Melbourne Haul – Part 1: Cosmetics!

Now that I’ve finally had a bit of time to sort through all the stuff I brought back, I realised my purchases fell into rather distinct categories! What to do, I’m probably quite a creature of habit eh? :P

Anyhoo, I thought I’d share the cosmetics bit with you today (I’ll save the bigger bottles and tubes for the next part)…some of the items were bought and some were given, but they’re all gorgeous! :D

First up are the nail polishes – can’t believe I came back with 13 bottles! *shock*

Top Row (L-R): Ulta3 in Orchid, Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Lady Luck and Big Money, Revlon Matte Suede in Fire Fox and Emerald City, Revlon Starry Pink

Bottom Row (L-R): Essence Nail Polish in Blue Addicted (finally!!), Australis Crystal colour Top Coat, some purple shimmer polish (I can’t quite make out the name of because the bottle leaked over the label), Ozotic Elytra 530, BYS Matte Topcoat, SAX nail polish in No.54, Maybelline Mini Colorama in 135 Tart

I also picked up several boxes of Sally Hansen Salon Effects since they were on sale – at Target it was 40% off at one point, and some were on cheap sale at the local chemists. On the left are press on wraps that have 3D patterns on them…I might just try the Kiss Nail Dress ones for the Gaga concert next week!

Next up is mascaras and eyeshadows – Tina kindly let me try the Face of Australia Impact Curl mascara (which the Aussie ladies have been raving about), and I picked up the Australis Voluptulash mascara on Tine’s recommendation. The fat red tube is Maybelline’s One by One Volume mascara which I believe was a limited edition (with the corset print). The Chanel and Innoxa eyeshadows were inherited from Tine, and OMG they’re absolutely gorgeous colours!

One of the more expensive items in my cosmetic stash this visit – an Ellis Faas Eye Light pen…I tried it on at the Becca (I mistook Becca for Mecca *smacks forehead*) Mecca Cosmetics outlet, and fell in love with the colour. :D

Last but definitely not least would be all the lip products…there are a few too many in the photo below to name in sequence, so you’ll just have to match the product to the photo, yeah?

Face of Australia Lip Quench in Forbidden Fruit and Malibu Barbie (thanks Tina!), Nature’s Care Pawpaw lipbalm, Blistex Silk & Shine lipbalm, Face of Australia Sheer Gloss Lip Crayons in Sundae and Cupcake, Crabtree & Evelyn Lip Butters in Pomegranate & Grapeseed and Citron Creme & Honey (both of these smell and taste so good, I should have bought more!), Dior Addict Lip Maximiser (bought on the plane to Australia) and a bunch of U3 lipglosses.

And there you have it…I don’t think I did too badly right? There’s still a whole pile of body and hand creams, lotions, body products, face mists, oils and more to go through… :D 

So tell me, did anything in this pile catch your eye? *wink*

The week in Instagram…

It’s been a long and busy week since coming back from Melbourne, and I thought I’d just share some of the moments with you via Instagram. If you’re already following me on Instagram, you should have seen most of the photos below…and if you’re not, well, why not? :D If you’re into beauty, pets, food and a bit of random scenes here and there, my username on Instagram is beetrice.

And now, on to the highlights of the last week!

On Tuesday, Redken kindly invited me to a hair workshop with Canadian hairstylist Jorge Joao who was in town in conjunction with their show at the Audi Fashion Festival. I’ll go into a detailed post about this later since he did share some great tips, and I learned how to do a super quick side braid to my hair too!

My invites to Redken’s Rock the Runway show at the Audi Fashion Festival on Thursday! The waiting itself was killer, but thankfully we stood near the door where there were gusts of air-conditioning everytime the security let someone in/out. (They wouldn’t let us in early since they were still changing sets)

When we were finally let into the show, there was another long wait for people to take their seats – to be honest, it was quite chaotic with ushers guiding people one way then another…but oh well…and so when there’s nothing to do but wait, I got snap-happy with Rinnah. :P

The show itself was about 40minutes in length, but the highlight would have been the ‘live’ show by Jorge…just check out that cloud from the amount of hairspray he used to hold the style in place – and all done in under 10minutes too! (more on the fancy hairstyles to come in another post)

Saturday was all about events as well…there was the Lancome Rouge in Love roadshow and event happening at KLCC, and after being told by Tine about what we now call the “Emma Watson” shade (the colour she wears in the advertisements), I simply had to give #375B a try…not too bad I reckon?

The same hue came out slightly different for each wearer – on Emma it comes across as closer to fuschia, but in this case with Yani and Dom (yes, we’re all wearing the same lippie!), it’s a matter of “same same, but different”…LOL! It was great catching up with the usual culprits over lunch too, and darn, I miss you evurl ladies!

Indulged in The Last Polka ice cream while waiting for my next event…their new Chocolate Banana Cake is pretty cool (with real cake chunks in it!) and of course, I could never say no to Salted Gula Melaka…this flavour is and will always be my favourite!

One of the items spotted during the Silkygirl event on Saturday was this tri-colour lipgloss (reminded me somewhat of MAC). I was told this is limited edition and has been out since April in 5 shades, but I haven’t seen it around. Has anyone tried it?

The rest of Saturday was spent in Seremban, which is a haven for cheap and FAST food…all the dishes you see above came out within 15minutes of ordering! And ooohhh the salted-egg crabs – my gran has suddenly developed a taste for this…after 92years! We couldn’t say no to the old dame, so who am I to decline? *wink*

Granny doing what she does best, but now we’ve discovered the mahjong queen has a telltale smirk (captured here!) every time she’s about to win – not that we can do anything to avoid losing money to her though…

Welcome to my Kit Kat heaven…all thanks to a friend who surprised me with these from her trip to Japan! :D Thank yous babe, you know who you are!

Last, but certainly not least…said friend who went to Japan got me my Laduree rose petal blush!! The photos don’t even begin to do it justice and I’m still hankering to get my hands on that pretty egg it’s supposed to be housed in, but for now I can say I CAN HAZ LADUREE! :D :D :D

Yes, I’m that excited. It smells exactly like roses and has so much detail you can even see the rose veins in the pattern. *satisfied sigh*

How was your week/ weekend? I’d love to hear about it! :D

Back from Melbourne!

WARNING: VERY picture-heavy post!

View of the Melbourne sky line at night from the Eureka Skydeck – 88 floors up!

Hel-lo peeps, didja miss me? :D The last 2 weeks have been absolutely *heaven* in Melbourne, and safe to say I didn’t want to come back at all…alas, that was all the time I could squeeze so it had to do.

When looking through my photos, I realised that I’d used my iPhone 4S as my default camera as opposed to my Lumix (not to mention posted rather a LOT of photos on Instagram!) so I’m going to share this trip through my Instagram pics…

My host for most of the trip was none other than cousin Tine, who played host, tour guide and general shopping buddy…she’s probably the biggest reason why I’ve gone there twice in the last two years – well, that and she keeps tempting me with all the good stuff in Melbourne!

One of the ‘must do’ items on my list was to get my nails done at Tsumiki Design by Clara. After seeing Tine’s McQueen nails, I didn’t have to think twice. I had told Clara I wanted a paisley-ish design and I knew the woman was talented, but OMG she still blew my mind when I saw the end result. Mind you, the design was hand-painted on with a TINY brush, and the attention to detail is astounding. I still have them on after over 2 weeks, and beyond a bit of tip wear (and me chipping my darn nail) it still looks darn good!

What would a trip to Melbourne be without meeting up with bloggers that you interact with online but never get to meet in person eh? A bit of a bummer that the meeting with Emily and Ling fell through, but I’m glad the dinner with Geek, Tina and Tine happened – was the first time meeting Tina, and that woman is a SCREAM. Am rather sad she’s gonna be leaving Melbourne soon, but hey, there’s always Taiwan/ Malaysia/ Singapore, right?

And oh the food…it was a good thing we did a lot of walking because otherwise I’d have come back 2 sizes bigger. Just check out a choice selection of the food…

Kettle chips – I didn’t see this brand around last year, and the roasted pepper & sour cream variant is to DIE for…*slurp*

Vietnamese at Thanh Dat – had a good giggle since the name pronounced in Cantonese means something else!

Excellent salt-baked chicken and other piping hot foods from the Hakka Tea House in Glen Waverly…

A funny sign at Grill’d along Lygon Street – can’t speak to its enforcement though, because after I tweeted a photo of my burger, their twitter handle replied me saying they liked the photo and hoped I enjoyed my meal. LOL!

The Perfect Pear burger from Grill’d…awesome stuff, and spectacular fries!

Managed to catch up with Eevon and a childhood friend Charms (who by the way, makes DELICIOUS desserts!) for fusion food at Red Spice Road – if you’re ever there, go for the early bird banquet. The roast pork belly and prawns are a must-have. :D

Salted Caramel Cupcake from Cupcake Central…am beginning to like this flavour just a little too much…

Clams and chorizo in white wine at Movida…

A typical big breakfast at Sass Café out in Richmond…

One of the best desserts I had – rhubarb and frangipane tart with creme anglaise and yogurt sorbet at the Tokar Estate out in Coldstream (also one of the LONGEST lunches I ever had – our 2 course meal took almost 3 hours!)

Hellenic Republic on Lygon Street receives rave reviews, and it’s not hard to see why – these are just some of the appetisers we had…

…and the rest of the dishes from Hellenic Republic – quite easily the best Greek food I’ve ever had!

You know you can’t go wrong when lunching with two chefs (Charms and Chris) and they suggest Trunk – the quesadillas and pizza were awesome!

Strawberry bizcocho from San Churro…custard, strawberries, cake and chocolate – what’s not to like??

Managed to catch up with another cousin on my mum’s side at Degraves Espresso…and I loved the prawns and mushrooms served with crusty bread. I need to find more tapas places here!

By the way, the coffee culture in Melbourne is HUGE – Melburnians love their coffee…I haven’t had any bad coffee yet (explains why Starbucks isn’t doing that well here) or drunk so much in such a short time!

A friend on Instagram suggested I try Rekorderlig after I posted a photo of my Pipsqueak Cider…and the Strawberry & Lime is fabulous. Now if only I can get Tine hooked on it… :P

Okay, enough about food…on to the rest of the highlights!

Managed to squeeze in a sleepover at Geek’s place with Tine – and it was also one of the rare times I’ve worn pyjamas (aka jammies). Can you tell who is who?

Speaking of jammies, how adorable is the Cookie Monster print on this pair from Big W?? :D The boy definitely knows what I like…*wink*

The weather was brilliant during my second week – and we hopped into a rental to visit Philip Island…with Bailey in tow!

Spotted a super sleepy (yet still greedy) koala at the Koala Conservation Centre on Philip Island – we were lucky he came so far down just for the food!

A rare appearance of the boy and I looking err…rather frost-bitten thanks to the strong winds and freezing temperatures at Nobbies – by the end of the stroll along the wooden boardwalk, I could barely feel my nose or fingers (and probably looked like a banshee with my hair flying wildly about)…

Random sign spotted on a truck in Richmond…can you imagine if someone here tried to do that?

Melbourne is a seriously gorgeous city – just check out the view from the Rooftop Bar at Curtin House. We managed to glimpse the supermoon on several occasions too despite the cloudy sky…

My trip to Melbourne wouldn’t be complete without a meal with this group – this time with one more addition!

To say I shopped my heart out in Melbourne is a bit of an understatement – I think the boy has been scarred for life after lugging back a 36kg bag (most of which was my shopping…poor fellow!). I came to Melbourne with 7kg of my own stuff (rest was for other people) and left with a 23kg bag not including hand luggage…oops!

Just part of the ‘bottle’ haul…

Gotta love having a cousin who’s a beauty blogger as well…she err, ‘declutters’ her stuff to me! :D

No visit to Melbourne would be complete without a haul from the LUSH store – the lady there was awesome, and I got a sweet deal because she felt bad for making me wait (there was a big problem with their EFTPOS system)

Revlon Matte Suede polishes! I’d been hankering after the OPI Blue Suede Ink one, but these are just as good at a wallet-friendly price of AUD4.95!

Don’t know whether to be happy or mad with Tine for bringing me to Lovisa – how did I come out with so many rings after saying I wasn’t going to buy any more stuff?

One of my favourite finds at Lovisa...love the design! I also picked up a Swarovski Blue Fidelity ring at the duty free in Singapore before my flight (no pics though…)

A money tin featuring a comic from Vimrod! :D I’m gonna use it to squirrel away money for my next holiday…

And…one of my ultimate highlights this trip – meeting my god-pup Coco!! She came home the day before I left so my ‘co-godma’ (is that even a term?) Tine and I got to spend a good half-day playing with her. That pup is gonna rule that household, make no mistake!

There you have it – a little under 2 weeks squeezed into a very looongg post! Big BIIIIIIGGGG thank you goes to the cousin (and her hubs of course!) for making this (and every other trip with her!) an awesome one. :D

And yes, this is one of those “bored so let’s play with phone photo apps” moments because we’re nuts like that.

PS: I’ll save photos of the makeup and beauty haul for another post once I’ve picked up the rest of my stash from KL. :D