I was in a rather festive mood last week and in a bid to look my extra best (who knew what the long weekend held?), I scheduled a little quality time with my nails at Vedure Medispa (#04-06 Wheelock Place, 501 Orchard Rd., 6732-6448), where I had my first Minx™ Nails ($45-85 for a manicure or pedicure) experience. For the uninitiated, the Minx™ nail line is a hot new trend for your digits, previously worn by stars such as Rihanna, Beyonce and Katy Perry. While only professionally trained nail technicians can carry out the procedure, it is relatively straightforward and requires little down time. A solid nail coating (of your choice of color and design) is applied to your natural nails with a shrink wrap technique that uses heat and pressure so you won’t have to wait around for long. Popular designs include the Cheetah, Houndstooth, Silver Lightning and Gold Studs.

My nose has been twitching all month from all the fragrance launches I’ve been attending—some so precious I can’t wait for them to hit the counters, others somewhat questionable. One of the more interesting ones is The Library Collection ($490 per 100ml bottle at Nuance-Watson, (#038-008 Passenger Terminal 2, Singapore Changi Airport, 6501-1455) by luxury fragrance house Amouage from Oman. The collection consists of three fragrances, Opus 1 through 3, which can be mixed to create a unique narrative for the wearer. The scents as a whole exude a remarkable sense of nostalgia and warmth. While I personally love the smell of old books and antique leather armchairs, I’m not sure I want the smell on me, but the collection is certainly a memorable one.

Calling those with brittle and unhealthy hair: Try out the newest anti hair-loss product in the market, the Phytolium Energizing Shampoo ($38 at all Robinsons and John Little departmental stores), which aims to preserve and prolong hair’s life cycles by restoring strength, density and shine even after the very first use. The shampoo contains extracts of the Rooibos plant which is rich in antioxidants, vitamin C, minerals, ginseng and sage. All these apparently help to stimulate and revitalize scalp and hair while improving hair’s natural resistance towards external stress. Unlike most shampoo brands, this one comes in a 150ml tube not unlike the ones used for hair conditioner and gives off an intense bucolic scent not for the faint-hearted—hey, there’s a price to pay for everything.