In a quest to ward off such violent inner-monologues, a group of frustrated citizens are proposing a national ‘Vent Your Frustration Day’, with a Facebook page dedicated to their plight, pledging to use its growing base of fans as a basis for petitioning a day of guilt-free venting, as well as a dedicated ‘vent’ website (ventnation.com), I’m actually thinking these folks might be on to something. And so, in honour of their noble quest, I’ve decided to air a few of my own innermost frustrations, in no particular order – feel free to join me and vent yours too!
• Why do people walk directly toward you on the street while looking back behind themselves to chat to a friend?! WATCH. WHERE. YOU’RE. GOING. PEOPLE. Seriously, is it that hard??!

• Why do people INSIST on blowing smoke out onto the street in my face after I have JUST WASHED MY FREAKING HAIR??! Like really, are they waiting until my hair is all shiny and lovely-smelling to come over and RUIN IT?!

• Why the HELL must the person in front of me in the train ticket line always ask thirty-thousand questions when I am running late and it is peak hour on a Monday morning? Peak hour is NOT a time to tell the ticket guy your f&*%ing life story lady, seriously.

• WHAT is with people that are neither elderly NOR disabled standing directly in front of me on the train and giving me disapproving looks until I forfeit my seat for them?! You are 35 lady, not 60, and I got here first!!

Okay, that’s my vent for today – what about you? What makes you want to throttle someone? Spill…

While logically I understand the inherit flaws in striving for complete uninterrupted perfection, as a self-confessed perfectionist and control freak I generally spend my days acting as if these don’t apply, which generally causes great stress and random unprovoked outburst at my poor unsuspecting partner. And so, it was in mind of recovering both of our sanities that I agreed to abandon my perfectly controlling ways for one entire week. Here’s how it panned out…

DAY ONE:
In my usual morning routine, I turn the bedroom upside-down in search of a virtuous outfit. Halfway through, with the laundry basket contents emptied all over the floor and clothes sprawled out over the bed, I remind myself that imperfection includes not having to find an outfit that comes out of the wardrobe with a gleaming light around it, and instead throw on a crumpled pair of slacks. Scrambling to reassemble the room back to its anally organised state and make the bed, I’m again forced to restrain myself and instead leave the room in a dishevelled state.

DAY TWO:
I let my husband choose what we order for Thai takeaway. He always wants the stuff I am convinced will taste crap so I am usually in charge when it comes to take out ordering. I’m surprised to taste two new delicious dishes when it arrives…maybe I should let him choose more often?

DAY THREE:
I watch television in dirty tracky-pants and greasy hair as opposed to my usual routine of touching up my hair and makeup from work, popping on a cute apron and cleaning every square inch of the house.

DAY FOUR:
With the dishes now growing mould, my husband reminds me an IMperfectionist would ignore the mess and order take-out instead. I cringe at the thought of not providing a nutritious, home-cooked meal but give in to my laziness and exhaustion and eat pizza in my PJ’s.

DAY FIVE:
I can’t do it any longer!! I arrive home to a house that looks like a bomb hit it and feel anything but relaxed. I retreat to my anally retentive perfectionistic ways and scrub and clean and order and re-order the house before dashing to the mirror to re-do my hair and makeup before hubbie arrives home – I can’t bare the thought of letting him see me with a birds nest for hair and and in dowdy clothes anymore. He arrives home and notices the effort I have gone to, complimenting me on how I look – I know it is against the rules, but I am secretly pleased.

DAY 6 & 7:
The weekend. I am back to full-on perfectionist mode, I return to my usual routine of getting up early to clean the house and perfect my appearance before hubby is awake. I start feeling stressed and snappy again. Determined to beat my stress-head ways, I do the unthinkable and ask for help. My husband happily obliges and does the dishes and three loads of washing while I fix my hair. My mood is elevated and I decide it’s ok not to be the perfect Stepford wife seven days a week…maybe just six. Hey, it’s a compromise!

One dollar from the sale of every Ultra Colour Rich Pink Crystals Lipstick will be donated to the Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group, and the YWCA Encore program, helping to provide cutting edge research, clinical trials and support for women with breast cancer.
Avon’s Ultra Color Rich Pink Crystals Lipsticks will be available from Avon sales representatives from the 13th of February for $9.99 each. With a delectable range of wearable pinks, an affordable price tag and a fantastic cause behind them, I for one will be splurging on every hue! I hope you’ll join me, in kissing breast cancer goodbye.

Avon products are only available through Avon representatives. You can find your nearest Avon representative by calling 1800 646 000.

Skip the salt
Salt encourages the body to retain water, making you look and feel even more bloated than you already do. By giving salty foods the flick, even if for only a few days, you’ll give your body time to flush out excess ‘water weight’.

Drink up
…Which brings us to the next point. You need to drink lots and lots of water! Besides hydrating your body and mind, water is an important tool for aiding digestion and flushing toxins out of the body, so aim for 8 – 10 glasses a day.

Incidentally…
Incidental exercise, otherwise known as the exercise we get during daily activities, is an easy way to kick a couple of pesky holiday kilos. Catch the bus to work? Get off a stop early to burn up to an extra 200 calories a day. Like the lift? Ditch it in favour of the stairs to burn anywhere from an additional 150 – 600 calories a day! Not bad for a couple of quick and easy changes.

Shot by legendary photographer, Terry Richardson, Moss said, “I’m really excited to be working with Mango for S/S 2012, we had a great time shooting the campaign, the team were so easy to work with and shooting with Terry is always fun.”

Mango has also produced a new TV commercial featuring Kate Moss, called Spy Game. Also shot under the direction of Terry Richardson, the film will be launched in early March in apparently forty countries, including France, Germany, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. Mango has a reputation for featuring models and actresses of international acclaim, so Kate Moss is a natural choice, following the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Milla Jovovich, Lizzy Jagger, Karolina Kurkova, Naomi Campbell, Eva Herzigova, Claudia Schiffer and Diane Kruger.

The new season Mango trends include graphic contrasts between clean and unstructured lines with a clear 60’s influence, particularly in the dresses. Lightweight, pleated and gathered fabrics offer movement and present a fresh, flirty and feminine touch. Mango is also introducing a more casual line, bringing together ethnic elements and blending them with sportswear details to give a very simple, strong urban look. Tie-dye, abstract prints and patchwork in indigo and yellow tones with unwashed effects reinforce the casual appeal.

Mango opened its first store in Barcelona’s Passeig de Gràcia in 1984 and now has over 2,400 stores in 107 countries. Its concept is based on a quality fashion product combined with the latest fashion trends at an affordable price. The brand image is reinforced by its stores, which benefit from a dynamic image in accordance with the personality of its customers, and represent the calling card for the brand.

Check out a few shots from behind-the-scenes below. The creatives are as follows:
Photography: Terry Richardson
Stylisy: Géraldine Saglio
Make Up: Charlotte Tilbury
Hair Stylist: Odile Gilbert

A visionary colourist, Christian Dior always believed in the power of dazzling colours. Tyen, artistic director of Dior makeup, has inherited this passion. In the Dior Addict Extreme collection, he combines vibrant colour with pure pigments and luminous shine in lightweight lipsticks with just a hint of transparency – casual enough for everyday wear while still providing a delectable pop of colour.

My fave shade? Lucky ($49.00). A cheeky pink-based red with the intensity dialed down for red-lovers who want a shade they can take to work.

The new Dior Vernis nail colours in line with this collection are equally show-stopping, in four fresh, daring shades to compliment bright lips. Dior Vernis in Lucky, ($39.00) is an intense almost-red hot pink that sizzles with colour after just a single application.

Can you tell which shades are my faves…?

Look out for this covetable collection when it hits the shelves on March 19.

But striving for perfection can be an exhausting battle, particularly on your nearest and dearest, who are regularly unwilling victims of your impossible standards.

My dedication to maintaining a perfectly organized house and keeping my hair, heels and makeup perfectly intact after a grueling day at work to greet my husband is a quest fraught with difficulty. Fighting off my every urge to fling my heels in the air and unleash my inner slob is a constant battle – one which results in great stress and nonsensical unprovoked outbursts like: “How DARE you leave a shirt turned the wrong way out inside the dirty clothes basket!!” and “Who do you think you ARE leaving crumbs on my glistening benchtop?!!!?”

Recently, my husband went away on a camping trip (most likely to salvage his remaining sanity) and I was left alone in the house for the weekend – no one home to check in on my perfection. And so I let it hang out. Oh boy did I let it all hang out. I emancipated my inner slob and she was a beautiful mess. Being couch-ridden in my own filth should have stirred great anxiety in me, but instead it was quite the opposite – it was a catharsis. I didn’t care if I was imperfect because there was no one there to see it and the opportunity to relax and embrace my own flaws felt incredible.

When I recounted this experience to my husband some days later in a decidedly more perfected state, he proposed me a challenge: that I allow myself to be completely imperfect for an entire week. Racoon eyes, birds-nest hair, food-stained tracky-dacks and a kitchen filled with precariously stacked piles of dirty plates. I would not be allowed to fix my hair or makeup to go to the shop, nor would I be able to clean and polish the house to its usual gleam. If someone were to spring a visit on me, I would have to accept the state of the house – and myself. Could I do it for seven days in full public view?

Read on next week to find out…

Zach and Jordan Stenmark were awarded AFL sports scholarships to Sydney University last year. Both brothers were utility players, adept in the backline or as full-forward, and were gaining their start in the game in the AFL’s Greater Western Sydney team. But more impressively, the twins have made their debut for the prestigious Calvin Klein collection show as part of Milan Men’s Fashion Week.

Jordan opened the show in an alligator skin jersey and trousers and Zach closed it in a slim-fitting black suit, as part of a whirlwind of introduction to the world of international modelling that has seen them forgo football careers in favour of catwalks and campaign billboards around the world.

The twins are now represented by seven agencies around the world including Red Model Management in New York, Nathalie Models in Paris and Premier Model Management in London, as well as Vivien’s.

Following in the likes of Megan Fox and Victoria Beckham, Rihanna gets steamy with the camera for the Emporio Armani Underwear and Jeans Campaigns for 2012. Trading her bleached blonde pixie hair for long dark locks and a sweep fringe, the Bajan beauty poses in lacy underwear for the Italian luxury brand. Photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott in Dublin, the provocative black and white shoot also sees the rock rebel straddling a leather sofa in a biker jacket worn with striped shorts. The styling for the S/S season is more natural than previous film-noir inspired campaigns. Rihanna is seductive in skintight jeans and a knotted white tee as she sprawls out on the vintage couch.

Giorgio Armani sure knows how to make Rihanna feel like she’s the only girl in the world.

In Australian stores from December 28, Violent Lips temporary lip tattoos have already taken the U.S by storm.

The ultimate form of self-expression, the Violent Lips Collection offers a statement-making line of lip patterns that range from bold animal prints and fun polka dots, to sexy fishnets and picture-perfect Glitteratti sparkle.

This innovative line of Temporary Lip Appliqués will keep the print and color on your lips for 4 to 8 hours. Vitamin enhanced with a smooth feel and glossy finish, the appliqués are easy to apply to lips of all sizes.

Perfect for New Year’s Eve, there will also be an Australian flag design available for Australia Day!

Violent Lips will be available from Priceline stores nationally from 28th December 2011, RRP $14.95 call 07 5630 1560 for a full list of stockists. Visit www.violentlips.com for further info and a how-to-apply tutorial.