Tips for pretty nails

To maintain the softness and smoothness of my hands and feet I, whenever possible, let my nails soak in warm extra-virgin olive oil in a plastic container for 15 minutes. This prevents flaking and cracking. When I'm not working I try not to use nail polish, enabling my nails to breathe. If my feet are dry I will mix sugar and honey and dump it around my feet then I will put socks and sleep with it - my feet feel amazing the next day. Now a good trick if your nails are weak is to put 3 cloves inside your base coat nail polish, it works wonders. To help set the nail polish, apply white vinegar to the nail before the polish. Also, if you don't have much time to wait for your nails to dry properly, put them under cold running water after application - it will also prevent the emergence of air balls. Another great tip for long and strong nails is to soak the fingertips in a mixture of warm water and sodium bicarbonate for 10 minutes, once a week.

Credits

 

Dress from Topshop

Shoes from Chloe Green's new collection.

Photo by Rosana Ragazzi @ Covent Garden Hotel in London.

p.s: I do think the dress look a bit shorter than when I tried in the store. ops! 

ahhhh I know why... the heels! They are super super high.

London underground x London taxi drivers

I don't know which is worst, the consistency of delays on the underground, engineering works or bad taxi drivers. I've made a comparison and I got to a conclusion that both are the same and when you in a hurry the only thing to do is to hope for the best.

*Tube It can be faster when: they don't get stuck between stations, don't have signal failure, when people don't get sick, when people don't press the emergency alarm on purpose, or like the other week when central line was shut down in East London - because a pipe from the Thames burst and 2 million liters of water came down to the tracks.

Rush hours are dreadful. In the morning most of the time, you need to wait for 3 or 4 trains to pass by so you can squeeze in and very likely you will be inhaling someone else bad morning breath. In the evening, I don't know if is better or worse. I guess, it depends on the weather. If is cold, is not so bad. If is hot, Mama Mia, you pray you have enter the right carriage, with good ventilation. If its raining is not much you can do then to breath odor of mold and bad dry clothes. Argh!

Trains are so dirty and sometimes (most of the times) I check the seat I'm sitting in. I'm not being a freak or have a mysophobia. Who knows who's bottom was sitting there before I sat. Also, sometimes the bars to hold on to are so greasy is gross. I wonder if a study made on how clean is the underground? would take place one day - that would be very interesting.

*Taxis I usually take taxis when I don't see myself walking for 10 minutes to get the tube in sky high heels and when I need to get up extremely early in the morning to get to work. I'm all for taking taxis but I must confess sometimes taxis drivers, drive me up the wall. I get so irritated! Most of them, don't know how to drive at all and I wonder: How the heck did you get your driving license?

One time, taxi driver was so nervous I had to guide him to my destination because he had no clue on how to get there. And that was from a famous taxi company, you know the one with big white letters on the back, you see loads of them around London. Others, think they are in a Formula 1 race track, driving like a maniac, cutting the front of cars, cyclists, buses. I just close my eyes and pray for God to save me from any accidents.

One thing that always gives me car sickness (most of them tend to drive that way), is when taxi drivers use the break so roughly that makes me to nearly jump to the front seat. I got a taxi last week and he did that ALL the time we stopped in a red light. Grrrr drives me crazy! By the end of the journey he drop me in the wrong street and had to walk for nearly 20 minutes to find the restaurant I was suppose to meet my friend. Sometimes you think oh I will get a cab will be faster! That's when you are wrong.

Last time taxi driver showed up 40 minutes late and I managed to arrived ridiculous late to my friend's birthday dinner. Tube can be stressful but they get you there one way or the other. Taxis you have to rely on drivers ability to drive properly and also in the traffic. Difficult! Anyway, I think I've said enough about that and I've made my point clear? I hope so...

Here is a picture from my friend's birthday dinner at Downtown - Cipriani last Saturday. I got there 2 hours late due to my silly decision to get a taxi instead of the tube.

Girly night

Last night I went for dinner with my girlfriends - we went for Japaneses SO restaurant in Soho. I totally recommend it. I must admit, at the beginning I was a bit reluctant to go there. Because once I had a quick peek in the menu, I realized the food wasn't that cheap. And I wanted to go somewhere where could eat and feel satisfied and not leave the place still hungry. But my guesses were a bit wrong and I spend £26, and ate really well. The start of the night didn't started as planned as I was incredibly late (as usual) but I had a good reason for it. I met little George. Kris and Tim's new baby. He is so adorable- what a pleasure to have met him! I can't believe their wedding was just a year ago. Everything happens so fast. Life happens so fast.Crazy how time flies once you start to get older. I remember being a kid and used to wait so long for our school holidays. I always thought why time goes by so slowly? Now I wish time would go by just a little slower than usual. Anyway, that was the reason why I was so late for my girly dinner. And oh dear, what a night. It was so good to catch up with all of them! We laugh the whole night - literally. Love them!

Charley horses

Last night I was woken up by this terrible pain on both of my legs. I couldn't move at all and the only thing I could do was scream. I had no clue what was going on. As I started to scream to my partner I was in pain, I of course, woke him up. The pain went on for several minutes and it was so intense I started crying. Dom kept asking: "What is going on? Are you having cramps?" I had no clue. Because from what I know, you could only get cramps if you have been exercising way too much and not eating enough bananas (which is not my case, because I do eat banana every morning with my cereal). The only times I get cramps is when I have been using high heels all day long or back in a day when I used to exercise like a maniac. My right leg was the first one to come back to normal then after another extremely painful minutes, Dom said: "Stretch your leg!" And I managed to do so. The pain slowly went away. This morning I woke up and I can still feel my muscles a bit twisted on my left leg. I went to check online this abnormal thing that happen to me and I found out that what I had was skeletal muscle pain or also know as charley horses. Wikipedia explains it best,"Skeletal muscles that cramp the most often are the calves, thighs, and arches of the foot. Sometimes known as a Charley horse or corkie, this kind of cramp is associated with strenuous activity and can be intensely painful—though skeletal cramps can occur while relaxing. Around 40% of people who experience skeletal cramps are likely to endure extreme muscle pain, and may be unable to use the affected limb. It may take up to seven days for the muscle to return to a pain-free state."

BIG HAIR

Having your hair back combed is the worst night mare for a model. This picture proofs why....

First because will definitely give you split ends - even if you brush it after with tangle teezer. It doesn't matter how careful you are or how strong your hair is, it WILL break. Second the finished look is not always nice. Rarely are the times when the finished look is great. Besides the crazy amount of hair spray you inhale it's insane. You stay with hair spray taste in your month for hours.... So yeah, when I see hair stylists doing this to my hair I start to cry inside.

Need your vote

It has just been announced that my church Comunidade Evangelica Internacional da Zona Sul has been nominated in the two categories at the prestigious Brazilian International Press Awards. The awards ceremony – with editions in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom – celebrate the most active Brazilian communities outside of the home nation and are supported by the Consulate General of Brazil in London and Embassy of Brazil in the UK. Winners announcement will be on the 15th of August, a month before the awards ceremony, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday 22nd September at the Hilton Canary Wharf, London. Voting is now open and will remain open until Wednesday 25th July. Please do take a moment to vote for us. Here are the following categories: 7) Show Brasileiro em Turnê - Aline Barros and 19) Instituição de Ação Comunitária - Comunidade Evangelica Internacional da Zona Sul. Click here to vote!