Mandatory Lumene purchases

Everyone who lives outside her home country more probably has a list of things to do and to buy when traveling back to home. The same for me; I'm always worried if I have time to eat the maximum amount of different milk products; yogurts etc. as in Finland there is an excessive selection of those, much more than in any other country and I don't even know the names of all these products as they don't exist anywhere else than Nordic countries. Milk is so good.

Other thing what I always do is that I buy a bunch of Lumene -products; some make ups and creams. Lumene is a Finnish cosmetic company that produces all its goods in Finland. They have very good price quality ratio and as the price segment is not too high, middle priced, I always buy some items when visiting Finland. I also like the Nordic, clean and fresh image that the company is famous for. There slogan is: "Beauty from the clean Nordic nature"(Kauneutta puhtaasta pohjoisesta luonnosta).

This time I bought Lumene Sensitive Touch creams + my regular powders and mascara purchases. New thing is CC Color correcting Cream (I haven't tried that yet). As the company is from Finland I can find good products with correct shades for pale, nordic skin. They also have good redness eliminator products for reddish couperose skin.

My mistake was to buy a new mascara and I didn't check the tester at all and the result was that the applicator is way too thick and therefor very messy when applying mascara. It reminds me more of a hair worm than a make up tool. I need to pay more attention to the testers next time.

Like two berries; Lumene mascara and a hair worm.

This time's Lumene Kit; Sensitive Touch Daily Moisture Cream, Sensitive Touch Comforting Night Cream, Sensitive Touch Comforting Eye Cream, Lumene Natural Code Skin Perfector Matt Powder, Beauty Base Red Neutralizer Concealer, Natural Code Skin Perfector Shine&Redness Eliminator, Natural Code Eye Dramatizer Volume-Maximisin Mascara (bad purchase), CC Color Correcting Cream

The Moomins

There are certain things I like in Finland, emotional and part of the childhood, nostalgic things. The Moomins are this kind of all time favorite Finnish fairytale characters.

Created by Tove Jansson (1914-2001) a Finnish novelist and artist the first Moomin book was published in 1945. The Moomins are a troll family that are a bit bohemian, loves nature and are very tolerant towards diversity. A very respectful family and a good role model for children. Although Moomin fairytales are for children, many adults also love them. They are so calm, wise and peaceful.

At the airport of Helsinki there are a shop dedicated to all kind of Moomin merchandising; books, clothes, mugs etc. I have only one Moomin mug and just recently my friend gave me a Moomin apron; really sweet pastel apron. This time I bought to my friend the newest mug from the Arabian collection of Moomin mugs as I could't resist the sweet Snork Maiden (Niiskuneiti) getting herself pretty in this pink cup. It reminded me of my friend and that's why she got it as a souvenir.

Tove Jansson's illustration are graphical, I'm really fond of them.

P.S. I just learned today that Tove Janssons's second name was "Marika", oih; Tove Marika Jansson. Marika doesn't really sound a Swedish name as Tove Jansson's family were Swedish-speaking Finnish family, but it is so nice that she had the same name as me. Here in Spain presenting myself as "Marika" provokes always a funny reaction as in Spanish "marica" means gay. Usually I need to repeat my name twice, but afterwards people do remember it.

Monkeys in Helsinki

In July I was visiting Finland and found these lovely monkeys at the airport of Helsinki. I had extensively time to wait my connection flight, so I searched the only restaurant there is to have lunch. Of course the airport is full of expensive cafeterias and take aways as every other airport with their boring and exactly similar offerings, but to have a decent lunch you need to be lucky. In Helsinki every kiosk is offering picnic-sandwiches and at the airport of Barcelona what you find in every cafeteria are the local "bocadillos" (Spanish style ham or cheese white breads). If you wish to have something else you really need to have patience to find a decent restaurant at the airports.

Well, anyway, in Helsinki-Vantaa it is in front of the gate 14; the Restaurant&Cafe Seasons.

This Restaurant&Cafe Seasons was really calm place and had a friendly service. Menu was fine although the proportions were quite mini. I took "fast menu" and the starter caesar salad + the main dish chicken were good, but really in size miniature. Dessert and tea were enjoyable to have with no rush and in a quiet corner.

In the restaurant I especially loved the wallpaper; monkeys on a light blue background. Unfortunately I don't know who is the manufacturer of this funny wallpaper.

Monkeys on the wall and sofa + me killing time at the restaurant.

Banana Moon - made in Monaco (partly)

Lately it has been way too hot here in Barcelona. Absolutely too hot; impossible to do anything in the evenings. The day goes fine working in an air-conditioned office, but the evenings on the street or at "not air-conditioned" home are horrible. You just simply cannot do anything.

But for the weekends its fantastic if you can go to the beach. And even more if you have new bikinis from the summer sales. Already during few summers I have been checking the bikini models of Banana Moon, a swimwear brand from California. This year before heading to the sales I first went to the web page to check which models they have. The bikinis are bright colored Californian surfer style swimwear; I really like them.

This time I was surprised as I found "made in Monaco" -video from the web page, wow, I really didn't know they are producing the goods in Europe. I was pretty sure in their swimwear I would found "made in China" -etiquette  as in so many other (read: all) swimwear brands. A new thing was also that they have added lingerie to their lines, another wow, as almost all lingerie "is made in China". The lingerie looked too girly for me, but maybe on next season they might have something interesting. At least it is worth of remembering, because it is really hard to find any underwear made in Europe.

Well, delighted by the fact they produce in Monaco I went to El Corte Inglés to see if I could find some pretty bikinis and of course I did. In the etiquette though it said "made in Tunisia", so I had to write an email to Banana Moon to verify where they actually produce the goods. Immediately on the next day I had the answer in my inbox: "that the creation / design and cutting fabric on sophisticated machines are made in Monaco and the silkscreen and assembly of the swimwear is made in Tunisia". Tunisia is fine for me as we all are by the Mediterranean sea. Good and fast customer service.

My set of bikinis, all other photos a courtesy of Banana Moon.

HAKEI - good in Spain

A dress from HAKEI has been so far my only purchase from the sales. I could fulfill my desire to buy something mint. Mint has been on my mind since last year, starting with the trousers of Borne by Elise Berger (Feb -12) following by a blazer from HAKEI and continuing as a possible color for a room, but the only real thing I have so far is this dress. It is a 100% linen dress, I'm thinking of having it as an end of summer/beginning of autumn dress.

HAKEI is a Spanish family firm that dates back to 1946. Since then they have designed fashion and leather goods that are mainly produced in Europe, mostly in Spain and Portugal. They do have some clothes made in or imported from China/India, but they are only few, mostly you need to keep an eye on the etiquettes of jerseys if you want to stick to Made in Europe.

I recommend especially their shoes and bags; shoes are chick (and funny) good quality shoes (I own a few pair of them) and the bags have a huge selection of colors. I have no bag yet, but hmmm, that could be a good idea for a possible birthday present in October.

This is my mint linen stripes dress, very freshy. As it is white and the material is light linen it is quite transparent, so I need to invent something to prevent shoving off my panties.

Prado -blazer that has interesting texture and quite curious star button.

An example of different colors in form of a Subi -bag.

Old/New fashion

Everything seemingly fresh might be  incredibly old. Well not old, but already presented in the past.  We know in fashion world everything is recyclable and invented already, but this clever blog shows it clearly. Part Nouveau is a blog hold by a graduate student of fashion history, Lilah Ramzi, and in her own words: "The blog seeks to aid our contemporary eyes, so used to being presented with the newest and latest within the creative world, to recognize and give credit to what has come before."

Art and fashion go hand in hand and sometimes there is a great homage to the original creation and in other moments it might pass to be a plagiation...the line depends many times of the honesty of the creator.

Following few examples are from the blog "Part Nouveau" and there are plenty of more comparisons, so pls have a visit on her blog; it is so interesting!

1955: Audrey Hepburn by Norman Parkinson

2013: Natalie Portman by Tim Walker for Miss Dior Cherie-campaign

1956: a short film "Le Ballon rouge by Albert Lamorisse

2009: Maryna Linchuk by Tim Walker for Miss Dior Cherie -campaign

The lila building in Barcelona

Isn't this pretty, this lila building in the street of Diagonal? My favorite ones in town. There used to be Habitat, the British furniture and decoration company which I also like and regularly visited, but as you can see Habitat has already moved away. What a pity. Now we can only enjoy the Habitat in Plaza Catalunya.

This building is just at the end of C/Enric Granados, so if you go and have Cup&Cake you will definitely see also this lila empty building looking for new inhabitants.