An Australian Beauty Story Since 1993

The Bloom journey began in 1993 when Natalie Bloom started selling greeting cards and gift ideas that she made from her parent’s home in Melbourne, Australia. “When I started out, I didn’t have a long term strategy,” explains Natalie. “I simply created quality products that I was passionate about and that had a strong design sensibility.” Natalie’s love of natural ingredients and obsession with packaging soon turned a hobby into a busines.

Twenty years on, Bloom is an Australian cosmetics & organic skincare brand with a creative spirit and a strong design sensibility. Bloom products use quality botanical ingredients and have a commitment to product integrity.

Celebrate this Australia Day weekend with an Australian Beauty Brand! With every online purchase of $60 or more, receive a signed copy of Natalie Bloom’s book ‘Beauty in Bloom’ (Freight Free!). From Fri 25 - Mon 28 Jan

Emily Green for Bloom

We have collaborated with Melbourne-based artist and colour guru Emily Green to create an exclusive set of seven designer collection Bloom Nail Polish shades. The collaboration is a match made in heaven, with Green’s obsession with eye-popping colour complimenting Bloom’s high quality, pigment-packed formulation.

The Melbourne-based designer’s rainbow-coloured beaded necklaces have become a cult classic, adorning the necks of stylish women everywhere and never failing to bring a smile to our lips with their unusual and unexpected colour combinations.

The inspiration for the set of designer collection Nail Polish shades sparked from a limited edition piece Green designed exclusively for Bloom, featuring seven unique coloured beads. Narrowing the designer collection shades down to the usual two colours created by past collaborators was just so heartbreakingly difficult that we had to create all seven – one for every day of the week!

You can read more about Emily Green here and here on the design files.

To celebrate the launch of the Bloom/Emily Green designer nail polish collection, we have three limited edition ‘Bloom’ necklaces by Emily Green to giveaway.  To win this wearable artwork, all you have to do is; follow bloom cosmetics on instagram, re-gram our Emily Green instagram post with the hash tag #bloomlovesemilygreen, @bloomcosmetics and comment which Emily Green shade you fancy the most. (Winner will be selected at random on Monday January 6 2013).

Emily Green's watercolour prints available for purchase here

Emily in her studio working on the Bloom shades.

Almost good enough to eat.

A behind the scenes shot of our 'work in progress'

Emily Green goodness at Bloom HQ

Liquid Eyeliner at it's best!

To celebrate Bloom's famous Jet Black Liquid Eyeliner coming back into stock, we thought we'd share Natalie's September 1990 Italian Vogue photo shoot, with Isabella Rossellini in Pucci, sporting the best Liquid Eyeliner application ever.

Could she be more glamorous?

Loving that liquid eyeliner.

Smoking in a photoshoot???

All wrapped up

Of course, the Bloom team is mad about gift wrapping. So, to get you in the gift wrapping mood too, we thought we'd share a few inspirational gift wrapping bits and blogs. And don't forget about our free gift wrapping with any Bloom purchase that starts today until Christmas.

Hello Sandwich, a lovely blog by Australian artist and graphic designer, Ebony Bizy, now living in Japan.  For the best there is in terms of gift wrapping inspiration you can buy her online gift wrapping zine here

Beauty in Bloom by Natalie Bloom wrapped up to perfection.

Some pom pom love, learn how here

A simple way to wrap your Christmas gifts, taken from here

15 Easy Ways To Make Gift Wrap by Rachel Faucett here

From decor8's blog here


...and a couple of pinterest gift wrapping finds here, here, here and here

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel

What are your plans for the weekend? We're beyond excited that on Sunday the documentary Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel is being shown as part of The Melbourne Festival.

Containing rare archive footage and interviews, it paints an intimate portrait of the 'Empress of Fashion'. During her fifty year reign, Vreeland launched Twiggy, advised Jackie Onassis, worked as fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar and editor-in-chief at Vogue, and launched countless trends including the bikini and blue jeans.

Having premiered at the Venice Film Festival, The Eye Has To Travel is already being touted as a living work of art that truly captures Vreeland in all her outlandish, witty, ambitious and outspoken glory. Oh, and don't worry if you can't make it to this weekend's scoop screening, it will be released nationally in late November.


Image: 1, 2, 3

Food for Thought

Natalie has always said that healthy eating and a healthy attitude to food is a big part of true beauty.  "The foods you eat shouldn't be dictated by whether they will make you fat or thin, but by the enjoyment and goodness you can get out of each bite," she explains.

So we asked Natalie to share three of her favourite food websites to inspire, ponder and drool over!

1. Kate Quinn Davies is the very talented food photographer and keen home cook behind What Katie Ate. Her simple recipes feature seasonal produce, while her sublime photography makes her blog a feast for the eyes as well as the palate!
2. For nutritional, one-of-a-kind vegetarian recipes, make sure you visit My New Roots. This blog is about much more than mouth-watering recipes. Its manifesto is to encourage everyone to be an active participant in their health  - which is something we couldn't agree more with!
3. Michael Pollan's prescription for healthy eating is, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." His website has many brilliant articles and references that show why you should eat like this and how to do it.

Images: Kate Quinn Davies

Mani-inspiration!

Recently we were flipping through a mag when this image stopped us dead in our tracks! Like a perfect Pantone line up, we loved the graduation of colour.

To get this look at home, you'll need three of our favourite nail polish shades:
Penelope - Soft mushroom
Maggie - Lilac
Cate - Pearl White

If you decide to give this mani a whirl, we'd love to see your handy work! Just share it with us on Facebook or Instagram.

Ps: Don't forget that you can purchase any two nail polishes for just $29.95 (usually $19.95 each) - which means there's no excuse to not try something new!

Natalie Takes Us Behind-the-Scenes at YSL's Paris Fashion Week Show

Another of Natalie's highlights from Paris Fashion Week, was the Yves Saint Laurent show. Not only was it Hedi Slimane's debut collection for YSL, but it was also a chance to spot some of the biggest names in fashion. Here Natalie takes us behind the velvet rope for a look at who was there.

Kate Moss! Need I say more?!

Meeting Emmanuelle Alt, editor-in-chief of Paris Vogue.

Anna Dello Russo shows how to do sparkles perfectly!

Photographing the photographers!

Valerie Trierweiler, the partner of French president Francois Hollande;
co-founder of YSL, Pierre Berge; and Saint Laurent muse, Betty Catroux.

Designer Diane von Furtenberg and Grace Coddington,
Creative Director of US Vogue.

Up close with Anna Dello Russo.

A very-happy-to-be-there me!

Natalie at Chanel's Paris Fashion Week Show

Earlier this week, Natalie was wowed by Chanel at Paris Fashion week. With 13 near real-size turbines installed down the catwalk at the Grand Palais, and a formidable front row that included Anna Wintour, Kanye West and Jennifer Lopez (who was accompanied by her mini-fashionista 3 year-old daughter!) the scene was set for a collection defined by bold graphics, cropped jackets and a dose of 1960's style.

Here Natalie shares some of her personal snaps from the Chanel show...

Oh! The anticipation of entering Chanel's show at the Grand Palais.

The formidable front row. Can you spot Anna Wintour?

Thirteen turbines lined the catwalk.

Classic Chanel monochrome.

The dominant silhouette was a cropped jacket over a
streamlined shift dress.

Check out the hula-hoop beach bag and perspex hat!

At 79-years old, Chanel's veteran designer, Karl Lagerfeld, shows no
signs of slowing down. I loved what he said after the show - "Don't
take things too seriously, especially not fashion." 

Beautiful textural detail.

The final walk through.