7 Reasons Why You Should Dress Up For Work

Yes, I'm back. That week long hiatus does wonders for the brain.

Oh, and Happy Monday, folks!

I can't quite come up with a proper introduction for this, except... I cannot stress enough how important it is to dress up for work. Sure, you'll have days when you just can't be arsed to pull out a nice shirt for work (especially right after holidays, or the weekend. That kills.)

So here are 7 reasons why you actually SHOULD be arsed to dress up for work, especially helpful on days when you can't be arsed. At all.

1. Just in case 

Aside from impressing the boss for that promotion, gaining respect from your co-workers and yadda yadda (boring stuff we all know about), you never really know when a new, muscular, hot-looking Abercrombie & Fitch male model-esque colleague would join the work force.

One can dream, and yes, it is entirely possible.

And when he does, you'll be glad you've read this. Same goes to men. Except, well, it would be a hot new lady worker, of course. Unless you swing that way.

2. Self esteem

I don't know about you, but it always makes me feel a lot better when I dress up for work. Kinda makes me feel more confident about myself, like a "ha-ha I look hotter in my brand new Ralph Lauren dress than all you sad people who don't own a new dress and you do not need to know I got it at half price at a clearance sale."

Jokes aside, the confidence part really works. Really.

3. It's fun

It is. It totally is. What, you think thinking up different style combos every day isn't fun? Try it. It's bloody addictive.

4. Flaunt it, honey.

Why on Earth would anyone want to buy nice clothes then leave them at the back of their closets for the next century or so? Take them out, and wear them. It's not only a waste of good clothes, but a waste of good money.

And for pete's sake. If you've got it, flaunt it!

5. Revenge

Trust me, honey. Once they see you all perfectly dressed and prettier than they will ever be, they will be jealous. Remember those snide remarks they've passed that were so obviously directly at you that they pretend that they were talking about their non-existent cousin Mary?

Take a deep breath and think how gloriously delicious it'll feel once they go green with envy at how much better looking you are than they can ever hope to be.

6. It defines who you are

Come off it. You should know. The way you dress pretty much tells everyone what kind of person you are, because as much as we hate to admit it, we all judge the books by their covers.

It's proven, you know. Employers are more likely to promote the person who is arsed about how they look at work than the person who can't be arsed. Why? Because it shows that they're arsed about themselves. People like those come off as people far more competent about their work than the rest of the "can't be arsed" people.

That aside, you wouldn't want to turn up looking like a boring dork and say "Hey, Mr. Hot Co-worker, come fuck me!", would you?

Because we can all have an ending like Ugly Betty. Tell me when you're done prancing in fairyland then I'll introduce you to my pet unicorn.

7. Because you deserve to

You are so much more than what you make yourself up to look like. I'm sure of that. So make yourself feel good. Wear a nice dress, do something a little different with your hair, draw on some eyeliner or something. It makes all the difference. Once you look great, you'll feel great. Confidence is what truly makes us sexy.

And that in itself will attract all the attention you can ever want from your workforce. The right kind, of course.

'Till next time.
xoxo, darlings!

This is Not About Fashion

Like the title says. I've decided to take a break from talking about fashion for today, and talk about.. Well, beauty. No, I don't mean make up. I'm no make up expert. In fact, my make up skills need a lot of work. I'm talking about beauty in general. You know, physical looks.

Why? Simply because it's something I feel very strongly about.

To be completely honest, I believe every girl is beautiful. No matter what shape or size or how we look, we're all beautiful in some way. I get very annoyed whenever a person calls a girl ugly (with the exception of the fact that if, and only IF, she is ugly in character, then by all means).

Because I know how it feels like to feel ugly.

I used to have huge self esteem issues. I mean, I would literally dread looking at myself in the mirror because I thought myself unbearably ugly. I had a huge acne problem. I used to have people making remarks about how my face looked like a "baboon's butt".

Yeap. Me, back in 2010.
Ixnay on the glasses and the dorky hair.
I was dressed up for a play.

Thankfully, that cleared up.

Nowadays, I would say that I love looking at myself in the mirror. Not to the point of unbearable narcissism. Because when I do look into the mirror, it's not always to check out the occasional zit. When I see my reflection, I think, "Hey, I love how that girl looks." I'd like to think of it as.. Self-confidence. There is a difference.

I can point out the number of things that make me, un-beautiful.

1. My right side of my face is smaller than my left.
2. My complexion isn't as smooth as silk.
3. My nose is about as sharp and aristocratic as a plastic bowl.
4. My eyes are neither big, nor do I have the long lusted after (among Asians) double eyelids, and my lashes could be longer and more curled.
5. My lips is neither rose-pink nor ruby red. Thankfully, that is the only form of dissatisfaction that I can see from it. I actually quite like the shape of my lips.
6. My teeth are far from straight. I need braces, something I cannot afford. And they aren't exactly white, either.
7. My hair isn't thick, long and silky, or as wavy as I'd like it to be. It's flat, fine and thin. I've had to blow it everyday so it'd look thicker.

My relatives used to say, "You should've taken after your mother!" My mum had all the features that were perceived beautiful. Somewhere along my transformation from the fertilised ovum to the foetus in her womb, something must have gone wrong. I thought.

All of this, used to matter. It used to hurt. I used to think "No one would think of me as beautiful. No one could love me."

But boy, was I wrong.

It took a boy, once upon a time, and the immense support of my faithful friends to make me see past all of that. You have no idea how happy I was to hear someone tell me, "Hey, you're perfect, you know."

However, it wasn't long after that I realised, I cannot depend on people to make me feel good about myself. Sure, it's a nice ego-boost, but I wouldn't be content. How many validations would I have to go through to accept myself for how I look, be at peace and happy with it all?

Me, 2013
Taken via my clunky camera phone.
I assure you, no zits were edited in this shot. 

It had to come from within.

So I tried this instead. I turned all my imperfections into something I loved about/am grateful for.

I do not have large, beautiful eyes.
But my eyes are the defining features of my heritage (I am Chinese). Which I am very proud of.
I also love that if you look closely enough, you'll see that my eyes aren't really black.
They're a deep, dark brown.
And hey, monolids can be very sexy.

I do not have a sharp, aristocratic nose,
But at least it's not crooked.

I do not have soft, silky and porcelain white complexion (nor soft pink cheeks).
But I'd rather have a slight imperfection, than patches of zits on both cheeks.
Even then, zits can be gotten rid of.
And over the years, I've actually grown to like the tanned colour of my skin.
With it, I feel unique.

My hair cannot be long, thick, and luxuriant (or nice, thick and wavy),
But it's almost always in place, and it's pretty manageable.

And so what if the right side of my face is smaller than my left?
No one is born with perfectly balanced features.
Those that have them are either extremely lucky, or they had surgery.

I do not have the body of a supermodel, I have a tummy, and I am relatively small and short.
But I actually like the way my body is, except the tummy. Which, I am working on.
And I like being called petite. I've always thought petite people were cute anyway.

My teeth may not be straight and white, but hey, I'm not buck toothed, and I can still smile properly.
My lips? I'm happy with the shape.

And last but not least, I am imperfect.
But I am perfectly unique.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.

I did all of that, then I started dressing better. Taking better care of my complexion. I hated putting on make up, so I learned a light bit of it, so at least I did the bare minimal - my normal make up would be, eyebrow pencil, eyeliner, concealer and mascara.

And hey, I feel good about myself now.

If anyone were to call me ugly, well, I can only assume that that person is deeply insecure about his/her looks and is only doing that to make himself/herself feel happy. Doesn't matter what you say about me, I'm content. I'm confident.

I have nothing against people who wish to go under the knife. Hey, it's your body. If you really want to change it, go ahead, I respect you. But I do wish that people, especially girls, could be happy with how they look. Beauty is only a product of what the media tells us. Take that away, and we are all equal.

We can't all look like Angelina Jolie, Hyuna, or Jessica Alba. But we can look like ourselves. And that, in itself is what makes us all special.

I end my entry with a quote from a dear friend of mine:

"The sexiest thing you can ever find in a woman is confidence, and the best accessory she can wear is her smile."

Appreciating Sexy Sepets

13 January 2012

Status: Rejoicing over finally being able to eat (have not eaten food for 4 days due to detox)
Time: 3PM

Ahh... The never-ending  monolid debate. Google "monolids" and there will always be questions along the lines of:

"Do you think monolids are pretty?"
"Eye make up for monolids."
"Make your monolid eyes BIGGER!"

Interestingly enough, double eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) is one of the most popular cosmetic surgeries among Asians. And while this isn't exactly a "fashion topic" (I think it's along the lines of "cosmetics"), I've been aching to voice my opinion on monolids for a long time now. So bear with me.

Image courtesy of: monolidlove.tumblr.com

Alright, I admit. I used to hate my monolids. I mean, come on, they're tiny - the perception of beautiful eyes were the doe-eyed double lids. They disappear into two thin lines whenever I smiled or laughed. Which was downright annoying, and it didn't help that I was an insecure teenager at the time - all the popular girls had double eyelids. What made things worse, was the fact that it was so difficult for me to do my eye make up because it all just disappears underneath my lids.

So I did everything in my power to give myself double eyelids. I stuck double eyelid stickers, and used up bottles after bottles of double eyelid glue. The only thing I refused to do, was undergo cosmetic surgery because I had a fear of needles.

It wasn't until about a year ago that I finally learned to appreciate my god-given sepet eyes (sepet is a Malay term for monolid). And at this point, I wouldn't trade my monolid eyes for anything in the world.

Monolid eyes are sexy. Full stop. Do your make up right, and they'll give you a harmonious blend of sexy and exotic. And frankly, that's what makes us Asians so special.

Image courtesy of: michellephan.com

It's also what Caucasians crave for. Because it's a trait that's unique only to us. No offense, white people.  Believe it or not, there are actually people out there who WISH they had monolid eyes.

And do you know what they call us monolid-eyed beauties? The exotic oriental beauty. 

Just the words alone are enough to make me feel tingly all over. 

Plonk a monolid-eyed girl in a sea of double eye-lidded girls, she'll stand out immediately. And like I've mentioned before, why blend in, when you can stand out? 

Image courtesy of: monolidlove.tumblr.com

I understand that people with monolid eyes look half-awake all the time, but that's what make-up is for, darlings. Although I do believe that they're cute just the way they are. But that's just me. So for those of you who have been stressing about make up for your monolid eyes, here are some tutorials that might help.

One for a quick on-the-go look, you'll only need eyeliner and mascara:

And a more edgier look. Something you can put on if you were... Say, going to a party.

Found on YouTube, done by frmheadtotoe

So, for you beautiful monolid-eyed girls out there, fret not. You're beautiful, just the way you are. Sounds like I picked the verse out of a corny Bruno Mars song, but it's true. Your beautiful monolid eyes are what make you special, and exotic. And that's how we Asians are supposed to be - exotic. You don't need blepharoplasty. Just slap on the right make up, and work it. 

Besides, I think monolid eyes carry out the sexy cat-eye look SO much better than our double eyelid counterparts. Don't you? 

Image courtesy of: monolidlove.tumblr.com

I'm not condemning people who have or are planning to go through the surgery. I'm just saying I think you're beautiful enough already, and you don't need it. But, if it makes you feel better, go right ahead. I don't judge. 

As for me, I'm happy the way I am. Sepet, and proud of it!

Till next time. Au revoir, darlings. xoxo