Product Review - Matrix Total Results Hair Care

Just for a change of pace, here is a product review I took part in recently. I was given a hair consultation by a team of hairdressers at L'Oreál who then recommended that I try a range of products from the 'Matrix Total Results Sleek' range.
I usually get all my hair advice from my favorite hairdresser in the world, Adrian at Delilah Hair Studio, but thought it might be kinda fun to take part in the trial (They were offering free Champagne- how could I resist?)
After the consultation, I was given a showbag full of product to try- Shampoo, conditioner and serum.
After a month, I had to report back in with the results.
Initially, I was quite impressed as I wasn't really expecting much. The products did do what they claimed they would- making my hair more shiny and smooth.
After trialling the product for a little while longer, I noticed that the product did build up on my hair and I felt like I needed to find another product to use to wash it out.
Overall given the price (this is a fairly cheap range- positioned at the lowest end of the salon category- about equal to the most expensive supermarket brand) I would say the product is good value. Would I buy it?....hmmm, not so sure. I have never found a product I love enough to stay loyal to but am willing to continue the search!!

If you want a bit of a laugh, here is a clip and some of the images from the trial! 

Out and About - 'The Day Before Lanvin'

Anna Boulic and myself at the 'Day Before Lanvin' film premiere presented by Madame Virtue & Co.  photograph by Couturing.com taken at ACMI Melbourne. For more photos and a wonderful review please visit www.couturing.com

This week I was lucky enough to attend a special premiere screening of the Lanvin film; 'The Day Before Lanvin'. The film was presented by Madame Virtue & Co. at ACMI at Federation Square as part of the upcoming Melbourne Fashion Festival.
The film followed current Lanvin designer, Alber Elbaz in the 48 hours leading up to their collection premiere parade. The film did a wonderful job in giving a realistic insight into the world of high fashion.
As an ex-fashion student, the stress and the all night marathon of work was all too familiar. I actually had a physical reaction as my eyes stung from the familiar feeling of exhaustion and concentration and my stomach started to churn. Watching the seamstress unpicking stitching hours before the show, reminded me of all the time I'd spent with my un-picker. (It was WAY to much which is why I became an illustrator not a fashion designer!!)

Some of my favourite things to see in the film:
A very quick history lesson. I loved hearing about the story behind the Lanvin Logo. The Logo was taken from an original photo of original designer Jeanne Lanvin and her young daughter and then styled into the famous trademark we know today.

A real insight into how hard the seamstresses, patten makers and technicians work and the pressure they deal with. I was very pleased to see them drinking some Veuve Clicquot at the end of their night and actually being in attendance at the actual parade (even if it was to work).

There is a wonderful review and photographs of the film premiere at here at www.couturing.com. Please check it out.

Vintage Poster Wedding Invitations

Before I get started on this post, I apologize once again for the lack of attention to this blog! If you've been following along you know things have been rather hectic to say the least! Just to catch you up to speed, this is where we are at now......
The Fanantique Boutique....is closed indefinitely as we work with our lawyer to sort out the disaster we had with the building and the landlord. We are hopeful that a resolution is on the horizon sometime in the not too distant future...I'll let you know. (In the meantime I'm becoming an expert on commercial lease law)
Gabor.....is continuing to recover really well from his accident, he's back at work and his overall recovery has been nothing short of a miracle (Thank-you for all of your well wishes)
The Wedding...has come and gone, we had a fabulous time in Hungary and doing some travel around Europe..we were also lucky enough to celebrate all over again with another wedding in Melbourne.
There will be plenty of pictures and posts to come re: wedding as I try and catch up!

So when it comes to the wedding, I've told you all about my special wedding fragrance in the last post, today I'll tell you a little about the invitation.
When I started looking around at all things wedding, spending hours and hours on Martha Stewart, pinterest and various blogs I discovered this gorgeous vintage style wedding poster.

(found on pinterest, originally pinned from 'Ruffled' see more here)

Isn't it stunning?! Of course my mind kicked into overdrive and I started to think about creating my own version. I loved the idea of including the venue and the date into the piece and I course I just adore the vintage style!   Given all the drama happening around me at the time, I knew I wouldn't have as much time as I would have liked to spend on this, so I thought about how I could take some short cuts....with a little help from photoshop of course!

Obviously, I wanted to convey the fact that the wedding was taking place in Hungary. I set about looking for Hungarian themed vintage posters. Given the sad history of Hungary...it was slim pickings for something that had the right feel.

One of my favourite prints is the one below, a travel ad for Budapest...but I was a little stumped on how to turn this into a wedding poster.

It certainly is gorgeous, I love the colours and the mood created by the lights dancing on the Danube.
(In the end I decided not to touch it but to incorporate it as a postcard inside my wedding invitation 'pack' that I was creating. Given that I was planning a destination wedding, I needed to provide my guests with a heap of information, such as travel details, useful phrases, language help etc. I made a series of postcards for this and this poster was reproduced as one of them)

Anyway, back to the task at hand..... I came across this old advertising print for a Hungarian Champagne. Perfect!! On so many levels! I love it. Now....to get to work.

Isn't it beautiful? Gabor tells me it is quite an iconic piece, well recognized by most Hungarians which I was happy to hear.
Ok, so as I explained, I know the right thing to do would be to create my own original piece from scratch...but who else puts together a wedding while their roof is literally falling in and spending time between doctors and lawyers? I gave myself permission to cheat.

So, I set to work....the first thing to do was remove the third person, this was to be a romantic wedding poster and three is a crowd.

Gone! I also changed the ladie's dress to white, to make it more 'weddingy' and made her a red head so she looked more like me. The next step was to change and add the text. I decided to replace the word 'Torley' (The Champagne brand) to the word 'Wedding'. In keeping with the style of the piece I used the Hungarian word for wedding. I also added the place name - Kunszentmiklos and our names and date. If you look closely below, you will see I also changed the label on the bottle.

What do you think? I'm pretty happy with it. I ended up using it as part of my invitation suite but will also be framing it up as a poster size. It will look just perfect next to my Grace Kelly L'Instant Tattinger print!

The finished product

My Perfect Wedding Fragrance

My Perfect Wedding Fragrance 

 

Here I am sampling perfume drafts at Fleurage with perfumer, Emma Leah.

photo by Rodger Cummins at the Age Newspaper

 

After some very drama filled and draining long months in the lead up to our wedding, it was simply wonderful to get on a flight to Budapest, get away from it all and just enjoy our big event without distraction.
Gabor and I have now been back in Melbourne for a week and are settling back into our normal life ...finally.
There have been some big changes and I have just started a new job (and already met some amazing people!) which I look forward to telling you more about in the weeks to come!
Despite all the hurdles along the way (read about all that here and here ) I still tried to take time out to plan my wedding day, in particular the small personal details that I know will be especially dear to me in the years to come.

I was very lucky to have had my entire wedding ensemble created by family and friends dear to me.
With the help of my Aunt, my dress came to life through my sketches and her amazing design and dressmaking skills (pictures to come soon) .

Apart from the dress, one very special element of what I wore on the day was my fragrance. I knew that whatever fragrance I chose, I would always remember it as my 'wedding fragrance' and it will always be very sentimental to me.

I was extremely lucky to have had the incredible experience of having the very talented Emma Leah of Fleurage custom make a very unique a personalized perfume just for the occasion. I can't speak highly enough of how wonderful the whole experience was, from the initial starting point to being able to actually wear the fragrance on the day. It was such a thrill to wear a scent that so perfectly captured everything I am and wanted to be on the day.

Of course, having the finished product (which was exquisitely presented in a full size bottle, a travel size presented in a bridal package and refill collection.) was fantastic but I also thoroughly enjoyed the process, getting to sample and discover new scents and be educated by a professional perfumer was a real treat!

The Age featured a great article recently, entitled 'Bespoke Melbourne' and you can read more about my experience at Fleurage perfumery there.

Time Out

There has been so much going on the last few months, with Gabor's doctors appointments and re-hab (he is doing amazingly well!) sorting out the shop and of course wedding planning that we needed a break.
We took some much needed time out and went out sailing on the bay on a beautiful sunny day.
It was so peaceful to pull the sails up and cruise along quietly away from all the buzz of the city.

Enjoying the sun

Melbourne in the distance

 

What has happened to Fanantique?!!

I am sure that many of you may be wondering, 'What has happened to Fanantique? Where has it gone?'
Well, unfortunately the answer is a little sad and quite unbelievable. You may or may not know that as of late November last year we had to leave our cute little shop in Bay Street due to storm damage.
We had a significant amount of water come in from the roof and damage our shop and stock. What you also might not know is that the water damage had happened on several occasions- soaking into the floor and ceiling and making the building quite unsafe. There is also a whole lot more to the story that I would love to share, but I am currently dealing with insurance and have enlisted the help of a lawyer to deal with a most disagreeable landlord. It is probably not appropriate to divulge too much just yet, but look forward to telling the whole ugly story once everything is resolved. (A simple drive past our old location will help paint a picture of what is happening!!)
With most of our stock being ruined right before the Christmas period, the chance of relocating and re-opening another store was simply not viable.  Further to that, you may have read or heard about the frightening time we were having with my fiancé, Gabor, being critically injured and in intensive care after a 17m fall while rock climbing. As you can imagine, this was another factor that made re-opening just not possible.
Until things are resolved we will not know for sure what is to become of 'Fanantique'.
But, the good news is:
Firstly Gabor is doing extremely well and continues to surprise everyone with his recovery.

Secondly, Fanantique will continue to operate.

For now, Fanantique will continue to operate as an online store and we will be expanding it and reworking it continually. I am also in the process of setting up an Etsy shop and from time to time will list larger items on Ebay. I am also taking part in some Markets here and there.  (I will update via our mailing list- sign up at www.fanantique.com.au)
Once we get insurance claims settled, we are planning on having a "garage sale" style of sale.

As for me, I have started to focus more on my illustration work in the meantime and look forward to sharing more of that here on the blog. I hope you don't mind but you will see this blog undergo some changes in the coming months. Initially, I began this blog to compliment the store and share some ideas but after the events of the last few months, I have decided that this will be a place for me to share a little more and  things will be a bit more personal. It will still embrace the Fanantique feel, because that is very much a part of me- but it will probably become a little more random but a lot more interesting.
If you have been reading the blog for a while you might remember that I have a wedding coming up, thankfully that is still happening despite everything! (all be it with a few changes to the plans!) It has been a welcome distraction as I am undertaking quite a lot of the work involved in organizing a wedding, from designing the invitations, the dress and accessories to possibly even having a go at a cake! (All with a little help from Pinterest) I look forward to sharing some wedding 'work in progress' images with you soon!

Anyway, I am looking forward to an exciting year filled with possibility and change, I look forward to us getting to know each other better!

Christmas Decorating

Well it certainly has been a hectic few months, and life has changed in a big way. Unfortunately our store is going through some unexpected upheavals due to damage caused by extensive renovations going on above us and we are  looking at relocating.....but as they say, 'the show must go on!'
We do have some exciting plans for the new year in the works...but in the meantime we are hosting some Christmas events. Here are a few pictures of some of the decorations we have on offer this season, I especially love the vintage Santa star ornament!!

One of my favourite gift ideas this year, a cute Besame lipgloss set!

I had to sneak this image of a 'cranberry mojito' in, it looks like the perfect Christmas drink! I found it over on a great blog 'We Are Not Martha', please visit it  here