Is a woman incomplete without her bag? LOOKBOOK

At the beginning a fact about me: I barely leave my house without a handbag (or a backpack). I have this little obsession that I must carry something with me and that it must take several things with me ALWAYS.  These stuff include my phone and wallet  - in case of emergency they can save my life or... at least help identification and/or contact someone of my close people. Ok pretty dramatic but I’m not a pessimist and I don’t have anxiety. I’m just danger aware. Anyway, handbags! 

Do you also have that feeling that a woman can’t be fully dressed when she doesn’t have her handbag? 

Personally, I feel odd and somehow like I have forgotten something if it  happens that I'm without a handbag.

It’s a detail which most of us carry every day and the stuff we have there can be... Surprising? Embarrassing? Horrifying?? Well, the black hole there is definitely one of the nature phenomenons. My black hole is pretty organised and with time decreased its size. As much as I love big shopper bags but due to my lifestyle they aren’t very practical. One the way to my car I don't need a lot on the way to my car. 

So, my preferred size is middle one (how cool is that now designers make nearly each bag in three sizes?!) which is able to fit my for-mentioned phone and not so small wallet - here we come to ... why do I have huge wallet if I only need a few plastic cards? Yep, you can never figure out women, you just need to be one. 

Another ... is my keys. Just for a purpose of entertainment I will show you how they look:

And believe or not there is only ONE key which I use! The rest is for decoration, contains some memories and in general the size of it and a furry key chain makes it extremely easy and quick to find and pick up from the black hole. 

After those absurd I usually carry small cosmetics pouch which doesn’t contain cosmetics. It hide essentials like migraine pills, clear nail polish to fix a hole in stockings, a Compeed stick for blisters, nail file and some stuff women need once a month... There is also a calendar because I’m getting old and things which aren’t written down don’t exist and of course a little mirror and annual supply of lipsticks. 

In fact, eventually me - and probably most girls - can fit all we need into a small crossbody bag but there is this secret power making us to carry a lot of stuff as an exercise to burn our last dounut. 

How is your handbag story?? A fan of the big or small ones? 

Enjoy my lookbook with one little bag which has been my favourite over last weeks.

xoxo
Natalia 

Outfit #1

Outfit details:

Coat, sweater & boots - H&M

Bag - LaBante London (avaiable here)

Outfit #2

Outfit details:

Coat - Stradivarius 

Sweater & skirt - Zara

Boots - Deichmann

Scarf - Mohito

Bag - LaBante London (avaiable here)

Outfit #3

Outfit details:

Jacket & sweater - Zara

Dress/skirt - Topshop

Boots - Deichmann

Bag - LaBante London

Let's Talk About Makeup

Makeup - very developed art and business of the XXI century which has many advocates, many girls love to play with it but it's also heavily criticized. People go long way making such a sweet thing an evil.

And I wonder WHY?

What's wrong with putting (or not) makeup on your face? Women always wanted to be beautiful and since ancient times were using tricks to enhance their beauty. Using beetroot to add color to lips or starch to make white, doll-like skin are just basic examples which probably everyone knows. But I'm pretty sure you didn't know that in ancient Greece and Italy women used to put juice of Atropa belladonna berries into their eyes to enlarge pupils. Dilated pupils make an impression of bigger eyes and big eyes have always been associated with young looking face (look at babies, their eyes are huge relatively to face!). But the alkaloids in the berries are strong poison and make a person blurry vision and eyes sensitive to light. These compounds were actually later isolated and used to dilute pupils during the eye check procedure by doctors and have other medical uses but need to be taken under strict doctor supervision!

Well, thanks God, now we have Asian contact lenses to make our eyes bigger.

So what is bad in the fact that girls like to make themselves a bit prettier?

In my opinion, nothing until it's a serious problem of hiding behind makeup and covering insecurities and complexes with it...

What we need to do is, instead of demonising it and putting fault on the whole world for forcing us to look perfect and put makeup (and do all sorts of more or less safe treatments), we should just learn to accept ourselves. I would say that this should be taught at school. Young girls (and what's more horrifying - many older women!) should understand that makeup is just a TOOL and that there is a face without it which is totally OK.

I accept that I have two faces. One with makeup and one without. And I use both of them appropriate to the occasion. I always do makeup when I go to work or go out. But really can't be bothered to do it when I go to do grocery shopping or for a walk. I assume that my face won't scare people out. I would also skip makeup if I meet a friend and we stay home or just stroll to a coffee shop nearby. I have no problem to show my face without makeup to anyone if it comes to staying together in a hotel or beach or... whatever the situation is.

My no makeup face :) 

But I usually put makeup if I go to a shopping mall simply because the lighting there is so strong and unnatural that it makes naked skin look way worse than it is! And that's one of the important things to realize - it is not because I'm ugly or have bad skin, in some places it will just look terrible because of light. From the other side when sun is setting down your skin without makeup will look amazing!

I rather advise to take care of skin regularly doing peeling and applying moisturizers, this basic will make your skin look OK (I'm talking about an average person which doesn't have serious skin conditions which require doctor's help). If you don't put effort into maintenance sorry, but it will pay you off!

So what are the reasons I do makeup?

1. I think in this era makeup is part of standard dressing up procedure. It makes me look more professional and put together. If you want to attack me that I'm just following what the world is forcing me to do and all the blah blah I want to ask you why do you wash your hair? Or take shower everyday? People used to do it once a week or a month even. It's not the point to stand against the changing environment but find yourself in it. 

2. I like it. I have always liked since I was a young girl. For me the time I spend putting makeup in the morning is a type of mediation, it relaxes me and I think about many things and get new ideas (the bad side is that it takes me a bit of time tough...)

3. It's fun. Makeup is an art which allows us to play and explore. One day I can look sweet and cute another I put nearly black lipstick and look like a drama queen! I love colors and sparkles! I love seeing how colors blend and make my eyes more blue, gray or greenish... and ohhh how much pretty eyeshadows can iridesce in the sun!

Makeup is made to enhance natural beauty and that's amazing. We can boost what we have and shine even stronger. Makeup wasn't invented against women but for them! Every single woman feels better and prettier with a bit of makeup and this is why it's worth doing it. Not for the whole world but for own good feeling. Use it, enjoy it but don't let it be your mask!

xoxo
Natalia

Makeup by Plamena Petrova

Dress - Dotti

Back to the Classic - White Shirt & Red Details

You must have already noticed that after a few years of complete craziness fashion trends are simplifying. We are getting back to the classic elegance, styles and cuts are getting simple and we are going to pay for high quality pieces which will create the basis of our waredrobe for longer. 

Personally I fall into it already! For long time I didn't put on my white shirts but now I'm discovering and loving them again. My recent crush is white oversized shirt from Sister Jane. I fell in love with the embroidery details. It's such a masterpiece! And this part is the most exciting to me about the coming fashion era - the quality of clothes and decorations. I really can't stand low quality ornaments or cheap, nearly plastic looking lace. Some things just have to be well made to keep the luxury they carry. 

Wearing a piece which is so rich in texture is actually easier than it might seem. It does most of the outfit so pairing it with basics works wonders. I like to wear blue jeans instead of elegant pants because it brings up this modern look plus timeless classic - red lips. Aall finished with an oversized, checked coat. For me, this is an embodiment of the modern chic.

What do you think?

Details of this outfit:

Shirt - Sister Jane

Coat - Zara

Jeans - Zara

Boots - Badura

Handbag - Michael Kors

xoxo
Natalia

You Have to Believe in Yourself & Do it for Yourself

As fall came we all need to put more layers on and watch leaves falling off. Fall is the time of seeing how time flows and things are passing. Especially here, in Iceland, everything can change very fast - one day you see leaves turning yellow and three days later they are gone. I guess it's one of the things which makes Icelanders humble in front of Nature and more aware that life goes its own way and we have to take it as it is. Quite beautiful thing I learnt here.

This season and some things happening in my life got me thinking about two actually similar quotes:

"You have to believe in yourself, if you don't no one else will." 

and 

"Remember that only you can solve your problems."

Everyone should realize that there is no one who will solve our problems and sadly, often there is no many people who even care and support you. Sometimes we are surrounded by people but their support is superficial. 

I will be honest, recently I was a bit sad realizing that some people who might seem like supporting me in reality didn't care much. Some even doubted in me. I got to read it between lines and when I finally started to see little successes which made me very happy I heard only "Oh, good for you." You know, there are subtle things, the details which matter and you just feel how much people care... 

Well, but is it something to be mad or sad about? I realized again that it's human nature to focus on their own lives and worries they have. And, how can they be supportive in things they have no clue about? If they didn't go through my way (or something similar) how can they know? 

"Neither happiness nor self-belief should be dependent on others."

We, all humans want and need someone to share joy, happiness, success or struggles. When we achieve something we want our close humans to be happy about it. It's a natural thing for social animals we are. But the key to happiness is that it comes from the inside. It should never be dependent on others. Neither happiness nor self-belief. It is true that no one will care and believe in us more than we do. That's why self-love is so important. You have to believe in your dreams and abilities because most likely YOU will have to convince others about them. So how can you do it if you don't believe yourself?? And it's equally important to do it for own satisfaction, for own vision and because you want to be there regardless of others being happy for you, proud of you or congratulating. You will be happy enough doing it to not pay attention who else is happy for you.

Sure it's normal to have self-doubts especially when things are far from our wishes but you just can't let them into your head. Stay focused on your ultimate goal and prepare for a long run. Enjoy the road and have unshakable trust that you are capable of doing what you dream about and that one day you WILL. Imagine yourself doing it already. And keep exploring different ways until you find the right one 💖

I hope you enjoy this personal post. I decided to say some things because I think that along with all the motivation we get from everywhere it is also important to share our weaknesses, struggles and disappointments. Because this is the reality. This is what we all go through to achieve but no one seems to talk about it. You have to be weak to be strong.

xoxo

Natalia 

Summer in Iceland

What is a remark of summer in Iceland? Well, not hot weather like in most places! However the loooong days (meaning literally!) when the sun sets after midnight are a sign of the better part of the year here. But the top pick of the summer is when the purple wave of Lupines covers Reykjavik! They are in full bloom usually from mid June to mid July and shortly after the last Lupine flower is blew by the wind the summer is over too.

How to dress for summer in Reykjavik?

If you open a tourist guide most likely you are gonna read that it's COLD and you need to bring a rain coat and wind proof clothes and well... tons of woolen sweaters won't be too much either! Sounds like dressing up for winter? Yeah, a bit. But the good news is: it is not so bad! This is true that in Iceland the weather can change quickly and can rain a lot but it's not very cold. The temperatures don't get high here but as the climate is different you don't feel freezing cold when it's only 10 Celsius degrees. And as long as there is no wind it can be quite hot with 20 ticks above zero! 

But even with this it's not a tropical country so summer look needs to be adjusted. As I'm a lady (or self nominated princess😅) I couldn't forget about dressing up and wearing some summer pieces. I developed a way to match my light clothes with some warmer pieces to make myself looking stylish but warm and not too odd for the general population here (Ok, sometimes they look but I don't care!).

When I saw this dress in Primark I kind of fell in love. It reminded me countryside style and the stories I have read as a child about village life. But, hmm... now I live in Reykjavik not a Polish village. And as far I remembered, I haven't seen a day for this one this year... With some pieces I would go away and forget but this kept bothering me. So?
Time to get creative!

I decided to wear boots instead of sandals (which to be honest I don't have) to bring this dress heavier, everyday look. I used big baggy-looking handbag to make this looking like a working woman running in the city not a girl walking up a beach promenade.

If it's warm enough I can go like this with naked shoulders but if not I would add a scarf. It will add up stylishness and extravagance. It would be very mine and very XXI century. I think. 

How do you like such modification of a summer dress? 

Oh! And if you live in a warmer country you can use it in the fall or early spring when you just can't wait to jump in a summer dresses! 

xoxo

Natalia 

Details of this outfit:
Dress - Primark
Boots - Zara
Bag - Benetton
Watch - Michael Kors

Dress - Primark, boots - Zara, bag - Benetton