Sunset vibe

A quick run to the supermarket for some local beer for baby J and this is what we wore.

Paired my VB jeans and top from Ali Express (balance!) with a vintage shawl from New Delhi, Dior Tribal earring and customised Scarosso ballet flats. Unfortunately, Scarosso don’t offer customisations via their website anymore (either that or my browser is missing weird a plugin) but their shoes are still really great, but unfortunately all leather.

Baby J in Levis Jeans, Timberland shoes and Nor Black Nor White Jacket.

Sunshine.

It was 18 degrees in Hamburg recently, and it was momentous, to say the least.

My best friend is visiting me from Mumbai and we decided to go out and do what we love doing best. Style and art direct each other ❤

Jumper – American Apparel, Dress – MNG circa 2008, Shoes – Scarosso, Earring – Dior, Glasses – Viu Eyewear, Bag – Louis Vuitton

Rabanne J. – Street style king. His pieces are picked up along his travels across India and Europe.

Dat bag though

Where my sunnies at?

Sunglasses hunting at Viu Eppendorf – they have the nicest, friendliest people working there!

They launched their new range (Ensoie x Viu) of sunglasses literally a day after I ordered my Patricia Schmid x Viu’s The Muse! Aah. Pain. The Rose from the new collection is next. I adore their shop, their team members, their designs and clearly keep going back because of a crush situation. #noshameinmygame

Icecream at Eis Eis Baby at Alsterdorfer Strasse. Their dairy-free strawberry ice cream is only like, the best in the city. No big deal.

More days like this to come with Summer hurtling towards us. I am excited, can you tell?

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Skincare, Korean style.

As the lot of following me on Twitter or/and on Instagram would know, I’ve had a skin debacle earlier this year dabbling with the Sunday Riley Power Couple combo. My skin was an itchy, acne filled mess, and I do not usually have to deal with acne unless I’ve been eating past 10 or sleeping poorly. I have had to invest a massive portion of the summer trying to get my ‘normal’ skin back and thanks to Peach and Lily, I did!

Now all you know about the Korean way of skincare is most probably true and here’s why it works for me. I adore fussing over my skin and the process of applying multiple layers of different consistencies of serums and creams make the entire process so… pamper-ey and great.

Now, my task was to keep the combination of 10+ products under 100 euros and do my best in assuring they are cruelty free. A lot of Korean products retail in China so this was an elephantine task, but I had a week off of work and was raring to go!

Thankfully amazon.de is a babe and I had all my products in 25 days – from Korea!

Started off with good ol’ double cleansing, ampoule, essence, eye cream, emulsion, cream and sunscreen!

Awkward family photo. Photographed in order of usage.

The winners of this set are the cleansing duo of DHC oil and Su:m 37 rose cleansing stick – they are great for makeup removal and cleansing dry skin, and since I am still on the lookout for the right toner (on the move for Be the Skin Botanical Power Toner), I follow it up quickly with Mizons Snail repair Intensive Ampoule. Here is where it got tricky for me because whilst I can live with products that don’t ‘do much’ for me, I loathe products that set my skin in reverse. Bentons Snail Bee High Content Essence made me break out into red inflamed acne and so now, I skip over directly to the eye cream. Not Korean, but still the best I’ve used. Institud Arnauds Youth Eclat Eye Contour cream is a fantastic product that I first bought it in India a couple of years back when it was still available there, and it has magically lasted me until now! Also makes for a dope lip moisturiser.

But my true star, my true love from this set is the Skinfood Sake and Peach emulsion. As the name suggests, it has the consistency of emulsion and smells like slightly boozy peach. Perfect! This product has singlehandedly changed my mind about ‘runny’ moisturisers, and my skin! I love love love it. I got the Mizon Snail Recover gel for a double whammy of moisture for nighttime but unfortunately, it only works well solo. It is a great moisturiser on it’s own, but along with everything, it’s another inflame-ey nightmare, so with a heavy heart, it rests on the shelf with the Benton essence.

I use the Korres Emulsion Yoghurt with SPF 30 for sun protection. It smells of mango lassi to me and with that, and I am good to go!

I am very happy with my current routine, it’s 15 mins every night and every morning and with the right toner and essence, I think I’d be gold!

Winners.

Not so much.

Just water cleansing phase post Sunday Riley.

Only Mizon recovery and ampoule phase.

With Benton snail bee in the routine phase.

With everything but Benton and Mizon snail recovery. Ignore the deviated septum. Tadaaaa!

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Orange and pink and blue.

Having been in New York recently, it’s safe to say I am smitten*. It is one of those places that doesn’t underwhelm your expectations of it, or your senses for that matter. It is as exciting, cool and fascinating as I’d expected it to be and I loved being there! Just like so many people I’ve heard and read about; the ones who’ve gone to New York city for a holiday and can envision themselves living there, I am already intensely infatuated with the place. I am not moving there any time soon but the first impression it left was, essentially, “wow.”. I loved the little neighbourhoods, the food, the incredible shopping, the food, the pulse of the city which was very reminiscent of home, and did I mention the food?

In Venice I wore one half of one of my favourite suits from Henry Holland. It’s orange, its lace, a crop blouse with a high waisted skirt and these are too many of my favourite things in one look for me to pass it by. The orange set I bought last summer in not available anymore but their current sale is fantastic!

Another great thing about a suit is that you can wear the pieces in different looks. On a day out to the MET, I paired the top half with an American Apparel dress, denim jacket and Nike flyknits. I had to throw some leggings on midway there ’cause it was freezing!

Busted!

Hypnotised.

*smitten

Warm and happy. Hey there.

• – Nirja x

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