In “Luxe Living in Shanghai for Less than 200RMB: Part I”, we covered pampering via food, drink, shopping, and nightlife.  In this installment, we’ll delve into health, hobbies, and more shopping!

Shanghai  Luxury #5: Massage

In most western countries, “getting a massage” conjures up images of upscale spas and pampering.  In China, the same phrase can evoke associations with pink lights and unsavory offerings of “full service”.  Seeking a luxurious yet distinctly Shanghainese experience, I arrived at Sugar and Spice on Jiaozhou Lu in Jing’an for a traditional Chinese massage.  The pleasant and demure service, soft music, and candles guiding me up the stairs promised a perfect way to relax after my high end “shopping” and libations the day before.  I wasn’t disappointed; the soothing atmosphere provided an excellent backdrop for the skilled masseuses to pressure-point away my aches.  I left wondering how anyone lives without regular massages.

With all of the challenges that living in Shanghai poses - pollution, extreme weather, constant noise – it can be tough to keep rocking those good looks of yours.  What’s a beauty like you to do when you can’t read the bottles at Watson’s, and don’t have your favorite products from home?  Luckily, there are easy ways to look like a million RMB that don’t require any sinister “whitening potions”, and will leave you with enough money to go out and flaunt your awesome looks.

Bummer #1: Dull, flat hair

All of the minerals in Shanghai’s water can cause hair to look lackluster and limp, and can be a particularly vexing problem for blondes.

Solution: Vinegar isn’t just for dumplings and chips – it’s for hair, too!  Mix four parts vinegar to six parts water.  There should be enough of this mixture to coat your hair.  After shampooing, pour the mixture over your head, massage it into your scalp, and let it sit for a few minutes.  Rinse it out, and condition if desired (you can shampoo again if you’re worried about smelling like a salad).  This helps remove minerals and product build-up, making your hair bouncier and shinier.

Product: Shanghai White Vinegar, 2.80RMB for 500ml, Lianhua

You gotta admit, it’s pretty damn hot these days, and there’s nothing worse than spending time on your makeup only to have it melt on you the moment you step outside. So here’s a few tips I’ve been using that will sure keep you looking like a sun-kissed goddess with minimal effort:

1. Take the time to prime

Primers are great because it helps take the shine away from your face, smooth fine lines while acting as a silicone layer between your skin and your makeup. My favourite find has been the MAC Prep + Prime which also comes in an SPF version.

2. Lessen the load

Rather than going for a heavy coverage foundation, opt for oil-free or water-based products that will feel lighter on the skin. Try Laura Mercier’s tinted moisturizer or Max Factor’s Liquid Touch Illuminating Liquid foundation, which make you feel like you’re not wearing any makeup at all. 

Summer is a long awaited season for most of us, but this is also the season which can bring the most damage and for skin and cause “photo-aging” later in result. The damage is caused by several “burdens” for skin in summer - strong heat, dryness, dust, excessive sweat clogging the pores, air conditioners. So to protect and care for skin in summer, the seasonal regimen needs to be focused on 3 main actions: Gentle Cleansing, Hydration and Protection.

Cleansing

Cleansing skin should be very very thorough in summer, as the grease and oils combined with dust can form an invisible, yet thick layer on skin. In summer we absolutely have to avoid harsh scrubbing, peeling or whitening procedures. These would overexpose and make skin and pores vulnerable to heat, sweat, dust and might cause a major skin breakouts and acne.Gentle, cleansing scrubs (the best is natural solution such as crushed almond or apricot kernel seeds, crushed flax seeds, crushed walnuts with some nourishing oils) once a week is fine. Also herbal or green tea steam for face is very beneficial.

Welcome to my world: the world of fashion and make up.  For as long as I could remember as soon as a new issue of Vogue, Allure, Instyle, Bazzar or Elle would be on the stands, I would buy every issue and just study the models’ faces, and wonder how they would do that specific smoky eye or the classic 1920s look. So ten years ago, I took up a make up course and realized that it wasn’t as difficult as it seemed.So when I was asked to write monthly fashion and make up blogs giving tips on how to apply make up and what products to use, I couldn’t be more enthusiastic!Today’s blog is about foundation and its misconceptions.Having spoken to many friends and random chicks I’ve been meeting lately, I’ve realized that many of you don’t use foundation. Now this is really interesting to me (and perhaps to many other makeup artists) because foundation is a fundamental step to applying make up. And when you find the right one that suits your skin type and tone, it should feel as though you’re not wearing any make up at all.

During the summer, there is one general rule that I always stick to…less is more!  That rule applies to both cosmetic and skin care application.

The most appealing summer look is a rejuvenating, fresh, natural and discreet makeup. Summer makeup should not be heavy and is mostly aimed at protecting the skin from exposure to sun rays, avoid excessive sweating, cut out the oily shine and prevent clogging of skin pores that often result in acnes and pimples. Put aside the thought of a thick foundation and running mascara, and try out a few tips given below for a ‘fresh as a daisy’ look.

1. In hot humid weather avoid makeup products that come in a cream consistency. Cream will melt. Avoid cream face makeup, cream eyeshadows, cream blushes and even lipsticks. Instead opt for powders, balms and gels, such as powder eyeshadows and powder blushes, lip balms and stains, and gel cheek blushes. Also avoid makeup products that are glittery or very shimmery. Shimmer reflects light, ideally in strategic areas, but in hot weather, shimmer will simply just look oily.

Summer is about baring skin and showing off the beautiful (fake) summer tan you have. But in order to look good baring that skin, you need to take some time to ready your skin and reverse the signs of neglect you showed your skin during fall, winter and spring.

Knock of each step on my skin care tips for glowing skin and you'll be ready to pull out your favorite summer dress or bikini in no time flat. Most of the products mentioned in the article I buy from the well-known beauty online store strawberrynet.com, which I also recomment to you.

So here goes my ultimate list of 10 skin care tips for glowing skin in summer:

I am one of those people who is very protective of her hair.  When I say that I mean the cut, colour, the hairdresser I use, etc.  You could probably go so far as to call me slightly obsessive (only slightly, okay maybe no slightly!).  If I could I would pay for my hairdresser in Australia to come to China every 6-8 weeks to do my hair, but the budget really doesn’t cover that!

When I arrived in China 3.5 years ago I was Blonde!  Yes I know hard to believe with my current colour hair…  I attempted to go to a few different places to get this kept up, but I was originally living  Guangzhou and they are lacking good, western hairdressers who have a good supply of Blonde colours.  So Brunette I went and I love it!

In my attempt to find a hairdresser that I could trust in Shanghai I did the usual technique of asking as many women as I know who they go to and who they think are good.  At first I thought the only way I would get a good result was to pay through the roof for it…  I went to one of the famous places in the French Concession and was not only left with an empty wallet, but was really disappointed with both the cut and the colour.  I had got into the habit of leaving my hair for a very long time in between visits, because I really didn’t want to pay for what they did.  I also would try to wait for the last part of the year so that when I went back to Australia for my yearly trip I could get it fixed there!

I think it would be pretty fair to say that most of us have something about our bodies that we don’t like.  Perhaps we think our bottom is too round or too flat, our boobs too big or too small.  When it comes to dressing, it is not your size that is important, it is your shape.  By knowing what your shape is and how to dress it, you can flaunt the bits that you love and hide the bits you don’t.  Summer is coming and we all want to look our best and so many of us are hitting the gyms or trying a new diet.  The thing to remember is, even when we loose weight our body shape stays the same, it will just be a slimmer version of our former selves.  Our body shape depends on what our mamas and papas gave us in our genes and so no amount of dieting or exercising will reward you with an hourglass figure if you didn’t have one before.Although all of us have a slightly different and unique body shape they can still be broken down into 5 main groups. These are, the hourglass, pear or triangle, inverted triangle, round (apple) and rectangle.  Each group also has a slender or fuller category, for example you could be a slender hourglass or a fuller hourglass.

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As children, we loved escaping down the long rabbit hole of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and falling into a whimsical fairytale full of possibilities. And as adults, we are still in love with the peculiar characters that overtake our dreams.Today Tim Burton's 3-D film Alice in Wonderland hits Shanghai cinemas. One thing about the movie that everyone is talking about is the fashion. Last weekend, I saw a sneak peek of the new Alice in Wonderland and I loved it! Especially the cool fashion and outrageous makeup. Thanks to Tim Burton Alice mania is in full force.  Today I want to bring  you Alice-inspired jewelry and beauty products. in my next post I will cover some Alice like fashion trends.Movie-related merchandise is usually more scary than stylish, but Disney has upped the ante by asking the jeweler Tom Binns to create special designs inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Each one is based on an event or character, including the Mad Hatter (played by Johnny Depp), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and Binns’s favorite, the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter).

Okay ladies as most of you know Shanghai is or can be the land of “Happy Endings” for men who choose to go out looking for this…  “Ni Hao, zhe ge anmo shang dian shi xiao jie de shang dian ma?”  A few simple words the single men of this city need to ask and off they go to a “happy” place, but what about the women?  Being the type of person who lives to please the members of the Shanghai Dolls I have done some research and found somewhere that offers this service!  Yes Shanghai has a happy ending massage for women too!

So the story goes (or so I have heard, cough, cough)…  There is a guy in Shanghai who is now offering this service to the women in the city who are looking for a bit more than their trusty rabbit has been offering.  You will get a two-hour massage and then at the end he will ask you to turn over and he works his magic fingers until you are screaming away with pleasure.

The whole process is very professional and not embarrassing as you may think.  After the massage when you may be feeling a little vulnerable, because you start to realize that you just let a stranger take you places you never imagined he will let you know that he is going off to get some towels to clean off the oil from the massage and give you five minutes to recompose yourself.  After he comes back he gives you a nice facial massage, wipes off the oil and finishes the session by even walking you to the cab!

There are so many “off the shelf” detox kits these days that it makes it hard to know what to choose from!  I should go back a few paces first – Detox?  What is a detox, well it is a way to rid your body of excess toxins that we may be carrying from all the processed food that we eat and drink and antibiotics that we take.  There are different schools of thought on doing a detox for your body with one being that the whole thing is a way for companies to make money and if you just ate what you were supposed to, i.e. a healthy diet, then you should be fine and would never need to do a detox.  The other school of thought is that there are great benefits from doing this one or twice a year and it is a fantastic thing that you can do for your overall health.

I am not going to argue one side or the other if you want to get an abundance of information about both arguments you can just look it up on Google.  I just wanted to give you first-hand information on what actually happens when you do one of these, because I have just starting one!  In the end I opted for the 21-day Internal Cleansing Kit from Blessed Herbs for two reasons, one being that there were loads of raving reviews about it on the market and that they don’t only do one part of the body they do it all!  Actually, come to think of it there are three reasons with the third being that when you purchase the 21-day detox kit you get the 5-day colon cleanse detox for free!

A new place has opened in Shanghai that knows all there is to know about women’s eyes and eyebrows.  They do treading, waxing, eyelash curling, eyelash extensions, eyelash tinting and any other waxing that you need to get done to your face.

I thought I would take one for the team and go and try them out, so then I could tell the Dolls how good or bad they are.  Well I was lucky that they turned out to be good and I was very happy with the results.  One of the good things about this place at the moment is that they are new so you don’t need to worry about getting an appointment, which is the reason why my eyebrows were slowly taking over my face!  I tried various times to get appointments at some of the other reputable places around town and they are always booked out or never get back to me. 

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If you wear a hat to keep warm this winter, you're most likely going to suffer from hat hair. What exactly is hat hair? It's kindly defined as hair that takes on the shape of a hat. But to us it's more like a flat, matted, staticky mess, which makes us question why we even bother styling it in the first place. Well, don't hang up your hat just yet. There are a few steps you can take to make it through the winter with great-looking hair (post hat removal, of course). From a dryer sheet to a spray bottle of water, read on for some hair (un) raising tips.

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An oasis in the middle of a crazy city…  If you have been living in Shanghai for any length of time you will have come to realise that there are some things this city has to offer that other cities in the world pale in comparison with!  Everybody knows that when you live in Shanghai you should have a regular massage routine, “well how can you not, with the cheap prices and massage places on every corner of the city”!

I have found, what I think is, one of the best massage places in town!  It has it all: it is cheap, it is clean, they are great at what they do and it is open until 2am!  This place has the prices of a cheap seedy massage joint, but with none of the cheapness involved!

When you step into Yu Massage through their very discreet entry you will be greeted with a simple oriental rustic interior.  You will then be lead out to the 12 treatment rooms in the back of the property through a quaint garden.  Yu Massage offers popular treatments that cover you from head to toe and won’t break the budget.  Last time I went there I had an hour foot massage then an hour Chinese massage for 148rmb total.  They have oil massages, traditional Chinese massage, foot massage and many other options.

After moving to Shanghai I noticed a huge difference to my skin and hair, and unfortunately that difference wasn’t a good one!  I am sure most of you have suffered from dry skin and lifeless hair after having a shower in the metal-filled / chlorine soaked Shanghai water…  For almost two years I have been using a ShowerBaby in my bathroom and it makes a big difference!  My skin is nowhere near as dry and my hair is actually shiny!  The ShowerBaby removes over 90% of the chlorine and heavy metals out of your water, which in the end helps your skin to stay nice.

The company that sells these also sells other products that can be used in your kitchen or when you are washing your clothes.  They can also test your apartment water to let you know what scary things are lurking within.  They were the most highly recommended company when I started doing some research about options to help improve my health in this city.

I found a facial place that is really good and definitely worth a visit! They do extraction (not many places in Shanghai do that) and they also can do things like Microdermabrasion. They have treatments for both men and women. This is a new spa and is a totally different concept to your normal Spa’s - the design is very modern and it has different functions like being able to listen to your own music while receiving a treatment, etc. They have very good deals on at the moment, because of being new. Their memberships also have another great benefit, which I haven’t found at any other places in Shanghai and that is that you can go in with one or two friends instead of having to pay for the whole thing yourself!

With a membership Connie said facials will range from 140 – 400rmb and massages start from 75rmb! Definitely not a bad deal for a western style Spa in Shanghai.