Deep pockets are this season's must-have

I know it's odd to have a 'favourite' charity, but hands down, mine is the Breast Cancer Research Trust. Not only are they raising money to fund the concrete goal of curing breast cancer by 2018, their ingenious ideas mean that donating is never boring.

A couple of my favourites so far have been the Trelise Cooper caravan and the Fight for a Cure boxing tournament (from which we came away with David Tua signed boxing gloves), and I think this Zambesi designed Fiat 500 will give them a run for their money.

You can see it at the BCRT Fashion Showcase this week, where it will be auctioned for the charity. The Champagne and cocktail fundraiser showcases nine New Zealand fashion designers, and attendees will receive a $50 voucher from each of them. At $55 a ticket, that's a mighty return on your investment! Visit www.breastcancercure.org.nz or call 0800 227 828 to book.

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Zambesi beauty at Fashion Week

It was so refreshing to see makeup used to make women look beautiful at fashion week.

That may sound strange, but in recent years the trend for war paint, bleached brows and goth glam was more about striking catwalk images than wearability. Last week, MAC outdid themselves creating dozens of gorgeous looks, most of them a variation on either the winged eye, the statement red lip or sometimes a combination of both.

My favourite look of the week, and one I hope to emulate for the party season, was the blue eye and red lip combo at Zambesi (as seen in my first post here). It is rare to see a successful break of the eyes OR lips rule, but this manages to be fresh, feminine and cool all at once.

What do you think, lovely readers?

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les femmes frecklé*

What better place to start my blog than with an image of beauty very close to my heart?

As a child, I was tormented by my freckles and did everything to fade them. I sponged them nightly with lemon juice, I smothered myself in sunscreen, I even saved all my pocket money to buy a special 'freckle bleach'. You won't be surprised to know that none of them worked.

As an adult I subjected my poor face to the hot snap of photo rejuvenation, which gave me porcelain, freckle-free skin - until they all came back again. If it wasn't so painful I would probably be in a permanent state of yoyo-freckling, but lucky for my bank account I couldn't put myself through that procedure more than once.

So, today, I am at peace with my freckles. My makeup artist friend, who has worked on some of the most gorgeous women in the world, thinks they are beautiful. And I realised that if my own daughter had freckles I would find them adorable on her, so why not on me?

It got me thinking about beauty, and how it creeps up on you sometimes, and how we need to find beauty in the every day. So I decided to finally put myself on the blogosphere with a little daily dose of beauty. It might be a person, it might be a song, it might even be a pair of shoes or a new lipstick - I hope to make this blog a virtual scrapbook of beautiful finds.

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to a number of shows at New Zealand Fashion Week, and of all the glitz and glamour and fashion, this photo was my favourite, taken back stage at Zambesi. I don't even know her name (update: apparently her name is Olivia Lefebre - thanks Kat) but her freckles make this photo beautiful. I hope she is the first of many femmes frecklé on this blog. For anyone interested in how to recreate her makeup, the Zambesi face chart is here.
The only thing I ask of you, lovely readers, is that you come back often and talk, talk, talk. Tell me what you think. Leave your comments. Share your thoughts.

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*OK - so technically, the word frecklé does not exist, or at least it didn't before now. To be freckled in French is to be covered in 'les tâches de rousseur'.