OFS' #FIVEPICKS: FEBRUARY

Good morning/ Good afternoon / Good evening everyone! I hope y'all enjoyed your weekend so far.
Today I wanted to introduce my new category #fivepicks. In every #fivepicks-post I will share 

5 things that I'm not planning to let go of any time soon. Long story short – let's start with my 

picks for this month.

#1_SPECS: QUINN by SunniesStudios

I have the poorest eyesight of all time. I'm actually wearing contacts but sometimes my eyes just

react against this foreign substance and need a break. My biggest problem is, that I don't like 

wearing the same frame all over again. It actually depends on my mood to decide which shape
I wanna go for. As we all know, most spectacles are quite expensive, so my vanity is working against

me here. This explains, why I freaked out so much ever since Sunnies Studios came out with their

specs line. These specs come with non-prescription lenses but can be replaced. So that's exactly

what I did. If you're planning to get them, I would recommend you to show them to your optometrist

first. Some optical shops are unable to fit prescription lenses into some of the frames. 

#2_NO7 Highlighter

I got this highlighter-palette in London and never used any other ever since. Some highlighters 

tend to be too glittery or have a white pigment, that just won't fit by skin color. This one's amazing!

#3_Romper Room Nail Polish by Essie 

I am more the red nail-polish kinda person, but lately I've been loving this nude/light pink for a

change. My absolute fave at the moment is the color romper room by essie. The other bottle you

see here is one of their base coats which works just perfect on my nails. I've been strugglin' a lot

finding the right base because I feel like it's the base that causes bubbles and not the top coat.
I count these nail polishes as one pick because the base goes along with every nail polish color
I would pick for that manicure routine that I have. Btw: Thinking of posting my home manicure
'how-to' on the blog and introduce my favorite shades from Kiko, Essie, Caronia & co. What do

you think? 

 

#4_ROUGE VOLUPTE - YSL 

I've been very lazy when it comes to doing my make-up the last weeks. But when I do, I find myself

wearing that heavy eye-makeup. Before this laziness hit me, I went for a winged eye-liner and bold

lip errday. Since I am wearing make-up like twice a week only (if ever), I feel like I have to go all

in and put a little more effort in it. Going all-in with the eyes, I feel like a bold lip is too much so I'm

sticking to nude or rosy lip colors. The one that's been used the most for the past weeks: My YSL
Rouge Volupte. 

#5_HEADPHONES by FRENDS

You guys know me: no music - no life. Headphones on – world off. These headphones are a shield

from everything what's going on around you. I have difficulties when it comes to keep my 

concentration. So what I do when I work is to listen to music and turn the volume up to the 

fullest. Fun fact: When I still went to university and had to study for my exams or write my papers, 

I had only o n e song on replay for weeks, so the lyrics or beat wouldn't distract me. 

#1: SPECS: order here or here#2: HIGHLIGHTER: order here (my shade: rose)
#3: NAIL POLISH: DE order here EN order here
#4: LIPSTICK: here (my shade 'opera rose')
#5: HEADPHONES: order here

*NO AD

CHALLENGING CULOTTES

There's a clash of opinions when it comes to culottes like there's always a clash when it comes to

fashionable items. Some people love 'em and some hate 'em. I've always had a thing for these skirt-

resembling trousers ... until I started hating them. I started taking dislike to them, because every time

I would try them on, I would look like a dwarf whose legs were wrapped up in a kite. I am not the

tallest person, so even when the fit was just right, the length was not how it's supposed to be. I'm not

the skinniest person, so when the length was just good, they looked like capri leggings. I was 

desperate to find a good pair and gave up after looking for the perfect fit for almost half a year. 

And then it happened – like a fairytale come true. "It'll happen when you stop looking for it"

As you all know, I visited the Philippines back in November. And guess what! I found t h r e e pairs 

with the perfect fit. When I was a teenager I would always buy my denims there, because I wouldn't
have to alter the length. Same with culottes. And instead of choosing one color only, I bought all of
them. 

So is everyone able to wear culottes? I saw a lot of posts and articles, that this style of pants is a
no-go for short people. I disagree. As you see it's all about the endeavour of finding the right pair
(even though I have to admit, that I already surrendered). So how do I pair them? The most seen
combination is to pair them with a crop-top. Nope, not following this trend, unless looking like
Winnie the Pooh is object of this game. Don't get me wrong. Crop-Tops are great! Cute & sexy
at the same time, just nothing that would look good on me. I always hear and read all these
suggestions, that culottes go best with fitted, tiny or tucked in tops, t-shirts, blouses, or sweaters,
because it would balance out the silhouette. So I've clearly missed on this must-do. Actually I didn't.
I just dare not to follow these suggestions. As you see I did wear a loose, oversized blouse which
I haven't tucked in at all. I went for a transparent blouse to avoid looking like I forgot to take
of my pyjamas. To compensate the casual look, I decided to wear heels  – besides, I really missed
to flounce around in those babies. But I would totally wear this outfit combination to white flats.
I think that this oversized pieces, paired with my striped culottes, look a little more sophisticated (on
me) than the typical crop-top combination. But I guess it's all a matter of proportion. Now tell me,
how do you pair yours?

wearing// culottes HIP CULTURE PH blouse H&M coat H&M 

PH-EXPERIENCE: AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR BEING STUCK IN TRAFFIC

Staying in the Philippines, especially Manila also requires a lot of patience. If you're not, it's about

time to get rid of your impatience (if you're planning to go there). There are actually a lot of beautiful

places to visit, BUT it's kind of a challenge to move along because traffic there is theee wooorst!

Within 24 years I experienced being stuck in traffic way too often and too long! But this year it felt 

like the situation just got worse. I was there with my family during the holidays. As we were staying 

there for 2,5 weeks only, we had quite a tight schedule. So instead of being stuck for like an hour, 

like we were used to, I was lucky enough to catch up on all the sleep that I skipped. Waking up after

three hours in the car, we still weren't moving. I was wondering how people manage to be at work on

time. My parents told me, either they are leaving their house like at 4AM in the morning, or they'll 

take a tricycle – one of my fave rides there. That thing manages to loop through all the lined up cars.

Since I was a little kid, I loved riding these things and I even drove these motorized cycles – which I 

wouldn't do anymore because I turned to a chicken-hearted person. Filipinos know, that they would 

only waste their time by taking the car during rush hours, so these tricycles are common means of

public transportation there. Even if I am able to walk from our house to some places, I sometimes 

feel like having a ride by tricycle, just because I love these bumpy rides. So try it and put that on 

your checklist: ride a freakin' tricycle!

photos: Marc Cortez

PHILOMENA ZANETTI FASHION WEEK BERLIN

 

We interviewed Julia Leifert, who is the genius behind the label Philomena Zanetti for sisterMAG 

and ever since I fell in love with her pieces – especially THIS coat. It's about high quality and 100% 

sustainability. If you want to read more about this label check out the interview here.

I was very curious about her new collection. If you scroll down, you'll find some photos of my faves

of this show. 

Since I already had a thing for the coat that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it's not a big

surprise that the coat of this collection also got me. 

I'd probably combine the following outfit with a pair of heels, but would totally wear this pretty much

just as it was shown at her show. 

And here's a dress I probably can't wear without enhancing all my jelly rolls. But if I could rock it, 

I'd most definitely do ;P !

Congrats again, Julia! It was a great show. Looking forward to see more of your work!

Thank you for having us.

chapterB

With a lot of catching-up to do, I start with these BTS photos of one of the shootings I was part of

at sisterMAG. For those who don't know: After staying in Berlin for 7 months, I decided to move
back to Vienna for now. I enjoyed working at sisterMAG and this was an experience I don't wanna
miss ever. I learned a lot about this line of business and also about myself. For real now, it was
absolutely amazing. I got to know a lot of creative people – especially my lovely co-workers – found
the creative side that I didn't even knew existed, and challenged myself in many different ways. I was
living the dream, that I was longing for under all circumstances about a year ago. At this point you'll
probably ask yourself: Why the fuck is she back then? Some of you may know that I had the hardest
time being away from my family too. I told myself that it would just take some time to get used to it.
And I was right. I actually got used to it. This doesn't mean that I was happy. After spending an
almost five-week vacay with my family, I caught myself crying, without any reason, when I was
only thinking about going back. Yeah, I know right? This sounds soooo dramatic. So I told myself
to have my emotional five minutes and be all gangster again. I Persuading myself that I was just
exaggerating, I packed my things, hold my tears back and flew back to Berlin – the City where my
dream job was waiting for me.

After being back a week, I was happy to see everyone again. Like, the girls were the sweetest and I
was really happy to be back. But still, I felt like something just wasn't right. So I decided to do
something, that even surprised me at the end of the day. I just told myself to go trust my gut feeling.
I am that kind of person that always has at least kind of a plan and sticks to it. And trust me: The
 decision to leave after a week wasn't part of the plan for sure.

I felt good and relived but was annoyed at the same time. I was angry for not taking the challenge.
Cause who's to blame if I find out after a few months, that this wasn't the right decision? Me and only
me. And blaming myself makes it to top 5 of my shitlist. A few days went by, and this anger just
turned into excitement of going back to Vienna. Now that I'm back, I can say, that I made the right
decision for myself. I stopped thinking about what life would look like if I'd decided to stay. I just
know that I will never ever find out. But I find myself writing this last sentence with a smile on my
face.

It's not only about not having those special people around you. I think I had high expectations when
I moved to Berlin. About the city itself. Some of my friends already told me, that this is not the right
city for me. I wanted to prove that it will be. Berlin and I .. we had our difficulties from the very
beginning. I was trying to convince myself that I really wanna stay there. Start a new life there. But
it's like fate really told me periodically to keep my hands off.


As this blog was created to find some space to write down words about my personal life, lifestyle
and thoughts, I am writing these words. For me. And for the people that made my stay in Berlin a
wonderful experience. Thank you, and on to the next chapter.

photos by Cristopher Santos for sisterMAG BTS