LIFE RESET: The Great Binge and Purge

By Tammi Ireland

This year started out pretty damn fantastically. I moved to Sydney, got an apartment in Bondi, made a bunch of amazing friends, got a job two days after arriving here and quickly got promoted three months later.  Sydney looked to be all consuming happiness.  But back home, things weren’t going so well for family, and eventually it started to take its toll on me.  Coincidentally, the weather in Sydney decided to break its amazing summer spell and the skies opened to rain and wind. For most of the end of April.  I developed a back spasm and ‘stuck rib’ from the stress of it all, spending hundreds on medical bills.  My Sydney honeymoon was over.

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Around this time I discovered Rachel Magahy’s In Spaces Between blog.  Full of love and light, it was exactly the right thing for what I needed at that time – hope, inspiration, and a little belief that love was still all around.  I read it religiously one day after work, eventually finding my way to her home page. However there was one post that stuck out more than the rest – The Life Reset.

The general gist of a Life Reset is that you take time to look at your life and decide to do more of what makes you happy (BINGE!) and less of the stuff that seems a little too all-consuming or joyless (PURGE!).  My housemate and I were both going through a tough time so on the first weekend in June, we picked up our notebooks, headed to a local cafe and wrote our list for Life Reset -

Beauty Q&A: Clinique It Girl, Rebecca

By Tammi Ireland

The fact that I write a beauty blog is a pretty obvious tip-off that I love all things skincare and makeup.  However, what some of you don’t know is that there is one brand in particular to who I owe my love affair with all things face and skin.  Clinique first came into my radar in the same way I imagine it came into yours – as a teen looking to control the sudden breakouts that come with teen girl hormones. Dragged to the Clinique counter at my local Myer by my mum, I was given their famous three-step program to try and clear my skin.  In 2009, my editor at Flourish magazine, Jane, suggested I enter this new competition they’d launched the previous year to find Clinique It Girls throughout Australia to review their products for their online site.  I entered, I won, and my love of makeup was cemented.

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Through the ten full months I was a Clinique It Girl, I learnt more about skincare and had more opportunity to enter the makeup world using my It Girl status as a launching pad than I ever would have had without it.  It’s the reason you’re reading this blog today, as my writing as a Clinique It Girl inspired me to start my own blog the following year.  And it’s the reason I work in PR with a goal to do beauty PR full-time.  Never have I had a brand loyalty as strong as the one I have for Clinique, and it’s because their products really work, no bullshit.

Today, I interviewed 2012 Clinique It Girl, Rebecca Caldwell from WA to see what she thinks about the experience she’s currently wrapped up in.

Deep Fake Tanning Mousse

By Tammi Ireland

Last Christmas was one of the least stressful events I can remember.  Everything went smoother than normal, and everybody looked great.  I credit my look – a white Witchery number to stave off the heat of Perth summers – to the fake tan my legs received thanks to Vani-T Bare Bronze Temporary Bronzing Mousse (RRP $41.15).

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Easy to apply with an incredibly rich tan, this faux colour option is not for the faint of heart.  While the bottle brings to mind Victoria’s Secret and Snooky, the product inside has none of those connotations.  Most notably, the scent doesn’t resemble the overbearing smell of some alternative brands on the market.

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Perth Online Beauty Media Event

By Tammi Ireland

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting 17 other Perth-based online beauty writers at the Perth Online Beauty Meet (POBM), organised by my delightful friend Annette from Wellness WA.  The event was designed as an opportunity for us to network, be spoilt and have the bonding and sharing experiences we so often see the Eastern States-based bloggers take part in (from afar, of course).

(photo supplied)

The event was held at Aveda spa Djurra in Fremantle, which was hands-down the best spa space I’ve ever seen. A converted warehouse and heritage building, the walls are partially rendered and partially bare brick – a nice metaphor for the roughness you may feel entering, but calm and smooth environment you take with you.  We had the chance to trial Blue Oil massages (given to all Djurra hair clients) and foot scrubs (a perk of having a Djurra massage), which left us buzzing with calm energy in time to listen to guest speaker and naturopath Adele Plumridge.

Perth’s Best of Beauty

ALERT: From January 17, Coveted Canvas will be coming to you live from Sydney as editor, Tammi, moves to the east coast.  Here, she gives a rundown of her beauty haunts in the city she’s called home for over 20 years.

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By Tammi Ireland

Perth is a pretty amazing place to live.  We have up and coming clubs and small bars (hat tips to Bivouac, La Cholita, Mrs Brown), a growing art scene (Venn, Zekka – it’s all you), amazing fashion talent (emerging with thanks to Jacqui Brown, Perth Fashion Festival, Zara Bryson, et al), and the most amazing coastline and weather in Australia (kudos Mother Nature).  And woven into all of those is the Perth beauty scene.  These are the salons, surgeries, and specialists ensuring Perth people are looking as hot as they possibly could.  Here we choose the best of 2011:

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I Loved Europe; Europe Didn’t Love My Hair

By Tammi Ireland

Two weeks ago I returned from a 40-day tour of Europe.  I travelled to beautiful cities, ate amazing food and made life-long friends.  Not, however, with European water, which was a source of frustration for many of my female travelling companions.  You see, European water strips your hair of its natural softness and oils, leaving it dry and impossible to brush without a triple rinse and repeat with conditioner.

This is my hair after less than two weeks in Europe.

Add to that the fact I’m growing out a fringe, and it took all my courage not to wear my hair up every day.  No number of treatments could salvage the softness I once had in Australia, and blow-drying hair straight after washing further fried the ends.  There was zero heat protection and it was evident in the finished product. 

WELLBEING: Vitamin D for Healthy Skin

By Marian Rubock

These days we often hear about the benefits of vitamin A, E and C for general wellbeing and glowing skin. Vitamin D, however, is often overlooked, yet it is just as important, if not more so. Vitamin D plays an important role in helping to reduce wrinkles and prevent conditions such as acne, so it is well worth making sure you are getting enough in your day-to-day life.  Vitamin D is a powerful antioxidant and anti-carcinogen which can assist in the prevention of skin cancer, heart disease, diabetes and skin problems such as psoriasis.

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It can also:

• Enhance absorption of calcium and regulates phosphorous levels in blood.
• Help with prevention of depression.
• Help maintain a healthy immune system.
• Assist with sleeping and anxiety.

All these benefits contribute to maintaining healthy skin. For example, while there may be no direct link between a vitamin D deficiency and acne, ensuring you have sufficient vitamin D can help resolve acne by making the skin and body healthier as a whole.

WELLBEING: Control Your Psoriasis.

By Marian Rubock

You may have heard the word, ‘psoriasis’ thrown around in the news lately. Celebrities, Kim Kardashian and Fifi Box have recently come out saying they suffer from the condition and this has stirred discussions in the media about how it can impact your life. 

Psoriasis is a skin irritation characterized by thick, silvery white scales and is surrounded by red inflammation.  It causes the skin to itch and when the lesion is scratched, it can result in bleeding and scarring.

Fifi Box recently said she has psoriasis.

Psoriasis can appear anywhere on the body, however it more commonly appears on the elbows, knees and lower back. Once it appears it has a tendency to reoccur. If you suffer from this skin irritant, don’t be alarmed – it can be managed and with a few simple steps, you can reduce the impacts of psoriasis.

Depending on the severity of it, psoriasis can impact on your everyday life – it can dictate what clothes you decide to wear and the foods you choose to eat. Your diet usually holds the key to the trigger for it in the first place. 

WELLBEING: How does stress impact our bodies?

By Marian Rubock

We all experience the feelings of stress at some stage in our lives. Although we can recognise the emotional signs, do you know how it can impact on the health of your body and skin?  Our body can react to stressful times by affecting the way our internal organs operate and this can lead to other complications. Sometimes, our system may find it hard to digest and absorb nutrients from food. When this happens, we call it ‘malabsorption sydrome’.

This breakdown in our system can also lead to conditions, such as ‘pernicious anaemia’, which simply means our body has lost the ability to produce enough red blood cells, due to a lack of vitamin B12 absorbed in the system.

During stressful times, because we may not effectively digest food or absorb nutrients, our bowel lining can also be damaged. When this occurs, naturopaths refer to this as ‘Leaky Gut Sydrome’ and essentially means the cells of the intestinal lining widen, allowing toxins and undigested food to enter into the body.

All of these effects to our internal system can also lead to hair loss and this will have all been started by stress as the catalyst, which shows it plays a huge role in our lives.

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Now let’s take a look at the impact this has on our skin. Just like the rest of our body, our skin relies on receiving nutrients via our blood supply. If our body is in stress mode from poor diet, unhealthy lifestyle, as well as an overactive brain, it can result in digestive upsets, like irritable bowel, poor sleep, increased moodiness and cravings for sugary foods. If this continues, it will lead to a reduction of the blood supply to our skin and hair translating to possible hair loss and unhealthy skin. This may take the form of acne, rosacea, dermatitis, and unusual rashes just to mention a few.

Fake It: Winter Blush

By Tammi Ireland

The seasons have ticked over and Australia is finally feeling the cold nip of winter.  The fresh breeze that comes when you open your front door to stroll toward your workday is a better pick-me-up than any double shot skim latte.  But unfortunately some cities are feeling a little more refreshed than others.

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Last weekend, I wandered the streets of Sydney with a close friend, rugged up in layer upon layer of of coats, scarves, tights and boots.  Ducking in to cafes for a quick liquid warm-up (coffee, cab sav, Baileys, tea … anything goes when you’re on holidays!), I’d often catch sight of my face in the cafe windows and admire the natural blush that comes when your nose is so cold and your eyes have been watering as you walk.  Never could I emulate that look in the significantly less nippy Perth.  Until now.

While in my favourite city Sydney, I picked up a delightful blush that gives me that fresh, ‘I’ve-just-been-sitting-outside-in-the-garden-wrapped-in-wool-drinking-hot-cocoa-and-snuggling-with-my-boyfriend’ look.