My Singapore Eyebrow Guru

This post is for all those lovely ladies out there who have asked me about my Eyebrow Guru back in Singapore.

I've been going to her yearly since 1997. I followed her from the Annu Sui counter at Wisma Atria to Raffles City Underpass and now to Dhoby Gaut.

She may be a tad bit pricier than the millions of eyebrow grooming services on that tiny isle but I trust her with my brows. At one point, she was so busy just grooming brows that she had an assistant!

Her name is Anita and she can be found by following these directions:

Exit Dhoby Gaut MRT station
Take the first escalator to your right
Take the first right after the escalator (there is a Mr Bean at that corner where I often get a soyabean drink first!) and you will see a small arcade of shops.
Walk down the arcade until you see a hair salon on your left called Hair Folio.

She does everything from eyebrow shaping to enhancement to tinting to waxing to eyelash extension to perming to tinting to tattooing - whew!

Hair Folio
11 Orchard Road #B1-11
Dhoby Gaut Exchange
Singapore 238826
+65 6333 4323

Shu Uemera's Eyebrow Shaping Service

Even before I ventured into the world of maquillage, I knew that I had to get my eyebrows shaped to fit my face shape. Just like the correct frame can accentuate a picture, perfectly groomed eyebrows can transform your face dramatically.

My virgin brows were tamed by a fabulous lady called Anita in Singapore. I stumbled upon her whilst taking that choc-a-bloc Wisma Atria underpass. There she was manning the Anna Sui counter and there my unruly eyebrows were. It was fate that we met. A pairing in eyebrow heaven.

I thank the Eyebrow Gods that I found her first back in 1997 because she performed magic and has given me my fabulous underlying shape. No matter how long I let it outgrow, it always falls back to what she shaped it all those years ago.

Of course, I've had my pitfalls along the way. Even though I would have loved to see Anita every month, I now called Australia home and could only see my eyebrow guru yearly. The times I did get my eyebrows shaped (I was gobsmacked when I found out the Aussie women waxed theirs!), the Caucasian beauty therapists just didn't understand the delicate Asian features and gave me U-shaped eyebrows that suited their high brow bones which I lacked.

So I suffered silently behing the bathroom doors and plucking my own brows in a vain attempt to re-create Anita's look.

But suffer no more do I.

Thanks to the genius that is the international buyer of David Jones who finally came to her sense and brought Shu Uemura to town, I finally decided enough was enough. I hadn't managed to return to Singapore in almost 1.5 years and took the $60 plunge - I made the appointment.

VERDCIT: 10/10 Shu Uemura in David Jones offer what they call their Beauty Rituals. I had the wonderful opportunity to get my eyebrows groomed by their in-house makup artist called Mart. Shu Uemura only pluck with tweezers which in my opinion, is the best way as there is less irritation and less room for error as you are plucking hairs individually.

Mart not only balanced out my brows but also taught me how to use their cult hard formula eyebrow pencil. He did one brow and guided my hand whilst I did the other.

He also believes that each individual has to have their eyebrows sculpted to their unique face shape and said that my arch had to even out my squared jaw. The second he said that, I knew I had found my Aussie eyebrow god. I long suspected I had a square jaw which needed to be balanced and he has been the first one to point it out in a matter of minutes.

We gotta talking and discussed about Shu Uemura's surprise withdrawel from the US market and also about Madonna's makeup artist who is from Shu. Additionally, Mart went on to say that most of their clientele are Chinese girls (80-90%) which reassured me further that they specialised in our face shape.

Eyebrow Shaping
$60 booking fee, redeemable with purchase
Time : 20 minutes

Hard Formula Eyebrow Pencil Sharpening
Japanese naginata technique
Complimentary
Time: 15 minutes

Shu Uemura Makeup Artist : Mart Bara
03 - 9643 2203
David Jones Beauty Hall
Bourke St Mall
Bookings essential



These are my brows pre-Shu. Fortunately, I am blessed with thick brows but can you see how I've overplucked the brow on your right?



You get 2 hair clips, a Shu bib and a lot of attention from the ladies passing by :) One lady stopped to enquire if it was a complimentary service.




This is the other cult product from Shu Uemura (the first one being their eyelash curler and the other, their concealer) which is their hard formula eyebrow pencil. I still have mine from 1997!!!!!!!!!!! It is the oldest thing in my makup bag which I have lovingly dragged all over the globe with me. It is SO old, it still has it's original Japanese price tag on it which I see is 2000 Yen.

The reason why it is still with me till today is because I never knew how to use it properly and also because up till 2 years ago, Australia did not have a Shu Uemura counter that could sharpen it for me.

The pencil also only releases colour pigment when it interacts with the oils in the brow hairs which also explained why I could never draw with it on the skin side of my hand all those years!



Voila! Perfectly groomed eyebrows should look like sisters, not twins and frame and accentuate your face. Just like the black frame, framing my prized tea towel of old Melbourne tram signs behind me, it is now a work of art :)

MAC - Give Me Liberty of London Collection

Being a bit of an Anglophile myself, when I heard that MAC was going to be collaborating with the British luxury house Liberty, I was sold!

Liberty & Co. is a department store with the offshoot brand Liberty of London world renowned for their loud and exciting prints and textiles.

Liberty of London must be wanting a revival with the youth because not only did they collaborate with MAC, but they are also collaborating with Target in the US with gorgeous, affordable homewares from the luxury house. Needless to say, that collaboration will not be available in Australia unfortunately.

This collection was launched Australia wide almost 2 weeks ago now and from what I can see in the department stores, is still available unlike their famed Hello Kitty collection last year which sold out during the preview parties!!!

Here is the Australian MAC link to the collection but what I would advise is if you can wait, you may want to order it from Nordstrom's online shop (as they ship international) seeing that the Aussie dollar is almost on par with the greenback. Just pop into a MAC counter, play around with the colours and then go home to order it online. I would not order it from other non-reputable sites as the WWW is littered with fake maquillage, a regular sight I saw in Bangkok!

VERDICT: I was completely sold just by the packaging alone. A white background with bursts of colour does it to me everytime :) I would definitely advise checking it out.



I often just recycle the MAC boxes but for some reason, opted to keep these colourful boxes perhaps to be made into bookmarks in the future. Even the internal aspect of the boxes are printed with colourful flowers.

I also got their large makup bag (A$70) for no other reason other than that I loved the print.




From their makup line, I got the Summer Rose Beauty Powder (A$53), Blooming Lovely lipstick in the Amplified line ($41) and the Birds and Berries eyeshadow in a Veluxe Pearl finish ($37) which I see is already sold out on their online store.

If you aren't familiar with MAC, they offer different lines for their lippies and eyeshadows depending on how much pigmentation they offer and textural finish. The amplified lippies are known to have the most colour pay-off with the veluxe pearl eyeshadows offering the same.

Now, I have to be completely honest in that I only needed the eyeshadow as I do not own a gorgeous teal colour in my collection but the beauty powder was only bought for it's casing and ditto with the lippie! I am planning to de-pot my MAC blotting powder which is the same size into the beauty powder's case so that I get to lug around the gorgeous Liberty case when I am out and about.



Swatches from left to right in sunny rays: Blooming Lovely lipstick, Birds and Berries eyeshadow and Summer Rose beauty powder.

I hear that the Birds and Berries eyeshadow is also completly sold out in Singapore.



The Blooming Lovely lipstick is described as a "creamy, grey, lilac mauve" on their website. It's a really odd colour if you are not used to it and you may run away in shock and horror when you first put it on. But I do not own a colour like this (oh the beauty of starting out with just a humble maquillage collection!) and I have rather red skin undertones which I thought would be balanced out by the blue undertone in the lippie.

Here is my tip (and how I wore it for the picture above):
-Put a coat of lip balm on (amplified lippies are rather creamy heavy).
-Apply the lipstick only to the bottom lip with a heavy-ish hand and then smack your lips together to apply it to your top lip. By doing this, you get a more toned down colour.
-I've also popped a clear glass on top of it.



As you can see, the overall effect is an extremely subtle lovely, girly, pink face, perfect for a sunny afternoon.

Makeup Primer: NARS (non SPF)
Liquid Foundation: Chanel - Mat Lumiere
Pressed Powder : Chanel - Purete Mat (only available outside of Australia as it is part of their whitening line)
Eyeshadow: MAC - All That Glitters
Eyeliner: MAC - Technakohl in Graphblack
Mascara: Rimmel London - Glam Eyes
Eyebrows: Shu Uemura - pencil in Seal Brown
Cheeks: MAC beauty powder - Summer Rose (Give me LOL Collection)
Lips: MAC - Blooming Lovely (Give me LOL collection)
Lipgloss: Manicure - Sunday Morning clear lipgloss

Bonjour!

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This is a little superfluos blog on everything girly from maquillage, to red-soled heels, to interlocked C's to magical potions discovered by Japanese sake brewers.

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