inspired by san i thought i’d share my beauty spring favorites with you as well :) you will notice quite a few german products because, well… i live in germany. i apologize if you can’t get them where you live but at the same time i would like to offer to serve as your “dealer” if there’s something you really, really want to try and send it to you. i’m sure we can work something out :)

1.) balea getönte feuchtigkeitscreme = a tinted moisturizer. my best friend uses it and i tried it when i visited her last weekend. right away i found it to be perfect for my after-winter-white-as-a-ghost face. plus, it gives a bit of coverage as well which is great since i try to not use a foundation every day any more to give my skin a break after all that bare minerals covering up for two years or so… it’s very light but i still “mix it” with a little bit of my normal moisturizer – yes, i’m that white *sigh* – and i think it looks very natural and i’m loving it.

2.) alverde products. i tried to narrow it down to a couple of my favorite products but realized i really couldn’t. i just love all of their products. it’s a german brand of natural products with mostly certified organic ingredients. right now i’m using their eye cream, powder, foundation and blush, daily moisturizer and night cream… love it all!

3.) volume & define (GER) / liquid line definer (US) eyeliner by maybelline new york – i’ve tried a lot of different eye liners over the years. never have been this happy with one before. it’s really easy to use, it’s a nice and dark black (as opposed to the grey-ish color of a lot of the other ones i’ve tried before) and it absolutely lasts all day without smudging or anything. another plus is the price and the liner lasts months (with daily use) before you have to buy a new one. i absolutely love it.

4.) stretch&define (GER) / define-a-lash (US) mascara by maybelline new york – again, have tried a lot over the years. i always use waterproof mascara because i’m wearing contact lenses and this one is easy to apply, actually parts the lashed nicely and lasts forever as well. no smudging, keeps my lashes curled up nicely and has a nice, dark black color.

5.) rival de loop (rossmann) fruchtsäure peeling / fruit acid exfoliating scrub – refines the skin very gently. i love using it a couple times a week in the evening just before going to bed. you put it on, leave it for a few minutes (and it gives you the tiniest of a tingling sensation) before gently scrubbing and taking it off again. it just feels good and like your face is really, really clean. love.

6.) essence show your feet intensive repair balm – i have dry skin. especially in the winter time from lack of air/sun for the skin and dry air from the heat. dry hands, body and feet. so i pretty much use this all year almost every day. which i think is even more important now that the flip-flops, sandals and bare-feet season is about to start (yay!). speaking of feet: i think there’s still too many people out there who are not taking good care of their feet and then “share” the disaster with everyone during the summer = fail. sorry.

now, what are your favorite beauty essentials?

two weeks ago C and i packed our bags and left for a short get-away we had planned months ago. remember how i said we wanted to take more trips and all? well, this was one (hopefully the first of many more to come) of those trips. we took the train down to munich and as soon as we crossed the “border” into bavaria i noticed the gazillion little church towers because apparently every tiny town there has a church. when we got to munich we put our luggage in a locker and walked around the city for a couple hours. my conclusion after that (granted, very little) time: munich people are snobs and not too friendly, a map from the tourist information costs 0,40 euro which i have never experienced in any other city before, i’m not too impressed by the “hofbräuhaus-area” but LOVED the viktualienmarkt, would go back if i had the chance but it’s not very high on my list of places i want to see more of. and yes, i am biased because of the bremen-munich-rivalry in soccer. but enough of that, on to salzburg…

we got there around 9 pm, grabbed some fast food at the train station, got a taxi to the hotel and checked in. our room was AMAZING. top floor = 6th with big floor-to-ceiling windows on the corner. we were sooo excited and not just because we could finally take a shower and crawl into bed :)

after enjoying the GREAT breakfast buffet and fueling up for the day we started walking towards the city centre. the weather was amazing (sunny at around 20°C) and we didn’t even have to take our jackets. we walked on top of the kapuzinerberg, hiked around the kapuzinerkloster and had a great view from up there across the river salzach to the other side = the old part of the city and the castle.

after sitting up there in the sun for a while we took a gazillion stairs down and walked across the river to the old town. we saw the mozart’s birthplace, the cathedral, all the little streets and squares and stood at the bottom of the hill looking up to the hohensalzburg fortress …

we had a beer and apfelstrudel on a terrace of one of the hotels right at the river and walked to the mirabelle palace and gardens after that.

by the time we got back to the hotel that night we were both pretty tired and decided to just stay in, order room service and enjoy our view ;) naturally, i slept like a baby that night.

on friday we had heard that the weather was supposed to get worse in the afternoon so we decided to take the “sound of music tour” which C had taken on his last trip a few years back and highly recommended. it was awesome. even though i haven’t seen the movie (yet!) the locations we got to see were great. we even drove into the mountains to lake wolfgang and across some beautiful scenery until we got to the final destination “mondsee” which is where a famous (wedding) scene of the movie was shot. it was a great time and i’d do it again in a heartbeat!

here’s the whole salzburg-set with a few more photos if you’re interested :) as you can see we were pretty lucky with the weather despite the forecast but sure enough, as soon as we got back to the drop-off around 6 pm it started raining. so we walked back to the hotel to relax for a while before heading out for dinner again. that evening we had dinner at a pretty cool brewery – die weisse – which was rustic but not old-fashioned and very comfortable. the beer and food were great and we just hung out there for quite a while.

after another GREAT breakfast buffet it was time to pack up, check out and leave on saturday morning. next stop, regensburg to spend the weekend with a couple we had never even met before. we’s crazy like that ;) seriously though, i’ve known tara in the online world for quite a while now and we had wanted to get together so this was the chance with regensburg only being three hours from salzburg and basically “on our way” back. tara’s husband and C hit it off right away, having not only their home country but also their love of the beer in common ;) so naturally we did a (short) brewery tour (of two places) after we got there before heading back to their place. the rest of the weekend was filled with amazing food – seriously, they spoiled us big time with taco-night, great breakfast with everything one can ask for and a wow BBQ sunday night. can you say t-bone? :)) – lots of talking (and “beer tasting” on the men’s side) and relaxing. it was perfect in every way. thanks so much again, tara & J <3

we got home around 9:30 pm monday night. tired but in a good way. plus, i had taken an extra day off and just chillaxed some more at home on tuesday. so it was allll good :)

this is one of my all time favorite photos. of one of my favorite flowers. i took it on easter sunday of last year at some friends’ house in their absolutely beautiful backyard. it just makes me happy and giddy for spring :) but that’s not the only reason i’m sharing this photo today. i’m sharing this because i would love a new camera bag in my favorite color and – believe it or not – i can win one just by sharing this photo with you. so it’s a win-win and me likey :)

beyond snapshots is having this contest and of course i’m in! red is one of my favorite colors and i would really LOVE a new camera bag. or, you know, A camera bag since i don’t have one at all. i just usually put my camera in my zing bag and then carry it around in whatever purse/bag i’m using that day. i think that should really change. plus, that bag is really pretty… just go and look for yourselves…