When are you too old to wear a mini-skirt? 60, 50, 40, 35..?

It’s interesting that fashion and what we are meant to wear change with age. We are supposed to dress more “appropriate” as we get past our teens and 20s. Right?

But who decides what’s appropriate and what’s not? And why does it change with age? One could argue that with age comes wisdom and we should by then be even more sure of our style and what suits us.

Like mini-skirts. Why is it frowned upon wearing them past your 20s?

I’m 35, I have legs, I like my legs and my legs like air. I’m not showing them off to be sexy, but if I would, why would that not be ok? Are you not allowed to look or feel sexy after a certain age?

For me, it all comes down to styling. I like mini-skirts, but I’m not wearing them to get attention from men. I wear them because I like the silhouette. It’s fun to play with proportions with clothing and I want to keep all my options open.

I want to wear every length of skirt, if I fancy it. Sure I probably wouldn’t style it with a plunging neckline, it’s not really my thing. But with oversized jumpers, blazers, pussy-bow blouses, and other more covered tops I think I can afford to show some skin.

Someone recently asked me if I wasn’t a bit old to shop from Asos. I had no idea you could be too old to shop anywhere? Unless it’s the kids’ department of course. If you like the clothes, why limit yourself?

So here is me, in my mini-skirt from Asos. Feeling completely appropriate and hoping I will be wearing whatever I fancy until I’m at least a hundred.

What do you think? Do you feel too old to wear a mini skirt?

Skirt – Asos Design, jumper – Tommy Hilfiger, booties – Giuseppe Zanotti, bag – Chanel. (adlinks) Photographer – Ida Zander.

Neutral tones ; phone cover – Prada, wallet – Prada,, heels – Cult Gaia, bag – Prada, sneakers – Rag & Bone, hat – Soft Goat, boots – Rag & Bone, jumper – Soft Goat, bra – Anine Bing, coat – J.Lindeberg, nail polish – Essie, dress – Halston Heritage, trousers – Theory , lip balm – by Terry, scarf/throw – Rag & Bone. (adlinks)

It’s no secret that neutral tones are totally in at the moment. They are everywhere!

I’m looking at you, Meghan Markle…

Light shades like beige, white, light grey and pale pastels give a look that luxury factor. Especially since it’s pretty easy to spot quality when the colors are pale. There is also that edge of keeping the look clean that is a statement of its own. (queue spilling coffee or being hit by a flying raspberry).

I opt for materials like cashmere, suede, silk, satin, wool, and leather when I buy items in these kinds of statement colors. It’s worth investing a bit more since bad quality will be noticeable. These looks might be pale and nude, but they come with an understated statement of money and class.

Feel completely free to mix and match all of these colors in one look. It will only make it interesting. The same with materials. Think rough against shiny and soft. Let the quality and texture of the items do the talking. I would, however, stay away from mixing warm and cold shades. Mainly for the simple reason that the warmer shades will come across as a bit nicotine-yellow next to the pale.

I wouldn’t mind to come home and find all of these items above in my closet. I’m keeping an extra eye on the Prada phone case, the Soft Goat, jumper and the Prada wallet. Just in case they do end up on the Black Friday sales this week. I don’t have a code or discount for Net-A-Porter yet. But I’m pretty sure it will happen at any moment.

The lip balm from by Terry is a classic that many makeup artists have in their kit. I do think it’s a bit pricey though. So I have decided it will be one of my discounted Black Friday buys.

…and those pink Rag & Bone boots couldn’t be more Tess. They are already discounted and the heel is the perfect height. But is suede really a good option in London in winter. What do you think, should I get them? Do you like the neutral tones look?

Don’t forget to keep checking my Cyber week and Black Friday guide, I’m adding new discounts every day. 

Yay, it’s finally time for Cyber week and Black Friday. Whoop! And as usual, I have put together my guide to all the Black Friday sales, discounts, and codes I can possibly find. 

I’m going to be adding to this list as soon as I find a new discount or sale. To make sure you buy all of your Christmas gifts for the smallest amount of cash possible. Happy shopping!

*This post has been updated 1 pm Tuesday 20th.

Clothes & Accessories (All links are adlinks)

*SSence – up to 50% off selected items.
*Moda Operandi – up to 50% off selected items.
*Coach – 20% off selected items with the code “BF2018” (19th-25th Nov)
*Luisa Via Roma – 30% discount if you spend £300/€300 with the code “RS1130” (does not apply to starred items and items on sale.)
*Brand Alley – £15 off your first order if you spend £60 with the code “RSTYLE15”
*The Outnet – New items are added to the sale
*Missoma – 25% off if you register to their Black Friday sale
* Boden (UK) – 30% off with the code N3N1″
*New Look – up to 50% discount on selected items.
*Office – 20% off with the code”GLITTER”
*River Island – Up to 30% off “winter treats”
*SheIn (UK) – 30% discount on everything with code “BLACKALL”, £12 off orders above £80, £6 off orders above £50
*Weekday – 25% off tops and t-shirts
*Superdry – 20% off everything with the code “BLACK20”
*Fitflop -up to 60% off selected items.

ARKET – Colour week. Every day a new color has a 25% discount + free shipping on everything.  (Monday-blue, Tuesday – green, Wednesday – white, Thursday – Red and Friday – black)
Neiman & Marcus – up to 50% off in the designer sale.
Aspinal of London – 15% off gifts with the code “GIFT15”.
Dear Frances – 25% discount with the code  “BF25”
ASOS – 50% off shoes and accessories (until Thursday 22nd 8 am)
Missguided – up to 25% discount with the code “DROPPIN”
Topshop – 30% off puffer jackets and partywear.
NA-KD – 30% on everything with the code “BLACKWEEK”
Nasty gal – 50% on all sale (UK & Irland)
Nike – 30% off selected items.
River Island – Up to 30% off partywear.
H&M – up to 50% off denim and basics. New deals every day.
Karen Millen – 25% off everything.
Links of London– 20% off all collections
Weekday – 25% off selected items
Monica Vinader – 30% off everything.
Jack & Jones – 40% on selected clothes if you are a member of their customer club.
Boohoo.com – up to 70% off on everything.
Ellos – up to 50% on jackets and coats.

Beauty (all links are adlinks)

*Cult Beauty – up to 40% off selected items.

Feel Unique – 30% off selected items
Beauty Bay – 30% off everything
Elemis – 3 bestselling products when you spend £50 with the code “BLACK3”
Look Fantastic – First 250 customers get 20% off their order with the code “Hurry” (some exceptions apply). everyone else has 15% off.
Charlotte Tilbury – Up to 40% discount on selected items. New promotions every day.

Interiors (all links are adlinks)

*Made.com – 20% off selected items
*West Elm – 20% off evrything

La Redoute – 40% off everything.
Debenhams – 20% on selected items.
Jotex – New deals every day
Ellos – up to 50% off rugs and lighting.
Designonline – 19/11 – ceiling lights at 50% discount, House doctor 25% off, candlesticks up to 40% off.
                           19/11-26/11 – at least 20% off House doctor, 40% on Design House Stockholm’s lighting + other deals.

Please let me know if you see any other Black Friday sales, discounts and, codes. I will be updating this list continuously during the week. So check in at least once a day, not to miss out.

Hello friends! How are you? Did you have a nice weekend?

My weekend didn’t really go to plan, but actually turned out for the best in the end.

I had a dentist appointment on Saturday. I had a loose crown that needed to be re-fitted. I’m a dentist daughter, so I really take great care of my mouth. Still, I have 2 teeth that have caused me problems since my teens. They are just sad and unhappy in general. My poor dad has fixed them over and over, but they keep breaking. So eventually about 10 years ago dad had to give me a root canal and a crown on one of them.

I thought it was going to be an easy “in-fit the crown-out” situation. However, when my new dentist checks the old tooth under, it didn’t look good. The poor guy had to give me the bad news that this tooth had done its last bit of chewing and needed to come out. (I of course double checked it with dad, x-rays and all).

I got the option of waiting a week or to extract it right away. I really didn’t even think about it and just said, “let’s do it now”. I might aswell get it done quickly right?

However, I kind of forgot that it’s actual surgery and they will be digging around inside my jawbone. So anesthetic, operation, stitches, blood, swelling, and painkillers… I was out for the rest of the weekend.

Luckily my lovely hubby took Ace on adventures both days so I could just rest up and nurse my sore jawbone. Not really the kind of weekend we had planned.

So now I have a gap and feel about 100 years old. Luckily it’s far back in my mouth and it’s only for 3 months until I get an implant fitted.

This really proves that you can just be unlucky with your teeth. Even if you take great care of them and even if your dad is a dentist. You might end up having to pull one out at some point.

At least I found a great dentist here in the UK, now when dad is retired.

After a bit of a traumatic weekend, I’m happy to start a new week with new mantras, goals, vision, affirmations, and focus.

The mantra of the week – “Thank you”. It’s pretty uncomplicated really. Thank you for my wonderful little family that makes me feel loved every day. Thank you for my amazing friends who are always there for me. Thank you for the opportunity to live in London and all that it brings. Thank you for my body, that apart from some tummy issues and now a bad tooth, is pretty healthy all in all. Thank you for my exciting job that I really love. Thank you!

The affirmation of the week  – “I’m getting stronger and healthier every day”. It’s crazy how much healthier I am since I stopped breastfeeding, got rid of the breast abscess and the hormones went away. I feel more filled with energy every morning. At the moment Ace is sleeping full night, sometimes even 7-9 (!) So my sleep has really been boosted. If I continue feeling this goof, then I’m pretty sure my tummy will sort itself out too. Go body!

The goal of the week – I want to buy 90% of my Christmas gifts on cyber week or Black Friday deals.

Dream of the week – Wouldn’t it be amazing with our very own chef? One that knew nutrition and could tailor meals that would suit us perfectly. Garth does Crossfit 3-4 days a week and cycles to and from work. I get maybe 2 sessions of yoga in a week and a bit of everyday exercise. So we do have completely different nutritional needs.

We have tried a few of those services that deliver your food to your home or gym, but honestly, most of them are pretty grim.

Vision of the week – I’m getting more and more zen every year. I have this visoon of myself in my 50s, with long grey hair, meditating on a becah somewhere warm. Calm as a cucumber and with a smile on my lips. Completely content to just be still for a while. My gloal in life is to be calm, content and most importantly of all happy.  (and I want this hair please)

Focus of the week–  I want to get my diet right. Now after 3 days of only having soup and yoghurt. I feel like I have a pretty clean start. We are very good at buying organic, and I only have a bit of dark chocolate if I crave something sweet. I get juices and kefir instead of naughty stuff when I’m out and about . We ahve also exchanged a lot of our red meat for wild meat like venison and duck. My next goal is to have one veggie dinner a week. I think it would have to be a pasta for Garth to actually go for it. Maybe one of you have a recipe to share?

I wish we had a veggie restaurant here in Clapham…

The event of the week – Black Friday haha. I get a bit overexcited when it comes to finding the best deals and discounts. It’s almost sport to find items I will buy no matter what, at a discounted price. I almost get a bit competitive.

My lesson from last week – Sometimes it’s better to make a quick decision. If I would have waited with the tooth extraction for another week. I would probably have gotten quite nervous about the whole thing. I would have googled way too much (and everyone knows that all things on google lead to cancer or death). An intuitive quick decision is most of the time the better decision.

This week’s everyday luxury – Our lovely friend Amy borrowed Olive over the weekend. And as a thank you, she sent us some of her homemade chocolates.  She is a raw-chocolate-chef and her creations are unreal. By far the tastiest chocolate I have ever had.

The inspiration of the week – A kind reader told me to check out “Explained” on Netflix and I spent the sholw weekend watching it back-to-back. The episodes are short and explain things like cryptocurrency and blockchain, talk about K-pop and even why women make less money than men. It’s fascinating!

Have you decided on your mantras, goals, vision, affirmations, and focus this week?

Photo – Ida Zander

Christmas gifts for him – Blue shirt – Eton,  swimming trunks – Orlebar Brown, sneakers – Paul Smith, leather bracelet – Skultuna,  jumper – Soft Goat panamahat –Borsalino, grey shirt – Shirtonomy, cufflinks – Skultuna,  cardholder – Smythson, sunglasses – Tom Ford , notebook – Smythson, poster –Konstgaraget, slippers – shepherd, hat – Acne studios, Beard elexir – Recipe for men, rain jacket – Stutterheim, washbag – J.Lindeberg, scarf – Soft goat, perfume – Bois 1920, boots – RM Williams, belt – Morris heritage, gloves – Hestra, jacket – Barbour International. (adlinks)

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to buying Christmas gifts for him, I get anxiety just thinking about it.

Girls are sooo much easier to buy for, I just get them stuff I would want myself. But Christmas gifts for guys literally takes up my entire brain leading up to Christmas.

The hardest of hardest to buy gifts for is my dad. Garth, I can kind of wing it a bit with, he tend to trust my judgment. But dad knows what he likes. And all he asks for every year is “well-behaved children”. So not helpful dad!

I can’t be the only one struggling with this, so that’s why I sat for hours this morning and made this massive collage of suggestions for Christmas gifts for him. I have mainly focused on fairly classic fashion and beauty products. I feel that gadgets need a post of their own. There is just too much to choose from!

I have loosely based it on 4 different characters. My dad would be the lower left corner, whilst Garth would be the lower right. My non-existent best gay friend would probably be at the top right. I find that the bigger gifts are the hardest. So I have tried to choose things in quite a large price range, but with a focus on those special investment pieces.

However, let’s not forget that experiences usually is the best gift of all. Anything from a dinner and a movie to a long weekend in New York. Or why not go see sumo wrestling or jump out of an airplane? The list is endless.

I hope you haven’t missed that it’s black friday next week. These days its actually a black-week, so it’s super important to do some groundwork and then keep checking in on your favorite shops when the sales start kicking off.

My Black Friday guide is usually very popular. I promise to let you know as soon as a sale comes on or if I find a useful discount code. But you have to get going now. Pick the stuff beforehand and be ready to click click click. I usually choose 4 items per person and then at least one will end up going on the sale.

Ok, stop reading blogs now and start doing your research chop chop!

Do you have any other great ideas for Christmas gifts for him? 

You can find some suggestions for Christmas gifts for her here

Hello lovelies! So this morning we woke up to the sound of drops of water hitting the wooden floor in the hallway…

The water was coming from the door frame to Ace’s nursery, such a random place. It turns out that the flat on top, not our rental flat above us, but the one over. Had a leak in their bathroom. So It has flooded both of our flats. I think our wall should be ok, Garth ran up and stopped the leak pretty quickly. It has however affected the electric wiring in the bathroom in our flat above. Water and electricity is never a good mix. So annoying!

I’m so lucky to have a man that is good at DIY (Or had thumbs as my dad likes to say) or the damage would have been a lot worse.

In these kinds of situations you can really chose how to react. In the end it’s an accident and a bit of bad luck. So noting to get stressed over. Stress only serves a purpose if it can add something to the situation. With these “spilled milk” kind of things, there is nothing we can do but to fix the damage. Sure it’s not ideal. But not worth getting stressed over.

It’s really important to be in charge of our stress and to make sure we don’t get upset and stressed out when we don’t need to. So I choose not to spend brain capacity and energy at getting too worried about this situation.

These are my goals, dreams, vision, and affirmation this week;

My mantra of the week– “You can only do so much”. We can’t control everything in life and we also can’t go back in time. In the end, very few things and events are truly bad because they often lead us to the next good thing. I have had several “bad things” in my life, but I wouldn’t change any of them. Because they brought me here and I would never want to change that.

My affirmation of the week –” Thank you universe for all the positive things in my life I don’t know about yet”. I find life incredibly exciting. It’s like we are constantly standing in front of a set of doors, we chose one and end up in front of another set of doors. A small step in the other direction and the whole future will change. I always wonder what cool and exciting things are lurking behind the next set of doors.

My goal of the week – It’s time to have a planning week again. Christmas is coming around faster and faster every year. How can that even be possible? I need to sit down, put together y to-do list (Xmas gifts, decide where to be when, book tickets etc). Now it’s the perfect time to get a bit of an overview and then go all-in until Christmas.

This week’s dream – I’m dreaming of bringing help along on holiday. It would be amazing to get to have a grown-up dinner or two without having to think about bed-time or have an over-tired baby in the buggy. I don’t think I could ever trust someone I don’t know personally to look after him. But I do dream of a lie in for the both of us, at the same time! Maybe even a couples massage…

My vision of the week – I’m itching to decorate again and I would love to move bigger soon. I’m seeing a large Victorian house with high ceilings, wooden floors, a working fireplace, kitchen island, walk-in closet and a room for me to use as an office.

This week’s focus – Christmas! I want my gifts picked and ready for Black Friday. It will make the whole process seamless and I will hopefully save a bit of cash too.

The event of the week – I’m going to a lovely event hosted by my friend Hanna on Thursday and then on Friday I’m having my second session of Acupuncture. I’m hoping to feel a bit more this time… maybe I will ask for a few more needles because I didn’t really notice much last time?

My lesson from last week – Garth and I need more couple time. Friday we ended up at Tsunami here in Clapham for sushi and drinks and had a great time. We both realized how much we have missed each-others company. So we have decided to make it a regular occurrence every other week from now on.

This week’s everyday-luxury – I really love Jo Malones scents and I often wear my wedding perfume “Lime blossom”. I’m keen on trying out another one of her perfumes. Maybe I should get “Lime Basil & Mandarin” or “English Pear & Freesia”  as a little gift to myself?

My weekly inspiration – We ended up watching “Follow this” on Netflix yesterday and got totally stuck. The episodes are really short and cover everything from influencers and the scooter craze to modest fashion and sex dolls. Some episodes are more inspiring than others and some are just WTF. But all in all very interesting.

What’s your goals, dreams, vision, and affirmation this week?

My post yesterday left me with a really lovely excitement for Christmas. So I couldn’t help myself but start researching and mood boarding my Christmas decorations 2018.

Around this time of year, I always wish I lived in a big old building with lots of stone, wood, exposed beams and a massive fireplace (or two..I’m dreaming right?). It would be the perfect kind of house to decorate for Christmas.

Even though I only want two kids of my own, I love the idea of a house filled to the brim with children for Christmas. It’s really the most magical time for children and I love the look on their faces when they open their gifts. Luckily Ace already have 4 cousins, and I would be surprised if there won’t be at least as many more in the future.

Xmas really is the time for family.

I want my decorations to make the house feel warm and cozy, but also magical and kind of messy.

This year I fancy lots of natural materials like wood, pine, wool, sheepskins and lots of wax candles for my decorations. I really love white for Christmas, I think it’s because I’m missing the white snow in Sweden and want to bring the feeling of all the icy brightness inside.

I don’t mind my decorations to be a bit over the top. The table in the middle of the mood board is perfection according to me. I don’t need a lot of colors, just a lot of detail. White, grey, gold and silver is enough.

In our next house, I dream of a massive table so we can host big dinners. Preferably a dining room. I also miss having a guest bedroom for friends and family to be able to stay over.

As you might have noticed, I find all of this incredibly fun and to get to be creative with decoration is at least half the fun of Christmas. I really hope Ace will grow up feeling as excited about Christmas as I do every year.

Now when I got my mood board, I’m ready to browse my Christmas decorations 2018. Do you think these kinds of things go on sale on Black Friday too? That would be terribly practical.

What will your Christmas decorations 2018 look like? Do you find it as exciting to decorate as I do?

All pictures are by The White Company.

Inspiration & Ideas – Smythson, earrings – Jil Sander, cardholder – Prada, gloves – Johnstons of Elgin, scarf – Filippa K, wallet – Kurt Geiger, cashmere slippers – Soft Goat, scented candles – Diptyque. (adlinks)

I know it feels like summer just ended, but it is in fact November. So it’s about time to buy Christmas gifts. 

I really can’t be bothered going to the shops. So these days I do all my Xmas shopping online. At home, on my sofa, dressed in a robe with a nice warm cup of tea.  Thank god for online shops!

When I’m extra organized I make sure to have picked everything I want to get early. So that I can have my shopping finger ready the same second as the Black Friday sales start on the 23rd of November.

That means starting to browse and make decisions now. So that I know exactly what to get. It’s by far the easiest and most cost-efficient way to do Christmas shopping according to me.

When I get gifts for my family or friends I try to think about what I would like to get for myself. Then I twist and turn it to make it suit their style and needs. Some people prefer a wish list. Personally, I think they are great for young people who need certain things and might not be able to afford it. But when you are older it’s so much nicer just to let your family and friends get you something personal they have picked for you.

You can always safe-up with gift receipts and in worst case even gift cards. I would never want a gift to stay unused in a cupboard somewhere.

What do you think? Wishlist or not and are you allowed to exchange gifts you don’t like?

Hello, Monday and Hello the first week of November! Can you believe it’s only 2 months left until Xmas? Crazy!

I absolutely adore Christmas, so I love to have such a nice time to look forward to. It’s getting quite chilly now. I just stocked up with loads of merino-wool underlayers for Acie-face. I’m going to order his winter overall this week and on Thursday I’m going to go hunting for proper winter boots for him.

I’m really particular with warm winter clothes. I absolutely hate freezing, so I always dress warm and know every trick in the book. I always wear a base layer if it’s less than 5°C out. I wouldn’t be able to be outside otherwise. Brrr!

These are my affirmations, mantra, dreams, and vision of the week. 

My mantra this week– “Focus on one thing at the time”. Even though multitasking is great, I don’t feel like it’s the most efficient use of my time. I need to really just zone in on one task and shut the rest of the world out until I’m done. Preferably without any breaks or interference. That’s by far when I get the most done in the shortest amount of time.

My affirmation this week– “I know my worth”. We are really good at undervaluing ourselves. And as soon as we do, someone will take advantage. Especially in this business, it’s super important to know your worth. I don’t know any other business when you get asked to work for free as often as in blogging and modeling. And it doesn’t make any sense at all! I would never ask my banker to work for the “honor” of serving me or the corner shop to give me free food (and maybe I will pay for something next time.) I also wouldn’t expect my hairdresser to give me a free haircut so I could make sure it gets the reaction I want from my friends so I might pay for it next time. (But probably won’t, I’ll just go to another hairdresser and do the same…)

If we don’t know our own worth, how can we expect others to?

My goal this week – This week I’m going to work on something as boring, but important as sleep. We had a bit of a chaotic sleep-weekend. The room we stayed in was really cold and Ace couldn’t settle in all of his extra layers of clothing. So, in the end, I took him downstairs ( to not wake the other kids), put him on a sheepskin and myself on the floor with a coat as my only blanket. I was cold to the bones and slept maybe 2 hours all night.

Garth told me to put my earplugs in last night and he would do Aces 05.30 bottle. So I actually had 8h unbroken sleep. It was amazing, but I need more to catch up. So we will be on Ace duty every other night this week.

My dream this week – My own little team! I dream of having both a photographer and an assistant working with me full-time. I think the blog world is in the middle of a shift at the moment. The quality is getting too high for people to hobby-blog anymore. We have to invest a lot more time and money into our little businesses to keep up. I think that in the end the smaller blogs will shut down and only the big ones will survive. Unfortunately.

I’m, of course, hoping to keep blogging for many more years. But I do think it will be important to have our own little teams in the future. Without the blog getting impersonal. I would still write my blog 100% myself, but I would get help with all the admin surrounding the business.

My vision of the week – We are in the Caribbean (or maybe Bali). Ace is about 5 years old, with longish blond hair, tanned skin and wearing a rash vest. He is shouting at me from his surfboard “Mom, the waves are epic, hurry up!”. I have only surfed once, but I really really loved it. So I have promised myself to learn to surf properly in the future. Garth is really sporty and I think Ace will be too, so to share surfing as an interest would be a dream. I just have to get over my shark phobia first…

My focus of the week – This week I’m focusing on health and well-being. Sleep, healthy food, yoga and de-stressing is at the top of my mind. My old stomach ulcer is playing up at the moment and I really feel the difference when I take good care of myself. I need to get to yoga haven for a stretch at least two times a week. I need to sleep well and I have to eat healthy nutritious food at set times to feel my best. We love doing lots of things all the time, but sometimes we take on a bit too much. So I’m looking forward to a really chilled week and weekend.

The event of the week – The most exciting thing I’m doing this week is to get Acie some winter boots. Exactly the level of excitement I need at the moment.

The lesson from last week – I don’t always need to be the one that washes all the clothes, pack all the bags, get Olive and Ace ready and pack the car… I always take on too much and then I wonder why I’m exhausted by the end of the day. So the lesson from last week is to allow Garth to do more.

I will always be the project manager of the family, but I don’t need to do all the tasks myself. I have to get better at delegating.

My everyday luxury this week– Ace is now sleeping for 2 hours every afternoon instead of one in the morning and one in the afternoon. So this week I will take one of these hours for myself. To read a book, take a long shower, watch some tv or just have a calm lunch on my own. Me-time every day.

My weekly inspiration – It is no surprise to me why Oprah is so popular. She is such an aspirational woman and she really knows how to inspire. This speech made me reflect on my own life.

What is your affirmations, mantra, dreams, and vision of the week? 

photo – Ida Zander

Are you ready for the next step of my beauty journey here on the blog?

I’m turning 36 this year, I just had a little bubba and I have realized that it’s about time I give my skin some proper love and care.

My first step was to work on my pigmentation together with Swiss clinic. This time I’m going to try something from the inside and out instead.

So I’m going to, in collaboration with Oslo Skin Lab, try their collagen powder “The Solution” for a few months.

It’s not just what we add to and treat our skin with from the outside that matters. It’s of course also what we have on the inside. Our skin is the biggest organ in our body, and everything we eat and drink will affect it. I would only be doing a half-assed job if I only tried out treatments from the outside.

I have read about a few drinkable collagen products in the past, but I have always been pretty skeptical. Doesn’t it just disappear in all our stomach acid in the belly? But then we do eat vitamin pills and healthy food. And all those vitamins, minerals and nutrition does seem to end up in the right place? So why wouldn’t collagen be able to do the same?

The Solution is a taste and odor free white powder that I can mix in any food or drink. As the beauty geek, I am I would like to dig a bit deeper into the science of this powder on a molecular level. The collagen in The Solution is hydrolyzed, ie broken down into smaller elements with the help of enzymes. This particular hydrolyzed powder is called Verisol and contains peptides in the size 2-80 amino acids.

This is the ultimate size for the collagen to get absorbed by our intestines to be transported out into our blood.

I have been drinking The Solution for 28 days now, ie I have had one box*.

Even though it’s pretty early on I have had loads of compliments from friends who says my skin is glowing. And not just in the face. My skin already feels softer on my arms and legs too. I also read that Versiol can have an effect on cellulite, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a bit of help in that area too. Who doesn’t have cellulite, right?

Something that probably quite specific to me, and a bit weird… is that the powder feels nice in my stomach. I have had stress-related problems with my stomach for a few years, but I always feel a little bit better right after having had my glass of water or juice with The Solution in the morning.

Something else I have noticed is that the “chicken skin” on the back of my arms has gotten a lot better. And the only thing I have changed in that area is to start having collagen every day.

*You get a 30% discount if you become a member.  Then you will get your boxes sent straight to your door, for as long as you wish. You can cancel the subscription at any time and never have to buy anything. For people like me who would forget to order the next box in time, a service like this is brilliant. 

Collagen is what makes the skin firm and supple. When we get to our 30s the collagen levels start diminishing with about a percent a year. This means that our skin gets more susceptible to stresses like pollution, sun, diet and mimic.

So I’m looking to protect and prevent damage to my skin already now. This is not a one-off solution, but more like a food supplement, you need to take regularly to see results and maintain the benefits.

I’m starting off with 3 months and I’m super excited to see what kind of results I can get in that time.

The powder really doesn’t taste like anything and disappears into any liquid. The only thing I have noticed is that water tastes a bit “smoother” with the powder in it. I have actually managed to take the powder every day so far since it’s so easy to remember.

Another added benefit is that I now always have a big glass of water or a healthy juice every morning when I wake up. It’s a win-win for my health.

 I really like that there are lots of different studies to read about Verisol. I feel that I actually understand how and why it works. I would say that I know more about The Solution than a lot of the skincare I put on my skin.

You can read more about the studies and how Verisol work on Oslo Skin Lab’s website

In the photo above I’m wearing no makeup. As you can see I have pigmentation in my forehead and a cluster of broken veins on my cheek from pregnancy. I’m not expecting The Solution to have any effect on these particular problems. But I am hoping for more elasticity in my skin, firmness and a visible difference on my fine lines around my eyes.

The coolest thing about this product is that it works on all skin, not just the face. We tend to be quite good at taking care of our faces, but it’s easy to forget the rest of the body. With The Solution, we actually treat all of our skin and that’s really unusual.

I can’t wait to see what another month of The Solution will do for me. 

This post is sponsored by Oslo Skin Lab