More gifts (for myself)

So they're in the 'great gift idea' section. So the website suggests to buy it for the dear lovelies in your life. But I really, really want them... for myself.

And so what? I work in retail, and it's seriously not uncommon (whee double negatives) for people to come in and guiltily admit to me that they meant to buy a gift, and ended up spending twice as much on themselves. Cheers for human nature.

It makes sense though. I'm sure no one needs me to tell them how hard it is shopping for your Aunty who lives overseas whom you haven't seen since everyone was still scared of the Y2K bug. But it's WAY easier to find stuff for yourself, because you KNOW what you like.

And DAMN STRAIGHT I know what I like. My mother is going to America in two weeks, which means cosmetics that are only two hours' worth of wages, as opposed to ten (go slave labour!), yayyy!! AND the upcoming holiday season (not sure which holiday? Check out your local Westfield. You SERIOUSLY can't miss it) means that adorable little gift sets are making their way to store fronts for me to pet because they're SO DAMN CUTE.

Sephora, my inner beauty-holic's grog shop, is the source of most my shopping list. Damn them! Let's just say that my credit card and bank account would like to thank the lovely people at sephora.com for refusing to ship internationally.

NUMBER ONE:
1. Cargo Bronzing Kit $35 USD at Sephora, valued at $59 AUD by beautyheaven.

Bronzing Kit includes CARGO's best-selling and award-winning Medium Bronzer, professional quality powder/bronzing brush, PurseGloss™ in Baja (exclusive to this kit), and the brand new EyeBronzer, in a reusable gift tin.

Perfect for summer, no?

2. Nars the Multiple (Orgasm) $36.50 USD at Sephora, $85 AUD at Mecca Cosmetica
YES. I FEEL AWKWARD ASKING MY MOTHER TO BUY ME SOMETHING ENTITLED "ORGASM".
But the savings are sooo worth it!

A multi-purpose stick for eyes, cheeks, lips and body. Its unique lightweight, cream-to-powder formula blends effortlessly to provide sheer all-over color, shimmering accents, contours and dynamic highlights for all skin tones. Creates perfect, glowing complexions and is conveniently designed for failproof application.

3. Sephora Supermodel Kit $79 USD, unavailable in Australia, but individually: Stila Lip Glaze $45 AUD at Mecca Cosmetica, Diorshow mascara $32-$42 AUD already. My Asian side is revealing itself, I know, but as a friend said, it's hard to put off centuries of hereditary Asian stinginess.

A glamourous gift set filled with products used by Sephora makeup artists for Fashion Week Live.
Set includes a Stila Lip Glaze in Brown Sugar, Make Up For Ever Diamond Shadow in Diamond Black 307, Smashbox Mini Travel Photo Finish Foundation Primer in Original, Smashbox O-GLOW, Dior Diorshow Mascara in Black 090, Sephora Blush Me! Mono in Abricot Plaisir 6, all in a chic black sequined Sephora Brand clutch.

And you just wait... there IS more... a LOT more... I'm just sleepy :P

xx

'Tis the time to get me some MONEY

Only to buy gifts, of course. I'm serious. I LOVE this time of year, everything is cuter-than-a-cupcake and it's great!! BUT. One issue - limited funds. While I would love to buy my boyfriend a car, and fill it up with clothes, electronic goods, sporting goods and everything he [hearts], I really can't afford it. ONE piece of clothing is more like it.
SO. Here are my imaginary gifts for imaginary people to pay with non-imaginary money. They are cheap, they are chic, and thank goodness, NOT TRASHY!!!

1. Silver "LOVE" Spinner Necklace $19.95 from Witchery
THIS IS SO COOL. You give it a flick of your finger and if you focus on the pendant, you can see the word 'love' appearing!! This necklace = endless hours of amusement.

2. Silver Mirror Compact $19.95 from Witchery
Not quite up there in the cool stakes, but it's shiiiiiny. And $5 is donated to charity if you buy one. Like, as IF you could get better than that.

3. All Natural Chocolate Lip Balm $9.95 from Kit Cosmetics
HELLO! Chocolate!! >waves arms round like one of those yellow guys on aeroplane runways onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-MJH9vgNPRtOcdexefppfkjXQ4tKicYg9kAJvzoWe9pbX8USJxrVAoSVxsY77ujtQQ2ZTHkQUGCX6KbNf4mmHzVT0_19xmnwP2Ul1P-sE5jzLsymttzGMC4u1Hwq2O_LX3iaR03k3sGVm/s1600-h/Picture+7.png">


To bulk up the present a bit more (heheheh), throw in a chocolate bar or goodies from Darrell Lea. It looks more expensive :P :P.
Then head to the Reject Shop, buy a pack of tissue paper and a roll of ribbon which will last you till the cows come home (the ribbon, that is), wrap it up and neatly and VOILA!! A present that looks like it cost u five times more than it actually did. AND it looks cute. AND - it (hopefully) makes the person happy :)
xx

P.S. IF YOU'RE NOT SURE ABOUT A GIFT, REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT THE STORE'S RETURN/EXCHANGE POLICY FOR GIFTS!!! And to make it easier, DON'T remove the barcode if you can help it - this works well with jewellery and clothes etc... if you want to flaunt the brand or something. Just black out the price with a permanent marker :)

BOGOFF!!

Ahahaha. Okay, so the acronym for Buy One Get One Free amuses me (don't ask me where the extra F came from).

Anyway, so BOGOFF sale at Diva - buy any ring from the front gondola and get the second one free! There are some really HOT ones too, from massive, in-your-face cocktail rings to faux wedding rings to shmexy ones you can wear to a part-ay. Only for two weeks!

BOGOFF sale at Smart Poppy too (discount cosmetics site). BOGOFF time popping up everywhere!! Stila, Too Faced, MAC - but this one's only for two days. Click here to go to the BOGOFF section.

And finally, Hot New Face to Watch:
(actually, she's been around for a while, but I only just realised who she was :P)
Melinda Jackson. Her latest song Magic is based on the piano riff from Sting's Every Little Thing She Does is Magic - and thankfully, ONLY the piano riff. It's a beautiful song though. Check it out :)
Melinda's Mypsace page
Her videos on Youtube

Watch out for: Transeasonal Collections

When: 9-11 October 2007

What: Rosemount Australian Fashion Week Autumn Winter 2008 Collections

Where: Sydney (yay!)

Who: Invitation Only - but apparently most of the big names won't be showing and many fashion editors won't be there either, since it's so soon after the European shows.

I think it's nice to keep an eye on things locally though, because while the fashion overseas is great, YOU LIVE HERE. And if you started transposing ideas from overseas here, you'd be, well, a little out-of-place. It's all about the now, not the future (and in Australia's case, for some reason this happens to be three or four months in the future, a rather long time in fashion-speak) - because by the time it's the future, no one will remember anymore.

Anyway, keep an eye out for this fellow, Daniel Avakian. His designs are hot, and you never know - he might end up like sass & bide, and in a few years, his clothes will be ricocheting off the walls because they'll be too hot to handle.

Daniel Avakian and one of his designs - don't tell me it's not hot.

Jeans, jeans, they're good for your heart

But, thankfully, you don't fart if you wear them more (that'd be an interesting experiment to conduct though).

So anyway. I hit Miranda Myer today and somehow managed to pick the perfect pair of jeans.

You know that moment when you touch a piece of clothing and your heart seems to race and the whole day just suddenly got better? Your very existence is justified; it's magic and there's no other way to describe it? No?

Okay, it's probably just me then.

But anyway. That is how I felt (cheesy, I know) when I touched this pair of jeans hanging from the Cooper St stand in Myer. Let me clarify: they are NOT Cooper St jeans, they are Ninedays, a brand which my cloistered little head has never of, but WHO CARES. They're perfect. AND. They were in my size.

If I could give awards for shopping moments of the year, THIS WOULD BE IT.

They're dark (I dislike light-coloured jeans with a passion, but that's just me). They're slinky. They're stretchy and comfortable and I DON'T CARE if skinny jeans are "going out", nor that summer is coming in and it will therefore be too hot to wear jeans. The fact is, I love skinny jeans (everything else makes me look as FAT as a heifer) and I LOVE THESE JEANS.

Yes, well, ANYWAY.

New: Gracie by Alice McCall at General Pants Co.

They only had one stand at Miranda General Pants Co today. I love Alice McCall and all (rhyme unintended, seriously!) but I wasn't that impressed. It's cute, for sure, but if I had to sum it up in one word I'd say it's... okay.

Or maybe they only seemed that way after my brilliant stop-the-press-i'm-falling-in-love moment with the jeans. Sorry!

Beach to Bargain

Hrm, so for some reason, no matter how determined I am to NOT go shopping, as soon as someone mentions the word 'Bondi' I start plotting which shops I plan to hit first. Serious sign of a shopaholic? Or serious self-image issues? Probably both, but let's leave that for later. Psycho-analysis is boring, shopping is FUN!

So anyway. YES I hit Bondi today. YES I bought something. And YES there are 5 million and two other things that I really, really want but am too poor to afford (believe me, it sucks).

NUMBER ONE ON THE LIST: Silver T-bar 'U Thong' sandals from Wittner $109.95 (I know, horrible name. I wonder who makes up the names?? I wonder if someone's job is to just sit there and come up with names. That'd be hilarious, hee hee hee.)



NUMBER TWO: A shimmery, almost-nude, pale pink colour like OPI Nailpolish 'Hearts & Tarts'. Yummm. Elegant but different.

NUMBER THREE: EVERYTHING in Kookai Bondi Junction. I want to live in the store!! (Of course, I also want to buy a nightclub and live there - with the current property rates in Sydney, buying Kookai and the nightclub might actually be cheaper).

NUMBER FOUR: Shiny dark-blue metallic Havaianas. But first, I need to actually find them in my size. Grrr. =.=

Oh yeah! And they have CUSTOM HAVAIANAS now!! Check it out at General Pants Bondi - you pretty much choose the base colour and the straps at the top. I like my thongs to be one solid colour though, so so much for playing with that >sigh<. So anyway, the list goes on, but a girl can only save up for a few things at once... after all, I DO have to save money for impulse purchases.

p.s. I am quite aware that this sort of spending and materialism is bad. OH WELL.

News Feed: Nigeria readies for Pfizer battle

THIS you have to read.

It's disgusting - intellectually, physically and ethically.

It's about an American drug (ok, pharmaceutical) company who went in and tested their drug on poverty-stricken African children, who are now mentally disabled as a result, or so say their mothers. Within the article, there is no "other side to the story" because the drug company did not wish to speak to Al Jazeera, so forgive me for being biased.

But still. It's great that people are protesting against animal testing, but what about testing on humans?? Is there too much money at stake??

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege speaks to residents of Kano in Nigeria who claim a vaccine, manufactured and adminstered by US pharmaceutical giant Prizer, was responsible for the deaths of local children, as hearings resume in a Nigerian lawsuit against the firm.


Photo: Firdausi became mentally handicapped, her mother
claims, after she was used to test a meningitis drug

Thirteen-year-old Firdausi Abdullahi is severely mentally handicapped, suffering from a condition her mother claims is a result of scientific negligence.

Zainab Abdullahi says Firdausi was used along with 200 other children as "guinea pigs" to test a meningitis drug.

That is the central allegation in a criminal case pitting the state government of Kano in Nigeria against the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer.

Hearings resume in the case on Wednesday with the government alleging Pfizer deceived patients and caused the deaths of 11 of them in 1996 when performing clinical trials for a new meningitis vaccine, Trovan.

Full article at Al Jazeera