Gosh darn it... you've done it again Adriano Goldschmied!

Yeah, I tried these on last week and refused to purchase them for $188.00 USD. Anthropologie, I will stalk you so hard until these babies are marked down. I will drool or breakdown and buy them -- let's see what'll happen.

AG Stevie Ankle Hearts

Smoke signals: I'm still out there, I swear!

So, I went from Melbourne to Vegas to Boston and inched my way back. In a span of two weeks I travelled approximately 10,531 miles / 16,948 kilometres, gained a day and then lost another coming back, harassed my parents, shopped 'til I dropped, ate a lot, spent precious little time with loved ones and missed my husband like crazy. And, believe it or not, I missed you too.

I set out to blog way more than I actually accomplished -- but, I took loads of pictures with my trusty iPhone. Let's see what trouble I got into whilst tumbling through the U.S. of A.

American-sized pancakes -- gosh, they're big!

"If the mountain won't come to Muhammad then Muhammad must go to the mountain."

Sipping frozen hot chocolate with P-Cakes

A little Sephora action

Took a walk down memory lane. Visited my alma mater, Suffolk University

Dined with a few good friends

Satiated my bagel cravings

Christmas in Vegas

Visited Serendipity, again

Visited the "Strip"

Hauled a lot

And jetted off into the sunset

After this Friday I'll have another two weeks to kill. In that time I'll introduce you to my new notions and potions.

Until then, enjoy the rest of your weekend and I promise to write again soon.

Australis sale at Priceline

Australis Priceline Sale

Priceline is currently having a sale on Australis products - buy one, get one free for all eye and lip products until 17 Dec 2012. I thought it would be a great time to try some Australis products and picked up a couple of items to do a complete eye and lip look. I haven't gotten a chance to play with everything yet, but here are some swatches in case anyone is interested in the same products I am..

Australis swatches in indirect sunlight

Australis swatches in direct sunlight

Australis products

Eyeshadow Primer, 10HR Wear Pencil in Bombastic Bronze, Brow Pencil in Light Brown, Colour Inject Lipstick in Salsa, Multi Mega Lash Mascara, Paparazzi Perfect High Definition Eyeshadow Compact  in A-Lister Sista (on the compact it says "Sista" but on both Priceline's and Australis' websites, it says "Sister").

Did anyone haul anything? Or do you have any recommendations?

Australis is cruelty free :)

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As most of you know, Nicole, the Chief Bag Lady of Bagful of Notions, is currently on the road.  I felt a bit bad that regular readers weren't going to have as much new content, so I've decided to contribute an article of my own.  Nicole isn't aware of this, and she'll likely want to delete this MAC and Mecca and Essie-less post, but until she notices, let's have another contribution for the gentlemen out there. You may not have recognised it, but the title of the article is the clue to the review.

Wait for it...

Code!  Armani Code, the fragrance for men.

It's the binary representation of the ASCII text "CODE"...

Code Label

Okay, anyway, moving on.

As with my review on Allure, it's difficult to put into words scents for men without the proper vocabulary.  If this were a red wine I could go on about the tannins, the hint of leather on the palate, perhaps the forrest fruits on the nose, but I don't have the right words for scents yet.

What I can say is that Nicole likes this as much as, if not more than, Allure.

First, what does the bottle look like?  (Cause, yeah, somehow to someone this matters, I guess)

Code bottle

Yep.  A black bottle.  With words.  Sold yet?

I'm going to do my best on a description of the scent - first of all, what it isn't:  It isn't sleazy.  It isn't Leisure Suit Larry with or without Lounge Lizards.  It isn't insulting, overpowering, or eye-watering.

As for what it is, well, if I were to close my eyes and try to describe it, I would probably say the following:

A melon (probably ripened honeydew) based fruit salad in a bookstore.

Yes, you read right.  Melon.  Bookstore.

There's a crispness, a clarity to the scent which reminds me of honeydew melon (the light green kind).  It's slightly watery as well, meaning, to me, that it doesn't leave a taste in your mouth, nor your nose.  You get it, it registers, it moves on.

The bookstore bit, okay, I admit that's a bit peculiar, but its the slightly dusty, but not musty, scent of paper, some new, some old, that I'm trying to capture here.

Perhaps the best advice I can give you here is that you've learned a lot about Nicole and the aesthetic she has, you know she's not one for cheesy, overwhelming or pungent.  She appreciates the subtle, and she loves this scent (on me) -- so, go out, grab a sampler from your polite Armani representative (in other words, not the one at David Jones in Melbourne who annoyed Nicole) and try it on for size.  See what you think, what he thinks, and who knows, maybe you'll have a new scent on the shelf, as we do!