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