Madison beauty - trends - Beauty blog: Mrs Darling shares her latest fashion and beauty obsessions

My obsession with fashion goes back a long, long way. In fact when I was three years old and we were living in Warsash, England, I had a favourite green velvet coat that I insisted on wearing every single day without fail. My mother got so sick of the sight of it that she took it to the drycleaners and left it there languishing. Fortunately my unsuspecting uncle came to visit and took me out for a walk. We just “happened” to pass the drycleaners and in a master stroke I navigated us in there and pleaded with him to retrieve the beloved coat. It was only missing in action for three days much to my mother’s horror.

This eye for knowing what I wanted became more and more honed as the years went by and working on fashion mags meant that I was always surrounded by supremely covetable clothes. Aiding and abetting this addiction is one Marlene Mangioni (Australian buyer and retailer) who could quite seriously sell snow to the eskimos.

Marlene has sold me more beautiful pieces than I care to remember. Her latest fashion foray is a series of My Catwalks boutiques. I ventured into the Double Bay store which is beyond divine. I wanted it all, from the wardrobe of Equipment shirts in every conceivable colour and print under the sun, to the super soft Velvet T-shirts, K Jacques sandals, Jamin Peusch bags… there was temptation at every turn. These are must-visit destinations for any Aussie fashionista.

P.S. While we are on the obsession trail, I have just test-driven the latest offering in the long-lasting nail gel category - OPI’s Gel Color. The gels cure faster and last longer than regular polish. The only catch is that you have to have the gels soaked off which takes 15 minutes. The polish is applied just like a regular polish and then each layer is cured under an LED light for 30 seconds. The Gels come in 38 shades and in my pursuit of the perfect nude shade my manicurist Eve opts for two coats of Alpine Snow and a final coat of Bubble Bath. Perfection.

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