Hi everyone!

If you don't already know me, I'm Melissa and I'm the founder of Pásshen. If you haven't already read my post about why I started Pásshen, in a nutshell, I went on a journey to better my health as well as how I was generally feeling about myself. Pásshen happened because along my journey, I shared my story with more people and found out that a lot of us are feeling really stressed and not in harmony.

In addition, while attempting to destress at the spa or at other salons, I felt MORE stressed out and I wasn't the only one. If you've been following my blog or Pásshen's blog, you would've read some of my more spectacular stories of how some merchants have tried their hard selling tactics on me. I know that I'm not the only one who have had similar experiences from the various reviews online as well as through the conversations that I have had with friends and colleagues.

Essentially, I saw a huge disparity between between what consumers want and what the industry is practising. Is this why spas are not doing well and their current business practices are doing them more harm than good?

When I started my business and with more interaction with spas and salons, I realised that many knew that there was a disparity but old habits die hard and many in the beauty industry are still stuck with practices that worked during the spa boom in the 1990s.

I believe that beauty and health should be hassle-free and I want to shake the industry a little by writing a book on how the beauty industry can create a sustainable model that customers will love. This is where I need YOUR help. I want to write a book that truly reflects what you consumers want. Hence, I have a short survey that would take approximately 5 minutes of your time and you can fill it in here.

If you'd like to read the summary and working contents of the book, you can read my book pitch here. I would really appreciate any help when it comes to linking me up with publishers. If you're interested to be informed about the book once it's published (or close to it), do help me fill up the survey and leave your email in the form so that I can keep you in the loop.

Thank you and I wish you guys safe journey to be the best of yourselves!

Wellness Coach Chong Su Lee with our Director, Melissa Fann

It's Day 2 of Pásshen's Beauty Week and the workshop was aptly named "Beauty Secrets From The Kitchen" where wellness coach, Chong Su Lee, from Look Good Feel Great Always shared 2 types of beauty secrets - food intake as well as skincare.

The event was held at Route 44, a nice quiet cafe at 44 Rochester Park, which also believes in healthy meals and drinks.

The audience was first introduced to the idea of eating for your lifestyle where you should eat more carbs if you're an athlete or reduce it if you're desk bound. Moreover, everyone is NOT consuming enough vegetables. Most people consume only 1 to 3 portions a day (1 portion is about 1 fist-sized) but the daily recommended intake is more like 5 to 6 portions. That's almost 2 portions per meal! Which is why Su Lee said that she fulfils 2 portions at breakfast by drinking vegetable and fruit juice every morning. We'll soon get to juicing later.

 
Su Lee tailored the salad buffet portioning based on the book "Fit Not Fat", which was written by 2 nutritionists. In the book, it clearly states the nutritional and caloric value of things that are often found in salads and not all salads are really healthy if there are lots of dressing or fatty proteins.

Mortar, pestle, cotton wool and some interesting ingredients

After the talk about ratio of vegetables, carbs and protein one should eat in one's diet, Su Lee then went on to talk about how certain items in our kitchen can also be used to improve our skin! With her mortar and pestle, Su Lee showed the attendees how to mash up pineapple and strawberry to make simple facial masks that can help with moisturising and pore cleansing. Some of the attendees were also brave to do an oat scrub on the spot! Attendees that day also took back a 'recipe book' of all these facial masks and scrubs so that they can recreate them at home!

The buffet spread in the midst of being set up

After the physical demo, the audience could finally tuck into the salad buffet spread but everyone was very mindful about portion sizing and choosing the right ratio of protein, carbs and vegetables/fruit in their plates or bowls, depending on whether they wanted to eat a wrap or a pure salad.

For 'dessert' we were all treated to yummy cold pressed juices from Daily Juice. What's cold pressed juice? Unlike conventional juicers, cold pressed juicer does not blend the fruit or vegetables. It literally uses force to squeeze the fruit or vegetables and thus, it preserves a lot more vitamins in the juice and yields more juice per gram of fruit. In addition, nuts can also be cold pressed to yield nut milk, a good substitute to dairy.

As a lot of nutritionists advise, it is preferred to drink your vegetables and eat your fruit. Why? Because fruits are high in sugar and drinking the juice alone without the fibre does you more harm but vegetables on the other hand, are full of vitamins and it is highly recommended to eat more portions but it is a lot of hard work to chew that much veggies. But veggie juice alone isn't that palatable, which is why Daily Juice has concocted several different types of delicious juices that are high in vitamins, antioxidants and minerals.

Pásshen Director, Melissa Fann, with Yunye who won a beauty pass through intheloop magazine

After the event, several attendees said that they'll definitely be more conscious about eating more veggies and drinking more water after listening to Su Lee's advice. All who attended really enjoyed the workshop and were looking forward to more such workshops! We hear ya and will definitely keep this in mind!

Was invited by TANGS to the Burberry Winter Glow 2014 Make-up Collection showcase. The event took place at Burberry's counter in TANGS, Orchard earlier this evening and it was meant to be a cocktail affair while Burberry's makeup artist showcased 2 looks using items from the latest Winter Collection. All attendees also received a $50 voucher (with minimum spending of $100) for use on that day itself.

The signature Burberry Trench Coat made its appearance as we were introduced to the day look with the subtle dewy look that's highlighted with subtle shimmer. The constant fact that was continually mentioned was that the Winter Glow collection is in a limited edition gold packaging. Ok, noted with thanks. I do like the gold packaging but the constant plugging of it was a little OTT. Although, she did mention that those who purchased any make-up items could get it engraved on that day, get an express manicure AND get their names written in calligraphy as a bookmark.

Anyway, the look above is known as "Fresh Glow" and the make-up artist was selling the base, which apparently can be used on top of foundation to refresh one's make-up! Now, that's interesting. It's also nice to see a natural glow as 'the look' for the season, which is contrasted with bright red nails. I guess it's about featuring one's features. Another make-up item that was talked about was the mascara that is apparently, very suitable for Asians because the tip is thin but still has a lot of hairs and this helps to coat every small lash and thus, making your eyes appear brighter. As it's waterproof and has a new formula, it will prevent our lashes from drooping in our humid weather.

Another thing from the Winter Glow collection is the fragrance "My Burberry" and I can only describe it as slightly floral and powdery without being overpowering. It's not too sweet so it's still refreshing but it is definitely more of a floral perk up rather than fruity. I don't mind getting this as my next scent.

The other door gift was 'The Book Of Gifts' which is really a catalogue of all the Burberry products. Definitely a source of Burberry lust after flipping through the pages. If you want to purchase this, you can do so from my Carousell page carousell.co/melfann.

With regards to the event, I felt that the venue was not the most conducive for the size of the crowd. All of us were huddled at one part and those at the 2nd or 3rd 'row' definitely wouldn't be able to see the make-up showcase properly. Also, as this was another 'come-see-then-buy' event, I felt that there should be a more Burberry staff to service all of us. I was quite interested in the base and the fragrance but simply due to the lack of service, I couldn't be bothered. In addition, the catering staff was almost non-existent. It seemed rather magical that some people had champagne flutes and I spied my keen eye on only 2 trays of canapes that were snapped up within 1 minute. Not very good when the event started at 7.30pm and all of us women were hungry. Yet one more reason for me to walk off with my door gift and hunt for a proper dinner.

Nonetheless, I am looking forward to going back to Burberry to look and see the make-up without the crowd. Too bad I wouldn't have the $50 discount :(

My bro just came back from Japan and I got souvenirs....yay!

I love love love the dist bunnies and dust balls from the anime 'My Neighbour Totoro' so I asked my bro to get me one. Yay! I FINALLY have one...alalalalala.

Now...for the really ( -_-;) souvenir. My bro decided to buy me this novel which, ironically, is a Japanese novel translated from the original novel named "When Marnie was Here" by Joan G. Robinson. To add, this is Part 2. I don't even read Chinese novels but he wants me to read a Japanese one? Hmmm....anyway, this novel is suddenly popular in Japan mainly because this is the last anime to be produced by Studio Ghibli.

This is a cookie that reminds me of sugee biscuits but it's made with chestnuts. Really delicious and too bad that there was only 2 small pieces in this small packet.

Tada...everyone's favourite Tokyo Banana! Despite the number of times I've been to Japan, this is the first time I'm eating this. I know, I know. There always seemed to be tastier snacks being sold. That said, I do like the caramel-ish banana custard inside the banana-shaped cake.

My bro bought this box of snacks for me specially because of the picture of the pig on the box and I'm born in the year of the pig. It's actually a boar and it's a box of chocolate banana snacks.

Aren't these porkers adorable?? They're sooo cute and they're called Inoshishi in Japanese, native to Hakone, where these snacks are from.

When I opened the box, this piece of paper was in my face and the message was "Please consume these snacks within 3 days of opening".

Aren't these snacks cutely packaged? There are the snouts as well as the 3 distinctive stripes of the Inoshishi.

They open up to be these super duper adorable boar snacks and when you bite into them...

It's a banana-flavoured paste in the middle that's wrapped in a chocolate cake. It's quite delicious and the banana flavour is as strong as the Tokyo Banana cake. However, it's a paste that's quite thick...almost like a bean paste. The cake does not have a strong chocolate taste though but overall, the snack was quite delicious.

Let me introduce you to Bella's (Mike Bellafiore) latest and 2nd book.  It's a little late, I know, but I'm dedicating this post to it and this is NOT an advertorial. Bella was in town in July for our iFest 2013 and I'm really thankful that he came down so willingly although he would've made more by staying in New York.  I consider Mike one of the best in the business and what makes me such a fan is because he has no airs, is humble and is such a nice person.  I've encountered so many sales traders, trading 'gurus' and other investment personalities and most of them are such divas (yes, they're all men too).

Loved the personal message that Mike wrote in my personal copy of 'The PlayBook'.  It was quite funny how Mike was semi-covering the message before handing me the book. :)

'The PlayBook' was a trip down memory lane for me because Mike was in Singapore for iFest 2012 where we held a course together.  There are so many snippets of his trip to Singapore in the book as well as all the 'Playbook' trades by his traders which were covered during the course!  This is really a good book for those who attended last year's course as well as for serious traders who learn by example.  These professional traders put in A LOT of hard work to earn the amounts that they do.  What sets them apart from the unsuccessful ones is simply - hard work and a whole lot of passion.

Blur me didn't realise that I was acknowledged in the book because I tend to skip the acknowledgement pages.  Oops.  But when I did find out, I was grinning from ear to ear and felt really touched.  Humbled even.  Also, a sense of accomplishment.  All the work done last year and this year felt validated while I managed to gain a very valuable friendship and mentor.  Mike will tell you how important it is to have coaches in one's life.  To me, a mentor is just that too! Someone who inspires you and imparts knowledge to you - whether he/she actually realises it.

I guess that is what both of Mike's books do.  Not just give you an insight into the lives and psychology of professional proprietary traders but also to mentor you, set you on the right trading path so that you can learn and be successful in your own right.  I sound like such a fangirl but it's true.

I find that a lot of coaches/mentors are saying the same things over and over again but a lot of people just don't get it.  However, I also read that it takes 90 days for a habit to break or form.  So, everybody, time to learn the lesson and put it to practice.  As Irene Ang said during the recent Passion Unleashed, the road of one's passion is often paved with a lot of failures before you reach success.  Don't give up.  I take all these little blessings in life as my fuel to get through all those trials in life. 

If you would like to purchase the book, you can go on over here to get 10% discount AND a trading bootcamp course for free (free delivery in Singapore).  Do feel free to mention that you read about the deal from my blog!

I was super excited to find out that I had won a pair of tickets to watch "Mortal Instruments - City of Bones" via HVN Entertainment (thanks guys!) so yesterday, I headed over to watch the screening with Siew Mai.

I have read the book (only this particular one) and was extra excited because Godfrey Gao and Jonathan Rhys Meyer are in the movie!!

For those who do not know about the books, you can read the wikipedia version here.  It may be a little confusing but at least you get a gist of the novels.

After watching the movie, I was rather disappointed.  Sure, the visuals were stunning but a beautiful set and wonderful visual effects cannot beat a seamless script.  The movie took too much liberty with the book and the end result was a choppy series of scenes that were disjointed.  Siew Mai has never read the books and she said that the movie did nothing to convince her to start reading them.  In fact, the opposite is true.

I do understand that it's necessary to shorten the book into a 2 hour film but there's where excellent scriptwriters show their prowess.  The cheesy lines and the jarring insertion of lines from the books really didn't help.  I was also a bit disappointed with Gao's portrayal of Magnus although Siew Mai thought that it was campy enough.  To be fair, I felt that Gao couldn't portray a better Magnus because of his lines in the party scene and not that he's a lousy actor.

I'm glad that I didn't pay good money to watch it but I have a feeling that I will pay to watch the sequel.  It's what fans of the books will do!