Serving the freshest beauty launches and product obsessions – one course at a time.
Welcome back to The Beauty Menu, our series where beauty meets Auckland’s best dining destinations. Equal parts product deep-dive and long lunch, each edition sees us settling into one of the city’s most talked-about restaurants to discuss the launches, formulas and beauty moments currently dominating our group chat.
For our second sitting, we headed waterside to Bravo – Auckland’s newest waterfront destination tucked into Westhaven’s evolving Cracker Bay precinct. Designed for everything from morning coffees to late afternoon cocktails that somehow turn into dinner, Bravo feels like the kind of place Auckland has been waiting for: polished but relaxed, elevated without trying too hard.
With uninterrupted marina views, layered coastal interiors and a dining room that spills directly onto the harbour, Bravo was the perfect backdrop for an afternoon dedicated to beauty indulgence.
Naturally, we started with the food.
The Bravo Seafood Tower absolutely lives up to the hype – stacked high with market oysters, sashimi, chilled prawns, tuna tacos, prawn toast and calamari, it’s one of those tableside moments that instantly makes everyone reach for their phone. Equally memorable was the Rigatoni Alla Vodka, rich and comforting in all the right ways, alongside Bravo’s pizzas, which strike the perfect balance between crisp, woodfired bases and generously layered toppings – exactly the kind of dish made for sharing over long waterfront lunches.
And while the food alone warrants a reservation, it’s the atmosphere that makes Bravo linger-worthy. Between the vintage arcade games tucked into the venue’s games room, the endless waterfront light and the unmistakable energy of people settling in for “just one more drink”, it already feels like a future Auckland institution.
With the seafood demolished and beauty products covering half the table, it was officially time to get into the real menu of the afternoon.
Aperitivo: Beauty News & Fresh Arrivals
Dyson – Amino Leave-In Scalp Bubble Treatment
Dyson entering the scalp-care conversation was always going to get beauty people talking, and the new Amino Leave-In Scalp Bubble Treatment proves the brand is thinking far beyond styling tools. Designed to hydrate and rebalance the scalp barrier while supporting healthier-feeling hair over time, the lightweight bubbling treatment feels futuristic in the best possible way. Expect skincare-level ingredients delivered directly to the scalp – because healthy hair truly starts at the root.
Emma Lewisham – Supernatural Crème Cleanser
Emma Lewisham’s newest launch feels intentionally luxurious. The Supernatural Crème Cleanser removes makeup, SPF and daily buildup while leaving skin feeling nourished rather than stripped – a balance surprisingly few cleansers get right. The texture is plush, comforting and spa-like, transforming cleansing from a rushed nightly task into a proper ritual. Skin is left soft, calm and deeply hydrated, with that post-facial feeling we’re constantly chasing.
Entrée: The Glow Starters
NARS – Light Reflecting Collection
NARS continues its reign as the master of glow with the new additions to its Light Reflecting lineup. The Light Reflecting Blush delivers that impossible-to-fake lit-from-within flush, blending seamlessly into the skin with a luminous finish that never tips into shimmer overload. The formula feels silky and weightless, melting into the complexion rather than sitting on top of it.
Alongside it, the Light Reflecting Luminizing Stick is quickly becoming our handbag essential. Creamy, sheer and endlessly flattering, it melts into the high points of the face for that glossy, expensive-looking skin finish currently dominating every red carpet and TikTok “clean girl” tutorial alike. It gives skin that healthy, reflective sheen without chunky glitter or obvious sparkle — just fresh, radiant skin.
Together, they’re the kind of products that make skin look healthy, rested and suspiciously expensive.
Glossier – Cloud Paint Plush Blush
Few blushes have achieved cult status quite like Glossier’s Cloud Paint, and the new Plush Blush iteration feels like the natural evolution of the original formula beauty people have kept in their makeup bags for years. The shade Beam delivers that soft peachy flush that instantly brightens the complexion, giving skin a healthy, just-back-from-holiday warmth without ever looking too “done”.
The texture is where the magic really happens – lightweight, pillowy and incredibly blendable, melting seamlessly into the skin for a blurred, almost airbrushed finish. It’s the kind of blush you can tap on with your fingers in the back of an Uber and somehow still end up looking polished.
Fresh, effortless and impossibly wearable, it’s exactly the sort of product that earns permanent handbag status.
Main Course: The Heavy Hitters
Fara Homidi Beauty – The Artistry Essentials
Few beauty launches have captured makeup artists quite like Fara Homidi Beauty. The line feels deeply intentional – elevated essentials designed for people who genuinely love makeup application as an art form rather than a rushed daily routine.
The Essential Eye Compact delivers buttery, richly pigmented shades with an almost velvety payoff, designed to create softly sculpted eyes that never feel overdone. Meanwhile, the Essential Lip Compact in Nude 1 reimagines the classic neutral lip palette with wearable tones that can be mixed, layered and customised depending on the mood. Paired with the brand’s Lip Brush – which feels weighty, sculptural and incredibly precise in-hand – the entire experience becomes more ritualistic than routine.
It’s luxury beauty in its most considered form: beautifully designed, highly functional and created for people who appreciate the artistry behind makeup.
Sans [ceuticals] – Perpetual Activator 7
Multifunctional beauty products are having a major moment, and Sans [ceuticals]’ Perpetual Activator 7 feels like the elevated answer to the everything balm. Reimagining facial oil in a concentrated solid format, the spill-proof balm is packed with seven powerhouse actives including Provitamin A, Vitamins C and E, Amino Acids and Omegas 3, 6 and 9.
The formula melts beautifully into the skin, delivering rich nourishment while helping repair and protect the skin barrier at a cellular level. What makes it especially compelling is its versatility – glide it across the body for deep hydration, smooth residual oil through dry hair ends, or use it as a gentle makeup remover at the end of the night.
It’s skincare designed for modern life: high-performance, endlessly multifunctional and chic enough to live permanently in your handbag.
Side Dishes: The Signature Staples
Carolina Herrera – Good Girl Jasmine Absolute
Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl Jasmine Absolute takes the brand’s cult-favourite fragrance DNA and gives it a richer, more sensual edge. Jasmine sambac sits at the centre of the fragrance, layered against creamy tonka, warm woods and soft amber notes that unfold beautifully throughout the day. It’s glamorous without feeling overpowering – the kind of scent that lingers on a blazer long after dinner ends. Bold, polished and unmistakably evening-coded, it feels destined for winter nights and oversized coats.
Castro – Parfum
One of our favourite local fragrance discoveries lately has been Castro Parfum from The Virtue. Rich, moody and beautifully layered, it opens with a depth that feels instantly sophisticated before settling into something warm, smoky and quietly addictive. There’s an understated confidence to it – less loud statement fragrance, more “what are you wearing?” energy. The kind of scent that feels equally at home at a gallery opening, long dinner or late-night martini.
Dessert: The Self-Care Finish
As every good beauty lover knows, the best routines don’t end with makeup. They end with the products that make everyday rituals feel elevated.
And somewhere between waterfront cocktails, seafood towers and testing lip shades across the table, The Beauty Menu’s second sitting at Bravo reminded us why beauty – much like dining – is always better when shared.
A huge thank you to Bravo for hosting us waterfront side while we dissected every launch, formula and beauty obsession currently on rotation.
Until the next reservation…