The World's Biggest Shopaholic

Shoppers can apparently be split into two types: recreational shoppers and non-recreational shoppers. "Recreational shoppers', as its name suggests, are people who shop for fun. The "non-recreational" type shop only when they need to.

According to a survey by ACNielsen (an international consumer market research group,) the highest percentage of "recreational shoppers" are in Asia-Pacific. The No.1 countries are Hong Kong and Indonesia, both with 93% of the people surveyed who shop for fun. The U.S. and U.K. have 68% and 34% recreational shoppers respectively.

The survey results actually make sense. Living in a city, such as Hong Kong, there are really little one does in ones free time. In Hong Kong, 90% of the time I go out (non-work related) is for shopping. (By shopping, I could mean all kinds of shopping -window shopping, grocery shopping, target shopping etc.) Because afterall, if I don't go shopping, what else is there fun to do in the city? At least when I was studying in the UK, I could take the occasional weekend trip out of London to visit friends. And when I visit my relatives in San Francisco, I could just ride a bike whenever I want to, but in Hong Kong, one would have to make an effort to go to the countryside.

The conclusion? It is logical that there are more recreational shoppers in city since there is less to do (and a lot more shops and products to choose from.) So my question is, are you a recreational shopper?

Scrunch up the Sleeves!

Take a tip from the runway and add cool to an outfit this season by scrunching up the sleeves!

This is an especially convenient trend with all the super long sleeve shirts on the runway used for layering (as in the Luella and Marc by Marc Jacobs above).

Plus, it allows you to skip the hassle of getting the sleeves tailored if your arms are too short for a cardigan. You can look effortlessly cool and still remain ladylike as seen above from Chanel and Diane von Furstenburg.

But we already knew one could scrunch up the sleeves of tees and cardigans. What I had never thought about however, was the scrunching of the sleeves of the blazers as seen on the looks from Laurel above. And I LOVE it, because it allows you to look both put together and effortlessly cool.

So have fun with this little observation everyone!

The Shirt and the Tie

For quite a few seasons now, magazines have reported the trend of girls dressing like guys, ie. wearing shirts and ties together. Now I have never quite understood this trend. I mean, I think it was cool when Avril wore it a few years ago when she was in her so-called punk rock mood. And it's fun when people wear it as a costume, such as in Halloween or themed parties. Honestly, I can't see how this style works in real life but the SS06 runways certainly seemed to like it:

Karen Walker and Lanvin had skinny ties. Very classy and girly.

The ties and shirts are made of exactly the same prints at Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs.

Lanvin makes the ties look professional.

The shirt and tie combination looked cool and casual at Belstaff and Chloe.

Personally, I've only ever worn a tie with my school uniform (that was when I was younger). But casually, I'm way too chicken to try. Anyone here wears ties as normal casual wear?

Happy Father's Day

As much as I love my dad I must admit, I hate trying to find a gift for him. I mean, what can he possibly want that I can get him?

I guess one can always stick with the classics. This silk tie from Zegna looks quite nice.

And of course, there is the belt, like this one from Gucci. One can't possibly go wrong with such generic things. (Well, unless you picked out a truly ugly tie).

More practically however, one can get their dad's a leather wallet. My dad uses a Vuitton one similar to this.

Another coveted men's item (I'm told) is leather shoes, especially Tod's and Ferragamo ones. However, my family is pretty conventional with superstitions and giving people shoes and clocks as a present is a big no no-even if they are Tod's/Ferragamo's.

And of course, they do so love the electronics. This set here is a Bose entertainment system. Personally I don't know much about it, so wouldn't know where to begin buying electronics for dad. If this is your inclination, I suggest you ask first.

Another generic gift for men is cologne. I'm not even sure what they are for (is it something they use after shaving?), but I've heard fabulous feedback on Chanel's Allure for men from friends. Although I'm not sure if that apply to dad's. . . .

Men have to take care of their skin too. Last Christmas, I got my dad moisturizer and he actually uses it! Of course, it wasn't exactly from La Mer (although I've heard it works really well on men too), since thats waaaaay out of my price range. But I'm sure my dad wouldn't have wanted such an expensive gift anyway, since ultimately he's paying for it!

Another thing I've bought my dad thats within budget and he loves was a book light, since I know he likes to read. It really is the thought that counts.

This time for Father's Day, I got my dad a classic fit Ralph Lauren Polo. One can never have enough polo's right?

Happy Father's Day!

British Vogue + Teen Vogue July 2006

In a typical month (that is when I'm in school in London,) I read about 4 style magazines: Vogue UK, Elle UK, Tatler and Teen Vogue. Now normally, the July issue of magazines are pretty boring because it's the end of season and it's not time yet to talk about next season's fashion. But surprisingly, this year's July issues have been pretty interesting:

British Vogue has a GORGEOUS cover with Gemma wearing a Prada bra. Isn't it amazing how Vogue always manages to make revealing clothes not look slutty? This photo editorial was shot by Corrine Day.

Also, there is a really interesting feature piece about T-shirts. There is actually more to a T-shirt than you realise. Plus, don't you always find yourself looking for the perfect T-shirt?

Moving on to Teen Vogue. As usual, the writing is not particularly fascinating, and there is an unusually large number of Beauty & Health features in this issue. But there is a fantastic photo editorial on nautical clothes. It shows you how to incorporate normal clothes and ways to style them to look uber chic and casual. So if you're stuck on how to style your clothes, go check it out.

Maybe it's because I've read so many magazines in the past few weeks, that is my normal 4 magazines plus the many I read in the hair salon today. And, I've been shopping and window-shopping quite a lot since I got back to Hong Kong (the sales are on,) so I'm actually quite sick of this season's clothes now. I can't wait for next season to come!

Product Fast

I've been using products for the face (face wash, toners and moisturizers) since forever. I don't even remember the time when simple water would do. But the other day, my friend told me that she'd never used any products before (only soap and water) until a year ago when her skin got dried due to the weather in Chicago. That got me thinking, what does the products I use do for me? Do I really need them or am I using it just for the sake of using something?

And so, during my last finals week when I hibernated in my room for 5 whole days trying to write papers and study (I really was rewatching Sex and the City), I went on a product fast. No toner. No moisturizer. Just soap and water.

The end result was that I got a chance to really go back to the beginning and pinpoint what my skin really need- hydration, exfoliation and more hydration. My skin really really lacked water! Another thing that came out of this product fast of mine was that I got to see if the products I am using made a difference or not. I'm happy to report that it does.

So ultimately, I ended up pretty much where I started with in this product fast of mine. But I feel that this experience was totally worth the nakedness I felt in those five days I didn't go through my beauty ritual, because it made me remember the real reason why I was following a beauty ritual everyday. And now I'm not just doing it for the sake of doing it but because I need it.

Natural-Looking Mascara

Since my makeup fast is now over, not to mention I haven't bought a mascara since last summer, I am now in the market for a new mascara. Last summer I was into the whole dramatic eye look. This summer, I've decided to go for the ever elusive natural look. Some inspiration:

I love the natural look from the Derek Lam SS06 runway.

Marc by Marc Jacobs and Lanvin SS06 runways also have fantastic natural looks. To make the face look 'natural' instead of 'plain', lengthening mascara is a must. So I have been doing a bit of research to see which mascara people think are good for everyday use:

The No. 1 favourite mascara for natural-looking lashes seems to be Shu Uemera Mascara Basic. I am very tempted to try this, but at US$27, it was a bit too pricey.

The Shiseido Natural Finishing Combing Mascara is one of the quite-good mascaras I have used before. It's great for lenthening lashes to look naturally long. Unfortunately it wasn't as water/oil-proof as I would have liked it to be.

When I tried the Maybelline Sky High Curves Mascara, I thought it was another quite-good mascara. It gave some length and slight volume, which means the lashes weren't quite natural-looking. But it also left me with racoon eyes at the end of the day.

Another pretty good 'natural' mascara MUA users seem to think is the Clinique Natural Glossy Mascara. This one I'm considering at the moment.

When Lancome L'Extreme was launched last summer, Barneys Girl and I went to try it out, and I thought it was one of the best lengthening mascaras I have ever tried. Obviously my lashes didn't look as amazing as the lashes in the L'Extreme ad, but the lengthening was still pretty darn amazing. So L'Extreme is high up on my possible-buy list.

If you have any favourite mascaras for lengthening lashes and the natural-look, or you have used a mascara I wrote about, please let me know what you think!