Our Carolien has had a busy week again. From a nice day of shopping to a vajacial treatment... Are you reading along?

During the holidays, I always get a bit of gift panic. I'm quite the overachiever, so when it comes to presents, I always want to give the perfect and most original gift. Fortunately, last week there was the UPR Beauty Day to inspire me with new ideas. A new Weleda skincare line, a wonder supplement that promotes your collagen production, and the latest face masks from Starskin. I stood still for a while at the latter: the packaging looks quite attractive, the sample smells wonderful, and it would also take optimal care of your skin. And yes, after a test case at home, I was totally sold. The perfect and most original gift for mothers: check!

It's really becoming a fact now: I'm slowly heading towards 30... I always find it nice to have my birthday during the holidays: there's always a Christmas tree on my birthday, everyone is in the festive spirit, and I get double the gifts in one week! Today is officially the first day that I am 28 years old, but we already celebrated this joyful news on Tuesday with a lovely dinner at restaurant 5&33. We were all so amazed by the fantastic dishes! My favorite dishes were the burrata, the truffle risotto, and the chocolate/pecan pie. I need to think of an occasion to dine there again as soon as possible: Jon's birthday maybe? Can I wait until early February? Oh well, you should celebrate every day, so what's wrong with ‘just an ordinary Tuesday’ somewhere in January?

If you still need to do some last-minute amazing Christmas shopping, then this store in Magna Plaza is a golden tip! This pop-up store called “Gekaapt” sells beautiful brands like Carin Wester at a big discount, but also new brands like the Cool Crib collection from Are You Swedish? and the marble shelves from Stoned. I wandered around for exactly an hour before arriving at the checkout with two full shopping carts. Totally permissible if they were all Christmas gifts, but unfortunately about 70% in the carts was a present from me to myself. Here lies the biggest advantage of online shopping: with one click, your virtual shopping cart is gone. If only it were that easy in real life!

For years, I have been a huge fan of Delete Waxing. Lower legs or a Brazilian wax: I wouldn't even think of picking up a razor again. I've convinced some girlfriends, but others just really can't face their first Brazilian. As a seasoned visitor, I had to undergo their latest treatment last week: the vajacial. Jon almost burst out laughing when I said this term, but it sounded quite logical: taking good care of your skin after a wax and checking for imperfections, a real facial. Now, a Brazilian is not exactly painless, so this could only be a pleasant surprise. Unless you have a needle phobia. To remove the ingrown hairs, a tiny needle really had to come into play, which almost made me faint. Just give me that Brazilian and I'll stick to a nice facial for the face.

Last week, the terrible news about the set accident at Zwarte Tulp came out. Completely in shock, we gathered with the entire cast and crew to hear the awful news. I hesitated for a moment whether I wanted to share anything about this, but I still want to tell how loving, brave, ambitious, perfectionistic, funny, thoughtful, and fantastic Annelien was. In our thoughts, she will always live on, and the set will never be the same again. “Just dream your dream,” were her words. Dearest Annelien, I promise you that!