Four Eyes: love

For a romantic dinner with my boyfriend, I put on some beautiful, natural-looking make-up. Also I did my hair a bit different than normal.

For this look I put on a fluid foundation by MAC. I used concealer for the under-eye area and to remove some red spots on my skin. Then I put powder in my skin tone on my face to fix the make-up and to take away any shine. I used a little bit of dark powder underneath the cheekbones to create a nice shadow. Also I put on some blush.

This eye make-up is very easy and quick, and can be used in your every day make-up. I marked a line along both the top and the bottom eyelid, from the outer corner until about the middle of the eye, with a black kohlpencil. With a eyeliner brush (angled brush) I softened the line, towards the eyes, so that the black will be the most intense close to they eye and is blurred away from the eye. On top of the kohl line I put some black eyeshadow, also with the eyeliner brush. This is to fix the kohl pencil. With a eyeshadow brush I softened and blended the line. On the inner corner of my eye I put a highlight, for a fresh look. I used MAC cream colour base for this in the color 'Hush Frost'. I put this on with a cotton swab. I also put some of this just under my eyebrow to create a highlight there as well. You could use a light color of eyeshadow for this as well.

Last but not least I put on mascara! A little bit of gloss on your lips and you're ready to go!

In my hair I plaited in from the right side of the face downward and to the left to the back of my head. There I just finished the braid, and then rolled it into a knot. The knot I attached wit some bobby pins. I found the first part quite hard to do with my own hair, because I can't see what I'm doing. It became a bit messy, but I still like it!

It has been quite a while ago when my boyfriend & me had an amazing time in Paris. I was planning to write about it, but never quite got to it. Now I finally have some time to write about the great places we discovered in Paris!

At first, we had a great apartment! It was in the middle of the Quartier Latin (34 Rue de la Montagne), very close to the Panthéon. Behind big doors there was a courtyard with several apartments and a dojo on it. The apartment on the courtyard was a beautiful, quiet place, in the middle of a big, noisy city. It was small, but had enough space for the two of us, and the interior was very nice.

The first few days we went around walking and by subway, but than we took the Vélib Bikes, which was much better! Vélib is bike-sharing with 1800 bike stations located every 300 metres. There's always a bike station somewhere close (although sometimes you do need to search quite a bit untill you've found it).

We are real foodies, so good food & wine is about the most important thing when we're travelling.
We went to a few real good places in Paris, that I would absolutely recommend.

Crêpes à Gogo (12, Rue Soufflot) is, obviously, a restaurant for crêpes. The restaurant is not very fancy, but it's very busy and the crêpes are good. We went there for breakfast. They had all sorts of crêpes with (almost) all the toppings you can think of. For less than € 30 we had a real good breakfast for two.

L'Agrume (15, Rue des Fossés St-Marcel) is a very nice restaurant, with a good 'menu of the chef'. We sat on the bar, where we could enjoy looking at the cook preparing the meals. The staff is very friendly, the food very good. Through this restaurant we also came to know about a great restaurant in The Netherlands, that's owned by one of their former interns. This very young girl, Estée Strooker, started her own awesome restaurant 't Amusement in Arnhem. Okay, this post is about Paris, but 't Amusement is an absolute must-go when you're somewhere near Arnhem!! Great ambiance, very good price-quality ratio, very good and original dishes. Back to Paris...

La Pré Verre (8, Rue Thénard) is a great restaurant in Quartier Latin. We went there on our first day in Paris, sat on their terrace, and had a beautiful set lunch menu. It included two courses, a glass of wine and a coffee. All of that for only € 13,50 per person! This is a real good price, because the food was absolutely amazing!

Au Dernier Métro (70, Boulevard de Grenelle) is a bistro serving Basque (South-West of France) food. This place is also used as a bar, so it can be very packed. We had to wait about 45 minutes to be seated, but enjoyed every minute of it. There are lot's of locals going to this place.

Bistrot du Sommelier (97, Bd Haussmann) is a restaurant that's run by sommelier Philippe Faure-Brac. We went to a special event that's held every Friday. We had a lunch with five wines of one winehouse. The owner of the winehouse was also there, to tell us something about the wines. We had this lunch in the cellar underneath the restaurant itself, and sat all together (about 15-20 people) on a big table. It seems to be a very social event where wine-lovers meet. We don't speak French, I think it's more fun if you do speak French. At the same time it's not very touristy. It was mostly a special experience.

Angelina is a tearoom that has several branches in Paris. We went to the one on 226, Rue de Rivoli. They have all sort of beautiful sweet things. It is expensive, and the interior is quite old-fashioned. So we took out one beautiful little tartlet and ate it in the Jardin des Tuileries, which is right on the opposite of the road. The tartlet looked amazing and it was very yummy!

Around the corner from our apartment, there was a little cheese-shop with lots of different cheeses! It's called Laurent Dubois and they have two sites in Paris. We had a taste here and there, and also bought some cheese for lunch!

Because I design jewelry, I love to stroll around bead shops. Unfortunately I only went into two in Paris, my boyfriend wouldn't let me go into more ;). One of these two is really nice. This is Matière Première (12, Rue de Sévigné). I could look around in this shop for hours (and probably I did, haha).

Also we went to the Marche aux Puces St-Ouen de Clignancourt. It's said to be the biggest flea market in the world. When you go there, you take the subway to Porte de Clignancourt. Skip the first stands with fake brand clothing and other rubbish. On the market they have all kinds of stuff, from furniture and books, to clothes, jewelry and house wares. I loved to stroll around here.

Last but not least I want to share with you this very cool store. It's a kind of supermarket, but with only deep-frozen food! I've never seen anything like this before! They had lots and lots of food, from ingredients, to starters and main courses to desserts, and all kind of pies. Everything from simple food, to very luxurious food. I can't remember where it was, or what the name was, but maybe someone else will know...