Powderpuff Mae

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Jesse came home last week with something he made from his art and craft session at kindi. It was a necklace made from pastas! It was beautiful, at least to me. It was even more beautiful as he puts it around his neck proudly to parade his very own creation.



Funny how something so simple can be so beautiful and meaningful.

Talking about beauty, I was told by a friend that adults' perception of beauty is often prejudiced and distorted by "external factors". I have a friend, Foo, he has this thing for girls with long hair. Any girl with long straight hair would be beautiful to him. And any woman, it could be a Kylie Minogue look alike, with that short hair would be yukkie to him. I used to date Richard who likes girls with really short hair, apparently that gives him the adrenaline rush, but that same beautiful girl would be appalling to Foo.

Anyway back to beauty, according to my friend Luc, babies from the age of 6 months old are the best judge of beauty as their perception of beauty is unbais and untainted by prejudicial preferences or "external factors". Wanna know if you are good looking? If a 6 months old baby stares at you longer than usual with approval, it is good news. If he yells with disgust....sorry, bad news.

Back to the pasta necklace, I am fully aware that my judgments were clouded. Anything that Jesse does would be beautiful to me. If it were made by some other kid, then it would be a different story. Some call it prejudice, I call it love.

Carol gave me a call to passed me a pack of hokkien mein which she bought for my dinner, enough to feed the family for 2 meals. I really love that woman.

Anyway we had a little chat at her dining table under a bright fluorescent light. This woman has flawless skin, I mean not a single mark on her face. She candidly told me that "I am forty something already and touch wood I don't have any eyebags or dark circle around my eyes. I don't even have laughter lines when I smile". To emphasise that fact, she put on a huge smile to show her wrinkleless complexion. What's your secret? I asked. "It is internal and external", was her answer to great skin.

Externally, the skincare products serve to cleanse, tone and moisturise the skin. However there is so much these product can do for the skin. If there is something wrong with the body or internal organs, it may show on the face". I asked her if was related to the picture I saw on her table. It was a picture of a face with a map like demarcation on different parts of the face.

I was right. She said that the chinese sinseh could tell what was wrong with a person by merely looking at the face. She said from her 15 years of experience as a beautician, the chineses sinseh's diagnoses can be quite accurate. For example if a person has pigmentation around the cheeks and after using proper skin care to rid the problem area, pigmentation still persists, the root cause may be the liver. As such to properly treat the pigmentation, use proper skincare for pigmentation and supplement it with the right nutrient for the liver. Milk Thistle is known for cleansing the liver.

I used to have millia seeds around my eyes. Lovely Carol removed them all for me. However the culprit could be bad blood circulation. As such, to combat bad blood circulation, most neutritionist would recommend Vit C and Gingko Biloba . Also according to Carol, tiny pimples on the forehead could be caused by stress or using the wrong shampoo.

Carol also gave me a tip on the proper way to take supplements. She just attended a health seminar and she learnt that for maximum results and absorption when taking supplements, take it consistently at a fixed time. Apparently the body is like a time table and at a certain fixed time every day, it will absorb the nutrients to its maximum capacity. That info was certainly something new for me. I'll give it a try to see if it holds any truth.

Carol's car was at the workshop. I offered to give her a lift to her salon. We got to talking and she decided to give me a mini facial as a Chinese New Year gift. Yippee!

The mini facial session ended with the usual massage session and Carol said "I am going to do the digital pressure now". She had always used that term "digital pressure" which I presumed it to be the massage session but I never bothered asking her what it really was. Today I did.

Carol uses essential oils for her facials. For the oil to be fully absorbed into the skin, actually she said "all five layers of the skin" digital pressure is necessary. It involves pressing or applying pressure on certain facial points on the face. The whole procedure takes approx 15 minutes. I asked her about the benefits of "digital pressure". I was surprise to find out that our face may contain toxins from lack of sleep, stress, wrong skin care, self induced pimple extraction and digital pressure helps in removing toxin from the face. It also enhances blood circulation. She confessed that the first time I went to her for facials I had water retention on my forehead! Digital pressure removed it. By applying the correct pressure on the correct facial points, one is actually exercising the face. Some call it facial exercise and that helps in firming the face, giving it an even skin tone with a glow.

After applying digital pressure on the face, the next session is phyto drainage, basically to dispel the toxin from the body. Usually she massages at the neck and back area. The toxin will be discharged via urea or perspiration. That finally explains why I always had a fuller bladder than usual when I have my facials with Carol.

In the past I faithfully went for my facials every month as I had problems with pimples and clogged pores. My complexion improved after every facial however in two months, it would revert to its former condition, all clogged up and all bumpy. In actual fact there wasn't much improvement to my complexion at all. According to Carol, after each session of facial, the complexion should improve and not revert to its former condition. And looking back, Carol's technique worked well on my skin.

It is all about using the right products and going to the right beautician. This may not come easy and cheap for some people, it took me 17 years and a lot of money spent before I was truly satisfied with my complexion. Of course this is only externally, we haven't even begun to explore the internal factors that affect the skin!

A symmetrical face

Last week was an interesting week. My friend Sally was back from Australia. Despite our age gap, we enjoy hanging out together. We had one thing in common, we are both vain and we would pay the price or suffer the pain for the sake of vanity.

Sally had always wanted a set of full lips like that of Angelina Jolie's. She didn't believe in injecting some foreign substance into the body but had not qualms about cuts, stitches and pain. As such collagen was out of the question. She opted for lip embroidery. Sally was to an extent able to choose the shape of her desired lips which she had coveted for such a long time.

We made an appointment with Ms Tang at Metro Prima at Kepong. Ms Tang and her sister are trained "surgeons" from China who had performed thousands of "minor cosmetic surgeries" for more than a decade. Both Sally and I were hopeless at Mandarin and both the sisters could only converse in Mandarin. Still, that didn't stop us from our pursuit for beauty.

Sally knew exactly what she wanted. She had pictures of Amber, Angelina and Gong Li ready for Ms Tang. However, Ms Tang couldn't give her Amber nor Angelina's lips. There are some factors that had to be considered, the original shape of her lips and facial structure. As such, she could only give her slightly fuller and thicker lips.

Couldn't keep my eyes off this picture


Amazing, you can choose the eyes and lips that you desire

My personal favourite - Arousing

Check out the English. I think it is a direct translation from Mandarin

First Ms Tang drew the outline of the lips for Sally's approval. After many corrections and half and hour of chicken and duck talk trying to convince Ms Tang that thick lips are now fashionable and not abominable, the next step was to choose the colour to be tattooed on the lips. Fortunately Sally chose a light colour.

Ms Tang took out her "tattooing pen" and she started inflicting pain for a whole hour on Sally's lips. For the sake of beauty, Sally withstood every prick from the needle that fell onto her lips. She had an option, to either take 4 jabs of anesthetic around the lips, a painless process but her lips will swell up for a few hours or just opt for numbing liquid. Since she had a business presentation in 2 hours, she opted for more pain less swell.

Tattooing in progress

I was with Sally throughout the whole process. I was contemplating whether I should get my lips done. I saw every gory detail. Asked as many questions I could with my limited Mandarin. Saw the end result of my friends ordeal. Ms Tang assured me that I would look lovely with light pinkish lips as I had pale skin and didn't have much pigmentation on my lips. The cost of lip embroidery is RM1,000.00 which includes touch ups.

There are alot of things I would do for the sake of vanity, but I think I will pass on this one.

I knew an English couple, Sarah and Robert, who were seconded to Malaysia for 2 years. Their daughter, Charlotte was 5 and took a school bus to kindi. Sarah found Malaysians to be extremely polite people, they often refer to anyone and everyone as uncles or aunties. They found it even more amusing that Charlotte had picked up that habit from her friends. Even if she didn't know the name of the aunty or uncle, it didn't matter, every uncle and aunty had a special name. Thus the bus driver was officially named "uncle bus" by Charlotte and her friends. We had a good laugh, but as I recalled back, all the 4 designated school bus drivers who ferried me and my siblings throughout our 12 years of schooling were either called uncle bus or aunty bus.

Parents at Jesse's kindi had to pick their kids up in an orderly manner. We had to queue up outside the kindi. Everyday when I wait for Jesse in the queue I meet two aunties who were the designated drivers for some of the children at the kindi. The first aunty drove a Toyota Unser and she had 16 kids under her care. Imagine all 16 kids in a van. It was really amusing watching the kids get in. They just keep hopping into the van of unlimited space which reminded me of a tv commercial for Toyota Unser sometime ago where they showed the "forty vertically challenged thieves" getting into the unser in a similar manner as the kids. Indeed the Unser is great for space.

Both the aunty unser and friend had brownish yellow hair. They have kept up with the trend of having their hair coloured and bleached. Similarly, some decades ago, they must have kept up with the trend then and had their brows and eyeliner tattooed black and that event must have slipped their minds when they coloured their hair recently. The tattooing must have happened some decades ago. Today they have grayish black eyebrows and eyeliner (the black must have faded of) with light brown hair. Not good. It was quite excruciating looking at the pair of aunties everyday under the hot sun. Somehow under the bright natural sunlight, every colour and flaw seemed accentuated.

According to a professional makeup artist, she pointed out that the colour of the brows had to match the colour of the hair. As such black hair, darker or black brows; brown hair, brownish brows. I never saw the importance of such colour coordination until I saw how ghastly aunty unser and friend looked in their trendy new hair colour.

Chinese New Year is around the corner and I know many of my Cantonese (Canto) speaking friends who are itching to do something new and drastic to the hair. Just yesterday two of my canto friends, with great enthusiasm and in anticipation of the New Year coloured their hair brownish yellow, it did look very stark with their black brows. SO do be careful if you intend to colour your hair for the New Year, choose wisely.

I wish they were my natural lashes; they are extensions


I have small eyes and have always wanted larger eyes. I am always looking for ways on how to enhance or enlarge the eyes. From experiments and trial and errors, I realised that with proper makeup and some other "little enhancements", any person can have beautiful eyes or at least have better looking and more attractive eyes.

Mascaras could help create longer, darker and thicker lashes. According to a make-up artist, she told me that mascara helps to "open up" your eyes, I think what she meant was that it makes the eyes look bigger. However I dread cleaning the mascara off the lashes at the end of the day, in particular waterproof mascara. Seeing my lashes fall off after each washing was heartbreaking.

I hardly use mascara these days (trying to preserve whatever lashes I have left) as such, I opt of fakes or extensions. Just a quick tip for mascara lovers, curling lashes gives eyes the appearance of being wider & brighter. Shoot hot air from your hair dryer on the mascara curler for 3-5 seconds to warm it up before curling lashes. Touch it first to make sure it's not TOO hot. Shu Uemura makes the most popular eyelash curler on the market. I saw my makeup artist for my wedding photos do that and it does wonders for the eyes and lashes.

Winnie, of Splendour De Beauty usually gives me a call when there are offers at her salon. This time, the eyelash extensions are going for RM88 until Chinese New Year. I made an appointment to see her. I've done eyelash extensions last year at Body Perfect (the place where "Gutsy Girl" got her entire slimming course sponsored) and they were beautiful. But beauty came with a price, RM150, and that was the offer price! Normally it would be priced at about RM300! I was looking for something more reasonable so I decided to go with Winnie this time.

Winnie painstakingly stuck each synthetic lash onto my original eyelashes and since, according to her, I had quite a lot of them it took her nearly 2 1/2 hours to complete. Occasionally I dozed off, my body just couldn't resist the calm and soothing music of the waves and nature. Every pain and ache in my body due to lack of bodily movement for the whole 2 1/2 hours was worth it. I was pleased with the results. The eyelashes looked really natural, naturally long which I love.

Synthetic lashes that was glued to my original lashes


Some of the equipment Winnie used





The glue

I've had them on for 2 weeks since and they still look beautiful. Most of them still holding on strong and still in good shape. I was told by Winnie that it will last for a month if I take care of them, that means no excessive rubbing of the eyes.

I am sure they will not last till Valentines or Chinese New Year. I may go back for touch ups next month, it costs only approximately RM40 for her to replace fallen synthetic lash.

Valentines' coming up soon and what better way to look fabulous with "almost" naturally long and beautiful eyelashes. The lashes are so discreetly good looking and trust me, the men will not even realise what hit them unless they have read this post!

Side profile


Front profile

For those interested call Winnie at 77103036. Her salon is at 26M Jln SS21/58, Damansara Utama. Just let her know that I recommended you, she'll know what to do.

Just a couple of days ago I was on a "vanity project" hunt. I hopped into Splendour De Beauty at Damansara Uptown for some consultation on eyelash extensions (which I will eventually blog about). On the way up the stairs, I noticed a banner on an instant miracle for cracked heels.

I made some inquiries (and gave the product a try on my heels) and I am glad to announce that I've found a cheaper alternative for those who are keen on getting their cracked heels dilemma sorted out. While I was getting my lashes extended (ahem, yes I succumbed) I gave the new product a try on my heels. The process is quite similar to Peggy's Dr SoHo. Immediate improvement can been seen after one session, smooth, soft and pinkish skin in 1 hour. Winne, the owner of Splendour De Beauty uses Silk Factor by Tsuya Tsuya for her cracked heels treatment. Each treatment costs RM48. The prices of Silk Factor's home care products are surprisingly reasonable, especially after seeing its rather impressive performance. Callus Removing Patch (6 pieces), Foot Cream and Green Tea Scrub costs less than RM50.

For best results, try a session with Winnie, if you are satisfied with the results and her massage "kungfu" you can either sign a package with her (buy 5 session, get 1 session free) or get the home care products and start your own maintenance programme in the comfort of your own home. It does require some discipline, but it pays, there is nothing more satisfying than seeing your heels being restored day by day. I would say, all in all, this is indeed a "good buy".

Dr SoHo Set for Cracked Heels


Miracles hardly happen to me. Yesterday it did in the strangest way...

There was one part of my body that I have neglected. It had been so neglected that it looked like a prune, wrinkly, hard and dry. I suffered from serious cracked heels.

I have had cracked heels for as long as I could remember and I never did anything about it, simply because the foot is situated at an obscure place where it hardly gets noticed. It didn't help that I love heels, the higher the better. I was told by some people that wearing heels and rubber slippers may aggravate it.

Last week, I gathered enough courage to inspect the condition of my heels and I was truly repulsed by its sorry state of neglect and abuse. I just didn't know what else to conjure up anymore, in the past I tried soaking my feet in warm water, scrubbing it and applying cracked heels lotion advertised on tv but nothing seemed to work.

To add to my misery, at times the skin gets flaky, and other times, dirt residue very often gets trapped between the crevices making me look like a dirty person with no sense of hygiene, sigh.

Before treatment


That's one ugly foot

I decided enough was enough and it was time to take some serious actions. So the next day, in exasperation and desperation, I sought professional help at Peggy Nail Beauty Centre near my condo. Peggy was a very nice bubbly girl in her mid twenties. I asked if she had any treatment for cracked heels. I was in luck. They just brought in a new product from Singapore, Dr SoHo Feet for cracked heels. I asked how many treatments I needed to undergo and but she needed to examine my feet first. This was the part I dreaded most, exposing "it" to a stranger not knowing how she would react. My pruny feet must have shocked her and she inquired if it had been in this state for a long time. I admitted to the years of abuse and neglect like a guilty convict.

She ushered me to the feet treatment area. First she soaked my feet in luke warm water and that followed by application of Dr SoHo's callus remover with cotton wool to remove the dead skin. With the cotton wool pressed against my feet, she wrapped both my feet with plastic for 20 minutes.


Peggy wrapping my foot with plastic



After 20 minutes she scraped away the callus using a spatula. A gargantuan amount of dirt and dead skin came off the feet with the rigorous scrapping. Eww it was truly disgusting looking at thirty four years of accumulated dead skin removed from the feet. Later she filed my feet with a huge feet filer.

Peggy using spatula to scrap away the callus

Dead skin cells

Peggy filing my foot

All the dead skin Peggy scrapped from my left foot!

The next step was to scrub the feet with Dr SoHo's Skin Soften Gel. Finally Peggy massaged my feet with the Repair Lotion.

"Got improvement or not?" Peggy asked as she lifted my feet to reveal the transformation to the guilty yet anxious foot abuser. At that moment I felt like I was in the reality show "the Swan" during the big reveal when the anxious multiple surgery ridden participant awaits the lifting of the curtain for a peek at herself in the mirror. I cried, hugged, kissed and thanked Peggy repeatedly when I beheld in awe the all new smooth, subtle and soft feet.. I was exaggerating lah. I just said "Wah very nice already, thanks". I was indeed amazed by the results achieved in just one session and they looked like a pair of brand new feet.

After treatment

Not perfect yet but immediate improvement just after one treatment

After second treatment. The cracks are almost gone!

Peggy wanted me to go for another 2 sessions of treatment before my heavily abused feet could return to its former glory. This may not be a big miracle to many but it was to me that I could finally have beautiful, smooth feet in exactly 3 weeks.

I was on a search for the mascara that gives the longest and most beautiful eyelashes. I've tried Lancome's Flex WP, Loreal's Double Extension both do lengthen but not as they claim and it was really hard to remove even when using eye makeup remover. Also, very "sayang" when I see my lashes fall off during the cleaning process.

Some time ago, I was suckered into buying "Angel Eyes" from Korea which promises extra long and dark eye lashes. I got it because of the name, I should expect something like "Angel Eyes" to give me eyes like angels. Anyway the "Angel Eyes" set consists of a mascara and 2 types of fibres and is priced at about RM170. To achieve the angel eye look, first apply a coat of mascara, then apply the white fibres to lengthen the lash, then reapply the mascara. To achieve desired length, I had to apply the white fibres 4-5 times. To have darker lashes, apply the black fibres and reapply another coat of mascara to enable the fibres to stay onto the lashes. They do indeed lengthen and darken the lashes but the whole process can be time consuming and "messy". By the time I was done with all the applications, my face was covered with strands of white and black fibres. Not very angelic. However, the plus side is the mascara can be washed off with just cotton buds and water.

The "Angel Eyes" set

The white fibre is to lengthen the eyelashes and the black fibre is to make the lashes darker

The black fibre. It can get quite messy


My original 5mm long eyelashes

After using "Angel Eyes"


Recently, I met up with Sally, an oldish friend of mine, who is flamboyant, loud and colourful. She introduced many things to me. Some bad, some questionable but one good thing she did introduce to me were the fake eyelashes from Japan. She kept insisting that I get them. She was wearing them on and honestly they didn't even look like fakes. They just looked so natural and beautiful.

I was tempted and I fell for them immediately. They were lovely. Even James noticed the difference. He thought I went for some tattooing. Each box comes with 10 pairs of "eyelashes" and a bottle of glue. It is priced at about RM250. These eyelashes can be used a few times, depending on how you take care of them. It is not difficult to put on, just needs abit of practice.

The False Eyelash Set from Japan


Can't really tell if there are fakes

Personally, I prefer the fakes to mascara, they look nicer and longer.

I used to have problems wearing under-wired bras. They don't fit properly. The wires kept digging into my chest and the pain was excruciating. I gave up on under-wired bras and started wearing the "grandma" bras without those horrid wires. They were comfortable but comfort came with a price obviously. They just don't give you the shape, support and umph. Plus I feel so unsexy wearing them. And after a few more washes it turned dimply. Bras are supposed to enhance and accentuate our God given assets. Even the less endowed women can now have her desired curves, if worn correctly. So my grandma bras just weren't doing it for me.


Bra with the wrong cut that causes "digging-in"

So I decided to go bra shopping at Metrojaya. I went to the Wacoal counter and asked if they had grandma bras and the salesgirl just gave me that look...as if I am some lost cause fashion faux pas. They didn't sell grandma bras. So I moved along to XIXILI. I asked the same question but this woman, my saviour she was God sent. She somehow knew her mission was to save this poor soul from the eternal damnation of grandma bras. She asked me "why do you wear that kind of bra, you are still so young. Tell me what your problem is". This woman I LIKE. I poured out my problems to her about the "digging-in" like a helpless baby. "You are wearing the wrong bra, let me show you which one is the right bra for you and next time just buy this cut. It will fit you" said my saviour. "By the way what is your bra size?", she asked. This question took me by surprise cos I wasn't sure but I was sure the cup size should be A cup. Without hesitating and also to save me from further embarrassment she just took a measuring tape and measured my boobs. "You are a B!" she said. "I'm a B?? Are you sure?" I couldn't believe I had grown one cup larger. Thanks to child birth, breast feeding and hormonal changes. But I could be wrong, read here.


The right cut for me. Right fitting bras are comfortable and gives the body the desired curves

I went to the fitting room and my saviour asked if I knew how to wear a bra. Come on, I've been wearing bras since puberty but she insisted that she should come into the fitting room to show me how it should be done. Now that felt really weird. Apparently I was supposed to lean forward 90 degrees to my legs, then fasten. Wriggle slightly side to side to get boobs centered into the cup. Then stand up. Then my saviour put her hands into the bra to push my breast from the side to the centre of the cup so that my bosom sat nicely into the cup. "See how nice they are now" she said with beaming pride. Honestly they do look great. So I got a few more from her.

That day, I walked out of Metrojaya, still a little embarrassed by the whole incident but I walked with my head held high knowing that I will never ever wear those grandma bras ever again and those wicked, sexy new push up bras, my husband will LIKE. And the promotion to B cup, real cool.

I come from a family of vain pots. My grandmother had cosmetic surgery done to her eyes for double eye lids, so did my aunt. One of my relative went through a life threatening surgery to have her jaws sawed and shortened to look beautiful.

I recall grandmother telling me that it was perfectly fine to be vain (or in hokkien, "ai swee") after all God created everything beautifully and He loves beauty. Infact, she insisted that I should be "ai swee". She was quite creative to come up with this rationale to support her quest for vanity. Anyway lately my mother has been pestering me to get my eyes done. It has something to do with having eyeliner embroidery or tattoo done to the eyes. It all started when she had eyebrow embroidery done and she totally loved them. By some strange reason she some how felt rather strongly that I needed semi permanent eyeliners drawn on my eyes, well her rationale "with the tattoo or embroidery you never have to use the eyeliner on the eyes. You will get wrinkles around the eyes whenever you draw on your eyes and when you wash them off because you will be pulling the skin around the eyes". Then she will go on and on about aunty Veronica, Betty and etc... all look so nice. To be honest, they all look scary to me.

What can I say?? It is not the pain that I am worried about, it is "the look" that freaks me out. I know of many aunties who have tattooed the eyes and everywhere, it looks really disgusting after a decade or two, the black or brown eventually turns grey or grayish green. Just imagine when I am 70, old and wrinkly but I still have that faded tattoo around my eyes and brows.

At this moment, the answer is still "NO", however my cousin did mention that embroidery can look really nice on certain eyes......

I was plagued with pimples since 16 years old. At that time, I knew nothing about skin care and the only product I knew was hazeline snow. At 16, I had a huge crush on this guy but the craters on my face just made me feel really unattractive, so I distanced myself from every good looking guy in school. Until today, I still feel sorry for myself for missing out on so much.

I started going for facials when I was 18 years old. After spending thousands of ringgit and using almost every high end, low end and saloon brand...my skin was still so so only and the pores are often clogged. Every month during "the time of month", those rascals will just pop out right at that time, without fail, as if they had been programmed to do so. If I had to travel to another country of different climate, I would experience another volcanic eruption.

I religiously went for my facials every month. The extractions (where the beautician will squeeze out every white head, black head, pimple and every other shit I have under that skin) were unbearable. Anyway I usually leave the saloon with an enlarged face due to the beautician's rigorous harvesting of pimples. It was not a lovely sight. I had to stay indoors for at least 3 days before the swell subsided.

I figured it was hormone imbalance. When I was on contraceptive pills for 3 months, my skin was glowing and smooth as a baby's bottom. When I was pregnant, again the skin was flawless. After giving birth, it's back to square one. I had another problem, I was heavily dependant on foundation and powder to camouflage the flaws. I never went out without make up. This was obviously bad for the skin and most beauticians would advise against using too much make up. At that time, I couldn't live without make-up, my complexion looked frightful without them.

Then Carol came into my life. Beautiful, lovely Carol. She is my neighbour, who happens to be a beautician. I gave her a try, and was immediately hooked. Her facials are really "terror menerror" one and they can last up to 3 hours. She will extract the "impurities" "kau kau", nothing is left unharvested. My favourite session, the massage. This woman's kung fu is first class. Really very shiok.

She introduced me to a new range of products which I had to complete that entire course. She assured me "After using this product, your skin will be very nice and you don't have to come and see me every month already. You only need to see me once in 4 months. I introduce this product to you I lose business, you know".

The facial product recommended by Carol. It is my miracle product

After 2 months, I had beautiful smooth skin. I never used a drop of foundation since then. And Carol was right, I saw her 6 months later for the next facial. Thank you Carol.

This is me without make up after using Carol's product for 9 months and I am very pleased with the results