Fabulous Summer nails!

Nude - most popular Summer 2013. color

This Summer when it comes to beauty, on top of the basics like: high sun protection factors in my face, body and hair products, peeling and moisturizers my top priority is fun and bright new nail polish so I decided to share some my favorites with you. The nail polish I am currently in love with and wearing this week is  Chanel's Le Vernis, limited edition shade Azure (531). 

The color is very trendy, coming from this seasons runways in Paris, it's formula strengthens and moisturizes nails and it lasts quite long, and when this comes from me (cooking 2x a day, typing for more then 10 hours and usually going out afterwards at places where my nails need to be looking great) Every cent of it's $27 is worth of it.

The nail polish I wear most often during the work week is nude with white roots and I keep my nails quite short recently.

Chanel Le Vernis - $27

I haven't tried   YSL's La Laque Tie & Dye (3in1 in a way) nail polish and I don't think I would do my nails in tie dye for the regular working week however I would definitely love and plan to wear it during my Summer holiday. The colored base is covered by a "pop coat" for a sugary glossy result. Top Coat can also  be used alone for a “sheer” glittery result on the nails. I also love their regular Summer 2013. polish shades from this collection, especially fuchsia and orange.

La Laque Couture Tie & Dye nail polishes - $25

La Laque Couture Tie & Dye nail polishes - $25

Clinique is not the brand which I would expect to have such a nice range of nail polishes and colors but I am used to get a good quality face care for my sensitive skin. Clinique has lauched new   Nail Enamel for sensitive skin  so even people with allergies can use these polishes. The new colors are really trendy and summery and as adorable as their names (Pinkini, Splish Splash, Hot Date etc.) .

Clinique NEW a different Nail Enamel for sensitive skin - $16

llamasqua Summer 2013 Paranormal Collection  was officially launched online and part of this collection are also UV Glow Nail Varnishes ($23) which I find an amazing new, high-tech accessory for clubbing this Summer. Bellow are the available shades of new glow in the dark nail varnishes. 

llamasqua Summer 2013 Paranormal Collection

llamasqua Summer 2013 Paranormal Collection (yes it shines in the dark :) )

To see what nail polish I am wearing currently and read my immediate comment on them you can follow me on        Instagram   and     Twitter. 

London baby!

"I think London's sexy because it's so full of eccentrics."

Rachel Weisz 

Last weekend right after Dreft Fashion Week blogger conference I traveled to London to support my boyfriend who was playing final four Euroleague basketball tournament. My friend and roommate (also) Katarina went with me so we used the opportunity to explore London a bit in between the games.

Although I have been to London many times and visited most of the tourist hot spots, cold London weather surprises me every time, this weekend was not an exception, on top, Katarina's suitcase never arrived from Zagreb so first thing we did was went to shop for some warmer clothes.

It was raining mostly so we spent first day and a half warming up with Starbucks coffee, tea and biscuits and morning my boyfriend's team loss in the first game over a big Japanese lunch and with a delicious coconut and mango frozen yogurt in TopShop on Bond street.

“One thing about London is that when you step out into the night, it swallows you.” 

 Sebastian Faulks, Engleby

We also visited absolutely gorgeous Victoria's Secret store where I stocked up on coconut, vanilla and ..you are guessing - mango lotions, body butters and shimmers for Summer as well as on some cotton basics from their Pink collection. My roommate Katarina believe it or not never had a cupcake so she tried one in Lola's bakery.

Although my boyfriend team didn't win the Euroleague this year he was selected in a first team of Euroleague and also an MVP for February so we are hoping he will win Spanish championship and balance it all out :) I am also hoping for a win next year, also in final four, in London.

London is a roost for every bird."

Benjamin Disraeli 

The B word.

Today is already Sunday and I am typing this post from Starbucks in London and blogger conference was on Friday in Zagreb as part of Dreft fashion week Zagreb activities. I waited purposefully for a couple of days to write and publish this post in order to gather my thoughts and clear my head.

Firstly, It's important to say that I am working for Dreft (P&G) and I was working on organizing this blogger conference therefor I will not comment on blogger conference organization and set up as I would not be objective but I will share, as I know first hand, what was the goal of the blogger conference and what it is that we were really trying to achieve with it.

The goal of the blogger conference was to share experiences, expectations and best practices in between Croatian bloggers, professional blogger Yvan Rodic - Facehunter, representatives of big companies (present were: Avon, Clinique, P&G, Estee Lauder PR representatives) and traditional and online media (present were: moda.hr, Grazia, Story) as many traditional media have started to recruit and hire bloggers as columnist, stylists and contributors.

All of the guests we invited are by our opinion the best in their field and could contribute to dialog we were trying to start with the first blogger conference in this part of the Europe.

In the light of increasing number of new bloggers to blogger scene in Croatia, many local companies but also local offices of international companies are trying to work with bloggers as a separate and quite a powerful new consumer influencers and opinion formers with vast readership and social media following but they are often not sure how to approach them, measure them and compensate them for their work. Our (Dreft's) goal with this blogger conference was just to start this dialog in a more organize manner.

The feeling I had when leaving the conference was that our communication at the blogger conference was missing a bit of open mindedness and true desire to understand each other in a more productive and respectful manner. It almost felt like BLOGGER is becoming a dirty word in Croatia, people are ashamed to be classified as bloggers because of the way some bloggers communicate and behave, which is not really healthy for our media environment but the reason why this is so is two fold in my opinion.

First reason is that many local bloggers although they would like to be percieved as professional bloggers, lack transparency towards their readers, profesionality and maturity to be taken seriously by companies but also to gain respect and credibility by traditional media representatives.

To give example, many have announced and got accredited for blogger conference but at the end, didn't come, some just called for goodybags delivery later. Some according to Dino from Style Brick Road blog have Chinese online shops which produce fake designers clothes as blog sponsors so they are ashamed to share with their readers that the clothes they wear is actually fake so they do not fully disclose it, which is in my opinion wrong on so many levels. One can be a very successful blogger without having money to wear expensive designer clothes and disclosing to their readers when your post is sponsored, paid for and/or you recieved merchadise as a gift. At the end, it' all about the trust. If you want to be a professional blogger - act professionally! 

Secondly, inability to innovate in digital environment and preasure of selling ads without real creative local approach makes some representatives of traditional media a bit bitter and fearfull of the future which also affects their attitude towards bloggers as a new speedily increasing influencer on Croatian media scene.

As Lucija Biondic, the editor of moda.hr said, Croatia is a young market and online media market of lifestyle and fashion portals and especially blogs, but also traditional media will clear out with time and only the good quality ones will survive longterm as there is realistically way to many media outlets in Croatia in comparison to the size of the Croatian speaking market and its buying and consuming power.

In the end, my perspective as a blogger is that I would like to be treated by traditional media representatives, fellow bloggers and company representatives with the same respect I give to them. 

   Just like they invest their passion and knowledge in their editorials and relationship with their partners I - (as a one women show :)  invest all of my free time, money, passion and love for fashion for more then last five years in developing my blog's content, building relationships and learning together with my blog's partners, publisher, the editor of the papers where I write my column, my friends bloggers and most importantly my blog readers.

DONASSY SS 2013.

All photos: Decker + Kutić | Make up: Illamasqua 

 Hair: Kevin.Murphy | Model: Ana Buljević

Branka Donassy is one of most consistent Croatian designer with most experience and credentials both from industry and media side with well defined clientele base who looks for timeless pieces of immaculate making. Currently, the brand has a store in Zagreb Croatia and newly opened location in hotel Excelsior at Croatian's main and one of the world's most beautiful tourist destinations - Dubrovnik.

 From season to season DONASSY brand showcases consistently great quality collections which I have been admiring from distance but never managed to connect with fully and find a piece which is really 'me' until this SS 2013. season collection. I always felt like the color pallet was a bit to dark for me and the tailoring and fit seemed to speak more to the older age group ladies then me in previous years at least :)

According to designer the new SS 2013. collection is inspired by the sand shaped by beach waves, a dried gray random piece of wood  which ocean has thrown out at the beach, wet beach rocks and deep blue water blue shades. All fabrics used in SS 2013. collection are natural: cotton and linen with metallic layers, forms are soft and fluid describing subtle both at the same time energetic Donassy women. 

Spring/Summer 2013. top trends.

Right after Spring/Summer 2013. fashion weeks which took place last year across fashion capitals I wrote bit by bit about noticeable trends in color, cut and style which took over the runways and consequently stores and the streets with first rays of sunshine coming out.

Since I got a couple of questions on where to find a specific trend post, I thought it might be helpful to summarize them all in one post which might serve you as a useful cheap sheet when you decide to go and update a bit your wardrobe for warm days ahead.

ALL WHITE
A number of my girlfriends with more classical, feminine and elegant style have been sporting this trend for years now but all white trend has definitely made a big come back, not only in summer dresses but also in smart business wear.

I wrote a number of posts with inspirational pieces on this trend: Summer Whites  | Spring whites | White Spring ahead!

Carolyn Murphy for Vogue Korea

MONOCHROME 
Monochrome or graphic trend for me is one of the key trends this season. For majority, most memorable monochrome trend will be Marc Jacobs's for Louis Vuitton black or white squares but Michael Kors, Balmain and Oscar de la Renta also played with black and white graphics this season, we have seen all from harlequin to stripes and squares.

FLORAL PRINT
I wouldn't actually say floral print is a trend which comes at goes much, it is a Spring/Summer staple and we can see it every year more or less but what I really like this season are beautiful floral digital prints featured also on sportswear in many collections.

Tothem dress from   Roba store

PRIMARY COLORS
Warmer season always brings out colors from our closets but for this season across collections we could have seen pieces in basic, primary colors: red, blue, yellow and green, with my favorite being bright lemon yellow. I am definitely a mood dresser so the moment the sun is out, I am in a good mood and  my closet screams with bright colored jeans and Summer dresses. I covered the topic of bright warm weather colors in this recent post Colors of Summer.

I feel like Michael Kors was the boldest when it comes to using color in his SS 2013. collection.

Michael Kors Spring/Summer 2013. advertorial

CAGE MATCH
This is my third favorite trend next to all white and floral print. I also love to wear deep V cuts to my top pics are pieces from Celine's SS 13. line but I also love Calvin Klein and Nina Ricci for smart and elegant business wear with a tease. This was from RTW side, however on the more artsy part of the fashion - couture, the master of cage match is Sarah Burton for McQueen with her 'bee keeper' collection.

Celine Spring/Summer 2013.

Calvin Klein Spring/Summer 2013.

Aside of a cage match there is also so called peekaboo or see through trend which is quite similar when comes to tease, sheerness and playfulness, only patterns and fabrics are a bit different.

RUFFLES & DEEP V CUTS

On a more structural side we could notice deep V cuts (like on above photo of Celine piece) and a whole lot of ruffles which create a really nice volume, romantic Spring flower feel and playfulness to the dresses.

Chloe did some wonderful ruffle pieces my favorite of which is bellow white piece with both ruffles and V deep V cut, but there is also now famous Balenciaga ruffle bottom dress which was featured in many advertorials after it was shown on runway.

Chloe Spring/Summer 2013.

Balenciaga Spring/Summer 2013.

Chloe Spring/Summer 2013.

BRIGHT METALLICS

Most dominant collection for this season when it comes to bright metallic colors was Burberry collection with purses, trenches and skirts in rainbow color spectrum. I have recently wrote a post - Metallic inspiration about wearing metallic as day-wear in Spring/Summer season. For me personally Burberry metallics are a bit to loud and I prefer mine to be in silver and gold shades. 

Burberry Spring/Summer 2013.

On top of my favorite 7 top trends for this SS 2013. season, there are of course more prevalent trends worth mentioning such as leather pieces, traditionally popular pastel colors, bright neon details, oriental prints and cuts, boyish shorts and sporty bomber jackets as well as rich blue, green and azure sea colors with warm Summer vacation months approaching.

What are some of your favorite SS 2013.trends lovelies?