The Bag

I love bags, but I don’t really own many of them. Mainly because I’m afraid they’ll break on the road, which happened a few times before- one of them broke and fell on the ground whilst my brand new MacBook was in there! I do really think that bags are a nice accessory and can lift your look from grungy to chic and sophisticated.

I found this bag in my mom’s room. She has had it for a little while now, but never really used it, so I decided to steal it and start using it myself. I absolutely love the pattern, the colours and the shape of it. It’s really sturdy and you can fit a lot in it, because it has got three very big compartments (although I am a little bit afraid that my beloved MacBook won’t fit in- maybe that’s for the better though!). My mom got it on holiday in Tunisia, and actually, it’s a –fake- Gucci bag. I’m really, really, really, really not one for fake designer bags, because I’d rather save my pennies for the real deal and I just think they look a little bit tacky. I wear this bag because I like the way it looks, not because it has got ‘Gucci’ written all over it, so I flipped the little metal thingy that’s attached to the front on the bag so you can’t see what it says!

I really like how this bag looks on a plain black outfit. It just makes everything look really put together and I think it’s safe to say that I’m a little bit in love with it. I’m eyeing up the Zara Office Citybag bag next, because that does fit my laptop in and I still need a really good black bag.

Clarins Bronzing Duo

I’m not really a girl who likes to wear bronzer. In fact, the only bronzer I owned was the Bourjois Chocolate Bronzer, which I picked up on a whim and never wear anymore because it looks really orange on my skintone and just looks plain awful- I thought the lightest shade would suit me better, since I’ve got really fair skin, but nope. Lesson learned. Since that little fiasco, I always hesitated to buy another bronzer, mainly because I just didn’t knew what suits me best. Since then, I’ve always sticked to my trusty blushers, because I needed something to make my complexion look healthier and give more dept and definition to my face. I guess you could say I had a little bronzer phobia, until I discovered this little gem. Yes, it’s love.

Having heard great things about the Clarins Bronzing Duo, I swatched it in store. I really wasn’t planning on anything, but as is the case with most of us (right?), that didn’t turn out so well.

The Bronzing Duo comes in three different shades and I swatched all of them. The first one, as I already expected, looked really orange on my skintone, as did the second one. The third one however- it was love at first sight. On my hand, it looked like the perfect contour shade, so I purchased it immediately and boy, am I glad I did!

The Bronzing Duo consists out of two different bronzing colours, a lighter one and a dark one which complement each other perfectly. You can use both colours separately,  or mix them together to create a really nice, glowy shade. The bronzer isn’t completely matte; if you look really closely, you can see tiny glitter particles, but they don’t really show up on your skin. This results in a matte, but glowy look which looks great and really gives a healthy flush to your face, which is something I always tend to look for in face powders. Even though I picked it up in the darkest shade, 03, it looks really flattering on my very pale skin tone. Be careful though- this stuff is dark and really pigmented, so you only need the tiniest amount!

So, the verdict; I don’t think this bronzer is leaving my everyday make up bag very soon. I’ve been using it every single day since I got it, and plan on doing that until it runs out or I find an even better one. NARS Laguna, I’m looking at you…

The Introduction

Beauty is my passion. It’s something I can get really intrigued by, in which I can emerge myself in for hours and hours; looking through the aisles of a fancy department store, swatching every lipstick in sight and spraying fancy perfumes on my wrist; watching YouTube videos to see what tricks certain people are using to make the best out of their facial features; reading blogs to see which products are currently most coveted in the beauty world, after I find myself lusting over several very expensive lipsticks, the newest skincare items and the best smelling products for having luscious locks. I’ll admit it; I’m a little bit obsessed.

Another –and also, an older- passion of mine is reading and writing. I don’t read as much as I used to anymore –books, that is. With my new found love for reading beauty blogs, I find those keep me more than saturated without having to read hundreds and hundreds of books. This is something that’ll have to change. I want to ignite that dormant spark for reading and loving books that I know is still burning inside of me, only not as heavy and passionate as it used to be. I also want to write more, since it is something I’ve been doing as soon as I learned to read in school. I love writing so much; the playing with words, the arranging of my thoughts on paper- or, in this case, on this blog.

So now you know a little bit more about my passions, you might already know why I have this blog and why it means so much to me; it’s a platform which I can use to combine my most burning passions; the things I love the most in life  (except for my loved ones, that is- priorities!). Beauty, writing and reading, all combined.

So who am I? My name is Charlotte and I’m an 18 year old girl currently residing in Belgium but desiring to live in London or Paris- not that I would be able to leave my loved ones behind. I’m currently taking a gap year after starting out a Psychology course at university just to find out it wasn’t for me. Now I’m working and saving my money to start a beautician course in March which finishes in July, and after that I’m going to uni again to start a journalism course. After all, that’s where my heart was leading me to all these years.

With this blog, I hope to ignite the little spark that I know is burning in those of you that are reading this post right now. I want to convince you all to follow your passions. I want to share my opinion on beauty products, I want to show you a little bit more about my life through beauty. Because it’s something magical. Because it’s something that makes me happy, and I want to make other people happy, too. I really hope you’ll enjoy this blog as much as I love writing it. Feel free to leave a comment, to e-mail me, to tweet me or whatever tickles your fancy; I love interacting with people (even though I’m probably the shyest and most insecure person you’ll ever meet) and I would love to meet some new people through this blog, but most importantly, through our passions and interests.