One day, I'm sitting at home, watching a show on tv, but still, I have to check my social media once every 10 minutes. This time, Instagram. As I was scrolling through my feed, I saw that one of the bloggers I follow, Paulien aka Polienne, had posted a picture with a giveaway. If you reposted the picture, you could win a VIP shopping night at CKS, where you could have a drink at the Cointreau Fizz Bar, get some styling advice etc. I don't really repost pictures for giveaways but hey, you can always try. I reposted the picture with the necessary hashtags and didn't think about it much more.

A few days later, I remembered that I reposted this giveaway and took a look at the CKS Instagram page to see if they had mentioned the winner. It didn't seem like they had announced the winner yet, which made me think it was just another giveaway like all the other ones and that I did not win this 'competition'. I then decided to deleted the picture from my own page and there it was where I saw a reaction to the picture, that I had won and that I could take one friend with me that night. I couldn't believe what just had happened. Never had I ever won something in the entire twenty-one years I've lived on this planet. The next thing that popped up in my head: I was going to be meeting Paulien. As I don't see myself as the blogger who is going to make it in this specific blogging world, I would now meet someone who knows what she is doing and has already made it. I can only dream about how my life would be if I made it that far... 

I asked my niece to come with me, not knowing what to expect when we arrived at CKS in Antwerp. We went in and the first person I see is Paulien. She comes up to us, introduces herself and welcomes us into the shop. She seems really nice and sincere, knowing she doesn't know any of her followers like me but we do know her.

We looked around and got some styling advice at CKS. I ended up buying a bracelet, a sweater (because I don't already have too many sweaters) and a t-shirt. We had our hair done by Bobby Black and got spoiled by Cointreau. I talked with Paulien, which made my night and got a picture with her. At the end of the evening, we all went home with some goodie bags from Rituals.


As I look back at the evening from two weeks ago, it couldn't have turned out better. I won a competition for the first time in my life, I got some personal styling advice, and I met one of my favourite bloggers for the first time. Maybe I have to repost some more pictures of giveaways on my social media... My fear of missing out at least ended up being a good thing!

Special thanks to Paulien for the amazing night and opportunity, to CKS for the personal styling advice, to Bobby Black for my very own mermaid hair, to Cointreau for spoiling us with delicious drinks, and to Rituals for the beautiful goodie bags! Make sure to check out the 'Selected by Polienne' collection over on CKS!

- xoxo - 

Chiara

Pictures by myself and Alexandra Bertels