Powderpuff Mae

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 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 : )

A potato a day, keeps the doctor away

I was inspired by Egghead to write this post.

As I took Jesse for a stroll in my mother's garden, I realised that there were more than 30 species of plants in her garden. Each plant was carefully selected to be nurtured in her garden for a specific purpose. Some for the stomach, some for beauty, some to scare away the mosquitoes but mostly for medicinal purposes.

I often wondered why my mother was such a health freak and yesterday, she said something that struck a chord. "Why should we suffer from cancer or any delibitating disease, we should have quality of life. There are so many natural herbs and food that you can take, and it is so cheap and easy to get it. Many people have tried it and have worked for them"

There and then I asked her for her "list". I am doing this for myself. My memory so often fails me and I need this to be recorded for self preservation. I would sincerely like to share this with as many people as possible so that we can all enjoy a good quality of life with people that matters most to us.

1. Lemon grass - crush 3 stalks - pour boiling water into 1 full mug & drink warm, drink for 2nd round; drink 8 mugs a day (12 stalks of lemon grass a day)- fights cancer cells


2. Uncooked china barley boiled with winter melon in a pot of water until soft - fights cancer cells


3. Sour sop seeds grounded fine - kills cancer cells


4. Papaya with green skin (unripe) blend & drink - kills cancer cells


5. Ginger kills ovarian cancer cells


6. Chilli (capsiacin) kills pancreatic and prostate tumour cancer cells


7. Tumeric/kunyit - stops the spread of lung camcer/breast cancer


8. Lemon grass/serai - causes cancer cells to self destruct


9. Fresh potato juice treatment - blend juice and drink 1-2 glasses a day on empty stomach -good for liver disease, diabetes, gastric ulcer, kidney disease, heart disease, hypertension, body aches,surpressing cancer growth, self healing power. It has been referred to as "apple of the great universe" in Europe - rich in nutrients esp Vit C and calcium.

The above is from my mother's own research. I can't say for sure if it actually works but some people swear by it. Does anyone have anymore remedies to add to the list?

I have bad memory but my husband's worse. One day my husband came home and told me that he had taken a memory test of sorts and the results were astounding....he had the memory of an 80 year old man!! Mine is not THAT bad, so give and take, maybe mine stands some where in between 65 to 70, still not good.

Five years ago, one of my clients wanted to take a statutory declaration from a 80++ year old man. The problem with the testimony of such an old person is its reliability. We took him to the doctors to test if he was of "sound mind". These legal jargon can really make a normal person feel like a nut case, I mean, "hey I need to run some test to see if you are looney". The test for sound mind : Long term memory + short term memory = sound mind. Anyway, the doctor said usually old people do not have problems with their long-term memory (their memory of the past) but they usually do not possess good short-term memory (memory of current issues). The doctor gave him some test like what is the day today, what is the doctor's name etc... Amazingly the old man passed the test!!

I came across this article "Unique memory allows woman to replay life like a movie", interestingly I know someone who has this exact ability, my gramdma. Her long-term memories were unfortunately filled with pain, war, bombing, fear and hardships. But she could tell you in precise detail how this and this happen and who said what and who replied what. BUT her short-term memory, lets put it this way... Fail lah. So does that mean my grandma was looney? She was unpredictable but surely not crazy.

I have a problem with short-term memory as well. One time when we were at our family outing in the zoo, I was frantically searching from my shades. My husband and maid stood there in amazement with their jaws gapping widely as they watched me search for my shades, when I had worn it my head like a hair band all the while. My mother recommended gingko to improve James' memory, but James being James replied smugly "I will forget to take the gingko. I need to take something to help me remember to take the gingko". As much as I hated to admit, he was right, it was like a vicious cycle of the chicken and egg scenario. Eat pills, got memory. No memory, forget pills. No pills, no memory....

I have a good long-term memory, it's like that of an elephant. I remember. I'm like an old lady who remembers her war stories. Does that make me a person of "unsound mind"? Is this the beggining of alzheimers or pre-mature aging? I am only 34 for crying out loud!

I had a wonderful childhood and my past helped shape who I am today. The memories I had were priceless, and I have a full load of long-term memories which I do remember quite clearly. My problem is with the short-term memory. One day, the events that happen to me now will become my long-term memories and they will in turn shape who I will be. I want to remember in detail the funny antics my son does and the silly things my melodramatic husband says. In short, I cannot neglect my short-term memory for the events that happen today will in turn make up my long-term memory. They will be the stories that I will one day tell to my grandchildren.

Heeding my mother's advise I have started to take Omega 3 Fish Oil and may consider Gingko Biloba to improve my memory.

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.

Since becoming a mother, I became more conscious about my health. I started taking vitamins, supplements and every other thing my mother introduced to me. The reason is obvious, I needed to be healthy to take care of Jesse. These days, everything is about the boy.

Since I am into beauty and vanity, I began looking for supplements which are good for the skin and complexion. During my teenage years when I was plagued with pimples, my mother made me take Vit A, C, E & Zinc. She said this combination will help reduce the pimples. I am not sure if it did, anyway these are some of the supplements which I take for my skin and health.

Omega 3 fish oil is said to be an essential for a clear complexion. There have been claims that this supplement has been used to treat eczema and acne successfully and more and more people are beginning to take Omega3 for inflammatory skin conditions. And this is my favourite....it is also anti-aging. It's other benefits are, it helps in lowering blood pressure, arthiritis, memory loss and dementia.

Spirulina is also another must for good skin and health. Some of the brands claim that it helps skin recovery from acne and prevents scarring. It works to beautify the skin and pigmentation and delay wrinkles!! Also it helps cleanse toxin from the body. I was told that if a child doesn't take vegetable or has unbalanced diet, give them spirulina as it has balanced nutrients to help in the child's growth. Problem is to get the child to take it. A word of reminder, make sure you drink lots of water when you take spirulina to flush the toxin from the body.

"Gamat" or sea cucumber has been known and used by Malays and Chinese for its medicinal properties. It has been generally used for treating wounds and injuries. The Chinese have long realised, since the ancient times, its ability to prevent diseases besides using it as a tonic to promote longevity. Traditional Chinese medicine commonly uses sea cucumber in treating weakness and impotence! Traditionally, women used Gamat for health and beauty, it works well for all topical needs: face, hands, feet, scalp, hair etc...

Anyone taking any other supplements for the skin? Please share with us.