Happy Melbourne Cup Day!

May your TAB tickets be shimmering with gold, and the wind fail to spin up your skirts, as they* say.

I am not going to the cup today, but I definitely went to Derby Day, and I have to say, after years of The Cup and not Derby Day, Derby kind of wins. And by kind of, I mean, definitely absolutely does. It was FUN. Lots of my friends and collegues and rascals I don't see very often. Plus, I found the black and white dress code exceptionally easy and fun to play with. MUCH easier than no dress code. Kind of wish more things would have colour-coded dress codes, to be honest. Seems like a simpler, kinder way to do things for people who don't really know what they are doing.**

I wore Lover dress, Kerrie Stanley headpiece, Shellac in Wildfire and crazy awesome Chanel shoes.

A few things I gleaned from my many hours of high-maintenance apperance pressure on Saturday:

-Doing my hair the day before was both prescient and clever; I left no time to do it on the morning, and pulled it up very high into a pulled-out bun with a few 'bits' out to keep it modern. The volume and grip I had in there thanks to mousse and tonging and hair powder made it a breeze, and there were no swear words at all.

– I used powder to set my makeup, but regretted it all day, because it wasn't my usual powder (the incredible Laura Mercier Loose Powder), and it exacerbated the fine lines around my eyes, and pissed me off all day, because even though my skin was in great condition thanks to some Omnilux on Thursday and my Sodashi brightening mask that morning, it looked aged and dry. COOL. So, I reckon, if you don't have your usual powder, be wary, and maybe skip it, opting for a lot of lovely primer and a good coverage foundation instead.

– Definitely prep and line and long-last your lips if you're wearing a bright lip colour, which I did (Tom Ford in Cherry Lush.) I used the new Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Lip Balm Stain in Lovesick (these are exceptional and I will be telling you more about them soon) underneath, which gave depth to the colour, and so much stay-puttyness, that even when the lipstick on top wore off with all the sliders and quiche I was eating, the balm-stain was beaming in full colour undereath. Goodness! Looks like SOMEONE thinks they are a bit of a long-last lipstick hero.*** 

– When my fiance crouches down in photos, I look as tall as him. This is good and should happen more.

I'll be back out at de la Flemmo with a whole new racey facey for Crown Oaks day, hanging at Yellowglen House, just being a sassy cat, so if you get a tap on the shoulder to come play in there, do come in and say bonjour.

*Me

**Me

***Me