I am annoyed by a lot of stuff, but only very few things piss me off as much as my sensitive skin. It’s a total bummer: I get rough dry patches when it’s too cold, itchy rashes, pimples when I eat salami (salami is the enemy) and sunburns as soon as Spring comes around. I spend more time trying to figure out how to calm down my skin than any other daily activity. When I started exercising my skin literally exploded. I started to get big, red, itchy bumps all over my face and soon I started to get…

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All my friends know that I am a total beauty junkie. My obsession with makeup and beauty stuff in general started when I was about 13 years old and never stopped. My mom hoped it would just be a temporary teen obsession but as the closets in the bathroom got more and more filled with eyeshadows, foundations and blushers, she kind of lost hope (she never stopped telling me I buy too much crap though…). My relationship with beauty products is a pathologic mix between hoarder and compulsive tester. I can never get enough of new textures, colours, formulations……

The post The 10 makeup products I can’t live without appeared first on Al Draws.

When I write about my progresses with my mental health I always feel like a mix between a B series self-improvement website, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, a desperate housewife and a new age freak (which is like Goop, but less Santa Monica-yoga-chic). Believe me it’s not fun*. But on the other hand, I like to write about it because it helps me to fix the milestones I am achieving. They might be small steps and I can tell you I am not completely sane (who is, anyway), but compared to the state of darkness and doom I was in just…

The post I want to break free… From Instagram! appeared first on Al Draws.

There is a saying in Italian that goes more or less like “if you want to appear beautiful, you have to suffer a little” (chi bella vuole apparire, un poco deve soffrire). The actual English equivalent is “no pain no gain” but I really don’t like it because it makes me think of sweaty bodybuilders on paleo diet more than all the exquisite tortures that women do to themselves to be… oh well, beautiful. But that’s not me guys, I have ZERO pain resistance and the patience of a rabbit on speed. I don’t do beauty tortures. I don’t do painful procedures*, extra…

The post Heels! – A love/hate relationship appeared first on Al Draws.

Monday was my first day back at work, after 2 weeks of holidays. Two weeks of Europe, family, friends. Saying my return to Singapore has been depressing would be a euphemism. I woke up on Monday morning with my brain wrapped in a merciless jet lag, a storm raging outside. The sky was dark and angry, rain pouring down relentlessly violent. I sat on my bed, half naked, my hair in an unmanageable mess. I looked outside of the window, the first thing I thought was “I’ll need to wear sneakers today”. “I don’t want to go outside. I…

The post Those tiny good things appeared first on Al Draws.

Since I moved to Singapore, my skincare routine has become very complicated. I am surrounded every day with commercials of beautiful ethereal Korean models seducing me towards an ageless world made of serums, toners, essences and creams (for the eyes, for the face, for the lips, for the top of your nose and whatnot). How could I resist it? Spoiler: I couldn’t. So now every morning I need to get up 20 minutes earlier just to do the whole 7-steps Korean skincare routine. Or was it 10 steps? Honestly I don’t know, I basically just go crazy with all the…

The post Beauty on board appeared first on Al Draws.

Christmas is my favourite time of the year (the lights! The tree! The traditions! The food!) and it is super important for me to spend it with my family. Back in 2010, after a snow storm paralysed all airports in Europe and my flight home from Belgium was canceled, I took 5 trains to reach Florence. It took three days in cold stations, packed trains and endless queues trying to snatch the last ticket, but I made damn sure I would be home in time for Christmas. It is that important for me to be here in this time of the…

The post From me to you appeared first on Al Draws.

About a month ago, confusing images started popping out in my Facebook and Instagram feeds: people wearing sweaters, cosy living rooms with blankets and lit chimneys, falling leaves and pumpkin spice lattes. I swear I didn’t have a lobotomy, but it took me a while to realize that somewhere else in the World the seasons are passing. “Ah, right, it’s Autumn in Europe right now”. Like, I had to actively think about it to realize that back at home the weather was getting colder. Living in one season all year long is very weird. Your memory becomes a one-dimensional mess…

The post Where are my seasons? appeared first on Al Draws.

I’ve been writing this post for like two weeks. Write, delete, write, delete, write, delete. Everything I was writing was somehow off, I just didn’t like what I was reading. One version looked like the story of a pseudo-hippie and her newly found light shining from within. Another sounded like a motivational post, you know, like those you read on The Huffington Post and stuff (but the bad ones, those that get a lot of “this writer should find another job” comments). So I kept it in a corner of my folders waiting for inspiration. Inspiration didn’t come. I…

The post Changes appeared first on Al Draws.

Months ago, my therapist suggested me to do mindfulness meditation. I started to see her because of my anxiety issues so I thought hell yes, this sounds like a great idea. So I downloaded that Headspace app. I went up on the hill of the park behind my office in my lunch break – sounds super zen right? – I sat down, launched the app and waited for the magic to happen. I almost fell asleep. It was so BORING. I patiently waited for my 10 minutes to end and went to get a Frappuccino. I kept trying though.…

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