VioletStar December 21st, 2006
I have been out of the country in the past few weeks: Flying to Hong Kong right after Thanksgiving. Then I flew to Guam (it is a US military base, 4 hours from Hong Kong) to attend my brother’s wedding and got back to Hong Kong on Dec 1. I was back to the US on Dec 4. A business trip took me to UK and Belgium on Dec 6. I was so jet lagged and sleepy by then that my wallet was pickpocked in Brussels! I did not know how that happened and the only thing I knew was the horrible 2.5 hours that I spent at hotel lobby to cancel all my credit cards!
That was why I did not write for a few weeks. But I did get a chance networking with my family and friends and some business partners in various places. I also picked up some new trend in the area. I could not resist not sharing the latest beauty trend that was sweeping through the region. Although I have lived in the western side of the globe for quite some time, the asian way of beautifying always apply better on ME! For all the guy readers, bear with me for this time.
The two most latest trends were PU leather dressy shoes and “Big Eyes” contact lens.
PU leather is also called Bicast Leather. It looks extremely shiny on surface. It is made with a thick layer of polyurethane layer applying to a leather service. The PU leather shoes can be worn with work clothes and the shoes just made you look smart. Black and Red color PU leather shoes are the main characters but all the other fun colors (green, blue, orange, pink…) are all welcomed! I wore a black pair to work and got a lot of enquires on where to get them. Send me a comment and I can give you some tips to find them.
The “Big Eyes” contact lens are something really new and NOVEL to me. These are not color contact lens. These are contact lens that can make the iris of the eye look bigger. The key manufacturers of “Big Eyes” contact lens are from Korea. These bigger eyes make the face of the person look cuter and sweeter and seem like they could talk. However since these contact lens are not very air permeable they could not be worn more than 8 hours. I am very tempted to give it a try!
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VioletStar October 30th, 2006
As I planned going to my friend’s wedding, the idea of wearing an Indian Sari had come to my mind and stayed there for a few days. I however finally dropped the idea as my husband strongly discouraged me doing so.
My husband is an indian indian and I am a Chinese. I certainly do have a few cute Chinese outfits in my wardrobe – cheung sam, short embroidered and cotton tops. As a young professional Chinese, I do not usually wear these traditional outfits in business related social activities. The fashion wisdom in our community is that a young Chinese lady wearing cheung sam will make her look like a restaurant server! The cool factor of the cheung sam only applies to foreigners wearing them. (Didn’t you remember the wow factor of Kirsten Dunst wearing the bright red cheung sam in Spiderman1 movie?). I do however would mix and match my chinese outfits with modern clothing to create my own wow factor: Modern Chinese Top
with wide shuffle pants; cheung sam with leather boots, cheung sam with tight jeans etc). Certainly I will put smoky eyes make up with these modernized ethnic look instead of the old fashioned red lips. In Hong Kong movies, Chinese ghosts always wear red cheung sam with bright red lips – scary!
After marrying my indian husband, I started to collect some indian crepe sets. I did also buy a very nice Indian Sari in Singapore during my business trip. These indian outfits do make me look mysterious – cultural mismatching is always an attraction factor! But the image of me wearing indian clothing beside him always post some discomfort to my husband since he does not want to wear one. So the only time I got to wear these beautiful outfit is again mixing and matching those with modern clothing. We went to a pretty upscale restaurant and I got a lot of attention of compliments with my “fashion”.
During the wedding that I went today, I met a caucasian lady who wore a bright magenta embroidered top with a deep purple long skirt. She wore chandelier golden earringsand necklacesets. She looked so exotic and attractive! I guess for most people wearing ethnic dress to a wedding indeed is a very good idea. The rule of thumb seems to be keep it modern and simple.
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VioletStar October 27th, 2006
My daughter and I bumped into our next door neighbour Alicia, her husband and the kids in the neighborhood swimming pool. We were chatting and chilling in the pool. Alicia mentioned that she was getting old (in fact she was 5′10, 135lb and looked like a model!) and found some dark spot on the face. They were not freckles but would get darker after a nice sun tan.
Most of the Asian women use “whitening†skin care products. Alicia asked me if they contained bleaches as she never heard about them. In fact, these products usually contain retinoids, vitamin C, soy, collagens and other agents that exfoliate the outer layer of dead-skin so that the unpigmented skin can shine through like a boiled egg just come out from the shell. Some also contain pearl powder. They help even skin tone and remove dark spots. Most of the international skin care brand such as Lancome, Shisedo, Max Factor, Christine Dior, H2O etc carry “whitening†line (also UV protection) of products. I usually use “whitening†mask after suntan or when I find my skin looks dull. I sometimes use “whitening†cleansing milk and moisturiser in the hottest months of summer, interchanging them with “High Moisture†type of skin care products. I also use “whitening mask†from time to time. Skin care companies usually market “whitening†line in Asia rather than in America as people like to get tanned here. I guess women under the age of 20 will not care about dark spots. But when we get older all of us should try to take care of those “shadows†on our face a little bit more. Who don’t want a brighter and smoother face?
The link below shows some examples of “whitening” products if anybody want to try:
whitening skincare products
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