I’ve banged on about dresses before and how great I think they are and how they are an instant outfit and you can wear them all year round and dress them up or down, tweak them to suit and ones with pockets are particularly awesome and all that kind of thing.

As the warmer weather starts to bed in, I find myself on the hunt for some nice summer dress action that can do double duty for work and the weekend. Over the last few years, I've eschewed shorts completely in favour of lightweight shift and t-shirt dresses to get me through Adelaide's heatwaves.

Here's what I favour in frockery these days:

1. Comfort

I am way too old to be bothered squeezing into something tight and short to sit at my desk all day. A good office dress needs a waist that will accommodate a big Friday lunch and be long enough to sit comfortably without cutting off any circulation. Lately I have been drawn to shift dresses with detachable ties that you can place as you like or a generous elastic waist. This one is from Little Party Dress.

2. Sleeves

I tend to go for sleeved items – not because I hate my arms but because sleeveless items tend to have the arm holes pulled forward by the bust, leading to side bra which I cannot stand. Every now and then I luck into a sleeveless dress with suitably snug arm holes and you better believe I get my cost per wear out of that, like this number from Katies.

3. Print and Detail

A good print is very cheering on a dull day and who doesn’t like some kind of fun detail like tassels? I used to be a huge devotee of the monochromatic dress but these days I tend to branch out. My office’s relaxed dress code means I don’t have to keep it corporate, which is another win. This is another beauty from Little Party Dress.

4. Transeasonability

As I mentioned, I like to wear dresses all year round so if I can rug up with tights, boots and a cardi then throw it all off (well, not ALL of it) once the warm weather arrives, then it feels like a whole new look. This was a steal from Rivers*. (Not an actual theft, I did pay for it, just not very much.)

5. Pockets

'Nuff said. This tasselled treasure is from Adrift.

Recently, I found myself acquiring a bunch of new beauty gear in the one week, so I thought I'd get it all together and share with you.


I needed to replace my Vani-T mineral foundation from the one I was kindly gifted at the first Bloggers United Adelaide event, so I logged on to their site and found that not only did they have a 10% off first orders code but also, the powder I wanted was bundled in with a moisturising primer and a cute kabuki brush in a Discover Minerals collection, so naturally I went ahead and added to cart. I haven't used a primer regularly before but so far I like what I see. The brush is marvellously fluffy and great for applying mineral powder and of course, the product is a HG.

I'd been stalking the Kat Von D Studded Kiss lipstick in Nobel for some time, waiting for a decent offer at Sephora online. When we ticked over into October, I got a birthday reward offer so I picked it up and the double-ended tarte Tarteist Double Take eyeliner in a moment of madness. I really need to ease up on black liquid eyeliner but I still can't tear myself away from the hope I will one day find a foolproof application method. It's super black and even the pencil end is mega inky so I need to take a light hand with it. The lipstick is paler than I expected but I am okay with that, as I did kind of think after hitting the order button that it would be too similar to one of my other million lipsticks but it's not, so yay.

Finally, I had an eye make-up lesson at the Benefit counter in Myer Adelaide. I am always up for tips and tricks and the lovely Gabby gave me some easy to follow ideas for creating a decent eye look, which I then went ahead to wear to the Spendless Shoes launch.


I decided to pick up the brow pencil and when I found out it came in a Defined and Refined Brow kit with full sized other gear for only a bit more, well - what else would you do.

I put together a face using all of the products (and a couple of others I had kicking around)


I didn't mean to take this shot with my eyes closed but it does actually work because you can see how I did my eyeshadow, using the tips Gabby gave me.



Bought any fun new beauty products lately?

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All of these products were bought with my own coin. For more information around collaborations and working with Almost Post, please see my Work With Me page.

If you know me, you know I love shoes, so when this invitation arrived on my doorstep, I was both intrigued and very, very, extremely keen.


I have been a fan of Spend-Less Shoes going way back because traditionally I do like to spend less and get more. If you follow me on Instagram, you'd have seen a lot of my brown boots this winter. But did you know they are an Australian company AND they are headquartered right here in Adelaide? They send their buyers all over the world to source the best in shoe trends, delivering them back to us in the form of affordable footwear and have been doing so since 1988.

The event was, quite frankly, stunning with many a gorgeous detail and lots of beautifully-presented food and drink.




An Instagram competition invited guests to collect a passport and play dress-ups in front of various location stations, including NYC, Santorini, spring racing, a wedding, a garden party and a boho doorway, tying in with the hashtag #thepairtotakeyouanywhere. You can see my entries over on Insta . . . find me at @almostposh and go ahead, show me some love, I don't mind.

Here's one of my outfits, featuring the Heidi shoe in rose gold . . .


I took my friend and Almost Posh contributor Bridie along as my chief photographer and we had a great time swanning around the various stations, admiring the outfits of other guests, playing with shoes and enjoying the occasional nibble.




These are some of the lovely ladies from Spend-Less who welcomed us to the event, worked the Shoe Bar and answered questions about the brand. And also gave us the hot tip that shoes would be given away at the end of the night!


 Don't mind if I do . . .


Not to mention a lovely goodie bag with further shoe-based treats within! Talk about spoilt.

Thank you to Be Young PR for the invitation, Spend-Less Shoes for the party and the many suppliers that contributed to the event . . .

@pickawall
@modernparty
@studiobotanic
@redhengin
@aeon.collective
@littlebigballoonco
@fromthewild.com.au
@footeandflame
@hellokitco
@couturelovemadness_
@entorageevents
@lamannapatisserie
@foodbyannabel
@novatechcet
@wineforyogalovers
@chateauapollo
@philpirone
@somethingborrowedeventhireadelaide
@cassieyoung_pr
@partywithlenzo
@adelaidecityoptometrist
@sylvyearl
@_gretakate_
@madeforagoddess
@frio_thelabel
@homesupply

Have you got any Spend-Less in your shoe-drobe? If not I suggest you check out the new season collection for something that might take your fancy . . .

If there's two things my daughter loves, it's Halloween and LUSH products. So when the latest box of limited edition treats made an appearance in our house, needless to say, she was pretty enthused about the whole thing.


The 2017 collection is full of weird and wonderful things that are more about delight than fright, so let's have a peek . . .


Let's start with Miss L's number 1 favourite, the bath bombs (two of which have already crossed over to the netherworld):


The Lord of Misrule ($7.95) is a favourite scent among LUSHies and I can see why, it's spicy and peppery and maybe a bit piney? The cheeky jack o'lantern grin of Pumpkin ($7.95) serves up vanilla and spice and all things nice, served up in a cheeky jack o'lantern grin and the Ectoplasm jelly bomb ($8.95) has a little trick of its own . . .


Did I mention she's also obsessed with picking them up while they're fizzing?

Now, I love living in Australia and being Australian but one of my deepest regrets is not living in the USA at this time of year to be able to enjoy all things pumpkin spice. These gorgeous sparkly bubble bars ($8.95 each) almost make up for it. ALMOST.


Pink and gold sparkles, what more could you want. Well, besides a pumpkin spice latte, obviously.

And speaking of bubble bars, what's new, pussycat?


 I KNOWWWWWW. The Bewitched bubble bar ($9.95) will have you feline fine. (I thought I made that up but LUSH were one step ahead of me, curses!)


Now here are some new and interesting things. Yes, they look like chocolate biscuits. No, they are not but they do go on your lips. The Black Rose Naked Lip Scrub ($9.95) is a packageless lip treatment to swipe across your smackers, the Black Rose Naked Lip Tint ($9.95) can be applied directly (I imagine) or with a wet brush and the traditionally packaged Black Rose Tint ($9.95) looks black but goes on pink. Because you can never have too much pink, amiright?


Oh my goth, how cute is the little Goth Fairy shimmer bar ($11.50). Something tells me I need to start writing copy for LUSH because they beat me to that OMG one as well, dagnabbit. As a teen of the 90s, I love me some body shimmer, I will be reaching for this before my next big night out.

Finally the Lord of Misrule shower cream ($19.95) was a perfectly timed arrival into the house as "boy shower gel" appeared on the shopping list, and I was able to present this acceptably masculine-scented offering in his favourite colour. Everyone's happy.

Halloween is a fun time and I am looking forward to decorating our front porch, welcoming trick or treaters and dressing up to DJ at a Halloween club night in the city. What are your plans? Do you love Halloween too?

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Products kindly gifted by LUSH for review. All opinions, images and Halloween decorations are mine and authentic. For more information or collaboration opportunities, please see my Work With Me page.