Dear Daily Vanity reader,
Oh, what a year it has been. This has certainly been one of most eventful years as far as my 30-over years of existence is concerned.
Like many, I started the year all bright-eyed and refreshed. There were so many exciting plans to look forward to, such as visiting the largest Sephora store in the world in KL (we covered it in January) to thinking about how we can keep our makeup fresh when we do house visits over Chinese New Year (CNY).
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We know what happened shortly after CNY. Things start looking gloomier and many of us are beginning to feel the uncertainty creep up on us. And by the time March comes by, we knew that things weren’t going to be the same; we’re definitely not going to be able to visit KL’s Sephora store for a while.
Our usual editorial articles gave way to practical tips like how to care for your skin if you wear a mask.
Then April came and Circuit Breaker was announced. With everyone staying at home, Daily Vanity‘s editorial team did our best to cheer you on.
From sharing hairstyles that help you look good at all your Zoom meetings to sharing with you how your extra screen-time can damage your skin and what you can do about it, we made sure we were there.
With all beauty salons closed, we also dispensed a ton of tips for DIY beauty sessions at home: how to give yourself a guasha facial massage, how to trim your brows, and even how to do eyelash extensions yourself at home (if you’re a daredevil!)
We also recommended the best root touch-up hair dyes to try, the best Japanese face masks we swear by, and the best at-home skincare devices and tools to invest in – so that we can still look our best and attempt to achieve that elusive post-Circuit Breaker glow. (How many of you benefited from more skincare during Circuit Breaker? Hands up!)
As Circuit Breaker extended, we doubled down on our efforts to keep you occupied with our weekly live-streaming sessions that we call the Get Fly on Fri series. They may be rather tiring to put out every week, but we really enjoyed the interaction we had with our readers and there’s really no better way to spend our stay-home time than with everyone.
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Here’s a recap on the live-stream meeting with did with Charlotte Tilbury Beauty pro-artist and celebrity makeup artist SJ Wai, where we dispensed tips and tricks on how you can achieve the ultimate glow-at-home routine.
We loved the live sessions with you so much, we continued with them even when Circuit Breaker ends. One of the most well-loved ones has to be the Picks of the Month (a long-time video programme by us), done on live-stream. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Telegram to get notifications for our next session.
Thankfully, everything began to resume to close-to-normal by the time July rolls by. Salons have reopened and many of you rushed to pick up salon vouchers, whether it’s for yourself or as a pampering gift for someone you love.
Stores reopened too, but without testers. We shared tips on how to get your foundations without testing them and the best transfer-proof lipsticks to wear under your masks.
(In case you don’t know, stores like Sephora has managed to find a safe way to let us use testers in store recently. Phew!)
Beauty stores also recovered quickly from the gloom, with many of them opening new and exciting retail spaces to welcome us back – safely, of course. (More of them announced here.)
If you have survived the year, give yourself a pat on your back. We are more resilient than we think; we coped, perhaps even thrived. But in the meantime, don’t forget to lend a hand to those who are still struggling from the effects of this horrible year. Pull them up.
I know that many of us found respite this year through self-care, for instance, by devoting more time to our skincare routines or redirecting our travel budgets to a good spa session. And this is one area that I know Daily Vanity can be a real friend for. Drop us a note if our content helped you – we’d love to hear about it. And talk to us too, if there’s something you think we can help you with, we’ll be glad to look into it.
I’m so relieved that this year is ending, and Phase 3 has finally kicked off. While we’ll have no knowing that 2021 is going to be a good year, I like the sense of hope a new year brings. And in 2021, my new year’s resolution will be to stay resilient and stay optimistic. I hope you can embrace this too!
With love, your friend in vanity,
Kristen, editorial director of Daily Vanity
