Fables in Fashion

This week has been pretty intense with work and lack of time after work. Usually I have the weekends to blog, but since I was away all of last weekend I’ve been scrambling around for extra time since I use my week nights to edit the Book of Fables chapters, so today’s post is rather blasé.

Last week I attended an event held by Kiehl’s introducing their new Midnight Recovery Eye cream. It was pretty excellent timing since I was planning to purchase it anyways. I’m already using the Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate and Midnight Recovery Concentrate for my night time skin care routine, so throwing in the eye cream seemed natural.

I will definitely let you guys know how it is once I’ve had enough time to trial it, I’m still in the process of working through Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment…. man, I just realised how much Kiehl’s I use in my skin care routine O_o My skin care routine is pretty much dominated by Clinique and Kiehl’s at the moment!

I’m slightly annoyed I have no photos of the actual event, especially because I remember specially taking a ton, but they seem to have disappeared off my phone *sad face*

A little while back I was lucky enough to attend the graduation of one of my dear friends Annie, whom you all know as one of Melbourne truly talented fashion designers Knowing my love for cosmetics, Annie invited me backstage to check out the hair and makeup artists at work as her graduation was a fashion show~

I always love checking out what makeup and hair products are used at runway shows, with all the lights, stress and cameras, the makeup needs to be strong, pigmented and have good staying power

I know my white balance is all off! If I had time I would have corrected it in Lightroom, oh well next time!

I found it really interesting that backstage in order to curl model’s hair they always use straighteners, no curlers!

My makeup desk is just as bad if not worse when I film a Book of Fables chapter X_x;

*_* I found the stand out brands were Make Up For Ever, Illamasqua and Napoleon Perdis!

I was able to share a quick few words with the head of the makeup and hair team, Klara from Klara Cosmetics and Sechi Hair. She was so lovely, and her daughter was even cuter!

All the designers from the night, Annie is on the far left~ Thanks again for the invite Annie, I had a wonderful time and loved watching the models get ready back stage! <3 <3

A little while ago Clinique held an intimate evening event for Melbourne Beauty bloggers to have a drink or two, and learn about some up coming products for 2012. It was really nice to see the girls, catch up and finally get to know the faces behind Clinique They even had a makeup demonstration with Clinique’s IT Girl (Melanie) for 2011. Was a wonderfully relaxing evening~

I thought I’d share a couple of photos with you all

Makeup used in the demonstration.

Skincare and Champagne, the evening in a nut shell!

Alexis and Miranda giving their presentation

Makeup demonstration, I just wish the lightening was better so I could take clearer photos!

New Black Honey palette Can’t wait to try this baby out (because you know, I clearly need more neutral palettes).

Thanks to Clinique for a lovely evening, looking forward to the new product launches soon

If you follow me on twitter, you most likely know that Topshop has finally landed and opened their first Australian store last week I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch party the night before and I had an absolute blast. Not to mention I ended up purchasing a few goodies I will review / share with you soon.

Honestly, the one thing that really surprised me about Topshop Melbourne were the prices. We all know that when a brand comes to Australia, they jack up the price like crazy. Surprisingly the prices were only at most 10-20% above that of the UK online store, which of course can change depending on the exchange rate. It’s refreshing to know brands like Topshop, Kiehl’s and a few others are charging much more reasonable prices now. Many other brands really should follow suit.

Unfortunately the only Topshop items I currently own are definitely NOT cocktail party friendly So I ended up wearing a dress I got off ASOS.

I thought as usual I’ll share with you some photos I managed to snap of the night

Cupcakes :9 Sooo delicious!

Violet browsing the shoes~~

And Jimmy doing what he does best XD

In true beauty blogger style, I was instantly drawn to the makeup counter :3

I adore these shoes, if only my feet weren’t killing me from wearing brand new shoes, I would have stayed to try them on

Lastly a photo of Violet and I taken at a photo booth at Topshop

The night was a ton of fun (aside from my sore foot problem, damn you beautiful new shoes!!). The place was absolutely packed with people in Topshop, and not surprisingly pretty empty in Topman XD There was great food, music, drinks and great company It was a great fun-filled evening!

Thank you Topshop kindly for the lovely invite, I had the best time ever and can’t wait to visit again Now all we need is H&M and Forever 21 to land and my life will be complete.

Oh and I guess I should note, today’s my birthday! I was given a mini-surprise party over the weekend that I hope to get around to blogging about soon <3

A little over a week ago the lovely people at Oscar Oscar Salons invited the MBBE girls for a special morning event! I remember this so well because the event started at 8:30am on a Sunday. I remember waking up at 8am to rush to the event, and literally gasping for air when I arrived because I ran all the way from the car park to the salon. Still, it was a fantastic event, any time to just sit back and chill out with the MBBE ladies always guarantees a good time! So let’s get on to the photos~ (which btw were tall taken with my phone!)

Thank goodness Oscar Oscar were thinking ahead and provided an array of drinks and food for us! Of course most of us skipped breakfast racing to get to the event in time, so I quickly devoured as much food as I could… you know, whilst still trying to remain a lady…. *cough*

I’m surprised at how much effort went into the food, really blown away by the presentation

Starting off the event with two models and the infamous Jack Chan, Master Stylist!

The finished look, a sleek side ponytail with an end curl, a popular look on the runway:)

Next up, all the girls got their hair done! This is Lilpil and her Barbarella hair! It was massively voluminous! :O

Sooo jealous of how healthy looking Ling‘s hair is, and the curls man! Amazing :O

Val‘s hair mid-way curl, I’m very jealous of her super straight hair My hair naturally can’t decide what it wants, so it always sits in the ugly middle.

Oooh, Tina enjoying her massage… like REALLY enjoying it ;D

Finally me and my hair stylist all done up! Just my hair, not my face X-x; I was too sleepy to put on makeup that morning *blasphemy*

A couple of weekends ago was the second Melbourne Beauty Bloggers Event If you can remember I was luckily enough to be invited to the first MBBE event back in 2010. Well, it has become an annual event and so thanks to the fantastic efforts of Val from Ponikuta it happened again! All photos that are not watermarked by me were taken by Brandon Cook!

The event was kindly hosted and catered by Miss Fox, sound familiar? That’s the same place I was shellac-ed at a couple of months ago! It was a lovely intimate event, just a selection of other beauty bloggers attended (most were from the previous year so I knew plenty of girls there) which made it easy to mingle and have decent conversations I much prefer more intimate gatherings!

Miss Fox were kind enough to offer mini manicures and hand massages, I unfortunately didn’t indulge as I wanted to keep my hands free for cupcake consumption. Yes, it’s called priorities people!

Me with Akisa and Maddy. Maddy just had a child not too long ago and she has a killer figure! I have no idea how she managed that~ And Akisa, ahhh I could stare at her skin all day, she is absolutely amazing

Me with Kate Morris, the founder of Adore Beauty gave us a motivation speech on start ups and blogging! She really was such an inspirational lady to listen to

Val ran a bit of a trivia arm for this event, man the questions were hard!! All questions were beauty related and I seriously took a guess to virtually all of them, and yet somehow I placed second and won this little Guinot gift pack Kimmi won first prize and Emma won third It was a really fun little twist to the event!

We also got to see Jacie‘s award from Beauty Directory for Star Beauty Write (Online) of the Year! So proud of this girl She’s not only representing beauty bloggers, but making MBBE so proud!

Also if you haven’t heard, Jacie has started up her own online store and was kind enough to gift each of us with a nail file from her store, so naturally that was the first thing everyone opened up to see It was adorable!

Group photo! Sorry it’s so small that you can hardly see anyone’s face But if you’re familiar with the MBBE girls you should be fine, I’m in the very top left hand corner

After the event we all headed down to dinner, many thanks to Tina for booking the place My two table buddies Shizuka and Jess (my HT!!), and not photographed here was Emily who was sitting to my left (every time I see her I die a little from jealousy cause she’s so pretty :_: )

All in all it was a lovely event I had a great time and can’t wait for MBBE 2012! Special thanks once again to Val for being the heart and soul behind MBBE You did a great job girl, thanks so much!

A couple of weekends ago I did something I almost never do. I entered a cosplay competition. Say what? Yeah~!

I’ve been cosplaying for almost 10 years now (2012 will be my 10th year) and the first competition I ever entered was earlier this year as a big Disney Princess musical group. Yep, I suffer from terrible stage fright so I avoided the stage like the plague. However I’ve judged my fair sure of competitions and attended many as support for my friends.

However one day I get contacted by my dear friend Asham about entering with her, I couldn’t see a down side given I already had the costume so I entered. And bam! We won best group :O

I have to admit I was pretty stoked It’s a great feeling, and the prize money was just icing on an already sweet cake :9

Asham is an amazing cosplayer who is no stranger to the stage, she’d actually been one of the finalist in the WCS held in Japan annually. You should definitely check her out, one of Australia’s finest cosplayers and I’m honoured to have shared the stage with her

I can’t tell you how motivated I am to work on some future costumes I have in the making. I am tempted to try and film the creation process, similar to how I film my Book of Fables makeup tutorials! Though it will be on hell of a video hehe.

Be sure to keep an eye out on the channel, I’ll be uploading a video of Asham and myself role playing (kinda) our characters

Please note that unless the photo is watermarked by me, I do not have ownership / copyright of them and they belong to their respective owners whom I’ve labelled on the photos. If you are one of the owners and wish to have it removed, please let me know! Or if you would like me to plug your website / portfolio, also please let me know