lifestyle – Book Dust Magic

Changes I noticed on my body during pregnancy #Pregnancy #Lifestyle #mommyblogger #MumToBe

Pregnancy is the time when one’s whole body is changing. It is perfectly normal, as the body is growing another human being inside, so this whole state comes with lots of symptoms. Some are good, some are not so much.

Today I want to talk about four changes I noticed on my body, that I wasn’t prepared for. Three of them are positive, and as for one, I would like to live without.

My hair don’t get greasy as often

I always had oily hair that I had to wash every other day to look decent. I would only be able to afford a day without washing if I knew I would stay at home the whole day.
However, during my second trimester my scalp stopped producing so much oil, and now I can go up to 5 days without looking greasy, and if I use a dry shampoo, I can extend the time between washes to 7 days. I know, it’s a huge difference, and to be honest, it feels like a huge burden fell off my shoulders, as I hated washing my hair. Plus, it’s very hard to wash my hair during pregnancy.
I also noticed that my hair has more volume now.

My Keratosis Pilaris is gone

I always had this skin condition (or should I say problem) on my upper arms but now it’s gone.
However on my thighs there’s still some left, but it’s in a much better state then before.

I don’t have acne anymore

This is the biggest and most welcoming difference I noticed, as I started my war with acne in 2018. So yes, I had adult acne, around my chin and on my neck. They were painful, itchy and ugly. They were the only part of my body I truly hated, and now when I’m finally clear of those little devils, I feel like my life is upgraded. Like my prayers were answered.
These days I can even skip my face care routine, without a fear of waking up with a new pimple.
I hope they will never return, even though I am aware that they probably will.

I have cellulitis

I was one of those lucky girls who never had to fight cellulitis. Well, I guess I won’t be in that group anymore, as my behind and thighs are covered with those bastards.
I hope I will get rid of at least some portion of cellulitis after I give birth and start working out again.
Until then, I’m happy the winter is coming and my cellulitis will be completely covered with clothes.

That is it!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me and I will answer them as soon as I can.
Also, tell me what kind of changes have you noticed while you were pregnant, if you have experienced it?

Woman vector created by freepik – www.freepik.com

Products I use to prevent stretch marks during pregnancy #Pregnancy #Lifestyle #BeautyBloggers #SelfCare

Pregnancy is blessed state one woman can be in, but it also leaves some changes on one’s body.
Stretch marks are those ugly reminders we want to avoid, so in my opinion, it is better to fight them from the very beginning then cry later.

Not every skin type is the same, and some women are more likely to get skin damage then others.

I personally have very dry skin on my body (my face is a different story) so I knew I have to do everything in my power to keep those little marks away from me.

At this moment, when I am 24 weeks pregnant, I am successful in my mission, without any stretch marks.
However, I am aware that the situation can change with time, as my belly will continue to grow.

Here are the products I use to prevent stretch marks:

BIOBAZA MAMA – Nourishing body cream for pregnancy and motherhood

This is Croatian product that I have received as a gift in my favourite drugstore dm (it was in a goody bag all pregnant women receive).
Biobaza is Croatian brand that I am a fan of. Their products are natural without paraben, preservative, parfum or color, and this one was no exception.
It smells like marigolds and it’s very soft on the skin.
Since this lotion is not so oily, in my opinion it is the best one to use in early pregnancy. I almost used all of it, and these days I only use it sometimes in the morning, if I have to go somewhere (to doctors, for example) and don’t have much time to sit and rest while the my skin absorbs oil.

LUSH THERAPY bar

This is the only product I purchased myself, because it was recommended to me by Lush employers.
It is completely vegan and safe to use during pregnancy (most Lush products are, but not all of them, so if you’re pregnant make sure to check all the products are safe before purchasing them).
It smells citrusy and it is easy to use, but it takes ages for it to absorb, because it can be used as a massage bar.
I like it but I am not head over hills with it.

Bio-Oil

Bio-Oil was a gift I received from a friend of mine, and in my opinion, out of all the products I use, this one smells the best.
It’s scent reminds me of roses.
This oil is transported from South Africa and I am not sure where in the world is available, but according to my friend, it is pretty popular along expectant mothers.
Bio-Oil contains Purcellin oil that makes the skin absorb the product faster.
It helps to prevent stretch marks, but also it helps with uneven skin tone, aged and dehydrated skin.
I tried to use it on my face but I had bad reaction – my skin went red, so I use it only on my belly.
I still love it though, because I feel like it really works and it smells so nice. I use it daily.

oleo THERAPY apricot oil

This one is my absolutely favourite. It is organic, cold pressed apricot oil and it has no scent.
This particular oil is transported from Spain, but in reality, any apricot oil would do the similar job, as long as it’s organic.
I like to use it before bed, as it’s little ticker then Bio-Oil. However, it absorbs pretty fast.
This oil is not only good for stretch marks, but also to use on face and hair.
I tried it on my face multiple times and it leaves my skin very soft.
I have also used it on my hair, few hours before washing it, and I am satisfied with it’s performance.
This is the only product I will continue to use after I give birth and will repurchase it many times.
I truly recommend it, to all women, not only mums-to-be.

That is it!
Tell me how do you fight stretch marks, if you’re pregnant or if you’re not.
Do you have any product recommendations?

If you have similar post to this one, feel free to leave your links so I can visit you.

Let’s talk: I am pregnant! #Pregnancy #LifeStyle #Bloggers #MummyBloggers

There is something I want to talk about for some time now, but I kept putting it off because of, to me, valid reason.

I am pregnant!

I am so happy about it. It was planned, but not expected, if it makes any sense.
In other words, me and my fiance really wanted to be parents, but as I come from a family where infertility is big issue, I didn’t want to have high expectations, to avoid disappointment.

Right now I am 19 weeks pregnant, and the reason why I didn’t announce it sooner is because I have been diagnosed with high risk of miscarriage.

It was not easy to deal with all the symptoms, but that is another theme, and I don’t want to spoil this happy post with it.

My diagnoses are also the reason why I don’t go to work anymore (I’m safekeeping my baby) and why there were no other posts then reviews on my blog for the couple of months now.
When all you have to do is rest and can’t go anywhere near children (a theme for another post) there’s not much to do then read and watch movies.
I also can’t travel or go to places I planned to visit and write about them in my lifestyle posts.

However, now when I announced my big news, there will be some lifestyle posts about my pregnancy here on my blog (and other things that come to my mind).
I understand it is not something that interests everyone, so I completely understand if you want to skip them, but it is something I do want to express my feelings about.

I still don’t know the gender of the baby, but as soon as I find out, I will announce it here, on my blog.

I am so excited about this new chapter of my life and am looking forward to see what our future will look like.

Background photo created by jcomp – www.freepik.com

Welcome to Book Dust Magic 2.0! #bloggers #lifestyle #bookbloggers

Hi Guys!

I just wanted to quickly mention that Book Dust Magic is now updated to it’s own domain.
I want to say thank you to everyone who was looking forward to see it’s new design, and I hope you like it.

I am still working on small changes and updates, but I hope everything will be complete this weekend.

As for the blog itself, new posts will be published regularly from Monday on. There will be 3-4 blog posts per week, in which I will talk about books, movies, places, products and everything my heart is with.

However, there will be one book review posted later today, because I host the blog tour, and there will be Sunday post tomorrow.

I hope you’re all having a lovely time and I am looking forward to hang out with you here on Book Dust Magic in the future.

Take care,

Irena

I plan to self-host my blog #BloggingTips #Lifestyle #Business

It has been three years since I started blogging and in those three years, I had my ups and downs, but what is most important, I learned a lot.

When I first launched Book Dust Magic my main goal was to be part of reading community, and to improve my English as much as possible.
It was a hobby I gained so much from.

Now, after three years, I want to upgrade my blog to a next level.
I already stated that Book Dust Magic will become book/lifestyle blog.

I am taking my blog serious as if it was my second job, and I want to invest into Book Dust Magic like I would in my business.

Therefore, I decided to say goodbye to my free wordpress page and buy myself a new domain, to go self host.
I know I could upgrade my wordpress to next level, but after some thinking I decided to self host, and in all honesty, the main reason for that are plugins and freedom that comes with self hosting.

I already contacted several web hosting platforms to be sure in my decision.

Why am I telling you all that?

Firstly, because Book Dust Magic will be available on new address https://bookdustmagic.com from May 1st.

Secondly, I will try to move all of my followers to my new domain, but if you follow me via email, you will probably not get new emails every time I post something new, so make sure to subscribe to my blog after May 1st on my new domain.
If you follow me on wordpress, you should be able to see my new posts on your wordpress dashboard (if everything goes right, that is!).

I will try to make the transition on my own, so let’s hope I’ll succeed (and that I won’t lose my content).

You are probably curious why would I do it all on my own?

Well, I want to see if I can do it. And if I can, it will be one more skill I learned.
If I don’t, I will ask for help from professional.

Plans for the future…

Book Dust Magic will run on this web address until April 15th and then it will be launched on it’s new domain bookdustmagic.com on May 1st.

I hope everything will go well!
Please wish me luck and I hope we will have an amazing time on my new domain.

From May 1st you can expect to see Book Dust Magic in new, better, more professional and better looking version.
I can’t wait to see you there!

Business photo created by freepik – www.freepik.com

Let’s talk: I am branching out #LifeStyle #Bloggers #RealTalk #BookBloggers

For the last couple of months I’ve been thinking about my blog and the content I am putting out there.
It has been over three years since I launched Book Dust Magic, and as it happens in life, my interests have expand.

When I started, books were my everything. I could talk about them 24/7 and they were the only non-living thing that I truly cared for.

Although books are still my number one love, there are so many other things I now feel passionate about, but also so many new things I’d like to try, so this is why I decided to rebrand Book Dust Magic into a lifestyle blog.
Calling it book/lifestyle blog would be more appropriate.

There will still be plenty of book posts here, but I decided to add different kind of content too.
There will be one article about something other then books or movies every week, and here I plan to talk about my travelling experience, review different brands, talk about skin care, mental illness, self care, fitness…

Last year I wrote about my trip to Albania and in all honesty, I wrote it to make a memory, but I really enjoyed writing that content.
Because of that, I decided to write another travelling post, this time about my time in Budapest.
Sometime around Christmas time I decided to show you what LUSH products I bought myself for Christmas time and that post was so well received that it truly surprised me. It is now my most viewed post, and almost everyday at least one person stumbles upon it, even though Christmas is way behind us.

This year I also had an opportunity to write sponsored post about computer program I use anyway, PDFelement, and the whole experience made me feel really good about myself, but it also opened my eyes.

I realized I like writing different kinds of content, and I don’t want to limit myself to only bookish ones.
Truth be told, my non bookish posts were more accepted and viewed then any of my book reviews, even though I put my heart and soul into them.

I am not going to stop reviewing books. I do it for myself and this is why I’m still keeping up with it (even though book blogging with all the drama and other things left a bad taste in my mouth).

I am still a book blogger, because books are my number one love, but I want to talk about my other loves too, and also write about my experience considering life and things I come across with, to make a memory for myself, and then for others who want to read about them.

Tree photo created by tirachardz – www.freepik.com

The Program I’d like you to know about: PDFelement #AD #productivity #partner #BusinessTip #bloggers #PDFelement #lifestyle #giveaway

We all know how important PDFs are today. Long gone are days when PDFs were just documents we only read in our every day life.
Today, everyone was, at least once, in a situation when they had to deliver a certain document or statement in PDF format.

For example, few days ago I had to create a PDF document and send it to our customs duty department so they would know what I ordered from abroad and would know how much tax they would charge me.

Also, in my job (I work in a publishing company Mozaik Knjiga, in case you didn’t know) we get to send PDFs to third parties on almost regular basis.
Even though we do have colleagues who’s job is creating, sometimes we need to make only few changes to documents that already exist, so I prefer to make changes on my own.

Because there are so many parts of our everyday life that ask from every day people to know not only average, but also avid computer science, it is great to know there are computer programs that something that sounds intimidating at first make easy to use in every day life.

PDFelemet is one user friendly program I fell in love with.

I was lucky to have an opportunity to test PDFelement 6 Pro, and I will tell you what I honestly think about it in my review bellow.

It is really easy to use: You can create PDF without much effort

When I first opened PDFelement I was surprised how user friendly it actually is.
I expected to be lost and that I would need at least few days to get used to it, but that was not the case.

As soon as I had an idea in my mind what a document I wanted to create would look like, it was easy to create.
Not once was I lost or stuck in my process, but it is important to stress out that preparation is the key.

If you know what your PDF document should look like, and you have all the images and text ready, the work you’ll need to do to link everything won’t be that hard.

PDFelement kind of reminds me of GIMP 2 that I use sometimes to adjust pictures. Even though they are two very different programs, I think if you are familiar with GIMP 2, using PDFelement will feel like home.

Also, one pro I find with this program is how you can always resume with your work if for some reason you didn’t have enough time to finish what you started.

Free Templates – My second favorite part

PDFelement 6 Pro has so many already saved templates that are ready to use.
You can find everything here: from budget planners to Wedding menus and Tax forms. You name it, they probably got it.

PDFelemet also has a giveaway going on right now in which you can win 2019 Planner Templates (that in my opinion are really useful and look awesome), and you can enter HERE.

All templates are in English, but if you’re from some other speaking language country, you can always adjust them in the program.

Edit and combine PDF simply

Editing already created PDFs is something I have to do now and then, so to have that option is really important.
It saves so much time and energy when you need to do only few changes, and the best part is, with PDFelement it won’t even feel like an effort: that’s how easy it is.

When it comes to combining PDFs, I have to admit that I wasn’t in a position when my job required it of me, but from little that I tried on my own, it seemed to be pretty easy too.

You can convert PDF in other formats

I think everyone had to convert PDF to some other format at some point.
With PDFelement it is so simple to convert PDF into fully editable formats, such as Word, HTML, epub, Excel…

My final thoughts

PDFelement is the best program I had an opportunity to work on for creating my PDF files. It is the most user friendly solution, and because of that aspect, it won me.

Before discovering PDFelement, I was using Adobe, but to be honest, I used it only for reading PDFs, because when it comes to creating, I was lost. The whole process was complicated to me, so this is why I’m thankful I came across PDFelement 6 Pro.

I recommend this program because it has everything you need when it comes to PDF at one place: create, convert, change, combine, use templates, and it’s price is affordable.

At this moment, Wondershare has PDFelement on sale, and you can get it for up to 50% discount HERE.

Tell me what do you think about PDFelement if you’ve tried it and also, what PDF programs and converters do you use in your everyday life?
I would like to know!

Thank you to Wondershare for sponsoring this blog post.

Playing Book Fairy in Zagreb: Giving Away my Books #ibelieveinbookfairies #Booklovers #Books #BookFairy #Zagreb #Croatia

At the very beginning of 2019 I caught myself thinking how can I start this new year on a positive note.

If you didn’t know, I am a huge believer in karma, or as I like to call it, the law of “the world gives you back what you give and do to others”. Because of that, I like to start year with doing something good.

This year, I was inspired by Book Fairies who I worked with (I actually worked with Simon and Schuster UK who collabed with Book Fairies) in 2018 (and you can read bits about it here). They are organization of people who leave books around for other people to find them.

I like the idea, because as a book lover, I can only imagine how excited I would be if I found a great book somewhere in the city, that waits it’s new owner to take it.

So what I decided is to take 5 ARCs that I enjoyed reading but knew I wouldn’t reread, and took them with me to center of Zagreb, while the tourists were still there.
I chose 5 places and left books for someone to find them. I really hope they found a good home.

In the time I was working on my “project book fairy” I didn’t have official stickers, so I wrote my own message similar to the one Book Fairies use.

I can now proudly say that I am also one of book fairies, and to be honest, the feeling is good.

There is something satisfying in giving to others, so if you have some books you don’t want to keep anymore, I highly recommend you to do something similar (or donate them).

P.S. I apologize for the low quality of pictures. It was dark and I used my phone camera.

What do you do with books you don’t want anymore?
What about ARCs?

Feel free to leave your opinions, comments and links bellow.

Tis the Season with Lush @LustLtd #LushHrvatska #SelfCare #MeTime #Cosmetics #LifeStyleBlogger #Christmas

It is no secret that I am in love with Lush products. Ever since I started using them few years ago I feel like my life is sparkled with joy.
I like to try new things from time to time, but I always come back to Lush, because they are just unique.
I mean it, my week is not complete if I don’t have a nice bath, and Lush Bath Bombs are always my no 1 choice.

I love how the company care about environment and how they have naked products in their supply. They are cruel free company, and am happy to know that my money that I spend on self-care products goes to conscientious firm.

Christmas scents are my favorite, and every year I buy myself Lush products in the amount that will last me trough the whole year.
Since I am very enthusiastic about them, I decided to share them with you.
Most of the products you see are double stacked, but here I will show you only one product of each.

This is not sponsored post and I purchased every single product with my own money.

Bathing

Bathing is my favorite thing to do when I have some me-time. There’s nothing I like more then read a book in the bath, listening to some instrumental music and enjoy myself.
Lush bath bombs are my favorite, but Bubble Bars are right there after them.

This time I decided to go with Holey Night bomb which smells so nice and relaxing, Shoot for the Stars bomb which is my no 1 favorite bath bomb by Lush and I like to use it trough the whole year around so I always buy more then a few to last me long. Next is Perle de Sel which won me with it’s festive smell. It was just amazing and I couldn’t resist.
Butterbear is also one product I like to go back to. It doesn’t make the water looking all fancy, but it makes my skin so soft and I love it so much. The last product on the picture is Puddy Holly bubbleroon which smells like pure Christmas.

Showering

Just so you know, when it comes to showering, soaps are my favorite go-to products.
I know that they apparently leave your skin dry, but I like to believe that if you use kind soaps it is not the case. I like how after using the soap I feel really clean, plus I almost always moisturize my skin with body lotion.
On the picture you can see Golden Pear, a Christmas soap which smells just like sweet pears. It’s also pretty soft.
Next to it is Santa’s Belly, which is a shower jelly that smells like apples and is fun to use.

Body-Care

On the left you can see Sugar Plum Fairy body scrub which I took purely because of the smell.
It smells so amazing, and next time I’ll go to Lush I’ll have to ask them if they have bath bomb or some other product with that smell, because it could be my new favorite.
We all know exfoliation is good to do at least once per week, so there’s never enough of scrub products. This one won’t take too long to finish, unfortunately, because it’s pretty soft.
On the left is Snow Fairy body lotion which smells like my childhood. It smells like candy and bubble gum, like sugar store, like my childhood dreams. I think this is the most popular smell by Lush, and it’s for a reason!

Skin-Care

The last but not the least, since skin care is so important to me, I couldn’t resist and I had to buy Rudolph jelly face mask.
It smells like chocolate cake and it clears your skin while leaving it glowy.
I still have to try this one to tell you if it really had that effect (I probably already tried it when you read it so ask me in the comments if you’re curious).

That is it!
Tell me do you also like to use Lush products and which are your favorite?

Also, if you have any questions for any of these, or want me to write about other products in the future, feel free to let me know in the comments.