Summer Seaside Holiday Routine

When you are reading this post I am most probably here (follow the red arrow ^_^):

When I was having shower today, I remembered that I had some tips for things you can do for your skin while you shower. So here is what I use during my holiday:

It is not just shower gels and shampoo, but also scrubs and exfoliators. I have two exfoliators:

• Yves Rocher for the face
• Alverde exfoliator for the feet

Routine for the Face

It is really important to remove sunscreen at the end of the day or whenever you return home from the beach. It can clog your pores just as much as any foundation, powder, bronzer or any product you apply on your face. So the best thing to to is to remove it with a makeup remover when you get home. During the shower, in order to make sure that you remove any residual sunscreen remains, do use an exfoliator. I am using the Yves Rocher one I have been talking about in this video also.

Routine for the Feet

From walking on the sandy beach, your feet might lose their softness and elasticity and accumulate this layer of tough dead cells that is really unaesthetic. In order to prevent this form happening, during the shower, grab an exfoliator for the feet and make sure you get rid of all the dead cells. What also helps is moisturizing deeply after the shower. I use Neutrogina moisturizers mostly and then pull some socks over my feet to facilitate the absorption. If you try this, make sure to use 100% cotton socks. It is a bit warm for the summer but a couple of hours are worth it and the results will not fail to come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So these were the tips I could think of for you. Hope you found them useful! Let me know if you have other ones in a comment below.

~~~~~~~~~

Does Aikido have to Hurt?

Beauty and Aikido ©

The question I am formulating came up in my mind watching the picture which I picked also as illustrative for the blog post and also from the pain I am having in my muscles and the bruises I geathered after a training that was a bit heavier than the usual ones. I usually train with our group's most flowy and nicely moving shomen. She is a female aikidoka also. At some rare occasions I also train with men who are a lot bigger and stronger than me. Sometimes I feel there is harmony in our movements also, but not at the same level as I can experience with the other female shomen. It could also be a question of gettin used to someone and not being used to others. However, when I see heavy and cramped throws and movements that are anything else but flowy, it hurts my eyes and all my perceptions altogether. I cannot find the natural flow of movements and cannot see the principles of aikido in them. Is it me who is too soft? Trying to win with brute force or trying to win at all is just not in the spirit of aikido. What is your perception of this martial art? I am adding a video here with a demonstration that represents the possibilities and the beauty I see in aikido. For many of you, it might also answer the question this blog post is rasing. I especially like the proposal at the end: Let's be free! (in our movements, technique, mindset)

 

Caught between Müller and the Dojo

I like shopping in Müller a lot. There are so many good things in there. I am also planning to purchase some day and night creams there when I run out of the ones from Yves Rocher that I have now. So many brands can be found in Müller. From drugstore cheap stuff to high end Dior and Chanel makeup and skincare. All your heart desires. So I went for the cheaper makeup stuff that I was already planning to buy for a longer time. Yesterday, I arrived to the dojo half an hour earlier than I should have. That was why I decided to just spend some fun time among the makeup counters and maybe buy something I have been planning longer ago to get.

I have been hearing good things on YouTube about this bronzer from Catrice. I liked it because it is not shimmery but matte. I tried to take a good close-up so you can see the texture of the bronzer also. You can also double click on the picture to get an ever better close-up.

I have really few blushes, about 2 or three, so I have been considering for a longer time to add some new blushes to my pallet. I always hesitate what color it should be, which would fit me better. When I saw this pretty and discrete blush with more shades in it, I decided to buy it. You can either swirl your brush in it and use the mixture of all the colors or just pick up the upper colors for blush and use the bottom light color as a high-liter.

Last but not least, I walked by the Artdeco counter. The design of their makup containers is absolutely lovely. I really liked the packaging, but the fancy patterns make the make-up articles from Artdeco cost a bit more than Catrice or Essence products. However I think the quality of the product itself is quite similar, so I just kept back from the time being...but I might find myself buying one of their blushes or eye shadows :) What really caught my eye, and about which I thought it was worth buying, was this nail polish. I guess you all had those moments when you look at the nails of someone else, and the nail polish is so even, shiny and great looking.

I was always longing to get that look. I tried the Essence Gel nails topcoat, which worked partially but was still not the real thing. Finally yesterday I found this great ceramic polish. Never heard of anything similar until now. I was really happy with the result and will buy it in other shades also. I think it approaches high end Dior and Chanel quality and costs not more than 5 Euros. The color will fit my butterfly dress perfectly and I am looking forward to buy some more bold summery colors from the same ceramic nail range.

YAY! Looking forward SUMMER! What about you? Do you use more bold colored makeup and nail polish in summer?

Tell Me about Yourself Award

Hi everyone! Some weeks ago when I opened my email, I just saw this nice message from Viki, that she had a surprise for me. I checked it out, and there it was! The first award my blog ever got from one of its readers. I filled me with super much joy and I want to thank her for thinking of me when she was doing the nominations. I get excited about any comment, but this comment made me especially happy. And so I went to her blog and checked out what it was exactly. There I found out I was to share more fun facts about myself an nominate other bloggers for the award. Love these tags, it reminds me of that other tag I did about the nightstand of a minimalist :P

Rules:

1. Thank the one who nominated you and post a link back to that person.

2. Write 7 different things about yourself, it can be anything. 

3.  Give the award to 15 other bloggers.

Here are 7 facts about me:

1. I love having a bath in a bath tub

2. I like learning foreign languages

3. I love all things Japanese: cosmetics, movies, the language, the food <3

4. I like cooking
5. I usually chat on shared talk to practice the languages I am learning

6. I paint my toe nails in summer

7. I change the ringtone on my mobile phone all the time

And now papapapaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaraaaaaaa, I am naming the 15 other bloggers to which I am offering this award. It took so long because I was so lazy to search for the links, but today I opened my google reader and collected the following:

InsideOut Elle blog

Sakura

Aikicosmos blog

Tozando Girl's blog

Sarah @ a beautiful story

Glamorous Girl

Aikido Articles

Masnis fiók

Hungarian Provence

Nuckuruc Make up

Virtual Masks

Tünder Kert

buy now, blog later

Aikikai Bucaramanga

Deyi Mizu

Aikido Readings

As many other aikidoka, I also read texts about aikido frequently. Many times they help me keep motivated and they are really pleasant and relaxing readings for me. I have also made some readings from aikido books on my youtube channel, if you are interested you can go ahead and check them out. Now I was surfing on reddit, where they have this aikido subreddit that I really like and I found an interesting book about aikido. This will be the subject of further reading to me. The title is Life in Three Easy Lessons. I like these types of books a lot because it helps you get in touch with your inner self better. We are living in a world where everybody is running and has so many things to do, we are multi-tasking and think that we are living our lives to the fullest, but when do we really take our time to look at ourselves, to really see the context we are living in. I guess we just need to take some time for ourselves also and take things easy. What I want to say can be expressed very well by a story a friend told me not long ago. He attended this meditation camp. They were doing several meditation exercises for long hours. He was explaining me that it was really difficult and sometimes even really uncomfortable. The camp took place in the woods, and he was experiencing something really pleasant after the meditations. He was feeling that he was there and then, in the middle of the woods. He was aware of himself and his environment. This is the level of awareness and sharpness I am thinking about. People used to have this but it is getting blunter and blunter in our hectic society.