Missed me? Here's an update

Hi babes,

Here we are again, update time. I think by now we have established that I only blog when I feel like it and have the time which is rarely. Now that the school year is over once again but my vacationjob hasn't started yet it's prime blogging time #thumbsupforthat. 

Over the last year I've started my shortened bachelor degree as a nurse. As you may or may not now I graduated as a ''graduated nurse'' which is a level below a bachelor. You basically do the same things but get paid less because the emphasis of the coursework is more practise based than all the theory and reasoning behind why you do things or how the illness is exactly formed. We got the basis version of that but I still wanted to know more about everything so I started my bachelor which is shortened because I already am a nurse. You can combine it with work but I've decided against that because I'm scared I wouldn't get around to studying after work.

Study instagram story

Tomorrow I'm getting my grades from the last round of exams so I'm a bit nervous. I've passed the other three rounds so that's great. I really hope I've passed this round also, that would mean a Summer without a resit which would be the first time as a bachelor student. I've attempted a bachelor degree before but that didn't go as well, usually a lot of resits and little to no motivation. I've got a feeling my exams went well so I'm hopeful but you never know. 

As far as Summer plans go... Coming Friday I have an appointment for a new piercing and I couldn't be more excited. I'm planning on getting a dermal underneath my left collarbone. You'll probably get to see a picture on Instagram at the end of the week. Maybe even here if I manage to keep going with the blogging thing. Later in the summer I'm going to Dour festival. It's kind of a tradition by now and again I'm so excited. I'm already planning what to bring and which outfits to wear even though that's kind of impossible with the Belgian weather you never know what you're going to get so my ideas may not even be wearable if it chucks it down with rain the entire week.

After Dour festival I start my summerjob. Two months full time as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital which is really fun. I look forward to it, I kinda missed working this year because I didn't intern nor did a weekendjob so I'd like to get back into the swing of things. 

That's it for now, 

I'm also gonna write a little animal update after this so you'll have that to look forward to. 

Goodbyeeee,

Nikki

Review - MAC Studio Waterweight Foundation

Hi lovelies,
How are you? Long time no see.
For a while now I haven't been inspired to blog and kind of gave up on it but inspiration struck today when I was doing my make-up. I have developed very strong feelings about my current foundation so I'm sharing those today.

Skintype

First I shall describe my skin so you'll have an idea if my review can be useful for you. I have very dry skin especially round my nose, around my eyes, middle of my forehead and cheeks. Recently I've noticed little bumps on my skin that aren't pimples but more texture, if you will. Lastly my undereyes are almost transparent and plain purple so difficult to cover up.

I have been using the MAC Studio Waterweight foundation on and off for a year. I use the shade NC20. From the couple foundations that I own that is the one that's closest to my shade so I'm currently back to using it. Initially, a year ago, I was really happy with this foundation. I'm not sure what changed but lately I'm really disappointed by it. The last few weeks that I've been using the foundation it has looked shitty on my skin. I don't wear foundation everyday so I kept on trying to use it but I gave up on it today. Here are my thoughts and concerns.

Review

The MAC Studio Waterweight foundation clings to my dry patches like no other but the absolutely worst part is how it bunches up around my nose/nostril area where it just looks crusty, yes that's a disgusting way to describe it but it's true and nobody want to look crusty, okay?! It also emphasizes my texture.
It has a medium coverage which is fine but it does absolutely nothing for my undereyes. It needs concealer to help with the situation but for some reason the concealer doesn't look good on top of it. Besides that it's streaky when you use a buffing brush so you'd think a beautyblender-type sponge will help but no! that soaks up so much product because the formula is so watery because it's a waterbased foundation (it does blend better though!!!) so I have a lot of issues putting it on properly. I can also say you'll go through a bottle really fast comparing to my other foundations! On the skin it leaves not really a tacky feeling but a greasy feeling. Lately it has also not been my perfect colour so I'm just done with it.

I'm sure this is a lovely foundation when you have a more normal skintype but for my dry skin it does nothing. My skin looks better without it but also note that not many foundations look good on me at the moment.

If you have any foundation recommendations for dry-skinned-gals, PLEASE let me know.

Goodbyeeeee

- Nikki

Milo adoration

My godchild must be the cutest one.

Ah the feeling everyone must have when there are children in their life. I've been a godmother for almost 2 years now and the amount of cuteness they can fit in such a small human being still amazes me. It's amazing to see him develop into a tiny human.  He has such a strong personality. He is loves attention, he loves to help people. He insists on making people their coffee, yes too small to talk but can make a mean coffee. He absolutely hates having his hair cut hence this haircut. He squeaks. He loves listening to oldschool music. He steals everyones cookies. He demands to see the selfies we took together or he gets upset. He is also the proud new owner of my giant Winny the pooh stuffed animal.

Yeah, I love that child to bits.

That time by the seaside

A few weeks ago Anais and I went on a tiny vacation to Nieuwpoort. September is kinda the last time you'll have any chance to get good weather so we jumped at the chance to go for a long weekend. We had a very chill weekend, walking by the sea, shopping, lots of reading and just general chilling. All topped off with a great dinner at restaurant Den Artiest in Oostende. The retro vibes that restaurant has is amazing. But looks isn't everything, the food was even better. Every piece of meat was prepared on an open grill. You can actually see them preparing it at the firepit. Amazing.

HAP festival 2016

Throwback time - food festival

Now that Autumn is in full swing and temperature is dropping at alarming rates I'm already longing for warm Summer days with cocktails and great food. Today I'm looking back on exactly one of those days; the weekend we had HAP foodfestival in town. I had a great time and ate lots of amazing food. Definitely a recommendation for next year. 

My brother

The lovely girlfriend that will kill me for this picture

The Furry Babies Round-Up

Hi babes, 

Whilst we're talking about animal updates here's another one for ya. 

- Mousti the cat is still looking fabulously fat. 

- Louke (Anais' parents blond dog) got very ill a few weeks back. He nearly died from dehydration from a virus or even poisoning we don't know but we nearly lost him. Luckily he made it. We did find out he is even older than we thought. He is already 16 years old but still looks as cute as a puppy.

- Pinky the turtle is as needy as ever. Below you can enjoy a picture of her in the bathtub.

- Last but not least Ganache still loves snuggling with this human. Proof is in the picuteres.

Goodbyeeee
- Nikki

The Furry Babies Update - Jack

Hi babes,
There are few things I love more than my animals so I couldn't wait to do another furry babies update. The last one was an introduction to Ganache (you can read that one here). So today I'll talk about Anais' baby. Our little Jack, the gerbil.

Maybe you'll remember but Jack had a brother named Twinkie. (more here and here)He sadly passed away a few months ago near the time the other three brothers (Desert, Snow and Sky) passed away. All of them got sick. The sad part of owning small rodents is; vets can barely help them, other than giving very thinned out antibiotics there's just nothing you can do. That leaves Jack on his own for now.

Jack is over three years old now which makes it hard to match him with a new friend because he is already older and has always been quite dominant. The fact that we lack knowledge and experience to be a good matchmaker doesn't help either so we're trying to give him so much things to do and give him a lot of attention so he doesn't get lonely. *hoping that works and he's happy* Other than being possibly lonely he's still very healthy and seems happy. Let's hope he'll stay with us for a few more years

Goodbyeeeee

- Nikki

Festival feels - Dour

Time for another throwback post. In July I went to Dour festival which has become quite the tradition. I've only missed one edition in 5 years. This year we met up with friends from high school that I haven't seen in years. I've also met a lot of new people.  I've spend a lot more time socializing on the campingsite instead of going to the festivalsite so I saw a lot less bands than I planned to but the ones I saw really killed it. I especially loved The Compact Disk Dummies, Whiz Khalifa, Tiga, Boys Noise, Hayden James, Doctor P, Borgore, The Vaccines and Netsky live. Rudimental on the other hand was kind of disappointing, I'd expected a lot more from them but hey not everything can be as great as expected maybe they had a bad day, who knows? 

Specific things I'll want to remember from Dour 2016 are ;

- trying to replace a nearly full tent in the middle of the night to move near our friends

- a friend who broke his ankle after trying to wrestle with a professional rugby player

- being called the 'festivalmama' as I'm usually the only sober one

but obviously the whole festival experience is always amazing. I get nostalgic just thinking about it. Festivalsseason is just the best time of the year. 

Goodbyeeee
- Nikki

Good things come in a Chanel package

It was my birthday !

Last month was my birthday. I turned twenty-three the first of September. Today I'm showing you what Anais got me for my birthday. We got to this pretty late because I couldn't decide what I wanted for my birthday. We have a tradition where each party can pick their own birthday present and the other party gets it for them. That way everyone gets something they really wanted. Besides I really don't like surprises nor am I easy to buy for considering I buy everything I want instantly which means nothing stays in my wishlist for long. 

This year I wanted the Chanel Les 4 Ombres eyeshadow quad in 268 Candeur Et Experience which came out in the Rouge Allure Ink line that features Kristen Stewart. She is an inspiration in every way. She's so pretty and absolutely rocks the look of red eyeshadow which inevitably made me want it even more. 

On the hunt.

Of course by the time I've decided I wanted this eyeshadow palette it's sold out everywhere. I must have done over five stores in two cities before I turned to the Internet to make my order. This is also the point where I couldn't contain myself and decided I'd rather spend over 100 EUR than spending 10 EUR on shipping. I fundamentally refuse to pay for shipping. There is always something on the site that I want and at least I have something for that amount money where paying for shipping is just money thrown out the window. The fun thing though about shopping online is the official (and totally cute) packaging which shows the great marketing that goes into luxury brands. 

Added in a cute Happy Birthday Note <3

Luxury make-up is worth it, let me tell you why.

You get a beautiful box and an envelope containing your receipt, info to send items back,... Let me just tell you even those trivial things feel luxurious and expensive. The paper is better quality, the envelope is embossed, your purchases are packaged in tissuepaper and sealed with the official Chanel stamp. You get the most beautiful samples. I even got an extra tiny Chanel 5 léau due to great timing on my part as they just launched it. Beside the obviously great quality of the product itself, opening these kind of packages makes you feel special which makes the money even more worth it. Great marketing Chanel, great marketing.

Besides Les 4 Ombres eyeshadow quad in shade 268 which is this beautiful all matte eyeshadow quad with all neutral shades and one red shade I've also ordered a Le Volume De Chanel mascara in Noir and a eyeshadowstick in the shade 187 Brun Chatain. I haven't tried them on my face yet but both the stickeyeshadow as the powder shadows are sooo soft and creamy, absolutely beautiful.

Goodbyeeeee

- Nikki