Lockdown-Friendly Personal Styling

Hi lovely people!

I’m excited to share with you about a personalised and convenient way to upgrade your wardrobe for casual or formal occasions.

I used to be quite a shopaholic, so I know how much time, effort, and money we usually use up when we go on a shopping spree.  At the end of the day, it always felt satisfying!

Now I don’t shop much anymore because of other commitments I need to prioritise, which is why I feel like it was heaven-sent when I came across Ellegra, a personal styling and shopping service offered in Peninsular Malaysia.

With Ellegra, customers are asked to answer a style quiz on Ellegra website noting several information about their wardrobe preferences, must-haves, dislikes, wishlists, budget range, and general body measurements.  After the quiz has been completed, customers are required to fill up their delivery and payment details (Only a small styling fee to be paid at this point), then wait for a designated stylist to pick five clothing items based on the feedback from the style quiz.

Once the stylist has gathered the clothing items and prepared a sheet containing ideas on what to match the items with, the items will be packed and delivered to the customer’s address.  After the delivery, the customer can try out every item and decide to keep or return some or all of them.  A prepaid return label is enclosed in the delivered package to make it easier for the customer to pack and drop off the returned items at the nearest collection point (CollectCo or NinjaVan).  

Within three days, the customer should log in on the website to do checkout by specifying which item to keep (and pay for) and which to return.  Comments can also be added so that the stylist knows why the customer likes or dislikes a particular item.  If the customer decides to keep all five items, a discount of 20% off the Style Box’s value is applicable.  

(P/S - My first Style Box is valued at RM 431.90 in total, but after the discount and styling fee deduction, I would only need to pay RM 315.52 for five new clothes from five different stores.)

Customers have the option to set scheduled Style Box delivery or log in the website the next time they want to shop for more clothes.

This service is currently available in Peninsular Malaysia only, so I am a bit sad that my homies in East Malaysia aren’t able to enjoy this just yet.  Cross our fingers so that they expand their business to the whole of Malaysia sooner or later.  Ellegra is planning to extend this service to male customers as well, so look out for that.

To those interested to try this service, be my guest and get 50% off your styling fee (worth RM 50) for your first Style Box.⠀

Click on www.ellegra.com.my?refer=643116574⠀

Let’s dress for success!

Paying It Forward

Hi everyone!

How are you today?

I hope you have been getting some rest to recharge for a new week.

If you don’t mind, I would like to share a little bit about paying it forward.

To put it in its simplest form, paying it forward refers to doing a good deed to someone for a kindness that someone else has done (or will do) to you.  It’s about giving back to the community or those in need.

After I was hired for my current permanent job in 2014, I made it my personal goal to pay it forward in a manner close to my heart.

I have always been passionate about defending children’s rights, especially their rights in receiving education in addition to basic daily necessities.  Children are our future and are worth the investment of our time, energy, and money.  And so, I found out about child sponsorship through  World Vision Malaysia.

Contributions through World Vision are pooled in a shared fund to be used in long-term development programmes targeted towards a specific community’s well-being and livelihood.  

The development programmes focus on the following:

- Clean water and sanitation 

- Healthcare

- Food and agriculture 

- Education 

- Economic development 

My monthly contributions to World Vision Malaysia are currently used for the below projects:

- Education fund

- Child sponsor (John Rhey, Philippines)

- Child sponsor (Thi Luu, Vietnam)

- Child sponsor (Tanos Abbas, Lebanon)

As a child sponsor, I receive annual reports on how my children and their community are doing.  I also receive letters and cards (and beautiful drawings!) from my children.

Hearing about how my children are progressing and what they aspire to become gives me pure joy and confidence that we are getting ready for the future no matter where we are.

In addition to child sponsorship through World Vision, I am also a supporter of other non-profit organisations such as UNICEF, WWF, NKF, and SPCA.

How about you?

How do you prefer to pay it forward? 💜

Beauty Pageant: Yay or Nay

How’s 2021 treating you so far?

I hope your drive to get through this new year is as high as it can be.  Great things will happen, and let’s claim that!

I was browsing through my photo gallery to archive older photos.  As I was mindlessly doing that, I paused at the sight of a few photos taken over 4 years ago.  Those were the photos from a beauty pageant that I took part in years ago.

I wonder how my pageant sisters and moms are doing now.  I hope they’re all having the best life they can get, each excelling in her own niche.

If you asked me today, whether or not I would join another pageant if given the opportunity, I would say no.  The main reason would be because at the age and career stage that I’m in right now, I don’t think it’s a good idea to embark into a commitment as significant as a pageant.  

Yes!  It is a commitment.  And yes!  It has its significance and contributions to the community.

Having said that, I would like to take this opportunity to emphasise that a beauty pageant deserves more respect and attention than most of you are giving it.  Some people tend to look down on pageant participants and supporters, which I personally think is unfair and needs to stop.  I can’t completely blame anyone for this, though, since I know this is mainly contributed by the lack of proper exposure on the process and behind-the-scenes of a pageant event.  A pageant is far more than just the grand finale evening where the finalists present themselves on stage in pretty dresses and perky performances.  

These are the basic activities of a pageant event before the grand finale (known as coronation night):

- Interview or introductory video submission 

- Selection of quarter final or semi final participants 

- Trainings and classes for semi-finalists

- Semi final event

- Selection of finalists

- More trainings and classes for finalists 

- Grooming and photoshoot sessions

- Social visits to selected charity or business institutions 

- Preliminary rounds for grand finale (ie. Talents section; Sports section; Community section; etc.)

After all of those activities (and maybe more for some pageants), comes the grand finale, where the finalists give their final shot at showing the judges and audience why they are the best among the best.  

Every wise person should know that a pageant queen is more than just a pretty face.  More than her outward appearance, a good pageant queen is also smart.  She is brave and kind.  She takes care of others as much as she takes care of herself.  Most of all, she wants a better world for everyone.  

That is not an easy responsibility to carry, but through the pageant title that is granted to the winners, along with the trainings and experiences given to the finalists, each of them can make a positive change within their community little by little.  Like a ripple effect, these collective small changes will grow bigger and spread to the rest of the world.

THAT is the true purpose of a pageant.  I wish more people would recognise that and provide more support to such notion.  

Stay safe!