New ballerinas

I have been meant to write this post about my new ballerinas for some time now. I visited Stockholm a while ago and got myself two beautiful pairs of leather ballerina flats from Rizzo's 2013 summer sales.

Rizzo is a Swedish retailer selling beautiful footwear and accessories. They are under a bigger retail group, Venue Retail group,  who also own similar footwear, accessory and bag brands as Accent and Morris. They sell shop brand products under the name Rizzo as well as other brands such as Billi Bi and Menbur They have shops only in the Nordic countries, which is why I often make sure I nip in their Helsinki store in Aleksanterinkatu, every time I visit home.It is a shame they haven't expanded to the UK yet, even though, who knows, there might be a some UK stores may well have taken Rizzo's products in.

The shoes Rizzo sells are classic and beautiful. Some of them have more interesting details than others, but as a rule, everything tends to look pretty good. Also, the majority of their products are made of leather which I will always give extra points. Shoes and bags are not too pricy - of course a lot more expensive than cheap and cheerful one month wonders - so I think with most of Rizzo's shoes you get good value for money.

Billi Bi beige leather ballerinas

Billi Bi's beige nubuck leather ballerinas have a beautiful golden buckle detailing. The end toe part of the shoe is made of black leather, which makes the otherwise natural coloured shoe look interesting and easy to mix with almost everything you are wearing. The shoes were -50% discount, which was a fantastic addition to these beauties.

These Rizzo ballerinas match perfectly with one of my bags; the colour is exactly the same. Also love the golden plates and little buckle detailing. I have been wearing these shoes a lot lately and they are amazing to walk in. These bad boys were also picked up from the -50% sale table.

summer sales 2013

Hello hello hello, summer sales 2013.

Summer sales have been very good this year. Maybe it is due to the fact that spring has been rather cold and wet, and that has encouraged people to leave the summariest pieces of clothes at the shop shelves and rails. This is clearly good news for all the summer sales shoppers who, like myself, have been able to find a lot of nice items with -50% discount tag attached.

Massimo Dutti logo

This year I have dedicated almost my entire summer sale shopping to one particular fashion retailer; Massimo Dutti. Massimo Dutti was founded in 1985 and became acquired by Inditex, the fashion distributor group known for owning brands such as Zara, Bershka and Pull & Bear in 1991. Interestingly enough, originally Massimo Dutti started off as a men's wear brand, until in 1992, the fashion brand launched it's first ladies collection and again in 2003 children's collection under the trade name Massimo Dutti boys & girls.

Massimo Dutti grey jumper

Massimo Dutti beige trousers

Massimo Dutti black trousers

Massimo Dutti striped top

Massimo Dutti Basic white t-shirt

Massimo Dutti light pink top

I absolutely love Massimo Dutti's clothes. They are so well designed, very classical and just beautiful. A better quality than Zara in my opinion, but at the same time, I do find the zippers in some MD clothes sewn too close to the fabric, which does make me to avoid buying certain items from MD. But all in all, Massimo Dutti is great. I would say that it is slightly more sophisticated and grown up version of Zara.

So as you can see my summer sale buys are, as always, quite classic and easy to mix.

My best friend is pregnant with her first child, she and her husband have just bought a beautiful home and are now renovating it so that everything is ready for the new born. They have even a sauna! I love them so much <3

Hence, I thought, some contributions towards adulthood had to be done on my part too. As you can see below, at this moment, this was the best I could do :D Estee Lauder lipsticks.

Estee lauder lipstic

(c)

Autumn accessories

I visited Windsor last Sunday and thought to show you what I brought back from the Royal spot. I saw these gloves with leather straps and this pretty cognac envelope leather bag whilst strolling around the city centre. Gloves I needed, but the bag was a spur of a moment purchase. What I still need is a big beige chunky scarf and a new mid-season coat - well, the coat is more of a nice to have than a must have. I saw a woman wearing a perfect one on a tube the other morning and would have asked her where she got hers from, but she got off the next stop. I would guess Zara. However, as I said, the coat is not a must have by any means, but, if I manage to find them two, I think I'm pretty much sorted for this Autumn. Also, I got myself L'occitane's new hand cream, Limited edition Date Bouquet, as it matched so well with the others :) Hah, thankfully, the hand cream did smell lovely and  made your hand feel beautifully soft too as otherwise my last purchase would not have been so successful. Heh,I do think that sometimes buying infused hand creams and body lotions can be a bit of a hit and miss -especially when you don't have the opportunity to smell or try them out first :)

Cloves, Osprey London brown leather clutch and L'ccitane hand cream

(c)

L'occitane en provence and a bit about the power of buying.

I had my first try of L'occitane products a few years ago. I used their shampoo, conditioner and shower gel in a summer cottage in Finland. I wasn't very impressed by their hair products back then, but loved the fragrant and feel of the shower gel. Then a year later from this, we visited one of their shops in our Southern of France and I bought some of their Shea Butter and olive soaps and hand creams for my mum and myself. Time passes by and then became last summer, I found myself walking past a L'occitane shop in Helsinki when I all of a sudden saw a basket full of drier lavender bunches nearby the shop entrance. Thought they looked lovely which is why I suppose it is needless to say that I indeed went in and a few minutes later came out with a bunch in my hand. Then again just today, I visited another L'occitane boutique, however, this time in Canary Wharf. They had sales on and I really wanted to get a bottle of Verbana shower gel -in fact, even Ken was contemplating whether to get a bottle or not. We left our bottles on the shelves, but it sparked a conversation why is it ok to spend so much money on soap.



























I think the L'occitane products are lovely, but I do have to admit that they do come with a higher than average price tag, which can put some people off. If you think about it only from outside, it does sound  strange even weird to spend £25-35 on a bottle of soap. At least, I would not necessarily spend this amount of money on a 250ml  bottle of shower gel just like that. Of course, it would be great to be able to do that at some point in life, but then I do not know. I reckon that a part of me would always contemplate and try to find a justification for such an expensive soap purchase. I can imagine myself thinking: 'hmm isn't that is a bit too much for a bottle of soap' and I do think this is fine (and normal) way of thinking, because it is true. At the end of the day, L'occitane products are scented soap in nice bottles and jars. This is of course, is only what we see on the surface when we pass a shop and do not know the story or values behind the product itself.

The basic idea behind L'occitane is a good one. It was founded in 1976 and one of the key values is to respect the nature. On their website L'occotane states that it strives limiting the impact of its actions and products on the environmental and on the local population. Design and packaging is made as ecofriendly as possible, and boxes, printed material paper come from sustainable managed forests and are not bleached with chlorine. The use of outer packaging is limited and  their website shows which one of their bottles, tubes and jar can be recycled. In addition to this L'occitane does not use animal testing on raw materials nor any of its finished products.The only exception is products that derive from beehives. Hence, it is not surprising that L'occitane has been recognised by such animal rights groups as Once Voice and PETA.

From my point of view, knowing all this behind L'occitane's business idea changes things to an extent. When you do know that only natural ingredients are being used throughout the production chain and that preservation of cultures that are in danger are taken into account (in other words, crops are being collected from cultivated land not from natural and fragile environment) together with the local environmental and agricultural government agencies and bodies to ensure sustainable development, the reason for your shower gel comes with a slightly higher price tag makes more sense. At least to me it is really hard to overlook the idea of contributing towards common good. I mean of course, companies like L'occitane, are there to make money and good business out of their products which is fair enough, but what I like about them, and many others, is that they also want to see the bigger picture and looking further on than just how they can make money now and today. That's good, it shows that these sort of companies have a sense of responsibility as it cannot be only taking and wanting, it also has to be giving back. I like that.

Plus, I think consumer goods are in general a great way of  giving people/consumers a power to make little (environmentally friendly or not) choices in their every day lives. I do not say that people buying e.g ecofriendly or organic products or services would be any better than people never buying them. what I am saying though, is that it is wonderful that nowadays we are lucky in a sense that we have some many options to choose from. The chances are that there is something for everyone and people can really have a say on things simply by choosing to buy something over something else. Little things tend to pile up :)

Tällä viikolla Englannissa on ollut poikkeuksellisen kylmää, joten ihana Henri Lloydin takki on ollut aivan huippuostos. Takin kanssa on voinut vain naureskella säässä kuin säässä ja poikia suunnattomasti ärsyttävä lausahdus ”warm air cycling” on tullut huikattua ilkikurisesti ilmoille monena kertana kun toiset ovat värjötelleet ohuet takit päällä viimassa. Itse on kyllä tasan tarkkaan niin skandinaavi, että kun ulkona on kylmä niin minähän en missään pikkuballerinoissa ja ohuessa kevät macissa juokse! Talvella pukeudutaan asianmukaisesti lämpimiin vaatteisiin. Piste. Ja aivan sama näyttääkö toppatakin kanssa less sexy vai ei. 

Vaikkakin just for the record that Lloyd Parka of mine has received loads of compliments, nyt kun vielä omistaja in it saa myös jotain kehuja niin ollaan voiton puolella ;) No just kidding. Ei mutta oikeasti, jos (ja kun)joku oikeasti tuomitsee minut sen perusteella että hiihdän pakkasessa toppatakki päällä niin sillehän minä en mahda mitään. En voi sanoa muuta kuin, että antaa mennä siitä vain judge away, sillä tällaisilla ihmisillä ja minulla olisi muutenkin hyvin vähän jaettavaa keskenämme loppupeleissä enkä siis kokisi tällaisen BFF menettämistä kovinkaan traagisena asiana. Thus, it is warm air cycling that matters! ;) Ehrm,  tai no.. hah no okei, otetaas hieman pakkia. Nyt naurattaa jo itseänikin, voin toisaalta sanoa käsi sydämellä että en nyt voisi sanoa että suostuisin toisaalta lähtemään ihan missä tahansa oranssissa pilkkihaalarissakaan tuonne ulos käyskentelemään, että kyllä tässä kuitenkin sen verran vain ollaan. Hah aivan… eli jospa vedetään se viiva siihen pilkkihaalariin sitten? :) Seriously, pilkkihaalarit no lighty. Veikkaan, että tässä tapauksessa aivan sama kuinka paljon sitä lämmintä ilmaa siellä haalarin sisällä kiertää, I think I’m going to pass wearing one –unless it is -35’C or less outside sitten mä olisin varmasti ’excuse-me where did you have your pilkkihaalarit again?’. Onneksi tällaisia miinuslukemia pääsee varmasti vielä Lontoossa juuri ja juuri karkuun. Vai mitä veikkaatte? ;) Tulipa taas aika uskomaton avautuminen, mutta hei ei se mitään. Kivaa sunnuntaita!

Picture by Simon & His Camera- Syon Park London

Right there!

My first week at my new job is almost finished and the only thing I can say is that I'm so much looking forward to my duties. Hah, that is dedication I say. I have had a really good cross-over with the previous job holder and everything just seems to be rolling smoothly.

Also, finally got myself the a-lot-talked BlackBerry. I'd like to introduce my lovely BlackBerry® Curve™ 9300