Christmas Gift Guide | From 5€ to Luxury #feelingChristmassy

Ho ho ho to a new post after a long time no see! Today I am officially re-starting my Christmas series #feelingChristmassy, known from last year, because it's THAT time again! Christmas is around the corner (14 days to go!). Today I want to give you some inspiration for stocking fillers/christmas gifts for family, friends or even yourself (because who doesn't want to spoil himself/herself?). Grab a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy!

Elf Dvd | Such a cute and festive movie, which makes you laugh out loud. Absolutely hilarious and just a must-have for this season (even though my brother didn't liked it because he thought it was way too childish, but who cares?) (English Version: 5€)

&other stories Body Scrub | Well this is amazing! I've recently discovered and other stories as my new favourite shop because it has opened in a city near to where I live. The store is just beautiful and absolutely gorgeous in every section, clothes aswell as beauty. The brand is a bit more pricey, so I was suprised that the beauty section wasn't that much pricey. I got the body scrub in the scent "Belleville Bakery" which is absolutely perfect for this season. It smells fresh like lime and also like vanilla and this combination is amazing! You have to smell it in a store and you will definitely love it! (9€)

Lush Bathbomb | Who follows my blog for a while knows my obsession for Lush. It's like a never ending love story. Lush is just perfect: Vegetarian cosmetic products, often vegan and not tested on animals. A bathbomb is like the cutest gift you can get someone (check before if they have a bath tub), because they have such a big variation of bathbombs, which are just an eyecatcher and perfect to wrap (they also do gifts, for the lazy ones). If a bathbomb isn't what you were looking for then they also have a big section of soap, shower gel and other cosmetic products. (from 3€ to open end)

Flow Magazine | A magazine of art and all things living (like motivation, art and interior in one magazine) which is just piece of art itself: Quality paper, cute specials like wrapping paper or a little calendar, amazing articles and cute crafting ideas. Just perfect for a more artsy friend or just someone who wants to have a cute motivation and positivity on paper. (6,95€)

Hugo Boss Shower Gel | For your boyfriend, male best friend,brother,father or just for someone in your class for Secret Santa, this is just perfect: Smells absolutely amazing and not to over the top. A scent which suits everyone and who doesn't love a good ol' Hugo Boss scent? Just a basic. (10€)
I know this is a shower gel for women, but the Hugo Boss one was already wrapped up. Bruno Banani sells also great shower gels for men.

Zara Blanket Scarf | These have such a good quality and are perfect to keep you cosy in the colder months. Super-soft and go with everything. A statement piece for your fashionable friend (23€)

Rituals Candle "Hammam Secret" - A basic interior piece, which makes your room smell fresh and clean. This one is with eucalyptus and rosemary, which is such a relaxing scent to keep you concentrated on your work and makes you sleep heavenly. (20€)

Harry Potter Dvd Set | For your potterhead friend, who likes to have a complete and organised selection of all Harry Potter movies. A must-have movie collection and always great for a dvd evening. Besides an absolute bargain for eight movies. (20€)

Happy Jackson Diary | To keep your bestfriend organised in the new year. Beautiful illustrations and enough space to write down all your meetings and to-do lists. (14€)



So that's the end of this post. I hope I've inspired some of you what to get your loved ones for Christmas and let me know in the comments what's on your own Christmas wish list and we will see each other soon with another post about my evening (christmassy) pampering routine.

See you soon,
Karina <3

The Empties Reviewed | Recommendations and what not to buy

Hello and welcome to another Empties post, where you will get to know what I have used up and which products I loved and which not. I hope I can safe you from buying a worse product and that I can give you some inspiration with the top products of this post. Opinions are my own, so the flops (it's such a mean word) may be not your opinion and does work for you. That's okay because we all have different tastes and so let me know if you had a product I showed in this post and how you like it. Long introduction ended, so let's get started!

The products, that didn't work for me and weren't ah-mazing:

- Garnier Micellaire Water - Sorry for this one but this micellaire water hasn't really worked for me.
I know it's a really hyped dupe to the Bioderma one (which I liked a lot when I used it, but unfortunaltely tested on animals, which is a huge minus), but I had to use a lot of the product to getmy makeup of and it also left the skin quite tight and and dehydrated. So this was a bit of a flop plus Garnier tests on animals so I will definitely not buy it again.

- Essence Eyeliner Pen - so I am the kind of person who doesn't wear eyeliner in her daily life, a) because of laziness and b) because of a fluttered hand, which messes up everything. But nevertheless I wanted to give it a go and I have to say this eyeliner pen was really hard to handle and it's not dark enough so all you get is a greyish flick on your eye which looks really weird. Also the product isn't wet enough, so it does dry-out after a bit of time. Didn't work for me so the journey to find the prefect eyeliner continues.

- Yves Rocher Monoii Shower Gel - this was actually not as bad as I thought it was gonna be, but I expected a bit more from the cute packaging (packaging victim) so this was more like a really sweet and strong smelling 0815 shower gel and if I remember it right it wasn't also that cheap, so I will rather use some of my other favourite shower gels.

-  The Da Vinci Cleansing Soap - so this is supposed to clean your makeup brushes perfectly, which it actually did, but it wasn't that ah-mazing to rebuy it, because it's really expensive (about 6 or 7 Euro for such a small soap). The smell was okay, but you also get the fresh annd cleaned effect on your brushes if you buy a normal drugstore soap without any scent, so this has not to be repurchased.

The Tops and what to recommend:

+ Lush Snow Fairy - I don't have to say much about this product. If you like cotton candy and really sweet scents you have to get this one from Lush around Christmas. I suprisingly doesn't like cotton candy scents normally, but this one is just amazing and it also creates the biggest foam mountains you can ever imagine! I always rebuy it each year and have definitely to get the biggest bottle this year to get me through this year.

+ Our Moment Shower gel - so obviously it's a favourite because it's from One Direction, right? No just kidding, it's also a really nice floral scent which reminds me of the spring/ summer and I quite liked it a bit more than the proper parfum, don't ask me why because I don't really know either. Maybe I will include this on any wishlist to get it for Christmas or birthday, because it was quite nice and the scent stayed a bit longer than other scents from shower gels do (also a good stocking filler).

+ Laura Biagotti Shower Gel - got this from Franci a long (really long) time ago (maybe the first present she gave to me?) and haven't used it all the time and kinda forgot about it until I used it up recently and I have to say it was a different scent I would normally go for, but I quite liked the more strong and feminin scent, so this was a top product.

+ Swiss O'Par Deep Cleansing Shampoo - this is a really good shampoo, if you want a shampoo who gets all the used hair products (like gel and hairspray) out of your hair. It cleanses the hair prefectly and leaves the hair with a hint of scent (this one was a citrus scent) and let you have the 'I went to the hairdresser and I feel so glamorous' feeling which is great. A minus: I am not 100% sure if Swiss O'Par is cruelty free so I will not rebuy it, because I currently use some similar products which are a bit more amazing and are 100% cruelty-free (you will see these products in another Empties post somewhat next year I think). Also little information: My hair isn't tzhat complicated, so it doesn't need as much care, so I mostly use just a shampoo and blow-dry them and that's basically everything. Short said: The most shampoos work for me, so I am not so choosey when it comes to buying shampoos.

+ Clinique High Impact Mascara - My first high-end mascara, which I used when I was in eighth to nineth grade and loved it that much, I repurchased it a second time. Because I didn't realised that they were both over - used and basically empty (plus they also lasted a really long time) I will show you two of them in this empties. It's basically a flat brush and it gives you a little bit of length and the right potion of dark black. Perfectly for already long lashes which need a bit of comfort to make your eyes pop. Very natural and perfect for the daily life and school. Minus: Clinique tests on animals :( . So will be not repurchased.

+Maybelline Fit Me Concealer - A very, very hyped product and a huge love in my makeup collection. Not much to say about it: Doesn't look cakey, perfect to portion and does stay in place all- day. Unluckily not from a cruelty-free brand, so I need to find a dupe for this. Really dissapointing, because it's that good.

So these were my current Empties, I hope you liked it. You may noticed that the most products are unluckily not cruelty-free and that I won't rebuy them because of that fact. I focused mainly on the product itself, so some products were tops, even if they aren't cruelty-free. I'm just using up these products to replace them with maybe even better animal friendly products. If you are a new reader of The Bow, than you can check out my Cruelty Free Products haul, to get some inspiration, linked down below.
http://thebowkarina.blogspot.de/2015/07/trying-out-naturalcruelty-free-cosmetics.html

Have a nice day and see you soon,
Karina <3

Travel around the world in one day | Impressions of the StreetfoodFestival'15

Hi,Hello and Bonjour! Today I will take you on a trip around the world. Well not exactly but I will give you an insight at the different eating cultures of many different countries. Well more precise: Me and some of my friends "travelled" (if you can say that but it felt like a vacation because we had to catch so many trains) a bit of a way to another city and went to the official Streetfood Festival, which shows you the different eating cultures from America to the Orient.

First stop: A stand called "Orient Soul",which sold dishes like couscous salad, fresh made hummus and another taboulé salad with fresh baked flatbread, which I shared with my best friend Jana. It was absolutely delicious and I also guess it's easy to make that side dish at home. 

Next stop: "Antiochia", which was lebanese food and really, really delicious (I just have bought the ingredients to recreate it at home because it's that easy). We all decided to get the vegetarian version, so our falafel wrap was with some feta cheese,carrots,a yoghurt sauce,onions and tomatoes. The wrap was nicely rolled up in a "newspaper" with a little food crossword puzzle on it. 

After a while of digestion (we had to pause a minute, because we were so full and we wanted to try out as many dishes as we could) we decided to get something sweet as a dessert.
So we went all American and got some "Munchkins" which are basically deep-fried balls with some sort of chocolate in it. We decide on the Oreo ones and shared a bag of four. These were absolutely amazing but two of them were enough, because they are so sweet and make you filled up (even the catering promised the calories are "deep-fried" away :D ). 

After that me and Jana had to say goodbye our other two friends and continued the food-journey with getting a cold lemonade with elderflower (even though it's literally winter where I live, the weather of that day was pretty good and luckily more of a weather from a late summer) after that we also had to go home so we got a Berry Cheesecake Pudding (basically crumbled cookie,a berry cream and some natural cream layered in one bowl) which was low-carbed and absolutely delicious (the hundredth time I used the word delicious in this post) prepared with that dessert we made our way back to the train station, missed our train and ended up in Starbucks drinking a Very Berry and a Mango-Papaya drink (don't know the name of it). End of story.

No just kidding. So we ended up in Starbucks which was obvious and after that took the train to our hometown.
This day was basically one of the best memories in this year. We had a very relaxed and good time, ate really (really) good and got to know so many new dishes. The Festival was also at a relaxed venue, directly at the river and the weather was incredible. Such a nice atmosphere and absolutely recommendable for any food-lover. I hope you liked this little insight and look forward to hear your feedback!

Question of the day: 

Have you been to a Streetfood Festival yourself?

See you soon with a new post and if you have holidays: Happy Holidays!

Karina <3

Back to School Supplies + Organisation Tips and Tricks

Hello and welcome to a fresh new post! The time has come: summer is ending and with that our beloved holidays, so it's time to get organised (and mentally prepared) for the new school year. But also a new school year means new chances and new experiences.For helping you to start the school year with the motivation you need, I will write down my best useful and essential tips and tricks, whilst showing you how I got organised for the new school year with buying new stationery supplies.
First of all let's start with the few things I got for the new schoolyear. At this point I think less is more so I only got two big, flexible folders: one for the main courses and one for the minor courses. In the folder for the main courses I will just file some work sheets and in the other one I will file some headwords. To note everything I got another spiral-bound notebook. The best with that is that you have basically one half of lined paper and the other half with graph paper, so you don't have to bring two notebooks. Pencil Case Content wise I just got two pencils, two ballpoints and some new markers, because I had so many pencils from last year aswell. Because I always tend to bring too many pencils with me and loose the overview, I told Franci (my best friend, and currently in London) to get me one of the gorgeous Jack Wills pencil cases, because this one is a bit smaller than my one (so excited to get it when she comes back). Because you know that the teacher often doesn't perforate the exercise sheets it's always good to bring a little (pink) perforator for that case. Also I absolutely adore my new organising "The Palgrave Student Planner", which is perfect to write down everything you need to learn and do at home. Very compact and offers a lot of space and exra material. I can absolutely recommend that one.

Beauty wise I packed a few things together in a emergency kit, beacuse you know the drill with looking really exhausted and groase in the later lessons at the afternoon. In the next picture I will show you what's inside this little lifesaver:

P.S.: The products I used in this little collage (made with Polyvore) are just examples, which are similar to what I have in my little makeup bag.

Evelyn and Crabtree The Gardeners Hand Cream | this smells so good like rosmary, herbs and very        natural (without animal testing obvs)

Rimmel Stay Matte Powder | whenever your face gets shiney and you need to look fresher just powder a bit of it onto your face (I tend to bring this powder with a little makeup sponge so I don't need any pencils)

Burts Bees Lip Balm | For dry lips in the colder months and to moisturise your lips

Pink Headphones from Happy Plugs | I absolutely love these plugs! You can buy them in many different and fancy colours and the quality is really good for its price of 20 euros I think.

Tissues and makeup wipes | I don't have to say something about that, just that they are handy and essential in so many different situations

Soap and Glory Hand Maid Hand Santisizer | Really good to bring with you when you use public transportations

Deodorant | Because you don't want to be sweaty and you want to smell good (also not has to be miss in your kit)

Hair ties and Tangle Teezer | For the perfect hairstyle all day long!

To keep everything together I have a perfect sized clear Clinique bag which doesn't take too much place.

Chewing Gum | Not in my makeup bag but very necessary when you want to smell good after a big lunch (and you will have so many lunch times because trust me you will basically live in the school because of lessons in the afternoon)

  

 Other 

essentials to complete the list above:

Phone

Tangle Teezer

CD Deodorant

Extra Chewing Gum

Purse with month ticket for the train and student ID card

Key

Headphones

Burts Bees Lip Balm

Hand Santisizer

Some cereal bars (healthy and filling)

Last but not least I will share some of my most useful tips and tricks with you, beacause they're making my daily school life a bit easier:

Eat healthy and do sports | Always great for a healthy and balance life style. I just think you don't even need too much time to prepare a little meal (just a big Cesar Salad with bread or rice with a variation of vegetables). If you want a whole student recipes post let me know it :).  Also try to make time for some sports wether it's a little home workout or a visit to the gym, with the right breath technique that can also be really relaxing and trust me you will feel great after a good run or a zumba class, just because you did some sports.

Learn as early as you can | I always tend to do my homeworks and learning too late and alwys regretting it afterwards (less sleep, no motivation, exhaustion). If you are like me just keep your resoltion and try to learn as early as you can and you can benefit from it, because you have more time and relaxation.

Pack your things the evening before | Something I always do because it saves so much time in the morning. Just pack your things at the evening before school and at the morning you are good to go! (Also who has time for anything timetaking in the morning?) 

Create a playlist for the tired early mornings | Personally I found the app Spotify really helpful when you are such a music lover like me (I was so so obsessed with listening to the big variety of music this month). Because I am not an early bird I just created a playlist called "School Mornings" with all my motivating and favourite songs to get me awake in the morning and to start the day right.

 

  

Take breaks and calm yourself down | To a good learning method there must also conclude the relaxation. Take breaks, do what you like, meet friends and live your life besides the learning. Don't forget to take your me-time to calm down after a long and exhausting school day.

Sleep early to be fresh in the morning | Go to bed a bit earlier  as usual (like 21.30 to 22.00 p.m.) and you will be more awake in the morning and more motivated for school. Also a big match to the learning, because our body and our mind needs its hours to renew the energy for a new day. To stay up late you also have the weekend (living for the weekends!)

Don't take things too serious | We are all humans and we all fail sometimes and that's not a shame. If something doesn't work out like you have imagined it, don't be sad, keep your head up and stay strong. Work for your dreams and it will all be worh it.

Some last tips: I got a really helpful book, I randomly found on Amazon named Bestnote, which is really well written and gives you some tricks to divide your learning time from your relaxing time. This book also helps you to find the best suiting learn method for you, so it's definitely a book I would recommend if you want to know more about different ways to learn.

One last thing: BE YOURSELF! You are perfect the way you are and the others will appreciate that. Meeting new people always means a lot of nervosity but if you are open for new contacts you will find your way to convince them from your great personality. If they are mean to you don't be sad, they don't deserve you and you will find better friends than them. Smile and make new friends and be the best version of yourself. 

I hope you all have a great new school year and we'll see each other soon with a fresh new post,

Karina <3

5 Books You should definitely read | Little Insights and Reviews

Hello and welcome to a new post! Today it's all about my five favourite books at the moment, which I highly recommend you to read. So I will give you a little insight in the books and review them for you. I hope you like it and stay tuned for my next post which is most likely a fashion post (might done a little shopping in the past weeks so you will see my newest additions including the picks from my summer vacation).

Paper Towns - John Green | A book about a boy named Quentin, who lives next door with a very adventurous girl named Margo Roth Spiegelman, who he knows since he was little, but has lost the contact to. At one night, she eventually climbs into his room and wants him to join her on a midnight revenge trip, because she wants to take revenge on some of her "friends". Quentin helps her and has probably the best night of his life before going to school on the next day, where Margo doesn't show up. She lefts clues for him, which he tries to understand and which lead him and his friends to a long road trip through America in hope to find her, true love and the real life.
A truly inspirational and wonderful book, you have to read, when you love the inspiring writing style of John Green. The movie is also great with wonderful shots, good actors and a perfect soundtrack (haven't stopped listen to it in the past days).

Girl Online - Zoe Sugg | This book is the first book from Zoe Sugg aka Zoella on Youtube. As she is a true inspiration for me I obviously had to get it when it was launched. Just a beautiful cover but first let's talk about the content. It's about a blogging girl named Penny, who deals with the daily struggles all about love, friends,school and anxiety on her blog. When her mum gets the chance to organise a wedding in New York she comes along with her, her dad and her best friend named Elliott. Even new at the city, she meets a boy named Noah, who shows her the city and with who she is quickly falling in love. Writing down her time in New York including her new love, she doesn't know who Noah really is. When things start to get real complicated, Penny has to decide what she really wants.
A very cute book, which isn't too ambitious and easy to read whilst being on holiday. If you are a fan of Zoella and also into the blogging world like me, you should really read it.

The Selection - Kiera Cass | The first book of a series from Kiera Cass, which is about a girl named America Singer, who is just a normal girl at a working class family. When she gets the chance to enter The Selection, a competition to win the love from Prince Maxon, she's first against it, because she's with a boy named Aspen. But as this is the chance to receive a better life for her and even her family she enters the competition and is chosen by the royal family. As she wents their with thirty-five other girls, who are kicked out one by one to get one princess at the end, America gets to know the royal family better and notices that Maxon isn't how she thought he would be and is slowly falling in love with him.
An absolute interesting and beautiful book with a great storyline. It's so interesting to see how the relationship between America and Maxon improves and really gets the reader addicted to know how it goes on in the next books (had to get the second book at the library, because I have to know how it goes on).

The Fault in Our Stars - John Green | You probably know what this book is about, but I will summarize it as short as I can. It's about a girl named Hazel, who has cancer and has to deal with that. When her mother wants her to go out of the house and meet new people at a self-help group, she meets Augustus Waters, who has lost one leg, because of cancer. They suddenly fall in love, even if Hazel is afraid to hurt him, if her illness costs her the life. Hazel has the dream to meet her favourite author at Amsterdam and when Augustus uses his heart's desire for this cause, he, Hazel's mother and Hazel fly to Amsterdam to meet Hazel's favourite author. And even if things doesn't work out like they should, Augustus and Hazel are happy to spend time together, because they don't know how long they could meet each other because of their illnesses.
A beautiful, but mostly tragical love story about two strong characters named Hazel and Augustus, who experience true love and happiness, even if they don't know how long they can live because of their disease.
Very heart-warming and a must-have in every book shelf.


Three Little Words - Jessica Thompson |This book is all about forgiving yourself and others and the roads life can take. It's about different people, whose fortunes collide together. The story starts at a spring evening, where one man's life is ended by a boy who shoots him accidentaly. Bryony Weaver, the wife of Max, who got killed, struggles with his death ever since and can't open her heart for new people. As beginning and end to her suffering, she sits in a cafe every afternoon, where one waiter named Adam falls in love with the mysterious woman, without knowing her story.They get to know each other better and Bryony starts to see a friend in Adam, with him wanting more than that. Besides Bryony, the mother of Keon, the boy who shot Max by accident, has to struggle with her son being a murder, and tries to understand him. Also the story is about a woman who seems to have a good job and a good husband, when he cheats on her and tries to get her back. And also this book includes the history of a gorgeous ballerina, who has to find her true mother after getting to know that she was adopted as a child.
This book is really heart-warming and is all about forgiving. The characters learn to forgive others and themselves by the end of the book after struggling with the happened situations. Very wise and also the book takes place in my favourite city of all time London.

See you soon,
Karina <3

Ville des Citrons, la Mer et un trip avec maman #travellintoMenton

So hello and welcome to a new blogpost! As you probably know I was in South France, more specifically in Menton, for the last week and wanted to show you some impressions from this amazing vacation with my mom.

So back to the beginning: We drove all the way to the coast with our car, which was a really long car journey, so we had a stop in Varese, a beautiful Italian city with an amazing old town, where we stayed the night in a hotel, which is called "Art Hotel" and which looked really fancy (the breakfast room was furnished very aesthetic and very Italian. When we got there we had a nice walk around the old town with its beautiful streets and finished the day with having one of the most delicious meals I ever had (handmade ravioli filled with mozzarella and a nice sauce to top it of and some fresh baked bread) at a pizzeria called "La Piedigrotta".

The next day we drove the last miles to our final holiday destination, where we arrived at the late afternoon. To shorten everything a bit I will summarize our amazing stay in Menton a bit in the following:
Our vacation turned into a routine, so after eating some breakfast at our Hotel Charles Prince de Galles (which was located perfectly, one step out of the hotel and you were at the beach) we headed straight to the beach and enjoyed the amazing weather whilst swimming, tanning and reading a bit (finished Paper Towns at this vacation which was literally so inspirational and absolutely incredible, can't wait to see the movie). The beach was fantastic: Even though I was a bit sceptical about the gravel at the beach, I really liked it.

Our afternoon were often some walks at the beautiful old town and having some looks at the shops. For shops I discovered two amazing Vintage Shops at Menton, where I bought a dress and a tunica for an amazing price (but I wills show you my shopping conquests in another post). Also you could discover so many new things at all these little and cute streets. To get to the old town we walked all the way (a really long way but whatever) at the promenade whilst looking at the sea and on this promenade you could find many restaurants and bars.

There was also a cocktail bar called "La Mandibule" at the promenade where you got a cocktail served in a big cocktail cup decorated with flowers and something like that. Also a foodie hint: If you are staying at Menton you have to go to the big market hall, because there you can find a lot of french food stands with amazing food (also good for buying souvenirs).

 
As part of the Music Festival in Menton there were so many acts every evening for every music taste. At one evening there was an amazing cover band called "L'Orchestre Europa" at the one stage, who sang new and old songs and spreaded a good mood.
Also we went to Nizza where we had a look around the city and got to see the many little and intricated streets and walked probably around the whole city without knowing it.
 In Menton we also visited the "Musée des Beaux-Arts" which is a little palace with some great paintings collected which are from the twelveth until the twenthiest century and because of that show different paint styles. And when you went outside there is Europe's biggest citrustree collection in a beautiful park. Also we went to the Jean Cocteau museum, who was a painter born in 1889, with a painting style which is very difficult to describe: His collection included sketches aswell as paintings and photographs mixed with painted elements (everything really crazy and visionary).

We also ate really well at this vacation so I will list my top three restaurants below:

1.Creperie St.Michel in Menton, where you can eat a variety of crepes and galettes (hearty crepes served with f.e. parma ham, tomatoes and mozzarella)
2.Brasserie du Cap in Menton (amazing freshly made bruschetta and really tasty moules with frites)
3.La Piedigrotta in Varese (Traditional Italian and also handmade meals, also really popular in Varese even though it looks a bit non-descript on the outside)

And so time flew by and our beautiful vacation was over and we drove back to our hometown, where we had another stop at Freiburg at the "Gästehaus am Stadtgarten", which is located near the old town, which is really cultural inspired and really traditional. Had a look at the shops there and drove the last miles until we were back home.
So a final resumee: This vacation was absolutely amazing and Menton is definitely a city, I would recommend everyone who wants a week of relaxation and who wants to stay at a city(which is also really traditional and not over filled with touurists) where to discover the city aswell as swimming in the sea and lying on the beach.
Another great memory of this year and can't wait to come back any time again. Until next time!