Cosmetic Cupcake

On Saturday morning Anita, her fiance S and I headed to The Star for Zumbaron Day. It was the first Zumbaron Day for both of us so we were both very very excited of course haha. Zumbaron Day (previously Macaron Day) is held once a year to celebrate Adriano Zumbo's birthday and when 60 something unique and wonderful macaron flavours are available. S very kindly drove us which meant we got there at about 7:30am and thankfully we were one of the first there yay! We were expecting a crazy line but even by the time they opened the doors after 8am the line still wasn't too crazy . Adriano Zumbo tweeted a pic of the line at The Star - can you spot Anita and I in the pic??!! (hint we're on our phones LOL)

For my international ladies, Adriano Zumbo is a patisser extraordinaire and comes up with some AH-MAZING creations with macarons being one of his most famous. His cakes and macarons are definitely out there with macaron flavours that have included pigs blood, beetroot and raspberry and mango and sweet corn. All his creations are like works of art! You can peep a post I did a few years back here.


Before I show you my macaron haul I thought I'd show you the mani I've had on over the weekend. Of course I had to do a mani for Zumbaron day so I went with a macaron accent!


What I used:


Pinky: I used 2 coats of Hello Darling Hopelessly Devoted* and used Kiss nail art paint striper in white to draw vertical lines.

Ring finger: MACARONS!!! I used 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow as my base and freehanded the macarons using a small nail art brush. For the chocolate macaron I used Canmake Colorful Nails 54 (Chocolate Syrup) for the cookies and Ulta 3 chocolate cake for the filling; raspberry macaron I used BYS Pink with a Punch for the cookies and Hello Darling Hopelessly Devoted* for the filling; pistachio macaron I used Hello Darling Mint Slice* for the cookies and Essence Lime Up! for the filling and blueberry macaron I used Hello Darling The First Corsage* for the cookies and China Glaze Grape Pop for the filling. PHEW!


Middle finger: I used 3 coats of Nails Inc. Sweets Way.

Index finger: I used 2 coats of Face of Australia Once in a Blue Moon*.

Thumb: I used 2 coats of Hello Darling Hopelessly Devoted* and stamped full polka dot image from Konad plate m79 using Konad Special polish in white.




Onto Zumbaron Day! Below is the order form with the list of flavours available this year. 62 awesome flavours!! It was so hard to choose which ones to get because obviously I would have loved to try them all but I had to limit myself.

My haul!! Obviously it wasn't all for me though lol. I got 24 macarons in total which included 4 of the made to order Zumbarons only available at the Star and also a slice of the infamous V8 cake. Cola is my favourite flavour of all time and I enjoyed the fried donut, fried chicken, redskin and palm sugar & coconut ones the most. Kimchi was sooooo weird and vegemite tasted a bit odd too!

The made to order ones I hauled (clockwise from top left): custard fritter, pork belly, fried donut and fried chicken. These were amazing! They were double the price of the other macarons though which they didn't advertise but considering how cool they were it was all good haha.

I'll leave you with some macaron porn from the day xp

All in all it was fantastic morning and I am all macaron-ed out now haha. It certainly won't be my last Zumbaron Day!! I hope you all had a great weekend! Are you a fan of macarons too?

* Product(s) provided to me for consideration but this in no way influenced my review in any way. As always, my reviews are my 100% honest opinion. My Disclosure Policy can be viewed here.

I am a huge lover of macarons so you can imagine my excitement when I heard that iconic French brand Ladurée was opening in Sydney. Yep I nearly lost my s**t haha! It opened last week in Westfield Sydney and on the weekend I stopped by with Anita and Angela to check it out. I had to snap a few pics of course lol. I didn't bring my camera so iPhone pics will have to suffice ;)









Of course they were DELICOUS and at $3.20 each are slightly pricier than your average macaron but still very very reasonable. I wanted to get 2 dozen but just went for 8 lol. My favourites were salted caramel and the marshmallow filled ones - just so damn good! We went early Saturday morning and the wait time was only about 15-20mins. If you're planning to go definitely the earlier the better!

I am waaaaaaaaaaay behind on posts it's not funny. I fail as a blogger HAHA! I hope you're all doing well =)

No beauty post for you ladies today but instead I have some glorious food! D and I went for a drive to the mountains on Saturday to indulge in some yummy food and to take some time out. We haven't been for a drive in AGES and the weather happened to be beautiful on Saturday so it was perfect!! The photos in this post will be a mix of Instagram and camera pics ;)

First stop was Leura which is such a gorgeous little town! I love the Leura Candy Store (Shop 6 178 Leura Mall Leura, NSW) which is an old fashioned little candy store. Shelves upon shelves of CANDY!!!! Seriously heaven for this sweets guzzler. I bought a few things but unfortunately my family attacked the sweets before I could take pics!!


Then we headed over to Josophan's Fine Chocolates (132 The Mall Leura, NSW) for a chocolate hit. Oh my goodness this chocolate boutique is so calorie inducing! The award winning chocolates are handcrafted on site and the flavour combinations are quite unusual.



We picked up some choccies to take home but unfortunately I can't remember exactly what we purchased doh! I know the red one is a chilli chocolate, the pyramid is blueberry and the small round ones are lime and basil I think. Sorry for the crappy plating below - it was late when I got home and had to quickly snap a pic before I devoured them!


We had lunch at The Swiss Cottage Restaurant (132 Lurline Street, Katoomba NSW) which is a favourite restaurant of D's from his childhood. It was my first time going and Oh. My. God. It was one of the best meals I've had all year!! It comes second in my top dining experiences of the year after Tetsuya's. I didn't get a main as I'd been snacking all morning though xp


The decor of the restaurant is so quaint! Such old world charm and really puts you in the mood for Swiss/French food.



A dozen escargots ($26). So more-ish. So garlic-y. SO DAMN DELICIOUS.


One of the specials of the day French onion soup ($12). I love French onion soup and I'm hard pressed to find decent ones. This was absolutely delicious and definitely homemade.


Country rosti with grilled cheeses and sour cream ($15). Rosti is one of my favourite dishes and this didn't disappoint at all! Sour cream + cheese + potatoes = winner in my book. I must say D's version is slightly better though ;)


White Farm Rabbit cooked in a basil sauce ($28.50).


The bill is brought to your table in a cute little cow with a bell! So cute x)


Last stop was Bakery Patisserie Schwarz (Shops 1 & 2, 30 Station Street Wentworth Falls, NSW) for a slice of cake and coffee or in my case a hot chocolate. Schwarz Patisserie is a well known German bakery and we just had to make a stop to try out some of the delicious offerings. We ordered a slice of the black forest cake and we had to order another straight away!! D isn't much for sweets but he literally inhaled half the slice in 10 seconds. The cherries were the best bit - huge chunks and so tart and delicious - the best black forest I have ever tasted hands down!


I'll leave you with a pic of the Blue Mountains on Saturday. Could the weather have been any better??!


What did you get up to on the weekend? Did you have any food adventures?

Thanks for looking as always!

Hi ladies! How was your weekend? Mine went by FAR too quickly unfortunately. I had to reschedule my plans for Saturday as I needed to rest up but my ankle is feeling so much better now so it was worth the sacrifice x) Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a blogger meet up along with 14 other Sydney beauty bloggers for a spot of High Tea at The Victoria Room in Darlinghurst. I decided to go for some pretty pink nails to fit in with the occasion!


I stuffed up my index finger but you can't really tell in the pics, my mani actually looks better in my pics than it did in real life! What I used for my manicure:


Pinky: 2 coats of China Glaze Something Sweet with full floral image from Konad plate m71 using China Glaze Admire.

Ring finger: 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow. I then created a rhinestone bow using silver and pink rhinestones.

Middle finger: 2 coats of China Glaze Something Sweet topped with 2 coats of the amazing Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air. The pastel blue base of GITA turned the pink base somewhat lavender-ish which was kinda nice!

Index finger: 2 coats of China Glaze Something Sweet as base. I then stamped lace design from Konad plate m71 using Konad Special Polish in white. I stamped it crooked!! x(

Thumb: 2 coats of China Glaze Something Sweet as a base. I then freehanded a French tip using Eyeko Chi Chi polish and added silver glitter to the smile line using Kiss nail art striper in silver glitter.



I love high tea but I’ve never been to The Victoria Rooms so I was looking forward to trying it out. Unfortunately I didn’t take too many photos because the Victoria Rooms is just SO darned dark which means photos turn out crappy. The lack of light is all part of the ambiance I’m sure but I like to actually see what I’m eating and who I’m talking to! The food was delicious and the company was great though.


We also did a little swap and I picked up a few goodies which was nice!


Big thanks to Sara-May for organising it! Can’t wait for the next meet up =) What did you get up to on the weekend? Also, happy 4th of July to my US readers!!

Thanks for looking as always! =D

I went to Macau overnight during my visit to Hong Kong last month and I thought I would share some pics with you from there as well as the rest of my food pics =) Macau is such a strange place because it's got so much history yet is filled with casinos and is so touristy. It's always lots of fun going there though!

We stayed at the Venetian hotel overnight which was a bit of a letdown. The service was very crappy but at least it's fun exploring the place! I can't go to Venice anytime soon so it's the closest thing to going lol.



The view from our 33nd floor room:


A new casino opened up while we were there called Galaxy casino Macau and ZOMG it was so amazing! The view of the casino at night:


It was seriously over the top (but cool) inside and to top it off they had a huge water feature in the lobby that would play music and reveal a MASSIVE fake diamond every half hour. I WANT A DIAMOND THIS HUGE Xp


We walked about the town centre and visited the Ruins of St Pauls amongst other places to take some pictures:


Food highlights of Macau! I didn't get time to eat a pork chop burger unfortunately but at least I had a Portuguese tart. We had an awesome Thai dinner at the Venetian before we left to go back to HK which I unfortunately threw up on the ferry ride X( Again, all pics are clickable and hover for a little description =)


I'll leave you with some more food highlights from HK! Because I only went for 2 weeks I didn't get to eat everything I wanted and when I did I scoffed it down greedily and totally forgot to take pics haha.

Some main meals:


Honkie food:


Snacks:


Desserts:


I hope you guys enjoyed seeing my HK adventures! Do you like food and lifestyle posts like this? I love food as much as I love nail polish and cosmetics (OK maybe a teeny bit less) so I hope you don't mind me sharing =)

Thanks for looking!