spruced by marlene

„Does my wardrobe show my age?” That’s the question on the cover of a fashion magazine lying on my desk right now.

If it does, then I’m three years old here. Because isn’t that the age when you wear a playsuit?

I could call it an overall. Or, more fashionably, a one-piece. Yet, when I stood in the changing room at Zara, all I could think was: I’m wearing a playsuit. Also: what does one wear with it? Besides the obvious – a bib. Am I perhaps getting a little too comfortable with my clothes? Where would I wear this thing? And can it be mere coincidence that I’m thinking about buying a playsuit a few weeks before my 34th birthday?

I don’t recall exactly what I imagined my life to be like at 34 when I was 18, although I’m sure I thought that it would be somehow done, all the major decisions made, everything determined and settled. While that’s true in some important ways – I know where I want to live and who with –, my life still feels pretty open, something I’m thankful for. If you had asked 18-year-old me, a girl with henna-red hair, a fake nose piercing and tie-dyed bell bottoms, how a 34-year-old dresses, I’d have probably said: Conservative. 18-year-old me was right. It’s a side effect of getting older that my closet is filled with things that I can grab with my eyes closed and know: it will fit, it will sit right, it will suit me. With the years the slip-ups have become fewer, my style more composed, the wardrobe more sensible. It’s reassuring most of the time. And other times it bores me to pieces. It’s at those times, when I feel like I need to surprise myself, that I find myself in a changing room in a playsuit and think: Hell yes!

I’ve not worn it with a bib so far, but either with a lose-fitting t-shirt underneath or a tube-top. I last wore a „boob tube” 15 years ago, so that’s how old I am now: old enough for the fashion of my youth to have a revival. And where do I wear it? Pretty much everywhere, to the office, to the bar, and I’ll wear it during Fashion Week too, which kicks off in Berlin tomorrow. Where I’ll probably look conservative showing up in a black playsuit.

Which isn’t quite the reaction I got when I wore it on a regular Monday afternoon to take some pictures…

Read More »

And here’s the PS to my post about self tan, my sunscreen. As much as I love the typical scent of sunscreen – I only have to smell Nivea and my memory takes me back to being 5 years old on a beach in Denmark –, I can do without it here. Because this lotion can do something else: it’s non-greasy and doesn’t leave the typical white streaks on skin and clothing.

PS: I discovered Daylong thanks to my friend Nora. The lotion is available, with weaker and stronger SPF as well, from the pharmacy.

PPS: The scented candles in the background are another one of Nora’s discoveries. Maison Balzac was founded by a French woman in Australia, inspired by the scents of her childhood in the South of France. You can find the candles in Europe at Colette. My choice right now would of course be „Le Soleil”.

PPPS: And something completely unrelated. Google Reader is shutting down tomorrow. But you can start following Spruced on Bloglovin’ instead. Here’s how.

Asked in an interview what quality he’d most like to change about himself, the comedian Conan O’Brien once said: „My inability to tan”. I laughed out loud when I read it. Then I reached for my bottle of self tan lotion.

You see, I don’t tan either. Rather, I collect freckles between June and August, mostly on my face and arms. My legs, however, stay firmly in December. Sure, I could insist that I just got back from my all inclusive vacation – in Siberia. But I’d rather not look like winter in summer. Since I use sunscreen religiously, and avoid sunbeds for health reasons, the only other option is to self tan.

I tried a tanning shower once. I came out of that experience with the colour of a roast chicken and smelling curiously like air freshener. Tanning sprays also don’t work for me. I’ve had the best results with lotions or mousse that give off colour gradually. When it comes to beauty products, my attitude is normally: the less effort involved the better. But I do what’s required when using self tan. So I scrub, moisturize, apply the self tan in the evening, so it can absorb properly over night, rather than doing it in the morning and having to waddle around the apartment like a demented duck, waiting for the stuff to dry.

I recently bought „Perfect Legs Gradual Tan” from This Works. When I looked at the price, I wondered if I had suffered sunstroke. But when I put on my white silk dress for the first time last week, with legs no longer the same colour as the dress, and instead a light, streak-free brown with not a tinge of orange, I thought: it was worth it. The self tanning towelettes from Comodynes and the „Gradual Tan” gel from St. Tropez have also passed my test. And I’ve heard good things about the „Alpha Beta Glow Pads” from Dr. Dennis Gross as well as the „Liquid Bronze” lotion from Clarins.

Any that you’d recommend?

After I shared my summer essentials last week, I started wondering about my state of mind. Bikini: black. T-shirt: white. Sandals: grey. And I didn’t even show you my favourite dress (black), jeans (white) and shirt (take a wild guess). Did I lose my color perception in the long winter? If I had, I wouldn’t have fallen so madly for my new suede shopper in bright pink. It’s more that I like clothes to be uncomplicated for summer, especially after a long winter. Uncomplicated for me means: the same things as in winter, except less of them. Much as I’d like to be a woman who switches her wardrobe from „Greenland” to „Majorca” in June, wears flirty little summer frocks and mixes prints like crazy, whenever I make an attempt at it, I still end up dressed in mostly: black, white, grey. So even for my Majorca premiere this summer I probably won’t turn out in hippie dresses (that’s right. Majorca this summer. Do you know the island? Tips for eating, drinking, swimming? Spill!)

Because we’ve all got better things to do in the summer than spend time on make-up, I keep it simple as well, with mascara, my why-didn’t-I-know-about-this-product-before, the BB Cream from Erborian – and a lipstick. Here are my three picks in – whaddaya know! – bright colours.

| „HAJ” – Uslu Airlines. A red shade that turns pink when applied. What I like about the Uslu Airlines lipsticks: strong colours, but with a creamy texture that doesn’t dry out the lips.

| „Schiap” – NARS. Damn. That would’ve been a good name for this colour too. „Schiap” is a tribute to Elsa Schiaparelli’s favourite colour. A cracking pink – with any name.

| „Riviera” – Dior Addict Extreme. Light as a lip balm, with the colour of grapefruit juice. And the name! Pure summer.

The blog’s all about summer beauty products for the rest of the week. As always, I love to hear your favourites, too.

Of course, I saved the best for last. My new handbag from James Castle!

I’m completely smitten with „The Nora”. A slouchy suede shopper that’s as simple as a shopping bag, yet very chic. The kind of bag that doesn’t need to show off to get noticed. I’ve been carrying it around for a couple of weeks now and I keep getting asked where I got it from. Besides, never have so many people wanted to grab my handbag. But then the leather is so soft that you can’t help but touch it. Nora, who the bag is named after, and who I’m visiting in Munich at the moment, promptly shifted everything from her old handbag into the new one when she got hers and pretty much hasn’t put it down since. It’s just the perfect bag for whenever you need one. Especially when summer comes and you don’t want to carry too much with you, but still something that’s beautiful.

You can order „The Nora” from the James Castle online shop. It’s currently available in pink, navy and brown.

I’ve worn mine, the pink one, with this white dress in these last couple of really warm days.

Read More »