Yoga for you and your mates! [Pic: National Geographic]

I’ve known about this amazing free opportunity for a while now, and sometimes I don’t even think about letting you all know because I imagine that everyone HAS TO ALREADY KNOW about it, because it is just so awesome!

So, were you aware you can take part in yoga, pilates, capoeira & running club classes in Perth, for the low low fee of… well, nothing? Quite literally the best deal in town.

With classes both morning and night, you can indulge in a little free ‘me time’ whether you’re a chirpy morning bird or more of an evening style bird… perhaps a kookaburra?

Lululemon Athletica is a fun shop that sells all the yoga and running gear you could ever want, and they mega-generously offer these aforementioned free classes at both their Perth city store and Cottesloe store!

I would like to share with you the upcoming free fitness timetable for the Perth / Enex100 store. All you need to bring down is your fine self and a bottle of water. They provide the yoga mats, props and instruction. LOVE IT!

Tuesday, April 12
Ashtanga Yoga with Ambasaddor Rob Schutze at 6pm.

Wednesday, April 13
Pilates with Patrick Renner at 7am

Run Club with Sean O’Neill at 5.30pm

Thursday, April 14
Vinyasa Yoga with Laila Mahmud at 6pm

Tuesday, April 19

Capoeria with Bantus Capoeira at 6pm

Wednesday, April 20

Pilates with Patrick Renner at 7am

Run Club with Sean O’Neill at 5.30pm

Thursday, April 21

Vinyasa Yoga with Sam Briatico at 6pm

Tuesday, April 26

Capoeria with Bantus Capoeira at 6pm

Wednesday, April 27

Pilates with Patrick Renner at 7am
Run Club with Sean O’Neill at 5.30pm

Thursday, April 28
Power E with Makita Gabriel at 6pm

And now for the explanations of what the above are, in case you’re wondering! 🙂

Ashtanga yoga is a system of yoga transmitted to the modern world by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (1915-2009). This method of yoga involves synchronizing the breath with a progressive series of postures—a process producing intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs. The result is improved circulation, a light and strong body, and a calm mind. Our Ambassador Rob Schütze, who is leading those two weeks of Ashtanga Yoga, is one of the co-owners of The Yoga Space in West Perth. He is one of eleven Australians Authorised by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois to teach Ashtanga Yoga. 

Vinyasa yoga is one of the most commonly practised styles in the West. Sometimes referred to as “flow” yoga, the classes usually focus on breathing and movement which is almost dance-like.

Capoeira classes guarantee to have you doing this in your first lesson, ok I lie! But you could one day, and how cool does it look?!

Capoeira is a Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, and music. It was created in Brazil mainly by descendants of African slaves with some very limited Brazilian native influences, probably beginning in the 16th century. It is known by quick and complex moves, using mainly power kicks and quick leg sweeps, with some ground and aerial acrobatics, knee, take-downs, elbows, punches and headbutts.

Power E founder Makita Gabriel will lead a class at lululemon on Thursday, April 21

Power E is a series of low impact energy workouts that energise the body, calms the mind and balances the emotions. Each workout has a specific exercise sequence to help build inner confidence, energy balance, strength, vitality and inner peace.

Enex100 is located @ 683-703 Hay Street Perth WA 6000.

Thinking of heading down? I would LOVE to hear of your experiences! I hope this information has been useful in keeping your wallet heavy!

Be well,

xoxo

Let me share some of my New Years Resolutions with you:

♥ Call or catch up with Mum and Dad once a week
♥ Try Omnilux and microdermabrasion
♥ Call my friends on their birthdays
♥ Finally learn, ONCE AND FOR ALL, how to apply makeup with at least a 1% degree of skill!

Last Saturday I turned up at Bella Hart in Subiaco in order to work on that final point. With my notoriously hard to match skin tone and eyes that I was certain just couldn’t ‘do’ eye makeup, the ‘Flawless and Minimalist‘ makeup workshop had found itself a tricky participant, but I was also hopeful my woes would turn out to be no match for the makeup experts.

The start of the class. The cute thing, which you can’t see very well here, is the cups! They have hearts on them 🙂 I thought it was a nice touch.

The workshops go for 2 hours, from 9:30am-11:30am, usually on a Saturday, and there were 6 of us workshop-ees in total, a mixed bunch – all with very different skintones and colourings, as well as one main makeup artist & her model / assistant.

Dani (makeup model / assistant) and Rachael, who ran the event showing us how to achieve an easy day look. I’d also like to note here that Rachael’s makeup was gorgeous, when she came up and greeted me at the start I was very impressed with how good it looked.

Armed with our sheet to write down the products we used and liked, an array of brushes, a personal mirror & our eyes and ears to watch and learn, we worked through each area of the face

As a makeup novice, I feel like I learned a lot!

Some of the highlights include:

♥ Finding a makeup shade that gives a bit more coverage than I would usually use, but looks great in photos. (Laura Mercier Oil Free Foundation in Porcelain Ivory (yep, I’m a ghostie!)
♥ Finding out you can apply primer using a foundation brush.
♥ BECCA Fine Loose Finishing Powder in Sesame. Winner.

The BECCA powder in question!

I did struggle with the eye makeup section of the class, as I literally have only the most minimal skill in that department. Another member of staff who wasn’t involved in the workshop came over and helped me by doing a great look on me with eyeshadow – unfortunately it wasn’t the one that everyone else was learning, and I have no idea how to replicate it, so I’m still lacking the basic eyeshadow skills.

Half the group!

The other half. (sorry about the pics!)

Overall I would recommend this master class for sure! It was a bit rushed towards the end so it would be nice if there was an extra half hour or additional staff member on hand to help out with the workshop, but all in all it was a success and I left with some new tools under my beauty belt.

I think the best thing about the workshops are the range of products available to try – because there is a wide range of makeup brands, you’re not going to get forced into a ‘not quite good enough’ shade like you might if you attended a brand-specific event.

I did laugh though, because the minimalist look that we did on ourselves was actually WAY more makeup than I would usually use – even for going out at night as I don’t tend to wear a lot of makeup!

I will be attending and reviewing another three workshops being run by Bella Hart in the coming months, so please stay tuned for more photos and reviews 🙂

I was invited by Bella Hart to attend the workshops.

Be well,

Annette

xoxo

I LOVE themed parties! Give me an excuse to get into costume and play a character for the night and I will be there with bells on; and in this case Swarovski crystals as well.

On this occasion the theme for the party was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The look I wanted to go for was an “ethereal woodland fairy”, much like the mischievous characters from Shakespeare’s play.

I designed the outfit myself. The top was made out of a satin and organza skirt that I shredded into panels and draped strategically over my torso, leaving my back and most of my midriff bare. The flowing, long, white skirt complimented the baby pink top and I painted my toenails with a shimmering polish and went barefoot.

For my hair and make-up, I called in the professionals.

Slajana Spaseski is the founder and owner of the Perth based business, Make-up by Design. She arrived at my house equipped to completely transform me, and efficiently went about turning my bathroom into a salon.

♥ Slaj gives me the tip “during the day it’s always best to work in a room that has natural light”.

Julia before makeup.

Julia after makeup.

Over the next 3 hours, we planned and executed the complex transformation as you can see from the before and after photos. Slaj deftly moved from product to product and so I asked her to give me a rundown of just how she created this design.

Here is a step by step guide you can follow yourself:

Base

♥ Always begin with a clean canvas (baby wipes are best to clean the face because make up wipes often leave an oily residue which can make the base unstable).

♥ Apply a primer to the skin with a foundation brush. The primer will prep the skin for the foundation and will also make it last longer. I used Jemma Kidd Primer. It has light reflecting particles in it which give the skin a youthful glow.

♥ Next I applied Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation (Available online at StrawberryNet) all over the face.


Cheekbones

♥ Julia is naturally gifted with very chiselled cheekbones (thanks Slaj) and so I merely accentuated them by using a peach powder blush on the apples of her cheek.

♥ Then, from my Smashbox Contouring Palette I used the darkest colour powder in the hollow of her cheek and my Smashbox Mosaic Highlighter Palette to accentuate the cheek bone.


The Eyes, Eyebrows and the Mask

♥ I began by lightly dusting the entire eye area, up to the mid forehead, with a baby pink loose pigment.
♥ I then drew in the cat eye with a M.A.C eye crayon, extending the wing to the temple.

♥ The eyelashes were then curled using a heated eyelash curler (I loved this! I am going to pick one up from Priceline for about $12, much nicer than the old school eyelash curler!), following by lashings of black mascara.

♥ I applied false eyelashes with a pair of tweezers and Duo Glue.

Benefit – Brows a Go-Go!

♥ While we were waiting for the glue to dry, I gave Julia her dramatic eyebrows using my Benefit Brow Kit . I used the eyebrow wax to set the hairs into place and plot the desired shape. When I was happy with the shape, I accentuated the brows using the darker brow powder applied with a 266 Mac Eyebrow Brush.
♥ The mask was given some depth by drawing in both silver and black streaks using Kryolan paint.
♥ I then glued Swarovski crystals randomly within the mask using Kryolan Spirit Gum.

♥ The feathers were glued on the outer corners of the eyes using spirit gum to accentuate the winged eye make-up.

Lips
♥ The lips were lined with a neutral pink lip liner by Napoleon and filled in with a shimmer lip gloss by Modelco .

The tool kit!

Hair
♥ The hair was roughly blow dried and lightly sprayed with hair spray. Each section of hair was sprayed again prior to rolling with with Babyliss hot-rollers.

♥ When the make-up was finally finished it was time to pull out the rollers.
Each section was carefully removed so as to not disturb the curl. Each individual curl was then sprayed to hold.

Body
♥ Julia’s body was bronzed and glowing thanks to the application of Chi Chi Solarium in a Bottle.

It was a wonderful experience to get pampered at home and Slaj was very conscious of the time and making sure that I was able to get dressed, have something to eat and take lots of fantastic photos before heading out. The look was very dramatic and caused quite a stir at the party.

♥

People were surprised at how completely unusual I looked. I have never had curly hair and so I was very excited to get the ringlets.

If you want to learn how to create theatrical or natural looks you can attend one of Slaj’s workshops. Find out more here: http://make-upbydesign.blogspot.com/

Make-up by Design is a completely mobile business so Slaj can come to your home or hotel to prepare you for a big event. She says that now is the busiest time of year with parties and weddings in the warm weather.

She does everything from weddings to photo shoots for clothing labels.

Check it out on Facebook or contact Slajana on: 0433967900 or Slajanamake-upbydesign@hotmail.com. She is on call 7 days a week.

Review by Julia Hern, personal trainer and event junkie who loves to swim, but doesn’t need water to make a splash!

Be well,

xoxo

If the idea of doing yoga in a natural setting, be it in a park or by the ocean, takes you to your happy place then you’ll want to get involved with this.

Holistic personal trainer / nutritionist / meditation & yoga practitioner Stuart Watkins will be running classes in Kings Park, Cott and City Beach throughout the 2010-2011 Summer!

I’ve recently had a personal meditation / yoga sesh with Stuart (more on that to come later) and can vouch for his knowledge, calming voice & positive / healing vibes that seem to emanate from him in droves.

Make sure you get in touch with him by the listed methods to ensure a spot. The classes are by donation, so you pay what you feel, which is a really harmonious way of doing things.

Namaste!

Be well,

Annette

xoxo

This glorious sunny Saturday just past marked the first of hopefully many Cruelty Free Festivals’ held at the Earthwise centre in Subiaco.

As you can see from the photo above, vegan cakes & sweets were out in full force, as were helpful advocates giving out informative flyers & pamphlets about cruelty free living.

The main focus though was the food, proving what most already knew – it is possible to eat delicious food without the use of animal products.

Lunch in the form of mock meats, vegetable curries, spring rolls and rice dishes (I also spied mango flavoured sweets just out of this picture!)

Peach muffins & custard fruit tarts (these were both GREAT!), chocolate + green tea cheesecake, melting moments plus a couple other things I wasn’t sure of… keep in mind there are no animal products in any of these, which is pretty amazing / awesome!

Here’s a photo of the wood-fired pizza magic happening, I didn’t get a chance to test these out but there were some winning combinations happening and I’m kicking myself for filling up on chocolate cupcakes before I saw this.

There were many wares to be found including heaps of books, stickers, shoes, tees & hoodies, vegan dog treats (!!!), snacks and so much more.

One well known healthy living company that made the trip up from down South was Samudra.

Here are some of the goodies that they had on display:

As you can see, these snacks look great and they are all amazingly good for you! Aside from selling these treats, Samudra also run yoga and surfing getaways in Dunsborough, well worth a look.

The bands playing kept the spirit lively outside and if you ventured into the back corner there were vegan cooking demonstrations being held inside if you could tear yourself away from the cakes for long enough.

All in all it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon, a fantastic new event and one I will be wholeheartedly supporting next year!

Many thanks to Animal Rights Advocates for organising it!

Did you go to the Cruelty Free Festival?

Ever tried a vegan cupcake?

Be well,

xoxo