rinnah’s consumer views|what a consumer really wants and thinks about products and services

I’ll have to admit that I was late to cotton on to the magic of transformation that a simple brow shaping can give your face. In fact, I think I only started taking my brow shape seriously after twenty-something. Heh. Mainly, my disregard to this area of my face was due to the fact that I simply didn’t know how to shape my brows well and partly because my mother was always reminding (nagging!) me not to over-tweeze my brows. So why bother, I used to think.

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However, ever since I’ve discovered Shu Uemura’s Brow Atelier (a fancy name for their brow shaping services) I’ve never looked back. In about 10 – 15 minutes, any consultant at Shu Uemura’s counter can transform your shaggy, unkempt, overgrown brows into beautifully shaped and trimmed brows that frame your eyes and enhance your facial outlook. And you do know that the saying goes that “Eyes are the windows to the soul”, right?

Here’s a quick rundown on what happens when you get your brows done at Shu Uemura. (Note : There is no standard shaping technique overall as I’ve noticed that the items and technique used vary from consultant to consultant.) Usually, the consultant attending to you will :

~ Clean the equipment (blade, scissors, tweezer) using a cotton pad and make-up remover and wipe dry with tissue.
~ Assist you to remove any makeup residue if you have drawn or shaded in your brows.
~ Clip up your fringe (depending on your hairstyle).
~ Tweeze off most of the visible brow hairs that are growing out of the brow area.
~ Use a blade to shave off brow hairs into the desired brow shape.
~ Use a spoolie and scissors to trim longer brow hairs to achieve a neat look.
~ Repeat as necessary until you get perfect brows.

I’m not sure since I only get my brows done at the standalone outlets at either 1Utama or MidValley Megamall, but I would presume that the regular Shu counters at major department stores would also provide the same service.

Shu Uemura Brow Atelier
Available at all Shu Uemura outlets.
Cost : MYR20 per session.

However, if you feel brave enough to go it alone and shape your brows yourself, Connie of Skindeco has a really good step-by-step guide here. Syen of So Loverly also has a mini discussion on whether to pluck, shave, thread or wax your brows into shape here.

Note : As a consumer, my goal (and I think everyone else’s goal is too!) is to get the best value out of my hard-earned money. So occasionally I will blog about tips and tricks about being a smart consumer that I myself have personally used. This is one of them.

In this day and age of technology, it seems that almost everyone has a mobile phone. Even school going kids have mobile phones – my 9 year old nephew has one too! Besides the convenience of being able to be in touch with others all the time, there is also the cost involved in owning a mobile phone. However, this money saving tip will only work if you have a postpaid plan like I do.

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My family has been using Maxis as our line provider for as long as we have been using mobile phones, and that’s a pretty long time. We used to have different plans under different providers, both postpaid and prepaid, but it made so much more sense to group the family lines under one service provider for convenience and cost-saving.

Recently, I made a discovery that not many people might take the time and trouble to do so. I had been checking out the data rates and plans available through Maxis as I had upgraded my mobile phone to one that had 3G capabilities. Halfway through my surfing though, I noticed that Maxis had recently rolled out a new family line package which was significantly cheaper than the current plan we were on. Now, as existing customers, we hadn’t received any notice that this new rates were available and thus were continuing to pay the older, higher rates. Being the thrifty Chinese that I am, of course I wanted the better rates! =)

So, I made a quick phone call to Maxis to see if there was any way that I could switch my family plan from the old one to the new one. As it turns out, I could do so, and it only took that phone call and 3 working days for the change to be effected. When I next checked the phone bill, there was a savings of MYR40.00 overall (not full savings, considering that the rate change happened in mid-billing cycle). I don’t know about you, but that bit of money adds up to quite a bit over say, 1 year = MYR480.00.

So, it pays off to keep in touch with your mobile provider’s latest rate plans. Have you checked your mobile rate plan lately?