MUNICH: Many people might think that I am just traveling around the world for sheer pleasure but the fact is that my daily work is my pleasure and besides writing and drawing IRMA wherever she is, I do various different projects. I have a monthly column, which is called IRMAS MODE ATELIER at German Glamour magazine and sometimes even another one in the same issue which is called GZW (GOOD TO KNOW), where I write about trends, travel, cooking or just open my address book. I also write the IRMA TIPS for Glamour, which you can find throughout the magazine in each issue.

I also have a monthly column at ELLE Japan in each issue which, is called INSIDER BEAUTY and reports about latest beauty trends worldwide.
Besides writing I illustrate IRMA for different international advertisement clients like, for example, L’Oreal or Ford or design packaging illustrations for fragrance by AZZARO in Japan.

From time to time I also design things, like t-shirts and Foulards for renowned French fashion house Céline. Or, just now, the upcoming IRMA Collection for the Berlin- and Brooklyn-based firm Caseable,which will be launched very soon and will make your iPod/iPad or Phone look much more beautiful.

And did I tell you about my book? I think I did. Released in Germany in October, it’s already in the AMAZON charts. An e-book will be coming soon!
 
And then I still have to squeeze in my travels, visits to interesting new places, restaurants, art shows, museums and design & furniture, food or fashion stores. I always find time to visit a special yoga class at a new studio in New York or cook a recipe in my own kitchen out of a new cook book which is my personal treat and also research for my new cooking book project which is just at the beginning. The books next to my bed are also waiting to be read and of course I enjoy seeing my friends, meeting interesting new people or just walk along a beautiful countryside.
By now you will probably think, how does she manage all this? But believe me, if you like what you do, you cannot stop doing it...

Next month I will keep you posted with new published work and I hope you will find my new assignments fun and interesting. For example my two columns in the March issue of GLAMOUR, which is out now.

I am looking forward for your feedback and I hope I did not kill the illusion that IRMA is walking on the sunny side of the street… she is indeed.

NEW YORK: New York is one of my favourite places to visit. The city itself is like a great art show that is constantly being curated in new and surprising ways. It’s a microcosm, a vibrant mirror of the world, so full of energy that you can easily recharge your own creative batteries. Among the things that I consider a must, these are my current favourites:

1. Find a nice place to sleep
Hotel Wythe (80 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg/Brooklyn) opened last summer in a converted factory with a three-story glass tower addition. The interiors are a cool mix of restored brick walls, original timber beams and cast-iron columns as well as graphic wallpaper, polished concrete floors and stunning views of Manhattan. The entire block is very hip; across from the hotel are the Kinfolk Studios, an experimental emporium that houses a design studio, gallery, cafe, bar and a popular Scandinavian restaurant.

2. Have great food
There is no end of great restaurants. Try these:
Chop Shop (254 Tenth Avenue)
Bright and cosy little eatery in Chelsea that offers “Asian cuisines with an international sensibility”. It’s a great place for lunch and when the weather gets warmer, there is even a little garden. Try the salt and pepper shrimps or the green papaya and watercress salad to whet your appetite and then go for the Thai-glazed St. Louis spareribs.

Locanda Verde (379 Greenwich Street)
It’s not new, but Robert De Niro’s lovely Italian restaurant in Tribeca is still one of my all-time favourites. Despite the high star concentration, it has a casual brasserie style. Everything is reasonably priced and delicious. They have outstanding pasta dishes (everything homemade, of course), and a fantastic brunch – the sheep’s milk ricotta with truffle honey is lovely and so is the French toast with Sicilian citrus salad.

Babycakes (248 Broome Street)
The cupcakes from this Vegan bakery on the Lower East Side are delicious – moist and not too sweet. Instead of flour, eggs and sugar, they use cold-pressed coconut oil, agave nectar and garbanzo flour. Of course they also have cakes, pies, cookies, muffins and brownies.

3. Go shopping at shops you will only find in this town
Greenwich Letterpress (39 Christopher Street)
Beautiful little shop in the West Village with an assortment of greeting cards, gift wrap, notebooks, journals calendars. They also have two old letterpresses where you can have customized invitations, business cards printed.

25 Park (998 Madison Avenue)
Designer concept store below The Mark hotel with a nice selection of women’s designer finds, from Opening Ceremony, A.L.C. and Acne to Helmut Lang and Peter Som and lesser known designers. The shop has the intimate feeling of your friend’s, admittedly large and well edited, walk-in closet.

4. Visit an old friend at his place and be inspired
My friend’s loft in a converted warehouse in Dumbo is a wonderful, seemingly casual mix of fleamarket finds and antiques.

5. Visit a great art show
The New Museum has an exciting exhibition about the seminal year 1993: “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star”. It looks at art made and exhibited in New York over the course of one year. Conceived as a time capsule, it’s an experiment in collective memory that attempts to capture a specific moment at the intersection of art, pop culture and politics.

LONDON: I am in London looking at clothes from the upcoming winter collections 2013/14. I see lots of blue hues and shades and I feel like going out in my new Topshop Unique dress without a jacket on although it is icy cold. Why not take some inspiration already and mix up your wardrobe blues.

And to get you into the right mood, there is nothing better than sipping a Swimming Pool, one of the best cocktails ever invented by Charles Schumann of the Schumann’s bar fame in Munich. Shake white rum, vodka, pineapple juice, Cream of Coconut and some heavy cream with crushed ice. Pour into a glass and then carefully float the Blue Curacao on top. Mmmh…

LONDON: Today is Valentine’s Day and everyone wants to get it right. Don’t think too hard… don’t be sad if nobody invites you for dinner tonight… or if your boyfriend gives you again a boring box of chocolate or the color of the roses is just not right. Smile, bake a cake, go for a walk in the park with your lover in the middle of the day, or just be super sexy, like never before. Below find my favorite ideas for this day, which should be like every other day during the year.

MUNICH: The days are still filled with hundreds of shades of grey, but the make-up artists are already working with the colour of spring. Natalie at the Laura Mercier Beauty Counter at Ludwig Beck is one of those talented girls who gets a hundred looks out of one new palette. She uses the new Arabesque eye palette on beautiful Maria as followed: Maria uses Laura Mercier Foundation Primer, tinted moisturizer spf 20, oil free. The eye starts with Bare Yoga on the moving lid at the inner corner of the eye, Soft Cloud on the outer part of the lid, Satin Ribbon in the inner fold and eye pencil in Midnight Blue with Blue Zen on the upper and lower lid.

Maria wears Oleander cream blush on her cheeks and Shy Pink with lip glaze Bare Pink on her lips. Voilà!

Visit the counter and get ‘beautified’ or buy a new spring/summer palette and feel already happy and beautiful for spring.

IRMA TIP: Use a make-up primer, it is like an insurance for beautiful skin. I even use the primer on my lips and eye lid for a perfect base.