The very best of 2012

Hello everyone and happy last day of the year! I really hope this 2012 was a great year for you, for me it definitley was an interesting year, lots of things happened and thinking about it i wouldn't change much, as always i wish you lots of exciting things for the upcoming year!
Today i decided to share with you a selection of my favourite beauty items of 2012, it was such a challenge to pick just few goodies to show you because i love so many!

The first favourite is a solid shampoo by Lush Cosmetics, it's called Godiva and i just can't live without it!

 It lasts for a very long time and since is not liquid you cantake it with you anywhere. This is how Lush describes it:

"Named after a certain naked protestor, Godiva gets to work sending a message to your hair. Our vegan, 2 in 1 shampoo bar conditions your hair follicles with moisturizing nut oils and Shea butter to care for dry, processed locks and leave you with glossy, shiny, and softened tresses. Long used as a tonic for the hair and scalp, jasmine also perfumes your locks with an ultra-sexy fragrance with serious staying power."

The second one is also from Lush and is my favourite face scrub and mosturizing cleanser in the all world. It smell like spicy cookied dought and it even looks like it! Even if it's also a scrub, it's very gentle, i use it every other day. This is how Lush describes it:

"With maize flour, polenta and a popcorn topping, the ingredients listing makes this fresh facial cleanser look more like a festive snack! We combine these ingredients to give you a very soft scrub, leaving your skin bright, clean and smooth. It is gentle enough to use on your entire body, and has a dash of cinnamon powder to warm up winter skin"

Of course i could not leave out the best makeup remover ever! I just can't get enough of Bioderma H2O, it removes any makeup without irritating my eyes and my skin, it feels very fresh on the skin and gives you that little bit of moisture that is always good!

Definitley the star of my makeup this 2012, Kate Moss n.107, you know how much i love it! I've talked about in at least two more posts but i can't help it! It's the perfect rich oxblood deep berry color and pared  with a neutral eye makeup or some eyeliner it's perfect for fall and winter.

In the past two years i've always come back to this brush set, it's quite unexpensive, it's arround 27€ for the all thing and the quality is amazing! It comes with 5 eye brushes, 5 face brushes, a fan brush and a lipstick one. I really recomand it to anyone who wants a compact complete brush set to travel with or as a gift to someone who's just starting getting into makeup. Some beauty guru said that the fondation brush in this set is even better that the Mac one. Set by Zoeva.com

 This is a new entry in my top beauty favourites but as soos as i tried it i knew i was going to love it! This is Clinique "All about eyes" a under eyes serum that reduces puffs and dark circles, it leaves that area soft and smooth like never before. It's quite pricy but the results and crazy and immediate! 32€ from Clinique

 This oxblood violet nail polish from Essie is just a statement piece, the pigmentation is amazing, with two coats you get the most beautifull dark manicure. It lasts for a 7-8 days and the best part is that when you remove it it doesn't fades your nails not even a little bit. The applicator is wide and big so with one brush stroke you cover the all nail. The color is called "Sole Mate", 13€ from Essie.

Let's be onest, this is a classic in the beauty charts, the Naked palette by Urban Decay is to die for! I had it for a year now and i couldn't do my makeup without it. The pigmentation of the eyeshadow is incredible all the nuances are tridimentional and very particoular for a neutral palette. You can create hundreds of different looks with it and in my opinion is just the best investement. 45€ from Urban Decay.

Last but not least two of my top O.P.I favourite  nail polishes, "I spotted the lizard" from the Spiderman collection and "Malaga wine". The first one is the exact dupe for Chanel "Peridot" only with better pigmentation and duration. You only need one coat in my opinion because the nail polish it self is very thick. I love the duo crome gold and green effect. The second one is a O.P.I. classic, is this deep berry wine red, it's just very sophisticated and elegant i really love it and again the quality is to die for. 12€

I hope you liked my "Very best of 2012" i hope you will have an amazing new year's eve and i'll see you next year!!!!! Bye bye  XO

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Pumpkin gnocchi RECIPE

Good morning everyone and happy holidays! Today's post is a really yummi one, it's one of my favourite dishes ever and the recepie was created by my lovely mom. It's a new modern version of a very traditional italian dish Gnocchi. This type of "pasta" is originally made using potatoes but my mom has replaced it with pumpkin making it not only healthier but tastier.. The recipe is very easy and it doesn't take a lot of time.
This recipe is for 4 people.

INGREDIENTS:
- 1kg of pumpkin puree (in Italy we don't have canned pumpkin puree so i had to make my own, i'll show you how)
-500g of all purpuse flour
-1 egg
-salt
-nutmeg
-parmigiano cheese

TOOLS:
-a small striped wood board. It's tool created to give gnocchi their shape but you can use anything similar to it
-a rolling pin

1) Cut the pumpkin in small pieces, remember to clean it first, remove any filaments or seeds. Put it in the microwave or in the oven until is pretty much dehydrated. Blend it util you have a puree.

2) Add 1 egg, 2tbsp of parmigiano, a litte bit of nutmeg and a little bit of salt.

3) mix everything together  and start adding the flour. Keep pooring it until the consistence is similar to the playdo.

4) On a non-stick surface poor some flour and stretch the dough with a rolling pin. The thickness should be about 3mm.

5) Roll the stripes in little cylinders and cut them in little pieces

6) Now the fun part! Take the Gnocchi board-maker and swipe the little pieces one at the time with your fingers, don't use a lot of pressure, be delicate. You should get the typical gnocchi shape. If they're not perfect don't worry, it does take practice, i swear they will taste just as good!

7) Now that you have your super yummi gnocchi it's time to cook them!

8) In a pot full of boiling water poor a hand full of coarse salt and then poor the gnocchi, they cook very very fast so be carefull, they only need a cupple of minutes. When you feel they are ready, put them in the bowl of your choice and add a piece of butter and some chopped sage and parmigiano cheese.
Enjoy!

If you have any questions please don't esistate asking :)

 

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are having a fantastic time with your loved ones! To celebrate the day i d'like to share with you some of my favourite traditions, i'm always curious about what everyone around the world is doing for the holidays, if you want you can answer the questions as well.

1) What do you do on Christmas eve?
In the morning, I always go downtown with my friends to have a light lunch and go for a walk, we always meet everyone because all the city does the same thing, for once, is nice to see downtown crowded because this way you have the possibility to wish merry xmas to people that you don't see very ofthen.
For dinner, me and my brother and dad go to my grandma's in a small town close to my hometown and have a nice big dinner together and we wait till midnight to open presents, we laugh a lot and then we all sleep there.

2) What do you usually eat on christmas eve/christmas day/boxing day?
Every year we eat the exact same things, for my granma traditions are very important, expecially if they are food related. On the 24th everything is about fish, we have mussels and squids with lemon and pepper, spaghetti with clams,mussels and cherry tomatoes and then roast fish. We also have mixed nuts, lots and lots of cake and cookies :D and rivers of champain and wine. 
The traditional italian Chrismas dessert is called Panettone, it's a soft cake with raisins and spices. 
On the 25th we always have smoked salmon on toasted bread, pasta al forno (so yummi), roasted lamb and sausages with salad and, again, nuts and dessert.
On the 26th since we're still stuffed from the past 2 days we have a very traditional dish made by boiled vegetables and lamb meat. It sounds quite weird but it's really delicious
 and it's perfect to recover from the food coma :P

3) What's your favourite Christmas game, if you have one?
My favourite one is definitley "7/" it's very similar to blackjack but you don't have to score 21 but 7/.  We play with an italian deck called "carte napoletane" that looks like this

Another top favourite of mine is Tombola, you might know it as Bingo :P it's tradition in Italy and we play only at Christmas time.

4) Do you open your present on Christmas eve or on Christmas morning?
We open our presents on Christmas eve but i exchange gifts with my friends usually on Christmas day

5)What's your favourite Christmas movie?
100% The Grinch! Me and my brother love it! We always watch it together every year and we know it by heart, no kidding.

I hope you enjoied knowing a little bit more about my Christmas time traditions, i hope you are having a great time! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU! 

P.S if you go on my Instagram you can see my Christmas eve nail art for this year :D
lots of love! 

Waiting for Santa: Winter night time skincare

Good evening everyone, well it's night time in Italy, i just finished my night time skincare routine and i'm now in my confy warm bed at my dad's house writing this post. Since it's bed time, i thought it was a nice idea to share this routine with you. Although, i have to write a little disclamer first, i am currently using pretty expensive brands,many products were presents, some i accumulated and never used, so i decided to combine them together and see what happens. So far i'm really happy about them, expecially about the cleanser but i'll tell you more in details in a second.

The first thing i do when i get into the bathroom is to take my makeup off and to do that i use my all time favourite makeup remover Bioderma H2O. I know this the most popular makeup remover at the moment but it's just so good! It doesn't irritate my eyes like many others do and it removes 90% of the makeup.

 After i've done that, i use La Mer cleansing gel and toner. In my oppinion this products are really expensive, they're around 65$ each and usually i would never buy them but i got them as a gift and i have to say i can really tell why they are so overpriced. The quality is amazing and expecially the cleanser is haven if you have combination skin. It left my skin soft, mosturized, incredibly clean and smooth like never before. If i could i would really repurchase it. The toner is also really good but if i had to pick one, it would obviously be the cleansing gel.

Next step is my under eyes night cream, i'm using Rilastil's one but i'm not really impressed with it. I loved a lot better a drugstore one i purchased a long ago but unfortunately i can't remember the name of it. If you have any good suggestions, please leave them in the comments below :)

We're almost done! After the eye cream i apply another Bioderma product, i'm talking about Bioderma White Objective Serum Lightening night care anti-brown spots. As the name says it's a night serum creted to uniform the complection and get rid of the dark spots. I've started using it only this week so later this month i'll tell you if it really works.

Last but not least, i apply my L'Occitane noursing lip balm, again, i personally think it's a little overpriced, 10$ for a lip balm that is not ever the best one, it's a little too much. I do like it but i still like better  L'Erbolaio's one, i highly reccomend that, it's only 6$ and it's made out of 4 different tipes of vegetal butters, it makes my lips super soft. I ran out of it so i had to buy a different one.

Have a great day everyone and only 3 more days till Christmas, ieeeh :D

Waiting for Santa: Gift Wrapping

Good morning everyone, i have just few minutes before i have to leave for my 8 hours car ride, wish me luck :S I don't really like sitting in a car for more than 3 hours, plus today we might find snow on the highway, so no, it's not going to be too much fun! Good news is that i soon as i get home i'll do christmas baking tutorials! I love baking so much but i just didn't have the chance to do any here in Milano.
Today, i'd like to give you some cute ideas for gift wrapping. I am one of those person that like the wrapping even more than the present itself, it think that a nice wrapping makes everything more exciting. A lot of people think that gift wrapping is vey difficult but it's actually not at all.
I personally really like when gift are wrapped differently, they look a lot better under the tree but it's not necessary to buy many different materials because i know that they can get quite expensive, all you need is that little detail that will chance everything.

Cute labels are a very nice way to make all present unique and to know who they belong to, they can easily be homemade or printed, there are a lot of cute templates online you can download.

 If you don't want to use a label, use some candy! This wrapping idea is incredibly cute, you can imbed  a lollypop or a candy cane to the ribbon and transform a plane gift into something really unique. Plus, it's like getting an extra treat. 

 Use some stickers! Stickers are really easy and cheap to find, you can use themed ones or quote ones. 

 Include a little letter. If the present is for someone really dear to you, write a letter to include in the wrapping, it really shows how much you care and it works as a label. 

If you don't have time at all, just buy a very particular wrapping paper, use the ones with a really nice and creative pattern, like this one, isn't it just so adorable? Don't forget that they usually come in sets, this way you can layer them and create your own personal pattern. 

Be creative!!

I hope this post gave you some ideas, i'll see you soon!

Bye Bye! 

Waiting for Santa: Blair Waldorf through the years

Hello everyone, as many of your might already know, yesterday was the last episode ever of Gossip Girls, the 10th episode of the 6th season was epilogue and yes, we can say, the happy ending and most exciting thing, the identity of gossip girl is finally reveled. I'm not going to comment to much the episode even if i'd like to, because i don't want to give away any spoilers to any of you that didn't watch the episode yet. Want i'm going to do is talk about the evolution of Blair Waldorf's fashion style. If you watched all the season i might have noticed that as her character developed, her style did as well. I really like the transition she went through, she started has a high school preppy queen and then she became a very sophisticated woman.

In season 1 and 2 she was still in high school, she was a teenager and she was always wearing the Constance uniform and a bow headband. She loved color blocking and none can forget her signature bright tights pared with a statement coat. She didn't wear hills yet so she was always seen wearing flats, her hair was aways in loose curls and she loved rocking a bright lipstick.

If you want to create an outfit inspired by the young Blair all you need is:

• a bright pair of tights
• a uniform like shirt possibly navy blue
• a white shirt with a ribbon on the collar 
• a bright coat or a bon-ton coat (like the one in the first outfit)
• a pair of flats
• a bow headband 
• Don't forget to style your hair in curls and wear a bright lipstick if you want. 

In season 3-4, we start seeing the transition from the young Waldorf to the mature one. In this phase, she loves wearing colorful flower patterns and she trades the super bright shades of more pastel-like ones. She uses a lot of chiffon and loves mixing different prints. Other very important thing is that she went from her signature bow headband to fascinators, influenced by her trip to Paris. For the first time she stars wearing hills. At that time, she also really liked wearing wool blazers with matching skirts and a blouse underneath. As far as makeup goes, she's also transitioning into darker shades, she always wears a plummy blush, a very soft brown smoky eye and nude lips. Her hair are still in wavy curls. 

If you want to look like young-adult Blair all you need is:

• a flower pattern dress or skirt
• sandals
• a fascinator or a little hat
• a leather shopping bag
• a wool blazer and skirt
• a printed blouse 

In season 5-6 she is a full grown up, she's married, she's part of a royal family and she has to go for a more sophisticated toned down look. She now uses very light prints, the colors are way darker,one of the shades i've seen her wearing the most in deep dark red or oxblood, she almost aways uses nude tights instead of her bright ones, all her dresses come to her knees now. This also the first time we see her wearing pants or suits. Even if her outfits are more formal now, she loves playing with see through fabrics and puffy dresses. 

One of the biggest changes is definitely her hair, she no longer wears them down but she styles them is braided buns or high hairstyles, paired with a sparky gemstone headband. 

She also uses a lot more clutches than shopping bags and her makeup is a little bit more intense now, she kept the lips neutral but she uses a darker eyeshadow. One accessory that we can not forget is her proposal ring necklace, she never takes that off. 

If you want the sophisticated Blair's look, all you need is:

• long dark autumn colors dresses
• clutches
• sparkly headband
• a ring as a pendent 
• nude tights
• don't forget to style your hair in a side bun

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and going through Blair's style evolution. I also hope you enjoyed the seasons finale, post a comment if you want me to do the same thing for Serena's style. 

I'll see you next time! Bye bye! 

Waiting for Santa: Clinique Chubby stick REVIEW

Hi everyone, i hope you are having a wonderful week end, i'm relaxing a lot, yesterday i went to a Christmas party and it was so much fun but i'm really tired today so i decided not to go anywhere.
Today's post is going to be a review for a product that has been really popular this season, i'm talking about Clinique's very famous chubby sticks. They are tinted lip butter and they come in 8 different shades. I really love the formula especially for the winter time, they are extremely moisturizing and i love the shiny and sheer finish, they are very easy to apply and you don't even need a mirror. They are very light on your lips and very pigmented compared to the other tinted lip butters, they also last quite a lot on.
They can be quite expensive, 17€, but it's really worth it. If you are looking for a high quality tinted moisturizer you have found the one.
Many many brands have created less expensive dupes for it but i don't think they are quite as good especially about the moisture.  I forgot to mention that they're also scented free and hypoallergenic.
I own the number 5 "Chunky cherry"a very vivid fuchsia and i have to say i really love it, i've been using it everyday.
I hope you'll give it a try, see you next time!
bye bye XO

Waiting for Santa: "Baby it's cold outside" manicure TUTORIAL

Outside is snowing, i just took a bubble bath using my favorite lush soap "Twilight" and then i had crêpes for dinner made by my lovely roommate; so i feel very inspired to show you this incredibly easy and festive nail art. It's a dark blue manicure with snowflakes, i think this nails tutorial is very elegant and yet very fun! 

All you need is:

• dark blue nail polish, i'm using O.P.I "into the night" from the Amazing Spider-man collection, i love it!
• some white nail art pen or white nail polish with a really fine brush
• top coat 

1) Take the blue nail polish of your choice and pain your nails, do more than one coat if you need to

2) Take the white nail art pen and draw a cross on your nail

3) draw another cross diagonally, the final result should look similar to an asterisk (*)

4) on every segment of the asterisk draw little V to make it look like a snowflake (you can create any kind of snow flakes you like, look at a picture and try to reproduce it) 

5) on every other finger,  draw little dots to simulate snow. The snow part is totally optional, if you prefer you can stop at the snowflake on the ring finger. 

6) finish of with top coat and enjoy! 

I hope you liked this festive nails tutorial, i'll see you all tomorrow!

bye bye!! XO 

p.s. i'll review the amazing spiderman kit very soon :)

Waiting for Santa: Party looks

Hello everyone! I'm very sorry i didn't get the chance to write a post yesterday but i got home very late from university and i was really exhausted. Luckily, this is the last week of lessons for this semester, so starting from this Friday i will have a lot more time to dedicate you :)
Today i'm showing you three party looks to rock during the holidays, the first one is very feminine and it's inspired to the 50's, the second one is very trendy and versatile, it contains the color of the season, oxblood and the third one is a very edgy look for all the girls that don't like or are tired to wear dresses.
Let's get started!

This is the first look inspired to the 50's, it's a very classic outfit created using the typical Christmas colors: red and golden. The dress i picked is very flattering on girls with a small waist and generous hips, the shoes are perfect for dancing because of the platform. One of the trend of the year is to mix and match gold and silver, a thing that would have been considered incredibly weird few years ago; but i like how the gold shoes and nail polish look paired with the silver jewelry.  The makeup is inspired to the 50's as well, fire red lips and cat eyes eyeliner, style your hair in loose curls.

The second look is perfect for all the girls that want to look cute and putted together without necessarily wearing hills. Lace and sheer baroque details decorate the most of the oxblood dress, combined with lace tights and oxblood velvet boots is perfect for a dressy-comfy look. If you want to be even more girly, wear black leather pumps. I kept the accessories very all black but with sparkly details because they enhance the dress without overloading it. The makeup is a simple brown toned smoky-eyes paired with neural lipgloss. The nails polish is same color as the dress. I really like the hairstyle in the picture, i think is the perfect complement to this look.  

The third and last outfit is for all you girls like there that have a complicated relationship with skirts and dresses. Who said you can't be sexy and feminine wearing shorts? Since is a party look we are creating, i thought to use sequined shorts, i really like the pattern of this pair. Because the shorts have to be the focus of the look, i kept everything else very simple, a nice black body stocking  with a sheer heart neckline, a black boyfriend blazer, black wedges and a gold and black box clutch. As for the accessories, i included a gold lace collar, to spice up that body stocking, and three golden rings. Don't forget to wear black tights under the shorts! As for makeup, i decided to go for a soft smoky eyes, leaving everything else neutral. If you want to be super edgy style your hair is a tight bun,  if you want to be a little more girly live them in wavy curls.

I hope you enjoyed my party looks, i'll see you all soon!

Have a great day! XO

 

Waiting for Santa: L'Occitane hand cream REVIEW

Hi everyone, i hope you had a great Saturday, this weekend is holiday in Milano, it's Sant'Ambrogio and everyone went downtown christmas shopping. I loved the atmosphere, every shop had live music or some kind of entertainment, i especially loved Banana Republic that had a live gospel chorus playing inside the shop. Today i spend the all day with my friend Elena that came visit me from Bari, my hometown, and we had a lot of fun. We went shopping and then we had a supper at California Bakery. Today it was really cold for my standards, i can't tell you how dry my skin feels, it's awful, so i have been really into moisturizer lately. I just rediscovered L'Occitane hand cream, i currently  using the limited edition "Rose Petals" and  let me tell you, it smells divine. I think this hand cream is not only  thick and moisturizing but it feels very luxurious and it leaves your hand incredibly soft and nicely scented. I especially recommend it for those of you who have really dry skin of as a night treatment, because it does take a while to soak in. It contains 20% of shea butter and mostly natural ingredients, this is how it's described on the packaging: "This hand cream, enchanted with a floral fragrance evoking sugar-coated rose petals, it's highly concentrated with shea butter to help protect and soften skin". 
Let me know if you like this hand cream as well or if you ever tried it.
Have a great day, i'll see you tomorrow!

 The view from my balcony, i love snow so much!

 Me in the snow and my wintery outfit ahah

The beautiful ceiling in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (Milano) all lighted up for the grand opening of La Scala's opera season.

Waiting for Santa: Snow in Milano and la Scala

Hello hello everyone! I'm so happy today, it's finally snowing in Milano and it's such a beautiful thing! I'm from the south of Italy so i never get to see snow and having the possibility to admire this amazing weather in December it's a dream! This week end in Milano is very special because it's Sant Ambrogio and there is the opening ceremony of the Teatro Alla Scala di Milano, the most famous opera theatre in Italy. Everyone that matters in going to be there tonight all dressed up in smoking and long dresses. Since i don't have an invitation, of course, i'm going to watch it from the big screen downtown! I can't wait to share with you the best outfits i see. I believe it's going to be a very special night.  

For the occasion later today i'll post you a makeup tutorial and a OOTD. 

Have a fantastic weekend XOXO 

Waiting for Santa: Candy cane manicure TUTORIAL

Hi everybody and sorry for yesterday, i had no time to post anything because i was trapped in university all day and i was exhausted when i got home so i just went to bed really early; but i will make it up to you today with a very festive nails tutorial.
 Every year when the Christmas season starts i like to wear this candy cane manicure, it's very fun and festive and it's not to fancy to wear. It's very simple to make and you don't need a lot of things ;)
All you need is:

TUTORIAL: 

1. a red nail polish (you can use a glitter one if you like just make use that it's very pigmented)
2. a white tip painter nail polish or a normal one with a very fine brush
3. a topcoat

Step 1

File your nails and get them ready to be painted. 

Apply a nice coat of the red nail polish of your choice

Step 2

Take the white nail polish (make sure it was a fine brush) and start painting diagonal lines. Do 3 thick ones and 3 really fine ones. Try to make them equidistant, this will make you nails look just like a real candy cane. 

Step 3

Apply a nice layer or topcoat and rock your new manicure :)

Don't forget to use a hand cream daily during this cold fall days. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, see you tomorrow!! 

Have a great day XO 

Waiting for Santa: Christmas time arrived in town!

Today is the first day that Milano is completely decorated, everything is ready to make this holiday season more joyful, obviously i couldn't miss a walk around downtown. I took some pictures to share with you the atmosphere here in my city. I hope you like them and i hope you are having a wonderful first week of December. For the occasion i did a burgundy-gold eye makeup, if you like, i'll post a tutorial later on this week. I really like it because is warm, elegant and perfect for Christmas time.

 my makeup, Kate Moss n.107 lipstick, Lancome elefant blush and naked palet + Essence red pigment for the eyes

 it was so cold outside :S but i was very festive in red :)

 La Rinascente

 Winter Wonderland

 This headband covered in red feathers and sparky hearts reminds me of the Whoville from the Grinch. 

 Candy caaane!

The beautiful Duomo, all ready for the holidays