Beauty first, not brands

Given that her variety show Lady First - Singapore is so heavily centred on beauty products, how does Taiwanese host Pauline Lan maintain impartiality and avoid being seen as biased towards certain beauty companies?

Life! posed this question to her at a recent press conference for the second season of her show and the garrulous 48-year-old was completely serious in her reply.

She said in Mandarin, earnestly: "We never try to recommend just one product. For example, if we're talking about skin-whitening, then we'll always recommend relevant products that we think work across all price points, whether it's expensive or more for lower budgets.

"And we've always been focused on targeting the problem itself. For example, the problem of dry skin or other issues, as opposed to using the show as a platform to peddle products. Other times, we introduce beauty remedies that are DIY (do-it-yourself) too."

On the show, which is a local spin-off of her popular ongoing Taiwanese beauty talk show Lady First, all the products are either turned away from the camera or seen with stickers covering their brand names.

The second season of Lady First - Singapore, which will be shooting here in the coming weeks, premieres on E City (StarHub TV Channel 111/825) on June 3.

Lan also pointed out that she has not accepted any offer to endorse any beauty product commercially from the time Lady First was launched in 2003.

"In my 11 years of hosting Lady First, I have never agreed to take on a beauty commercial. I've been asked before many times why I haven't done so yet and my answer is that I want to remain neutral, which I feel is important for the show."

For the rest of the hour-long press conference, she displayed her famously sharp tongue, openly poking fun at her show's many guests.

She certainly did not mince her words, for example, when a group of actresses and ex-actresses joined her on stage at the press conference. This group, which includes local actresses Constance Song, Yang Libing and Rebecca Spykerman, are the upcoming season's new faces in the show's resident "ladies' team", made up of celebrities and models who give their take on the episode's topics.

To Song, 39, who showed up in askin-tight white dress with a plunging neckline, Lan said: "Do you think you work in a night club or something? And why is your hair so, so dry?"

Song looked mildly embarrassed, but awkwardly agreed to the dry hair comment.

As for Yang, 49, Lan said that her skin tone was "too dull". Yang laughed and said that she and Lan were born in the same year, to which Lan immediately quipped: "But look at your figure and look at mine. Your mother must not have been very happy when she gave birth to you because if she was happy, you would have a great body."

Lan, who is single, was certainly as open as ever about showing off her toned and svelte figure, dressed in a low-cut bodysuit paired with a sheer cover-up top.

She was also just as caustic when Singaporean actor Daren Tan, 31, came on stage armed with four hunky male models. Tan is the leader of the "men's team", a newly introduced component for the new season, which will for the first time, discuss beauty and fitness issues targeting men.

Lan said to the actor: "I see hot guys here, but what are you doing standing among them? You should have brought four guys who look worse than you, not better, so that you can look good in comparison."

Tan laughed and told Life! later that he was "of course not offended by her comments at all". He added: "Last year, she famously said that Singapore men were oily and I'm ready to prove to her that not all Singaporean men are in such a terrible state in terms of their looks.

"It'll be fun to work with her on the show and find out from a female perspective what they like and don't like about a guy's look."

Lan, who will return to Singapore every few weeks to film new episodes, added that Singaporeans should not have any excuse to look bad, especially when compared to those living in more varied climates.

"Singapore is very hot and humid, which flattens your hair immediately - I know that. But you know what, Singapore has only one type of weather throughout the year instead of four seasons, so once you manage to figure out how to tackle these issues, Singaporeans really have no excuse to look bad."

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