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Next to ” How do you wear red lipstick?” the second most question I’m asked by readers is, “How do you get those amazing eyebrows?” And the answer is, “At the hands of a highly skilled professional!”

Brow maintenance is a highly underrated factor in created a perfectly polished look. But a DIY job is likely to be a DIYD job (that’s Do It Yourself Disaster).  There are two things that ever woman (and a lot more men) should have at their disposal – An eyebrow guru and the perfect eyebrow pencil.

As someone who is naturally blessed with eyebrows of Brooke Sheilds follicular proportions, I learnt very early on that keeping them under control would make a break or girl come high school. But it took me some time to find just the right person in which to place my trust for this highly skilled operation.

First, my disaster story. And like all good disasters, this takes place on the eve of my wedding.

As a well organised bride with 24 hours up my sleeve before my Vegas wedding, I made the mistake of visiting a local beauty parlour for a bit of a touch up.  I didn’t think that my brows were particularly out of control, but I did want them to be perfect for the next day.

(Aside – I should add here – NEVER have your brows done less than 48 hours before a big event as you’ll sometimes experience redness, swelling or a reaction to waxes that you’d hate to happen just then).

Right, so I showed the technician a photo of how I usually styled them and let myself relax on the table.  About ten minutes later she smiles and chirps at me, “All done. Wanna take a look?” Having no inkling of the horror that awaited me  I took the mirror from her hand and looked up…and it was a moment right from a Hammer film. I had no eyebrows!!

Okay, so maybe not exactly none, but what I didn’t know was that the trend in Vegas was to shave them off to little more than stubble then pencil them back in again. Oh dear god. I immediately broke out in a cold sweat, grabbed my bag and headed for the nearest department store to try and track down my saviour in pencil form.

Still to this day I hate the close up photos from my wedding because I just don’t look like me.  And let that be a lesson; before trying out someone new to wax your brows, first test out their rudimentary skills as a bikini waxer, then ask to see their book of before and after shots. Brow shaping is an art and a science, and more importantly, it is one that EVERYONE will see.

To find the right eyebrow technician, choose someone who has been in the game for a long time. Someone who takes the time to analyse your face shape, as well as your life style (do you generally wear much makeup?), what style you’d like to replicate, (high glam, free spirited, silent film star…) and is able to translate all that information into the correct solution for you.

Just like hairstyling, I also suggest taking along pictures of brow shapes you love so that nothing is lost in translation, but keep in mind that what will work on you will be a version of your ideal.

I personally recommend brow tinting for everyone, not just light blondes; but do remember that tints come in many different shades so if you only see blue black on the technicians swatches, maybe give it a miss!

I don’t recommend getting your brows tattooed, because just like hemlines, the fashion for brow shapes change. And not only that, as your face changes with age, your brow shape can be an instant facelift and you don’t want to rob yourself of that option.

So in the spirit of sharing and caring, I took along my camera yesterday when I went to visit with my own personal Eyebrow Queen, Eileen Harper. Elieen has been looking after me for at least ten years now, and with more years in the beauty industry than I’m sure she’d care to mention, I have the utmost trust and faith in her work.

After a few months of travelling around, I hadn’t been for a touch up in a while. Here’s how things looked before hand..

Okay, they’re not so dreadful that they’ll jump off the page and smoother you, but the could certainly do with some attention and cleaning up.

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It all looks rather surgical, but that just goes to show what a precise operation it is..

No, this isn’t me screaming in pain, but in fact laughing hysterically at how ridiculous it is to be taking one handed photos of yourself while having your brows waxed. It was very hard to hold still and serious during the ‘operation’ while we shot these.

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And that’s one side done.

You can see how this is a far more involved and multi stepped process that just lining yourself up in the mirror, tweezers in hand.  After both my brows have been shaped, I then have them tinted with some dark brown or blue/black tint.  This is especially handy if you don’t want to pencil them in for drama each day, or if your heading off on a swimming holiday. And that’s the salon part done.

For those of you in Melbourne, you can find my own personal Eyebrow Queen at Eileen Harper Beauty Therapy in Canterbury on (03)9836 2294.

The next day, after any redness has subsided, they are ready for the final touch.  I almost always pencil my brows for a crisp dramatic frame.  Rather than using an actual brow pencil though, I use the Dior Powder Eyebrow pencil in sable.  In is much easier to apply than a hard pencil, easier to blend and build to the desired intensity. Using the brush on the end of the pencil, I groom them into shape, then with fine, short feathery strokes, I finish of the shape I want for the day.

And that’s it.  Brow perfection!

A Nuffnang sponsored post… in which you can WIN a personal stylist, me and $1000 spending money!!!

When I tweeted the other day that I was heading into Westfield to experience a personal styling session, a great cry went up of “Oh no, you’re not going to loose your vintage styling are you?” Let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth, but I was indeed off on an adventure.

As a part of their new Personal Styling services, Westfield invited me to spend the morning with one of their top stylists and experience what they have to offer. And what fun we had!

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When I met up with Jo my stylist, I’ll admit to feeling some trepidation about what awaited me. I knew that the khaki trend and I were not on friendly terms, and the leopard print body suits and I were experiencing some generation gap issues; but I was ready to put myself in her skilled hands and see what resulted.

Our first and most essential port of call was to stop for a much-needed coffee and a bit of a chat about my style.  I knew I wasn’t going to be the easiest client in the world, but that is surely one way to test out someone’s skills. Jo and I talked about my style, key elements that are important to me, my rules for ‘never’ (thigh high hems for instance), pieces that are missing from my wardrobe and trends I’d like to experiment with.  To my mind, the biggest benefit of using a personal stylist like Jo is the knowledge they can send you away with.  Not just a simple, “oh cute top!” but in teaching you about your body type, what works, what doesn’t and why.  And with that aim in mind we set out to find some cute ensembles that fit my personal style brief, but also to show you what didn’t work for me and why.

We started out at Forever New, which is full of leopard print, nudes and super soft knits this season. I always fall in love with their advertising images and the overall look of the store, but falter when I see the hemlines. Still, we decided to see what creative combinations we could come up with. And this was the winning Forever New ensemble.

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I’d found this lovely nude beaded dress with a strong 1920’s vibe, but it was cut a good 6 inches above my knee! It was also far too straight up and down for my figure, so we made a few key additions. Finding another ribbon trimmed skirt, we added that underneath, crinoline style, to give it length and volume. Then we used a wide beaded belt to give the dress more waist definition. Topped of with a cropped and beaded angora cardigan, it all came together to create a look that was more elegant princess than tall slender flapper (which I clearly am not). We liked the look, but knew it wasn’t quite on the money, so the adventure continued.

As we wandered around a few more stores, Jo and I decided we would show you just what it is a stylist does for you.  It isn’t just taking you to a random bunch of stores and finding pretty things, (you can do that yourself), but it is in finding out the science of shape, colour and finish that make pieces work for you; or not.   So I decided to be brave and take some shots of the Sad outfit as well as the Happy outfits and what the difference was.

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I’ve never worn a lace dress (being scared by Madonna in the 80’s), but wanted to try out this one in Cue.  But as you can see, some very small details make very big differences. The pic on the left has the sleeves sitting right on top of the shoulder, not at all flattering for my broad shoulders but the pic on the right has them spread out to make a little cap.  Although the difference is actually about 2cm in reality, the overall effect is very different.

But it wasn’t just the sleeves that made a huge difference; let’s see what happens when we add a belt to define the waist.

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I happen to have a long torso, as Jo quickly picked up seeing me in this dress. And as I love the hourglass shape I want to make sure my waist is always defined, but can you see what a difference is made by where I wore the belt?

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It isn’t just where you wear the belt, it’s the width as well.  This plaid dress came off the rack with the belt on the left.  It does nothing for me and nothing for the dress, but switch it out for a wider version and yes!  (Excuse the dishevelled hair, lots of change room shenanigans here..)

Thinking beyond the way something comes off the hanger opens up a world of possibilities. I really liked this plaid taffeta dress, but look what happened when we undid the zip a bit and pinned the neckline differently.

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Total win!

But what about colour? Most of us think we know what suits us and often won’t go near other colours. Sometimes we put something on and think it’s all wrong, but is it the shape that’s the problem or the colour?

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Both cute looks, but the punchy colour on the left is infinitely better on me. Jo knew we could make this even better by taking that same winning colour and picking another shape.

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This was my absolute favourite outfit of the day. The colour, the shape, the balance… and all still very much a ‘me’ look.

Having access to your very own personal style fairy godmother at Westfield, is something that you can use if you’re brand new to the fashion game or even if you have a strong personal sense of style. It isn’t about changing what you love to fit in with the crowd, but to find the secrets of unlocking the best versions of the looks you love- just for you.

You can get a taste of what a Westfield stylist can offer you right now with a complimentary 15 minute session in any of the Westfield fashion centres; but that’s just the beginning. Here’s the brilliant news…. You could win a Personal Styling Session with both your Westfield stylist and me! And not only that, but you’ll also win $1000 to spend on your big day out Could it possibly get any better than that?!

All you have to do is tell me Why you need a Westfield Personal Styling Session for your chance to win the lot!

The winner will be the best entry as chosen by me, so make sure you tell me your story.

Entries are open from Tuesday March 29 – Tuesday 12th April. The conest is open anywhere in Australia, but you must be in Melbourne or able to make your own way here to redeem your prze.

Full terms and conditions can be found here.

So don’t waste a second getting stylish and tell me why YOU need a Westfield Style Session now!!

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The perfect vintage solution to bad hair days!  Here is a quick and relatively simple new tutorial that will teach you how to create those lovely side sweeps and the right way to wear a snood. Remember this 1940′s hair style from last week’s outfit post?  This is how I did it!

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How to do a simple 1940′s vintage daytime hairstyle.

Remember you can subscribe to the Super Kawaii MamaYou Tube chanel too.

On the very first page of the very first chapter, I realised one major thing about author Kelly Doust and myself. Not only are we of the same ‘vintage’, but we suffer from the same addiction. Clothes.

Dressing is not simply the act of keeping one’s self from being naked, or a pursuit of the fashionable; but an all consuming, full sensory experience that never seems to be satiated. Clothes for us are another language, a vocabulary without which we would only be a shadow of our true selves.

“A Life in Frocks” is Kelly’s account of growing up keenly aware of the power of clothes and their ability to transform both physically and spiritually. As she begins to describe her first childhood pair of knickerbockers, I knew I’d found a kindred spirit having clear memories of my own pair. Navy blue velvet with little golden buttons, I wore them whilst playing cubby house in the country with my cousins, chasing them around with sticks and ordering them back to the coal mine in Dickensian fashion.

With all the colour and angst that being a teen in the 80′s and 90′s brings, Kelly relates her metamorphosis from child to teen. Each occasion costumed in the uniform of the moment, wearing rebellion, dreams and passion on her sleeve. My own memories are constructed in the same way. I remember my 7th birthday, not for the day itself, but for what I wore. The dress lovingly made by my mother with it’s little pink seashell belt, forever etched into my memory and the first key to unlocking the techni-coloured reel of images in my head. And this is the beauty of “A Life in Frocks”. it isn’t simply a book about fashion, but more a remembrance, a way of connecting with you and helping you weave the threads of your own fashion memory and the joy it holds.

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Beautifully illustrated by Zoe Sadokierski, it allows you to take the impression of the garments and fill in the blanks with your own unique memories. While Kelly and I have both developed our own unique styles, what is thrilling is to read the path that someone else has taken on their journey to style realisation.  To read where our paths converge and how we interpreted each developmental moment through fashion.

It is hard not to be a little greedy when reading this book, as you want to devour it in one sitting; much like a luxurious afternoon tea with a girlfriend.  But in taking each chapter a bite at a time, allowing it to seep in and work its magic on your own story, it becomes the beginning of a banquet.

“A Life In Frocks” is published by Murdoch Books and available now at all good bookstores.

This Thursday I’m honored to be modelling for the delightful Charlotte Smith, some of her pieces from the Darnell Collection.

You will remember her covetable collection seen in her books “Dreaming of Dior ” and “Dreaming of Chanel”. Charlotte is hosting this exclusive VIP event to raise funds for a local school affected by the recent floods.  The show will be held at “Cranlana”, one of this countries grandest private homes, in a rare opportunity to experience  first class vintage in such glamorous surroundings.

This exclusive event is by pre-purchased tickets only, and are available by calling Circa Vintage.  If you would like to enjoy a memorable morning out with the ladies, put on your very best vintage and join us this Thursday!

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