The last of November

Hello Monday

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Grand Central Station

Clinique Beauty Coaching

Last week supersweet Kim from it-girl.be invited me to a Clinique Beauty Coaching at the Estée Lauder Headquarters in Brussels. Kim won the Clinique Bloggers contest and along with seven of her friends and readers she (and I) got to enjoy the professional skin care and make-up advice of the Clinique coaches.

I was already a fan of the Clinique products, especially of their three-step skincare program, but I learned a lot about their other skin care and make-up products as well.

So at the beginning of last week I learned how to take good care of my skin, but at the end of that same week I went and did something really stupid. I won’t go into details, but it involved a very early morning at work, a very sleepy me and some very hot tea. Boiling hot to be exact. Somehow I thought it was a good idea to drink boiling hot water straight out of a thermos, but clearly it wasn’t. I spilled some on my mouth and chin ét voilà = second degree burns as a result. So you won’t be seeing photos of me anytime soon, let’s just hope the wounds will heal quickly.

So let’s rewind back to my visit at Clinique, when my skin was still happy and healthy, and check out the pictures of our visit to the Clinique training room, aka small piece of heaven. We indulged in rich crèmes, refreshing tonics, silky serums, glossy lipsticks and… of course… cupcakes!

Versace for H&M - Antwerpen Meir

New Kids on the Block

Essentiel s/s 2012 preview

You would think short days equals long nights, but not in my case. I woke up at 6 in the morning today [luckily for a fun event, more on that later] and left the house when it was still dark. When I got back at 5PM it was already dark as night outside (and really cold, Winter has arrived!)

So I figured I needed some bright colourful patterns to cheer up this gloomy day, and what brand better to turn to than Essentiel? Last week I visited the Oona PR headquarters and was not only welcomed by the happy cheery faces of the Oona girls, but also by the happy cheery prints, colours and patterns of the Essentiel spring/summer 2012 collection.

Keywords are bright COLOUR, bold PRINTS and heavenly FABRICS. Not that I was expecting anything less from Essentiel (I’m a huge fan, does it show?). So here’s a little preview from the new collection – I love that thick bright blue cardigan, yum.

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Pins & Needles

The preppiness continues

Remember this post I wrote about Tommy Hilfiger’s signature preppy looks and the accompanying prep style contest they organized? I decided to be an example and uploaded my own picture on the website. Little did I know back then that this preppy outfit would allow me to win a €500 gift voucher.. I was named the winner of Belgium and as a runner-up in the international contest I won myself some happy shopping time at Tommy H. Best of all, I totally forgot about participating in the contest, so all of this came as a huge surprise. Another surprise: seeing my picture featured on the pages of Vogue.co.uk. Kinda cool, right?

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Fashion reads

I love books! I like reading and collecting them, and when I grow up I want to have a library in my house (preferably next to my four giant walk-in closets). Since I’ve recently came across some new fashion-related literary finds, I thought it would be nice to share my latest additions on the blog.

Ambush

Live Feed #3

Goodbye Sunday, hello Monday!

The past week I: came across these pretty boots = instant love and DIY-disaster waiting to happen • received happy mail and pretty packages, more on that soon • stopped by Tiany Kiriloff’s book signing debut. Expect an elaborate post about this and some other fun fashion books really soon. • went to the Patrizia Pepe Cocktail Party in their Antwerp store. Yummy food and even more yummy heels. Paulien and I were clearly feeling the blue jackets. I combined mine with a gold pleated skirt from F21 • not a week goes by without me indulging in sushi, and this week was no different. The brother and me ordered the Best Friends Menu at Oishii Hasselt. How cute (and tasty!) • I found a great way to store (sun)glasses. Just keep in mind to balance out the hanger. • it was Halloween aka the perfect excuse to dress up and act all freaky. Note the fake scar in my neck. It’s all in the details. • FunkyFresh sells frozen yoghurt. I myself am not really sold on the whole idea, I’d rather go for some Ben & Jerry’s, but it does look tasty. • soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur. Say hi to my brother’s roommate’s cat. Purr. • I spend my weekend with friends in a cabin in the woods. Campfire, fishing and a whole lot of booze. Best weekend in months. • Oh and I want to go to London. Nothing new about that.

DON’T FORGET TO ENTER THE GIVE-AWAY IN ORDER TO SPEND 25 SHINY EUROS ON UNIQUE VINTAGE PIECES FROM WEBSHOP VINTAGESTORE.NL

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VintageStore.nl GIVE-AWAY

UPDATE: THE GIVE-AWAY IS NOW CLOSED AND THE WINNER IS ANNOUNCED ON THE FACEBOOK-PAGE

There hasn’t been a proper giveaway on the blog yet, but the times they are a-changin!
Allow me to introduce you to VintageStore.nl, an online shop that offers a selection of vintage clothes, jewellery, accessories and shoes. I guess by now you all know how I feel about vintage or second hand items, right? The right item can bring so much personality into your wardrobe, has its own history and is just a tad bit more unique than your average H&M shirt.

Check out these earrings for example: straight out of the ‘80’s, they add just that bit extra to every outfit. Love.

So, on to the good stuff: VintageStore.nl is offering a 25 euro coupon to one of my readers. No need to write me sappy love letters begging for this price, all you have to do is leave a comment below and like the pages of Dogs and Dresses and VintageStore.nl on Facebook. By the way, if you happen to by one of the 8 people in the entire world who don’t have Facebook, you can always tweet about this contest or follow this blog on Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin’ to validate your entry.*

Like Dogs and dresses on Facebook
Like VintageStore.nl on Facebook

Tweet: “Win a €25 gift coupon for @_Vintagestore_ at dogsanddresses.com. [cc\ @ELN_M]”
*Liking, following ànd tweeting increases your chances at winning. Woo-hoo.
This contest is open until Sunday the 13th of November and a winner will be picked via random.org.

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Fallspiration

Inspiration for Fall. I've ordered some pretty items on ASOS and Topshop (first TS-order evaaa!) wich will be great additions to my a/w wardrobe. I'll show you when I receive them. It seems like lately all I do is wait for Mister Mailman to ring my doorbell..

For more cold weather-inspiration, click here and here.

What's your 'must-have' for this season?

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