Author: Leo Goh

Make-up fans were sad to learn about Sasa’s island-wide store closures in December 2019. Prior to closure, Sasa Singapore had made efforts to restructure management and pay more attention to storefront displays to drive sales. Sasa put up a good fight—they had been making losses for six years since 2013. Here’s a fun fact: Sasa actually hails from the land of all things Dim Sum—Hong Kong. Known internationally as Sa Sa International Holdings Limited, the company was founded in 1978 by Kwok Siu-Ming and was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1997. However, all faith is not lost.…

A brand that successfully captures everything quintessentially feminine would definitely be 6IXTY8IGHT. In 2003, the brand established herself in Hong Kong and her first store in Beijing, China. Since then, this fun-loving apparel and lingerie brand has rapidly expanded its presence in Asia, with 200 stores across the continent. Stepping into a 6IXTY8IGHT store is akin to entering a cotton candy daydream, the perfect setting to get you in the mood to treat yourself to cute clothes and beautiful lingerie. But what if you’re not in the mood to shop in-store? Perhaps you’re on your period and am not feeling…

“You could take a little trip around Singapore town, in a Singapore city bus. To see Collyer Quay and Raffles Place, the Esplanade and all of us.” What is quintessentially part of the Singaporean spirit are our neighbourhoods with each exuding their own personalities. Here’s a new way to rediscover our neighbourhoods with Arts In Your Neighbourhood—a National Arts Council initiative to bring the arts to your doorstep. Look forward to an amalgamation of arts with local flair as you experience the diverse line-up with your family and friends. With 40 events to choose from, there’s definitely something for everyone.…

On 18 February 2020, our Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Heng Swee Keat delivered the Singapore Budget for the 2020 financial year. What caught my attention during this year’s Budget address was the announcement of the S$500 credit top-up to an individual’s SkillsFuture account. If you’re a youngin and have no idea what SkillsFuture is, let me explain. SkillsFuture is the government’s initiative for those aged 25 and above to attain new skills via classes. May it be for personal passions or to aid career changes, this movement is to encourage life-long learning. “Your skills. Your asset. Your future.”…

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! For our genius, lord and saviour, Kanye West is set to drop three new Yeezy Boost 350 v2 around the world on 22nd February 2020. If you’ve been living under a rock and have no idea what Yeezy’s are, here are some quick facts. The first pairs of Yeezy’s were actually made with Nike. From 2007-2013, Kanye sold Air Yeezys with the American sneaker giant. The collaboration came to an end when Nike refused to grant royalties from the sale of the sneaker to West. On 3rd December 2013, adidas confirmed that Kanye had in fact…

“I am Sailor Moon, champion of justice!” Calling all Sailor Moon fans, our favourite collaborative make-up brand—ColourPop, has finally produced a collection of Sailor Moon themed make-up! Sailor Moon, if you don’t already know, first originated as a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. In 1992, the manga was adapted into an animation series that was broadcasted in Japan. Our champion of justice made its way into popular culture in 1995, when it was licensed to be broadcasted in the U.S. Since then, Sailor Moon has wiggled her way into our hearts and minds. ColourPop is an…

Perhaps in an alternate universe, telepathic technology will be a commonality, and we would be able to skip first dates altogether. But alas, that is not the case in our current reality. First dates are often significant—they set the impression and are the deciding factor for future dates. As much as small talk can be tiring, we must acknowledge that small talk is the gateway to having more profound and more meaningful conversations. Getting to know someone from scratch is hard enough, but imagine having a horrific time during the date, now that’s the icing on the cake. We’ve heard…

We’re constantly consuming media. May it be on your phone or laptop, we’re always giving our attention to something on the internet be it for work, play, or school. But how much of what we consume actually enriches us? Or moves us—or even leaves an impression given our short attention spans? Here’s a project that uses the internet for good. 15 Shorts is a filmmaking project by the City of Good, created and supported by The National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC). 15 Shorts consists of 15 short films helmed by a trove of Singaporean filmmakers who attempt to capture the…

It’s been about two weeks since Singapore’s DORSCON Level changed to orange. Since then we’ve seen a public frenzy—wiping out grocery stores, which resulted in supermarkets having to set hard limits on the number of supplies one can buy at a single time. There are also stories of Singaporeans being rude to healthcare workers, facemasks being sold for stupidly exorbitant prices, and panic from misinformation being spread. Being alive during this time of COVID-19, really has shown me what fear can do to us as a nation. Are there any positive takeaways we’ve learned so far? Perhaps that Singaporeans will…

Remember when Singaporeans went on a frenzy for Yayoi Kusuma’s Life Is The Heart Of A Rainbow exhibition at the National Gallery back in 2017? The polka-dotted installation drew up to 235,000 visitors over a three-month span. I wonder how many of those people actually visited the exhibit for the art and not just for the ‘gram. I find it fascinating that as a culture we’ve gone from simply viewing art to being interactive with it by posing and taking pictures thanks to social media and the advancement of technology. Now as an art lover, imagine my excitement (and jealousy)…

Letting your hair down in our hot and humid country for the whole day is almost unheard of. Unless you’re indoors most of the day, it’s virtually impossible to not have your hair stick on the back of your neck with sweat. Solution: tie your hair up. But here lies another issue: you can never find a hair tie when you absolutely need one. And when you do have a hair tie, it’ll either be too tight and leave marks on your wrist or be so loose that it’ll slip off your wrist as you go about your day. There’s…

As we celebrate the month of love this February, I decided to tap into personal experience and discuss platonic love. We often associate Valentine’s day as the day we celebrate romance. But as someone who has been (painfully) single for the past year, I have nothing to contribute to that narrative. I celebrate love every day in different ways, but since we have a whole day that’s dedicated explicitly as the day of love, I wanted to chime in too. Perhaps you’re in a similar situation like I am, and am friendly with an ex, or maybe you’re looking to…

It’s midnight, and you and your partner want to do something other than fornicate. The club is way too loud, the dance floor crowded and the air is thick with the stench of sweating bodies. You’ve gone prawning so many times that you have a whole sleeve of mosquito bites to prove it, and after endless amounts of hotpot, it simply does not hit the spot anymore. Grab is expensive at midnight; you wouldn’t want to take a shot in the dark and go somewhere only to realise that it’s closed. You’ve exhausted your mid-night date ideas and don’t know…

Functionality and minimal design are a few of my favourite things. Our favourite Sweedish bag brand—Fjällräven Kånken is releasing the new Kånken Hip Pack and Kånken Totepack in Singapore in mid-March 2020. Remember when we all gushed over how cute the Kånken Sling was? The miniature classic backpack silhouette took Kånken lovers by storm. Very much a ‘just-take-my-money’ moment for us fellow collectors. The Kåken Totepack is a versatile bag that can transform from tote bag to bag pack in a flash. Use it as an everyday bag for work or school with the 13-inch laptop compartment just like the classic Kånken.…

Gone are the days when the only form of being able to gauge someone’s tone through text was the use of emoticons. Fun fact: The word emoticon is a contraction of ’emotional icon’—emoticons were first substantially used in 1982, by American computer scientist Scott E. Fahlman. Emojis first appeared on Japanese mobile phones in the late ’90s and the first modern emojis that we’re all familiar was first recognised in the Unicode Consortium in 2010, three years after an initial proposal to recognise these icons were sent in by a software internationalization team at Google. Nowadays, emojis are very much…