Don't Make Me Over
I’ve never been the girl to look put together. This is why I spent most of my life with short hair — I couldn’t be bothered to comb or style it. But given I’ve grown my hair out since before COVID-19, it’s pretty nuts how much hair I’ve accumulated. So on the off days that I now comb it, it looks manageable but I definitely haven’t mastered the art of sleek and shiny Pantene commercial like hair.
A couple week ago, I finally met a friend of my sister-in-law’s who happened to be my colleague too! We had only messaged each other on Slack and WhatsApp but I have never actuallly met her in person. So when we finally said hi face to face, it was both nice but also jarring. We took a selfie together and sent it to my sister in law and boy did that photo haunt me.
I don’t find myself to be paritcularly gorgeous (and I’m not being self-deprecating here), but I know if I put in the effort, i can look quite ok! So when I saw the photo (see here), I had the shock of my life. yes, I know the face I made didn’t help but I realise that oh! I should probably put a little effort into looking presentable at work! I’ve never cared before but seeing that I’m not longer just on Zoom behind a filter, I reached out to my. beauty girls.
My friend Sayaka is obviusly my number one guru for all things beauty, but I cast a wide net to every Beauty Editor I worked with back in my Summit Media days to ask how lazy girls like me can still manage to feel like I put in some effort without spending an hour doing all of these things women have to do! yes, I know it’s societal expectations that I don’t have to follow, but guys, that picture really made me gasp.
Good skin is the basis for all of this so I asked my dermatologist friend, Iza what to do and she recommended a facial wash that helps me with my oily skin. And because Sayaka knows I won’t do foundation, a tinted moisturiser after my sunscreen. I couldn’t quite find this so I settled for some Curel BB cream! i haven’t used bb cream in forever but this was quite nice and light!
So knowing my lazy self, all the friends recommended low maintenance things. I researched (barely and by research I mean seeing that I had a friend Risa following the service’s Instagram account!) this lash lift and brow lamination thing that would apparently brighten up my eyes without much effort. These things last eight weeks — I am definitely not going to do it every eight weeks but it was worth a try and so far, not bad!
Between the lash lift and the brow lamination, I listened to Koko and Nikki and my sister in law Ashna’s recommendations of K-Palette eyebrow stuff and the Shu Uemura hard prencil. I haven’t tried either but they’re now in my cabinet ready to be broken out once this brow lamination runs out!
The one thing I really do with my eyes is eyeliner but now that I have these lashes all lifted, Sayaka sent me the most amazing and easy tutorials (though I’m still quite bad at it) of tight lining and some mascara — which I don’t ever use. So now it’s weekly trials of tight lining and how tight I can get. I still haven’t figured out how to do normal eyeliner now that my lashes get in the way, but it’s a start!
Finally, it’s a bit of blush (still using my gifts from Macy and Chinggay as blush) and a bit of a lip gloss (gotta love the my lips but better colors — still from the Future media empire girls). And now that masks are optional in Singapore, the lipstick is being put back into the rotation! My friends Joy and Ami and Chetna and Malini also got me Nude Stix for my birthday and though I don’t know how to use that yet, I’m excited to learn.
The first time I tried all of this, it took me an additional hour (complete with blow drying my thick mane) and I was tired from it. But as Sayaka said, it’s self-care! And I like that! I’m hoping I can get this routine down to less than 30 minutes, but it’s a process and so far I’m enjoying myself! Thank you to all the friends I bothered along the way, the moral support has been the best part!
