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Last month, Beautyholics Anonymous celebrated the spring racing carnival at Northland Shopping Centre. This month, we’ve moved on to the peninsula so it’s goodbye Northland, hello Bayside!

I admit, I was surprised that the Bayside Shopping Centre had pretty much the same activities there was at Northland. They also have The Stables, MYER’s Punter’s Lodge, the Instagram flat-lay competitions, complimentary makeup sessions, complimentary express manicures and one-on-one styling sessions. They even have the Style Your Way To Race Day competition! So if you missed your chance at the Northland competition, head on over to Bayside and get your spring racing styling hat on for Bayside’s Style Your Way To Race Day.

The Stables and MYER’s Punter’s Lodge at Bayside may not be as big an area as Northland’s but they’re still just as lovely and classy. The ladies at the Stables were very friendly. What’s great about the spring/summer fashion carnival at Bayside is that they’ve displayed October’s timetable for all of the fun activities that will be going on at these 2 areas. It’s a great way to plan your time while you’re at the shopping centre so that you can make quick bookings for the complimentary makeup, manicure and styling sessions.

Since I’ve never had a styling session before, I booked a session with resident stylist Anika Walker. Truth be told, I’m tired of my wardrobe and always seemed to be wearing the same ol’ thing over and over. I could learn a thing or two during the styling session and with Anika, I most certainly did.

It was a 45-minute one-on-one styling session with Anika. I had to fill in a questionnaire prior to the session on what I think my style is (classic. If there was a checkbox for “boring”, I’d check that), what body part I’m least confident about (belly area), what I’m most confident about (legs), what I hoped to achieve during the session, etc.

The session was so much fun! Anika and I were chatting like girlfriends on a shopping spree. She took me to Witchery where she took heaps of clothes for me to try out. I have never in my life tried on that many items of clothing in a single store. I must have tried on over 10 pieces!

Anika taught me how to style certain items, what I can work with, what flatters me and so on. It turns out that I have a wee bit of an hourglass figure (it’s wee because I don’t have a voluptuous top and bottom but I have a bit of a waist). According to Anika, this allows me to wear and pull off many styles of clothing. When I saw some of the items Anika chose, I was apprehensive because I’d never pick those styles when I walked into clothing stores. What a shock it was that I could actually wear those and don’t look half bad! In fact, I’d go as far to say (and please excuse me for blowing my own trumpet) that I looked pretty damn good. 😛

Time passes quickly when you’re having fun and soon, it was time for Anika to head on to her next styling appointment. I’m truly grateful for her tips and will definitely put them to practice.

Each one-on-one styling session is complimentary of Bayside. Heck, even the staff at Witchery was gobsmacked that the sessions were FREE! Bayside even gives you a goodie bag with each session. I’m not going to show you what’s in the goodie bag (at least, not now. Don’t want to ruin the surprise) but suffice to say, it’s a very good bag. I was surprised at how generous Bayside was!

There was absolutely no pushing of products during the session. It was just Anika trying to help solve the problems I was having with my wardrobe. Of course, I couldn’t leave without a sneaky purchase at Witchery. It was a skirt that I never taught I could wear let alone pull off.

If you’re at the Bayside area, I highly recommend you checking out the shopping centre and the fun activities in store. All of the sessions (including the one-on-one styling sessions) have to be booked in advance but you can easily do it on their website or call them at 9771 1700.

I really cannot recommend the styling session enough!