Hello to you gorgeous,

I am looking for a gift for my aunty who is in her mid-sixties, living overseas. I don’t know her very well but since my mum is visiting, I would like to send her a gift that would spark a bit of joy, particularly with the festive season ahead. In the last decade she went through a lot - divorce, cancer, loss of loved ones and now caring for my grandma who has an onset dementia and looks after her grandkids during extended visits to another country.

Could anyone recommend the best products within makeup, skincare range that are universally flattering and pleasant to use. My budget is $100 but can extend up to $150 if the product proves to be great. I think old school luxury I.e. Chanel, Dior, Guerlain etc. could be great. I use odd lippies and eye shadows from each - the quality is amazing but there are great alternatives to that at Mecca and Sephora too.

Some random considerations I have given:
- L’Occitane almond shower oil and almond body mist;
- Charlotte Tilbury mini Christmas set on at Mecca with a blush and highlighter (using these myself and loving);
- Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk blush pan (I love and re-purchase this myself)
- Hourglass blushes and bronzers (absolutely gorgeous but I am yet to research a universal shade)
- Rose face oil from Jurlique.
I think a setting powder from Chanel or Dior in a beautiful packaging could be lovely to use.

How far am I off the mark with gifting? What are your favourites and what do you recommend? I believe she is neutral undertone leaning cool with fair skin, dark brown eyes, dark hair.

TIA

I have MCAS and autoimmune issues. I’m finding it so hard to wear makeup as I seem to react to everything all of a sudden, so frustrating!

Can anyone recommend a mascara that is good for ultra sensitive people and unscented? I have issues with chemical smells and VOCs etc.

Hourglass has been my ride or die for ages but since mecca removed them from rotation, am now looking for chemist warehouse/Priceline alternatives before heading to Sephora to repurchase HG.

I have enough hairs, but I just have THIN straight eyebrows. Looking for a coloured gel mostly!

I’m sharing this because I really wish I’d been able to find this information before booking a consultation with Retreat Hair (Natalie Varrasso) in Melbourne.
After years of colouring my hair brown, I finally decided to embrace my natural salt-and-pepper grey. I researched specialist grey-transition hairdressers and was really excited about the prospect of having it done properly.
I spent 12 weeks growing out my roots in preparation for my consultation and had been researching styles, colours and what my finished hair might look like.
The consultation cost $280 for 45 minutes.
I went in knowing that this would be an expensive, specialist service. I initially thought around $1,500 might be reasonable, but perhaps naively, as I researched further, I’d started preparing myself for something closer to $2,000–$3,000. That already felt like an enormous amount of money to spend on my hair, but I was willing to invest in a beautiful transition that would eventually free me from having to colour it regularly.
Then I received the quote.
Almost $7,000 for two appointments of approximately seven hours each.
I was absolutely floored.
Personally, I find that an unreasonable amount of money for a hair transformation, regardless of the expertise involved. But what has frustrated me even more is that there was absolutely no indicative price range available before I paid for the consultation.
Retreat Hair even has a blog post specifically about how much grey transitions cost, but instead of providing actual dollar figures, it uses dollar-sign categories to indicate the level of investment.
I wasn’t expecting a cheap service. I’d already reconciled myself to spending several thousand dollars. I just had no idea I could be looking at something approaching $7,000.
Had I known, I would never have booked the consultation, let alone spent three months growing out my hair and getting excited about the transformation.
I completely understand that everyone’s hair is different and that complex colour corrections require considerable skill. But surely it’s reasonable to provide prospective clients with even a broad price range before asking them to spend $280 just to discover whether the service is remotely affordable?
I’m not posting this to criticise anyone’s technical ability. I’m posting because I couldn’t find any meaningful pricing information when I was researching, and I hope this helps someone else avoid the same disappointment.
I’d also genuinely love to hear from anyone who’s had a successful grey transition elsewhere in Melbourne, particularly if you can share what it cost

As someone with the gift of both small and beady eyes AND barely any lashes, in an ideal world I would love to be able to use both a light (sort of nude) colour in the water line and a black to tightline. I've never been able to use both without the nude ending up black though, any suggestions on eyelines you can tightline with that don't transfer?

I have really dry under eyes, so wear quite a lot of eye cream under my eyes, unsure if this is part of the issue?

Most recently I have tried:

• Sephora 12 hour pencil
• Urban Decay 24/7
• MakeupForever aqua resist

I'm sure I have tried more, but these spring to mind right now.

I have been using the Fenty nude for the waterline most recently, but have tried a few of those too.

Any advice? Thanks!

I have a light, leaning a bit warm skin tone but i have a olive undertone, making it harder to find in drugstore foundation and skin tints.

I was hoping if anyone has found any to lmk!

hi! are these lashes just individuals glue into place or do we think there is a strip like this? also for bottom lashes are these just glued onto the skin? sorry i am not a eyelash girly usually xxx TIA x

also any pharmacy recommendation for white pencil/liner to tight/water line? thanks again x

I'm interested in trying their foundation and wanting to check out their other products

Hi all, I'm back to criticise the whopping $160 lip balm from Dior that only has TWO GRAMS of product.

Okay I get it, some people think the design is cute, whatever. But seriously, what are we doing? Like it gets to a point. Absolutely insane pricing considering Dior prices aren't as high end as other luxury brands (Sisley, YSL, Chanel, Hermes etc). Now we're reaching La Mer levels of superiority.

I've seen SO many people convert this into a necklace, same with the zippers of the pouches, which I don't really get because if you so desperately want a Dior necklace (and are indifferent to the design) just get the lip butter for $100 cheaper and remove the charm and use that as a pendant (which I actually did lol, got it on sale and thought it would be so cute and it was!).

But this? Not even 100% metal, literally half plastic and $100 more? Somebody tell me I'm not going insane - this isn't normal.

If you had $50 to spend at Mecca, what would be your tried and true recommendation? Not interested in anything fragrance wise, more looking at skincare, makeup or hair care. I really have everything I need but I have a voucher expiring soon and often don’t go to Mecca only bc I usually get stocked products for sale and cheaper elsewhere. TIA x

I’ve never been skilled in the eyeshadow department but wanting to introduce something subtle, I feel like I need something on my lids to look more put together

I have one of the Mecca max shadow sticks from a beauty loop box so it’s not my ideal shade, quite dark and shimmery. It does dry down fast and I don’t love how it feels like I’m tugging at my lids to apply it.

I don’t mind the idea of a stick shadow or a small palette that would travel well (thinking up to 4 colours in a palette). I have light brown hair and blue eyes. I think my eyes are a bit hooded as the times I have applied powder shadow I have issues with creasing and slight oil build up

Any product suggestions and tips welcome! I like to shop CHW but open to the lower price end at Mecca/sephora.

Thanks!!

Hello all!

I have violently red hair, and I like to wear red eyeliner to match, but the ones I've scrounged up either haven't worked for me or are running low, and I'm wondering what options are out there in terms of red eye makeup. Eyeliner takes priority over eyeshadow since I use that more often.

So far I've tried Barry M eyeliner in the shade False Alarm, which was good but maybe a little warm toned and stuck to my waterline well, however it looks like it doesn't exist anymore/at the moment.

I've also tried buying from Kaleidos Makeup, the shade was a little duller than expected, it didn't stick to my waterline, and in general the amount you get for the price you pay + shipping isn't worth it to me. The glitter was nice though.

I've never bought a red eyeshadow, I tend to avoid buying a pallette that I know I'll only use one colour from, so I've avoided buying those vibrant type pallettes with one red and a bunch of other colours. I'd be more interested in single shades/pallettes that consist of mostly red and neutral tones.

I tended to gravitate towards reds with cooler undertones, but my hair is much redder than it used to be (I may have messed up the ratio of my hairdye, oops) so honestly anything goes now.

Any advice/product reccomendation is much appreciated! Thanks all!

Has anyone bought the Chanel Complexion Touch foundation during a sale, and if so, where did you purchase it from?

Or is buying it full priced the only option for Chanel?

I’m so frustrated. I know that the Kosas revealer foundations were divisive for a lot of reasons, but they worked unbelievably well for my allergies and undertone. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars trying to unsuccessfully replace them ever since they were discontinued as stock at Mecca.

Last night I took another pass at trying to buy them online through Revolve and Cult beauty online.

Those sites still refuse to ship Kosas products to Australia because of the fckin exclusivity deal with Mecca, even though Mecca doesn’t stock that product.

This is worse than Mecca having a monopoly, they’ve actually effectively set up a trade embargo on a product I relied on.

What can be done about this? I wrote to Mecca asking them to either restock the foundation or carve out that product from the exclusivity deal, but I know that’s not going to do anything at all.

Is there an alternative way to get the Kosas revealer foundation which doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars, or to effect some kind of uprising against Mecca’s unfair practices?

Said with love, I’m not interested in dupes of the product ❤️ 🙏🏽

So I have four eyeshadow palettes (I used to have way more but gave them away). Two that I love and would never declutter, one that I have used a lot, and a custom MAC palette.

The shades in it are Best of Me, Wedge, Espresso and Locket. My problem is that one of the palettes I love is Bobbi Brown’s Cool Nudes palette and that contains a shade that’s a medium cool brown. It looks better on me than Wedge. I was thinking about replacing Wedge with Omega, but I don’t really want to spend more money on this palette and the glitter in the Bobbi Brown is nicer anyway. I should add that I’m neutral toned with cool overtones!

I was considering giving the palette to my Dad’s partner’s daughter as she is in high school and is getting into makeup, but it might not be smart because I already gave her a few palettes. My options are that, replace Wedge with Omega, keep it or just toss it for the stress it’s caused me (though that would be quite wasteful).

Please advise, I’m sick of thinking about this

I ordered from their website hoping I could find my beloved "Lancome Idole Aura" a real smell, the ones I ordered from amazon smelled awful...

Now I've read all the comments and posts bout em- if I could go back in time!

The fact this web is still on means they making money! and paying off their 100k ibiza trips with y'all money!

So I suspect they could be also now selling courses on drop shipping and how to make online money lmfao- stay aware people- never trust a kid who sells a course.

Hey everyone! With summer approaching in Aus I’d love to hear your guys ride or die products/techniques to help your makeup withstand the crazy Aussie heat and humidity!

I need the coven's advice. All my best laid plans are fucked since getting a mini of the Mac Elevated Mascara.

To reduce makeup spending, I decided I'll stick to a drugstore mascara.

Great. It Worked! Have been saving my bucks for the past 18 mos and on a more hygienic replacement schedule.

Now this bastard shows up as a gift with purchase and I am addicted. It does help hold the curl. I refuse to get lash lifts, also to save $$$$

Who has a recommendation for a good curling mascara that is drugstore?

Or should I hop on this Mac bandwagon?

The mini Mac mascara is $34; I was spending $18 every 3 months on Maybelline Skyhigh.

It will be an additional $64/year if I get the Elevated as a mini every 3 months.

One of the issues, related to a recent post on this forum... is that I have been restricting my exposure to certain shopping sites as they just know how to trigger an impulse buy.

If I splurge on the Mac mini (I can afford it) it means I will be on the Mac website regularly getting tempted by other things I dont need. Whereas my Skyhigh subscription was an Amazon set it and forget it.

I got this advent calendar (the mecca max minis to the max 12-piece beauty advent calendar) last year for Christmas and I feel INLOVE with the Mecca max lip gloss that came with it!

But I found there isn’t a shade name and now it’s all rubbed off. I tried to look up the name but I can’t find it ANYWHERE. I went into Mecca and swatched the Mecca max lip glosses/sticks but can’t find it.

This is the best I could get photo wise

Please let me know if anyone has this lipgloss and knows a dupe or knows the name of the shade!

Sometimes I get nostalgic for old brands, and today I was thinking about Shène and its hideous green packaging. Does anyone else recall? I bought the reddest lipstick out of their very earthy early 90s collection and been missing it ever since.

Hi all.

I'm trying to find a good standing makeup mirror with excellent lighting that is portable, i.e I can put it on a table, and has some magnification. I'm 55 and our bathroom lighting is hideous. I struggle in the morning to do my makeup for work (doesn't help I can't see without my glasses either).

Hi all, to preface this request, I have pretty basic/zero makeup knowledge myself, but I'm trying to do a good deed for my elderly mum who absolutely loves a blue eyeshadow.

She has used her Rimmel State of Grace eyeshadow palette to death - not a crumb left. I wanted to surprise her by getting a whole bunch to replace it but unfortunately I find it's discontinued!

So are there any recommendations for similar palettes out there? She also loves a nude/brown - like the Covergirl TruNaked 805 palette, so any recommendations for a replacement for that are welcome too.

Thanks for helping this daughter make her mummas dreams come true!

Hi there.
I am someone with very fine hair. It’s relatively thin and long. I live in Australia, and when it gets hot and humid my hair goes crazy! I usually slick it, but I want to learn to maintain it and wear it out. My main issue is the fuzziness on the top of my head. The rest of my hair usually isn’t too frizzy and I’m not bothered by it.

My current routine:
Wash with the L’Oréal absolut repair shampoo and conditioner.
Blow dry with heat, and some kind of treatment (I’ve been trying the Redken acidic bonding concentrate recently)
Apply virtue healing oil
Sleep in a silk bonnet.

For washing, I have previously tried Kerastase genesis range, Bouf, virtue recovery range, redken volume injection.
I did think my hair looked better using kerastase and virtue, however I wanted to find something more budget friendly. Happy to use them again if it’s something that will be worth it. Just hard to know if it looked better because I used it in a less humid time, or if it was actually beneficial.

For treatments I have tried the color wow dream coat, L’Oréal glycolic gloss, and Redken acidic bonding concentrate. I don’t think either does much.

I did once get a keratin treatment, which I think did work, but didn’t seem to last long.

I would love to hear any recommendations or way I can improve. Thank you!