Valen’s Vanity Square

I’m one woman who doesn’t own many accessories. Most of the time I’m just wearing a necklace with a jade pendant (given by my late grandmother), my wedding ring, and a watch. Other accessories I keep in the box are just a bunch of cheap stuffs.

Anyway, I came across an article that gave a few suggestions on wearing accessories. I think the tips are practical, so I’m sharing them with you here.

• Try mixing and matching different accessories, but it’s important to choose those that best reflect your personality. Go for classic styles that are forever in style; avoid buying accessories with design that will go out of style next year.

• When trying to put two necklaces on yourself, remember to match big pendants with small ones, and long chains with short ones to keep things in balance.

• Let one accessory be the attention-grabbing point, rather than hanging too many all over. Earrings and necklace, for example, are worn near to each other. Unless you are wearing a pair of small earrings, one pretty necklace is enough to put you at the center of attention. Similarly, you only have to wear a very simple necklace if you already have a lovely brooch pinned on your blouse.

• When you are wearing a turtle neck top, don’t match it with a short necklace that appears just right at the bottom of the collar. Instead, wear a longer one that drops nicely on the chest.

• Basic mixing and matching of silver accessories are okay during the daytime. But if you need to attend an event at night, remember to keep an extra accessory in your handbag for a change of look in the evening.

Today’s facial was a good one, coz the beautician who did my massage - on face, neck, shoulder - applied really heavy pressure on her strokes, which is what I like.

Anyway, just a note about the Passion membership of Dermalogica. Apparently from May 2008 onwards the points accumulated from purchasing their products or services will no longer be used for redemption. Instead, for the amount spent every half year will be rewarded with a 5% rebate voucher. For example, if you spend RM500 from June to December, you will receive a RM25 worth of voucher to be used on services only.

The 5% discount on every product purchase remains the same.

I don’t know if there are any differences between diamonds and crystals. But I do know that the latter can look as dazzling and brilliant as the former. Moreover, crystals come in so many different colors, and thus can be used to create unlimited designs of elegant and magnificent jewelries and accessories.

I like what Swarovski did with a combination of blue and clear crystals, as in their Enjoy range of accessories, which are crafted using navette-cut Moonlight, White Opal Star Shine, Bermuda Blue and clear crystals. Just wearing any two of these will certainly make you the center of attention in a ball, even if you’re in your plainest white evening dress.

Enjoy Necklace, Enjoy Brooch

Enjoy Hair Clip, Enjoy Pierced Earrings

Enjoy Bracelet

Guys, if your girlfriend always complains about how she can’t hear you clear in the cell phone, it might be a practical idea to buy her cell phone amplifiers. BUT, you won’t really make a gal happy by buying her ‘practical’ phone accessories, duh.

Hey, if I need a cell phone hands free kit or amplifier, I can buy it myself, okay? I would rather you pamper me with pretty cell phone accessories from Coach.

Cosmetic mix lanyard
Make a statement, proclaim your love of makeup with these adorable, funky charms.

Spring mix lanyard
Butterful, flower and a Coach tag - the smell of fresh spring!

Leather loop with butterfly charm lanyard
Let the sleek leather loop and enamel butterfly charm reveal the playful and stylish side of you.

Strawberry charm lanyard
Are you as sweet as this whimsical strawberry enamel charm?

Breast Cancer Research Foundation heart charm lanyard
Be chic and do good, as 20% of the proceeds from each lanyard sale will go to the BCRF.

For more charms and lanyards, visit Coach’s website.

I’m not much of a hat collector. I have a couple of sport caps and a cloche hat (I call mine a fisherman’s hat :P) that looks almost like the one below, except that it is not from Helen Kaminski, of course.

Quinn from Helen Kaminski

My hats serve a functional purpose – that is to protect my head and hair, acting as a sun shade when I’m out walking under the hot sun. For some, hats are used to hide the lack of hair, hehe.

Actually, hat is the most noticeable fashion item anyone can wear. Matching the right hat with the outfit, you immediately grab attention. I personally always take more than two glances at gals who wear a smart looking cap (like those shown below), coupled with a pair of good jeans AND BOOTS. I think they just look totally handsome.

Cotton Mod Cap; Aperture by Goorin Brothers

Grifter by Goorin Brothers; Cotton Army Cadet Cap by Kangol

This is the style I really like!

Marcie by Christine A Moore

Of course, choosing a hat is not as easy as choosing a dull-colored grill cover for your charbroil grill, haha! You need to think about the style you want to portray, to which outfits it would match, the color, the prints… so many things to take into consideration! At the end of the day, you want to cover you head with a piece that makes you feel confident about the way you look and stand out charmingly amongst the rest (wearing a hat can somehow makes you look taller, too).

All hats are from HatsintheBelfry.

My birthday present from hubby this year is a women’s watch from SOLVIL. And speaking of watches, I realized that I have never ever bought a single watch for myself in my life so far!

When I was studying in school, my watches were given to me by my parents or aunt. Those were the cheap ones bought from one of the small watch shops or in the night market, haha! Although they’re nothing expensive nor carrying any labels, they were usable and worked for a long time before they went kaput.

During my university years, if i remembered correctly, I received three watches - two from my then boyfriend (now ex of course), and one from a friend from Hong Kong. The watch that my Hong Kong friend gave me is probably the cutest watch I’ve ever had so far. A huge blue watch with Doraemon in it, with its hand serving as the minute and second hands.

And then, came my hubby, who had also gave me three watches since we met until today.

• The first one was from 25 Hours, the first birthday present from him. Not using anymore…
• The second one from GUESS, half-paid half-redeemed, a birthday gift as well. Am still using it today but its strap is going to be a gone case soon…
• The third one - a watch from SOLVIL received just few days ago. Bought it from CityChain at Gurney Plaza.

Black and white floral design inside the watch, with ‘diamonds’ (how I wished they were real!) studded around on the edge. Suitable to wear to work, shopping, dinner and functions, all except to mamak stall. Hahaha! Original price was RM299, but there was a 30% discount offer so it ended up at around RM210.

I think I should stop relying on people to buy watches for me, hehe. So, I have decided that within this year, I’m gonna save enough money to buy myself a Baby-G watch, something like these:

Casio Baby-G G-ms series - (left) MSG-300C-7B2 (right) MSG-300D-4B

I like tough, rugged watch designs, such as these chronograph watches, for more casual occasions or outdoor activities. They look very alike, so I can’t figure out which is the one I saw in CityChain. The one I saw costs almost RM600. I hope I can buy it - with my own money - by the end of this year.

Actually, I think I should start ‘investing’ in timepieces, shouldn’t I? I just wonder how many watches I could afford to buy and manage to take care of in 10 years’ time…