MECCA's Born Creative Workshops Bring Poppy Lissiman, Tiffi and Soraya Boularas to Bourke Street in October

The $20 sessions at MECCAVERSITY run over three Thursday nights, and the ticket price is fully redeemable on MECCA products on the night.
Eliza Campbell
Published on September 29, 2026

MECCA has spent close to three decades building Australia's biggest prestige beauty retailer, and this October it's handing its Bourke Street flagship over to a fashion designer, a songwriter and a makeup artist. The brand's new Born Creative campaign brings three artist-led workshops to MECCAVERSITY, the education space on level one of MECCA Bourke Street.

The campaign follows MECCA-commissioned Ipsos research which found creativity in women halves from childhood to adulthood, with two-thirds of Australian women feeling creative most or all of the time as kids compared with a third now. "Women are born with an incredible capacity to imagine, experiment and create, but our research shows between ages 12 and 24, too many of us lose confidence in it as we become more self-conscious, fearful of judgement and critical of ourselves," says MECCA's Chief Purpose Officer Lisa Keenan.

A hand dusted in pink pastel holding two sticks of chalk

Each one-hour session runs from 6.30–7.30pm, kicking off on Thursday, October 8 with fashion designer Poppy Lissiman, who'll guide you through painting and customising your own makeup case. On Thursday, October 15, Sydney singer-songwriter and producer Tiffi leads a beginner-friendly class on turning your own story into lyrics, before makeup artist and stylist Soraya Boularas closes out the series on Thursday, October 22 with a masterclass in bold, runway-inspired eyes.

Tickets are $20 with all materials included, and the full price is redeemable on MECCA products bought on the night. Can't make it into the city? Look out for Born Creative activations at select MECCA Beauty Labs, plus a window installation by artist Aretha Brown at MECCA Carlton.

Baroque pearls threaded on string across blue fabric

Beyond the store, MECCA's gender equality arm M-POWER is contributing $250,000 to The Song Room to fund arts programs for 12,000 primary school students. It's also funding free creative workshops for more than 500 girls and gender-diverse teens with mental health charity The Flourish Journey.

MECCA's Born Creative workshops run on Thursdays, October 8, 15 and 22 at MECCAVERSITY, Level 1, 299 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Book your spot for Poppy Lissiman's makeup case painting, Tiffi's songwriting session or Soraya Boularas' editorial eyes masterclass via Humanitix.

Top image: supplied.

Published on September 29, 2026 by Eliza Campbell
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