Hello everyone!

It has been a while since I last posted a blog post. Sometimes we get carried away with our daily tasks and overlook the little things we enjoy, in my case blogging about fashion…and other things too.

COVID has changed what in the past was second nature to us, mainly the social aspect. When I stop and think at how surreal it is that meeting my mother means I have to wear a mask and stand metres away from her, that going to the office and meeting colleagues is only when necessary and a hand shake is out of the window.

Dressing up is part of this social element…going to the office or out meeting friends – we dress up even if casual, thought goes into it. When spending a lot of time at home, that enthusiasm to dress up fizzles out BUT don’t want to spend days in joggers and hoodies!

Given restaurants are still open in Malta, we do go out for lunch or dinner on occasions and meet some of our friends “our bubble” 🙂 on such occasions I take time to pick my outfit and enjoy planning what I will wear, however more than the outfit I appreciate the time with family and friends in person as opposed to video calls… and can’t wait for the day when a hug is just fine once again!

A couple of weeks ago, five of us met up for a drink (or two;) and a take out and then spent the evening singing along to songs from different times and of different genres…so simple yet music is a powerful means of bringing people together and expressing emotions through music.

This was not much of a fashion related blog, however it was needed from my end 😉 I promise you more fashion related blog posts will be up!

Let me know of any particular topics you want to read about…maybe tracksuits and pjs…😜

Here is wishing you all a lovely Sunday and week ahead.

Put on your favourite music and sing along and dance, and everything will feel a little bit better 🙂

Take care

Yan

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Hello ladies,

During this time when we are not going to our favourite boutiques and perfumeries, we browse online to check out what new collections are out there…but it’s not quite the same as going to the shop seeing for yourself what there is and taking advice from the professionals about their new collections.

One of the leading perfumeries in Malta, Franks, was advertising a personal perfume profiling online session with Claire Falzon, who has been with the said perfumery for a number of years and is an expert in her field. I decided to go for it and booked the 30 minute session with Claire. I was not too sure what to expect and what it was all about.

In summary, I can say, it was interesting, fun and different. During the session, Claire showed me a number of pictures and I selected my preferences. We also spoke about my personality and any particular traits, and these provided her with the perfumes which would potentially fit with my personality. Apparently I am elegant, sensual and daring, well, about this last point….it depends in relation to what I guess (you won’t get to see me bungee jumping anytime soon)😉 It was surprising, but in truth I had a tried a number of the perfumes which she recommended and my favourite perfume was on the list 🙂

Claire did introduce some new perfumes which I hadn’t yet tried , and so I will be putting these on my list to give them a go. I do have my favourite perfumes, however I like trying out new fragrances 🙂 In particular, I am curious to try the Trussardi perfumes which are part of a collection all named after different areas in Milan…I am intrigued with this collection.

I do recommend this session, as it something different and fun to do and I actually learnt new things about fragrances and the ingredients used and the various families, floral, oriental etc. I learnt about what I typically go for when looking at perfumes I had purchased. I also think this is a great initiative by Franks in engaging with their customers, and reaching out to them. Other sessions are now being organised with respect to skincare and make-up, so do have a look and I highly recommend attending one of these.

Have a good week!

Take care

Yan

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Hello!

Hope you are all doing well. I have posted a few pictures in the past few weeks, trying to keep the positive vibes going, however I have to be honest…I struggled with writing a blog post. This is a fashion blog, what do you write about during this time, not wanting to be either insensitive to the situation yet not negative…🧐

In truth my fashion blog is sometimes a bit of a journal. So here goes. I had some teeth trouble when very few dentists are seeing patients given the situation. My family and friends called all the dentists they know to help me out, and I must say I am truly blessed and lucky to have such amazing people who care for me 🙂

During this time, even although we are not meeting up, we stay connected thanks to technology and I still get to have my girlie conversations and have a good laugh with them.

My mum lives on her own and given her age, we cannot go visit her. Her neighbour prepared Easter lunch for her today …small gestures which mean so much. It brings out the good in people.

Spending less and pampering oneself

Many people are going through financial paycuts given the covid situation. When one is used to a certain lifestyle and in matter of a few weeks has to change this to make meets end….it’s not easy. So, if you have to sacrifice your favourite face mask because at this point it is no longer a priority, it does not mean you have to give up on your beauty treatments. There are many ways of doing natural face masks with ingredients you have at home. If you run a search on the web, you will find loads of DIY beauty tricks 😉

Organise your wardrobe , make-up and skin care, and you will realise that you have items which are very similar and duplicates. This will make you think twice before actually purchasing items, and you will ask yourself…do I have one like it…? If so…do I really “need” this😉

Clothes

Most of us are locked inside and not dressing up to go to work or out for the w-end. So you may give in to the temptation of staying in your pjs or tracksuits all day. Of course, at home one wants to feel comfortable, however wearing a nice top with leggings gives me a feel good factor. Also, now is the time to experiment…go though your clothes and see what you can either restyle or recycle 😬 I found some long cardigans which I haven’t used in a while, these are classic which came in very handy for using indoors…clear up your wardrobe and organise them and you will be surprised…;)

Let me know what topics you would like me to write in my blog. Let’s stay positive and as I always say, dress up, chin up and now stay safe…😘

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

Take care

Yan

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Hello everyone!

I spent some time thinking about what to write in my next fashion blog given the current situation. Here in Malta we are on partial lockdown, many of us are working from home and all schools, gyms, bars and restaurants are now closed. We find ourselves in a surreal situation…how do we manage this…? I am no professional to be giving advice, but this is how I am trying to cope and here are me two pennies worth…😉

Routine

I’ve come to realise that I need routine in my life…so even although I am working from home, I need my time table. I wake up at my usual time, have my coffee, shower followed by skin care routine. Ladies, let’s come out of this with radiant skin 😉 Morning skincare to me is a ritual…it does not take a lot of your time. I then still put on some make-up, just because I feel better.

Exercise

Following instructions from the authorities, schools have been closed, including my dance school…so no happy place for me for now 😭. Having said that my school will be sending us clips with dance exercises and maybe online lessons too☺️

Every morning I do my 20 push ups, however this is not sufficient exercise seeing I am spending a lot of time at home, so I’m back to my solo jogging routines, given we can still go out for now. Clearly, if this changes…I will need to find some home exercises … exercise helps me switch off and get away from all the posts and opinions of people about covid19 on social media…and also away from the fridge for a little while 😜

Reading

I enjoy reading, and with less social events to attend, I might actually reach and surpass my goal for the reading challenge 🙂 my books are stacked on my bedside table and my digital books on my tablet…just waiting to be read 😉

Outfits

Of course, if we are working from home, I won’t be in my smart outfits and heels, but no way will I stay in pjs or a dressing gown🤦‍♀️. I wear comfy clothes, and just in case I have a vid conference perhaps a blazer paired with sweat pants…😜 We are not prohibited to go out as yet, but social distancing is highly recommended. A friend of mine suggested we go back to a few centuries ago, and wear the fully blown Victorian dresses, and voila, we are a metre away from each other 😉

I will try post some ootd, perhaps spring outfits, to have some normality in this time which feels quite the opposite.

Music

As you know by now, I love music and it keeps my spirits high. So since I am spending a lot of time at home, dance classes have been cancelled and socializing is very limited… music becomes even more essential! When I feel anxious or I start overthinking, I connect my Spotify music to my beloved portable speaker and sing and dance away my frustrations…

And just for the kicks, I asked my friends to come up with a list of songs to have a COVID19 top 10 playlist…and they never disappoint…we have more than 10;)

• Nothing’s gonna stop us now
• Should I stay or should I go
• I will survive
• La solitudine
• Under pressure
• Our house
• Time after time
• Tainted love
• Sit and wait
• All by myself

My favorite song at this time is the song Gimme Hope Joanna, I love the upbeat song with the word hope, and it reminds me of a fun wedding with great friends and colleagues, all dressed up to the nines where we danced the night away… a great memory which brings a smile to my face.

Let me know which songs you would add to the list above😉

This was my light hearted blog post to keep our sanity 🙂

Do listen and follow all that the health authorities are asking from us, if we all do our part, we can…beat it, just beat it 😉

Take care

Lots of love

Yan

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Good morning and happy women’s day ladies!

Firstly, a big thank you to all the women in my life. I am truly blessed to be surrounded by women who have my back. My mum, who raised me to be independent yet respectful of others, my sister who spoils me rotten, my bestie who knows exactly what I need…every time, the ladies in the team I work in, I could not ask for better colleagues xxx I could go on a write about women’s day and how I believe that growth and success should not have anything to do about gender and irrespective of whether one is male or female we all have our responsibilities and should work together and not compete…but this is a fashion blog, so …let’s keep it light 😉

Last week was the birthday of one of my friends and she asked some of the girls to join her for a one night pop over to Gozo. It so happened that it was just a week before woman’s day and so I decided to recount our fun w-end and obviously share with you the outfits we took up and tell you what we were up to!

Ingrid (the birthday girl), Maronna, Helena and myself met up on Saturday morning to cross over to Gozo with one car. This is what happens when you tell the girls that I would be blogging about our w end and outfits…

Plan was to have a light lunch, and then off for an afternoon at the spa… I told the girls I wanted to take a few pics of how we really are when we take a pic, and how other bloggers would pose… so enjoy some of our funny pics taken 😉

This is us 🙂

This is us trying to pout…😂

Maronna in her morning outfit…I so love the boots!

Off to the spa, we were booked for massages. We had a few hours of total relaxation, forgetting all our troubles.

After spa drink and off we went to get ready for our dinner. We got all glammed up for the night…have a look at the lovely outfits, but more importantly the way these ladies pulled it off!

Outfits

Our birthday girl Ingrid, opted for a red top and striped coloured skirt. Ingrid loves colours and she can pull of some outfits with different colours which few people can. She completed her look with a desigual coat and wow did she look one confident, don’t mess with me woman!

I opted for a plain black dress, with some detail at the top, and I wore a fluffy yellow bag to add some colour:)

Maronna went for a combination of red and black, she opted for black pants, paired up with a frilly red top and desigual leather jacket. Very casual chic style…so Maronna ☺️ Tres chic…

Finally, Helena in her lbd…and didn’t she look stunning! Helena wore a black desigual dress complemented with blush nude accessories.

We had a lovely evening together, chatting away and making memories.

We ended our night by meeting up all in one room, and the girls introduced me to a series I had never watched…Miranda. These instances are testimony to the camaraderie between us. We had a good laugh followed by a good night sleep.

The next morning we took it easy, roamed around Gozo, we went to Citadella and walked around and then stopped for Sunday lunch. It was then time to setback home. Spending time with the girls is always a feel good factor.

To end my blog post of woman’s day, I would like to thank those men in my life, who have shown me respect, and irrespective of my gender or age believe in me and my capabilities. Together is how we bring about change ☺️

Have a lovely Sunday

Much love

Yan

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Our Gozo album below…😉

Hello ladies ☺️

Last Friday, husband had an event to go to and I had the house to myself and after a long week I decided to treat myself to some me time.

At my age I am still spoilt by mummy, and she prepared one of her homemade dishes for me. So dinner was set, I opened a good bottle of wine to accompany my meal and helped myself to two glasses ☺️ I thought I deserved some chocolate after that and watched an F1 series I discovered on Netflix, whilst eating my dinner…bliss.

I then prepared the bathroom for a long hot shower, lit on my guerlain aroma candles, switched on Spotify on my favourite playlist and left all the stress of the week away from my surroundings… I used a body scrub which was given to me by a friend for the secret Santa exchange (thank you…love it) and treated my bleached highlighted hair to a treatment, which I highly recommend. The treatment is called Link-d (I used numbers 3 and 4), after the first shampoo you apply a generous amount of the conditioner, towel dry your hair and apply a leave in conditioner of the same brand. My hair feels soft and smooth. I applied my milkshake leave in mousse to add more moisture to it and hair feels regenerated 🙂

Hair was done, it was then time for skincare. I applied a hypoallergenic body lotion which works wonders and is not expensive ladies ☺️ from the Uriage brand. I cleansed my face with the Make-up factory face wash (it leaves no traces of make-up!) I then applied my guerlain eye cream and skin clinic serum and night cream, I massaged my face with the said creams and was ready to jump into bed.

Into a fresh pair of pjs, I made myself a herbal tea, and jumped straight to bed. I decided to sleep to an old romcom movie, You‘ve got Mail. Love the scene when they connect to the internet with a modem…today’s generation won’t recall the patience it took to connect to the net😉 I did not get to watch all the movie, as somewhere along the way I fell asleep, which I guess is a good sign, as it means I was relaxed and drifted off to dreamworld…

We all need some time to ourselves to re-energise and look after ourselves. We lead busy lives (and I wouldn’t want it any other way to be honest), however sometimes it is good to switch off for a while and spoil ourselves. You do not need to spend a fortune, just make some time to yourselves, eat your favorite food, and treat yourselves to some treatments ☺️

Let me know whether you find some time to switch off once in a while, and what do you to spoil YOU!

I feel ready and set to face the coming week, just put on a smile…and voila …let’s do this ☺️

Have a good one

Yan

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Hello ladies and gents:)

This blog post applies to all!

When chatting between us, and talking about fashion and what we wear, like and dislike, we sometimes hear someone saying… that is not my style. What is your personal style… and how do you find it…?

Sometimes I am tagged in posts of outfits or make-up as people know it is something I would potentially like, as by now they know my style and what I am willing to wear when it comes to colours, shape, fabrics etc and what I feel comfortable in. Some people struggle with what is their personal style… here are a few questions you need to ask yourselves to find your style😉

What are you comfortable in?

When talking about comfort, I don’t mean flats and sweatpants, comfortable in the way you look and the image you want to portray. I think this is key, it is useless trying to fit into something or splashing on make-up, and when you look into a mirror and think…eehmmm, I don’t like myself. I never sacrifice my style for the sake of fashion. Of course, I do follow the latest trends but I adapt them to feel comfortable and confident in what I wear. This does not mean that I don’t experiment, for example the camouflage dress I posted a couple of weeks ago is out of my comfort zone, but I added the hat to make it more “me” 🙂

Make an outfit your own!

What do you want to communicate with your look?

Do you want to seek attention or the other extreme, not to be noticed? Do you want to portray confidence, a bold personality. Are you in tune with your personality with the look you are portraying? Also, look at your surroundings. Will I look out of place if I wear such outfits to this particular event….? If so, are you comfortable with that, or would you rather fit in and go with the flow?

How do you go about it?

Initially, you need to experiment. Look at bloggers and magazines for inspiration, and slowly adapt these to make them your own, refine it and add your own touch. Dress up and see how comfortable you feel in it and also see what feedback you get from your true friends. Finding your own style is a journey, it is fun and enjoy it! By time you will also note that it will change and evolve.

I hope this blog posts helps you with identifying your own style…let me know!

All the best for the week to come ☺️

Yan

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Good morning!

I hope you all had a good week, and if it was not one of your best ones, what did you do to feel better?

On those days when I am feeling upset or going through a tough patch there is no better cure than a chat with my best friend (might also include a glass of wine😉 ), a jog to clear my mind and music…

To these I must add going round the shops to a busy place, not necessarily shopping (even although some retail therapy sometimes does it;). People and a busy spot give me energy.

And like the song goes

When you’re alone, and life is making you lonely You can always go 
Downtown
When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry Seems to help, I know
Downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty…

Some people prefer going to a spot away from everything to reflect. In my case, I prefer first clearing my mind and go round the shops and sitting at a coffee shop listening to the sound of a city.

January can be a tight month financially and retail therapy might be difficult to apply;) If I am window shopping I go round the shops for ideas on how I can mix the different clothes I have to create outfits… try it out! And then if you want to get yourself a lil pressie… go for a lipstick or mascara or something small so as not to break the bank but still gives you the thrill of shopping…💄🎊

If like me you looove music (I wake up and my music is on!), on one of those bad days I select Downtown and sing and dance to it whilst getting ready to go round the shops… and yes I do then feel a little better…:)

Here’s wishing you a good week ahead and remember chin up and smile!

Lots of love

Yan

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Happy New Year!

New year, fresh start and with it come all our self-promises and resolutions. I am not one keen on resolutions, three weeks in, I typically am back into my busy schedule and routine and forget all about what seemed a great idea beginning January. I do however set goals for myself, realistic ones. I do this every year and I do achieve most of them. One of my annual goals is setting the number of books I will read throughout the year, and I always increase the number by one or two books annually. To this this I add another two goals I want to work on and list these down on my mobile notes….lest I forget😉

I read an interesting article on Vogue about fashion resolutions and what the editors of the major fashion magazines vouched to stick to in 2020 with respect to fashion. These varied between shopping only for what is necessary, giving out something one is in possession of when purchasing something new, buying only one or two outfits however only of good quality and the list goes on. I never set myself any fashion resolutions…but after reading this I thought, I should add a goal to my list. So I thought… what is good to do and will also work? I decided to set a monthly budget I intend spending on my clothes, shoes and make-up. This gives me the freedom (to my mind) to shop for anything I want but within a monthly budget I set… let’s see how this goes…🙄 yikes…will I manage this you think? 😉

Always ask yourself these questions before you actually purchase an item of clothing:

• How many times will I realistically wear this?

• Can I mix and match it with different outfits?
• Does the price make sense for this piece? (If spending a substantial amount, is it a classic you will make use of or something which will be out of fashion in a couple of months?)

The struggle I will find with this goal is when it comes to shoes… I find it hard to resist when I see a pair I fall in love with, which is quite often…😂

So ladies let me know what fashion resolutions you will set? Let me know in the comments 🙂

I have some ideas for my 2020 blog posts, let me know of any particular ones you would like me to write about.

Cheers and all the best

Yan

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