1. Cantonese comedies
2. Doing catch-ups with friends
3. Sweet wines
4. Bed talk with my girls
5. Being able to help someone
6. CSI Las Vegas
7. Brunch!
8. Chanel costume jewellery
9. The library
10. Looking at pretty things
11. Flea markets!
12. Discovering a plus size store with reasonable prices
13. Forever 21 for accessories
14. The luxury to write in complete silence
15. Comfortable AND stylish shoes
16. Aircon
17. Teh Tarik
18. Poring thru Dazed Digital
19. Loving myself, fats and all
20. Reading Melody Chen
21. Lookbook.nu

I don’t know about you but I find her writing hilarious. Primarily because it is typical nasty brit humour, and I do so love a bitch who dares to write contrary to mainstream acceptance. Though Bryanboy seems to be think she’s a real hater.

What do you think?

Put simply, I hate fashion. I scowl at Harper’s. I snarl at W. I spit at Vogue. Sometimes, I tear them up, these glossy pages full of anorexic children – part human, part makeup, part computer program – just because I’m worth it. Then I put a colander on my head.

You may say that I am bitter. How is my sex life, you ask? Do men flee my fashion-free person? What is my weight? What has happened to make me reject the things we women are supposed to hug – wedges, fringes, shifts, tassels, linings, bows? And don’t forget shoes! Surely I love shoes, the icons that Carrie Bradshaw worshipped instead of a god? No? I must be ill. Weep for me in my giant knickers. I am outcast.

I only disagree that being fat excludes one from having fun with fashion. I can vouch for the opposite personally.

I went for the Majorlica Majorca Makeover and it was a hoot.

The makeup artist Pamela was very patient and friendly - she explained every step of what she is doing on my face, tips on application techniques and about their makeup products.

She also guessed that I was using Japanese skincare (Shiseido and Kose, if you are interested) because she asked me what my skin care regime was and I mentioned softening lotion. We had a very interesting conversation about the different brands. For example, ZA is to Shiseido what L’Oreal is to Lancome. Being brands under the same umbrella company, technology breakthroughs are ’shared’.

I am inclined to agree. Pricing is largely affected by market segmentation, branding and advertising. To be frank, ZA is one of my favourite brands in terms of performance and price. Chanel skincare on the other hand, is grotesquely overpriced and overrated. FYI - MJ is priced between ZA and Ettusais (both Shiseido’s brands).

Products used

Pamela used their new product - Skin Lingerie OD Control (S$20.90) which is a makeup base to prep my skin before applying their 2 way cake.

The MJ Skin Remaker 2 way cake is comparable to that of Ettusais’ Zero Pore Pact (and at S$29.50 excluding compact, cheaper). She also used their newly launched Pressed Pore Cover (S$22.90 for powder only) after the application of 2 way cake. This is supposed to be better than the Fantasia 24hr pressed powder which they are phrasing out. It’s very lightweight, covered my pores quite nicely and supposedly good for touch ups. Since I don’t like to touch up with 2 way cake, I bought it.

Pressed Pore Cover

I didn’t get it in this compact though, as I preferred the gold one.

Compact at S$12.90

She used the newly launched Frame Plus mascara on my lower lashes. It’s a fibre mascara which comes in a duo comb brush. I tried it and the application is a dream. You use the straight side to deposit the mascara and the curved comb to spread and declump the lashes. The only downside is that it did smudge slightly after a few hours.

[for the price of S$25.90, I feel that Sasa's Super Dolly mascara (S$19.90) and Maybelline's new Volume Express Cat's Eye mascara (S$18.90) would be better buys as they are also good performers]

She also used the BR742 eye compact (S$25.90) and Jewelling black eyeliner BK999 (S$14.50) on my eyes to create the mossy green smoky look, a sultry look that I like and found easy to duplicate. (click here for video tutorial on the smoky eye look)

Honey Pump Gloss PK133

PK333 - it looks very bright in the compact but natural and light on the skin

To balance the intense eye look, I went with a very natural pink lip and slightly pink cheeks. Love the pouty lip effect it gave me! Who needs collagen injections? At S$9.90 a pop, of course I bought it.

Voila, the completed look.

PS - I wonder why the Singapore website is still not updated with the latest products. The Japanese one is up to date, but in kanji.

I went to try the Korean eyelash extensions (S$75) at Milly’s last Thursday. It was a rude shock after the expectations that I have after reading the reviews of their sponsored advertorials.

Not only does the touted to be better Korean lashes not much better than the ‘normal fake lashes’, most of the lashes fell out by Sunday and those remaining were detached from my eyelid and half hanging off my natural lashes!

I have been doing lash extension for almost two years now and I have never had an extension die on me after only four days. On the average, they last about three weeks - one month.

So I went back on Monday to get them to rectify the ‘damage’ and guess what? I was told that if I had ‘left the fake lashes half hanging off my natural lashes, they would have fixed it for free‘. As it is, because I refused to be seen in public looking like a demented Halloween eyelash disaster, and had removed the tragic survivors using cleansing oil, I had to pay another S$37 to fix something that was not done very well in the first place.

I am not very pleased about it but given that it is another person who is doing the touch up, I decided to give it another try. Well, I generally try to give people the benefit of the doubt as much as I can.

So, I will let you judge from the photos:

2nd ‘touch up job’ done at Milly’s.

Lash extension done by Baoshuang, the lady boss of Vain Beauty (also at Far East Plaza)

They charge S$60 and have a loyalty program where they reward customers with a free lash extension after every 5 times. And no, this is not a sponsored advertorial for them, and they don’t even know that I blog.

The ‘bedside manner’ also made a difference. I have sensitive skin and my eyelid will itch where they would apply the lash glue on the lashline. At my regular place, the girl will help to ease the itch by using a cotton bud to gently swab the eyelid, without me having to tell her to do so.

At Milly’s I had to repeatedly beg the girl to please swab my eyelid before I die of itching. The willingness to go the extra mile for the customer was definitely absent.

I was thinking of trying their hair braiding services earlier but after this experience, I would hesitate to do so.

Friendliness of staff: 6/10
Service level: 5/10
Workmanship: 3/10

*Edit on 7 March 09

I cannot imagine that I will be typing this but the 2nd touch up is another blotched job. The lashes started to peel away from my eyelids (again!) and I would have looked like a demented nutjob (again!) if I had not removed it again myself.

This time the lashes stayed on for a grand total of 7 days. No way am I going back to be sucker punched into paying another S$37 to fix their mistake.

To summarize, the first lash extension lasted 4 days (S$75) and the second lasted 7 days (S$37). A total of S$112 spent on lash extensions that lasted lesser than two weeks.

So yes, I am an extremely displeased and dissatisfied customer.

No thanks.. LOL.

Ah, the clean minimalism and fashion intellectualism that is Jil Sander. If lines could kill, I would have keeled over and died a few times.

Photos By Giovanni Giannoni

The boyfriend’s mum made a jar of organic Rosella confit for me.

It was supposed to be super healthy (and made with love) so I googled to see what properties it has -

Rosella Flowers
Image

How the confit looks like (Looks like some mashed up dragonfly)
Image

Organic rosella flowers are super fruits and  chockful with antioxidants. The levels eclipse the usual antioxidant fruits like blueberries, cherries and cranberries.

Rosella has certain therapeutic properties. Using it internally has been reported to have the following benefits:-

(a) soothes colds

(b) opens blocked nose

(c) clears up mucous

(d) astringent

(e) promotes proper kidney function

(f) helps digestion (good for weight loss)

(g) general tonic

(h) diuretic

(i) helps reduce fever

(j) anti-cancer agent

I feel the lurve

The Poster girl for Ayurvedic beauty

Recently I have discovered a perfect place to land great ayurvedic beauty buys - Mustafa at Little India, the 24 hour shopping haven for night birds like me.

The best thing is - they are all less than S$10 each and to my utter surprise, performed beyond my expectations.

One of them is a herbal face pack (Jothi Face Pack S$6.90) which is chockful of natural goodies like:

1. Sandalwood powder - protects from uv rays. Pleasant aroma.
2. Turmeric powder - lightening and antibacterial properties.
3. Licorice powder - refreshes and restructures uv damaged skin. Anti-ageing properties.
4. Rose powder - moisturizes and nourishes skin. Anti-ageing properties and pleasant aroma.
5. Manjistha - removes freckles and discolouration on skin. Anti oxidant properties.
6. Lentil flour - works with the other ingredients to remove blemishes and scars. Helps to improve skin texture while cleansing and removing impurities from within.

I added Cucumber powder for additional cleansing and skin tightening properties and Australian blue clay powder (leave this out if you have normal/ dry skin) - to regulate sebum.

Sidenote: Aishwarya Rai uses milk, yogurt and tumeric in her beauty regime too.

Usage:

• For normal skin, add 1 teaspoon of mask powder, 1 teaspoon of milk and 1 teaspoon of a hydrosol of your choice. A good hydrosol for normal skin includes elderflower, lavender, rose geranium, calendula, helichrysum and witch hazel.

• For dry skin, add 1 teaspoon of mask powder, 1 teaspoon of yogurt and 1 teaspoon of a hydrosol of your choice. A good hydrosol for dry skin includes carrot seed, rose, cornflower and sandalwood.

• For oily skin, add 1 teaspoon of mask powder, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of a hydrosol of your choice. A good hydrosol for oily skin includes lemon balm, neroli, basil, clary sage, chamomile german and yarrow.

Apply paste on face till completely dry. Wash off with cold water.

Now that we are comfortably into the first month of 2009, here’s looking at the Top 10 Fashion Disasters of 2008 for both men and women, in no particular order:

For Women

1. The Little Miss Sunshine Tee Shirt Craze

Yes, it was cute for a while, but that was it. Good for home wear though. (more…)

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