Happy Holidays!

Best wishes for a safe and happy festive season, love - Natalie Bloom, Baby Ben and Bloom HQ x

Crafty Wheels

Natalie snapped this photo of a crafty little bike she strolled past while in the city over the weekend. Can you imagine how many smiles appear when this inspired set of wheels zoom past? We just couldn't help but share!

Sibella Court's Natural Christmas Workshop

We wish we were in Sydney for Sibella Court's Natural Christmas Workshop at Glenmore House this weekend! Sibella will be inspiring attendees to embrace the Australian Summer by decorating your Christmas table with what nature has to offer.

You will wander through the Glenmore House gardens with Sibella to 'choose tendrils, leafy greens, flowers, branches & anything else that takes your fancy' and then show you how to translate them into decorating and table-setting ideas. How divine!

You can get your hands on a ticket to this special workshop by emailing hannah@thesocietyinc.com.au. But get in quick, spaces are limited! Find out more about the workshop here.

On Our Bookshelf: Carine Roitfeld's Irreverent

We heart Carine! The ex-French Vogue Editor-in-Chief has chronicled her 30 year career in this visually stunning book, which gives us a peek into her creative thought process, personal photographs and notes, as well as breathtaking editorial images. This hefty book oozes Carine's undeniable je ne sais quoi and it is a welcome addition to our coffee tables. Karl Lagerfeld sure had it right when he said 'if you close your eyes and imagine the ideal French woman, it would be Carine Roitfeld'.

Ink &Water

How beautiful are these images by artist Alberto Seveso? They were created by taking high-speed photographs of ink mixing with water. We think the results are just breathtaking.

From South Africa, With Love

Natalie and her entire clan were recently lucky enough to go on a South African safari adventure. Many photographs were taken of the breathtaking wildlife but cameras weren't the only way of capturing the moment - Nat just couldn't resist pulling out her watercolours, and we just couldn't resist sharing the results!

Belle de Jour - Behind the Scenes

Model Emily G and International Makeup Artist April Greaves

Emily G was fresh off a plane from the Greek Islands, jetlagged and still looking amazing - some things just aren't fair!

Pretty blooms to get us in the Spring mood

Stylist Alex Zabotto-Bentley

International Makeup Artist April Greaves and Natalie Bloom

Emily G being transformed into our 1960's French muse, actress Catherine Deneuve

Organised chaos!

Emily G giving our Organic Body Lotion a little plug

Belle de Jour is all about the 1960's contoured eye, made fresh and wearable!

Emily G works it for the camera

We were lucky enough to get our hands on the 'A Team' for our Belle de Jour colour collection campaign shoot. Not only did New York-based international makeup artist April Greaves design the collection, she also flew to Melbourne from the Big Apple especially for the shoot! We had photographer extraordinaire Marnie Haddad behind the camera lens, Andrew Gough had all digital operations covered on the day and gorgeous model Emily G from Vivien's Model Management worked her best 1960's film starlet impersonation Superstar stylist Alex Zabotto-Bentley even popped in to lend a hand!

We're pretty chuffed with the results, we think the A Team nailed Catherine Deneuve's sophisticated 1960's chic to perfection!

Packaging Perfection

Stella McCartney has reinvented the bottle of her signature 'Stella' fragrance with three limited edition bottles featuring her iconic Botanical print and we are swooing over the divine results. Now it's just a matter of choosing our favourite... or perhaps collecting all three!

DIY Pom Poms!

We've got pom pom fever at Bloom! To celebrate our collaboration with one of Australia's most iconic fashion labels we decided to make pom poms for our flagship store window using colours from sass & bide's Spring Summer 2011 collection - Boogie & The Historymaker. After making a vibrant array of pom poms for our window display, we just had to share how easy it is to do it yourself! We followed this easy step-by-step guide by Martha Stewart.

Baby Loves Sunday Ganim

The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree with Sunday Ganim - daughter of Melbourne designer Rae Ganim. Sunday has been warming the necks of Melbournians with her beautifully designed woven scarves for the last two years but has recently added another knitwear notch to her belt with adorable woven baby blankets. Not only has Broadsheet Melbourne been singing her praises here, Sunday has also found a little fan in baby Ben, snapped looking as snug as a bug wrapped in one of her beautiful designs.

It's A Boy!

We are incredibly pleased to announce that Natalie has given birth to a baby boy! After Nat's recent visits to the office with baby Ben in tow (she just can't stay away) we can quite confidently say that he is too cute for words. Keeping baby Ben's arrival in mind, we thought we'd share a couple of interesting facts about avocados and women.

Not only is avocado on toast one of our favourite snacks, research also shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week after giving birth, it helps balance hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and helps prevent cervical cancers! And how amazing is this? Avocadoes are shaped just like a woman's womb and it takes exactly nine months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit.

Oh and did you know that you can grow your own avocado tree with just a jar of water, toothpicks and an avocado pit? Wow!

Style Icon - sass & bide

We are super chuffed to have collaborated with one of fashion's most inspirational duos, sass & bide. Not only do Sarah-Jane and Heidi have a bold, eclectic and inimitable style aesthetic, they are pioneers when it comes to Australian design. Their beautiful and obscure creations never fail to make our hearts skip a beat.

Moroccan Roses

Following on from our last post on Moroccan Argan Oil, Certified Organic Rose Water is another skin-loving ingredient found in our Bloom Organics Hydrating Facial Moisturiser. Nat was inspired by the abundance of roses in Morocco during her trip to the exotic land last year, where Rose Water is popular in cooking and perfumery. Flicking through photographs from her travels, we just had to share some of these beautiful images.

The Women of Morocco

Moroccan Argan Oil is one of the potent wonder ingredients that inspired the journey into face care for our Organics range. This oil produced from kernels of the Argan tree not only lends its incredibly healing and hydrating power to our Bloom Organics Hydrating Facial Moisturiser, it also provides something of a 'lifeline' for the Berber women of Morocco.

The oil is extracted from Argan kernels by a women's co-operative that focuses on improving the working conditions of rural women, as well as supporting their families and communities. Nat ventured out to visit one of these co-ops during her recent visit to Morocco and had the chance to meet some of the women behind Morocco's 'liquid gold'.

Va-Va-Voom!

What better way to brighten your day than with a slick of lip colour? We have long considered lips the 'holy grail' of cosmetics so it's no surprise that we noticed a common denominator when collecting inspiring images for our office mood board - statement lips. Here's a peek at the looks that inspired us to focus on va-va-voom lips for cold days and nights!