Powderpuff Mae

I recently met up with a lovely, charming and intelligent woman, Jenny. I've known her since my university days. We studied together, laughed and cried together... we shared many good and bad moments for many years.

I was known to be a softy even at school. Anything can trigger my tear duct. I can even cry watching cartoons! Jenny, however was known to be the exact opposite of me. Her outward appearance seemed somewhat intimidating. Her presence exudes a certain aura of strength, intelligence and arrogance and I was told that freaked out many potential suitors. But once you get to know Jenny, you will instantly be drawn to her sense of humour, kindness and warmth. She is a very nice person who happens to have a less "friendly" face.

I truly can empathise with Jenny as I have been told many times that I look unapproachable and as such there is a preconceived notion that I am an ice queen, or to put it more bluntly, a stuck up. It doesn't help that I have a relatively high, strong nose. That in itself qualifies me to be amongst the "arrogant and high maintenance" league. Thank God someone took the time to know me and I got hitched. I was fortunate.

For Jenny and myself, there was absolutely nothing we could do about our appearance, unless we cosmetically augment our entire facial structure and features. That would be painfully expensive and err painfully painful. So I gave a SOS call to Wendy, a friend of mine who is an image consultant.

Interestingly I found out from Wendy that the appearance of our face is liken to the Yin & the Yang. An approachable face with softer features is called the Yin face and the less approachable face with strong angular features is called the Yang face.

Zhang ZiYi is an example of a person with a Yin face



Michelle Yeoh has stronger features, as such she would be categorised as having a Yang face


There are a few things a Yang face can do to soften the features to create a more "friendly" look without going under the knife. Do not have arched eyebrows. That will over emphasise the already strong and angular features hence creating an even more fiery countenance.


Example of woman with arched eyebrows immediately making her look intimidating


less intimidating eyebrows

After getting the eyebrows right, smile. Over the years I come to realise that a smile is an essential feature that makes a person attractive and approachable. People with great smiles radiate a warmth that draws others to them instantly, like bees to the flowers.

A research was done and its report showed that it is possible to embody and incorporate negative or positive emotional states in our muscles memory and nervous tissue. Repetition of any emotional state (which inevitably comes along with thoughts and frames of mind within it) will become somatised or embodied in our very flesh!

As such, it is possible to alter certain facial muscles or features to create a more "smilely" and approachable face. In short, be happy and smile and if we smile often enough, a stern and unapproachable face may over a period of time evolve to a friendlier and more "smiley" face. Similarly I would consciously avoid being a habitual frowner, I may not be able to bear with the consequence of having the scowl as a permanent feature on my countenance.

The colour choice of our apparels play a significant part in managing our image. Instead of choosing winter colours like black, dark navy, opt for softer tones, summer colours, like grey or pinkish tones.

I thought changing my "unfriendly" face would be a formidable task but with Wendy's help everything is so simple now. It takes just a little tweaking here and there but the easiest, cheapest and most effective of them all is the million dollar smile : )