“Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.” Joshua Becker

Berlin is a fast, cold and progressive city, nourished with a fast-paced alternative subcultural movement. A thriving scene of creatives, artists and green businesses make it a colorful city which changes alot and gets more sustainable. I am not sure whether it is my favorite german city but I need it. Without Berlin it would be much harder to get my hands on new minimalistic garments and discover contemporary art, future trends and specialty foreign cuisine. You have a massive amount of tiny independent stores, exotic restaurants and very modern galleries which offer unique pieces from inventive designers. I only had three days and met a lot of friends, which made it hard to visit everything I planned. My personal priority destinations were highly anticipated mdc cosmetics and jacks beauty department (both situated in Prenzlauer Berg), a few underground crystal stores (where I thrifted druzies and crystals for diy necklaces), ostbloc bouldering hall (neat), pan restaurant (a very authentic filipino cuisine restaurant, my filipino mom would love their kare-kare! see here), lush cosmetics and &otherstories.

I gave myself the challenge to buy as little as possible and be very, very selective. Somehow I developed a serious fear of buying something which is not important and only catches dust. I hope I don’t get a clinical disorder with this (you may laugh now). Well, I tricked myself by bringing a small weekend bag, which did not allow too much space for the trip back home. This way I managed to reduce my shopping to a Lab-like, off-white coat (picture here), a beautiful naturally heartshaped calcit druzy and a new assortment of toilettries, including fragrance, bodylotion and haircare (Lush Hsuan Wen Hua, my staple). My favorite destination of them all was mdc cosmetics, a small posh beauty apothecary, easy to overlook, where you find probably the best selection of new high-end minimalistic beauty products in the world. I wasn’t looking for makeup or fragrance but somehow I came across rms buriti bronzer, Susanne Kaufmann (organic, german skincare) and Lubin ‘Korrigan’ which was love at first sniff. Soft clean leather, honey liquor, smokey juniperberry and ambrette… so smooth and ‘skin’-like (better description here). Thanks to the sample mdc gave me I might get addicted to this and buy it full size. The kind lady of mdc gave me a sample of new Transderma Reservatrol Serum, too (I will keep you updated with my skin results next week). If you are curious you can check out the pictures of my instagram. See you tomorrow, Ea Birkkam

today: black minimalism for him