Mecca Maxima – Melbourne

Ladies, ladies, ladies! FACE FASHION IS HERE! I make a beeline for Mecca whenever I’m in Melbourne because all the best brands are on these shelves. The staff are so helpful and happy to play with makeup with you, especially if you admit that you have no idea what you’re doing. I think I went in three times last time I was in town? No regrets. I gave them a lot of my money.
Mecca also have a brilliant online store (and great online customer service) but you don’t get to try before you buy online, which is why I normally hold out for opportunities to go into store.

I’m going to review this place with no view on price. ALL cosmetics are double the price in AUS compared to the US/​UK. It sucks, but thems the brakes. Mecca is not overcharging, they are simply charging at RRP for our sad cosmetics market.
I am a total newb when it comes to makeup. I have incredibly sensitive skin and never wore a scrap of makeup until a few months ago when I decided that at 28, it was ‘time’. I have tried out a couple of things from Clinque and MAC but generally fumbling along and never had it quite right.
The staff at Mecca were amazing at rectifying this! The staff member assisting me was really patient and took time to explain all of the products and what she was doing while she tested them out to try different looks. Having a wide range of brands also meant that I walked out with no two item from the same range, but got everything that I was after. Having no alliance to once brand makes the advice feel more genuine and the girls were very helpful in picking the right tools for the job.
I was a bit nervous about the cleanser/​remover that I purchased, so they gave me a sample tub with the product to test at home for a week and said if I had a reaction, I could return the product (unopened of course) for something that was right. It was a success so I’m keeping it and will return for more!
Apparently they also run classes here to teach you certain looks so if I ever venture out of my comfort zone, I may have to give that a shot!

i love the products, but everything is so outrageously expensive, i’m so reluctant to part with any money here. philosophy body wash in the US is half the price. HALF. i recently fell in love with bumble and bumble shampoo because it smells effing amazeballs, but it’s $ 44 for a 250ml bottle. seriously?!
i’m cheap, what can i say…

[ C E N S O R E D ]
Sorry Unilocalers! My wife’s in-​depth review of Mecca, and my positive comments have just been thwarted by Unilocal.They won’t permit the (glowingly positive, for what it’s worth) write-​up, so I have to take it all back. Sorry — it had some great details, and really would have been worthwhile for those interested in Mecca’s services at Melbourne Central.

Every now and again a shop appears that makes you believe in customer service.
Mecca Maxima are killing it. They are blowing customer service out of the water. I came in here just to have a look around and left feeling like a new woman. Here I discovered what make-​up can do for my face and my confidence (do I sound like an ad yet?).
You can roll your eyes all you want. But I’ve never really cared about make-​up beyond slapping on some foundation, eyeliner and mascara. At Mecca Maxima, they talked me through a few things and gave me some fantastic advice on application for what I was after. And at no point did I feel like I was being pressured into a sale.
I left with a list of things written down on some paper and felt like that was probably one of the best retail experiences I have ever had. Plus, I left with a face that they had kindly done to show me how to apply everything properly.
Needless to say I’ve been back and bought the products, so as a shop; they’re totally doing it right.

Clarins and Clinique? Yves Saint Laurent and Giorgio Armani fragrances? Free makeovers, no queues and staff that have the time, knowledge and friendliness to help you? Yes, yes, yes and yes at Mecca Maxima!
I came across it completely by accident and thank my lucky stars I did. Generally cheaper than David Jones and Myer and stocking the absolute best brands in cosmetics, skincare and fragrances — Mecca Maxima is a godsend if you’re sick of the hassle and hustle and bustle of the major department stores.

From the sublime — Mecca Maxima’s glorious selection of makeup — to the ridiculous — Mecca Maxima’s stupidly high prices — a visit to this makeup mecca in Melbourne Central station is a bit of a roller-​coaster.
Don’t get me wrong, Mecca Maxima’s range of cosmetics, beauty products and accessories is incredible — I think someone mentioned Sephora which is a fair comparison — and the shop itself is classy and not too overwhelming, but the prices themselves are completely ludicrous.
Stocking sometimes hard to find Down Under brands such as NARS, Bobbi Brown, Korres, Stila and even Soap & Glory, Mecca Maxima should be a shoe in for a five star review but with, for example, Bobbi Brown’s eyeshadows being priced at $ 50 a pop — when they’re only $ 20 Australian dollars in the US and UK — Mecca Maxima is a little cheeky.
My new try before I buy online cosmetics store, Mecca Maxima could become addictive. But it needs to reduce its prices first.

I am one of those people who can lose a lipstick and declare it an emergency. Lipsticks matter! But last week I had the opposite problem — a friend had give me one of her cast-​offs (a lurvly sheer peachy Nars number), which I adored and wanted to wear IMMEDIATELY, but I couldn’t because all the blushes I owned were too pinky. So on my way home I popped into Mecca Maxima and voila! Within minutes the girl serving me a) completely empathized with my dilemma; and b) had found the perfect shade of dewy peachy blush to match and sent me on my merry peachy way in under 5 minutes.
I have been shopping at Mecca Cosmetica for years, first at the DJs counter and then in Myer. Maxima, however, is even better — I didn’t have time to browse the whole store, but just glancing around it was obvious Maxima has a wider range of cosmetics and fragrances than Mecca’s original flavour. Yes, it’s generally cheaper to buy these brands online, but sometimes you need things RIGHT NOW, plus the service at Mecca is always faultless. I’ll be back for more impulse purchases soon.

Mecca Maxima is to Australia what Sephora is to the US (and Europe for that matter).
Combining the best bits of Mecca Cosmetics and Kit Cosmetics it has a great selection of makeup, skincare, fragrances, tools and all the other things you might need to prettify yourself. Covering a good range of price points, staff trained in multiple brands and being generous on the sample front is what sets this place apart from the department stores cosmetics halls.
Mecca Maxima stocks house labels like Kit and Mecca nailpolish and body products as well as other cult brands you can’t get elsewhere in Australia like Mario Badescu, Nars, Eve Lom, Lipstick Queen and By Terry (to name only a few).
With a spectacular selection and a non-​invasive assistance system (a tag hangs from a basket which you can flip to ‘just looking’ or ‘help me, please!’ as desired) I challenge you to walk out of here without something… even if you just painted a nail to admire the colour.

This is a makeup shop located in Melbourne Central made by Mecca Cosmetica and I have to say it’s pretty good! It’s a huge shop filled with all sorts of selections and even free makeovers. The customer service was nice, gracious, and helpful. Their products are high quality and at decent prices too. I bought some nailpolish (they have nailpolish testers and free remover as well) and noticed that they were at the same prices in Big W also in the CBD.
This will probably be my go-​to place in terms of makeup because the employees seem to really know what they’re talking about and can help you with whatever you need. I’m not that experienced with makeup honestly so I’ll probably find this spot really useful.
One downside I have to mention though is that when you make a purchase, they ask you for all this personal information such as name and e-​mail. Then I started receiving Mecca Cosmetica newsletters when I didn’t give permission for them to send me anything and they didn’t notify me that I would receive any newsletters. I’m not sure if my cashier forgot or if it just isn’t part of the policy. You can unsubscribe easily, but it did turn me off a bit.