The stamp cards

Hello darling,

I want to talk about the ever so popular stamp cards that shops love to give out as a form of loyalty marketing. "Get a stamp for every $30 spent!" And four stamps later, you land on a circle that entitles you to a $10 voucher. 

How fun is that? You look at the card and think "Only one more to go to a $10 voucher! :D"

Now my dears, before we get too excited about this, let's not get carried away. What are we really getting back here? After spending $120, (Four stamps of $30) you get $10 back? That's 8.33%. Would you seriously shop in a place that gives you a rebate of 8.33% after visiting them four times?

I'm not saying it's bad, but have you ever stopped to realize this?

TANGS gives its members a 6% rebate with each item you purchase, regardless of price. And during special sales that happen quite a few times a year, members get a 12% rebate. And that is exactly why I am a TANGS member.

-SB 

Velvet in the tropics

Hello my darling,

I was shocked to see a collection of different colored velvet slacks and pencil skirts in a particular shop that has outlets in many places in Singapore. (Velvet in tropical weather? It's true that this brand isn't local, but did they not bother to do any market research?) Unfortunately, I was unable to take a picture of this nightmare for your entertainment. Oh no, don't get me wrong, I'm not mistaking corduroy for velvet. The slacks and skirts I saw were velvet darling, VEL-VET.

I like velvet sweatpants, I think they're fun and comfy. But velvet slacks and pencil skirts are just passe. Has been. Finito.

And as I walked out of the store, to my horror I saw a collection of shocking, electric, hot pink long sleeve tees, tank tops and turtles necks. The long sleeve tees had a very shiny, silver threading tracing the round neck collar. Erm, honey, blinding much?

This shop will from now on, affectionately be known to me as the little shop of fashion horrors.

Till next time my darling.

Shopping Biatch

Tis the season to be fancy

Hello my love,

And the Christmas season is here, malls and Orchard Road are decked in glitz and glamor. No such thing as a simple Christmas, oh no, the glitzier, the better.

I gotta say, Orchard Road, the deep pink, shiny wind chime looking things that hang off each Christmas tree wire formation that line the road, twinkling in the light as the wind blows at them, along with the silver....Wait a minute, is this Christmas or Deepavali decor? (Purple Christmas tree picture credit: http://hoflich.com/Peter/blog/)

Metro at City Square Mall has several Christmas tree displays, lavishly decorated according to different themes. And how is it that the trees have not fallen under the weight of the over the top decorations? There's always tasteful and the other extreme, gaudy.

The trees are covered with ornaments and streamers, pretty large ornaments, glittery balls and masquerade masks just to name a few. The first thought that struck me was - Oh My God. Simple as that. Who puts masquerade masks and feathers atop a Christmas tree?

Oh puhlease, I'm no prude. But feathers, masquerade masks, big bells, streamers, glass balls - All on the same tree at the same time. There are just no words....

Happy Holidays my darlings, don't forget the glitter nail polish. ;)

Shopping Biatch XOXO

Battle of the nail polish

Hello my darlings,

As you know, nail polish is a staple in a woman's beauty regime. We all yearn to have a nice, wide array of colors to choose from - Same philosophy for lip gloss.

But lately, there have been, I feel, a madness for overpriced nail polish which are obviously overpriced because of its high demand due to branding.

I've never been a strong believer of the school of thought that expensive stuff is good stuff. I'm more concerned about looking for value for money. If the expensive stuff really is better, then I'm getting my value for money. But if it's just grossly overpriced, then I'll most likely give it a pass.

So what I'm trying to say here is, the overpriced nail polish isn't bad, but it isn't worth its value.

Let's take for example, Revlon. I was so unimpressed with the thin brush, lousy consistency of the polish and it chips after just one day! The nail polish is so thin and the thin, stiff brush results in lousy application.

OPI is all the rage now. Great stuff, but the matt colors disappoint. They are clumpy and too thick. Very difficult to apply. The issue I have with OPI is the crazy price. Going at $23.50 per bottle on an average. That's as much as a bottle of nail polish from Estee Lauder, which by the way, isn't impressive.

I tried nail polish from MAC and though the colors were great (as expected), the consistency was way too thick and it took forever to dry.

I got sick and tired of these expensive, over priced nail polish (I even saw a Japanese brand, half the size of an OPI bottle, going for S$18! At Far East Plaza. Now that's day light robbery)and decided to give the cheaper contenders a try.

What I really am looking for and what is really important in looking for a good nail polish is color, consistency, richness, brush, lasting anti-clumping abilities and fast drying.

THEFACESHOP has awesome value for money nail polish going at S$2.90. Great selection of colors. However, the consistency becomes awful after 3 applications.

Etude house - Good stuff! It isn't cheap, but it isn't expensive either. It's a reasonable price of $5+

I couldn't stop myself when I went to Aries and looked at the amazing selection of colors for their house brand and one called "Bisque" with beautiful packaging! Ironically, Bisque did not have a shade of bisque.

Aries wasn't bad for the price of S$2.90. But what really blew me away was Bisque.

It was only S$2.90 and the brush is soft and of the right size. The consistency is amazing! I bought a pale purple. With just 1 coat, I was able to have a nice rich color. And it was so smooth and so easy to apply, it looked as thought I grew purple nails! Amazing stuff. I bought two other colors - a light pink and a dark, tinted brown. Beautiful consistency. Just beautiful.

The darker colors can last up to 4 days without major chipping and the light pink lasted about 3 with major chipping.

I'm not saying that all the cheap stuff is great, I've tried some pretty bad, cheap crap. But you shouldn't give the cheap contenders a miss. You might just find a rose among the thorns. Your true answer to getting value for money.

SB out.

My October entry

Hello my darlings,

Yes, it has been a while. A long while. Believe it or not, I decided to give malls a rest. That's right. I wanted to refresh my mind, rid of all the comments and feelings I had, from the very beginning I started this blog.

But do not fret my shopping darlings, I am still THE shopping biatch. Rest assured, the bitching will keep flowing. For as long as I am passionate about shopping, I will keep nagging about the flaws and praise the well deserved praises to the high heavens. Nothing excites me more than to find something to sing praise about! And yet, nothing makes me madder and more sarcastic, than to come across something that disgusts me.

The shopping biatch is back. XO

-SB

The importance of window displays

Window displays make or break a shop and its collection. A good one can really push sales for certain featured items. I feel a stab in the heart when shops do not take their window displays seriously - not that it should be taken TOO seriously. You catch my drift.

I'm not talking about spending a bomb on window displays or putting in too much effort all year round, a simple and meaningful one can do wonders.

Here's the inspiration for this entry....

What on earth?! How did this happen? How could this happen? Why did this happen?!

At the rate this shop is going - they might as well not display any mannequin at all. Look at the choice of clothing on the mannequin. The tousled tuft of hair is one thing, the choice of clothing is horrific!

Ugh, I am disgusted and upset. It's no laughing matter - I don't think anybody wants their kid dressed like a 30 year old man.

SB out!

Probably the worst sale ever!

It's that time of year again my darlings - time for the Great Singapore Sale (GSS).

It's shit. And I'm being lenient in saying that. Here's why:

If it's a "GREAT" sale, then it should live up to its expectations. "Great" is just one level below "Fantastic" and not synonymous with "Shitty".

This year, local shops and overseas brands alike have sale sections and nett sections - simultaneously in the store. More often than not, the nett section takes up more space than the sale section. The sale section is not more than 30% off for decent merchandise and 50% off for clothes so bad, they might as well be rags.

You can't even begin to imagine the sheer disappointment I felt when I went shopping week after week since the GSS started, only to feel that the sale is meant to get rid of clothes not worth buying, even at a low price.

Really retailers! Toss out the nonsense and bring in the good stuff at good prices. Now that's a "Great" sale!

The only sale that was worth going for, was the Mango sale. Well done. For the rest - Shame-On- You! The Mango sale was great because they had extremely decent clothing at very low prices and the entire shop was on sale! No nonsense with the nett section and sale section thing. The whole damn shop was on sale. That's just how it should be and no other way.

Other retailers had 50% off torn clothes, stretched out/worn out clothes, stained clothes etc. These shouldn't be 50% off, they should be tossed out or sold at 90% off. And horror of all horrors, I saw stuff that I had seen at a previous sale months ago.

The problem is that there's a trend going around amongst the retailers to have a sale section in the shop all year round. So when the GSS comes around, they don't have anything good to put out on sale! So they take the left overs and pass them off as GSS sale items.

Where's the incentive to pay retail if you're gonna be on sale all year round? I might as well wait a couple of weeks or two months and that thing I wanted would be in the sale corner of the shop.

Can't tell you how many times I've paid retail for something only to find the price slashed by 30% two months later. Whatever items that can't be sold during a turn over (fresh arrival of new designs), should be kept until the GSS or end of year sale.

Till my next post my darlings - The GSS couldn't be more disappointing.