I’m checking in from the pool this evening.
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| Impossibly blue Florida skies setting off pain box coloured terraces. |
Where this was the view to my right.
And this was the view to my left. There’s nothing like a bit of strategically placed Missoni for Target and a non alcoholic pina colada smoothie to get you feeling all summery. It’s that combination of vibrantly coloured patterns, brain freeze from the smoothie and then nibbling at the fruit that came with the drink. Logic dictates that they should all spell summer yet in the routine of life at home, you’d be hard pressed to remember the last time you actually experienced all of the above in a non holiday context. We don’t enjoy life between holidays as much as we should, do we?
The kaftan was a great thing to pack for this trip. It hits just below mid thigh on me and is billowy enough to cut it on the piazza as well as by the pool. It dries really quickly and hasn’t crinkled or had its colour run on me yet.
The idea of a large, central water feature in the front room is starting to grown on me. That sound of trickling water is very soothing and it seems to fill a room with the happy sounds of life.
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| www.letmusicinpsire.com |
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| Got two because I never, ever want to run out of Luminoso ever again. |
But that wasn’t even the most exciting purchase I made yesterday. Look, it really does exist!!! Milani’s reformulated Luminoso baked blush. Many moons ago, it was called plain old Luimnous and had a pressed powder formulation. Luminous became known as the duplicate of NARS’ Orgasm but for fraction of the price.
The Milani baked blushes retail for $10 USD each and a google search tells me that Australian online retailers are selling them for around $15 AUD. In my opinion, they are a serious contender if you like NARS colours but may find the shimmer and colour intensity a bit overwhelming. Luminoso is an even closer to the big O on skin than its predecessor. It has even colour pay off and blends easily. It lasts all day and through the heat.
On the shimmer spectrum, I’d place it on the milder end with no visible signs of actual glitter chunks which reviewers have noted in some NARS shades. In the pan, Milani blushes do look like those little Bourjois pots but are a superior product in my eyes. I find that the Bourjois blushes tends to look chalky on the skin and are a bit patchy to apply.
Be warned, the packaging looks a little more flimsy than the competition but it does have a chamber beneath the blush proper that stores a brush and mirror.
I don’t know why I even thought I could walk out of Sephora without a Naked palette, especially given how much I like their eye pencils. I picked #2 with the help of a sales assistant and it comes in a tin box that I’m hoping is toddler proof. These retail for $54 USD with the Australian online price through third parties looking to be around $89. I have seen UD in Myer on George Street but they don’t seem to be making it available online through the Myer site so I can’t comment on the official retail prices in Australia.
It’s going to be interesting when Sephora opens in Sydney later this year. I’m hoping that the pricing will be as competitive as what the press were promising when the news first broke. I also hope that they don’t dilute the product as it crosses the Atlantic (I think we might be aligned to the US rather than European arms of the business) and that we get everything that’s available here in the US. The staff at the store I visited were even more excited than I was with a few mentioning colleagues that had volunteered to be part of the first team to head out to help establish the Sydney store.
Another interesting find was Sephora’s own house make up label. It’s major in the breadth and depth of what they offer. There were at least 20 shades of the Contour Waterproof Eye Pencil and you could even buy half sized pencils in most of the shades. These promise 12 hours of wear and only cost $10 for the full size. I bought them because the $16 L’Oreal Silkissme that everyone’s been talking about were sold out over at CVS.
If I were to be completely honest with myself, I only needed to buy these and not the Urban Decay pencils. They are just as much of a dream to apply with a thick, almost gel liner consistency. They dry off quickly and really last the 12 hours and beyond. And by last I mean look exactly like how you applied it first thing in the morning. None of it budged on me and that was after putting sunscreen on over the top and going for a paddle in the pool. I was even more impressed at how easily it came off with makeup removing water (Bioderma’s micellar water, a travel essential and well worth the $$$). The shades range from glitter to matte and my test shade was #12, Cappuccino which has a fine glitter to it.
Sephora is going to change the landscape of cosmetic retail in Australia. It’s going to be one of those stores where you’d be hard pressed to leave empty handed because from what I’ve seen, the nicely priced range perform even better than some of the current big players in the drugstore market over her. And those big players seem to be getting more expensive relative to the high end brands over time.
Do you have any of Sephora’s house makeup? Hits or misses in your book?
Before I go, as this post turned out to be all about shopping, an update on the prepaid Travel Card. It’s worked really well in the US where there are ATMs and EFTPOS machines everywhere, sales staff even wear EFPTOS terminals around stores. I’ve been able to use it everywhere and it’s much less of a stress than trying to keep large amounts of cash safe. I’ll definitely be using it again on the next trip, whenever and wherever that may be.