Asian women have this huge obsession with fair skin. And now the pursuit of fairer skin is no longer limited to the fairer of the sex. It would seem that men too have fell under the spell of numerous beauty products out there promising fairer and supple-looking skin.
A male customer came and ask for the literature of a new health drink containing pearl powder and marine collagen. Unfortunately, the product did not come with a 2-page long fine-print explanation of its properties. What's available is already printed on the box and the bottle and it offers limited information on just how the product delivers its promises: rejuvenates aging skin, prevents wrinkles and pigmentation and the ever-elusive skin whitening effect.
In the end, he did not buy the product. The reason: he's already on collagen supplement mainly for skin whitening properties and did not see any effect so far. In fact he is so well-informed that he mentioned the latest wonder in whitening products are those containing human growth hormone which guarantees visible whitening effect. I just nodded my head and mmm and ahhh at the right intervals, in passive agreement.
Vanity, Thy Name is Wo(Man)!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
My pet peeve!
I dislike dispensing Postinor. Literally, anyone and everyone ask for it, men and women alike, from dirty old men to the sweet sixteens. Postinor is indicated as emergency contraception in the event of missed pills or torn condoms or more sinister, a rape. But in reality, it has achieved recreational status, because it absolves the users from practising safe sex apart from the obvious of trying to prevent a pregnancy.
And today, a nerdy looking college-going male came in asking for levonorgestrel 0.15mg. My first instinct: that's a weird way to ask for a medicine, because hardly anyone in Malaysia is educated enough to ask for medicines by their generic name. Secondly, the strength mentioned felt 'not right' because for that strength it would normally exist in combination with an estrogen as combined oral contraceptive pills and if it's a progestogen only contraceptive pill it would be at a very much lower strength. Upon further probing, I found out that he was looking for emergency contraceptive pill.
Come on, if you dare to do it without condom and all, be brave and mention the brand. No need to be shy-shy and try to act smart. Grrrrr!
And for girls who happen to be reading this, please be responsible for your own body. As with all medicines, there are known side-effects. For Postinor, it may cause ectopic pregnancy which is pregnancy occuring outside the womb. If you are sexually active, there are long-term contraception available which are more effective and reliable than Postinor. You can always discuss these options with your doctor/pharmacist.
And today, a nerdy looking college-going male came in asking for levonorgestrel 0.15mg. My first instinct: that's a weird way to ask for a medicine, because hardly anyone in Malaysia is educated enough to ask for medicines by their generic name. Secondly, the strength mentioned felt 'not right' because for that strength it would normally exist in combination with an estrogen as combined oral contraceptive pills and if it's a progestogen only contraceptive pill it would be at a very much lower strength. Upon further probing, I found out that he was looking for emergency contraceptive pill.
Come on, if you dare to do it without condom and all, be brave and mention the brand. No need to be shy-shy and try to act smart. Grrrrr!
And for girls who happen to be reading this, please be responsible for your own body. As with all medicines, there are known side-effects. For Postinor, it may cause ectopic pregnancy which is pregnancy occuring outside the womb. If you are sexually active, there are long-term contraception available which are more effective and reliable than Postinor. You can always discuss these options with your doctor/pharmacist.
Of numbers, fortune telling and... MLM?!
Yesterday, after taking a free BP check for one of the regulars, she asked if she could do a number reading for me. Always the curious me, I said sure. She asked for my birth date and quickly drawn up an inverted triangle and began filling it up with some numbers, which I found out later that these numbers were actually summation of various combinations of my birth date.
She then proceeded to tell me about my character and personality, i.e. how am i like and the works, which I sorta agree with. She went on to say that I 'seems' to have various opportunities to venture into businesses/investments which had I gone into these, I would have been very successful. However due to my own uncertainty (as in to do or not to do, that is the question), I have missed out the opportunities. Nevertheless, she said that I must venture into business coz I would make it good as the numbers "seems" to point in that direction.
Next she asked me to pen down the character of my chinese name. Whatever she saw there, it wasn't good coz she said that certain elements in my name does not bode well for my personal life, hence i must change my chinese name. She informed me that there's a particular Dato who conduct seminars on this number/fortune telling thingy in Kota Damansara (including name change and all the works) and if I was interested I could go and listen. I said non-committally that I would think about it and we exchanged phone numbers.
Throughout the day, I didn't have much time to think about the episode until later at night when my mind quiet down. As they always say, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. I felt a little restless and out of curiosity googled 'numerology' and 'kota damansara'. Interestingly the word "visiber" turned up.
I went into the company website and saw the familiar inverted triangle and the various formulas to derive the numbers which the lady had penned down earlier in the day. I also found out that this thing has been in existence since 2007 and from various blogs learnt that it has some MLM elements to it.
The restlessness grew and I called Hubs to relate what had happened. When he heard about the 'businesses' and 'investments' bit, he was laughing his guts out and said that it was so obvious the lady was 'baiting' me. Since Hub's cousin was visiting, I asked Hubs to check with him if he has heard of the company as he sorta move in the MLM circle.
Now on a saner mind, I recognised the 'baiting' was indeed there, and realised that gone are the days of 'hard sell' where enthusiastic MLM-ers encourage you to attend their motivational/inspirational talks that makes one so positive and practically wrap in this bubble of 'can-do' spirit. Instead, this particular company has employed something which I felt is uncomfortably darker, where in this instance the use of special numerological calculation to influence one that the future is changeable through numbers and good luck charms.
She then proceeded to tell me about my character and personality, i.e. how am i like and the works, which I sorta agree with. She went on to say that I 'seems' to have various opportunities to venture into businesses/investments which had I gone into these, I would have been very successful. However due to my own uncertainty (as in to do or not to do, that is the question), I have missed out the opportunities. Nevertheless, she said that I must venture into business coz I would make it good as the numbers "seems" to point in that direction.
Next she asked me to pen down the character of my chinese name. Whatever she saw there, it wasn't good coz she said that certain elements in my name does not bode well for my personal life, hence i must change my chinese name. She informed me that there's a particular Dato who conduct seminars on this number/fortune telling thingy in Kota Damansara (including name change and all the works) and if I was interested I could go and listen. I said non-committally that I would think about it and we exchanged phone numbers.
Throughout the day, I didn't have much time to think about the episode until later at night when my mind quiet down. As they always say, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. I felt a little restless and out of curiosity googled 'numerology' and 'kota damansara'. Interestingly the word "visiber" turned up.
I went into the company website and saw the familiar inverted triangle and the various formulas to derive the numbers which the lady had penned down earlier in the day. I also found out that this thing has been in existence since 2007 and from various blogs learnt that it has some MLM elements to it.
The restlessness grew and I called Hubs to relate what had happened. When he heard about the 'businesses' and 'investments' bit, he was laughing his guts out and said that it was so obvious the lady was 'baiting' me. Since Hub's cousin was visiting, I asked Hubs to check with him if he has heard of the company as he sorta move in the MLM circle.
Now on a saner mind, I recognised the 'baiting' was indeed there, and realised that gone are the days of 'hard sell' where enthusiastic MLM-ers encourage you to attend their motivational/inspirational talks that makes one so positive and practically wrap in this bubble of 'can-do' spirit. Instead, this particular company has employed something which I felt is uncomfortably darker, where in this instance the use of special numerological calculation to influence one that the future is changeable through numbers and good luck charms.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
And I thought all men are born to know how to shave
As I was catching up with some ex-colleagues over lunch a few days ago, relating a couple of weird but hilarious customer encounters, one of them encouraged me to blog about it here. So here goes:
This episode happened quite a few years back when I was still in employment by another chain retail pharmacy. The store opposite from me is a photography shop and manned by a rather effeminate and plump Chinese man.
When he's not too busy he will run over to my store, mostly to window-shop and ask some general questions about health supplements on how to maintain beautiful skin or for weight loss. One day, he turned up in front of my counter and rather sheepishly asked how to get rid of facial hair. With him being a man and all, I thought he would always have a steady supply of razors in his bathroom. So naturally I answered shave lor.
Turning a slight shade of pink, he asked "Got any cream ar instead of shaving?" and while he was asking this, his right hand was lightly patting his rather scarce moustache - one-day-old hair probably, with the little pinky finger sticking out. Trying to maintain my best professional composure, I answered, "Most of the time shaving would be the easiest. I suppose you can try some of the hair removal cream like Nair or Veet but these are formulated for body hair, hence not tested for face."
Looking back I realised i should have suggested a third option: strip wax, just for the heck of it. Hahaha
This episode happened quite a few years back when I was still in employment by another chain retail pharmacy. The store opposite from me is a photography shop and manned by a rather effeminate and plump Chinese man.
When he's not too busy he will run over to my store, mostly to window-shop and ask some general questions about health supplements on how to maintain beautiful skin or for weight loss. One day, he turned up in front of my counter and rather sheepishly asked how to get rid of facial hair. With him being a man and all, I thought he would always have a steady supply of razors in his bathroom. So naturally I answered shave lor.
Turning a slight shade of pink, he asked "Got any cream ar instead of shaving?" and while he was asking this, his right hand was lightly patting his rather scarce moustache - one-day-old hair probably, with the little pinky finger sticking out. Trying to maintain my best professional composure, I answered, "Most of the time shaving would be the easiest. I suppose you can try some of the hair removal cream like Nair or Veet but these are formulated for body hair, hence not tested for face."
Looking back I realised i should have suggested a third option: strip wax, just for the heck of it. Hahaha
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