Our online editor Nadia farewells PB and recaps her fave on-the-job moments…
There are few things more bitter-sweet in life than the experience of moving out of home. And while it might sound corny to some of you, PBHQ has been more of a home to me than any other workplace I’ve known in my career, so it’s between sobs and twinges of nerves that I tell you I’m farewelling the beauty-full world that is Professional Beauty.
But never fear professional beauties, I’ll be leaving you in very capable hands with my gorgeous replacement, who you’ll soon meet.
In the meantime, I thought I’d recap my top six fave things about working at PB, which, as you may have already gathered, is pretty much one of the best places a beauty-loving gal can work…
1. Random mail avalanches
It’s a definite job perk receiving mail packages full of the latest and greatest product innovations each day, but some days it can get a little out of control – enter: the above photo of the day I couldn’t see my desk for all the product packages.
PB’s ever-gorgeous ad manager Kerry and I spent about three hours that day dismantling all the boxes and oohing and ahhing over the things that came out. It was like Christmas day on steroids.
2. Losing it at the Aussie Sephora media preview
Think of the last time you had a Red Bull, pair it with experiencing your birthday as a kid and add to it the thrill of meeting your ultimate celeb crush and you have some idea of the level of sanity loss I experienced when I first walked through the doors to Sephora’s super-secret Aussie media preview.
It’s fair to say maintaining my calm and professionalism flew straight out the window the moment the publicist handed me a five kilo bag of never-before-seen Sephora products and invited me to try anything I liked at the 20-odd brand pop-ups they’d set up.
3. Learning from Rae Morris
If there was ever an occasion for an Oprah-endorsed ‘ah-ha’ moment, it was the time I got to attend Rae Morris’s workshop at Salon Melbourne to write a recap story for PB. Rae forever changed my makeup-worshipping existence when she showed me I’d been doing my eyebrows wrong my whole life. How did I not know this?! I’m forever grateful to Rae for upping my #browgame.
4. Meeting Lisa Wilkinson
When I was a little girl, the then editor of DOLLY magazine, Lisa Wilkinson came and spoke at my school about what it was like working in the media industry and ignited an instant love affair with magazines that ultimately lead to my pursuing of a career in journalism at PB, so when I turned around at a media beauty launch I was representing PB at and saw none other than LW standing right behind me glamorously sipping on a cocktail (the same one as me – twinsies!), let’s just say a weed myself, just a little.
5. Attending Cosmoprof in Hong Kong
While most people’s first month or two on the job typically involves mindlessly boring training and tedious admin tasks, one of my first assignments at PB was to head to Hong Kong and cover Cosmoprof Asia. I seriously couldn’t believe my luck!
Cosmoprof was a blur of OTT nail art, weird and wonderful products and sci-fi movie-worthy gadgets and gizmos I spent most of my time staring at dumbfoundedly (and that’s when I wasn’t getting lost in the 81,500 square metres of exhibition space) that left me reassessing everything I thought I knew about beauty; and it’s one trade expo I won’t soon be forgetting.
6. Working with the A-team
By far the greatest perk of working at PB has been getting to rub shoulders with some of this industry’s most inspiring and talented women. I’m not exaggerating when I say PB’s managing editor Sarah is like a walking, talking beauty encyclopaedia who can spout off the most random and interesting facts on anything and everything you can possibly think of in this industry – I’ve often wondered if she’s an intelligent beauty-bot sent from the future to destroy us all with her insanely detailed knowledge of cosmeceuticals.
Our stylish ad manager Kerry always handles pressure with laughter and is so much fun to be around I often forget she’s a killer sales gun who could sell anyone under the table; our glamorous beauty editor Jenny never fails to blow me away with how humble she is about herself despite whipping up some of the best beauty pages I’ve seen in my career and our art director Gabby is easily one of the most cool and creative people I’ve met.
A girl seriously could not ask for a more beautiful team of women to work alongside. It’s been a fun-filled ride I’ll certainly never forget.
See ya, professional beauties!