Crowning glory

Shirt: Asos (Similar here)

Skirt: Seed (Similar here)

Shoes: Vincci (Similar here)

Clutch: New Look (Similar here)

Sunglasses: Aldo (Similar here)

Ring: Gift from Alvin and Leona (Same here)

So in a previous post, I told you guys I was using Kerastase shampoo and conditioner but it was pretty pricey and wasn't really doing what I hoped it would - Make my hair the 'after' shot in a hair commercial. So after I finished using it, I decided I would switch to something cheaper and on my friend's recommendation, I started using Kao's Essential haircare.

Essential smells really nice but my scalp didn't want to be friends with it. Shortly after using it, I developed dandruff and my scalp felt oily and itchy. Although it totally seems to work for my friend whose hair remains as glorious as ever. 

The search continued but I think I may have found the one...

*Sound of angels singing and harps playing*

I read a bunch of reviews that Matrix Biolage was really good so I bought the Hydrasource shampoo and conditioner when I chanced upon it at a salon in Bugis+. (You can also purchase it on Qoo10.)

The shampoo suds up quite well and gives my scalp that nice clean feeling without being overly drying. The conditioner is quite thick and makes my hair feel soft and smooth. And the company is pretty proud of the fact that they don't use parabens in their products (they say so on the bottle) so it must be a good thing.

Parabens, as per wiki, 'are a class of widely used preservatives'. I'm not normally a stickler for preservatives because I like the idea of not putting potentially moldy products onto my body, face and hair but then wiki continues to say that parabens in deodorants may or may not be linked to breast cancer which is like really inconclusive and wishy washy if you ask me, but I prefer mold over cancer of the scalp/brain/face/head/ears/anywhere so yeah.

The only downside to Matrix Biolage is that it is still a little pricey (but not as pricey as Kerastase) and it doesn't smell super fragrant. It's not bad, but it doesn't have the normal sweet floral smell that I like.

Bonus point: Matrix Biolage is owned by L'oreal and they have made a commitment not to do testing on animals unless absolutely necessary.

Bonus bonus point: This is not an ad. Thanks for reading!

Touch my body

Dress: Diane Von Furstenberg (Similar here)

Bag: Gracious Aires (Similar here)

Shoes: Beverly Feldman (Similar here)

Sunglasses: Karen Walker

Do you love getting groped by strangers in a firm yet gentle way? Do you like being covered in oil and rubbed down like a turkey being marinated for Thanksgiving dinner? Do you like lying face down almost completely naked in a darkened room? If you said yes, then this is the post for you.

I love a good massage because it feels so luxurious and pampering but I also want it to be good and work out those kinks and knots I've developed due to being a poor-postured individual. I've tried a few places and usually I'm left kind of tickled or in absolute pain but I think I've found a really good massage place in Singapore. Now this ain't no skanky happy-ending kind of place so if that's what you're looking for, ew. Please go away.

There are obviously some really high-end massage places like So Spa but if you're looking for a place that's reasonably priced (in a Singapore context only), hygienic and comfortable then look no further than Natureland Care.

I've tried their full body massage as well as the foot reflexology and I've loved both services. Obviously a good masseur is important, but so far, I've not had a bad experience at their Robertson Quay outlet. They've recently opened an outlet at Valley Point which is really near me but I've been resisting the urge because while it's still affordable, it still costs $55 for a full body hour long massage and that's like 5 weekday lunches right there.

Anyway, if you're itching for a treat, I recommend Natureland for sure although just FYI, the Mousie also gives really great massages. Thanks for reading!

Smile like you mean it

Top and skirt (comes as set): Choies

Bag: Gracious Aires (Similar here)

Here I am carrying the imaginary Olympic torch with poise

Shoes: Charles and Keith (Similar here)

Necklace: Gift from aunty B (Similar here and here)

Rings: Vintage (Similar here and here)

Someone once told me that I should smile more because I look prettier when I smile. To be honest, I'm sure I look more approachable and I totally should smile more. Especially since my momma paid nearly $5000 to make my smile what it is today.

When I was 12, my dentist referred me to orthodontist Dr. Kaan Sheung Kin from the Dental Profile for orthodontic treatment aka braces! When I first sat down on his dental chair (my heart beating 19748 beats a minute because dentists are scary), Dr. Kaan asked me "do you want to wear braces?" to which my mother replied, "Of course she must!". Obviously at that age, I really hadn't thought much about what it meant besides having to visit the dentist regularly to insert metal bits into my mouth, but while my head was screaming 'OHGODNOSAVEME', I dutifully listened to my mom and nodded yes.

The momster did me a solid.

Sorry about the low qual but this is to illustrate the bad teeth (and hair and t-shirt)

To anyone with a crooked smile, thinking of wearing braces, I would say a wholehearted 'DO IT'. Imagining myself with the same jacked up smile I had as a kid is scary and I can only imagine the oral hygiene issues I might face today. If you're considering it but haven't yet made up your mind, the following are a bunch of things that have stayed in my memory (whether fondly or not):

• Taking a mold of my mouth before braces and after braces is horrible. The plaster smelled disgusting and made me gag. I hope they've changed the taste/smell or how they take the mold because seriously, this gives me the heebiejeebies. 
• It's not really painful as much as it is aching. It feels like period cramps of the mouth every month when you tighten those wires and that lasts at least for the first few days and everything you eat has to be liquidy like porridge, soup, other food mashed into porridgey-soup consistency. 
• I learned how to swallow pills at that age because I was swallowing food that I couldn't finish chewing up (because my gums ached) so I figured, how hard can it be to swallow pills. 
• You can't chew gum 
• Biting into a whole uncut apple is not possible 
• Peanuts can break your damn wires. This happened as I ate a crunchy peanut butter sandwich but that seemed kinda like a freak accident.
• You can put funky coloured rubber bands on the braces - don't choose black, you might think black is cool but it just looks like holes in your teeth. I had the holes in my teeth look for a month. Awful. 
• I wore my retainers religiously even into university (then I lost them) but I think the longer you wear them, the better it is.
• I had to put wax on my braces closer to the back of my mouth a lot because the metal bracket would rub on the inside of my mouth and give me blisters but the memory of the pain really has faded.
• Removing the braces feels really weird and aggressive, but once it's out, it feels like FREEDOM. 
• Eating with retainers on is disgusting but interesting too. 

I think I was a little bit self-conscious about my braces but these days there are things like Invisalign or ceramic braces that are less obvious although I think they also cost a little more.

Actually, thank goodness for low quality photos of yesteryear - I'm wearing braces in this pic but muahahaha it can't be seen.

Let's be honest, no one likes the dentist and I think I felt pretty low at the beginning of my braces-wearing and also each month when I had to get them tightened, but if I had to go back in time and answer Dr. Kaan's question, I wouldn't change my answer. I'm glad I have a nice set of straight aligned teeth rather than look like this guy:

No offence dude

Thanks for reading!

In case you hadn't noticed...

Dress: Smooch the Label (Similar here)

Necklace: Modcloth

Clutch: Gift from Wendy (Similar here)

Sunglasses: Ray Bans

Ring: Gift from Wendy/Meimei (Similar here)

Shoes: Linea Lidia by Luciano Padovan (Similar-ish here)

The great thing about wearing a gigantic unique necklace is that it works as a great distraction from anything funky about oneself. Like if I had a big zit on my nose, I'm sure you wouldn't have noticed it. Because the necklace is all pickmechoosemeloveme.

Something I've noticed in my working life is that it seems common practice to be asked things like, 'why do you have a pimple?' and other such questions or comments based around one's appearance. I know it's a harmless question and isn't meant to be disparaging but it kind of comes off that way, don't you think? Believe me, I didn't choose to have that zit and unless you're able to make it magically go away by knowing its reason for being, I really don't want to have a conversation about it. 

Anyway, just having one of those rambley pointless days. The boo and momster were both on vacation leaving me alone with my dog and with my thoughts so there were one too many monologue moments. I'm looking forward to talking to some humans again soon.

Thanks for reading!

Haunted

Dress: Modcloth

Clutch: New Look (Similar here)

Shoes: Aldo (Similar here)

Have you noticed the weird flare around my stomach in all these photos?

Rings: Old (Similar here and here)

Sunglasses: Aldo (Similar here)

So I am not exactly sure why there's this ghostly white flare thingy in all my photos. I remember checking the lens for condensation and it seemed fine at the time. So this can only mean one thing - there was a ghost standing in front of me as I was getting my pictures taken. That sucks because this dress is so vibrant and cute. What the hell, ghost? Can't you give a sister a break?

Anyway, this reminds me of an awesome ghost story... Actually, quite a few, because although I'm a scaredy cat of the highest order, I still love to be told ghost stories (I'll usually be spooked out and unable to sleep which means the boo suffers too lol).

Story one
About a week after my granny passed away, my mom was playing mahjong at home. As it got pretty late, my mom let her friends, a husband and wife couple, sleep in her room, while she took the guest room. Apparently, sometime during the night, the wife awoke to find my granny in the room looking at her so she said 'hello aunty'. Think my granny vanished after that but can you imagine how confused my granny was? She probably thought my mom had done some serious plastic surgery, and found herself a man or that she had gotten the wrong address. Poor porpor!

Story two
My company organised team-building workshops in Montigo Resorts in Batam for various departments. I heard this wicked story from another colleague about one department that had gone. Apparently a bunch of women had gathered to take a group photo and when they returned to Singapore, the two ladies on the extreme right side of the photo fell terribly ill for one week without any real reason. Then someone noticed something weird about that group photo that they had taken after it was uploaded to Facebook. On the right most lady, there was a disembodied hand around her shoulder that was large (like a man's hand) and clearly didn't belong to anyone in the photo. So the suspicion is that there was an evil ghost who maybe did some bad juju to the two ladies on the extreme right of the picture hence they fell sick. I saw the actual picture and I got mad goosebumps and then immediately deleted it because GO AWAY BAD JUJU.

If those didn't creep you out, you're a robot with no feelings or you're a ghost. GO AWAY BAD JUJU! Thanks for reading!