All posts tagged: personal

Back to blogging?

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Hey there! How are you? It’s been a while, I know. Who would have thought? How a worldwide quarantine tricked me out of my blogging confinement.  A whole year has come and gone, a new one has started once more (and what a year 2020 has been up to now). I’ve been away for quite a while, and I’d love to reconnect with you. My lastpost dates back to December 2018, and I kind of hit a wall around that point. In the months prior, I had been running myself ragged, stressing and fretting constantly, not only about life or work, but especially about blogging. Inspiration had flown straight out of the window, that love and passion seemingly evaporated and all but lost, and I just did not want to blog anymore. Sounds crude, I know, but if I’m being completely honest, that’s exactly what it was. I just did not feel like blogging anymore. The ever-changing nature of blogging, Social Media and PR had thrown me for a loop, especially the whole (Instagram) Influencer …

The beauty of a beauty excorcism

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“The beauty exorcism” It was but a quick title in my inbox, with clickbait allures written all over it, designed especially to draw me in and extend my (already extensive) procrastination with another 15 – 30 mintes, but the words hit home and started living their own life, creating a story in my head and trickling into my subconscious. With Autumn in full swing, it is not only the perfect moment to transition into crisp skies, jaw-dropping foliage and sweater supremacy, but also a clear skin (and a clear mind). My skin has been playing tricks on me, so the need for a beauty detox matches that spin of words swindling around in my head, needing to be tamed and structurised for a greater effect. The last few months have been an (superfluous) overflow of products marching in an out of my cabinet, my routine, and while that much product testing is fun, it has been causing havoc. I’m talking blotchiness, redness, itchiness and that uncomfortable feeling of tightness and dryness, no matter how much water …

Shredded Chicken Salad

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A bit of leftover chicken from the roast dinner I had the day before+ a little jolt of inspiration + a whole lot of ‘wanting to go healthy’-induced procrastination session led me to this gorgeous and delicious salad. Easy to whip up, healthy, yummy and the perfect dish with Spring and Summer just around the corner, this salad ticks all the boxes for me! You can start this recipe from scratch and include it in your Sunday dinner as the perfect, fresh partner to a beautiful and succulent roast chicken ( I’ll gladly include the recipe in a next post if you want, just let me know in the comments), but I am going down the lazy road today and am using the leftovers from our family chicken roast decadence. Minimal effort, maximal flavour! Ingredients: 300 – 400 gr roasted chicken 2 Romaine heads / Cos lettuce  (you can also add in a handful of rocket salad) 1 large handful of coriander / cilantro, chopped 1/2 handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped 1 whole cucumber, …

The Future Is Female

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Today is International Women’s Day. A day of tribute, of respect, of kindness and strength! A day to rejoice in what binds us, to find solace and encouragement universally, instead of zooming in on our differences. A day to recognize that these traits, these strengths, are not only to be celebrated today, but all day, every day! As the granddaughter of a strong woman, the daughter of an even stronger woman and the mother of the one I hope will the fiercest of us all, I feel honoured! As a friend to a few ladies who inspire me on a daily basis, I feel honoured! Honoured to walk amongst these giants, to live with and learn from them. To support them, live, love and laugh with them! The future is female. platform is here, it’s ours to take it! Love, Leen

Goldfield & Banks Pacific Rock Moss

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Raving about the most summer-y looking, sounding and evoking fragrance in the freezing dead of winter, quite the contradiction, right? And no, I see no issue whatsoever with that… I’ve never been the type to match my perfumes to the season and do that switch up twice a year, I just go with my mood each morning, and see my fragrance as the extension of my day ahead. Goldfield & Banks and I met by chance, a late night Instagram inspiration session (‘cause all modern-day couples meet like that nowadays…), a splash of blue, a ray of sunlight, an image that stoopped my heart, and I was sold in an instant! Never having held the bottle, never having experienced the scent, and still, the atmosphere and story of that image was so beguiling that I wanted to know more, smell more, experience more! Dimitri Weber was one of Belgium’s perfume PR exec’s par excellence. After a thriving career that saw him represent the best of the olifactory best, create the signature fragrance for an interior …

Merry Christmas

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That crisp, freezing chill in the air these last few mornings bore promise that the most wonderful time of the year really has arrrived, and that there really is nowhere else to be than inside with your loved ones!  Today is Santa’s Day, so there is no content creating, beauty blogging or plain old babbling happening over here! I am hosting my family for a Christmas dinner today, and am beyond excited (and stressed!) However, I still wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, whoever and wherever you are! The end of year is always a reflective, nostalgic time, and while I could spend hours dwelling on 2017, I look towards 2018 with a sense of purpose, determination, love and utter gratefulness for all that I have in my life!  May you have a splendid Christmas filled with lights, love and laughter! A Merry Everything and a Happy Always from my family to yours!

Happy Birthday To Me

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No post, beauty lemming, drooling food inspiration or deco dreams today, because it is my birthday!!!! Instead of tapping away on my keyboard, I’ll be spending my day away from my laptop, savouring the Indian Summer we have going on outside, laughing, loving, drinking and eating with my loved ones. Simply enjoying the life, enjoying my birthday, enjoying the now. See you tomorrow lovelies!  

Quality Over Quantity*

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*Every Single Time! Yesterday was a day of revelations, of confirmation that quality has always and will always trump quantity. Yesterday was a day of discovery, of premium quality ingredients and the resulting exquisite products, of artisanry and passion, of shining a light on the people and the love behind a brand. Of liquid gold that touches the mind, overflows the heart and revives the spirit. Yesterday afternoon was all about beautiful niche perfumes, with stories to tell, memories to create and scents to evoke so much more (yes Goldfield & Banks, I am looking at you! #loveatfirstwhiff). Later that night, Bruichladdich came onto the scene, with a delightful and educational tasting of their latest Micro Provenance series. A simple play on barley and their geographical influences, this series proves once more what can be created if the base you start with is of excellent quality. So now and forever, quality over quantity!  

Autumn Design Must Haves

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Summer’s fading into Autumn over here, and I feel like sprucing things up a bit in the LeenLovesStyle household. We’ve been living here for ten years now (yes, 10! Feels like forever!), and after a decade of everyday routines, rummaging kids and evolving taste, it’s time for an injection of new-ness and  bit of tongue-in-cheek in our interior and daily lives. I’ve spent many a lunchbreak browsing the wonderful world of the world wide web, and there have been a few things lately that have my pulse racing. As always, coffee and softness are high on my wishlist, but the Cybex Hausschwein (home pig) really caught my eye. Cute (just look at it!) and practical (big enough to contain magazines, toys or blankets), that’s how we like it! 1 – Nespresso x Clio Goldbrenner travel mug holder / 2 – HK Living at Juttu Marble Board / 3 – Primark Glasses / 4 – City Sheep Rug / 5 – Hay Rainbow Tray / 6 – Ikea Vintner Pillow / 7 – Illy x Alessi …

An Instagram Summer

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As Summer is slowly dwindling down and we are gearing up for a new schoolyear (peace and quiet, hurrah hurrah), I ‘ve been in a very melancholic mood these last few days. We’ve had a lousy summer this year, and my mind keeps wandering back to an amazing fortnight in the South of France (#mysliceofheaven) and the very few sunny days we had in Belgium since we got back. Do you feel like taking a walk down Instagram memory lane with me? View this post on Instagram Apparently, mojito sorbet with alcohol really is a thing…. And a damn good thing indeed! A post shared by Leen | Beauty & Food Lover (@leenstruyf) on Jul 18, 2017 at 12:46pm PDT View this post on Instagram Living the life…. Two weeks of non-stop family quality time under the Provence sun proved to be just what we needed! We laughed, we cuddled, we swam and played and explored. And above all, we loved! A post shared by Leen | Beauty & Food Lover (@leenstruyf) on Jul 21, …