How can’t you love the time of the year when you’re able to spot kilometers of beautiful yellow fields and the sky is that clear and blue that you can even see the mountains in the distance? Not to mention the refreshing beauty of the not too cold not too hot weather that fills the air with a light warm breeze and pink petals that fall everywhere from the trees? I’ve been realizing how much the seasons and the weather influence my life and mood – I can’t help but be as positive as ever this time of the year, no matter what!

A week ago we started spotting a bunch of golden fields of flowers, one better than the other, so much that it was kind of hard to pick one to shoot this pictures! The wind was light and warm and the bees were buzzing around; I’d have gladly spent the entire afternoon laying where the flowers were shorter, with gold petals accidentally adorning my hair, watching bees and butterflies passing by…

I’M WEARING :: Dress – Forever21

With the weather starting to be nicer and warmer, the occasion to go out bare legs start to be more frequent, even for one that wears tights as long as she can. If some of you are as pale as I am, you’ll understand how revolutionary was to me to introduce self tanners in my life, and if one thing is for sure is that, starting from now, they are a firm staple in my late spring and summer days (especially since I’m not the huge fan of natural tanning!). After typing down my Guide to mark free self tanning almost an exact year ago, I thought it was about time to share my self tanning tips all over again!

CLEANSE, SCRUB, EXFOLIATE ; Something that hasn’t change during this year, is the importance to me to cleanse and scrub my skin before using a self tanner. You want to apply it on a clean and smooth skin, and no doubts the cleaner and smoother it’ll be, the more your tan would look natural and last longer!

Especially if I’m applying my self tanner all over my body, I think it’s important to start scrubbing a week or a few days earlier, and then scrub again the same day of the application!

MOISTURIZE ; No one likes their tan looking like patches of skin are falling apart, this is why to me it’s very important to hydrate especially where my skin is very dry and flaky. This isn’t something of a quick process, it’s necessary to have consistency with it and apply a moisturizer every day (or almost) both before and after applying a self tanner. Having a nourished skin means the tan will look at its best and last longer!

Being I probably the laziest when it comes to apply moisturizers, I’ve been quite the fan of all those body conditioners that only need to be applied in the shower and rinsed off. I highly suggest to try one of them it you feel the same as me about sticky legs in tight denim!

PICK A FORMULA ; Coming to the self tanner itself, I bet we all have our preferences. As much as I like mousse formulas for my body, I go hand in hand with a serum and nothing else for my face. However there are so many different formulas one can chose from, that there’s something for every taste really: mousse, serum, spray, lotion, cream and more usually all available on online beauty retailers that stock a wide range of tanning products like Just My Look.

If you’re new to self tanning, try the mousse option (try Fake Bake): to me, it’s the easier and quicker to apply and with a tiny bit of practice it’s easy to achieve a perfect tan effect! I’m not the big tanning accelerators fan, but if you are after a natural tan and are considering one of them, then never forget the importance of a SPF!

DON’T DO IT WITH BARE HANDS! ; Always use a tanning mitt, it will gives a nicer smoother effect, plus your hands won’t turn and stay orange for days afterward!

BE CONSISTENT ; Especially if you’re going for a serum or a gradual tanner, remember to be consistent with both the tanning but also moisturizing and scrubbing, to avoid to build up too much unnatural colour and create darker patches.

This are all my tips and tricks for a beautiful and natural looking fake tan! I’d love to know if you have more advices – as one never really knows enough tricks to make her tan look at its best, right?! x

Two DIY posts in less than a week? Yes I know, it feels kind of strange to see that many crafts on here, but I’ve been itching to try my hands at something different than typing blog posts and twitter status all day, and I’d love to introduce more DIY tutorials on the blog again too! Secondly I’ve been rearranging my room lately and it kind of needed a touch of greenery and life to it now that it’s all tidy and white, and since cacti and succulents are not only good-looking but also very easy to take care of, I decided to add some more to the collection.

IKEA is a place of inspiration, that’s the truth. Everytime I’m in there I’m inspired to restyle my home, dream a new one and build, make, create. Even some glasses can inspire a craft project sometimes, and when we spotted their 365+ Glasses we couldn’t think of a better place where to build a small terrarium for our new succulents!

1 :: Start by placing a thin layer of decoration sand on the bottom of your glass.

2 :: Remove the plant from its original vase and place it in the middle of the glass, then using the topsoil, fill the rest of the terrarium and press the plant soil down with your hands until it’s stable and in the middle. If your glass is big enough you can even place two or three little plants together.

3 :: If you like, place another thin layer of decoration sand or stones on the top.

4 :: Style on a tidy desk and place a cork coaster under it. Seldom water once a week in summertime or after a pair of days that the soil is dry.

Any other succulents and cacti hoarder? x