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News.com.au
8 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Beauty Diary: Sex worker's shock act with popular $20 Coles item
The creator of a $20 product sold in Coles has responded to a sex worker's recent viral video, warning the item is 'not originally intended' for the way it was used in the clip. Blue Eyed Kayla Jade, a 'full service' worker who lives on the Gold Coast, has amassed millions of followers thanks to her candid client confessions. Along with juicy details about her X-rated exploits, she also shares her skincare and make-up tips, and regularly causes items to sell out. But her most recent video, a paid promotion with personal care brand GEM, has raised eyebrows after she used a razor to shave her face. Fans were stunned by the adult content creator's unusual technique, in fact, even the brand's creator Georgia Geminder was so shocked by how Kayla used the grooming essential. 'The razors weren't originally intended for that, more so for legs, bikini, underarms, etc,' she told The Beauty Diary. 'But if it works for Kayla, it works for us.' Women shaving their faces isn't new, but rarely is the task completed with a standard razor. Instead, those who like to remove their fine facial hairs, also known as peach fuzz, will use a dermaplaning tool to get the job done. Let's be clear, it's still a razor, but instead of a multi-barred long blade, a dermaplaning tool contains a tiny scalpel blade to exfoliate the skin which in the process also removes peach fuzz. And it's popularity lies in the fact it results in smoother skin that helps skincare products absorb better as well as giving a flawless finish when used with beauty products such as foundation and bronzer. In Kayla's video, she explained she was shaving her face to make her make-up 'sit so much better' after experiencing unexpected facial hair growth recently. After lathering her face in shaving foam, Kayla then proceeds to use Gem's 'Skin-Loving Shaving Kit' on her cheeks, before taking the razor down onto her chin and ending on her forehead. 'This shaver has made my legs insanely smooth, so I know that it will work so well on my face,' she states, as it glides over her skin. Concerned fans however were quick to flood the video, which has clocked up over 600,000 views in the past 24 hours, to warn the star against face shaving. 'Duudddeee you need a dermaplaning blade for that, easier to control and not shave your eyebrows off,' one said. 'You need to get an actual derma blade, don't use those normal razors,' agreed another. As one claimed: 'Your hair will grow back thicker with a normal blaze.' So can you get the same effect using a regular razor as a dermaplaning tool? According to Ms Geminder, if men can shave their face, so can women. 'Gone are the days where we have to use our boyfriends/brothers/husbands/etc razors to achieve a precise shave,' she said. 'Gem razors provide a premium, men's-grade shaving experience (minus the ugly packaging), and we love Kayla putting them to the test. 'Plus, if men can do it – we should too. Just make sure to proceed with caution, we don't want any missing eyebrows.' Gem's 'category-disrupting razors' launched into Coles last month after taking Ms Geminder two years to perfect, and the beauty entrepreneur said shoppers are snapping the item up like crazy. 'To be honest our razors have been a crowd favourite since they launched in Coles last month with 1 product selling every minute,' she said. 'Kayla's post has gone wild, and while it's too soon to know if it has had a direct impact on sales, I can see from web traffic that lots of people are trying to shop the Skin-Loving Shaving Kit. 'From experience, Kayla definitely always sells us out, which is why we love to collaborate with her.'
ABC News
38 minutes ago
- ABC News
How synaesthesia has shaped the music world for generations
For most of us, music is mainly a feast for our ears. But people with synaesthesia experience music with more than their sense of hearing. Some see musical harmony in vivid colours, others have visceral physical reactions such as pins and needles. Some even experience music in textures like jelly or cloth. For people with synaesthesia, a neurological condition where stimuli can be experienced by multiple senses, music can invoke something profound or disruptive. "The main thing about synaesthesia is that it is an added sense that your brain uses to interpret whatever information is going on around your body," says Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe, ABC Classic's Passenger presenter and synaesthete. It's not just seeing colours when hearing sounds. "The permutation is almost endless," Kabanyana Kanyandekwe says. We talk to musicians who are living and working with synaesthesia, its upsides and downsides and how musicians have harnessed this brain quirk for generations. The most well-known form of synaesthesia in the music world is chromesthesia: seeing sounds as colours and patterns. French composer Olivier Messiaen associated specific chords with vivid colours, and jazz legend Duke Ellington experienced orchestral textures in shifting shades of light and fabric. Jessica Cottis, Canberra Symphony Orchestra's artistic director, also sees instrument groups as colours. "The woodwinds are bright blue and the brass section is spring green," Cottis says. Meanwhile, "the string section is always a deep red." But no two experiences are alike. Composers Rimsky-Korsakov and Scriabin assigned different colour-charts to musical key signatures. Kabanyana Kanyandekwe found out her experience was different when she sat with another synaesthete at university. "I said this chord was blue, and they said it was yellow," she recalls. It's common for people to experience a few forms of synaesthesia, Kabanyana Kanyandekwe says. Although she primarily experiences chromesthesia, some sounds can also give her physical sensations. Sometimes music makes her feel lighter than air; other times a squatting weight. This physical reaction to music can impact her concert-going experience. "My synaesthesia also makes me experience the concept of time as a massive spiral in space," Kabanyana Kanyandekwe says. "Playing or listening to music is the only thing that helps me process the movement of time in a linear fashion." Kabanyana Kanyandekwe says that synaesthesia is considered a form of neurodiversity. "Neurodiversity is an umbrella term that covers many different conditions and the ways the brain works," she says. Kabanyana Kanyandekwe believes synaesthesia is common in young children, but the experience can fade as people get older. "As people's brains work out what information is important, most shave off the extra [sensory] information," she says. Kabanyana Kanyandekwe describes: "Synaesthesia may interfere or impact people's understanding of music, their ability to appreciate music, even capacity to sit and listen to music." Although most people think of synaesthesia as a harmless party trick, for some it can be profound or disruptive. Initiatives like providing sonic stories which describe what sounds people will hear during a concert can help synaesthetes and people with other forms of neurodiversity to make decisions to manage their experience. "[In some concerts], I wear certain earplugs that help me attenuate the sound in a way that doesn't harm me and allow me to appreciate the music," Kabanyana Kanyandekwe shares. Being able to choose where to sit is another way for people with synaesthesia to enjoy concerts. Some like to be seated right at the front to increase the intensity of their experience. Others prefer to sit at the back so they can step out if the music gets overwhelming. The musical potential of synaesthesia has long been explored by composers such as Messiaen and Scriabin, among others. Messiaen's Couleurs de la Cité Céleste (Colours Of The Celestial City) is a depiction of a multi-coloured, heavenly city based on his experience of synaesthesia. Cottis is using her gift in a more practical way: to help her rehearse with the orchestra. She experiences harmony as "mists of colour that are always in flux". "If I'm rehearsing and [the orchestra] is out of tune, the colours become less clear in my mind in addition to hearing it," Cottis says. "Having these two senses fused can help me to understand what's happening very quickly." In 1915, Scriabin invented a musical instrument called the "Clavier à lumières": a keyboard which could project coloured lights based on the composer's specifications. Each colour was assigned to different notes of the scale, for instance C is red and D is yellow. The instrument was invented for the performance of his Prometheus: The Poem Of Fire. Researchers have cast doubt on whether Scriabin's musical colour system was an expression of synaesthesia or something he created for pure aesthetic value. But associating music and colours isn't confined to composers with synaesthesia. Scriabin's instrument invention remains one of the earliest attempts to create an immersive concert experience. An Australian performance artist and researcher who has also used the multi-sensory nature of synaesthesia is Jocelyn Ho. The Synaesthesia Playground project, which Ho ran in 2016 and 2017, brought together musicians, computer scientists, visual artists, and fashion designers to create an immersive and interactive concert. "This project was based on my research in how we experience music with our bodies, such as spine-tingles and goosebumps," Ho says. One of the ways Ho made these physical reactions visual was by wearing a fibre-optic dress that pulsed in response to what was going on inside her body. "People could see when my heartrate quickened because I might be feeling a bit stressed, for instance" Ho says. "It stripped off my performer's mask because they could see my vulnerability." What musicians who live or work with synaesthesia show is that music is more than a feast for our ears but a full-body experience. And you don't necessarily have to live with synaesthesia to experience a taste of it. Ho says: "In musical memory, for instance, all of these senses such as sight, sound, smell and touch are integrated, they are not separated."
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Richard Fidler's life in Conversations — from comedy rebel to beloved Australian interviewer
Before he became one of Australia's most beloved interviewers, Richard Fidler was a curious child with an insatiable appetite to understand the forces that shaped history and humanity. That hunger and self-proclaimed "nerdy curiosity" has become a trademark of Fidler's four-decade-long career, from his days as a satirical performer to his role as a broadcaster. "I've been working on that ever since, really." Raised in a loving home with parents who nurtured his thirst for knowledge, Fidler vividly recalled the wall of books that filled their living room. "I always imagined when I was old enough to read those books, I'd be able to figure out the secrets of life, the universe, and everything," he said. While Fidler says a natural curiosity was with him "right from the start", he credits his wife of 32 years, Khym, for his distinctive on-air warmth and empathy. "I was really very introverted — I still am, I think — but my wife was the one with the much better and wiser and often kinder appreciation of human nature," he said. But long before he fell in love with Khym, Fidler had discovered a love of music. Then, while studying history and politics at university in the 1980s, he turned to street performing in Canberra as a way of making money. It was here that he met Tim Ferguson and Paul McDermott, and the Doug Anthony Allstars was born. "We formed a busking group and started pulling huge crowds of bored public servants milling around Civic on Saturday mornings," he said. The satirical, boundary-pushing musical trio went on to perform for 10 years, enjoying success in the United Kingdom and Australia. He fondly recalls the back-and-forth banter with the audience and the "cuttingly funny" wit of English hecklers. "I'm very comfortable talking in front of an audience," he said. "It often strikes me I ought to be more frightened than I am before I go on stage, but I'm not." After parting ways with McDermott and Ferguson, Fidler found his home in local radio. He attributes his radio success to the "wonderful mentors" who helped him hone his skills, but it was his own inquisitive nature and talent for deep listening that soon defined his style. Now married to Khym, who he met through the Doug Anthony Allstars, and with their five-year-old son and two-year-old daughter in tow, the family relocated to Queensland where Fidler began presenting ABC Brisbane's Evenings program. He was soon made host of the Mornings program, which included a segment called the Conversation Hour. "It was the final hour of the program, where the presenter would have a local guest on for the hour, and a co-host," Fidler said. That 60-minute segment evolved into something much bigger. Together, Fidler and founding executive producer, Pam O'Brien, grew it into a standalone long-form interview program that was ultimately broadcast well beyond its original Brisbane audience and, in time, became a podcast powerhouse. "I've worked with quite a few outstanding producers, but I'd never worked with anyone as brilliant, wise and delightful as Pam," Fidler said. From its inception, Fidler had imagined the Conversations listener to be "someone like Khym". "She'd been an international actor, she'd been a TV presenter and now she's a stay-at-home mum in Brisbane with our young kids," he said. "She was doing that thing with young kids where it's a real struggle to even get out of your pyjamas that are covered with yoghurt spew. "[Mums] can't even sit down and read a damn thing for longer than a minute. And reading is always such a big thing for Khym. She's a bookish person like me. She didn't have time to do that. So radio could be a real comfort for her." He didn't know it yet, but Fidler was also talking to another Brisbane mum — and his future co-presenter. In 2018, the show evolved again, this time to include a second host to share the role with Fidler. Fellow Brisbanite Sarah Kanowski stepped behind the microphone, which Fidler described as a fitting appointment. "Sarah was a regular listener to the show ... when she had young kids," he said. "So I was talking to Sarah, I just didn't quite know Sarah in those days." As for how he feels about sharing the role that was once exclusively his, Fidler — who has since moved back to Sydney — has only praise for his co-host. "It's been really good to have a fellow presenter because there are things presenters know that producers can't really know, so Sarah and I can have those conversations with each other." Beyond their collaborative partnership, it's clear Fidler genuinely enjoys Kanowski's company. "When we do stage things together, she's always saying things that just make me lose it because she's so funny. "Apart from having a first-rate mind, she's funny and witty and a really lovely person." Over the last two decades, Fidler and Kanowski have gently drawn captivating stories from close to 3,200 guests. They come from all walks of life, sharing deeply personal stories of triumph and heartbreak, or imparting expertise on topics as diverse as the mysteries of mushrooms and the tactics of dictators. Regardless of who the guest is or the insights they share, Fidler says curiosity must always be at the heart of the discussion. "This is as true for Sarah as it is for me; we have to be authentically, properly, genuinely curious about that guest," he said. With the show broadcast daily to two national radio networks and across the Pacific, and 40 million annual podcast downloads, the Conversations team clearly know how to connect with their audience. It's why their feedback is abundant and glowing, with listeners unexpectedly riveted by a seemingly ordinary story. An underground miner once emailed the team to say he had convinced his mates to switch from commercial radio to play Conversations instead. "They listen to the show while they're working way underground, then they have their lunch and talk about what they just heard," Fidler said. While curiosity is at the heart of the show's format, there are lines that Fidler won't cross. You won't hear him asking guests to recount their trauma. Fidler admits that in the early years of the show, he had a different approach, driven by a commitment to truth-telling. But it came with consequences. "I found myself at the end of the interview, and then editing it, feeling just terrible and not wanting to come into work anymore. It just made me sad, and sick," he said. That's not to say he's opposed to airing guests' distressing experiences. "Some stories are so specific in their horror that maybe it is the kind of thing people need to talk about," he said. "I don't mind making listeners uncomfortable, but I do mind mining that trauma, and tears, for its own sake. As the show enters its third decade and Fidler and Kanowski commence a celebratory national tour, the question arises: does he have plans to turn off the microphone? Not yet. "It's quite a sustainable job, and I still love it. And I love the people I work with too," Fidler said. "We're a very happy family in Conversations." The strength of that work "family" was felt at the end of last year when Fidler quietly took carer's leave to be with his wife, who was undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy for a nasopharyngeal tumour. Khym was declared cancer-free in March and is expected to need another year to fully recover. As he reflected on why he was still eager to return to his role after such a challenging time for his family, it came back to Fidler's voracious thirst for knowledge. "I get to find out something new all the time," he said. With large volumes of reading required to research guests, Fidler and Kanowski both ingest a book a day. "I love reading books. My reading for this job is about 98 per cent non-fiction," he said. Fidler also notes that his role affords him the flexibility to pursue his passion for researching and writing his own books. He has — so far — published four works of narrative history and hopes they will speak to his children as his legacy. And he has a new title on the cards, with a trip planned to research ancient Mesopotamia in the Middle East and join an archaeological dig. "That's not really a place I can go to right now, given that it sits right between Iran and Israel," he said. "I'll probably record some Conversations while I'm in the middle of the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh, ideally, or Nimrud in northern Iraq." When asked what he has learned from his 20 years in the interview chair, Fidler shared a quiet reflection on a career spent connecting deeply with people. "I think happiness is not a thing that we really search for — happiness is a by-product of a kind of contentment," he said. "I've found that the people who find honour in their lives from being of service to other people tend to be the same people who don't ever go to bed at night wondering, 'What's the point of what I do?' or 'Why am I doing this?' "Even though their lives may be quite turbulent, they seem to derive a certain peace from that job." Stream the 20th Anniversary Collection of Conversations on the ABC listen app.
