Beauty Secrets from the East - Season 3

Finally I can tell you what I've been working on! And you will hear it here first!

Many of you may of heard of the popular TV3 show, Beauty Secrets from the East.

It is now in it's 3rd season and I am the host for this season... (yahoo!)

And today was the launch at Sri Pentas!

Datin Seri Tiara Jacquelina launched the show by placing a bunga telur in pulut kuning....

I know you're curious about the dress I wore designed by Jovian...

Here I am wearing it with designer Jovian...

As part of the launch I performed a contemporary dance with asian flavour. Performing in Jovian's dress was such a joy as it flowed so beautifully. As a performer, if the dress/ costume I wear is uninspiring, I just don't feel like performing....

I also launched the title sponsor , Secret Garden's website - www.secretgarden.com.my

So far I have travelled to India, Bali Thailand, Langkawi, Pahang and Johor to record this documentary. For those of you who remember my story about being 'attacked' by a leech or pacat, that happened in Pahang while I was shooting in an orang asli village.

Datin Seri Tiara Jacquelina and myself with my producer of 'Beauty Secrets from the East', Siti Zainah

I have lost count of how many beauty treatments I have tried!

Beauty Secrets from the East goes on air on Monday, the 18th of June, 7.30 pm exclusively on Tv3.

Of course, here on this site I will share with you pictures and little stories that I haven't been able to share with you before that happened on location.

I look forward to your support!

TV3's 23rd Anniversary

Last Friday was the launch of TV3's 23rd anniversary....

The colour scheme was of course red, yellow and blue, representing the colours in the TV3 logo..


Throughout the month, there will be visits to charity homes and road shows..

More to come related to this!

Jovian's dress

Today I picked up the dress Jovian made for me for the event on Tuesday....

It's beautiful and I can't wait to wear it....

Gianni Versace

I totally love Gianni Versace as a designer...

He just knew how to make really gorgeous glittering garments....

Above is the December 1990 VOGUE magazine cover of Christy Turlington wearing a Gianni Versace fully embellished full body suit. I saw this body suit in person as part of a Gianni Versace Retrospective exhibition in Sydney and in London. The workmanship and design is just splendid!

I was devastated when he died because I dreamed of having Gianni Versace designing something especially for me.... That dream obviously died when he was shot dead out the front of his Miami home. Actually, a few years after his death I visited Miami and I drove past that house. I felt so sad...

I'm not as in love with Donatella Versace's designs as I am with Gianni's.....

Creative genius like Gianni Versace don't happen often....

May he rest in peace...

I'm back!

The first person I saw when I got home today was my pretty little Joberg cat....

As soon as she saw me, she started meowing non-stop!

Really telling me a lot of stories.... I thought she wanted food but that didn't stop her from telling me one week's work of stories afterwards.... so cute....

I'm still feeling a bit "@#$%%^!' from travelling back on overnight flights...

There was a child sitting behind me on the plane and I desperately prayed to God for a peaceful flight... He heard my prayers. The child slept all the way....

So so so much work to do...

As I've mentioned, next Tuesday the 5th of June is a big day for me....

I've also got some other exciting photo shoots and projects coming up....

I always feel so blessed when I have fabulous things to look forward to.....

Chanel top...

I remember seeing this gorgeous top on Kim Cattral, playing the role of notorious Samantha Jones on Sex and The City and thinking to myself...'Oh My God! What a gorgeous top! If I was Kim Cattral, I would have bought it!'

Quite a while after that, I was walking past Chanel at KLCC and saw this top on the mannequin in the window! OH WOW!

So I went into Chanel and asked to have a look at it....

It is a really beautiful top... Beautiful fabric and the diamantes glittering in the light...

The size was a bit big for me and the sweet salesgirl said to me "We have a smaller sized one in Singapore which we can bring up for you if you want it...."

I took one look at the price tag and realised my budget is still very much in Sungai Wang.... I touched the top for as long as I could and graciously left the Chanel boutique... without the top... sob!!!!

That was many years ago now, and I'm sure the top has been bought....

But I still remember it....

Never mind, it's just not meant to be.....

I hope I look as good as Kim Cattrall at her age!

Lots of oil...

Today, litres and litres of oil were poured over me from about 11 am onwards....

My make up had to be re applied from scratch twice....

It's feels so good now to have clean, blow dried hair.....

Miss my happy little Joberg, slightly tipsy Tippex and grumbling Schizo...

It will take two flights to get home again...

Will definitely feel like a massage after that....

No screaming children please.....

evening wear

I love evening wear....

Long beautiful gowns, chic cocktail dresses, sharp cut long embroidered coats, sleek glittering clutches.....

I'm always attracted and much more interested to buy evening wear than I am to buy day clothes....

I really don't get much of a thrill out of buying t-shirts.... or shirts... or pants.....

But the joy I get out of finding a beautiful item that screams 'evening glamour' really puts me on a fashion high...

Since I've banned myself from buying anymore black dresses, I am now on the prowl for a beautiful flowing show-stopping red evening gown..

The one you see here is from Valentino's Spring Summer 2007 collection...

Since I believe in always thinking positive thoughts, I'm going to say

'I am looking forward to one day owning my own red Valentino gown....'

Hundreds of kilometres...

In the past one week, I have travelled hundreds of kilometres....

I have stayed in 3 hotels....

And will have to take 2 flights home....

Hopefully no screaming children this time....

I have seen some beautiful views and experienced some things that money cannot buy....

Don't worry! You will found out why I have been travelling so much on the 5th of June...

I am both nervous and excited....

Classic Beauties

I've been thinking a lot about what is the meaning of beauty...

What makes a woman beautiful?

The way she dresses? The way she carries herself? How much of an influence does her personality have on her beauty?

Can a woman learn how to be beautiful or is it a feature that she is just born with.... some kind of genetic lottery?

The following are some classic beauties I just love who have stood the test of time and have become icons of beauty in their own way....

Princess Diana

A tragic end to a a tragic life...

Yet she always did her best to carry herself with dignity... Her wardrobe became her armour.

And what I find so sickening too is that not long ago, photos of her receiving oxygen at the car crash scene were published! The woman is dying in those photos! Please.... some dignity....

I will always remember her as how she looked in these photos...

Sophia Loren

When I think of Sophia Loren, I think of eye liner..

She mastered it's application to perfection.....

And she still looks fantastic til today. If I can look half as good as she does at her age, I will be very happy!

Grace Kelly

Another tragic ending....

But forever beautiful...

Audrey Hepburn

A real style icon. Her fashion sense is still widely copied...

Such elegance and grace.. two qualities I rarely see these days...

Marilyn Monroe

Timeless sex symbol... Yet she somehow always looks innocent to me... As if she has no idea how gorgeous she really is

Elizabeth Taylor

To me.... Cleopatra + Diamonds = Elizabeth Taylor

It's because of her that people are convinced that Cleopatra was beautiful

Flights....

I had to take two flights to get to where I am now....

The first flight was fine..

The second one was some kind of night mare.

There were three children sitting in the row in front of me....

One screamed for the whole 5 hours....

The other two were either always fighting with each other, screaming too or runnning up and donw the aisles....

One of them knocked into me several times.....

Don't you love flights like that?!

Jovian Madagie

Tonight, I met up with Jovian Madagie...


To my Malaysian readers, if you don't know who Jovian is.... where have you been?

You're probably wondering why I saw Jovian?


I saw him about a dress.....

Why do I want a dress from Jovian?

All will be revealed on the 5th of June.....

the weekend...

as always, plenty happening....
my poor Joberg came home with a bad cut on her front paw on Saturday.... it was leaving pools of blood on my floor! I have no idea how she hurt herself, but thankfully, she's a strong girl and she's ok... phew!

because I wanted to make sure that she was ok, I was late for the launch dinner of 'tell' magazine....

the theme was 'Sarawak'....


So I wore a black dress with two big beaded necklaces as contrast.... eventhough I have been avoiding wearing black basedon a self imposed principle to try new colour options, I felt wearing a black dress would best show off the colours of the necklace...

On display and for sale, they had beautiful Judith Leiber handbags to raise money for the 'tell' magazine fund to fight illiteracy in Malaysia...





I love Judith Leiber handbags... but the price of one of these jewelled gems is so out of my price range it's almost funny....


sigh... never mind.... I can always look and dream.... and I did!

It was a nice evening..... I enjoyed myself..


The editor of 'tell', Sakinah sang a song.... she has a great voice!

One of my great pals I saw was Faridul Anwar....


Great singer and we were sharing the same singing teacher a while ago...

Today (Sunday), of course I watched CSI.... I'm loving the new character who has 'replaced' Grissom's position on CSI Vegas.... I like how he follows he's insincts on cases and approaches them differently to the others...

then at night, I went to a wedding... It was so pretty....


There were plenty of desserts to choose from!

I really should NEVER get a chocolate waterfall in my house.... for obvious reasons....


On my way to the wedding, my earring broke... So i literally ran into KLCC on the way, all dressed for a wedding to buy a new pair of earrings... sigh! the things we girls do to solve a mini wardrobe crisis....


This week, I will be shooting again at another location....

Looking forward to the new adventure!

Carrie Bradshaw

Kate Moss seems to be the current favourite fashion icon...

personally, I don't really understand why....

She is wearing skinny jeans with t-shirts and vests..... that's what I was wearing when I was 15.... and I still have those vests in my wardrobe....

her look has been termed as 'uber chic' my some fashion magazine I read, can't remember which one... I don't know what that means...

I feel that a fashion icon is someone that has created a look that is unique. coming up with new combinations of how to wear clothes. taking something unusual and making it look fantastic by pairing it with something else...

I personally love the look created by Patricia Fields for the fictional character of Carrie Bradshaw in the hot sitcom 'Sex and The City"

I learnt so much about the possibility of clothes combination from watching this show....

And here's a little secret, when I don't have my hair blow dried straight, it looks exactly like Sarah Jessica Parker's slightly frizzy very wavy hair.... seriously!

Here are some of my favourite Carrie looks from the show....




This is such an easy look to achieve. A simple beaded glittering top with a big thick velvet or satin ribbon tied up over the top.... so simple...


I hate polka dots, but it looks good in this ensemble. I love the cuffs on the sleeves and it has a slight costume feel to it. I don't think I will ever wear polka dots, but then again, I never thought I would wear a yellow three tiered dress til I tried it on....


Love the colour of the umbrella. Love that a corset has been worn in the day... How practical this outfit is though I have no idea!



I nearly died of jealousy when I saw her wear this dress..... I hope by some twist of fashion fate one of these Oscar de la Renta dresses ends up in my wardrobe.








This is what my sister and I used to do when we were 4 or 5 and played dress up..... pile on all the necklaces we could find... and my mum always used to buy us beaded and fake pearl necklaces... we had them in every colour.... I would still have them today if Highland Towers hadn't happened....

I would never think to wear two different types of prints as one outfit, but if I try it, it just might work!

Love the glittering tassels on this dress...


The striped shirt is an interesting touch.... The colour of the suit is unusual too...





I will continue my quest to take fashion risks and try new looks as inspired by Carrie Bradshaw's look!

aaaargh!

Phew!

What a week...

I have stayed in 3 hotels, travelled thousands of miles, changed numerous times and showered almost 5 times a day and more in the past week...

At this moment, I'm in an international airport somewhere in the world on my way back home...

can't wait to come back!!!! miss my cats terribly.....

Didn't even have time to shop properly.. only bought one hand bag.....

lots more coming up... shoots with magazines, more location shoots for my current project and something related to an animal rights project.....

you will be kept informed!

but stop by Maple's new blogsite! www.mapleloo.blogspot.com

PLENTY of pictures of her wedding there!

a miracle?

Yesterday my sister and I found a box in the store room with a pair of GUESS jeans from when I was about 14 or 15 years old....

"Oh wow! this is the slim cut jeans i used to love and wear so much! The whole skinny leg jean thing is so in again.... I should start wearing them again...."

"Do you think you can fit into them?!" she asks....

Good question!!

Afraid of what the answer might be, I left them on my bed to think about whether I was prepared to find out how much bigger I am now compared to when I was 15.... a very depressing thought...

Tonight I tried them on...

They fit!!!! I can actually put them on, zip them up and sit down in them.... I 'm wearing them now as I write this!

I remember when I was in school, you were so not cool if you didn't have a pair of 'GUESS' jeans... And at the time there weren't really any 'GUESS' stores in Malaysia....

So when I found out my father was making a trip up to the US, I begged and begged for him to buy me a pair of 'GUESS' jeans while he was there... I promised him the world if he got me a pair... I would study hard, make him proud, iron my school clothes... I promised him everything!

And he got them for me.... And I wore them all the time.... until I bought a pair of boot leg cut jeans...

Just now I went to see my dad...

"Remember when I was 15 I begged and begged you to buy me a pair of 'GUESS' jeans?"

"Yes... why?"

"Well, it was all worth your time and effort cause I'm wearing them now!"

"You mean you can still fit into them?"

Yeah... I can't believe it either.... some kind of miracle..

(note : yellow dress in previous blog was bought at ZARA Bangsar Village 2)