Travel | Zotheysay

Rather Good Things.

Posted by zoe foster blake / Babies, Beauty, Skin, Spa + Salon, Travel

Here’s a list of some Rather Good Things. I’ve mentioned before how much I crave recommendations on everything, so I just arrogantly assume others feel the same way.

Oh come on. I know you love lists. Seen you on Buzzfeed, getting your list fix. Cute animals. Seeing if you’re a real 90s baby. Etc.

1. Cinnamon Scrolls from Oregano Bakery in Sydney.

I found these cult scrolls when my friends bought me a six pack of them the day before The Logies a few years back. Which seemed a bit cruel at the time, but they weren’t to know I was in pre-event tight-dress sashimi and berries only mode. I of course ate two the moment I got back to my hotel room post-Logies. Obviously. That Gelato Messina did an Oregano Cinnamon Scroll flavour earlier this year has only strengthened my adoration. Obviously.

2. The iPhone 6 Plus.

Oooh, toooo big, I thought. Then I got one. Day one started off with ooh, too big, why am I using an iPad posing as a phone? And then, by lunchtime I had changed my tune to, ooooh, so big! I LIKE THE BIGNESS IT WOULD SEEM. I like it because I can see more of everything. More of my emails. Text rallies. Webpages. And Instagram pictures look phenomenal. While I am a complete Apple tragic, and I have a Macbook Air and an iPad Air because of their lightness and littleness and ease-of-use-anywhereness, I seem to still do everything on my phone. All my emails. Millions of texts. Researching online. Social media. All of it is done on my phone. (Especially since I am often breastfeeding or holding my tiny giant and have only one hand.) Now I am not peering, now I am reading properly. Everything feels fresh and new! You Samsung kids were really onto something after all. (AND, it has a ‘recently deleted’ photo album in case, like me, you always accidentally delete pics you didn’t mean to.)

NB: I bought a case for it because the bigness and slipperiness made me feel like I was going to drop it all the time.

3. Surrender, by Slow Dancer

I found this album by serendipity on Rdio and it has been thrashed in our house. Because it is marvellous. Slow Dancer is an Aussie lad, it transpires, which is great but mostly I just want to say that this perfectly edited ten-track wonder is smooth as heck and the perfect dinner or driving music. (Listen for free here.) I tend to pop it on at about 5pm and it makes the whole evening feel groovy and pour-us-a-winey. Put in on and impress your friends, why don’t you.

4. Bright Starts Lots of Links

Another mum gave me these when Sonny was about three months. Said she found them useful, maybe I would too? Since then they have proved themselves invaluable about 17 frillion times. I go to text her daily to applaud her vision. They are perfect for his fat little paws to gab onto, they make anything playful, you can jam any toy, teething ring, soft toy (by the tag) and dangly whatsit on a ring or five and you have instant toys. They hang off prams and activity centres, (those play mats you lay on the floor with the overhanging bridges) cots, and they keep muslins clipped over the pram when Sonny sleeps. And they were a bloody lifesaver on our international flight/trip last month because we had new toys and new variations thereof hanging off errthing always to excite our baby and we were total hero parents. That’s what I’ve heard anyway.

5. The DermaQuest Power Alpha Peptide Resurfacer treatment

Cool turban, babe. Not so cool pigmentation.

I have had two of these at Me Skin and Body in South Yarra (Brooke, the owner, is pretty much in charge of my skin these days) in the past fortnight since I got back from being overseas in a sunny climate which, as usual, made my hyperpigmentation come out, and because of all the flying and sunblock, made my skin dry, dull and just so shit. The idea being that it will help bring out and fade that pigmentation but also brighten the skin in general, clear out all the grubby clogged pores, retexturise the skin and make it JUICY with hydration.

The professional-only treatment (in other words, you have to have it in a clinic or salon) combines lactic and glycolic acid to perform a gentle peel (this is pretty much the ideal combo of AHAs in my opinion for visible results but no flaking or swelling or even redness afterwards) with peptides, the darling of anti-ageing skin care, to rebuild and strengthen the skin, stop inflammation and diminish fine lines. The perfect treatment to get skin looking happy and healthy again. (Peptides become more important for us when we are in our forties, but they certainly don’t hurt to get into if your skin needs some extra TLC.)

I will likely have one more (since it’s racing season and I am doing some events it doesn’t hurt to have nice looking skin, ay) and then just maintain at home with my Go-To cleanser/face cream and Exfoliating Swipeys, plus a brightening serum, like Aspect Extreme-C. Triffic!

Responses to this drivel: 13 Comments

16
Sep

The makeup you need to look good after a long-haul flight.

Posted by zoe foster blake / Beauty, Makeup, Tips + Tricks, Travel

…. is 12 hours sleep, a facial, a blow-dry and some professional makeup. Easy!

Alternatively, there is this sassy little kit which I take with me for a long-ass flight, which is Every Flight really, because I live in Australia, land of farawayness from everything.

As a beauty editor, it’s easy to overpack on the cosmetic front, but after long enough in the game, you start to learn which products are clever and multi-purposey enough that you can leave behind the other 2289 ‘essentials’ and just pack those.

Important note: I highly recommend having some lash extensions popped on before you go. I usually just get the outer corner so it’s not too obvious when they go wongly and start falling out. Just add it to that annoying Lady Prep List of waxing, nails, tan, elbow polishing, etc etc. They’re a tops idea for holidays in my opinion because you look lovely even when you have no other makeup on, and they negate the need for mascara in hot and swimmy environments.

The Long-Ass Flight Kit

1. A BB or CC cream with moisturising and illuminating properties, like the Napoleon Auto Pilot BBB cream, $49.50 which is my new fave, and which does wonders on my dry, thirsty skin. Great coverage too – halfway between the usual BB cream sheerness and a foundation.

2. An undereye concealer that brightens and hydrates, which the Benefit Cosmetics Fake Up, $38.50, does because it has a concealer embedded in a hydrating gel stick, so you avoid those fine lines that are the first to show when your skin is tired and thirsty, and you get a wallop of concealer too. Clever!

3. Some creme blush to rapidly and authentically wake up the cheeks (and lips if required) with a flush of colour, like the very fresh and delightful Becca Cosmetics Lip and Cheek Creme in Tuberose, $24. That the compact is tiny, unbreakable and has a mirror means it ALWAYS comes travelling with me. (I love Becca to travel. Their eye palettes esp.)

4. A genuinely hydrating and protective lip balm, care of my very own Go-To Lips!, $14.50. Planes thieve so much moisture: do not leave it to a shitty, non-last, mineral-oil filled tube or stick to do the job. Because it won’t.

5. Much gum and mints (not pictured) cos no one’s cute with breath of an ox. Also, you can offer it around if the chap or lass next to you has manky breath and you look generous and kind even though really you are deeply offended by the bacteria in their mouth and two seconds from asking for another seat.

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Responses to this drivel: 6 Comments

05
Sep

Skin care I’m packing for a summer holiday.

Posted by zoe foster blake / Beauty, Skin, Travel

Next week I am off Greece and Italy but NOT Iceland, for those who keep asking.

It will be warm but not violently hot, we will be swimming a lot, and I will eat tonnes of feta. All of this thrills me.

I used to pack 74329 cosmetics and toiletries for these trips; there would be a bag of face skin care, one for body, one for hair, and one just of makeup. I would take a tong and my ghd, as well as several brushes. And there would STILL be space for one bikini and my passport – amazing!

These days I have streamlined it considerably, in large part due to my own skin care line being so dang perfectly useful (which is why I made it), and having a baby whose accoutrements soak up most of my packing space.

So here’s the skin care I’m taking because it’s:

A) useful information for those wishing to protect and look after their skin while travelling to warm climes,

B) pervy knowing what other people use,

C) a wonderful way to extoll the virtues of a well-curated toiletries bag, and

D) less stressful than actually packing them.

So! We have…

1 x Go-To Properly Clean cleanser cos it takes off all my makeup and sunblock real good. One full bottle will get me around 30 days.

1 x SkinCeuticals Phloretin CF antioxidant serum to wear under sunblock each day to help prevent UV damage and premmo ageing. This anti-oxidant step (onto clean skin, first after cleansing) is important. We should all be doing this every day, in my opinion, holidaying or not.

1 x Aspect Pigment Punch pigment prohibiting serum to stop hyperpigmentation before it even really begins, rather than getting smashed by it and working on it doubly hard when I get home. (I will book a lactic peel for the week I get back all the same. I will go to Brooke at Me Skin and Body in South Yarra cos she knows her shit.)

1 x Invisible Zinc SPF 50+ water resistant physical sunscreen to wear on top of serums to thoroughly, physically protect my face and neck, even while swimming. I will make husband wear this every day also. Here are my thoughts on physical vs chemical sun protection.

1 x Go-To Very Useful Face Cream to wear at night because it’s lovely and hydrating and full of antioxidants to heal any UV damage I collected somehow through the day, and halt the free radical damage that occurs for up to 72 hours after sun damage, NOT that I would ever get any of course, cos I am a wild control freak about that and wear big hats to prove it.

1 x Go-To Exfoliating Swipeys… except I am just taking a little stack of them in a re-usable makeup jar for space saving. Being a thorough, chemical exfoliant, this will give my sunscreened skin a deep clean every few days, and you really want that, trust me.

2 x SK-II Facial Treatment masks as well as sample sachets of Elemis Fruit Active Rejuvenating Mask and Dermalogica Skin Hydrating Mask for a hydrating boost every five days or so. Full size tubes and jars of mask are way to big and space thievey for me.

I will buy my body sunscreen and body lotion and after sun (full of antioxidants like vitamin E at the least) stuff over there cos they’re way too heavy and space consuming to pack at this end.

Also, I bloody love an overseas pharmacy visit. Last time I was in Mykonos I found a bruise healing cream that, to be crude, defecated all over Hirudoid in terms of effectiveness.

No, I did not bruise myself dancing on tables, how dare you.

I was dancing on a podium obviously.

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Responses to this drivel: 10 Comments

Category: Travel