Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Average Woman's Skin Care & Makeup List


It's a very sad day when you realise that it's finally time to start buying those anti wrinkle eye and facial creams you see advertised on TV, the type you don't think you'll need for a good 10 more years or so.  I may skimp on other things, but I am paranoid about getting old and so this weekend I decided it was time to try one of the (expensive) make up houses at Edgars and see what they'd recommend. (I've previously just bought skincare products from clicks and makeup from Maybelline.)

I found myself at Clinque and spent a small fortune on facial products. Granted, I have an Edgars card which I shouldn't be using and I'm sure there are cheaper products out there, but I was always told to spend more on your face - it will help you in the long run.
After walking out happy with my purchases, but very much over the credit limit I set myself, I couldn't help but wonder just how much does the average woman spend on skincare and beauty products each month?


Give or take a few items, I think this is about what the average woman spends each month on skincare and beauty products, and it's a lot!

      Facial Products
  • Cleanser
  • Toner
  • Moisteriser
  • Facial Wash
  • Exfoliating Facial Scrub
  • Facial Mask
  • Blemish Cream (if you are unfortunate enough to still have teenage skin once a month)
  • Anti Aging Wrinkle Cream
  • Eye Cream

       Hair Products:
  • Shampoo
  • Conditioner
  • Heat Protective Hair Spray
  • Anti Frizz Hair Spray
  • Hair Gel
  • Hair Gloss for Straightened Hair (swop this for curly hair, relaxed hair, etc, etc....)
  • Hair Mask or Hot Oil Treatments
  • Hair Colour / Hairdresser Appointment

       Body Products:
  • Body Lotion
  • Self Tan Lotion (if you don't like lying in the sun or the sun bed - you get some nice ones from Dove & Nivea that create a gradual tan)
  • Shower Gel
  • Exfoliating Scrub
  • Bath Oil
  • Deondrant
  • Body Spray
  • Perfume

       Makeup (some of these luckily don't need to be bought monthly)

  • Foundation
  • Concealer
  • Mascara
  • Eye Liner
  • Eyebrow Pencil
  • Eyeshadow
  • Lipstick
  • Lipgloss/balm
  • Lip Liner Pencil
  • Blusher
  • Bronzer
  • Nailpolish


And I haven't even mentioned the false eyelashes, hair extensions or false nails....

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Favourite Winter Reads

There are few things in life better than snuggling underneath the duvet on a cold, rainy weekend afternoon while enjoying a cup of coffee and being totally engrossed in a novel that's so captivating, you're unable to put it down.
I picked up a few books this week in a beautiful 2nd hand bookstore in Franschhoek, and it got me thinking back to the some of my all time favourite books.


Savages - Shirley Conran


A red-carpet junket providing luxurious relaxation for five women while their business-executive husbands attend meetings turns to chaos when a local general ignites a military coup. To escape violence and probable death, the women flee deep into the jungle, accompanied only by Jonathan, the captain of their pleasure boat.
During the long months of the rainy season, they try--and try again--to build a vessel that will carry them to safety. After enduring more perils than Pauline, fate shocks the women with the most taboo act of all, the eating of raw human flesh.
For her survival saga, Shirley Conran has drawn women whose polished talents in seduction, domesticity, and child rearing make them poor prospects for primitive living. Jonathan can teach them wilderness skills, including thirteen ways to kill a man, but he cannot teach them grit and determination. Slowly and painfully, the women build the emotional stamina to take responsibility for their survival.
Meanwhile, seventy miles away in civilization, hardly anyone believes that the women could still be alive. Only one man pieces together enough fragments of evidence to believe that neither sharks nor cannibals consumed the five women. His suspenseful quest vividly emphasizes the plight of the survivors camouflaged by the jungle’s dense canopy. Conran, the author of LACE and LACE II, turns from the romance genre to tales of shipwrecks and castaways. In the tradition of ALIVE, Piers Paul Read’s account of an airplane crash in the Andes, SAVAGES sets a group of virtual strangers in a place of appalling harshness and depicts the inevitable disintegration of civilities and decorum. As depression and enervation take hold, options shrink and choices are starkly measured against a life-or-death standard.



Rage of Angles - Sidney Sheldon



Jennifer is an Assistant District Attorney for the State of New YorkNew York County. A beautiful, inexperienced, criminal defense attorney, she foils a plot by Michael Moretti, the rising star of one of the most powerful organized crime families in America. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Di Silva, believing that Jennifer is truly responsible, fires her and vows to destroy her for her part in the fiasco with Michael Moretti.
Di Silva arranges for the young lawyer Adam Warner to meet Parker in an attempt to persuade him that she is truly responsible for the bribe. Upon meeting her Adam falls for Jennifer and realizes that she isn't guilty at all. With Adam's help Jennifer begins to rise again, meanwhile Moretti, inspired by her determination to succeed, decides he would like to induct her as the Family consigliere (a mafia lawyer).
Adam Warner, despite being married and groomed for the United States Senate, and with the possibility of a White House destination, can not help falling in love with Jennifer. When Adam tells Jennifer that his wife has asked for a divorce, Jennifer meets with Warner's wife, Mary Beth. Being so close to the Senate election, the two women decide it's best for Adam to wait until after the election. Mary Beth however sleeps with Adam one last time, in the process tricking him into impregnating her. Adam learns that his wife is pregnant, wins the election, and tells Jennifer that he truly loves her but they must end their affair. Jennifer having previously discovered that she too is pregnant and not wanting to hurt Adam, accepts, but doesn't reveal to him that she is carrying his child.
Jennifer gives birth to her son and names him Joshua Adam Parker. She keeps the birth a secret, allowing only Ken Bailey, her assistant, to become aware of her son. She then returns to her practice and soon makes headlines as a successful lawyer. Meanwhile, Michael constantly tries to spark friendship with Jennifer, which she rebuffs at every attempt, reminding him of his earlier tricks. Nevertheless, when her son is kidnapped by a criminal Jennifer is defending, she, in desperation, turns to Michael Moretti for help. After helping her, he seduces her and Jennifer becomes the Family consigliere.



I'll Take Manhattan - Judith Krantz



At twenty-nine, Maxime (Maxi) Amberville is an extremely rich, extremely spoiled young woman. Married and divorced three times and the mother of a precocious eleven-year-old daughter, Maxi believes in self-indulgence. She is passionate, impulsive, and thoroughly likable.
Her comfortable world is shaken to its foundation when she learns that her mother has turned control of the family’s magazine-publishing empire over to her new husband, Maxi’s own uncle, Cutter. Always envious of his brother’s success, Cutter plots to dismantle his brother’s company bit by bit. One of his first moves is to stop publication of four magazines, one of which is the failing trade weekly that was Maxi’s father’s first venture.
Horrified at Cutter’s actions, Maxi enlists the aid of her brothers and friends to save the magazine. As she transforms it into the brightest new publication on the national scene, she learns a great deal about publishing, hard work, and personal relationships. With a definite goal in her life, she finally grows up. Her achievements are sweetened when her mother discovers the full extent of Cutter’s scheming and rejects him and his attempts to destroy the Amberville empire.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Love of Dance

Ballet, Salsa, Hip-Hop, Ballroom, Modern, Jazz, Funk, Tap, Belly, Tango, Rumba, Street, Break, Swing, Line, Samba, Jive, Contra and Bollywood - these are just a few of the many types of styles that fall under the term 'dance'.



Dancing is a creative form of self expression. Whether it's graceful ballet, a passionate Rumba dance, sexy Salsa steps or slick hip-hop moves, every form of dancing has a unique style and very often a story behind it. To dance isn't to simply tap your feet and nod your head to the beat of music playing in the background. Dancing is about surrendering yourself to the music, forgetting about where you are,  and forgetting who you are. It's almost as though you're putting on another persona and escaping into another time and place altogether.



I love dancing, it's in my blood and I can't imagine living without it. I've been dancing since I was five years old when I was introduced to the world of ballet. Watching Black Swan brought back so many memories of that time. The world of ballet is not all as pretty and graceful as it looks. It's tough, and it takes serious commitment, determination and a thick skin to get to the top. Eight years of hair gel, leotards, pirouettes and concerts and I decided it was time for a change. I was sadly no where near dedicated enough, and I got bored of the classical music - I wanted something more.  Modern dancing provided that. The music had a beat to it and the steps were a little more energetic and fun. Still, I wanted a form of dancing that really made me sweat - the type I'd seen in dance movies. Some of the girls in the class I was in made things extremely unpleasant and all too clear at the same time.  At that stage in my life dancing become tedious and I dreaded going to class. I stopped dancing for a few years until I began to miss it so much that I literally ached when I watched dance movies. Finally, I discovered hip-hop dancing. Out of all the dancing I've done, this one is the most expressive. I loved the class for the simple reason that it worked up a sweat. It was energetic and fun, and we had an amazing instructor. It also brought out another side of me.


In dancing, there's no place for being shy on the dance floor - you're forced to bring out your alter ego. It can be a darker alter ego, like the one Natalie Portman portrays in Black Swan, it can be a sexy alter ego - like the main character in Centre Stage, or it can simply be your own alter ego that's been hidden and is looking for a place to express itself.


The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie. - Agnes de Mille