Fables in Fashion

I actually wanted to type this up as an email for my dear Sefie, but then I figured others may find it useful too, so why not make a small blog post out of it?

Buying department store makeup in Japan, if the price is better here (this varies a lot from product to product so be sure to check before coming over) and you want it, get it here! First, the customer service here is second to none. I’ve been in Japan for about a week now, people always think I’m a local (till I open my mouth, then I’m a total tourist, so I see both sides) and I haven’t come across any bad customer service at all. Amazing!

Secondly, if you want to try products on, they are only too happy to give you their full attention. I’ve noticed a few times at the Aussie counters, the SA just want to grab my money and shove me out the door, sometimes even doing incorrect colour checks as well :/

Lastly, samples! Every brand I’ve bought from will give you mini cute versions of other products that work great as travel versions. I’ve never received any samples from the Aussie counters, except for Kiehls.

All in all, shopping in Japan for makeup is totally worth it

After a tough week at work, I felt like rewarding myself with a bit of shopping (also known as retail therapy), so I headed down to Chadstone and picked up a few goodies. My official favourite part of Chadstone is the new designer area that flows down towards Target because all my favourite clothing stores are there. Although to be honest, I’ve found myself shifting towards only the stores that have sales on, or brands that are generally cheaper.

Call me crazy (my friends and family certainly do) but paying $300-400AU for a shirt or pants seems excessive to me (bags and shoes are totally different things!) I have nothing against paying those sort of prices in general, but I suppose right now, given my income, priorities and the fact that I can sew, I’d rather put the money towards a new pair of shoes or bag instead.

I’m going to try and and spend more time exploring new brands, both offline and online and get creative. My wardrobe is really quite depressing (hence why I haven’t had any outfit posts yet, but I will soon! Waiting for my new remote control to come in!) So one of my goals for this year is to spice it up a bit more. That reminds me, I really do want to make a post about my fashion goals for the year.

Speaking of new brands, well… this isn’t really new, since I already have a small Coach bag my cousin gave me, though I’ve never been big on the Coach label. But in the spirit of being open to new styles and brands, I had a look through and found what I think will be my new makeup bag (I’ve been using my LV Mini Pochette, which is far too small)

I love the two zip compartments, and the extra pocket on the inside. I think it’s suppose to actually be a clutch as it came with an across the body strap (which just makes it all the more versatile), but I can see this being a great makeup bag. I love having colourful cute accessories in my bag, definitely something I want to colour more off so every time I open my bag I’ll see a rainbow of colours.

Hello, I’m back from my trip in Asia~ I visited Beijing, China and Hong Kong and brought up a stack of goodies that I hope to share over time in my blog. However till then, I wanted to show you a couple of photos taken at a wonderful craft show held by a close friend of mine. Welcome to…

I’m always amazed whenever I see a booth by Celeste, the layout and colours are amazing and the quality of each of her pieces of nothing but first class. See below for a few more snaps of her lovely booth, and if something strikes your fancy I suggest you feed your cravings and visit her website.

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Random snaps of some of the new stores at Chadstone

Still waiting for this one to open tho! *_*

Finally back from a trip to Chadstone’s new luxury wing and can I just say wow! The bag and speedy exhibitions were gorgeous and insightful (the photos I took came out terrible ). Very well laid out. Here’s a quick run down of each store I managed to visit:

Louis Vuitton
My true love~ The store is much bigger and brighter than I had anticipated, everything so nicely displayed. It was great to see the Cruise 09/10 collection, and various other recent releases (eagerly awaiting the Christmas and New Years additions). They carry cosmetic jewelry, bags, luggage and shoes. The best surprise was learning that just a few days ago there was a price decrease of 10% of all stock. Yes, you read right, decrease! So if there was ever a good time to buy, now would be it.

Chanel
There are two stores under Chanel, one for beauty and one for leather goods and clothes. Chanel had released a special limited edition 2.55 quilted bag in gold lambskin just for the Chadstone opening of Chanel. Only 100 worldwide were made and they are only available from the store set at a price tag of $4910AU. After my visit today, they only had less than 50 left.

Thanks to some persuasive friends, we walked away with a couple of free goodies.

Gucci
Massive, especially when all I had to go by was the store in Melbourne CBD. Far more on display, shoes, bags, perfumes and jewelry. However as opposed to the Melbourne store, there were no clothes available. The atmosphere was lovely though, couches to relax on and soak in the environment, I see my future Gucci purchases coming from here.

Tiffany & Co.
don’t think I’ve ever stepped into a Tiffany & Co. store that didn’t have women and their partners swamped around the charms area. However I can’t blame them, I’ve started my own around the world collection, which I’ll save for another post. It’d say the size is similar to that of the city store, as were the jewelry range, though I find the CBD layout to be a little more flow friendly.

Coach
I may not be a Coach girl, but I can appreciate finally having one hit Melbourne! Coach is so full of life and colour, if LV had not stolen my heart I can definitely see myself very quickly forming an addiction to the goods they have here. Mainly with a focus on bags, not many shoes unfortunately.

Jimmy Choo
I’m going to be honest and say I was a bit disappointed, to me Jimmy Choo is all about the shoes, but not only was this store tiny (and had zero crowd control), but they focused so much on bags that the few shoes that were on display were overshadowed.

Three stores I am eagerly awaiting for (and have been told they are set to open some time after the 1^st of December, if not on that very date) are Burberry, Prada and Miu Miu, will have reviews up once I pay them a visit~

Overall
So impressed, yet so sad that I work in the city and hence can’t make regular trips down here. Guess this will have to be an after work / weekend activity. Especially with so many of my favourite SAs from LV now working in Chadstone. Also I was good and didn’t pull out my credit card once