Friend at cente of Nadia Bartel sniffing scandal steps out

Ellie Pearson — the mate of Nadia Bartel who filmed her snorting white powder — is back on her camera phone.

Both Nadia Bartel and Ellie Pearson have re-emerged in public life after the white powder sniffing scandal, with confidence.

As Nadia Bartel re-emerged in public life, ironically, the other woman at the centre of the sniffing scandal was also stepping out that night.

Ellie Pearson, the friend who took the video showing Bartel hoovering up some, er, white powder, on a Kmart plate and accidentally uploaded it to the ‘Gram was back on her camera phone.

This time she was at the uber swanky opening of the Yugen Tea Bar at South Yarra’s Capitol Grand on Thursday night.

Across the city, Bartel was putting her best foot forward in form-fitting virginal white for the Twilight by the Track event at Caulfield Racecourse in her role as a “Friend of the Melbourne Racing Club”.

As one well-heeled partygoer exclaimed to Page 13: “You can’t make this stuff up.”

Another said Bartel should have been named an ambassador for the Cox Plate. Boom boom. We digress.

Ellie Pearson and Nadia Bartel before the scandal.

The Yugen dining grand opening. Picture: Supplied

Once bosom buddies, Bartel and Pearson have distanced themselves somewhat since the now infamous white powder plate scandal during Covid almost a year and a month ago.

The women’s worlds imploded when the footage was uploaded to the ‘Gram.

Bartel lost lucrative sponsorship contracts amid the fallout. Pearson was said to be struggling and suffering from mental health issues after the footage went viral on social media during Melbourne’s harsh lockdowns.

On Thursday, Pearson told Page 13 things were now on the up and she was heading to Bali on the weekend for some rest and relaxation.

She was then off to shoot some vids; let’s hope that faulty phone has been fixed.

As for the Yugen entertainment, The Voice crooner Jael Waena was performing Sia’s Chandelier under the glittering chandelier created by Jennifer Conroy Smith and Random Spaces.

It doesn’t open to the public until next Friday, but Yugen has already won a prestigious international award for its architecture and sculptured ceiling mirroring Japanese mountains.

The event was Melbourne to the max and had most of our city’s economy in the restaurant. Deep-pocketed guests, head to toe in black, cruised down the glass-walled elevator to the basement to feast on Japanese delicacies as if they all had all grown up together.

On second thoughts, maybe they had. Well-known surnames from 3142 like Deague, Simonds, Baillieu, and more Myers than you could poke a canape stick at mingled as the champagne flowed and wagyu with more marbling than the Parthenon was doled out in tiny ice cream cones.

The old Q Bar nightclub, where more than a few of the guests could share a steamy story from a former life, was transformed with the Yugen Tea Bar already a must go on our high-flyers list. Kanpai!