Water is life! If you struggle to drink enough, I help you to change that and give away one Sodanow machine, so you can enjoy sparkling water at home without carrying bottles.
Sodanow is Switzerland’s youngest and most versatile bubbler. The stylish device doesn’t take a lot of space in your kitchen. You can use it for all beverages, even for wine and your own cocktail creations. It’s very easy: Just fill the bottle of your bubbler with tap water, push the button of the bubbler several times and there you go!
The human body is 60% water and our blood is even 90%. Since we constantly lose water it’s important to refill the resources. Water is essential for the kidney and other body functions. Dehydration causes skin disorders and wrinkles. So water is not just essential and healthy, but as well a beauty booster. Health experts recommend drinking between two and three litres of water every day. This includes water you get from beverages and food.
Personally, I think sparkling water is much more fun to drink. I try to avoid PET bottles whenever there are alternatives: They are heavy to carry and not very sustainable. A lot of them end up as waste in the sea, endangering the lives of dolphins, turtles and birds. Therefore, using a bubbler is a good choice for certain reasons.
How to win: Leave a comment on this post. The winner will receive the Sodanow machine in silver. Please include your mail address so I can contact you if you win.
You have an extra chance to win if you enter on my Instagram too. Good luck!
The giveaway will end on the 22th of August 2021. The Winner needs to have a Swiss address.
After a break in 2020, Jacqueline Loekito returned with a new collection this year in collab with Swiss Artist Tobias Gutmann. Both creatives spent a lot of time in bed with their newborn babies in 2020, which inspired them to create a collection that evokes childhood memories.
The collection is an expression of their hopes for the future of their children Aviel and Mina (Avina). The looks remind of different bugs and crocodiles in their shapes and colours. Silhouettes and prints come from the expressive drawings of Tobias and Jacqueline Loekito translated into fashion as an expression of love.
Inclusivity and pushing past gender norms have always been one of the main topics of Jacqueline Loekito. In this collection, she expresses this as well with her choice of models. “Everybody is a superstar,” said Jacqueline and cast a group of highly diverse people who could all be characters in an absolutely fabulous but crazy fairy tale or live together at Villa Villekulla.
As one of her muses, it was a great honour for me to be part of Avina and present a unique and wonderful haute couture look with a blue leather corsage and a green laced pencil skirt. Since quite a few of the models are already dear friends, this show felt indeed like a family gathering, and I was almost tempted to say we lived happily ever after, watching Aviel and Mina become the future queens of our fashion kingdom.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock… The alarm rings, you open your eyes. It takes a few seconds till your mind is aware of your body, of your surroundings. You check the time, open your phone, decide to get up. It’s a new day, a blank page, what are you gonna do with it, what are you waiting for?
Are you waiting for the next sunny day, a hero coming to rescue you, the lottery win you’re dreaming of, better days or till you wake up not feeling tired? Whatever it is: Leave the pause button alone, I don’t want to know about the past, and I’m no fortune teller, so I can’t say a lot about the future, but I do know we have now. So unwrap it like it was candy, swallow it with that mix of excitement, curiosity and fear you eat Bertie Bott’s Beans.
It might be wonderful, it might teach you a sour lesson, but whatever it is, it’s what we have. So ask yourself again and again like Gwen Stefani, “what you waiting for?”. Get up, fall, heal and once again. Go where it feels good or where your curiosity brings you, and you don’t hear loud alarms beeping at least. Do new things, learn to trust yourself more than you trust others and don’t feel bad to waste time lying in the grass, dreaming and staring at the clouds.
Thank you, Artemperature and Karinmiu Photography, for exactly the kind of afternoon I was waiting for, playing with the Goghpack, the first backpack that allows you to collect art prints and change your style every day. Oh, and by the way: If you think this backpack is an awesome idea, go and support their Crowdify so production can start soon and there will be more art in the world.
Learn more about the Goghpack – The first backpack with changeable art prints to collect and have a look at their Crowdify.
One of the challenges of a maximalist life is to carry around a lot of things. People often ask me if I have cement in my bag when they lift it. Here I am, carrying a cement bag indeed and declaring it as stylish. It’s recycling, baby!
Don’t look so surprised, I’ll tell you more: Elephbo is a label founded in Switzerland that creates unique accessories with sustainable materials. They recycle used cement sacks in Cambodia and help to reduce the environmental impact of construction sites. Climate-neutral, under fair working conditions and fair pay along the entire value chain, they create bags and hats that fit perfectly well into the urban lifestyle.
Until now, they recycled 127’072 bags as a newsticker on their homepage says. If you go and check, maybe you might see a higher number already. Cement bags are extremely tough, and I was surprised how cool they look with camels, eagles and elephants on them. Elephbo combines them with leather or canvas when they turn them into backpacks, bags or pouches.
Their newest strike is the creation of a unique art edition in collaboration with Swiss Giuliano Tosi. The imagination of Tosi transformed the backpack into a colourful and distinctive piece of art, using it as a canvas. With acrylic colours, he painted a scene of two workers cleaning bags of cement that inspired him. Tosi was born in Berne in 1992, lives in Zurich and learned his skills autodidactically. He works in the design industry and paints professionally since he turned 20.
Lalique White in Black is the first-ever perfume for men I review and present. This fragrance promises to break the codes of classical masculinity and is made for a casual-chic man who is not afraid to embrace all of his facets and contradictions.
How it smells Lalique White in Black is like a warm blanket: Aromatic, woody and powdery. Perfumer Karine Dubreuil created a seductive and mysterious fragrance. It’s very amiable and sexy, a mix of familiar notes with a new twist. All in all a tad sweeter than the average masculine fragrance, thanks to strong musky vanilla notes, but definitely not female. The citrus notes are very dominant too, which make the perfume suitable for daytime.
The bottle Lalique White in Black comes in the same bottle as Lalique White. The bottle is matte and all black. I’d say typical masculine, especially with the silver top that reminds me of a gear. What is special about the bottle is that you can write on it with chalk. Cool idea! Just put your name, inspiration or motto on the bottle or even use it as a diary: your scent, bottle, and story.
My opinion Dear men, please wear this, honestly! At first, spritz, I was drawn to it like it was a magnet. Better than dessert, so if there is any classy guy out there who wants to impress me: This fragrance is your perfect bait to catch me!
Rebellion is on my mind while I dance in a red sea. Rebellion is an aggressive word, but I tell you one thing: I am rebellion, head to toe, but a different kind than you might imagine. Maybe the Troyan horse of rebellion.
If you browse through history, one thing gets clear: rebellion was often the start of something new that was necessary and good. Rebellion has a price, and often it brings a trail of destruction, riots or even blood. Rebels are put in jail, they are the heroes of rock hymns and movies, and they polarise. Are they villains or heroes or even both at the same time?
Youth is often closely connected to rebellion, seeing the world with different eyes, standing up against the system, and demanding change. Like David screaming at Goliath, “I don’t want to live in the world you imagined no more; it’s a poisoned world, I want to create my own world”.
This year, the place where this shoot took place has seen rebellion too. The red square in Saint Gall, designed by world-famous artist Pipilotti Rist became the centre of youth riots. They were protesting against the governments’ corona measures. So loud and angry were their shouts, expressing feelings of being betrayed and bored, demanding their freedom and right to party.
I still wonder why they chose the red square as the centre of their riots. Is there a connection to red being the most aggressive colour? Did they act like bulls charging when the matador waves his small red cape? I can’t say. Maybe the question would follow if we believe in random occurrences or see connections and patterns everywhere. But we don’t go down that road now since that would be a very long way. We can do that another time happily. So let’s linger with rebellion instead.
Why do I see myself as rebellion? Well, I love to question things and see everything from different perspectives. I go my own path, and how I live and look seems to offend some people. I don’t understand why: Does it hurt them? Does it affect their life in a bad way? No! I look like a walking rainbow that escaped a circus, and I tell you, it’s a life worth living! Maybe my way of rebellion is to shake that bubble that is their life just for a second.
I don’t need to put graffitis on buildings, smash shop windows or shout paroles. I detest destruction and prefer change through growth. If I don’t like my garden, I don’t burn it down, but I start to plant different flowers. A peaceful rebellion might be the most successful anyway: Aggression and violence are usually answered with more aggression and violence. But, at the same time, I might sneak in like a Troyan horse and leave you with a tiny rebellious seed planted in your mind. It might or not grow. And maybe one day, a red flower might start to blossom where it hasn’t been before.
My outfit Dress & Cape & Hat: Maroni Vintage, Shoes: A gift, Bag & Versace Bangle: Vintage, Sunglasses: Saint Laurent
Pictures: Photorhead Styling: Greta Schoop & Me Red Square by Pipilotti Rist
Lalique’s newest addition to the Noir Premier collection, Plume Blanche 1901, shines like a glowing jewel. The elegance of a white peacock was the inspiration behind the luxurious perfume, and the scent is just as unique and rare as this animal.
How it smells Lalique Plume Balnche is a floral woody musk unisex fragrance made by Karine Dubreuil. It’s very powdery and seduces with a lot of almond, heliotrope, white wood and musk. A fragrance made to empower its wearer to feel just as proud and beautiful as a peacock.
The bottle The iconic bottle of the Noir Premier collection is well-known by now. For Plume Blanche 1901, the art nouveau bottle appears to be dipped in gold. At the front, there is the most stunning white peacock feather print, inspired by René Lalique’s illustration for the cover of Montesquiou’s book “Les Paons”. The flanks of the bottle are transparent and adorned with the collection’s cicada-wing motif. I am amazed!
My opinion For me, Lalique Plume Blanche 1901 was love at first smell, and I already know it’s gonna stay among the very few and selected fragrances I regularly use. I find it very elegant, intriguing and warm. When I was wearing the perfume for the first time, I met a friend. When we hugged, I noticed how fascinated she was by the smell. She immediately noticed I wear a new perfume and was drawn to it a lot. This showed me that I am not the only one who recognizes what a special fragrance I found.
When strangers meet, sometimes a person, you didn’t know before becomes everything within a few months. How was life before? The memories seem faint. But there is no happy end to many stories, and often people fade just as fast as they appear. They become pale like Victorian ghosts, and all that lasts is a picture of a memory, a version of a person that might not even exist any longer.
How does your voice sound when you are excited? How do you smell when I hug you, and how does your precious skin feel? What is the exact spot, size and colour of your birthmark, and what buttons did the shirt you were wearing the day we first kissed have? I try to grab my nails into those memories and keep them alive, force them to stay. But the white frog spreads in my mind and slowly takes away the clarity and intensity of my beloved memories. It makes me sad, and It frightens me, but I can’t stop it, like quicksand.
I never wanted to let you go, and I don’t want my memories to fade just a shade. But I can’t even beg you to please don’t become a ghost, a stranger. All I have left is you haunting my dreams and thoughts instead of being a part of my world. What happened to the bright future vision that could have been ahead? When did you just become an image in my head?
I became good at fixing hurt in the last two years – or at least I thought so; I swallowed my pain and tried to heal as much as possible until the next blow came. And oh dear, there was blow after blow. What you can’t see in my pictures: Just before they were taken, my heart was shattered to pieces. Not like before, but in a final way. I was cast away from the dream I wanted to live with all its pleasures and horrors. I cried all night, went to the hairdresser and continued to cry while she put cheerful colour on my head. Afterwards, I sat on the train with tears rolling down my cheeks.
As a professional, I didn’t want to cancel the planned shooting. When I know one thing about myself, it’s that no matter what happened, I can perform in front of the camera. A switch in my head turns everything else off as soon as I hear that familiar clicking sound. So I did perform. Eventually, grieve might fade just like happiness and love, but I know I will always see sad beauty in those pictures. Can you feel it too?
Last week I talked to a very old friend after losing touch for a few years. It was a wonderful conversation, open, honest and deep right from the start. I told him that I feel like I am not the same person he knew and got slightly anxious. His answer was amazing: He said “Oh, I don’t expect you to. Actually, I would be concerned if you were”.
This sunk in deep. If I meet people I haven’t seen for a while, it makes me feel uneasy because I fear they might think that I have become something less. Less beautiful, less energetic, less sparkling, less whatever, just less. How can it be that somebody who embraces the change of the world and the possibilities of the new so much, somebody who works to change herself towards a better version of herself every day, be so afraid of change for the worse at the same time?
Yes, I might have become less at something than I was a few years ago. But if you look at the whole picture, I’m also a lot more since then. Maybe what I became less was no longer a priority, or my experiences carry me somewhere else?
I shouldn’t have to be ashamed of the wounds I carry and the tiredness I feel, even if you can see it in my eyes. It means that I came far and made it through a lot. Oh, you can’t imagine where I come from as I will never be capable of where you set foot on. A face is a face, but it often doesn’t give even a glimpse of its story. Yes, I did change, and I work on myself to change even more. I am busy putting ointment on old wounds, examine where they came from and trying to break emotionally unhealthy patterns.
Old friends might become new friends when we meet again. Besides: Do you ever know a person anyway, even yourself? Another friend who is married for 20 years told me that he thinks his marriage works because his wife is still a stranger to him in many ways. Maybe we are all strangers? Maybe what it is about is not to expect to know, trust in the unknown, and see identity as a more fluid matter. Change is happening; nobody is who they were when you last met.
Natural cosmetic brand Likami promises to be superfood for the skin. They use active, plant-based ingredients and natural oils to create a new generation of quality skincare. I tested their botanical products until the bottles were empty, and today I tell you what I think about Likami’s face care.
Likami – Icelandic for body – stands for inspiration and vision. It’s a slow skincare brand that focuses on relevant things and is closely connected to nature. The family-run brand is from Belgium and produces in small quantities with fresh ingredients sourced from Europe. The products come with antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins. The four ingredients that most products contain are yarrow, sage, St. John’s Word and burdock, which they call the “quadri gold complex”.
The product line is small but offers everything you really need to care for your face, hair and body. The packaging is recyclable and minimalistic.
Likami Cleansing Milk
Every skincare routine starts with cleansing, and the Likami Cleansing Milk is rich and milky. It contains aloe vera, macadamia oil and, of course: the quadri gold complex. So this milk is the ideal accomplice to get rid of environmental toxins and excess cell-build up.
I wear foundation every day and usually clean my face with oil to take off most makeup and use this as a second cleansing step. It smells lovely, feels gentle and calming, and does what it is supposed to do very well.
Likami Facial Toner
After cleansing comes the toning! The Likami facial toner contains quadri gold complex and orange blossoms, almost a spa feeling!
I must confess at first I was not sure if I’d like a spray toner, but after using it for a few weeks I’m converted. I love to close my eyes, spray it on my face and instantly feel relaxed. I didn’t know that toning would ever become one of my favourite moments of the day, wow!
Likami Facial Essential Serum
A rich oil made of rosehip, argan and camelia, created to be a youth and beauty booster for the face. It stimulates the skin’s production of collagen and cells, adds antioxidants to enhance firmness, soothes and nourishes.
Omg, my favourite product, I think it’s a game-changer! The smell is divine and my skin feels super soft and nourished after using it. I use it twice a day under my cream, sometimes in the evening, I mix it with a retinol oil. I tried a lot of oils, but this one is the best I ever had.
Likami Facial Cream
The hydrating cream with organic aloe vera and macadamia oil feels like velvet and causes a beautiful shine on the skin. It provides superb antioxidant hydration, stimulates the production of collagen, protects and heals. Quadri gold complex is included, too, of course.
The Likami Facial Cream is rich but absorbs fast, leaving just the smoothest skin I’ve ever known. During the day, I also use suncream and a primer to complete my skincare ritual.
Likami Eye Cream
Eye creams are my secret addiction, and this anti-wrinkle eye contour cream is very luxurious to make eyes radiant and reduces puffiness. Grapeseed oil meets hyaluronic acid, aloe vera, macadamia oil and of course: the quadri gold complex.
It’s nourishing and hydrating, and the eyes are given a natural glow. Yes, yes, Likami Eye Cream help me keep the radiance and vitality of the eye area!
So, what do I think about Likami?
After emptying all my bottles of Likami, it’s time for a verdict: Likami isn’t pink, it doesn’t look bling bling, but I am in love! I already went to Absynt in Winterthur to buy more and honestly say: I am a Likami girl and totally hooked!
Sorry to all other skincare brands: You’ll have a very hard job to get back in my bathroom.
Likami is available online and from selected partners in Switzerland. First of all at Absynt in Winterhur and new as well at Fashionpie and Schön&Recht in Zurich and at Clomes in Berne.
Pictures: Sara Streule Samples sent by Absynt. I was not paid for this review and the content reflects my own opinion.
