PRESTON PARK.

The sun came out. Time to go to the park!

The last time Felix and I went for a picnic we decided to take the bikes, so we weren’t able to bring the puggies with us, but today, the weather was wonderful (and still is) so we got some bagels and made our way to Preston Park, with Maya and Edgar!

The park is pretty big: the entrance is all the way to the right, in the middle there is the clock tower, and on the other side of the park, there is the Preston Manor.

I once before came here with my parents, looking for the villa, which is supposed to be extremely haunted, but somehow we missed this sign so we had no idea where to find it.

I have been wanting to visit it for a while now, but dogs aren’t allowed inside, so I had to skip it this time as well. But I’m not giving up, I’m hoping to come back and actually check it out next time. I will make sure to bring you with me!

Today we only decided to go for a picnic and ended up staying there for about an hour, until the sun got covered by the clouds so we felt like it was the right time to leave.

Being such a big area, the park has a lot of different fields to train, tennis courts, football grounds and cafes. We just went straight to the centre of the park, found a massive tree and laid our blanket there, so we could be repaired from the wind, just a bit.

Isn’t this tree so cool?

As you can tell from this photo, the weather kept changing: a minute is very sunny, the moment after is cloudy. Either way, we enjoyed our food very much (food always taste better when you eat it outside) and then it was time to play!

Maya absolutely loves being outside: she is 10 already, but she has so much energy!

After running around, we all relaxed for a bit.

And then it was time to go back!

We don’t live too close to this area of Brighton, and that’s why it felt special to go there. I’m looking forward to go back and visit it better, because it’s such a lovely and interesting place (let’s not forget about the haunted mansion).

MY OUTFIT // Sweatshirt: PULL&BEAR (similar) –  Bag: MULBERRY

But now I’m home, getting ready to bake cookies and make the house nice for PJ and Sophie, who are coming to dine with us and watch some horror movies.

Before I leave, I wanted to say thank you to all the people that entered yesterday’s giveaway. It’s now closed, and here is the winner:

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Marzia.

KOREAN SKINCARE.

We all know it: Koreans got their skincare down.

You simply need to glance at them to notice how flawless their skin is. The beauty industry is huge there, and they have some of the best products to offer. On the other hand, what they didn’t consider so much was the cruelty side of it – most companies, in fact, test on animals.

Well, my friend Britta, which always sends me lovely Korean products, recently opened a new website offering Korean makeup and skincare that are all cruelty free, and mostly vegan!

Her package arrived the other day, and finally last night I had some time to open it up. I was so happy to see that she included a huge variety of products, and not only for me, but even for you marzipans (giveaway at the end), as well as a coupon code – MARZIA10 – you can use if you purchase from her website.

On the very top, she selected some adorable socks for me!

I don’t think she sells these, but I still wanted to show them since they are so cute.

But now, let’s focus on the products that you can actually get: in order to make it easier to follow, I paired them in different groups depending on how I would use them. Also, you will notice they are all from the same brand, which I’ve never heard of before, but it’s called “dear, klairs” and focuses on sensitive skin.

Let’s begin with these 4, which I applied this morning.

1. Rich Moist Foaming Cleanser. I normally stay away from foam (although I love touching it) because those kind of cleansers tend to make my face feel tight. This one claimed not to, so I gave it a go. Usually I only wash my face with water in the morning, but today, after using this, I could feel how much cleaner it was. Waking up with a bit of oily skin, only washing with water is more gentle but doesn’t remove everything, while using this cleanser felt very nice (and although it tightened my skin, that feeling only lasted for about 30 seconds).
2. Supple Preparation Facial Toner. I used to be big on toners, which I know help with bringing back the balance into your skin. With time I skipped this step, but I’m glad now I can get back to using one! I like this bottle and how big it is, although the scent kind of reminds me of a hospital (nothing too intense, don’t worry). I can’t tell if it did anything yet, but I’m surely going to use it all up and see.
3. Rich Moist Soothing Serum. Anything with the word “soothing” in it catches my attention. Having crazy skin that goes from oily to super dry, whilst being very sensitive, I can see this becoming very useful to me. I normally only apply serums at night time, but in this period, as I mentioned in an older skincare post, I have dry patches of skin that need extra help, so this can’t hurt.
4. Rich Moist Soothing Cream. Having the same name, it’s clear that these two products are supposed to be paired together, and so I did! The cream got absorbed pretty fast, even though I prefer gel or lotions to wear during the day time, I can’t say it has been bad wearing it so far. It hasn’t caused my skin to look shiny, so it’s all good.

I was sent two makeup products to try, and both seem to be extremely light and natural looking: I’m wearing the Blemish Cream as a base and a bit of the Natural Fit Concealer, and I honestly think you can barely tell I have something on my skin, while making it look much smoother and brighter. I definitely see myself using these two during summertime, when I like to keep my makeup fairly natural.

These 3 products are the ones I wouldn’t use on a daily base, but probably once or twice a week. I have never used a soap for my face so I’m very curious to try it out in a few days, while I have used face masks that come in a sheet and find them absolutely refreshing. I also got way too excited to see the sugar scrub as that is my favourite kind, and I was running out of it, so I needed it!

1. At night, I’m going to use this “Gentle Black Deep Cleansing Oil“, but I haven’t tried it yet since I haven’t wore any makeup for the past two days. I am wearing some today, so I will try it out later and let you know;
2. I did apply the “Pure Vitamin C” serum, which looks super pretty in that packaging, and it felt lovely on the skin!
3. Before going to sleep I also used the “Midnight Blue Calming Cream” and I loved it, it’s very moisturising.

So these are all the stuff Britta sent me – thank you Britta! – but as I said she also thought about you: she sent doubles for everything. Unfortunately, in order for me to keep the giveaway open internationally, I had to remove the bigger products that I knew would get stuck in customs or sent back/rejected. This means I included small and “dry” products that no matter where you live, will be allowed to enter the country. I’m planning to share the remaining doubles with my friends.

There is going to be only 1 winner, getting the products in the picture (all new, of course) so if you want to enter, just leave a comment including the word “MAKEUP” so I can count you it. The giveaway will end today, the 29th, at midnight(UK time) and the winner will be contacted here on my blog with a comment directed to them – so keep an eye out!!

I’m going to use all of these products everyday for a few weeks at least, and if I do notice good results, I will share them with you and tell you more about this Korean skincare system (I know the 10 to 18 step skincare regimen has been working wonderfully for many people). Wish me luck!

Marzia.

3 BEST PURCHASES.

That I made in April.

Even this month is coming to an end soon, and a lot has happened for me! But instead of focusing on what I’ve been up to, which I constantly keep you a part of, I’m going to talk about the 3 things I bought, that I fell in love with.

#1 Too Faced – Sweet Peach (Eyeshadow Palette).

I saw a video from my friend Bunny a few weeks back, and I remember having to pause almost immediately after clicking because I just knew I needed this in my makeup bag. It has ALL the colours I search for into a single palette, which means this is my absolute favourite at the moment. I ordered it on eBay, since anywhere else was sold out, and it arrived a few weeks later. Now it’s in my hands, and I’ve been loving using it. It’s mostly warm tones, lots of orangey/rusty ones as well as gold, pink and darker shades… as I said, it has everything, at least for me. Having dark hair and eyes, and an olive skin tone, this is just perfect, and I love it. I was also pleasantly surprised by the lovely peach scent it has; I own their chocolate palette, which I’m not going to lie, I licked a few times because it smells too delicious, but those colours appears to be cooler, so I’m very glad they came out with this palette!

I apologise for the swatches, I realise they are terrible but with so many colours I didn’t know where to fit them all. I went from line to line, horizontally, and probably my favourite is the second one: the pigmentation seems to be higher, and the shades are gorgeous.

#2 Leon – Fast Vegetarian (Recipe Book).

Now, I’m not going to lie. I used to think recipe books only made a nice decor when displayed in the kitchen. I never felt the need to reach out to one and follow a recipe, but things started to change at the end of last year: I started to be interested in baking, and so I found myself having to look up more and more recipes online, in order to make proper desserts. Overtime I became pretty good at baking, and I do want to get myself a good cookbook full of sweet recipes, but for now, this vegetarian one was needed.

In fact, I’m vegetarian. Lots of people always wondered if I was, because both in my videos and Instagram pictures, my love for veggies is clear. It wasn’t until recently that I finally made the decision to go vegetarian: my main concern was how my parents would react, having been brought up by a family that would cook meat given to us by farmers in our family, as well as other animal products. I feel like, especially for Italians, being vegetarian is madness. So my fear was that people around me wouldn’t understand my choice.

Luckily, I was wrong: I told some of my friends, which totally understood, and most importantly, I told my family, who was actually really supportive!

So now that I made this choice (and I feel so much happier) I can go crazy and experiment with lots of different recipes. I find it quite fun and creative having to come up with my meals now, and this book has been helpful.

Also, it still looks really great displayed in the kitchen, which is a bonus!

On a side note, I would like to just ask people to behave in the comments. I’m sure you, the people reading my blog regularly, will support my choice, but I’m aware that the internet is a very opinionated place and any time somebody makes a statement, inevitably gets attacked. I have been wanting to be vegetarian for a while now, and I’m very happy with my choice, so please don’t try to tell me to go back to eat meat or even push me to go vegan. I would really appreciate that.

#3 A Joyful New Year – Postcard. 

This is the star of this post, and the main reason why I decided to write it. I know it might seem weird, but let me explain what’s so special about this…

As you know, not only my parents, but even some of my relatives came to visit me during the weekend. I decided to bring them all to Snoopers Paradise, a shop I’ve talked about plenty of times before: this is the place where I find amazing old items and vintage clothing.

While I was looking through old photos, I saw this postcard. I turned it and read it: the first thing that got my attention was the beautiful calligraphy, but then what really interested me was the message itself.

I found it to be so warm. I couldn’t let it down.

My aunt saw that I liked it, so she offered to buy it for me – grazie Resi!

So when I got home, I had it all for myself. I wanted to know more about it, and the first thing I did was to figure out the year it was from: I found an helpful website (oldpostcards.com) that explained how postcards changed through the years. This clearly is from the “divided back era”, which goes from 1907-1915. I was glad I identified the period, but I wanted to know the exact year: I noticed it was printed in Bavaria, Germany, and the series number is 1053. I looked it up, which resulted in finding the exact same postcard from an eBay seller stating is from 1914. This postcard was sent from Germany to England, the 24th of December 1914 (the day and month are stamped on), which meant it was during the war between the two. I was intrigued by this, wondering why two good friends would be in enemy countries, and how they could be writing each other.

I learnt about the Christmas truce, which was the week before the holidays which allowed soldiers to cross trenches and exchange greetings. I believe this postcard was allowed to be sent because of it, but I was still wondering about the two people appearing in the message.

Dora, the sender, spoke perfect English, so she could have been British, but we know she was in Germany at the time. Then again, this isn’t so strange, considering that before the war started, Germany and UK weren’t in a bad relationship. So maybe she moved for work? Or maybe the two women met on holiday?

Unfortunately she doesn’t state her surname, and I looked up if this correspondence could have been between suffragettes, but only 2 Doras are reported to be part of the movement and both were from or moved to Australia, no mention to England. So I’m pretty sure this friendship was much stronger than just that (as the “xxxx” suggests) and I’m not too sure how I could find more about her, if not by figuring out who Edith is.

Now, we know a lot more about Edith herself. Her surname is Cordery, and she is from Hampshire (Lyndhurst is a large village situated there). I looked up her name on Google and found out many matched, both by name, year and location: because of this, I have a chance to find out who this woman is exactly, but at the same time, having even too many options, it might still be very difficult.

So I have decided to end it there, happy to know that these two women had a great friendship, although I was a bit sad being aware of the fact that the war was just at the beginning when this postcard was sent out, and things only got worse from there. I would love to know that they met again, or kept this correspondence alive, but what I really am happy about, is that I at least know that Edith most likely received this letter, because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to find it here, in Brighton. And now I got to be a part of this, even if for just an afternoon, and I get to keep it safe for them both.

I BET YOU DIDN’T EXPECT THIS POST TO TURN THIS WAY, DID YOU? Okay sorry, haha.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this, I probably get waaaaay too into these things, but that’s the way I am, and now that I have a blog, I can write about it and hopefully somebody finds it as interesting as I do.

I want to write some letters to my friends now. There is something so special about it, that a simple text will never be able to capture.

Marzia.

5th DAY HAIR.

Let’s talk about hair!

MY OUTFIT // Top: OLIVE  CLOTHING

Lots of people on Youtube and Instagram compliment my “healthy” hair, but it’s about time I let you all know my hair is far from being healthy.

In this post, I’m going to talk a bit about the products I use, the way I style my hair and the wash process. I’ve also decided to take pictures of my hair today being the 5th day I haven’t washed it or styled it, so that you see how it would look like without trying… as you can tell, it’s pretty dry!

The first thing I’m going to talk about is how often I wash my hair: as a teenager, I would wash it daily, without realising how much damage that would cause. Not only because of using heat to dry it, but because applying so much product caused me to have to use more and more in order for it to feel clean, and at the same time my hair wasn’t “breathing” as I was removing all the natural oils from it.

When I hit my twenties, I discovered dry shampoos, and that changed everything!

I would be able to wash my hair every other day… but soon enough, I got tired of having to dry so much hair, so I decided to try and go as long as I could without washing it.

I should also mention, for people who don’t know, that I wear hair extensions, the keratin kind (in which small strands of hair are glued at the base to your own). My natural hair is quite long, it reaches – if not passes – my chest, but it’s extremely thin. That means that no matter what, my hair would never look full on it’s on, and because of it, many years ago, I’ve decided to have extensions added in. Even if I ever decided to cut my hair short, I would still add extensions for volume, because otherwise my hair would just stick to my face… and that wouldn’t be a very nice look for me. I’ve seen girls with thin hair and rocking it, but in my opinion, fuller hair makes my features look softer, which I prefer.

Anyway, over time, desperate to understand how I could possibly get slightly healthier hair, I looked up a bunch of videos on YT: eventually I saw one about a girl claiming you could wash your hair even just once a week, because if you “train” it to be washed so little, it would adjust and not look too oily by the end of the week. And so I tried, and to this day I can confidently keep my hair unwashed for 5 days. I have gone for more, and sometimes less if needed, but generally 5 days is great for me.

This way I don’t put too much heat on my hair, I don’t waste time drying it, and it doesn’t need to be look after as much.

Unfortunately, because my hair is so thin and I do have extensions, it still breaks at a certain point, and it is also very dry and overall damaged. This is why I keep it my natural shade most of the time, staying away from dyes, at least at the base. My hair wouldn’t be able to take it, but luckily enough, I’m pretty happy with my colour as long as I have some highlights to add some dimensions to it.

So these are some of the products I always go back to. I try to change every time I finish a tube of these, but I somehow end up buying them again because they are the only products I know will make my hair feel soft and look nicer, although they don’t really fix the damage.

I use the Ultimate Blends line by Garnier, and I do know that the conditioner is for blonde hair, but the fact that there is chamomile in it just makes me want to buy it; plus, it stills works nicely. The mask is probably the best I’ve ever put on my hair so far, and I feel like even the shampoo is pretty great.

I used to do lots of homemade hair masks, but not seeing great results, I pretty much gave up. If you know of any that really does work for you, let me know!

Now onto styling, I first spray a heat protecting product all over my hair (I don’t know if the one I use is good or not, I can’t tell) before starting to dry it, and then go on and dry about 70% of it and then let it dry on its own. I wash my hair at night, which means that sometimes I use a “doughnut” to make a bun (or simply twist my hair and secure it with a hair tie) and in the morning I wake up with beautifully waved hair… but that doesn’t happen often, so I do take out a curling wand and that does the trick. I would rather not apply so much heat, but having extremely straight hair, that’s the only option, most of the time.

Before curling it, I always apply an oil to the ends, just to make them look glossier. I also find that this way the curl holds a bit better and looks more defined.

The only hairbrush I ever use, and this is been for years, is the Tangle Teezer – it does everything I want: I can brush my whole head without getting caught on the extensions; it’s a very gentle brush, so it doesn’t rip my hair off; and more importantly, I can easily tease big areas of my head very quickly (to get that extra volume).

Then I will go on and set everything with a strong hairspray (usually by Tresemmé), but even that won’t last for long with the wind here in Brighton…

So if I’ve curled my hair in the first or second day, instead of touching up with more heat, I usually try to either do an up-do, or use a texturising spray, so that I just scrunch my hair a bit and the waves look fuller, as if they are freshly done. And in the same way, if I find that it’s losing volume, I may spray a bit of dry shampoo. The best one I’ve ever tried is the Batiste one, I will probably always stick with this!

But that’s about it. That’s how I “fake” healthy, voluminous hair. Unfortunately this is the best I can do, but if you do have any suggestions for me, please let me know!

Is there a product you absolutely love for your hair?

Marzia.

MY PARENTS ARE COMING.

And so are my relatives and family friends.

It’s not the first time my parents come to visit, but they never brought anyone else before. This means: pressure. And also, madness!

When you move out of your parents’ house and find your own place, it’s critical to have their approval and show them that you can take care of yourself and your living space, so any time they come around, I try my best to make the flat feel extra nice.

This time, as I stated, other people are coming as well, which means I not only want the place to look great, but I want my parents to be proud of me.

Well, this morning I realised how much work I had to do to! The flat was a mess, which usually doesn’t happen often, but because both Felix and I have been running around everywhere lately, the time to keep it tidy was little.

And so I rolled up my sleeves, and spent the entire day, up until a few hours ago, re-painting, cleaning and decorating everything.

Now I’m finally done, and since I went through all of that effort, I thought I would show you some pictures of the place! You always request me to do a house tour, which honestly I don’t know if I ever will do it… but for now, you get to look into my home, which is still better than nothing.

Here is kitchen, almost squeaky clean! In fact, I still have to do some dishes because I’m baking a cake. It’s okay, it’s worth it, because now the scent of lemon and coconut is in each room. I absolutely love coming back home and being able to smell the delicious dessert I had been making hours earlier!

Even the living room is not 100% ready yet, because as you can tell that mirror is on the floor and not up on the wall. But that’s actually perfect, because tomorrow morning my dad will take care of it, and finally, even this room, will be completed!

I wish I took a “before shot” of my office, because it was seriously a mess. It may still look messy, but this is such an improvement! It’s nice to see it somewhat tidy for once, although I know it won’t last for long…

And here is the bedroom! As you can tell, this got a lot cleaner. I actually changed bedsheets even if I put the last ones on just a few days ago; I needed everything to look perfect for the guests.

I feel like this post makes me look like a crazy person. I’m usually not a neat freak, I’m pretty messy (Felix will confirm) but I always like to make everything nice when I have people over.

SO. How did I do?

I’m so incredibly tired that I might just go to sleep now. The main reason why I made this post was to chat a bit with you as I’m going to be busy during the weekend. But don’t worry, I will be back next week!

Have a lovely weekend, Marzia.

TOY MUSEUM.

Discovering another hidden treasure, in Brighton.

Another goal I for set myself in April, is to explore somewhere new, something I haven’t seen before. And so I asked Google about it, and the answer was clear: I needed to check out this tiny Toy Museum!

It’s located under the bridge of Brighton Station – an area I’m not too familiar with if not only because I bought my bike in the shop right in front of the museum. It’s a cool place, which eventually connects to the North Lanes.

When you enter the shop, you immediately see a reproduction of the majestic Royal Pavilion, the most stunning building in the city. The tickets to advance to the museum section are a little pricey – £6.50 – considering that it isn’t a big space, but that didn’t stop me!

Right when you walk up the stairs, to the museum level, you can admire some old toys, with a label stating their names and year of production. That fascinates me, and so I stayed in front of this display window for some time. Not going to lie, I wish I could have brought home a few of these, they are just too cute (okay, maybe even a bit creepy).

The coolest thing was to see the little train working, going through galleries, up the hills. It was the first time I’ve ever seen an RC train moving, I believe, and it was exciting. Not to mention that the miniatures totally reminded me of the tv series Wayward Pines, or how Felix used to call it mistakenly, Pine Wood Creek – haha!

Have you seen the show? If not, check it out! It’s very short, but I liked it.

The museum was overall very tiny, and most of the toys were only working on “special days” (as a piece of paper informed us after buying the tickets) so we didn’t see much action, but I’m still really glad I went there because I love seeing old stuff, and I had a great time with my friend Emma.

After the visit, I was left with the need to find something really old to add to my creepy collection: I decided to stop by Snoopers Paradise, and that’s where I found this lovely doll head!

What do you think about old toys? Do you find them interesting or do they just creep you out?

Marzia.

A WEEK IN ASOS.

I haven’t done a lookbook here yet, so let’s fix that!

I would say that, at this time, I have 3 favourite online shops: ASOS, OLIVE CLOTHING and DAHLIA.

Right now I’m focusing on ASOS only, although there are a few items that are from other brands, and I will specify which ones. The items in each outfit were collected over time, but I will try my best to link you to everything.

SPANISH LOVE // Look 1

I saw this dress a few weeks ago on the website, so it’s fairly new, and I instantly fell in love with not only the silhouette – with a fitted top and loose peplums at the bottom – but also with the amazing print. I feel like I haven’t worn these shades often in the past, but after trying this dress on today, I realised this colour scheme actually compliments my skin tone and hair pretty well! I also saw this lovely bag, which I immediately thought would go well with the dress and complete the look, adding a bohemian touch to it.

SPRING IN SICILY // Look 2

When I saw this pretty blouse, my mind instantly connected it to Italy – Sicily, to be precise. Not sure why, maybe because of the lemons? But anyway, I love the detailing on it,  and when I came across these pants, I knew I wanted to pair them together. I don’t know if you remember, but in my very first fashion line, back in Spring last year, I designed a pair of pants very similar to the ones I’m wearing here… and now it see them in all the shops. Not going to lie, it does make me feel good knowing that I included something so similar in my designs before it was even trendy. Still, they might  look strange, but they are fun, and it’s always nice to wear something a bit different. I completed the outfit by wearing shades and a pair of sandals.

COSY IN BED // Look 3

I realised only after having Felix taking these pictures, that you couldn’t really see this outfit, but I’m wearing a lovely pyjamas, which reminds me of something Wildfox would sell. It’s very comfy, and now that the weather is warming up, I can put away my thicker pyjamas and instead bring out the lighter ones! I’m wearing my prescription glasses, and if you are curios about the bedding, I found everything at HomeSense (I blogged about it).

MIDSUMMER FAIRY // Look 4

This dress is the puffiest thing I own, I believe. It’s incredibly pretty, and I love how heavy the bottom is, contrasting the minimal top part. It has a lovely bow in the back, which adds an even more romantic feel to it, and I can totally see myself wearing this during summer events. I thought a flower crown would really complement the dress well, giving in an ethereal look.

 

BY THE SEA // Look 5

This is the kind of dress that I would just throw on in the morning and look like I put lots of time into getting ready. It’s a simple cut, with exposed shoulders and a lace hem. I like how versatile and easy it can be: right now it looks very sweet, but it could look boho if paired with boots and a belt. I will definitely get lots of use out of this, pretty soon!

DELICATE BUSINESS // Look 6

With this outfit on, I feel like a bombshell (which we all know, isn’t usually my thing) as it embraces and shows off the curves I have and shows bits of skin in such a clever way. The blouse is minimal, but with the cold shoulders cut and thin fabric, it turns out to be somewhat sexy. The wrap skirt hugs my figure without showing too much: in fact, the length is longer than what I would usually got for, but the ruffles and the slit on the side add an edge to it.

HAPPY IN THE SUN // Look 7

And here you see me, wearing my last outfit for this post – probably my favourite – while having a laugh at the mess I’ve made! The whole reason why I felt inspired to make this lookbook is because of the lovely weather we have been having, so if you are experiencing it too, you could find some pieces and ideas for your own looks. I wore this pretty sun dress with the Daisy shoes I’ve designed a few years ago, as well as a little flower purse and a floppy hat.

If you enjoyed this post, maybe I could pick other brands to focus on and create another “WEEK IN…” later on.

But for now, I better go fold all those clothes!

Marzia.