Listen to S and you'll definitely have good skin

S is one of those celebs you want to listen to when it comes to taking care of your skin. There are loads of female artistes who try to cash in on their looks by attempting to teach gullible females how to save and improve their skin. Most of this are super blah to read and full of the superficial shit you can find in any female mag on the racks.

S is different because she's a fanatic and she has no qualms about telling you all her scary ways and methods and about the extra lengths she will go to to beautify herself. She spends a lot of money on beauty products and cosmetic procedures (those not requiring going under the knife) on top of her freebies, so she has a certain amount of authority as a consumer expert.

Read her 2 beauty books and you'll find a lot of insights and personal experience and more importantly, you'll actually find the motivation to do some of what she says. Because when she believes that something works, she really cuts to the chase and tells you why.

She did get into some shit with her first book, because of some of the unorthodox methods she talked about. Like using Salon Pas medicated plasters on occasional zits. I'm not really sure what happened exactly, but it was one of the those things that triggered a whole host of reactions from experts to random girls who tried it only to irritate their skin.

To her credit, she was apologetic about it but she did stress that it is an unorthodox method that works for her, her sister and her friends. And she said she won't dare to give people such ideas again. Which is a shame because some of the best beauty ideas out there are unorthodox.

To me, I was irate and thinking, stupid girls. It's common sense, isn't it? You have to take off the plaster after a few hours, it is not for acne cases, if it feels weird you should remove it immediately, everyone's skin differs and reacts differently to different substances, so on and so forth.

Rant over. I can be unforgiving when it comes to stupid people.

Anyhow, I grabbed the latest Queen magazine because it's S on the covers and she doles out 15 of her personal tips in the feature.

Here's some:

1. Keep reapplying sunscreen, especially in the summer (which we have, all year freaking round). Even if it's over makeup. Use a lightweight formula and look for one that says it's good for reapplication over makeup. Squeeze an adequate amount over fingers or hands, spread evenly, then lightly pat over face before powdering over again.

I try my darndest not to be lazy about sun protection. I've gotten used to wearing and removing sunscreen daily. Shall now work on getting used to reapplication.

2. Good whitening and hydration products will give you results overnight.

According to S, after trying so many products, only those that are immediately effective are worth using again. For items like sheet masks, it is needless to say that as intensive treatments, your skin should immediately improve. If it doesn't give you instant results the first time, it's not going to the second time as well.

When it comes to application products, night use should result in more radiant skin the next morning. It's normal for the improved skin to go back to its duller self by afternoon but at the very least, you should feel encouraged in the morning. Use such a product over time and you'll see significant improvement after approximately four weeks.

3. Expensive, luxurious, rare ingredients does not equal effectiveness. S has not much love towards the recent trend of using gold in skincare, for instance. But there are expensive products that deliver. She has been using an ampoule skincare product that costs NT 75,000 (around $3,000 plus?) and it has worked pretty well to improve skin quality and evenness.

4. For anti-ageing, pick a European brand. For hydration and whitening, head for the Japs. Generally, she finds that older women prefer European while younger girls go for Jap. Her theory is that Europeans are not as concerned with whitening as Asians but they age faster, so their products tend to be more revolutionary when it comes to fighting wrinkles and ageing. But she suggests that it has less to do with age than skin requirements. If you're young but facing problems with lines, you should be heading towards anti-ageing.

This is quite a generic, simplified explanation I'm guessing S and the writer summarised for easy understanding. But it does ring true. I will always head to Shiseido, Kose, Kanebo and various Jap products for whitening and think more of Chanel and Sisley for combating age. When it comes to hydration, I still do favour Chanel, Clarins and Dior Hydraction though.

5. Use a combination of off-the-shelves and departmental store brands. S' rule is to get application products from the counter brands and sheet masks from off-the-shelves. Simply because she uses up to 4(!) sheet masks daily and it is more economical that way. Not that she can't afford it but in her opinion, off-shelves sheet masks do not very differ from counter brands in terms of efficacy but the price diff is humongous. Using affordable sheet masks daily will give you better results than an expensive one once or twice a week. When it comes to application products though, nothing off-the-shelf has ever got her raving.

Personally, I totally agree about this one. I've tried tonnes of sheet masks and while I have both expensive and affordable favourites, it's just not worth paying approx $20 a sheet. I adore SK-II and Lancome whitening sheet masks but five Kanebo sheet masks from Sasa only costs me 17 bucks and using it daily does give more superior results and is easier on the wallet.

Friend did mention the other day while getting an expensive moisturiser that it is cheaper to spend more on a good moisturiser than to mask everyday, even at $3-5 a sheet. In my opinion, the good moisturiser is important but by itself, it can never replicate the plumpness of skin that comes with daily masking. So it's important to have both. And if I have to choose between them, I'd rather use a less top-notch moisturiser while continuing to mask everyday.

6. When you need intensive help, pick up a sheet mask. And if you find that the whitening mask is not working that well, try using a hydration mask as a first step, because whitening actives can only be fully absorbed by moisturised skin. Lightly pat in excess before applying the second mask. If you don't have hydrating sheet masks, you can always slap on a thick layer of your regular moisturiser.

I have to add that exfoliation is the key to fully appreciating the goodness of your skincare.

Okay, there're actually a few more but I'm really exhausted from typing so I shall stop here and leave you with two pictures of S. Notice how her brows have evolved over the span of a year. She's born with sparse, barely there brows but she started applying some unorthodox product (thing is, she said it in Chinese and I could not for the life of it figure out what product she was talking about) to her brows and it has been growing out. So now, she can pull the full-browed look.

I do like full brows. Overly skinny, arched brows ages one so.