In my job, you can sometimes get stuck in a beauty bubble. You think you know it all, basically. Which is why I love chatting in the Adore Beauty forum. Now these girls, they know their beauty. They have some really clever ideas (not to mention opinions), and some tips that I would never think of of in a million years. Like this one from Ozlicious: “My latest ‘thing’ is applying a tiny thin layer of Mylanta with a cotton pad to my t-zone - its milk of magnesia content TOTALLY soaks up oil and acts as a great mattifying primer for foundation. I am definitely noticing less shine breakthrough to the point where I don’t really need to blot (and I am in tropical North QLD, so that’s saying something). I know it seems gross but it works I tell you.”

I’m exhausted. I’ve been working the equivalent of almost three jobs for a few months now and sometimes wonder if I have enough brain cells left to ever be able to string a sentence together again. Which is a problem when you write for a living. Anyway, whenever I find myself banging my head against a big hard cold mental block, I turn to someone else for words of wisdom. All completely credited, of course. Today, I’d like to thank the September issue of Allure for giving me something to write about (don’t get me started about the fact that Britney is one the cover though - my tired old brain can’t compute that fact). (more…)

There are many beauty clichés out there and they’re mostly true. Blush does make you look like you’ve been running out in a country field. A bad hair day really is a bad day. And pimples do always pop up before a party. But there’s one cliché that I have to vehemently disagree with: that being zapped by a laser or IPL (intense pulsed light) beam is like being flicked by rubber bands.

So. Not. True. I know this because I have just entered a new phase of my beauty life. The one where massage and extractions are not enough. I need bigger guns. Which is why I recently found myself being attacked by an IPL machine. Yes, attacked. It felt like I was being puckered with a million angry needles. But at least it was over in five minutes. My rosy skin is still extra-red in reaction to the IPL, but apparently it will eventually subside, along with any patches of pigmentation, to leave me with a crystal-clear complexion. Will let you know how I go.

This is the main photo on the front of today’s Sydney Morning Herald. I wonder how the MAC people feel about it. Well, as they say, any publicity is good publicity. And anyway, it doesn’t seem like Kevin Rudd will suffer the backlash you would have though revelations of a strip club visit would provoke. Initial polls seem to suggest that it may even make him more popular with some voters, possibly all of those ‘blokes’ out there, apparently Kevin’s new favourite word and a very clever strategy to make him appear more Aussie. (I doubt those voters are MAC users though).

I’m in two minds about the whole affair. Like most women, I think it’s all a bit sordid and supportive of an industry that exploits so many women. But, we all make drunken mistakes. And if we vilify every public figure who makes such a mistake, well why would all the good people want to go into politics in the first place? My feeling is it’s way over time for a leadership change and already time to move on past the Scores saga (and anyway, it’s considered quite a cult cool place in NY, it was even the scene of Kate Moss and Lindsay Lohan’s infamous pole dance). Kevin Rudd could be our most inspirational prime minister yet, you never know.

At least we know this - he has great taste in base.

Add a drop of essential oil into your moisturiser when skin is feeling more needy. Sensitive skin? Try chamomile. Rose is gorgeous for pampering parched or more mature complexions. And, while it may seem counter-intuitive, a drop or essential oil can also help balance out oily skins - try tea tree or ylang ylang.