It’s all too easy to eat more high caloric foods while on a trip, be it for business or leisure, and if your hotel doesn’t have a gym, how will you burn that food away?

The exercise DVD is your savior.

I used to be disdainful of the at-home exercise video because I was a gym rat and a runner, but in recent years, I’ve obviously had a change of heart. Short on time, or when it’s cold outside, a workout DVD will stave off excuses to sweat it out.

The latest one I bought was The Tracy Anderson Method Presents Post Pregnancy Workout DVD because of its rave reviews, plus Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna are huge fans. The workout is so effective that women who weren’t preggers have tried it out.

I’m one of them – feel free to snigger but Tracy Anderson does walk the talk and her workout is hard. I found some of her techniques similar to the bootcamp DVD I’ve been using off and on for two years, but she adds some dance and ballet moves to make it more feminine. And she pipes classical music as the background of this grueling ab and butt resistance training — very unusual but I appreciate the soft touch and it’s a nice break from thumping beats that often accompany aerobic workouts.

Now that I’m traveling from place to place in the US, I love the fact that I can put this on my laptop and crunch away for 40 minutes.

In my post-workout state, I’m relaxed and I can tuck into my dinner feeling good about myself.

Oh and did you know that exercise prevents aging? Hell, yeah.

I live in a small apartment with only one bathroom so when I have guests, I need to find a mirror to do my hair and makeup.

Unfortunately, I don’t buy compacts much and threw away very old ones recently. My solution? My MacBook!

I turned on iMovie and it reflected back my image. I put on my makeup in a jiffy.

The other solution is to use my digital camera whose viewfinder has a mirror-like surface when it is turned off. This was a lifesaver in Nepal three years ago when there were no mirrors in the guest houses I stayed in and I cannot put on my contacts without one.

My fiancé held up my digital camera so I could have both hands to navigate the lenses onto my eyes. I feel like laughing every time I think about this.

I sometimes swipe lipstick and lipgloss without a mirror and I think it looks okay. Plus, there are mirrors in almost every subway station in Tokyo. I always catch women (or men) checking their appearance and it’s no wonder this is a city full of spiffy-looking peeps.

What do you when you can’t put on your face in your powder room?

We tend to look for quick-fixes in order to feel good — an iced frap, splurging on heels, or checking into a mani session. These are all well and good, but I don’t think they truly help us feel beautiful on the inside. When we have a bad day, it’s easy to fall back on 3 seconds of “yay” but you will still feel like you were before.

I think it’s pointless to talk about beauty without bringing the mind into it. If you are positive and happy, it will show in your radiant face.

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I know recession beauty tips are as stale and crusty as week-old bread so I’m not going to espouse on that. But I will say that swapping beauty products is a great way to keep that sense of luxury we love so much alive and well despite the dismal economy.

Instead of downgrading to a cheaper brand, why not trade something you don’t want for something that you do? It’s not a new concept to beauty addicts, so I’ll just talk about my experience.

As I was cleaning out my closet after I returned from my Sydney holiday, I couldn’t help but feel guilty about practically full bottles of fragrances that I didn’t adore as much as before.

I was like, “I’ve got nothing to wear…” But in my heart, I knew it would be frivolous of me to buy more of something that just evaporates into thin air.

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Do you ever get tired of your perfume? Although I have several to choose from, there are days which I yearn to wear a different fragrance. Scents are less tangible than clothes or shoes, so justifying 5 more bottles is hard.

What I do is I experiment with different perfume oils or body lotions to combine with my exisiting perfumes. For example, I might dab a little coconut oil on my wrists after spritzing Givenchy’s Jardin d’Interdit (a Japan-only limited edition fragrance) which is a citrusy floral scent.

I may use The Body Shop’s Banana Body Butter with Prada’s Infusion d’Iris. It’s like matching cheap and chic in a way *chuckles*. Look at Sarah Jessica Parker’s story about mixing a men’s scent with drug store musk — I loved reading about that.

I once attended a perfume workshop where we made our own concoctions — one of the funnest moments in my life. I used to think I would end up with clashing combinations but try to have a feel for what might match. I tend to mix similar families of fragrances, eg: fruit with fruit, or white musk with floral. Or you could go the other way and mix opposites to take the edge off. For instance, a heavier scent with amber or patchouli might do with an airy, sharper note like lily or green tea.

There are so many ways to blend your scents, so just tap into your imagination.