All new beauty products have been appearing on the market, with a heightened focus on both ethical production and ingredients, and also a greater emphasis on science and plant extracts.

Australian beauty lovers are worldly women, of course, and there's something very exciting in discovering an incredible brand that isn't widely available or known in Australia (Isa's Restoratives, hail Brooklyn!). There's something really joyful in discovering a local brand that is hitting the mark when it comes to killer packaging, great formula, ethical and local production. With that in mind, meet:

Skin Juice

Gorgeous packaging.
Let's face it. While you may not pick a book by its cover, you certainly go for beauty products that are going to make you glow just by seeing them in your cabinet.

Bright, graphic and clever tubes and tubs for the face care range won me over. I've been using the deliciousy scented Vanilla & Honey Face Mask for hydration, the mattifying and oil-fighting Citrus Juice for daily use, and the Good Juice as an overnight skin rejuvenator.

Because they are plant and fruit-based, the scents are absolutely gorgeous. Subtle but gently spicy. The cranberry and kakadu plum infused mask is especially yummy.
The pump action tubes are clean, easy to use and mean the product lasts longer without the taint of fingers-in-formula day after day.
The full range of facial products on their website.

Here's my proud boast of the post. I have naturally lengthy, up-curled eyelashes. Whee. It's great. While I'd love to add mascara for drama, I find that half way through the day my eyes get sensitive and red. So, naturally, the idea of boosting my lashes without needing makeup is perfect.

If you were a teenager in the 90s too, chances are you over-plucked your brows into a Drew Barrymore/Courtney Love era thin line and regret it. So lastnight I began using Medik8 Lash & Brow Duo. The First Green Cosmeceutical Brand. The plant and peptide-based formula goes on with a mascara wand morning and evening. The goal is to mend the subtle but annoying patchiness of my natural brows, and to thicken and nourish the appearance of my eyelashes. Available at salons and online.

New York is a city of landmarks. From the Empire State Building to the Sex and The City style fashionistas, yellow taxi cabs and of course, the Manhattan skyline at night.
What beauty addicts in New York already know, and what I’m a new inductee to, is that New York is also the home of Rickys NYC. Sure, Jay Z and Alicia Keys didn’t include this in their ode to the city, but little known is that they wrote a WHOLE ALBUM about this place! (this is a lie, but they should have. Maybe I will.)

From cult beauty to the most insane, incredible walls and aisles of colours, textures, serums, lotions, lipsticks, paints, shadows, powders, hair extensions, eyelash curlers... you name it, it’s there in fifty shades and sizes. Get me to New York, New York!
So my travel budget has been chewed up for this year, but thankfully, you can order online. In fact, getting a box of beauty goodies plonked on your doorstep for delayed gratification is one of the most rewarding and exciting occurrences known to beauty junkies.

Nugg Facemasks
Deep cleansing cucumber extract and jojoba, soothing shea butter and chamomile, exfoliating cranberry seed and jojoba beads, and revitalizing flaxseed and peppermint oil. Every mood your skin pulls (like a cranky toddler, right?) has a fix in these masks. Colour coded and smelling delightful, of course, these are high-tech masks using natural oils and promise not to dry out skin with their gentle formulas. Perfect for stashing in your travel case, gym bag or handbag for post-workout or just post-work skin revival.

Petite Bunny Gloss Bar, RickyCare Soft Touch Eyelash Curler, RickyCare Cleansing Wipes
It’s a gloss with a bunny head. What more do you want?

Eyelash curlers for those girls who need a bit more oomph to their eyelashes. Thankfully I was blessed with dark and naturally curly lashes, but they’re pink. What’s a girl to do?
I feel so Marilyn Monroe wielding them too. Cleansing wipes are an obvious call. With a lipstick collection at least the size of a small island, I feel it’s necessary to use at least 4 shades per day. This requires cleansing and starting over. There’s also the small issue of that “Glow” from post-workout face that is definitely nothing like sweat. It’s a glow. Cleansing is good, regardless, if you don’t want your glow to result in a whole lot of spots and blackheads.

Z Palette, Makeup Blender, False Eyelashes, Hair Clips
While a girl can never have enough makeup, obviously, there comes a time when you need to travel with it and you need to make that decision: What To Take and What To Leave?

This is where the Z Palette comes in handy. Get out a spoon or a scooping utensil of any description, take travel size quantities and put them in your little customisable palette with magnets. Then arrange. Voila! All your favourites, in an orderly, neat little package! Also perfect for gifting.
False eyelashes for the butterfly effect. Save them for a big occasion, or do as the most stylish women in the world do and decide that any day, any time is a big occasion and don them today.

A makeup sponge previously seemed to me to be purely for Makeup Artists. But since everyone is doing the selfie, instagram star thing these days, it appears that we are all amateur makeup artists! So the playing field is levelling a little and the tools the professionals wield can be ours. It’s cute and blue and makes my foundation flawless. You don’t absolutely NEED one, but if you wear foundation regularly and you love your tools, do it. Hair clips for pinning your tresses out of your face for makeup and eyelash application. And they have bows! Who could resist? Also good for avoiding the fringe-in-face during your workouts.

Lip Tar, Lip Stain, Lip Gloss, Lip Paint
For all the amazing makeup products out there, I will NEVER never tire of lip colours. Any. All. Gloss, shine, matte, neutral, dark, light...I love it all.
One might say I’m obsessed. Which is particulary fitting, because my biggest haul is Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics vegan lip tar, lip gloss, and lip stains in matte and metallic shades from mauve and orange to neutral. SO good. I didn’t want to be totally one-track minded so I also have a lip tint mousse from LA Splash in Nymphaea which is suitably Kylie Jenner-lips worthy. There is a colour for you. Check out the below swatches of OCC Lip Tar.