New blog!

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Hey hey hey, I've got a new blog!
Go over to http://aldraws.com/ to check it out! I really love how it turned out, and it also looks super cute on mobile!

Thank you so much Agnes for helping me building it and setting it up! <3

xxx Al

A scent

Monday, January 9, 2017

Chanel Chance Eau Tendre perfume - Alessia Landi fashion illustration

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend asked me if he could buy me a new perfume for Christmas.
"Why?" I replied "I have so many of them already".
Note: I was already freaking out "OMG he doesn't like my smell does it mean he hated smelling my skin for 3 years and a half - TRAGEDY"
He said "Well, you change them constantly and I have the feeling none of them is really you. I was thinking about it when you were away for work last time: if you're away and I smell one of your dresses I would like to feel like you are there, but none of your perfumes now give me that feeling"
Note: that is so horribly cute I melted.

Half an hour later I was dragging him through the cosmetics floor of Tangs frantically looking for a new fragrance (I am sure he was already deeply regretting his proposal).
I went nuts testing all the Byredo, the Diptyque, the Annick Goutal (if he wants to buy it, it might as well be an expensive good one...) but none of them gave me the feeling I wanted to take a full bath in it and smell like that forever (that is my idea of THE perfume).

We passed to the more mainstream brands and we both liked this version of Chanel Chance: Eau Tendre.
But it still didn't really give me that "this is it!" feeling at that moment so we ended up buying nothing and leaving for our Christmas holidays in Europe empty handed.

On the plane I was wondering (plane trips, especially the long ones, are always an occasion for this very meaningful and profound type of contemplations): what is a signature scent? And, more importantly, how do you choose it?
You know, that type of smell that transcends the mere olfactory dimension and can actually tell something about the person who wears it.
I sometimes remember people and places thanks to their perfume and countless times I've met women whose perfume communicated to me an intimate part of their personality, contributing greatly to my first impression of them.
I've never really had a signature scent, but the idea of it has always intrigued me.

In the end, after a lot of pondering (ahhh all the free time you have on holidays to think about this kind of stuff...) and a fortuitous encounter with a Chanel cosmetics boutique in Florence, I decided to give Chance Eau Tendre a try and purchased the 35 mL version (I'm amazed at how cautious I am with some kind of purchases, considering how easily I spend on other things like make-up, skincare and clothes).

So will this finally be my signature scent? I don't know, but for now I can say that I'm hooked.
So much so that I wanted to draw it (and my tiny 35 mL bottle is already almost half-empty after only 2 weeks).
It has something in common with the perfumes I usually wear, quite fresh and delicate but at the same time it has components that are more unusual for me, more on the sweet and floral side and that makes it interesting for me to wear.

The final test will be next time I leave home on my own: if my boyfriend can smell one of my shirts and finally connect this scent with the memory of me then it means I've found the one... (perfume, not boyfriend :p).

And what about you? Do you have a signature scent and how did you find it?
I'm curious!

With this I leave my computer to end my lunch break with a walk in the green and hopefully some relief to my horrible jet-lag.
(Traveling between Europe and Asia is HELL: when I go to Italy or Belgium I'd like to go out with my friends but jet-lag strikes by 5 PM and when I come back here in Singapore I need to go to work but I'm basically asleep until 3 PM... I hate it...)

I wish you a great week ahead!

xxx Al


In my skin

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Alessia Landi fashion illustration digital illustration
I have been on a diet most of my life.

When I was a kid, because I was a bit chubby and my mom was trying to keep me healthy by keeping all sorts of snacks (the more unhealthy the more I loved them. Of course) out of the house to avoid I would reach for the Nutella jar while doing my homeworks.

When I was a teenager, because I was desperately trying to look like all my skinny, pimple-free friends.

When I moved to Belgium from Italy at 25, because being alone for the first time out of Mamma's home in a completely new environment led me to emotional eating and I gained a whopping 20 kg in just a few months.

If I look at it closely, what I have been doing most of my life wasn't only dieting: I was hating my body. 
I would never accept my boobs. My friends were jealous because they were as flat as a surfing board and they would kill for my bra size? Al doesn't care, Al wants to be flat too because that T-shirts looks soooo much better on them...
I couldn't stand the size of my butt. Did I ever notice that I actually had a very beautiful waist and soft, round hips that I could accentuate with a body-conscious dress? Of course not, Al was wearing sack-of-potato sweaters to hide everything as much as possible. 
So that nobody could see. So that I couldn't see.

I have been "working" so much on hating my body that now I need the help of a psychologist (literally) to help me recover my confidence and the wonder that every woman should feel every single time she looks in the mirror.

I am thinking about this now because I am at the end of two wonderful weeks in Italy and Belgium, spent with family and friends, and I am noticing the price of all the Christmas parties, drinks and aperitivo on my waist. 
I should be thinking about all the wonderful memories I collected in these days but no, the only thing I can think about is how many kilos I gained because of too many slices of pandoro and the abnormal (and joyful) amount of Duvel beers.
I looked at the scale with terror last night for a good 10 minutes while getting ready after my shower (nope, didn't find the courage to actually jump on it. Yet). 
I know that when I'm back to Singapore in two days I'll get back on my 5:2 diet (which totally changed my life, I'll have to write a post on this one) and my usual eating habits that will make me lose the extra kilo(s) quite quickly.

So why am I so scared? Why I am avoiding the mirror so much ?
(Believe me, getting your make-up ready can be quite a challenge when you don't want to look at the reflection in front of you).

Because everything is about my weight. Everything is about our weight

If I lose weight, everyone is telling me "Wow you look great! What have you been eating? You should give me your diet!".
If I gain weight, there is always an annoying aunt remarking I'm getting "a little chubby".
Magazines are featuring curvy women because let's be proud of our bodies.
Feminist websites are telling you every other post to stop dieting because you're beautiful as you are (and, on a side note, they make me feel freaking guilty because my brain then goes in stupid loops like "wait I'm a feminist. So I shouldn't care about my weight. But I do care about my weight... So am I not feminist enough??? WHAT AM I").
Brands tell you that you should indeed lose those extra 5 kg because their sizes are getting smaller and smaller.
And so on and so on... Our days are full of crap that reminds us that our weight and shape is a very important matter. Even if the message aims to be a positive one ("let's love our bodies the way they are") in the end, the emphasis on body weight is always the same. And it's always there to hunt me.

I wish one day I will be able to diet to look good for myself and for my boyfriend and some feminist article I stumbled upon on Facebook won't make me feel guilty for it.
I wish one day featuring curvy models or superskinny models won't be a topic of debate anymore (or pride "hey look I'm VOGUE but I'm still publishing an editorial with curvy models now give me an applause") because nobody would care if they are size 0 or size 14.
I wish nobody is going to point out if I lost weight or if I gained it.

Like, for a change, why not asking me who's my hairdresser 'cause my haircut looks great?
(that is why I love the Korean lady at my usual food centre in Singapore, she always gives me the cutest remarks on my style. And her kimchi jigae is great BTW).

Just feel good in my skin for once, and looking in the mirror will be the most normal thing in the world.
And do my 5:2 diet because it makes me feel good and not because I want to look like someone else thinks I should look like.
And go on the scale and losing 500 g won't be a reason for tears of joy. 
And gaining a few pounds would be "pffff what the hell, who cares, I had a good party time. I'll just lose them when I get back to my regular life".
And browse a fashion magazine and finally focus on the clothes and the photos, not if curvy models are featured or not.

I know this is utopia, but I still hope one day I'll be the girl who looks in the mirror and won't think she has to lose a couple of kilos to be perfect. And I wish I won't be the girl who has to repeat to herself "I am beautiful as I am" to be really convinced she is.

I hope I'll be the girl who looks in the mirror and just doesn't care, because in the end it's not that important.

xxx Al

(By the way, happy New Year ;) )

(The illustration is my second digital experiment! Tell me tell me, do you like it?)





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