Mecca Cosmetica Girl's Best Friend and my Twilight Christmas tree!

Lastnight I mentioned that I purchased the Mecca Cosmetica girl's best friend nail set which includes two very pretty nail polish shades: Diamond and Shine. Despite appearing like a cream formula from afar, they actually have a very subtle and pretty shimmer to them:

Onto the swatches! I tried Shine first which is this bold barbie like pink:

Isn't that just gorgeous? And even in natural light it's just as eye catching:

This is going to be a delight to wear this summer. It reminds me of the poolside polishes from China Glaze. So bright!

Ah the purple (Diamond). Even though it's quite light and almost lilacish it's still stunning. I honestly don't know which one I like better.

Hmm I think the pink wins for me. Diamond is also very pretty but Shine is outstanding! And while I'm on the subject of pretty purples, I thought I'd share my Christmas tree which is almost complete (still needs pretty lights). Yes I was completely inspired by the Myer twilight tree (no, not the movie, the colours of twilight which now that I think about it, doesn't really bring purples to mind but anyway)...

So I only have a little 4ft tree but I'm not even going to be here for Christmas day. I'll try to take another shot when it's lit up at night :-) Well I have some exciting holiday posts coming up so I better get cracking! Until next time...

Mecca Cosmetica Holiday goodies and Iori Japanese Restaurant!

I went out shopping tonight for a few reasons (forgot to go to Borders and get paperchase stuff but oh well). One of them was to pick up some xmas presents from Mecca Cosmetica. They had a beautiful Philosophy stand with all their holiday packs and I was very very tempted to buy several. I restrained myself well and only picked up a lipgloss set. Oh and the Philosophy Grace mini fragrance set. So lovely!

I also picked up the Girls Best Friend nail polish duo which I wasn't going to get at first until I saw it had a sparkle to it! I thought they were creams. No they are gorgeous and I eagerly look forward to swatching. Oh and I finally picked up two Lush Christmas eve bubble bars. Oh they have glitter in them... this shall be interesting. But they smell fantastic. Seriously, they are smelling up my room and it's not that typical 'lush store' smell.

Then we went out for dinner (randomly, I had a sudden need for Vegetable Tempura) at Iori:

Tucked away in the city is a sliding door that reveals a charming Japanese styled entrance:

Now I apologize for crappy iphone shots but it was very dark and fairly small inside so it's not like you can just whip out your SLR. First we have the Sapporo beer... which still tastes like beer so not really to my taste but the bf liked it.

Next we have the Teriyaki salmon. I've had the Teriyaki chicken several times and I love it... but it MAY have given me food poisoning last time I was there and I refuse to have it again. I can't pinpoint anything else that it could have been (only place I ate out and I had a fever with it). Anyway, onto more positive things:

Teriyaki salmon. Bf loved it.

The vegetable tempura. Yummy. Contained snowpeas, mushroom, pumpkin, eggplant and seaweed I believe. The salts are fantastic. This is worth trying. Then we had sushi and I was too busy eating to take a photo (sigh).

Well I picked up some good Christmas decorations from Myer on special and am eager to finish the tree. Hope everyone survived their week and has a fantastic weekend :-)

Mecca Cosmetics Purchase

Last weekend I was perusing Mecca Cosmetics at my local shopping centre when I came across the By Terry range. I had seen Laura's collective haul and thought that an ultra sheer blush is something I'd like to try (despite it's hefty price tag). Sadly, the Fresh Rose was sold out, so I ordered the Coral Rose. Since I was ordering online I decided to add another product so I could get the most out of my shipping costs (2 products for $10). I would have gone back to the store but once you factor in petrol, pay parking, and my ever-so-urgent need for blush, online shopping seemed like the way to go. And I don't know about you, but hectic holiday shopping is NOT something I enjoy. So this is what I got:

I was pleasantly surprised by the free samples you were offered upon check-out so I added the two creams at the back of the photo. And yes my second purchase was a Nars blush in that colour:

I tried the By Terry blush today, it's quite lovely and it *does* smell so sweet. I was walking around today and still smelling it. Not as sheer as I expected but I like it. And for 110AUD I'm using every last drop :-)

And to their credit, the Mecca order was beautifully wrapped in purple tissue paper and placed in their gift bag:

I'm such a sucker for lovely packaging. I was actually shopping again today when I saw a lady in front of me carrying THREE large sized Mecca gift bags. I wonder what was in them! I really liked the Mecca Cosmetics website so I followed up my purchase with a second order - this time as a Christmas gift for my bf, which was in the Kiehl's range:

I'm interested to know how it goes because my bf definitely needs a decent pre-shave scrub. Have given him a few things from the Clinique and Clarins range so we'll see how this goes.

As a follow up to my last post, I tried OPI's Mauving to Manitoba and I don't mind it. It's not really my colour, it's too 'safe' for me. It's a nice burgundy but I really wanted something bright and fuchsia coloured, so maybe next time :-)

I think next post will be a Holiday Lush related post. Seriously, who doesn't love lush!