2009 in Review: Part 3 (Me, Myself & My Wardrobe)

Facebook status updates in 2009 on Me, Myself and My Wardrobe

Vanity, thy name is woman…

• needs more wardrobe space.
• is looking for grey opaque tights for her new nude boots. 🙂
• Price aside, why are beautiful shoes so uncomfortable? And why are comfortable shoes so ugly?
• wonders if Michelle Obama’s & Carla Bruni’s aides had a pow-wow before they actually met? However do u explain that both turned wore dresses with large neck bows & sleeves!??
• wonders how other women can put on fake eyelashes in the morning when she’s usually struggling to prevent herself from poking her eyeballs out with the mascara wand and heated eyelash curler.
• is both amused and freaked to receive an email from Amazon.Com that reads something like “based on your past book searches & purchases, we want to remind you that “The Fashion Show” premieres tonight on Bravo TV. Call it direct marketing…
• shopaholic alert – October’s credit card bills are at stratrospheric levels.

Kicking some Ass…

• feels accomplished after the nature walk @ Ubin today!
• wants to zorb…anyone interested?
• a tortuous pilates session is all it takes to find out how much unidentified muscles she has
• is taking the plunge to sign up for her 1st Shape Run despite her aching feet from the 5km walk yesterday! Time for regular runs to supplement the pilates sessions!
• one month down to Shape run and desperately needing to re-start the jogging routine (yet) again! Time to put the new Nikes to some good use.
• is pleased with her running progress. She’s on track. Ok, not literally, but on treadmill.
• is gearing up for the 5km run tomorrow, though what’s she really looking forward is the huge breakfast after (eggs, bacon, smoked salmon and coffee please)… Oh, and let’s hope that high-heels inflicted blister on her toe won’t decide to burst.
• dull ache from yoga actually feels good.
• had a most gruelling yoga session today. One day, I will be able to stand on my hands and write with my toes, but not today.
• finally understood why the Body Combat class at the yoga studio is always full. When you hear enough of “you have to cultivate inner peace”, it feels good to be punching and kicking. Satisfying, really

2009: Had epiphany. Realized will never be one of those glam girls who look well put together in the morning, afternoon and/or night. Still, did not stop shopping. Wardrobe situation under control (well-done!). Bought new wardrobe.

Gave up heated mascara wand. It burnt whatever little lashes I had left.

Started exercise regime! Placed myself into a big ball (zorbing) and rolled downhill. Felt like piece of laundry in the washing machine whilst rolling. Finished first 5km run, in 38 minutes (pat on back!). (Re)started yoga and discovered interest in yoga combat. Have not gone for yoga, nor step into gym the past 2 weeks (oh dear!)

Bought first branded bag from Italy – in gun metal grey. Lied to mum about its price (slashing it by >50%).

Plans for 2010: Fill up new wardrobe. Do another 5km run. Drag myself to the gym. Maybe more shoes? Cut up one credit card.

Picture credits: Etsy

Wonders of Make-up

I was browsing in the bookstore when I came across Kevyn Aucoin’s Face Forward. Aucoin was a talented make-up artist, particularly fond of using make-up to transform people into a totally different character. Unfortunately, he died of a brain tumour in 2002.

I can’t seem to find a lot of images from the book, but he showcases the ability to transform Calista Flockhart into Audrey Hepburn and Gwyneth Paltrow as James Dean (yes, a guy).

The powers of transformative make-up! Do go flip if you come across it!

Spring in Singapore

Has anyone realised that Spring has come to Singapore? True, we may not have the lushful jacaranda blooms in Sydney, or the fluttering cherry blossoms in Tokyo, but we do have our blooms of the raintree, the golden shower trees and the flame of the forest trees.

Best enjoyed when pressed against the doors of the trains on your way to work or on your way home.

 

 

Since you are stuck in trains, pressed against bodies and doors, you should try smelling like Spring. My current favorite is Body Shop’s Cherry Blossom Range. I now smell like Sakura. 🙂

 

 I searched, but unfortunately it seems that tropical flowers aren’t so great for shower gels and moisturisers… Hmm, a Rafflesia* range of shower gels anyone?

*Rafflesia: The biggest flower in the world, found only in Southeast Asia. Incidentally, the smell of the flower is like rotting flesh.

 

Of complexion

What happens when your mother and one of your best girl-friend shares the same dermatologist? And you aren’t the one who makes the recommendation? Am I missing out on some beauty-band-wagon?

It all started innocently enough. My mother peered at my skin the other day and remarked that I look “like a ghost”. Not of the fair-skinned long-haired variety, but more of the gruesome scary version. It was all open pores and blackheads, she said.  She then went on to subject my sparse eyebrows to some tweezing, proclaiming the skill of having learnt the art of eye-brow plucking when she was younger. In the end she handed me the name card of Dr.J, the dermatologist. 

Now I was under the (possibly now mistaken) impression that my skin was fabulous, after a year of non-humid cool weather of Sydney. Facials, hair treatments, manicures, pedicures and massages were luxury for a student budget and for someone who spent truckloads of her salary on them (before Sydney – “BS”), Sydney was what I called my phase of “beauty-backwater” but I was happy. No intense pressure to look too groomed or too manicured, as the trimmed hedges of Wisteria Lane. 

So now, less than a week after I’m back, the intense pressure to look young, groomed, manicured has kicked in again. If Max Weber is still alive, he can perhaps have created a complementary thesis to the Protestant Ethic – something along the lines of The Beauty Ethics of Asian Girls and how they keep the beauty and cosmetic industry going in spite of recession. 

Whatever happened to aging gracefully? It now comes with the price tag of some deep-sea seaweed and some chemical laser applied to the face. Call it the application of Curious Case of Benjamin Button, if you will. The only regression that’s good today is one where you look younger even while getting older. 

I wonder when I should make an appointment with the derm.