When you wear sexy high heel shoes, your ass is automatically thrust out, as are your boobs. The effect is very seductive.

Then when you walk, the shoes force you into a sensual sashay, just so that you can keep your balance.

Marilyn Monroe would use that trick to play the sex kitten to the max. She would totter around in high heel shoes and deliberately alter them so that one heel is slightly higher than the other, giving her that vulnerable sashay that drove men wild.

Legs look amazing in high heel shoes.

legs in high heels

Ok, you feet may scream for mercy, but hey, it’s all worth it.

High heel galleries

It’s that LBD, or little black dress that can you can dress up for a cocktail, or throw on a tailored jacket for the office.

Why black?

It makes a girl feel sophisticated and confident.

It makes the wearer look several pounds slimmer. Now who wouldn’t want that.

Plus, black is basically a very sexy colour. It’s mysterious and edgy. Dangerous. Sexy.

Sexy black dresses at the start of Lanvin's Spring Summer 2012 show

A sexy black dress is perfect for that romantic dinner date.

Yet it’s a fail safe bet for that girls night out.

It’s a chameleon. The backbone of your outfit.

You can change your look with accessories, jackets, makeup the works.. to suit the occasion.

A girl can never have too many black dresses.

Black dresses from Valentino's Spring Summer 2012 collection

Long or short.

Black is elegant, sexy, slimming, and goes with everything!

Maybelline false lashes waterproof mascara

It went on like a dream. Clump free. Easily. I didn’t have to worry about separating my lashes with another brush. The resulting effect was obvious. Lashes really looked longer and fuller.

Hours later, I cried. Uh oh. Runny mascara?

I checked. Not a smudge. My mascara was totally intact. Loved it.

Best finishing touch?
It came off easily with eye makeup remover meant for waterproof mascara.

Natalie Portman in Nina's transformation into the black swan

What is beauty?

There’s the delicate beauty, soft and innocent. An ethereal beauty you might associate with a beautiful princess, or fair maiden.

Then there’s a darker beauty. That of the seductress.

Sweet and beautiful Natalie Portman played both in Black Swan.

The black swan movie was released in 2010.  Natalie portman, as Nina Sayers was captivating, to say the least.

To start with, here’s the black swan trailer.

The story behind the dance is simple. White swan is a princess trapped in a swan’s body. The only way to free her, was true love. That, she found in her prince. But her evil twin, the black swan, seduces her prince. Heartbroken, the white swan falls to her death.

Talented ballerina, Nina, was a young innocent beauty who was perfect as the white swan princess.  Delicate. Fragile. But as the company’s director, Thomas Leroy put it bluntly, frigid. That stood in her way of playing the seductive black swan.

Nina dolled up to persuade Thomas otherwise, and landed the much coveted role.  Enter Lily, her very talented and seductive rival who would stop at nothing to play the black swan.

Mysterious wounds began appearing on Nina’s body.

The tragedy of Beth and her insanity.

Seduction by the director Thomas and her alternate, Lily.

These slowly drive Nina insane as she morphs from the White Swan, to the deeply disturbed Black Swan. Her performance was mesmerizing.

Here’s a black swan scene where Nina transforms into the black swan.

Natalie Portman is amazingly talented. She danced when she was young, but trained with her ballet teacher for a full year for this role, which she played brilliantly.

I absolutely loved this dance scene from the black swan.

New year, new look.

I wanted to give my drab, stringy, out of control hair a new lease if life without chopping it off.

The few strands of white hair that sprouted up recently gave me a good excuse to dye my hair. My naturally jet black hair is stark and rather harsh. I wanted a softer look.

Would I look better as a blonde or a red head.

Red was tempting. But while vibrant red looks great on one with youthful, firm skin, it can be harsh and aging on anyone with any signs of aging. It draws attention to either firm skin and youthful eyes.. Or skin that is slackening, drawing attention to lines around the eyes. Plus that is not the colour for an introvert.

Pale colours soften harsh lines on the face. White hair mercifully softens the look of wrinkles that accumulate as one gets older. Should I go blonde?

Then again blonde hair with my very black eye brows would look weird. I didn’t fancy dyed eyebrows either.

I went for a dark brown several shades lighter than my natural hair colour. That was my natural hair colour as a little girl.

If you want to give your hair a lift, go through your childhood photos and dye your hair in your childhood hair colour. For example, if you were blonde as a kid but your hair darkened to brown, try going back to that shade of blonde you once had. It could well take years off your appearance.

I chose my colour.

My stylist trimmed off the split ends, layered my hair while keeping the length.

She then applied bleach on my hair to strip off the natural black. Heat was used to speed the process. Then went on my chosen colour. Again, that device went over my head as I waited patiently for the colour to set.

Finally the shampoo boy washed my hair. My stylist dried and styled my hair, layering it for the best effect while keeping it’s length.

You know what?

I loved it!

loreal revitalift firming cream

It acts within the skin to boost the production of the skin’s natural lifters:

• Perlecan
• Integrin
• Collagen I
• Collagen II
• Collagen III
• Fibrillin
• Chondrotin Sulfate

These are marker’s of skin’s regeneration and youth.

This helps tighten skin and replump it from within.

This contains Pro-Retinol A which thickens the skin and actually treats acne.
I was a little worried when I tested this on my acne prone skin. I already have an acne outbreak, that is somewhat under control in spite of the glaring pimples.
Guess what, after applying this nightly, my skin is clearing. Considering antiageing products usually give me a nasty acne breakout, this is a wonderful surprise.
The “culprit”? Pro-Retinol A.Retinol was prescribed by my doctor to get rid of pimples during my younger days. Retinol is a primary ingredient in Pro-retinol A, hence the antiageing effect is complemented by the skin clearing effect.
Verdict: Thumbs up!

Let’s face it. As we get older, skin loses it’s firmness and eventually, lines and wrinkles appear. Compare the photos of a person over the decades and the effects of aging are obvious.

What we can do is to preserve our skin’s elasticity, it’s youth for as long as possible through preventive measures.

It is biological. In the genes. The pursuit of the fountain of youth led loreal into genetic research, which resulted in youth code.

The latest in that range is a youth code serum or pre essence you apply on your skin after cleansing before the rest of your regular skin care regime, twice daily.

What it does is to act on the recovery gene so that skin recovers as fast as it did when young.

It also amplifies the effect of your other skin care products by helping the skin to use the active ingredients more effectively.

There is a glass dropper in the bottle to dispense the serum you need, drop by precious drop. On my oily skin that has rejected almost all the anti aging I have tried so far, I dared only use 1 drop initially, to see if my skin reacts adversely to it.

I chanced upon this in a pharmacy where I was looking for the only foundation my acne prone skin could take. The sales girl was persistent. I know youth code is good. While most of my peers have started on antaging skin care decades ago (yes I am that old) I am still using acne skin care to deal with the pimples I never completely out grew.

I have tried antiaging creams, lotions, serums and essences from brands if all sorts, from the ultra expensive to the drugstore versions but each time, my skin breaks out in pimples because of the richness in anti aging skincare products. It has been ages since my last attempt.

The sales girl was 18 years old with not a pimple in sight. She uses youth code essence. That kind of assured me.

If a teenager could use it, surely it can’t be too rich for my skin. Also, I tolerate serums better than the other products.

I bought a bottle and have been using it sparingly these few days. So far so good. I will use more than 1-2 drops tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes.

<h3>One week later</h3>

I love this.

Now, I use it generously on my face and my entire body.

My tummy, with loose skin from childbirth, weight gain and loss needs firming more than my face. My thighs too have lines or stretchmarks.

My routine is after my morning and night showers, I apply a few drops of youth code pre essence on my face, neck, shoulders, legs, arms, belly.. entire body.

I put Loreal Revitalift on face and body over the pre essence.

The amazing thing is that my facial skin is clearing.

The pimples are disappearing.

I think it is because the antiageing cream has

pro-retinol to strengthen the skin. This ingredient is also used to fight acne and guess what, it works!

Red roses delight the senses in this Ferre rose perfume

Ferre rose is a feminine rose scent that is light and a tad fruity.I brought it with me on my vacation.

The scent is light and soothing. Great for day through night. Neither cloying nor overpowering, it is a fragrance to be worn anywhere, anytime.

When bored, I’d put a drop on my wrist and delight in the delicate scent.

Kate Upton shows us just how bikinis are meant to be worn.

Kate Upton looks hot for Sobe Summer 2011

Check out her bright orange bikini set off with gold bangles.

Classic, hot Kate Upton that can turn any guy to jello.

To be honest, my regular makeup isn’t travel friendly. I use a full set of long handled makeup brushes, 2 eyeshadow quartets, 2 single blisters and a few tubes of lipstick. Add on mascara, pencil liner and liquid eyeliner and lip gloss.. That’s a lot to lug around.

That trip was a great excuse for me to get a full makeup kit.

Full makeup kit from Korea

I stumbled onto this in a small makeup shop. This reasonably priced makeup kit from Korea had it all.

A myriad of eyeshadow colours, tiny lipstick palettes and cheek color. A mini mascara and even foundation powder. All in one neat, compact packaging that’s perfect for travel.

My only grouse?

Those tiny little brushes made makeup application a lot truckier.

So I bought retractable travel makeup brushes to go with it.

Verdict. I had a blast with my new makeup kit