

To save the day and put an amazing ending to our trip, we managed to book seats at the Robot Restaurant, which consisted on a 90 minute show of absolute madness. It was great.

And that was it. At 5am we left the little house we had lived in all together for the week. It was such a fun trip!

And now I’m home, cuddling the pugs, answering over 200 emails and hoping the time difference won’t mess up my schedule too much. I’m planning to stay awake, but… it’s so… difficult.

Sayōnara, Marzia.

PS. I’m going to upload a vlog from the trip tomorrow,so you will see a lot more!

PACKING.

Not an exciting post, but an exciting time!

As you might have guessed, I’m about to leave again, and this time for a trip I’ve been looking forward to for such a long time. I’m going to keep the location secret for a little longer (although you might have already figured it out from hints here and there) but you can expect a travel post when I get back, full of pictures! 

I’m leaving tomorrow, so today I spent the day finishing up some work (I have edited a makeup tutorial that I’m really happy with and can’t wait for you to see this Thursday), packing, and organising things for the holiday.

I won’t be around for about 10 days – I know, it’s a long time, we never took such a long holiday before but we really wanted some extra time this time, instead of our usual 4-5 days.

So you won’t be seeing blog posts from me in the meantime, but you will be able to see my video as usual and then, next week, I will be back!

Before I leave, I just wanted to say thank you for all the comments you left on yesterday’s post: it was such a personal topic that it made me incredibly happy to hear your stories, have your support and overall feeling understood from all of you. I’m glad you are here, I do feel like you are getting to know me a bit better and at the same time, I get to know you as well. I read all of your comments (I actually have to approve manually all of them, so you know it’s true) and even if it would take me ages to reply to every single comment, I do appreciate everything you share with me!

See you next week, Marzia.

THE WAY I AM.

I’m going to open up about some topics and a few tattoos.

While getting most of my tattoos through the years, I have given short explanations of why I got certain designs on me.

I quickly realised Instagram was not a good place to share things, such a negative atmosphere; Youtube also wasn’t an option for me, too much exposure. But now I have this blog, and I trust you are here because you want to read my posts and overall hang around, chat with me and share your opinions on the topics I select.

I was asked plenty of times to share the meaning behind my tattoos, but to be completely honest some of them are just so personal that I haven’t event told some of the closest people in my life about their true meanings – I usually just say I wanted them because I liked them, when really to me, there is a lot more behind those drawings.

And so after something that happened last night, I’m ready to open up a bit and talk about some of them. I won’t go through all of them, because I have many and most of them are explained on Instagram or some YT videos – I will focus on some of the most personal ones, which I never talked about before.

BUT before I get into that, I need to get this off my chest: remember that beret I blogged about last nigh?

In the post, I did mention that I knew someone would get the wrong idea, and I was prepared for people to complain about me wearing it. Nobody on my blog did (and that’s why I feel like this is a safe place for me – you just get me – I don’t need to explain myself) but on Instagram people went cray cray. I was called rude because someone who is not socially considered “ugly” should not wear something like that, that the word might be triggering for people and cause them to loose confidence over it; that I should take more responsibility and not post something like that because someone might get offended; that I was careless… and that went on and on.

Well, I was attacked as if I never had any insecurities.

The truth is, I did. I still do. Everybody does. Everybody struggles with things, and I don’t think it’s fair for someone to assume you don’t, and stop you from expressing yourself, in any way that could be.

It’s no secret that growing up I was very insecure about my body: all the girls in school started to develop, and I had no meat on me. All the clothes were too big, boys made fun of me for not having curves, girls teased me as well – and worse of all – teachers and grown ups did so too.

I remember one time in high school, my class and a few others were on a school trip, and while on the bus, I heard some people had some candy and chocolate they were sharing around. I asked if I could get some as well, but for some reason, to my teacher, that registered as a cry for help: the bus stops, everybody goes silent. She comes towards me with a sandwich saying I needed to eat it – in front of all these people – as if I has some kind of disorder. Other parents and teachers kept calling home asking if I did have eating problems (which I never ever did) and the situation was just so embarrassing to me, making me feel like something had to be wrong.

This is just one of the things I had to deal with. So when I wear that beret, I see it as an achievement. Because I wish that when I was younger I had the confidence to wear it and laugh about people’s opinions about me and not let them influence me so deeply. They don’t change who I am, they don’t help me in any way, and so I learnt to love my body instead and let people talk.

To this day, I’m proud to have built up my confidence and that beret symbolises how I worked through my insecurities and I now accept my flaws.

So there you go, instead of seeing everything so negatively, some people should try to pause for a second and try to get a different prospective on things.

It’s a cute hat, no harm is meant from me wearing it.

I’m pretty sure that if I go out on the street and people read what’s written on it, they will simply get a laugh out of it – nobody would ever stop me, saying I’m offending them.

But then again, we all know the internet is very strongly opinionated about all kinds of things.

OKAY. Sorry about that, thanks for letting me get it all out.

Now let’s get into my tattoos, which is probably the reason why you are still here!

I decided to write about them on the same post because they do relate to this subject, as some of my arm tattoos are actually little achievements of mine.

Let’s begin with the more obvious one, the “shy” tattoo.

I got it last year, after realising how much progress I made in opening up to people and pushing myself to do things I wanted to do but had always been to afraid to even try. And we are talking simple things, like going to the grocery store alone, talking to a stranger on the street, making new friends.

A few years ago I had such troubles doing anything that I just closed myself inside the house; I would see nobody other than Felix. It was a dark period, I thought I was going to have to see someone about it, but then something changed, and I got out of it.

So by writing shy on my arm I can always remember that although my entire life I have been incredibly shy, I’m okay with it, because it’s a trait of my personality and it isn’t in the way of me achieving things in life. I will always be shy, but I can deal with it better now, and I actually like how being this way allows me to develop other characteristics, like listening and observing. Just because I’m quiet

it doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions, or I’m not interested, or I don’t want to be a part of something  – I do, but in my own way.

But this topic brings me to the next tattoo: “La casa sulla luna”, which translated is “The house on the moon”.

This refers to my social anxiety: once again, you know I struggle with it, and it used to be really really bad. This sentence comes from one of my favourite books, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”, where the protagonist, after going through a tragedy, can never leave the house without feeling observed and judged by people.

If you have social anxiety you know that feeling very well: as soon as you leave your safe place, it feels like everybody is staring at you, and you just want to hide from the world.

In the story, the girl would imagine her safe place in her head (the house on the moon) while being outside, just so that thought could be somewhat comforting to her. And so I tried it myself, I would think about it as well while leaving the house, or when I was in uncomfortable situations, and it helped me greatly.

That’s why it’s on my body, it’s a constant reminder that I can do it, it’s all in my head, and if I think about positive things instead of letting my dark thoughts come to mind, everything will be fine.

The final tattoo for today, is the “twig” one.

This is related to my body image. As I previously stated, growing up I felt awkward about my body, no matter how much I tried to eat I could not gain enough weight to look like the other girls. But now I cherish my body – although I constantly get comments on how skinny I am (even if I’m not THAT skinny anymore), on how I should eat a burger, on how I have no boobs and butt – I love it the way it is and I would change nothing about it. And so that fragile twig represents me, and it reminds me that everything has its own beauty.

So that’s it, I think I shared enough for today! I need to point out that in no way I’m saying you should get tattooed as well, I enjoy the look of them and I consider them to be an art form, but I know lots of people disagree.

This isn’t supposed to be a sad post or anything like that, but rather a reminder of how nobody should ever assume things about others, and most importantly, that our own flaws make us who we are, and we should embrace them and see the positive rather than focusing on the negative. That’s always my message.

Thank you for reading this super long post, Marzia.

5 CURRENT FAVOURITES.

Yes, the beret is one of them.

It has been about four months now since I have done one of these on my channel, and although I don’t miss doing them on a monthly basis, I do want to update you – every once in a while – on what I have been liking.

So here are my top 5 items at the moment!

#1 is makeup.

These 3 eyeshadow sticks are incredibly good, and I only recently received them but I’m already in love. I got them sent to try out, as they are from Rosie Huntington-Whiteley’s makeup line. They sent me a few other products, which I have to say, I do like, but these ones are my favourites so far! They are super pigmented and you can just smear them all over your eyelid and use your finger to get an amazing effect. They blend super easily, and over all I’m a big fan!

Find the makeup line here.

#2 is enamel pins.

I’m into them, big time. I started to collect them, I got them all out of Etsy shops and I’m afraid I can’t stop myself anymore. In the picture you see all of them, except for the crocodile one that was gifted to me from Felix, which I didn’t put on because for some reasons it’s very hard to open. Any suggestions on where I could find some cool ones? I need to expand this collection!

PINS // Ghost – Axolotl – Pizza, Doughnut & Pug – Nutella, Candy & Tamagotchi.

#3 is a snack.

If you have been around for a while, you might be aware of my love for Halva. I still don’t know if it’s originally from Greece, Turkey or Poland, but I just love it. So much. And the other day, when I found these ones wrapped in smaller bite-size portions, I was just too excited. Usually you have to buy a huge box and cut it yourself, but because I’m a bit lazy I end up taking a few sliced and then forget about it. Now that won’t happen anymore, because these are wrapped nicely so I can just bring them around with me and have a snack on the go!

#4 is another makeup item.

It’s from Tony Moly, who does the cutest cosmetic packagings, and it’s supposed to be a brightening base for your eyes, which I apply before concealer as a base. This product made it into my makeup routine, because instead of having to apply lots of concealer, I can just pop some product under my eyes and they instantly look better, without having to deal with concealer creasing on a daily basis.

#5 is this hat.

Here and there I like to go on the Lazy Oaf website, their stuff is pretty cool, but I usually wait until I find that one piece I need before I make a purchase. The other day Felix and I were having breakfast, and he showed me their new line, laughing at the “I’M UGLY” slogan on it. At first, I didn’t think much of it, but then I went back and saw this beret… I just had to have it! I know it might give the wrong idea to some people, but I just thought it looked adorable. And now I have it. And I’m very happy.

You can find it here.

Do you have any favourites to share with me?

Oh, it’s almost the weekend! Marzia.