Gustav Klimt

As you may have already noticed, today marks the 150th birthday of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.
My first encounter with his work was in a magazine article, where a lady had a stunning print of one of his works in her house.

Portrait of Hermine Gallia

The Kiss 1907-1908. I think this is my favourite.

Philosophie 1907.  Destroyed in 1945.

The Three Ages of a Woman, 1905

Danae, 1907

Hope II, 1907-1908

Judith and the Head of Holofernes, 1901

Medicine 1899-1907, destroyed 1945.

Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907. This painting sold for a record $135 million, surpassing Picasso's Boy with a Pipe.

I cannot claim to know much about art, but I do know that I love Gustav Klimt's artwork. To me, these paintings are delicate and arresting at the same time, soulful and romantic in a non-conventional way. 

Fictional Beauty Bag #1

So this is just a bit of fun. I got the idea to do a fictional beauty bag from Textbook, which is a blog dedicated to the style of historical and literary figures. It is a superb blog.

I can't imagine Hermione being overly fussy with her routine. In fact she's so busy with all her classes, not to mention on the hunt for Horcruxes. Famous firstly for her cool logic and brilliance but secondly for her bushy hair, Hermione prefers Nourishing Oil Care Anti-frizz Serum from Dove. It doesn't work as well as Sleakeazy's Hair Potion, but she's far too busy to brew it fortnightly, shhh don't tell. When she's in hardcore study mode she needs hair bands to keep all that hair out of her face. Foin coupe from Diptique helps her to relax. It was a gift from an aunt; it smells like one of her favourite scents, freshly cut grass.

Hermione has dry skin, and all those hours spent in the drafty library makes her skin feel like century old parchment, and lips rougher than a Norwegian Ridgeback. She combats this with Cetaphil cleanser and moisturiser. For lips she uses Korres lip butter. Hermione discovered Steam Cream while on holiday in France with her parents, ironically. It works almost like magic. Of course, dental care is of utmost importance for Hermione - her parents are dentists! Just because she lives in a castle doesn't mean she has to forgo modern-day dental hygiene.

For special occasions Hermione likes to keep it sweet and really low key. A swipe of mascara, a generous daubing of coral-peach blush and a spritz of Clean Warm Cotton EDP is all she really needs. Ron's not really big on lip gloss so if she can be bothered she'll use a little creamy lip pencil to go with the lip butter.

She keeps it all in a cat patterned travel bag from Harrods - a 16th birthday gift from her mother. You can't see but there's one on the back that looks exactly like her beloved Crookshanks.