My Secret Melbourne with Sarah Tarca
Spa trips, matcha sips, and where to get your glow.
In this regular series you'll find a community of kindred spirits who share my passion for exploring off-the-beaten-path cafes, charming shops, and secret spots in cities around the world. These discoveries are curated by local creative insiders who know their stuff, so you can trust that you're getting the inside scoop.
Read: My Secret London with Maggie Davis; My Secret Sydney with Ingrid Weir
Sarah Tarca is an Adelaide-born writer, editor, content creator, and beauty journalist with over 20 years’ experience in print and digital media. I first met Sarah in the Cosmopolitan office at Sydney’s 54 Park Street in the early 2000s, when we worked together on the magazine. It was impossible to miss her sharp wit and energy. Her career took off from there, leading to a riotously fun decade as beauty editor and then editor of Girlfriend magazine, before she returned to the beauty desk at Marie Claire in 2016. After leaving magazines, Sarah embraced the digital nomad life and spent five years travelling the world as a freelancer, all while juggling motherhood to two boys.
Now living in Melbourne with her partner and sons – and a problematic red lipstick collection – Sarah continues to freelance for beauty brands and media mastheads across Australia, all while trying to decipher the meaning of Bey Blades. In 2020, she co-founded gloss etc, an Australian-first, weekly beauty newsletter that blends the look and feel of a magazine page with the tone of a group chat, offering brutally honest beauty reviews, expert-led deep dives, and answers to curious beauty questions every week. The open rate for gloss etc is through the roof – and I’m not surprised, because I open it religiously every week myself. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I missed a newsletter. It’s that good.
Let’s get started.
Favourite Melbourne facial?
I’m not sure how this still remains a secret but Valli’s signature treatment at Herbario is IT. There is still nothing I’ve ever tried in the market like it – and getting facials is a legit part of my job. Valli’s approach to the skin is holistic: she combines herbal medicine with botanical remedies to detoxify the skin via a combination of massage, intra-oral massage and lymphatic drainage. It’s not about targeting “concerns” but rather all of the external stressors (metabolic toxicity, pollution etc) that unnecessarily load our skin that keep us from looking our best. So it’s not a facial in the traditional sense – it’s a skin awakening. You emerge de-puffed, lighter, nourished and with rejuvenated skin, but the aesthetics are just a joyous bonus. Honestly if this is the Koolaid, pass me the jug.
Favourite Melbourne beauty treatment?
When I want something a little more serious than a facial, I head to HÜD (St Kilda and Northcote). The Scandi interiors are balm to the soul, especially when you’re having treatments that could be a little more spicy. I’m currently having RF needling done which is not for the faint-hearted but the results are phenomenal (I regularly get asked what I’m doing to to skin). Glow, texture, and in the future, more collagen production (yes please!).
Favourite Melbourne body treatment?
For body, I see Bee at The Betox Method, she is INCREDIBLE. What Valli’s does for the face, Bee does for the body, using her signature lymphatic drainage techniques to de-bloat, rebalance, and move all the stagnant energy around your body, flushing it out so it all starts working and moving as it should. It’s one of those transformative experiences everyone needs to try.
Best Melbourne place for eyebrows?
I’m so fussy with my brows and would rather do them myself than have anyone mess them up! And I did, until I met Eleni at Eleni Eyebrows. A Melburnian who spent a big chunk of her life in Switzerland, she is all about natural brows and working with your face – and the brows you have. No scary block brows or lamination, just your brows made better. She has the most insane attention to detail.
Best wellness experience?
For a whole-day adventure, Alba Thermal Springs in the Mornington Peninsular is beautiful and luxe, but as far at city experiences go, EQ in South Melbourne offer something really unique with meditation, breath work and hot/cold bathing.
Best manicure?
I go to Buff in South Yarra, they just do a beautiful, precise Russian mani with the kind of cuticle work that makes me walk around with my hands out in admiration. I get gel polish, and it lasts four weeks! FOUR! Unheard of. I only ever rebook because I have so much regrowth, never because it chips or peels.
Best matcha?
I mean, I couldn’t have a Melb favourites list without this right?
Itteki in South Yarra: a haphazard little space that feels very “pop-up” in that Japanese way where they can make any small space work for a cafe.
Matcha Kōbō, CBD: probably the best, most authentic matcha I’ve had outside of Japan.
Hikari Life, CBD: they also have a cute selection of homewares
Favourite restaurants?
Look if I’m honest… I don’t go out much, I have two young kids (four and six) so we tend to keep it low-key, and I’m fortunate enough to eat at some really lovely places for work. For a special treat I love Gimlet in the city, because it’s a real experience (and I do love a good Gimlet), Embla is delicious and reliable, Supernormal never misses, and I still think about the tiramisu at Grill Americano that I literally only had once, but lives rent free in my mind. For casual eats, I like Gilson in South Yarra because Cacie e Pepe.
More a cafe vibe but I also LOVE Cibi – it combines all the things I love: design, beautiful homewares and delicious food. It’s Japanese so everything is considered, beautiful, artisan. You could spend hours there.
Favourite Melbourne fashion shops?
I don’t shop IRL much, but when I do I usually head to High Street in Armadale which has everything from cool multi-brand boutiques (The New Trend, Who Boutique) to every Australian designer you want – think: St Agni, Sir, Elka Collective, Camilla and Marc, Viktoria and Woods – and even high street shops like Cos and Dissh. There’s also a stunning Sarah and Sebastian store which I also love a browse at (and to plot my next piercing). Not in Armadale, but if you want a unique piece, you need to head to Filly Stable, the curation is so excellent and there are pieces there you won’t find anywhere else.
Favourite Melbourne homewares shops?
Being in my young kid era, I don’t shop homewares much but one thing Melbourne does have that nowhere else in Oz has is the first ever Australian Diptyque store at Chadstone. Absolutely worth a visit, I love how they’ve combined the coastal vibe of Australia with the French heritage in one store and you can smell/ buy the entire range. Diptyque is always a good idea, and is always the perfect gift.
I also think everyone should visit one of the Hommey stores in Melbourne: they are just doing the most fun prints and colour ways and really bringing fun back into the bed/bath space after the years of death by neutrals. Their candy stripe bathrobes are iconic.
Most underrated place in Melbourne?
This is not a place, but a thing. Obviously, Lune Croissantarie is a must when visiting Melbourne (iconic, goes without saying), but what people don’t know is that the best thing on the menu is actually the Kouign Amman. I’m doing myself a disservice telling you this because they will forever be sold out, but honestly they’re just so good I can’t not share. Perfectly crunchy, doughy on the inside and with the caramelised sugar that gives just the right amount of sweetness.
Most overrated?
St Kilda beach. LOL, someone is going to kick me out of the city for that. But honestly, Melbourne beaches are NOT it.
Best Melbourne souvenir?
There’s a proper, old-school vintage black and white Photo Booth outside Flinders St Station (on Flinders St, near Elizabeth St.) It only takes coins, and is wildly unpredictable, there’s always a a smear or a double exposure or something else you don’t get in this age of digitised perfection. It’s $8 for three photos and it’s the best $8 you’ll ever spend.
Thanks for sharing your Secret Melbourne, Sarah. You can sign up to gloss etc here and follow Sarah and Sherine here.
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