health and beauty

HOT Chat: Owen Thomas of Hipside Guides

October 22, 2010 ⋅ 6 comments

I liked the idea of Hipside Guides as soon as I heard about them – a city guide written by a local to help visitors and locals find the the cool, hidden places of Melbourne. Kind of like MEL: HOT OR NOT, in map form! Today’s HOT Chat is with Owen Thomas of Hipside Guides [...]

HOT: St Kilda Cycles, 150 Barkly St, St Kilda

October 21, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

Last weekend my bike obsession reached its peak at St Kilda Cycles. While most of the hardcore cycling fraternity in Melbourne were battling their way through Around the Bay in a Day, I took the opportunity to visit St Kilda Cycles large showroom. As well as the expected racers, mountain bikes and sleek and shiny bike [...]

HOT: Mecca Cosmetica, 150 Little Collins Street, Melbourne

October 12, 2010 ⋅ 6 comments

I’m pretty low-key with my makeup – every day I brush on some mineral foundation, swish some neutral eyeshadow and blush and if I’m not eating straight away, a slick of lipstick. Takes about 2 minutes from whoa to go. My super-speedy routine is ok for most days. Actually, even for black-tie events and weddings [...]

HOT: Tokuya, Basement 236 Bourke St, Melbourne

October 11, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments

Whenever I visit Tokyo I have a couple of places on my shopping must-go list (1) La Foret for six floors of cute designer fashion (2) graniph tshirt store for RM; and (3) Tokyu Hands department store for all manner of useful and cute Japanese household goods. I don’t think that I’m going to have [...]

HOT Chat: Emmy Heikamp from Dutch Cargo Bike

September 23, 2010 ⋅ One comment

By now you would have realised (a) I love bikes; and (b) I’m about to have a baby. So naturally I am very interested in baby-related bike stuff these days! Today’s HOT Chat is with Emmy Heikamp, one half of the husband-and-wife team behind Dutch Cargo Bike, a Melbourne-based company which has just started importing [...]

HOT: Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, Designer Series Show 4, Melbourne Town Hall, Swanston St, Melbourne

September 5, 2010 ⋅ 4 comments

Show Four of Melbourne Spring Fashion Week explored the street style of the urban Melbourne palette. So naturally, black. The cliche is true, even for Spring and Summer collections Melbourne designers above., ALPHA60, Carly Hunter, Claude by Claude Maus, FAT, Jack London, Limedrop, Tesla and Trimapee brought us lots of midnight, jet, raven and ebony. The hip and [...]

HOT: Magnolia Square, Malvern Town Hall, cnr Glenferrie Rd and High Street, Malvern

August 9, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments

Magnolia Square is a pop up market that comes to Melbourne a few times a year (and goes to other Australian cities) and it’s full of stylish goods aimed mostly for women. It’s mostly babies/kids stuff, with really ups the cute quotient, but there’s also handmade crafts, jewellery, clothing and gourmet food. On my most [...]

HOT: BikePark, Vault 15, Banana Alley vaults, Melbourne

July 15, 2010 ⋅ One comment

Despite the best efforts of organisations like Bicycle Victoria and various councils and state governments, not every workplace has facilities for cyclists who want to commute to work. I know, I’ve worked in places that ranged from providing individual lockers and numerous showers, to being told to just park my bike outside on the street [...]

HOT Spots Winter 2010

June 11, 2010 ⋅ 4 comments

Once again the City of Melbourne have produced a free pocket-sized booklet full of lots of ideas to inspire you to get out of the house and enjoy winter in Melbourne. This is a post to bookmark! I sat down with a cup of tea and flicked through the booklet, which you can pick up [...]

HOT: Costco Wholesale, 381 Footscray Rd, Docklands

June 10, 2010 ⋅ 12 comments

Costco was nothing like I expected. What I was expecting was an outsized version of Aldi, full of cheap generic goods imported from random Eastern European countries, rather than name-brand products. I was expecting it to be large, but not the size of a football field. I was expecting an eclectic assortment of items, but [...]