LIFESTYLE..

Fitness | Tips
Temperatures are slowly rising. Some legs have already had a glimpse of sunshine, and terraces are getting fuller everyday.
As soon as we have to show our legs, we feel the urge to start a diet. But for how long?
For the best and most long lasting result it's better to eat healthy and exercise regularly. It may take a little longer before you get to your goal, but you'll be able to enjoy the result a lot longer.
Fitness is still one of the best ways of exercising. You can go whenever you want and when it's raining, you won't get wet.

Here are a few tips to reach your goal efficiently:

• Wake up one hour early to go to the gym. Not only will your body burn fat during the whole day, it will prevent you from making other appointments after work/school to skip exercising.
• Try to mix it up; you'll keep challenging your body so it has to work harder.
• Don't want to turn into a bundle of muscles? Train with lighter weights, but repeat the moves more often.
• Training with your own body weight is very effective. So join the muscle men in front of the mirror and do squads, push-ups and train your abs.
• Start doing cardio for half an hour and then train the muscles. Your body will burn more fat this way.
• Train a different set of muscles every time, it prevents daily muscle soreness in the same places. They need rest.

--
Denise (@Celeste_DVG)

BEAUTY..

Ingredient | Rose hip
The beauty ingredient rose hip is often used in skin care products, and mainly facial care to be exact. The oil that's gained through the pressing of the seeds is well-known for its high concentrations of essential fatty acids, like linoleic acid and gamma linoleic acids. This maintains the suppleness of the skin.

Rose hip oil also contains different vitamins like C, E and K, and other substances such as pectin, carotene, tannin and retinol. When it's highly concentrated, vitamin C can battle colored spots and can protect the skin against damaging influences from outside.

The oil is usually processed in caring creams and serums (look for the term 'Rosa Mosqueta'), but the oil can also be applied directly onto the skin. And if you want to give you body a little bit extra, choose more products that contain rose hip, like green tea.

--
Veronique

BEAUTY..

Nails | Polkadots
Our previous blog was about caviar for the nails. Very cute of course, but pretty high maintenance. There is an easier way to get the polkadots on you nails. And that doesn't necessarily have to be in 3-D. Below you'l find a few options to dip your nails in dots. Choose one color as the basis, and then go wild with different color combinations.

Do it yourself!
1. Take a straight pin and stick in the in rear end of a pencil with a small eraser on the back. Make a few of those for the different colors you want to use.
2. Paint your nails in the base color.
3. Make little pools of the colors you want to use for the dots. Dip the pins in them.
4. Make your own little pieces of art!

--
Veronique
Images via The Beauty Department

BEAUTY

Nail trend | Caviar
Nail trends come and go fast these days. Besides the trend colours of the season, glitter nail polish and the craquelé effect, we've come across a new trend: caviar on your nails. No fish eggs required, this effect is reached using minuscule coloured balls.

This trend is being introduced by British brand Ciaté. The creative director Charlotte got the idea when she was looking for a 3-D effect for the nails that would still look feminine and extravagant.
Ciaté will launch the line in white, black and multi colour.

--
Veronique

BEAUTY

Celeb | Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence is an actress who's star has risen very fast in Hollywood, because of her roles in The Winter's Bone (which earned her an Oscar nomination), X-Men: First Class and The Hunger Games. This last movie just went in premiere!

Apart from her acting qualities, she is a beautiful women. She doesn't only have that popular Hollywood look (think: blond hair, blue eyes) but she also has that something special. Whether it's her full lips or her sultry look, we can't put our finger on it.

Jennifer has gorgeous voluminous hair and since the beginning of this year, she added bangs to her look. her make-up usually accentuates her eyes, her lips are mostly natural.
We're not the only ones that noticed her, magazines are lined up too!

--
Denise (@Celeste_DVG)
Images via imdb.com

LIFESTYLE..

Food | Pie Pops
After the cupcakes, the macarons and the cake pops, we've found something new: the pie pops. These little pies on a stick are definitely worth the try. They look cute, taste delicious and are easy to make. This version is with berries, but you can fill them with you favorite fruit, like cherries, strawberries, raspberries, apples, pears.. As long as you love it!
For the complete recipe, click here.

--
Veronique
Images via cupcakes and cashmere

BEAUTY

Hair tutorial | Braided bun
We're always on the lookout for fun hair tutorials that will turn your daily hairstyle into something special, in an easy way. And we've found one yet again, this time to make a bun a little more special with braids. Sounds childish? It is definitely not! This style is very summery and perfect for the spring sunshine we're enjoying right now (and that is here to stay, hopefully).

--
Veronique
Video via Wendy's LookBook (youtube.com)

FASHION..

Fashion | Spring/ Summertrend
There are a lot of cute fashion trends for this upcoming spring/summer. When it comes to pants, leave your skinnies and boyfriends in the closet, it's time to go flare (and high waisted).
These pants are ideal to wear to work and to create a festive outfit.
Because there are a lot of light materials, the pants are very comfortable to wear during summertime.

Below you'll find a few bloggers that have already made the trend their own. Want to see more of their outfits? Then click on their names and the blog will open in a new screen.

Meijia S

June K

Anna W

Rin L

Annabelle F

--
Denise (@Celeste_DVG)
Images via lookbook.nu

LIFESTYLE..

Instyle's Cover Girl | Sofia Vergara
Sofia Vergara is on the cover of the April issue of fashion magazine Instyle. This 'Modern Family' actress is well-known for her exotic beauty, feminine curves and last but not least a great comical timing. She states 'I'm not ashamed. It (her beauty - red.) has opened doors. But I also know that if I didn't have something else, I'd be long gone.'.
We love to enjoy her talent, and we hope she'll be here for a long time.

--
Veronique
Image & source via instyle.com

BEAUTY

Vintage | Ads
We run into dozens of beauty ads on a daily basis, though it's not something specifically for our time. Ever since the 1800's, beauty campaigns exist to promote the latest products. The ads themselves have completely changed over the years: the models, the text and the overall appearance.
It's fun to see how the designs of the past is todays inspiration for 'new' advertisements.

We have put together a selection of cute vintage ad campaigns.

--
Denise (@Celeste_DVG)
Images via www.vintageadbrowser.com

BEAUTY

Make-up | Pink lips
Spring calls for colorful, feminine make-up, like pink lipstick. But what colour suits you best? We advise you to try on a lot of colours, and get advised in a perfumery. Want to get inspired, for instance to see if you'll go for pale or bright pink? The image below shows you the pink lips of some of the celebrities walking the red carpet during the Oscars last month.

--
Veronique
Image via The Beauty Department

BEAUTY & LIFESTYLE

Women | Tattoos
Fashion statements come in all shapes and sizes, and the tattoo has been one of them for a while now. Especially among the ladies the tattoo has gotten a very positive image. So positive, that there are more women with this type of body adornment than men these days. A whopping 59% of women has got one or more tattoos. Us women do prefer smaller images opposed to the full sleeves and larger pictures. That's still man's territory. And no, celebrities never stay behind when it comes to trends.

Rihanna

--
Veronique

BEAUTY

Celeb | Anne Hathaway
It's not hard to understand how celebrities can look good 24/7, when you know that they've got a make-up artist, hairstylist en stylist with them at all times to make sure that she (or he) looks the best she can.
But some ladies are naturally beautiful, and become role models for other women. Like Anne Hathaway, who is a classic beauty and one of the most talented actresses of this moment.

Anne always looks approachable. She never wears hairstyles that are too complicated, or make-up that is (literally) too in-your-face. But her look is always right. She accents her lips a lot, and we totally understand why.

Below we've collected a few gorgeous pictures of her that'll show you why she is our beauty icon.

--
Denise (@Celeste_DVG)

BEAUTY

Hair | The fishtail
With warmer weather coming up (we can't stop talking about it), it is nice to be able to don a light 'n airy hairstyle every once in a while. And the 'regular' braid is still charming as ever, but sometimes you want something different. A nice variation on the braid is the fishtail. It looks and sounds incredibly difficult, but it's actually quite easy.
And after watching this tutorial, you'll be able to do it yourself!

--
Veronique
Video by Forever21 via I love beauty news.

FASHION..

Paris Fashion Week | Dresses
During Fashion Week we always see more than enough beautiful clothing passing by on the runway. But there is also a lot to see outside the shows. You can't ignore the many streets style photographers, wanting to capture all this beauty.
We immediately noticed three outfits, mainly because we just love the modern, feminine dress.
On the pictures, you see Olivia Palermo, Mila Kunis and Jessica Alba, all shot while visiting Paris Fashion Week.

--
Veronique
Images via people.com

LIFESTYLE..

Inspiration | Balcony
Hopefully, we won't have to wait too much longer for the good weather to arrive, so we can finally go outside. Fresh air and some rays of sunshine work miracles for us women.
We don't always have a big garden at our disposal, but for those of us with a balcony: there is so much you can do with this sometimes awkward little space.

We have found a few inspirational images that may help you turn a boring spot into a place to enjoy summer & sunshine.

--
Denise (@Celeste_DVG)
Images via wehearit.com

BEAUTY & FASHION..

Series | Pan Am
The television series Pan Am takes us back to the time when flying on an airplane was considered exclusive and every little girl wanted to be a stewardess.
A time when women started to develop themselves more and more, wanting to be independent, and when fashion was in favour of showing of a woman's curves.
The hairstyles and make-up made women look classic with a little sexy twist.

Pan Am is fun to watch, not just because of the story lines, but also because of all the great outfits and hairstyles.

--
Denise (@Celeste_DVG)

LIFESTYLE..

Donna Hay | Recipes
The cooking program 'Fast, fresh, simple' by Donna Hay is full of delicious dishes! And the title of her program says it all. The dishes look so good you immediately want to cook them yourself, or better yet: eat it!

Donna Hay is originally a Food Stylist and Editor (at 25, she was already editor of the food section of the Marie Claire). This becomes clear when looking at her dishes, everything is served looking pretty and original.
She has her own magazine (best selling international food magazine in the USA), a weekly food column in the Australia's biggest newspaper and no less than 18(!) award-winning cookbooks.

You can find many of her recipes on her website, as well as a lot of tips concerning foodstyling.
We're big fans!
Below you'll find a few of our favourite dishes. .

soft-poached eggs with sweet hash browns

chicken and noodle salad

chili and lime fish cakes

raspberry and white chocolate muffin

--
Denise (@Celeste_DVG)