Rowena

Hello, My name is Rowena.  

I used to work in the beauty industry.

Inspite of the ample salary, the “impressive” title and the enviable perks of free cosmetics and my weekly “Hello” magazine – making women feel ugly inadequate just so I can sell more lipsticks just did not feel right.

When I left, I started this blog revealing the lies in the biz.  It was an angry blog which was an instant hit to a modest number of fans.   After all, an angry bitch can be quite a funny bitch.

But the blog was short lived.

The hate that fueled it was exhausting.   Rejecting the industry that fed me and throwing my lifelong experience hasn’t exactly made my life a Met Gala. 

While all the basic bitches of the world were taking pumpkin latté selfies in their outfit du jour, I went through a period of career improvisations, of struggle after struggle, of going from plan A to B to C to D till I lost track which plan I was executing anymore.  Of sleepless nights over unpaid debts, broken partnerships, lost friendships, alienated families, homelessness, starvation, depression and dire hopelessness. 

Until now…

I realized that inspite of life’s seeming “injustice”, I am in control of my life and responsible for what it has become. Not the beauty industry, the politicians nor the capitalists.  Because giving them all the blame means I am a helpless victim with no control of my life.

A victim, I was not.

It was I who bought into the notion that I was not enough and had to prove myself to the world.  That I was in competition with other women in a dog eat dog world. 

It was I who valued career success over interpersonal wellness, that this job is more important than a good night’s sleep, a home cooked meal, and sunny walks with a loved one.

I bought the car, the Big Mac, the 5€ t-shirt. And the lip balm too because it’s for a good cause.

After having been through hell and back, I have come to make sense of myself and this society I helped create. Of this interconnected world of choices I have taken for granted.

I now know that lasting change will not come from the beauty industry, the politicians, nor the capitalists. Real change can only come from myself.

You might be angry, might be struggling, might be hopeless. This blog would like to take your hand through them and encourage you to keep going until you rediscover love.

You have a choice. Choose love over envy, over anger, over fear.

Because only in love will you find your peace,  happiness and beauty that does not expire with the next beauty trend. Choose love and the world will flourish with you.

And so, this blog which could not be sustained by hate is reborn in love.
Because only love is sustainable. Only love has beauty that lasts.

And so Beauty and the Bullshit, the blog, just got personal.
Let’s blog on bitches!

Rowena is a mechanical engineer who has done intensive criticism in her past as a manager of a global makeup brand.

Honed to find fault in the most beautiful of supermodels, put a marketing spin to the most mundane of products and making scandalous amounts of money along the way – she now enjoys life ghosting society, stylishly vagabonding and designing luxilitarian products.

Her first published literature was as a groupie, titled “How to have your toyboy, and eat it too.” Her most remembered piece of literature is her goodbye email to the corporate world- the type that you will only write if you have won the lottery.

She once had aspirations of being a rockstar and was the vocalist to an all-female male bashing band called “My Black Bra”. The band didn’t see the light of day as 3 of her bandmates got pregnant.  

She can derive the engine efficiency of an otto cycle and can say “I can’t, I have my period”, in 32 languages, which, she suspects, is the reason why she is still single.