Cheska’s Pride

Alright! It’s already summer and unlike winter, you won’t be covered in too much clothing that you can hide your skin and hair. Most likely you’ll be at the beach or somewhere outside so it’s important to keep your skin and hair healthy so people will notice you. Since we’ve been wearing thick clothing for the past few months, most likely our skin haven’t been taken cared of to look its best for the summer. Here are a few tips I’d like to share to get your ready.

Hair Tips

• Remoisturize your hair - Summer means exposure to the sun and with that hair can become brittle and damaged. There are hair care products which could remove chlorine and remoisturize the hair to prevent it from breaking. There are also products that protect your hair from harmful UV rays so I suggest getting those. A good tip is to use leave-in conditioner as well or styling cremes that would provide extra moisturizing. Remember to protect your hair from the sun! If you don’t like wearing a hat (that could ruin your hairstyle) bring an umbrella along.
• Get a haircut - For the summer, I suggest getting a shorter cut that would look good according to your face shape and style. Longer hair could be harder to manage as well as make you feel a lot warmer than usual.
• Try to avoid using blow-dryers - It’s time to give your hair a break from all the heat so it’s a good thing to avoid regularly using a blow-dryer. If you’re going somewhere like work or an outing, make sure to prepare early so you don’t rush and have to resort to blow-drying just to get your hair done. If you don’t have a choice, use a leave-in conditioner to at least give it some much needed moisture.

Skin Care

• Shave - Unlike in winter where you wear a sweater and pants all day, you won’t be wearing the same thing during summer so it’s important to shave some unwanted hair. Of course, a lot of us (yes, including me) become lazy during winter since we don’t really feel like we need to shave especially when people won’t see what’s hidden under our clothing. Well, time to change that. Make sure to use a good razor and shaving lotion to add some moisture on your skin as well as prevent cuts.
• Get a pedicure - Winter boots are out, sandals are in. Get a pedicure ladies. Time to clear out the dead skin that must have accumulated during the past seasons. Try to scrub your feet a few times every week and keep a foot scrub and file handy.
• Buy a new set of products - Instead of using the old one, treat yourself to some new products. If you still have those old bottles of sunscreen and other summer-only products, it’s time to throw those away. Don’t forget to use them, by the way, they’re not there only for show. Especially sunscreen, it will help protect your skin.

Jewelry have been worn throughout history by every culture in the world. It’s a broad term that is used to describe a wide range of ornaments that are worn on the body to adorn it. This includes earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, among others. They are very much fancied by women and men usually give them as gifts. They are usually quite expensive but there are some that are just over-the-top valuable. Here are five of the most expensive jewelries I found floating around the web.

Chopard Blue Diamond Ring - Gosh. This one is really expensive but I guess it deserves the price it is being valued at. Blue diamonds are among the rarest of the natural-colored gems. This oval-shaped diamond ring, with triangular-shaped diamond shoulders are set on an 18-carat white gold diamond band. Price is estimated to be around $16 Million.

Garrard Heart of the Kingdom Ruby - The stone in this piece of jewelry is accompanied by two independent Swiss laboratory reports that verify its rarity. The heart-shaped Burma ruby weighs in at around 40.63 carats and is mounted on a 155-carat diamond necklace. It can also be transformed into a tiara.

Diamond Drop Earrings by Harry Winston - The House of Winston created this set of diamond earrings which they dubbed as the Extraordinary Diamond Drop Earrings. It consists of two pear-shaped diamonds in a platinum setting and totals to around 6.1 carats. Price is said to be around $8.5 Million.

Chopard Magnificent Diamond and Emerald Necklace - The price is actually set to “price upon request” so prepared to spend millions for it. Anyway, this beautiful necklace consists of 191-carats worth of Columbia’s most beautiful emeralds and 16-carats of rose and drop-shaped diamonds. It is included in Chopard’s “Haute Joaillerie” collection.

Chanel D-Flawless Bracelet Watch - Part of Chanel’s Collection Privee, this piece of jewelry is valued at around $2 Million. It contains one hundred and twenty, 6 - 6.5 millimeter cultured pearls, 133 diamonds, and arrayed in 18-karat white gold. It weighs in at around 35.1 carats. It’s a watch so you can use it for telling time, too.

Ever had those days when your hair just won’t cooperate? Like your hair just keeps on turning into a weird hairstyle no matter what you do? Bad haird days turn into bad days. Don’t let it ruin your day! Here are some tips on what to do during such times.

Get the best haircut for your hair type that would look good on you - Prevention is better than cure. One way to avoid bad hair days is to get a good haircut, of course! Make sure the cut makes your hair easier to control and manage. That way, there would be less chances of bad hair days.

Maintain your haircut every 6 weeks or so - Another prevention step. It’s a good thing to have a haircut regularly to maintain that nice hairstyle. Otherwise, it might get too long, heavy, and unwieldy that you won’t be able to control it (which leads to a bad hair day).

Use a good shampoo and conditioner for your hair type - I had posted something about tips for different hair types earlier so you might want to check that out too. Select good products for your hair type or use specific ones that would go with it. Most shampoos and conditioners help in making your hair a lot more managable.

Limit the time that you use the blow-dryer - After washing your hair, towel dry it first before using a blow-dryer. Make sure to use low heat. Heat can make the hair dry and brittle.

Prepare for the worst case scenario - Admittedly, there’s a chance that even with all the preparation and tips you followed, your hair just won’t cooperate. In that case, you might want to try some accessories, hair extensions, or even wigs to hide that weird hairstyle,  just so you don’t really think too much about it (and how others would think of it).

Footwear, especially for women, have been an object of fascination since early times. Unknown to most, women actually spend a lot on footwear than they know. A good example would be Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw who suddenly realized that she spent roughly $40,000 on footwear yet she couldn’t afford an apartment. Men are different, though. They don’t think much about shoes and only wear what they think would best fit a certain occassion. As long as their shoes are usable, they tend not to replace it until its final moment. Men’s shoe style doesn’t change so they rarely buy a new pair every year. Here are three of the most expensive footwear for women.

Cinderella Slippers - This 4 1/2 inch pair of stilletos are adorned with 565 Kwiat diamonds and was designed by Stuart Weitzman. The pair costs around $2M. Stuart Weitzman is the designer of the so-called fantasy sandals and has already assumed legendary status. He creates more than 300 styles of shoes and handbags annualy. Each pair of shoes he creates takes about six to seven weeks to produce, with 80-odd craftsmen involved in the making of the final product.

Tanzanite Heels - Designed by Stuart Weitzman, these pair of sandals are adorned with 185 carats of tanzanite and 28 carats of diamonds. It was shown at the Le Vien party in Las Vegas. It is said that the stones on the sandals seem to be mounted unswervingly onto the leather and hardly seem to be detachable.

Ruby Slippers - Another design by Stuart Weitzman and also one of the most expensive footwear. This one was designed to be like Dorothy’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. The slippers are adorned with 690 rubies and costs around $1.8M. It was supposed to be worn by an actress during the Oscars but it never happened. The glass slippers above though had been worn by the singer Alison Krauss .

OK, so whose idea was it to put gold and jewels on our regular everyday stuff to make it “the most expensive”? It’s becoming quite a trend these days: cellphones, ipods, you name it. Is this done just for the title? I mean, come on! With gold and jewels on those things imagine how much they’d weigh. Gems or jewels look good on jewelry and accessories but for these things? I don’t think so. Here are five examples of the most expensive stuff in the world (because of jewels, that is).

Millennium Bra - Ok. This brassiere is covered in 3,024 jewels including 1,988 sapphires. It was produced by Victoria’s Secret (I didn’t expect anybody else) and was valued at $10 million. It was modeled by Heidi Klum during the opening of the 2005 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. The following year, they produced a Fantasy Bra that was modeled by Karolina Kurvoka. It is worth $6.5 million and contains 2000 Hearts on Fire diamonds with a 10-carat diamond brooch centerpiece.

The $30 Million Bikini - This bikini contains over 150 carats of D Flawless diamonds, including a 51 carat D Flawless Pear Shape, a 30 carat D Flawless Emerald Cut, a pair of 15 carat D Flawless Rounds and a pair of 8 carat D Flawless Pear Shapes all set in platinum. It was created by Susan Rosen with Steinmetz Diamonds and uses NO FABRIC. Honestly, I don’t think it will be comfortable to wear.

GoldVish Le Million - No, no. It’s not Dracula saying “goldfish”, GoldVish is the creator of the Le Million, the world’s most expensive mobile phone. It’s a cellphone made from solid gold (imagine how heavy that is) and studded with diamonds. Its value is approximately one million euros ($1.3 million) and is a limited edition product with only 3 of them available.

iDiamond - Oh, come on! If you didn’t guess it was an iPod I don’t know what other name will. Just kidding. Thomas Heyerdahl created the aptly named iPod with the intention of combining the art of jewelry and technology to build the most expensive MP3 player available. He rebuilt the outer shell into solid gold and added 430 diamonds on the player and headset. Its value is approximately 31 thousand euros or US $42,000.

Mercedes SL600 - This diamond-studded Mercedes SL600 is valued at around $4.8 million. It is said to be Saudi Prince Waleed’s 38th car. However, there are sources who claim that those are not really jewels but crystals and the car is priced at around $1 million (which wouldn’t make it the most expensive). The truth? I’ll leave it up to you to find out.

So I posted something about weird hairstyles for women previously. So just to be fair with the guys, let me post some hairstyles for them as well. *smile* While looking for pictures, I was pleasantly amazed to see a lot of variety when it comes to men’s hairstyles. I wouldn’t call them “weird hairstyles” yet, though some can be considered as such. Here are three alternative hairstyles you guys may want to check out.

Punk - Punk hairstyles usually define the punk subculture. I mean, when you see a punk, you’ll know by their hair! Spikes are common with their style as well as the asymmetrical cut but the most noticeable would be the colors. Probably the most common punk hairstyle would be the mohawk (which I consider to be a weird hairstyle and could have variations of other weird punk hairstyles, like the bi-hawk or tri-hawk).

Emo - According to a blog about emo hairstyles (follow the link), an emo hairstyle is “is a style created by your own, a style that is completely different from the others.” Emo is still considered punk so you will notice a lot of similarities. Some tips would include just messing around with your hair until you manage to get one that you like. Do take note that like punk hairstyles, emo hairstyles require a lot of maintenance like coloring and blow drying among others. One more tip from the site was to make sure to not take it to a point where people can’t tell your gender. Which brings us to…

Metro - Just look at the picture. Can you even tell if it’s a man or a woman? Well, I guess metro hairstyles are just that, they can fit both men and women. Or should I say, they can make men look like women and vice-versa? A really weird hairstyle if you ask me.

Well, different people have different hair types. Some can be greasy, some are prone to hair-fall, while some are naturally healthy looking. Here are some tips for different hair types.

Greasy Hair - If you have greasy hair, it’s a good idea to avoid oily foods. Oily foods contribute to oily skin and scalp so less oil is better. In short, watch your diet. You can also use children’s shampoo once in a while since those are usually mild enough for greasy hair

Thin Hair - So you have thin hair that almost exposes the scalp? Don’t worry, the best tip I can give you for that is to have a haircut that would fit naturally with you head and face’s shape. You can also use thickening shampoos to have a bit of control on your hair.

Dry Hair - For dry hair, I suggest going to the salon once in a while and have them use hot-oil. Aside from that, try using moisturizing shampoos and conditioner to give it a bouncy feel. Make sure to use intensive moisturizers that don’t cause excessive rubbing or it will cause more damage to your hair.

Shoes, slippers, sandals - they are all footwear that we regularly use to keep our feet clean and unharmed. However, there are also footwear that are designed to be more than that or to be only used in a particular situation. Well, if you saw my previous post about the weird gadgets and accessories, you may have already seen the footwear designed for skating inside the office…I would consider that one of them, I think. Anyway, here are three special purpose shoes and their function.

Training Slipper - This pair of foot trainers were designed for training the foot to wear heels. They are meant to be worn when in bed to maintain the arch of the foot while sleeping. Although it’s meant for women wearing high heels, the foot trainers itself are heelless and has metal stiffeners to hold it to the leg. Don’t expect to use these for walking around, it’s impossible. Source says it is also used for bondage purposes…

Lotus Shoes - These are designed to be used by women with bound feet. Although it is no longer practiced today (it was banned, as a matter of fact), foot binding was used to limit the mobility of women in China. Bound feet were a symbol of chastity, the woman with bound feet would have irreversible dependency on her family or husband mostly because she would not be able to go far from home without an escort. Bound feet were also considered erotic. The small steps and the swaying of the hips are the possible reasons why it is so.

Japanese Geta - Not really terrible like the previous two but these can be quite heavy. These sandals are popular among Japanese and are worn to elevate the feet above the ground. They are used during rain or snow to keep the feet dry because of the added height and the material of the footwear. They are usually worn with traditional Japanese outfits like the kimono and yukata. There are two supporting wood pieces underneath that are called “teeth” and they make a distinctive clacking sound while walking.

Well, those are only 3 of those footwear with special purposes. Others would include kicking shoes, stilts, and skates. But I’m sure you already know those.

Hairstyling is part of fashion. You may have the most beautiful dress known to man, but without looking good yourself it wouldn’t help as much as you want to. Different hairstyles that would fit you depend on the shape of your face and features. Of course, like clothes everyone has their own taste and style. Some prefer their hair cut short, others like it to be as long as possible, while some don’t care at all. We can’t really avoid seeing someone with a hairstyle that…just doesn’t look quite right. Here are 5 weird hairstyles that I’ve seen so far.

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Is that a hood or a helmet? - Honestly, I’ve seen this kind of hairstyle a number of times. The hair is of medium length, just below the ears with the fringe covering both eyes. Perfect if you want to look mysterious but your vision would be slightly impaired with it.

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Is that a cloud on your head? - I’m still wondering what it’s supposed to be, honestly. It looks like an afro of some sort but…it’s a bit too wide. I wonder if birds would make its home on somebody with this hairstyle? I wouldn’t dare try it out of curiosity, seriously. Hmm, had it been made taller instead of wider, it would look like Marge Simpson’s hair.

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It’s a…torch? The Chinese, especially in television or movies, can have some of the weirdest hairstyles around. I mean, look at this one. It’s like her hair was shaped into the flames of a torch. I’m not sure how they made it stand like so, but it may be some strong hairgel, wax, hairspray, or…

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Wear your hair like a mask… Well, this is certainly a crazy but strangely amusing hairstyle. According to the website I found it from, it was the Icelandic singer, Bjork’s hairstyle in her album Medulla. You can check out the website yourself and see a lot more weird hairstyles. Those were not edited in any way.

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Queen Amidala - Natalie Portman’s hairstyles from the Star Wars movie were really weird. The one on the picture reminds me of a jester with a cap. For this one, though, the jester’s cap is the hair itself. I’m sure I’ve seen a lot of those “exotic” looking hairstyles from Chinese movies (with pics I didn’t include). Usually, hairstyles like these are formed to fit a particular ornament (or a number of ornaments).

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