My Favourite Workshop Topic:
Building a Professional Presence

My favourite topic is building a professional presence as it is a topic that I could make use almost immediately and makes use the knowledge learnt in my everyday life now and in the future. Also, it gave me the deepest impression. It is also the most basic thing that we should and must know before we can even proceed to learn any other thing pertaining to business and social etiquette.

One of the most important things that I have learnt in this topic is about the crossing of arms. This is so as I like to cross my arms on chest and this has been my habit for a very long time.

However, I did not know that it means that I am being defensive. Thus, with the knowledge learnt at the workshop, I then understood that when one crosses his or her arms, it may mean that they are being defensive. Hence, I began to prevent myself from crossing my arms and I feel that this is something good as if I did not know about it; I may offend someone else in the future.

Also, without the workshop, I would not know what kind of suits will suit me. For example, I used to wear a relatively tight blazer and the blazer was not matched with my skirt. I did not know that if one’s suit is fitting, the end of the blazer should be at the wrist bone area. Then, as I am a big sized person, it would be great to have a skirt that is not too tight as if it was to be too tight, it will make my bum and legs look bigger.

In addition, after attending the workshop, I then knew that shoes that have sharper fronts and thinner heels can help to make someone’s legs look thinner and make a person look more professional.

(Heels with a rounder front)

(Heels with a sharper front)

(Heels that are short and bulky may make one's legs look not as elegant and nice)

(Heels that are thinner may be able to make one's legs look nicer)

Also, after attending the workshop and taking in Ms Mariah’s suggestion of putting something to make my hair less frenzy, I looked a lot neater. I feel that this suggestion is quite important as someone with frenzy and messy hair may look unprofessional.

(Hair without any moisturizer looks very frenzy and may even reach forehead areas)

(Hair without any moisturizer looks very frenzy and may make me look unprofessional)

(After applying moisturizer on my hair, my hair looks a lot neater!)

(A neater hair and the thing I'm holding is my secret to less frenzy hair- Leave-On Moisturizer)

Also, I used to think that it should be alright to not have any makeup put on when working or at least, I would only need to put on a lipstick. However, after the workshop, I then understood the importance of having makeup. The main purpose of having makeup put on is not just to beautify one, but also to make someone look more professional. Then, with the makeup knowledge given by the Sheseido staff, I then started to practice putting on makeup so as to make myself look professional. After putting on makeup, I realized that I look smarter with makeup than without makeup. Also, with makeup, I do not look so pale.

(I look pale and tired without makeup)

(Step 1- Putting on makeup base)

(Step 2- Putting on foundation)

(This is how I look after adding on eye shadow, lipstick and blusher!)

(I look livelier with makeup and not so tired and pale!)

Then, from the Shiseido workshop, I have also gained other knowledge like the correct way to put on makeup. For instance, how I can draw an eye line. This is particularly important to me as I did not know how to draw it in the first place and even if I have attempted drawing, it would always be out of shape.

However, I was taught that not everyone needs to have an eye line drawn on their eyes. This is so as some people’s eyes are small and eyeliner may not be able to help make the eyes look better, and thus, eyeliner can be forgone. Hence, since then, whenever I do make-up, I would forgo the eyeliner part as I felt that without the eyeliner, I still look fine.

Though the Sheseido workshop has taught me a lot, I feel that it could be better if they could allow us to put on the makeup on the spot while explaining. This is to allow us to practice how we can put on the makeup. Without putting the makeup on the spot, we could not really understand the process of doing the makeup.

For instance, though they explained how we can make use of lip liner to make our lips look more defined, however, when I went home to try drawing, I was not able to draw it properly and even if I looked back at the notes that were given to us, I still could not understand how to draw it. Thus, I felt that it would be better if we could practice as they teach, so that they could have pointed out our mistakes while teaching.

(How To Apply Lipstick and Lip Gloss)

I am really glad that I have been able to attend this workshop as it has allowed me to gain a lot of knowledge that I should need to know for present and future use. I feel that it is good to have such workshops whereby students can gain knowledge to apply in their everyday life. It is also great to have such workshops that teaches us these important and useful knowledge as we are going to enter the hospitality and tourism industry, which is still an industry that values a lot on the way one can dress appropriately and behave appropriately.

However, I feel that it could be even better if there are more visuals during the workshops or activities that we can participate in. This is because the visuals and activities will be able to help make the workshops to be more interesting and make us feel less tired or distracted (due to the fact that the workshops can last up to 3 hours).

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