When South African Nikki Schwager-Wilsworth came to Switzerland in 2006, she was eager to discover her new home’s top hotspots and amusements. “Coming from the cosmopolitan city of Cape Town and a country that has so much to offer, I was really desperate to find new things to do, places to go, shops and a spot to drink cocktails!” says Schwager-Wilsworth. Yet she often found it hard to keep up-to-date, even after asking her Swiss friends for advice.

So last year, she decided to create her own source of insider information. Launched in February 2009, My Little Black Book is a fun and colourful website full of lifestyle tips for ladies living in Switzerland.

Not alone in her research, Schwager-Wilsworth, 29, is joined by 27-year-old Véronique Rousselle, a native of Lausanne. Currently in English and French, the website offers a potpourri of business, event and product recommendations.

It covers the following categories: My Look, My Style, My Well Being, My Hotspots, My Little Essentials, My Food for Thought and My 9 Months (Schwager-Wilsworth and her Swiss husband happen to be expecting a baby themselves).

What the platform avoids is the sort of information that readers would find in a typical fashion magazine such as the latest shoe or lipstick profile. Instead, everything featured in “My Little Black Book” has to be available or accessible within Switzerland.

“Most often what we write about is affordable, although we don’t select things according to price. Ideally, we aim to stay away from established big brands or mention of them in any article,” says Schwager-Wilsworth.

“The idea is to be: created in Switzerland, made for Switzerland.” And as the About Us page puts it, “We’re open, frank, and nobody can pay to be featured in My Little Black Book. We won’t recommend anything that we haven’t tried, tested, swallowed, lathered, applied or worn ourselves.” However, ad space is available and rates are posted online.

Subscribers, also known as VIFs (Very Intriguing Females), get a free weekly e-newsletter with the latest tips and ideas for the upcoming weekend. In addition, readers are invited to special events.

“My Little Black Dress is a dinner in a city – where women have the excuse to dress up in their black dress, whip on their heels and come out to meet new people and have a ladies’ night out,” says Schwager-Wilsworth. “We have also done a book launch of Naughty Paris (marketed as a lady's guide to the sexy city) in Geneva, which the author attended and sold more books than she did at her signing in New York!”

According to Schwager-Wilsworth, these evenings are successful because the purpose is “plain fun” rather than networking or business.

Schwager-Wilsworth happens to be a professional party thrower; she is the founder and director of Intrigue – Agency of Intuition, an event marketing agency based in Vevey. Meanwhile, Rousselle, a graduate of the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), serves as the company’s production manager. My Little Black Book is a trademark of Intrigue.

“My Little Black Book fits into the work we specialize in at Intrigue as it gives us the opportunity to market small business, promote people and develop our social responsibility as it is free,” says Schwager-Wilsworth.

Goals include racking up 10,000 subscribers and providing the newsletter and website in German by 2010. More events are also on the horizon. In the meantime, reader tips are most welcome.