au naturale?
2007-11-20 - 4:13 p.m.

my mother likes to tell me that the most important things you need for beauty is a clean face, clean hair and a smile plastered on your face. and i've heard my male friends tell me that they like it au naturale - but quite honestly, most of them can't tell natural apart from non-natural. i remember a very funny incident when danny and i were discussing and he said he likes girls who are "natural" while i debated with him quite spiritedly about it. later, we bumped into a pair of our friends, and the girl was wearing wads of makeup on her face and a very florence-lian shrug. i remember the shrug because it is quite possibly one of the most hideous things florence lian ever wore on singapore idol. imagine a black, knitted crochet sort-of-rag with gaudy roses. i do think that said girl is quite pretty in a girl-next-door way, but immediately after we parted company with the pair, danny started gushing that "XX is so pretty/chio/goodlooking!" etc etc. that incident stuck in my head because obviously guys don't know what kinds of treatment women go through in the name of beauty. while i will consider the bare minimum - ie. washing hair, body essential, the truth is that the type of beauty that we consider beauty today would not be complete without some non-essential grooming - eyebrow tweezing, braces, good haircuts (since i'm pretty most of the girls i know, and consider pretty do not go for those speedy, express $10 haircuts), trips to the dentist and dermatologist, contact lenses (considering the huge number of people who have myopia).

the borders of being presentable, and winning a promotion get more blurred each day. i'm beginning to lose my point here, so let me spit it out. the point is that today, the importance of looking good is more crucial than ever, so dressing thoughtfully is becoming more important than ever. my mom's old adage - i don't think it works anymore. i have a lot more to say about beauty, but i have exams to study for and i've slept for a grand total of something like 30hours in two days.

before i skip away, this remark inspired my rant. not the best examples for women, but certainly an intriguing woman. err if you don't know, her husband gave up the crown to marry her. for more details, google wallis simpson.

My husband gave up everything for me. I'm not a beautiful woman. I'm nothing to look at, so the only thing I can do is dress better than anyone else. If everyone looks at me when I enter a room my husband can feel proud of me. That's my chief responsibility.- Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

smooch ||arse