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Few days ago I read this blog post on Daphnemaia’s blog (very recommended read!), and it really seriously got me thinking. It’s about how advertisement and products dedicated to women is intensely aggressive, and how it convinces us women, that as we are, we are ugly and unworthy, but we could be potentially perfect, if we just try hard enough, and spend enough money.
This got me thinking, because I always thought makeup and fashion have something empowering about them – since the ontology of both is in art, that they allow contemporary women to express themselves and nurture their artistic and creative sides. Even buying and collecting makeup or pretty clothes is an aesthetic experience, as you get in contact with the wonderful forms, textures and colors.
 But at the same time, it is a business. It’s meant to make money, and so they attack women with all they can, just to squeeze every last penny out of us. But their methods are dirty – we are presented with images of perfect, not existing women, and educated, that the only reason we are not that perfect, is because we have failed to purchase a product, or diet enough. It’s aggressive and derogatory, objectifying and depriving of dignity and basic respect.
I complained to my partner about it, how the constant pressure makes me always feel fat and ugly (although I know I’m not! but I keep thinking, maybe I should be thinner, maybe I am within the unacceptable limits >_<), and how I wish I could enjoy life by considering my looks as far less important than my intellect, skills and character. He sort of said something along the lines, that with all other women pursuing the perfect image, a woman who does not participate in the race, would appear not groomed, and would be considered sloppy and unprofessional at her workplace. And pretty skinny women have it easier.
 Perfection, or aggression? Beauty or objectification? And then a though hit me - how would women look, if they adapted male grooming standards? Well, most of us would have a belly fat bag hanging in front of us, or we would be totally not toned (face it, for one male that goes to the gym, 10 don’t). We would go to work with occasional black stubs of hair on our legs, and our skin would be patchy and dry, absolutely revealing our age. We would dress in basic, worn out dress pants and random shirts, and sloppy shoes. Accessories? Meh, who cares! Even a belt in our hanging loosely dress pants would be to much of a hustle. And we would feel perfectly fine, and adequate.
I asked my partner, if he would want to work with a woman who is like that, and he winced. I can’t blame him for it – our society absolutely accepts men with half-baked grooming standards and any weight, but will punish any woman, who dares to be even slightly over-weight, not have thick luscious hair, and not have smooth crease-less skin. And we don’t get the luxury of thinking “yeah, I might look a bit sloppy today, but no one will care!”. Maybe a good start would be for women to unify and not take nasty jabs at women who fall behind in the perfection race.
So I wonder… Being a part of a beauty community, what do we really immerse ourselves in: hidden aggression towards femininity by promoting unrealistic images of perfection, or empowerment of female creativity and aesthetics?
So, I have been going through Jelly and Vivi for September, and I could not help to notice that they both present a very cohesive trend set for the upcoming autumn season. And let’s face it – whatever shows up in Vivi mag, in a few months will pop like mushrooms after the rain in blogshops and other stores. So why don’t we play a little spot-a-trend game? ;D
Trend no.1: Animal Prints
   
Vivi and Jelly promote it in forms of oversized tops, cute tunics and leggings. But I’ve seen it in another Japanese magazine (I think Gisele), where it was used more in forms of accessories, like bandannas and belts. Personally I’m not a fan of this one – just to easy to start to look cheesy.
Trend no.2: Nordic print.
  This one got totally rejected in the Western magazines, but I think it’s cute and girly.Would not mind a super cute short-sleeve sweater in my collection.
Trend no.3: Faux fur and fluffy wool accessories.
   The furry leg-warmers can be a bit of a over-kill, but a fluffy faux fur bag is likely to be the “must-have” item for trendy ladies this Autumn  .
Trend no.4: woolly socks, shorts and leg-warmers.
   Wool is like a staple when it comes to fall season, but fortunately this time round, the colors are soft, and the texture is left light, but intricate. I’m so in love with the wool-shorts idea xD
Trend no.5: oversized mens-wear blazers.
 In heavy and stern colors. This is not a continuation of the “boyfriend-blazer” trend, but more of a journey into more elegant and clean mens-wear inspired style.
So, which trends do you like the most? What other trends have you spotted? 
I love muffins. Ok, I love cupcakes more, but just a bit more. So I will never turn down an opportunity to nom nom a good muffin  . And that’s why I simply cannot resist Muffin Man.
It’s a small muffin outlet located in the China Square complex, and I tell you, they sell one of the most delightful muffins I have ever got my muffin-greedy paws on. They are moist, fluffy and not to sweet. I guess, I like the fluffiness the most – it’s sort of like sponge-cake, but more airy and with a very delicate flavor.
 Another thing to love about Muffin Man is the generous size of the muffins, big enough to serve as a snack, or even a light supper.
 So far I tried:
- Mango custard – which has a hidden heart of delightful filling, aromatic, and not to sweet.
- Passion-fruit – tangly and refreshing. LOVE!
- Rum&Rasin – a definite favorite so far! It has the sweet rum aroma perfectly matched with rasisns. I usually don’t like the whole Rum&Raisin combo, becuase it tends to be bitter, but not in the Muffin Man version.
I also tried the chocolate muffins, and they were also very good. The only one I didn’t like was the “blueberry and orange”. I just HATE the taste of orange zest… Probably it’s post-traumatic, after my attempt as a child, to open a bottle of orange baking aroma with my teeth… Yup, traumatized for life  .
Anyway, if you like muffins then give Muffin Man a try . So you can like it as much as I do, so I wont sound like some haunted muffin-obsessed person . Cheers!
The last few days have been filled with intense debates over the tricky issue of sponsorships for blogs. I’m not going to give an opinion on what happened (referring to the food blogger PR fiasco), but I in some way, I want to use this opportunity to talk about a decision I made a few months back, regarding this blog: as you might have noticed, it’s sponsored-content-free. No advertorials, no blogger events, no sponsored products.
Have I gone crazy, to voluntary give up all the perks that come from being a blogger? Let me tell you, it was not all that easy and simple. When I started to blog, I never suspected I could grow into popularity that would result in any PR companies approaching me. But turns out, even being a rather small blog, it’s enough to spark interest of brands.
At first I was excited and all caught up in the glitz and glam of the blogging world and promotions. Isn’t that the “Holly Grail” of blogging, to get invited to events and participate in blogger contests? And also, having access o products for reviews, that I couldn’t aways afford. But for me the experience wasn’t all that sweet.
I loved blogs always for the sincerity – real people using real products. Not copywriters with their fluffy copy. Not brands with their phony brand messages. And my first thought when I was approached by an agency was “no matter if it’s sponsored or not, I am going to stay true to myself”. But that is easier said than done. Let me explain the reasons:
- When you are introduced to a brand by it’s representatives, you instantly get indoctrinated about the brand and you get to personally know the people behind it. It’s impossible to not have their passion for the product rub on you at least a bit, and not to fall under their personal influence.
- If something is free, it’s harder to criticize. It just does not burn a hole in your pocket, and it’s easier to be forgiving toward little flaws. And of course, you subconsciously avoid being confronted with the PR person, who will cut you off the freebies tap as soon as you say something negative. They may say “oh, write whatever you want”, but then you meet with them again, and you just know their boss whacked them for engaging your traitorous ass in the first place.
- If something is free, it’s easier to criticize. Because when we pay for something ourselves, we know the value of it. We do a fair bit of rationalizing, to not feel we have spend the money on something not worth it. And it’s normal, natural – that’s what we all go though when we leave the store. And the blogger wit freebies does not experience that.
In the end, I guess I stopped believing one can be truly honest in their opinions, when they are chaperoned in their experience or given something for free. And I did notice that my readers were far more apprehensive towards reviews of sponsored products, than the un-sponsored ones. I guess that is the reason why many bloggers don’t disclose sponsorships – they feel their readers will be dubious of the sponsored review.
In the end, a few months back I started turning down all PR invites and offers. I just don’t want the drama and pressure that comes with it. I know that means I might be able to do less reviews, and have less material to blog about, but in the end what ever I write will be coming from me, and me only. I still keep the banners on my blog – the little spare change they earn is sufficient to pay the hosting fees and domain name.
I don’t want to condone bloggers who don’t turn down invites or freebies (although I do strongly believe it’s not nice to conceal sponsorships), but I want to give heads up to smaller blogs, that have not been sucked into the PR world – we might not have the freebies and tons of products to review, but whatever we write is the essence of blogging, so cheer up and continue writing!
Oh, haven’t we all seen it – the guy with good posture, nice clothes and fancy gadgets, but with a face so haggard, he looks like he just came back from a week-long party binge? Unfortunately, even perfect hygiene and good grooming cannot always give us the fresh-face look, and that’s when makeup comes in!
I know a lot of guys are apprehensive about makeup, and they have good reason to be, as most makeup products are sprakly, shimmery, rosy, etc. and have high risk of looking… well, like makeup. And being caught with makeup on, just seems so unmanly, doesn’t it?
So what is there to do? In my opinion for guys there are only 3 bare essential makeup necessities, and none of them pose a risk of making you look like you’re trying to hard, or like you applied your sister’s makeup Yet, using them can make you look rested and groomed, and that is super useful both in professional setting (where you want to look like doing those 2 weeks of overtime did not affect you at all – you are just a mean lean work machine ;D), as personal.
Makeup necessity no.1 – concealer
Before you wince at the thought of dabbing a colored paste on your face, do consider how sightly or unsightly are your black eye-circles? As much as I don’t think that covering your blemishes or pimples will do you any good, covering your under-eye area is a must, if you want to look rested and awake.
If you are set on finding something that perfectly matches your skin tone and sticks to your face seamlessly, go for a more upscale brand – M.A.C., in each boutique there are men and women trained in helping you to pick a perfect product for you, so make them work for their money and help you pick a good and natural looking concealer.
 M.A.C. concealer comes in a small jar Necessity no. 2 – lip balm.
Face it, chapped lips make you look sickly and dehydrated. And considering the choice of taste-free fragrance-free and neutral lip balms, not using them when you need them is just plain slobbery. And brands such as Nivea or Neutrogena can be purchased almost in any store for just a few dollars!
 If you are freaking out about being cought with a lipstick like looking thing, go for The Body Shops lip balms that are sealed in small plastic jars.
Necessity no.3 – Sunblock
Ok, this might not be exactly in the makeup department, but it’s a tricky one. Using sunblock is insanely beneficial for the skin – it will protect it from aging, in long term help heal acne, prevent discoloration and skin looking dull. BUT most sunblocks can produce a white cast on the skin, and it does not look good. To avoid this, go for a quality product, like Khiel’s everyday sunblock. It will protect your skin, while discretely keeping it moisturized and healthy.
Those are still the bare necessities in my humble opinion, but they are fool-proof. Make sure you get them, if you haven’t already .
Disclaimer: Angmogirl.com is a sponsored-content-free blog. All products and brands mentioned in this post are not sponsored, and I am not affiliated with any of the companies, nor paid to mention any of the products.
I did not eve expect that this could happen to me, but seems I go the good ol’ writers block. I love writing on my blog – it sometimes feels like it’s the only sane thing I do ;p But I guess it’s hard to pop out interesting posts, when one leads a mundane life like mine.
Yup! I have not been going out, haven’t bought anything, have not seen any movies (not even “Inception” or “Salt” – but how, when every-time I try to buy a ticket, only first two rows available FML!) and am pretty much stuck rushing final works to launch my first Facebook game (yay!). I hate how many times I had to push the release deadline back  So no excuses now! Gotta finally get that thing live. And big thx to all of you who signed up to be testers and my VIP users I got a lot of goodies prepared for you!
 So this blog is not dead! Just might be a bit slow for the next few days…
Yup, exactly 2 years ago, on a rainy morning I took my stuffed travel bag, and headed to a tiny local airport to start a 22 hour journey to Singapore. And on 17 August 2008, I touched ground on Changi Airport. Ah! So sentimental!
Coming to Singapore I did not expect much – I really just wanted to go somewhere, and Singapore felt welcoming and interesting.
 One of my first photos in SG So, what surprised me about Singapore?
- Equality of genders! In Europe there is a stereotype that in Asia women have to be submissive and are ill-treated. But since coming to Singapore, I start to think that in Europe most people are sexist and misogynistic. When I walk into the office, I feel it does not matter if I am a woman or a man, and I have always been fairly judged on what I did, not who I was.
- Common language - European Union has huge issues pulling their act together, because even after 60 years, they still cannot agree on picking a common language! They say it’s impossible to make people adapt a second language for the purpose of easier communication, so when you travel to Europe, most people speak their native language, but no English. Singapore proves this so wrong!
- Acceptance towards people of different religions and races – I come from a country that is catholic in an extremist way, and since I am not catholic, many times I have been bullied, humiliated or ill-treated with the aim of coercing me to be catholic (silly, ain’t it?). In Singapore, I feel no one cares what I do, what I believe in or how I want to live my life as long as I’m not a nuisance to others.
- The highly raved Singaporean cuisine - turned out to be just 3 types of food: fried, deep fried, and stir fried! ;p
Of course I love the clean environment, safety, lack of vandalism
But what I don’t like? I hate the constant allegations that just because I’m ang moh, I must be super rich >:|, when that is so not the case… Yes, I do admit that ang moh are guilty of lowering salaries for common Singaporeans – because we are desperate to get a job, and start out with a disadvantage in the recruitment process, and so we are ready to work managerial and high-grade jobs for equivalent of a domestic helper salary, so in the end your boss will also want to pay you so little (if the ang moh can work for peanuts, so can you fellow Singaporean ;p). And yet, I constantly am faced with opened or joking allegations that I swim in cash.
Ok, I know there are also those filthy rich ang moh, who have package, car and who knows what else… But so are some seriously rich Singaporeans here, and it does not mean every Singaporean is dirty rich, ohkay?
I’m a sucker for ice-cream, but even more for ice-cream that has some presence on social media, thus combining my sweet-tooth and social media obsessions ;D This is the case for SOFT!, a small ice-cream place from Downtown East, of which I first found out about though Facebook.
SOFT! is conveniently located at Downtown East, although the creamery itself is tucked away deep within the complex, and not all that easy to find for first-timers ;P. Also, be aware that this place is rather small and has very few sitting options, so it’s more ice-cream-on-the-go.
Me and my dining buddy ordered the cupped version of the ice-cream (Black Forest and Kiwi Kiwi), although there were also options to get a simple cone, or a float. The idea for SOFT! is to serve rich, soft, vanilla ice-cream with toppings and additions that can turn plain vanilla, into something more exciting.
 In the end the whole experience was rather unmemorable. The ice-cream weas rich and creamy, but I could barely taste any vanilla in it. The toppings and tidbits tasted ok, but didn’t have enough flavor to par the heavy whipped-cream taste of the ice-cream. The staff was robotic and didn’t really make any positive impression (ok, maybe I’m just a bit spoiled here by wonderful service level in some of my favorite ice-cream places, like ICK).
The only thing I really liked about the place was super-cute designs on the menu. Shame it is located in a way, where it’s hard to check it out when people are queing up for their ice-cream fix.
 Cute designs To sum it up, SOFT! is not a bad place to get some frozen goodness, but it’s just to … “vanilla”, and you might as well get a very similar product in your nearest McDonald’s (of course, not with such variety of toppings, but still, pretty close…).
I recently stumbled upon those photos of Kim Kardashian (yes, I know she has been a frequent topic on this blog lately… I guess she is slowly sneaking into my girl-crush list ), and what struck me immediately, was how cohesive and well thought through her styling and clothes were:
  
I think everything works really great – silhouettes, colors, key-items. And her outfits don’t look boring or repetitive, although they share a common style.
So, it got me thinking, how cohesive and defined is my style? being in the digital marketing field, I constantly read articles on importance of having a good communication strategy, and keeping the brand cohesive. Oh, and the super-importance of having a “personal brand”! So, can we assume that our clothing style is part of our personal branding in not-so-digital environment?
In the latest issue of Cleo there is an interview with Lady Gaga, where she says something in the notion of, that even wearing a plain T-shirt and jeans still says something about the person who wears it – they chose those clothes, and in that combination, so it speaks volumes of them. So I guess whatever you wear, you are still expressing something about yourself, your personality and aesthetics. The only thing that distinguishes people, is how aware they are of their personal style, and does it express what they want to express.
How about you? Do you feel, you have a well defined personal style? Or still searching?
I have not been visiting many new ice-cream joints since the discovery of Ice-Cream Kingdom. Unfortunately ICK is located in Dover, and with me living in North-East, it’s just a bit far to travel to, just to get dessert. But I do happen to be in East Coast region for work, so one of those days I decided to wander into Marine Parade CC to try the Scoop of Art ice-cream. I’ve first heard about it from Facebook, which makes it a social media gelato ;p.
The creamery is located in a huge space, decorated with fancy art pieces. But nothing uptight – it still has a very “raw” feeling. You can also get some art supplies there, and let loose your inner-artist out, while snacking on ice-cream. I guess that’s the main selling point of the whole place, but I didn’t care much… I was there for the ice-cream ;D
 
The choice of flavors is really big, and there is quite a few of fruity ones, which is great! I noticed a lot of ice-cream places in SG have very few fruity flavors, and tend to focus on the chocolate flavors more. The extra items on the menu include sandwiches, waffles, floats… all the standard stuff. Prices are very much ok – affordable for any pocket.
The portions were rather medium… and I loved it! If you asked me, they could have been even smaller! I really don’t like getting a mountain of gelato, because I am too much of a sucker for ice-cream not to eat everything you give me
 I love my ice-cream <3 We ordered Persian Strawberry, which had some amazing aroma and aftertaste. Seriously, I have no idea what they mixed into it, but it was awesome, and it’s a MUST-TRY! The lemon flavor was tingly and sour, with the texture being light and watery. Simple perfection. I also tried the highly raved “Mars-bar&Sea-salt“, and it tasted really original. The taste of salt was distinctive, yet “barely there”, and bit’s of chocolate complimented the composition well. It was not to sweet, and just enough rich.
 The Green Tea flavor was a bit of a let down tho… Very rich and heavy in taste, it was sickling sweet! Like way way wayyyyy to sweet! It was still very much edible, but not as enjoyable as it could be.
All it all, I am itching to go back and try the other flavors, as they looked delicious! Highly recommended!
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But at the same time, it is a business. It’s meant to make money, and so they attack women with all they can, just to squeeze every last penny out of us. But their methods are dirty – we are presented with images of perfect, not existing women, and educated, that the only reason we are not that perfect, is because we have failed to purchase a product, or diet enough. It’s aggressive and derogatory, objectifying and depriving of dignity and basic respect.
