Four Days in Piedmont Italy

 By: Unknown    01:10  No comments

Last Tuesday at 6 a.m., I hopped on a plane ride to  Italy,  I landed in Turin and spent a day sampling the divine Gianduia chocolates, eating delicious food cooked using the slow food philosophy and drinking in all that this lovely city has to offer. The day was warm and sunny, about 24 degrees celsius.

The next three days were very different, I travelled up to Courmayeur, and was greeted by a much colder climate and lots of snow, rugged scenery, craft shops and chalets rather than hotels. All Italy is beautiful but the scenery in the North is simply to die for..those mountains, that snow, those trees, I spent 4 days feeling like I was living in a postcard.

These trusty boots served me well on the mountains - no snow leaked in !!!




Check out my spring nail colour - the new gellish 'Tiffany Blue' at Femme Beauty



Up on Mont Blanc - this nearly didn't happen as the mountain was closed for four days due to too much snow and strong winds.



Gran Paradiso National Park

All Photos above by Kurt Paris

Some Trip Highlights 

• The Egyptian museum in Turin is impressive, definitely worth a visit. 
• Gianduja or gianduia  chocolate was invented in Turin - need I explain ?
• Chalet Plan Gorret in Courmayeur - the sweetest chalet on earth and the best seafood past ever.
• Trattoria Al Dente in AOSTA - ask to sit in the cave room at the back and order the chocolate pudding.
• The village Chamois - a traffic-free alpine village only accessible by cable car
• Craft shopping in Cogne
• Carriage ride and lunch in Valnontey

Various Outfit Details

Watch : SWATCH Andy

Shoes : Panama Jack at Stivaletti

Bag : Bling Bling Boutique

Waterproof Jacket : Trespass

Hair : Toni&Guy Hilton

Nails : Femme Beauty (Attard)

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Events : Femme Beauty in Attard

 By: Unknown    00:30  No comments

Today I attended the launch of the newly revamped Femme Beauty, the place responsible for my ever-beautiful nails. The beauty salon offers beauty services incl makeup by Luisa Musumeci and nail technician services by Christina Martinez. Some links to previous nail concoctions I have had done are a purple metallic one , a red and gold one , pretty in pink and many many more.

The girls have recently both taken over and refurbished the salon. The interior revamp has given the place a lovely, cosy feel with purple, green and gold being the main colours. Both girls are lovely, dedicated people who always put their customers first.

There was also the woman from My Melts present, a product being sold at the salon. This is a really innovative product - perfumed, soy wax melts designed to be placed over an oil burner, producing an intoxicating fragrance.

The newly launched Gellish Spring Colours

My nails for the night - right in theme for the occassion

And for a parting thought - this quote below, placed up on their wall is a lovely message to all of us. It is designed to lift our spirits and give us courage especially when our dreams seem too big - let's continue dreaming & maybe one day our dreams will come true, just like theirs.

Follow these girls on FACEBOOK

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Beauty : Gellish Review

 By: Unknown    23:28  No comments

I've been posting my 'monthly nails look' for the past month, generally capturing the photos right after I'd have just done them but you may have noticed I skipped a month. I decided to turn this next post into a review and show you what they look like at the end - after three weeks have passed.

I first tried Gellish when it first made an appearance in Malta and being honest I wasn't a big fan. I switched beauty parlours around a few times and some worked and some didn't - at a couple of places they removed the polish badly, wreaking havoc on my nails, at others I could never find availability when I needed so then they'd chip and I'd try and remove them myself..  Anyway, I had given up and was sticking to normal polish but last June the Gellish Importers who also have a beauty parlour at Femme Beauty in Attard suggested sponsoring my nails. My first reaction was to say no but I thoguht it'd be rude and I decided to give Gellish a last go.

I'm not sure what exactly made all the difference - maybe the appointment availability, certainly they take great care to ensure the nail isn't damaged during removal and they use a product called structure build to make the polish extra long lasting.

Since last May, I haven't had a single break in my nails, my nails are hard, the polish never chips and my nails always look perfect - I visit the salon every three weeks and these photos were taken today, three weeks after my last visit. These three weeks included lots of typing on keyboards, travelling abroad, working out, washing stuff..everything basically. Of course, there's some visible growth and some cuticle showing but they still look good.

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Beauty Post : Nails : Purple Metallic Inspiration

 By: Unknown    23:34  No comments

 When it comes to my monthly nail look change, sometimes I know exactly what I want, other times it takes a bit of deliberation. This time I had absolutely no clue, I hadn't had time to give it any thought, it was early in the morning - my mind was a complete blank. However when I arrived at Femme Beauty Salon, Christina showed me the new Gellish colours that had just arrived and as soon as I saw this metallic purple, I swooned. I've always loved pinks and purples and I also love metallics - together deadly combination. Couldn't resist finding you some other things (above) to swoon over ...that purple Burberry trench in particular ...*lust*.

We decided to combine the purple with this cream pretty neutral colour that looks great next to the metallic..and Christina came up with the idea of having one finger with dots..*love*

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Beauty Post : Red & Gold - Monthly Nails Inspiration

 By: Unknown    00:53  No comments

Choosing the nail look for London Fashion Week is no easy task, it needs to work/clash with a whole host of different outfits and be interesting....I decided to go for burgundy and gold. Burgundy is a huge colour this season and gold well I always love sparkly gold. I also decided to go against the flow and instead of painting the ring finger in gold, I chose the middle one. As usual thanks to Femme Beauty in Attard .

For more red&gold inspiration.....

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Competition Post : WIN with BECOS Skincare

 By: Unknown    07:47  No comments

In a previous calling I wanted to be a makeup artist and then I wanted to be a beautician and then I wanted to be a fashion editor...in other words most sectors of what we term the fashion industry have appealed to me over the years and largely still do. Skincare is something I find both exciting and frightening...the right skincare can do wonders to your complexion, the wrong skincare...can do horrible things.

BECOS is a global beauty project that claims to offer advanced products and treatments that complement one another to form personalized and tailor-made programs, specifically developed for face and body. I've searched online for reviews and found some good ones, plus the documentation looks sound. 

In Malta, it is being sold at Femme Beauty Salon in Attard, I get my nails done at this salon and I've found the salon as a whole to be very thorough and highly attentive, ensuring to use only the best products and techniques.

They're giving the chance for two of my readers to win a cleanser and toner from this new BECOS range and I for one will be VERY interested to know how the winner fares with these products. 

Simply enter below :)

*Only open to residents of Malta & Gozo

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Beauty Post : Pale PINK Nails Inspiration

 By: Unknown    02:49  No comments

This new nail look is an interesting one for me - my nails are all one colour !!!! And it isn't even a bright colour or a pattern of any sort....it wasn't the plan..the plan was to have another colour painted on top of the pale pink taking up 3/4 of the nail on one hand and a 1/4 on the other but they simply looked to gorgeous like this, I couldn't bear to change them. As usual thanks to Femme Beauty in Attard and Christina who has sooo much patience.

For more pink inspiration here's some more pinkness

I looked through the shops for some exciting pink stuff...lots and lots of pink stuff to buy

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Beauty Post : Monthly Nails Look - Purple & White Inspiration

 By: Unknown    04:11  No comments

There's something about shade of purple mixed with pure white, about the combination of such a vibrant colour and such a bright colourless colour..I love the combo of the two. or my nails this time I went for an interesting combo of the two  - done by Christina at Femme Beauty in Attard.

Check out some lovely nail products below

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Beauty Post : Let's STRIPE a Nail

 By: Unknown    08:03  No comments

I've decided to start a post featuring my updated nails every three weeks - done by Christina at Femme Beauty in Attard. For this edition I was in a nautical mood and hence the blue and white stripes. On another note the Gellish products really seem to be agreeing with my nails, they've never been so strong and in such great condition - I'm really impressed.

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Beauty Post : Matt & Shiny Nails

 By: Unknown    06:13  No comments

I don't often write a post about my nails but this is one awesome manicure that Christina at Femme Beauty (Attard - Gellish Harmony) created for me. It incorporates three different trends : glow-in-the-dark neon orange polish, half moon backwards manicure, and both matte an shiny textures.

Matte nails are not something you see very often, in actual fact the trend surfaced around last year on the catwalk, generally most nail polish brands are trying to outdo each other on which can provide the msot shine..I have to admit when I first saw my nails I wasn't too sure and was going to ask for a shiny topcoat..but then after after minutes it grew on my and I love the fact that the bottom half moon is shiny...

What do you think about matte nails yay or nay?

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Beauty Post : NYE : Chunky Glitter Nails

 By: Unknown    06:12  No comments

In the approaching countdown to 2014 and one of the biggest party nights of the yea, I am searching for those perfect beauty goodies for new ear's eve. Today the focus is on nails- glittery nails to be exact.

Do-it-at-home nail art is something that has really taken off in the world of nails. Different nail companies have been competing pretty heavily over who comes up with the coolest nail art kits. One of the relatively new trends I've been meaning to try is that of chunky glitter. Make Up Store's chunky glitter nail polish - Susan - caught my eye as I really like the colour combo of the different glitters.

This polish can be applied over other, coloured polish but I chose to apply it straight onto my natural nails. Applying this polish requires a different technique to that of applying normal polish. The chunky glitters make it impossible to apply in the same 'drag' brushing manner as you would with normal polish. Chunky glitter polish needs to be 'dabbed' on; otherwise, what will happen, is that as you brush he polish onto the nail you will keep moving the glitters around and removing them. Dabbing the glitter gently onto different areas of the nail ensures the glitter goes where you want it to and stays there.

I also found it best not to wipe the brush on the inner tube to remove excess polish, I simply pulled out a thick coat of glitter polish from the bottle and just dabbed the polish onto my nails. I applied two coats and a top coat on top when the glitter polish had dried.

The result can be seen in the pics below 

Liked his product and look forward to experimenting with different colours of polish worn underneath it..very easy - do-it-at-home nail art!

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