Finding Love After Forty : A Journey of Discovery and Renewal

After my divorce at 40, I initially hesitated to dive back into the dating scene. Yet, spurred by curiosity, I decided to give dating apps a shot, almost as a lighthearted experiment. To my delight, I found that even at 47, there were men who appreciated me for who I am. This eye-opening experience reminded me that amidst life’s hurdles, connections and companionship still await.

Transitioning from divorce can feel daunting, but it’s also a period ripe for growth and self-discovery. Here are the pivotal lessons I gleaned along the way:

  1. Embrace Your Confidence: The newfound assurance I discovered through post-divorce dating spoke volumes about my resilience and inner fortitude. Embracing our courage to seek new connections is worthy of celebration.
  2. Prioritize Self-Discovery: Post-divorce, I seized the chance to focus on myself, rekindling passions and rediscovering joy. Nurturing personal growth and well-being became paramount.
  3. Remain Open-Minded: Approaching dating with an open mind was pivotal. Embracing diverse experiences and individuals underscored the uniqueness of each journey, rejecting a one-size-fits-all mentality.
  4. Practice Clear Communication: Honest communication about needs and boundaries laid the groundwork for trust and understanding in new relationships.
  5. Take Your Time: I learned the value of allowing relationships to evolve naturally, eschewing rushed commitments for authentic connections nurtured over time.
  6. Draw Wisdom from Experience: Reflecting on past relationships yielded invaluable insights, empowering me to navigate future encounters with greater wisdom.
  7. Seek Support When Needed: During moments of uncertainty, leaning on my support network provided solace and encouragement, guiding me through this new chapter.

In hindsight, I’ve realized that dating after divorce is a journey of its own rhythm. By staying true to myself, embracing new opportunities, and trusting in the process, I found the courage to embark on this next chapter with optimism and resilience.

Sales Whiz to Fashion Maven: Unveiling My Unique Journey

At the tender age of 16, I took my first steps into the world of work as a part-time sales assistant at SOGO. Little did I know, this humble beginning would shape my future in unexpected ways. Engaging with customers, I discovered a natural affinity for conversation and salesmanship, relishing the opportunity to educate and assist strangers in selecting the perfect items.

As I matured into my twenties, my career path took me on a diverse journey through various industries. In my early twenties, I found myself as a marketing assistant, promoting office space at prestigious locations like Beach Road and Raffles Hotel. Crafting leasing agreements and penning PR letters became second nature, thanks to the guidance and encouragement of a remarkable female boss who expanded my horizons and instilled unwavering confidence in my abilities. Working under her tutelage, I discovered the power of mentorship and the joy of working with someone who believed in my potential.

My next venture led me to an ad agency, where I served as an account servicing assistant, aiding clients in perfecting their advertising campaigns both online and offline. However, this chapter proved short-lived as the demanding hours took a toll on my health, prompting me to seek a new opportunity.

Enter the world of fashion, where I found my stride as a marketing executive for a clothing company. Coordinating with stylists and fashion editors, I spearheaded PR efforts and secured coveted features for our brands in prominent fashion magazines. Witnessing celebrities and key opinion leaders (KOLs) don our UK brands like Miss Selfridge, Warehouse, and TOPSHOP filled me with immense pride, knowing that our products resonated with trendsetters and fashion enthusiasts alike.

Reflecting on my journey, I realized that each role, from sales assistant to marketing executive, contributed to my growth and shaped my passion for communication, sales, and brand promotion. Though the path may have been winding, each experience served as a stepping stone towards discovering my true calling in the world of sales training and empowerment.

From Adversity to Empowerment: Julia’s Journey

I grew up in a lower middle-class family where the air was often thick with the tension of financial strain. My parents’ constant quarrels over money created a turbulent atmosphere, exacerbated by my mother’s clear favoritism towards my brother and sister. From a young age, I yearned for validation and praise, but it seemed elusive, even when I excelled academically or achieved milestones like moving from normal to express stream in secondary school.

Despite outward perceptions of confidence, I grappled with deep-seated insecurities and self-doubt. Though I found employment with esteemed companies like Estee Lauder Cosmetics and Giordano, advancement to higher positions remained elusive, confining me to executive roles. Presentations were a source of dread, amplifying my shyness and undermining my confidence.

At the tender age of 24, I hit rock bottom, battling depression while navigating a tumultuous relationship. It was during this dark period that I embarked on a journey of self-discovery and empowerment.

In 2009, I took a leap of faith into entrepreneurship, partnering with Mary Kay Cosmetics. This decision not only ignited my professional passion but also revealed the transformative power of confidence and self-belief. Under the mentorship of influential women, including multimillionaires, I shed my timidity and emerged as a poised and articulate consultant, dedicated to helping women enhance their beauty and confidence.

Over the next 12 years, I devoted myself to empowering women, sharing my expertise across China, Korea, and Malaysia with Mary Kay consultants and aspiring beauty professionals. Alongside this journey, I faced the painful reality of divorce at age 40, realizing that I could no longer respect my ex-husband’s financial choices. Our story echoed the themes of transformation and self-discovery akin to “Eat Pray Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert, leading me to understand my worth and strength without him.

My journey from adversity to empowerment stands as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Through my work as a beauty consultant, I endeavor to inspire women to embrace their inner beauty, unlock their potential, and pursue their dreams with unyielding confidence.

My life story

From a young age, I harbored a strong desire to be my own boss, fueled in part by witnessing my father’s experience of being retrenched after dedicating over 40 years to his company. This early realization planted the seed for my entrepreneurial aspirations.

After getting married, I poured my energy into another clothing company, dedicating myself to my work. However, my efforts were met with disappointment when the CEO openly expressed disbelief in marketing during a meeting, leaving our department feeling disheartened and undervalued.

Following the CEO’s discouraging remarks, morale within the company plummeted, prompting several colleagues to depart. Feeling demotivated and disheartened, I ultimately made the decision to leave the company as well.

It’s incredible how much can change in a decade. Reflecting on my departure from the company, I’m astonished to see that what was once a thriving brand with over 40 stores has now dwindled to just a few. It’s a stark reminder of the dynamic nature of the industry and the importance of adaptability in the face of change.

Stay tuned for more!

I’m crafting my story, sharing each chapter of how I conquered life’s hurdles. My hope is to inspire all of you, reminding you that life is fleeting, urging you to pursue your dreams with unwavering determination. Follow my YouTube @juliashantal

$420 for 2 Hour Soft Korean Makeup Workshop (worth $800)

DETAIL

$420 for 2 Hour Soft Korean Makeup Workshop (worth $800)

  • Learn tips and tricks to looking flawless like Korean Celebrities
  • Learn how to achieve glass skin makeup
  • Learn how to draw your eyes bigger
  • Learn how to choose the right blusher and lipstick colors
  • Interactive hands-on practise in groups
  • Learn how to enhance your own natural beauty and facial features with makeup
  • Website: www.styleandbeautyexperts.com

We also offer a color analysis for customers, available for an additional charge of $80.

Tips & tricks of Korea’s celebrated presents right before your eyes with 2-hour Korean Makeup Workshop. Get into the spirit of looking absolutely flawless with a hands-on practice workshop, with an in-depth insight of enhancing you own natural beauty and facial features with the right know-how. At Style & Beauty Experts, only one thing matters. Making you look absolutely impeccable throughout the day.

One of our clients, Adrienne, thoroughly enjoys our workshop. Feel free to check out her review of our work. For additional testimonials, visit our Instagram page @retinolbeautyexpert.

  • Expires: 31 Dec 2025
  • Class Schedule:2.30pm to 4.30pm & 7pm to 9pm (Mon – Fri)
    • 11.30am to 1.30pm & 3.30pm to 5.30pm (Sat & Sun)
  • Valid for female aged 21 years and above only
  • Minimum 1 pax for a workshop to commence, maximum workshop size will be 10 pax
  • Participants are required to come into the workshop without any make up applied
  • Not valid in conjunction with other discounts or promotions
  • For a single group of 3 or more, the workshop can be conducted outside of the office at a place of your convenience
  • Reservation required; please call Julia at 9688 1798 or email to julia@styleandbeautyexperts.com with the following details at least 4 days in advance:
    • Name
    • Contact Number
    • Preferred Date & Time
    • Please make payment to POSB SAVINGS 020-12713-9 in advance to confirm booking of the class.   Please drop an email to Julia@styleandbeautyexperts) upon transfering the funds.
  • Merchant will reply with confirmation within 2 working days
  • Location: 185 Jelebu road or at client’s place.
  • The pictures are for reference only

15 mins free discovery call with me!

Are you facing challenges with feeling confident in your appearance and fashion choices?

Whether it’s selecting the perfect outfit for a special occasion or simply feeling at ease and empowered in your everyday attire, I’m here to provide guidance and support.

Also as a Style/Life coaching expert specializing in personal development and empowerment, I can assist you in exploring your unique sense of style, addressing any underlying insecurities or obstacles, and developing strategies to enhance your self-confidence when it comes to dressing up.

Moreover, if you find yourself in a period of transition and are seeking to embark on a new chapter in life, I’m here to aid you in your journey of self-exploration and growth. Whether you’re navigating changes in your career, relationships, or personal life, I offer valuable insights, tools, and techniques to help you navigate this transition with confidence and clarity.

Together, we can identify your goals, tackle challenges, and create a roadmap for achieving personal and professional success.

Ultimately, my mission as a life coaching expert is to empower you to unleash your full potential and lead a fulfilling life aligned with your values and aspirations. If you’re ready to embark on this transformative journey and pursue self-improvement, I invite you to schedule a 15-minute free discovery call with me. Please specify your availability dates and times as well.

Your path to greater self-confidence, personal growth, and empowerment begins here. Feel free to reach out to get started.

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Eyeshadow – top 12 tips on how to apply it perfectly

Eye Shadow – Top 12 Tips On How To Apply It Perfectly

Your makeup is as important to your finished look as the clothing you wear, in fact, it can actually be more important. We’ve all spotted women who didn’t have a clue how to apply their eye shadow. But we’ve also seen women who know how to apply it properly and they look put together and beautiful. Don’t you want to be one of those women? Of course – and we are going to give you some top tips so you can do just that.

Great news – putting your eyeshadow on correctly really isn’t difficult at all. It really is just a matter of finding the right technique and your personal style. Don’t worry if it takes a few tries to get it right. Check out these tips:

  1. Always apply eye primer on your eyes just as you do to the rest of your face. It gives a nice even palette to work with.
  1. Blend, blend and then blend some more. I can’t stress this enough. Try an experiment. Blend one eye and then just use a brush and apply the other eye. You’ll instantly know what I’m talking about and you’ll never forget to blend again.
  1. If you want dramatic eyes, take your eye shadow brush, spray with our makeup finishing spray, and then into the shadow, then apply. It will give you a much deeper, dramatic color.
  1. If you have blue eyes, wear purple, violet, taupe, gray, deep blue, and black. Funky colors include fuchsia, turquoise, and silver.
  1. If you have green eyes, wear purple, plum, forest green, brown, and khaki. Funky colors include light green, gold, and bright purple.
  1. If you have brown eyes, wear champagne, copper, brown, apricot, khaki, and beige. Funky colors include royal blue, tangerine, hand hot pink.
  1. Everyone can wear navy, powder blue, and charcoal. Fun colors include silver.
  1. Apply a lighter shadow in the inner corner of the eye to reflect and make your eyes look younger.
  1. If you want your eyes to appear larger, use a light color on the inner corner, and a darker shade in the middle of the eye area.
  1. Practice until you get the application of your eye shadow down to a science. When you get good, your makeup will look more natural and more polished.
  1. Apply your dark shadow only to the eyelids from the lash line to the crease in the eyelid. Apply your medium shadow from just below the eyelid crease to the brow bone.
  1. Highlight along the brow bone. Doing it this way will make your features stand out naturally and beautifully.

So there you have it. With these top tips you now know how to apply your eyeshadow so you will look your best.

Remember that while you’re practicing all these steps, you should take notice of what works best for you. Practice by yourself, or practice with a friend if you find it easier to ask someone else’s opinion.

So go for it and get gorgeous right away! Style Coach Julia also provides customised makeup workshop at $140. If you are interested to book her for an appointment (we only do house visits for now), please whatsapp us at +65 96881798 or email: julia@styleandbeautyexperts.com.

10 Steps to look younger

10 Steps To Look Younger

The secret for looking youthful has been a constant question since the beginning of time it seems. In fact, many researchers have done some experiments to find ways to slow down the aging process.

There are some techniques that have been implemented, but the most important things for us to do are being consistent in implementing a healthy lifestyle and eating habits.

We can’t stop the natural change, but we can still look younger if we want to work hard to slow down the aging process.

Therefore, I’m going to help you with 10 easy steps to make you look younger:

Detox: It’s important to start detoxification, getting rid of toxins from our bodies. Our body’s metabolism has done that process, but in everyday life, we are exposed to so many chemical hazards from air, food, and environment. Fasting or just consuming fruits and vegetables are ways to detoxify our bodies.

Sleep: Having enough sleep, at least 6-8 hours a day, will make our skin healthier. Having a good sleep is also important because the growth hormone is working during that time. It renews the old cell of our body, including the skin cell. Our skin will look fresh and young if we have enough sleep.

Food: Eating healthy and safe food every day will make our body fit, slim, and also look younger. Try to eat more fish instead of red meat. Fiber foods, vegetables, fruits, and supplements are important food to consume. Drink less coffee and other caffeine beverages.

Exercise: Through routine exercise, we will feel happier, energetic, and confident. It also increases our bone density and muscle which can make our body look 15-20 years younger..

Relax: By trying to relax, our face will look younger. Stress and worries appear on our face. If we can manage our stress and feel at peace, our face will look younger and attractive.

Be Positive: A positive mind and affirmations can lead to a healthier life. Negative thoughts tend to bring failure and make us look older. Meditation can lead to a positive mindset.

Medical Check-up: Just like a car, our body also needs attention and care so it can work well every day. Having routine medical checkups during our is important to recognize diseases as soon as possible.

Active Life: Always try to be active during your life. Activities can increase health; and if you are in your elder age, your memory will increase too.

Social Life: Happy social life can increase our spirit, bring a peaceful mind, and make us feel and look younger. Communication with our friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, and others can bring happiness to us.

Performance: Start to look at our performance. Is our body weight ideal for us? If not, try to fix that to the best ideal weight. Also look at the skin, hair, nail, and teeth. Those are important as they will show our age. Looking good and feeling good will increase our performance.

10 Steps To Clearer Skin

10 Steps to Clearer Skin

At some stage in all of our lives, we want clearer, fresher, younger-looking skin. Well, it can be achieved without dropping a ton of money and it can happen naturally! What you must do is persevere and over the course of three weeks, your skin will begin to look fresher and clearer. Here’s how;

  1. Keeping your skin clean is your first priority! You must cleanse your face morning and night with a gentle, natural cleanser that not only rids the skin of dirt and grime but then treats it with an antibacterial ingredient like salicylic acid toner.
  1. After cleansing the skin pat dry and then spray a fine toning mist (using our softener) over the face to cool and help close the pores while they are clean. Let this mist dry on the face.
  1. When the toner has dried apply a very small amount of moisturizer over the entire face and neck. Look for a moisturizer that is made for problem skin types and contains antibacterial ingredients like salicylic acid. These ingredients are gentle but very effective at clearing the skin from blemishes and pimples.
  1. Getting the right amount of restful sleep your body needs nightly will reflect in the state of your skin. Seven hours is generally adequate. Not enough sleep over a period of time will result in problems that are hard to cure such as loose skin under the eyes and dark circles.
  1. The food you eat is of the utmost importance for healthy, clear skin! Make sure you are getting a good amount of fresh fruits and vegetables and limit your red meat intake to three or four times a week. Foods that are easily digested will help your system keep your skin nourished and promote fresh, new cell growth. Drink lots and lots of water too!
  1. Cleanse the skin on your body and face with a weekly scrub/mask. When using a body scrub, start at your feet and work towards the heart, this helps eliminate toxins. Doing it in the opposite direction will push the toxins back into your system. Use a very gentle facial scrub on your face and neck as these areas can be easily damaged.
  1. Try our latest pink clay mask! This mask is having fantastic results on those people with open pores, pimples, and acne. Apply to a cleansed face. Leave for twenty minutes to work its way into the skin and then rinse off and apply a light moisturizer. Try this weekly! Very good for dehydrated skin/ all skin types.
  1. When your skin is clearer, try our vitamin C serum & Retinol to rejuvenate your skin too!
  1. Get out into the fresh air and take a walk, swim in the sea, ride a bike, and have fun! The exercise will boost your system and your skin will love it.
  1. Take a fish oil supplement daily. Cultures that eat a lot of fish have clearer skin and the fish oil helps eliminate toxins from the body and by now you know that is fantastic for your skin!

These ten easy tips will help you get that clear skin you so desperately want, remember to make the lifestyle changes you need to and enjoy the benefits that will come with it! A fresher, clearer, more youthful-looking complexion.

5 inspiring action verbs that can change your life

5 Inspiring Action Verbs That Can Change Your Life

If you’re having trouble getting inspired, it may be simply your choice of verbs. Here are 5 action verbs that can help get you inspired and get you out of your rut.

We’ve all been stuck in that place where things just don’t seem to go forward. We have trouble getting motivated and our goals seem either out of reach, or too weak. In short, we are uninspired!

Some self improvement experts will tell you that you have to have a good attitude in order to improve your life. I would agree with that, but it’s not always that easy. It’s hard to set aggressive goals and get inspired to achieve them when your mindset is not right.

If your mind is not ready to embrace more exciting goals, then change will be at best, difficult. In fact, if you’re not ready for it, then it will be hard to conquer even small challenges. If you can’t take on small challenges, then it’s going to be impossible to change your life to the degree you’d ultimately like.

To that end, I recommend using action to inspire yourself and create change. In effect, we’re placing the cart before the horse here, and forcing our attitude to match our actions. If you shake things up by taking action first, you’ll get your mind ready to create and pursue more exciting goals.

Below are 5 inspiring action verbs that you can use to shake things up and get yourself mentally ready to take on new challenges. If you use these techniques, even in small ways, you will naturally find yourself on the road to change. Change leads to bigger and better goals. Bigger and better goals lead to accepting greater challenges… and so on, and so on.

  1. Give – Give to a charity, an individual in need, or simply a friend or relative. You don’t have to give something expensive or big. Just a show of appreciation will do, such as a card or a flower. Why does it work… Giving is a very uplifting experience since it frees your mind from thinking that there is not enough in the world. Giving teaches you that there is plenty to go around, and it will cause you to attract more good things in your life.
  1. Learn – Learn a new language or a new dance. Learn about something you know nothing about, or learn to play a song on the piano or guitar. Why it works… learning something new develops your nervous system and makes you think in ways you’ve never thought before.
  1. Change – Change your routine, take a different route to work, change your usual clothing style, your hairstyle, or change what you normally eat. Why it works… change begets change. If you want a big change, start by making a small change.
  1. Participate – Participate in community activities, a sports team, or join a club. Why it works… participation requires social interaction and creativity, both of which will stimulate and inspire.
  1. Create – Create a piece of art, write a short story, make a bookshelf, or start a website. Why it works… creating stimulates all those dormant forces that allow change to enter your life.

Each time you perform one of these inspiring actions, take several minutes to feel good about it. You want your attitude to catch up to your actions. Also make sure that you enjoy the process, knowing that what you are doing is good for you and those around you as well.

Sometimes, just the exercise of reviewing these action verbs will be inspiration enough to get you thinking of what you could do to change your life. I hope you enjoy using these inspiring action verbs to change your mental state and improve your life. I’m sure that now you can think of some on your own. Remember, though, nothing happens without taking action!

Written by Julia Shantal