How often do we underestimate the power of asking simple and the right questions when it comes to getting what you want. I suppose this applies to everything in life. If you don’t ask for what you want you’ll never ever get remotely close to what you want.
When it comes to being a beauty customer, we should always do our research, have the knowledge and be armed with the right questions to not only get your money worth. Most often than not, make up artist, hairdressers, stylist, manicurist CAN’T READ OUR MIND and can’t decide what is best for us because frankly speaking – we all should know what we want/need best.
Here are some thought starters we should be questioning:
- What is my strong feature? What is my least favourite feature? How would I like to enhance my weakness and amplify my strong feature?
- Identifying your face shape and ask what hair cut best compliment my face shape?
- What is my skin tone – cool/warm? Get colours that would compliment your skin tone instead of clashing it.
- Do your research, if you’re going in for a nail art session, bring examples, themes, favourite patterns to help define a clear brief.
- Going for a massage? Point out areas that needs to be work on, define your preference in what you like out of the session.
- With facials, discuss any sensitive spots, anything that you don’t like eg: hot steam, extractions, etcs.
- At the hairdresser, don’t be afraid to request for a quick massage while shampooing and it is okay to voice out if the hair dryer is burning your scalp off.
Go forth and use your knowledge.
If you have a pinterest/twitter/instagram account, I am sure that at some point you have come across pictures of “arm parties” trends. Some call it arm swag but basically it is a combination of bracelets that compliment each another and is usually paired up anywhere from 4 to 8 bracelets. I have to admit when I first saw pictures of arm parties, I always have a rush to buy all the awesome bracelet combos.
The other day, I read a tweet regarding arm party and that if a girl tend to wear arm parties on their dominant hand, they’d be contaminated with urine and fecal matter.
MAJOR DISGUSTING MUCH?
While I don’t know how much truth is there to it but it got me thinking. How often do you wash your accessories? Accessories that you’ve wore through day and night, through sweaty days, through touching and being in contact with so many foreign and public objects. I am assuming the “knuckle rings” trend will fall be equally disgusting if this is true, no?
As a rule of thumb, I guess it make sense to cleanse your accessories especially those that you wear regularly perhaps once a week? From now onwards, I shall wash my accessories (earrings, rings, bracelets, necklace, anklets) whenever I wash my make up brushes that way I am guaranteed to remember to clean them all.
Do you wash your accessories?
One of the main problems being a beauty blogger is that we use our skin as a guinea pig. More often than not, we trial products based on press releases and packaging of a product to deter if this particular product is suitable for our skin type. Due to the constant need to trial products (from cleansers, serums, moisturisers, sunscreens, primer to make up), one thing people often neglect to ponder about is compatibilities. Now I am no expert when it comes to skincare/make up ingredients hence I have no idea if this awesome serum I am using will ‘go well’ with this new sunscreen (or moisturiser, primer, foundation) I’m trialling.
You see I often find myself contemplating:
- why is my skin acting up,
- why is this foundation usually being so awesome is all of a sudden blotchy on my skin,
- why is this sunscreen rubbing off,
- why am I breaking out,
- why is my skin so oily by 11am when I usually don’t get the oil gate until well past 3pm,
- why my concealer is standing out instead of seeping into skin
- why is my primer sitting on top of my skin instead of being absorbed
Truth is chances are I am trialling a new skincare/makeup product on that day and it isn’t incorporating in my existing routine well. Sometimes it is hard to pin point which product exactly isn’t working because they ALL ARE working for me otherwise I wouldn’t be using them but the problem of these products are not from the same brand and they probably don’t go well with products from other brands which then makes it an issue and painful to pick products to eliminate.
Does this happen to you too? Playing with one too many products and finding them doing more harm than good in the end?
I am no scientist or dermatologist; hence my knowledge with ingredients with beauty product isn’t extensive. I do know my salicylic acid, glycolic acid, hyaluronic acid, benzoyl peroxide, niacinamide, vitamin c, vitamin e, lanolin, shea butter, you get the drill. The reason why people are so familiar with these ingredients is because they have all been heavily promoted as “hero ingredient” of a product. We* all know what it means, the benefits and what that singular ingredient can do to our skin.
However, I have read somewhere, not sure if it was from FutureDerm (don’t quote her on this) that when you take one “good” ingredient and mix it with 323,590,845 other ingredients; chances are it might lower the potency or cancel out the benefits of that good ingredient to begin with.
Now, I know a lot of beauty bloggers list out ALL the ingredients in beauty products that they are reviewing, for those who don’t know their A to Z in ingredient listing, how do you deem a product good? Do you just pick up one or two of the ingredients you are familiar with and call it good or have you gone through all ingredients listing and work out compatibility testing to call it good? In the past, I have only highlighted “key/hero” ingredients in a product and always felt a little iffy about it because after all I am no dermatologist and can’t vouch for ingredients as they promise the sun and the moon.
Recently, I was told by a skin care expert that layering serum as routine can cause products benefits to cancel each other out, particularly if you’re using those epidermis growth factor serum. That warning put me off a little and I am back to good old one serum at a time or at the very least different serums treating different areas of concern without overlapping.
Ah, the first world problem we face in the name of being vain.
*When I say we, I was referring to we as beauty bloggers.
You see we as women can often go extreme lengths for the price of beauty. Be it fashionable clothes, painful expensive high heels, various slimming diets, exercise, skin care, make up, haircut and colour, shellac mani, the waxings and lasers, botox, Thermage, fillers, plastic surgery….and the list goes on. We are our own harshest critiques and because we are the very same person who stare at ourselves and our flaws the most on a daily basis, collectively in our minds without thinking we do mental notes to put more “effort” in ourselves next time.
To be honest, I have done a fair bit of “effort” to make myself look good and to look better. Let’s not touch on the expensive splurges on clothes and accessories to help myself feel better; my blog in itself is a testament to my obsession of using various skin care to better my skin and make up to enhance my look. In the past two years, I have dabbled into injectables and lasers; something that often involves pain. You see, I was a tough cookie growing up being able to withstand 6 hours of tattoo session, having my lash line tattoo-ed, generally speaking being able to tolerate some level of pain.
But let me tell you, the pain injectables and lasers bring, is a pain you didn’t think exist and radiates from within. I guess on some level, it is very much like mums giving birth and they often say you need to experience it to know how it feels and often for someone who has not given birth before it is something they can’t relate. Fillers has brought me to tears, stung worse than a stranger cutting your limited edition quilted Chanel handbag with a pen knife, lasers felt like someone was scraping/digging my skin with a knife and thermage hurt like cigarette burns on the skin. All of which comes with a sensation that you would otherwise not experience it on a daily basis.
So it brings the next question that I often ask myself will I continue my journey of looking better and feeling better. Yes, you bet! Will I do the things that were palms clenching painful, swear words inducing and tears causing treatments? Yes, I will but will probably regret when I am lying on the treatment bed!
Ah, the price of beauty….and pain women goes through.
I have a confession, I find it extremely gross to get make over done in a makeup counter. Don’t get me wrong, I love learning new tips from the experienced makeup artists, trying new products and colours on me but just not big on using products on display counters straight to my face.
Reason behind this is that no matter how clean and hygienic you think you are; the next uneducated customer is just going to come along, dig their dirty finger onto the makeup products on display and apply it to their face. I have seen people apply lipstick on display to their lips, JUST LIKE THAT, using the liner on display on their eyes, JUST LIKE THAT, using the bronzers on display and buffing away, JUST LIKE THAT. Gross much? It is disturbing and is a major ground for breeding infections.
This is the same reason why I would never swim in a public pool. The thought of while I do not piss in the swimming pool but that doesn’t stop someone else from doing so and I don’t want to drown myself in someone else’s piss. Major gross. I know, I am weird.
As a result, I only trial beauty products at the counter on the back of my hand unless it is a pump bottle product.
Do you feel the same way?
