2020: Warm heart heart feelings in these crazy crazy times

Durians, curry puffs and a candle | Gifts from my ex-colleagues giving me the warm heart heart feelings.

Hello 2020, you gigantic dumpster fire of a year.

This is the year when humanity (at least in my short lifetime) feels under siege - Raging wildfires, disastrous climate change and environmental issues, political and racial riots, and of course, who could forget, Covid-19. This feels like some global-scale nightmare.

On a personal level, I lost my job.

Framed this way, it really registers as such a non-event compared to the gravity of the situation around. When it happened, I was sad and worried. But now that some days have gone by, the sadness is gone and I'm grateful for so many things.

Ex-colleagues and people I worked closely with have reached out offering support, kind words, assistance and FOOD! This newfound time affords me the opportunities to think about what I was good at doing, and what I might want to try to do next. It's given me the time to take care of my loved ones and think about how I can improve on my shortcomings.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's been a really strange and uncomfortable time but I'm hopeful that things will get better and that while we will struggle for a while, we will rally and we will survive and hopefully, we will thrive.

Sure, I'm still a little worried about the future. But at least now, I have durian to stress eat.

Oh hey stranger

Hiiiii! 

So as you know, I got a new job and it's been incredibly challenging and busy so I haven't been blogging. Well life has taken all kinds of twists and turns and I'll be honest, I'm not in the best of places right now, but I realised that I really missed writing nonsense and spewing it out into the universe so I decided it was time to get back in here. 

Life. Is. Hard. 

But it is first-world-problem-hard so it's probably not so bad. 

How do I remain positive in the face of adversity? ... No I'm asking. Really. Someone tell me. 

But ok, let's see... How do I cope when the sadness monster crawls out from under the bed? Aside from crying a lot, which really isn't unusual since I'm weak sauce...

1. Bathe - Cleanliness is next to godliness. Washing away the grime helps the soul. 

2. Read - Nic lent me a bunch of self-help books which I really should read at a quicker pace (I've never been one for self-help so it's a bit zzzzzzz to get through!) 

3. Shop - I've been buying a lot of toiletries lately, maybe because of point 1. 

4. Dance - I sometimes pretend to be a ballerina in the privacy of my own room. It usually involves some ankle spraining. Worth it. 

5. Face stuffage - OMNOMNOMNOMNOM! 

How do you cope with the blues? 

Thanks for reading, ciao till another year or something. 

New beginnings

A huge shout out to Samson, @7braidstrong for another fun shoot and for making me hang out in a random carpark/fake basketball court. It's always a dope time with him. Follow him on Insta and check out more of his work at 7braidstrong.com.

Anyway, this series of shots became all the more special because I'm using this post to bookmark a change in my life. Having worked in the same financial institution for over five years, I've decided to try something new and will be moving into a new industry - e-commerce! I'm excited by the tech space and I can't wait to be inspired by that whole start-up life.

Obviously I'm nervous too, it's a big change and I'm taking a big step out of my comfort zone but if not now, then when, am I right?

I actually felt a little melancholic when I made my intention to leave known, as it brought back many wonderful memories, getting to know so many people, and having so many great experiences.

Things I will miss include but are not limited to:

• Proximity to acai bowls
• The ease of simply hopping on a train to get some Tori Q
• Free Nescafe coffee that coffee snobs would turn their nose up to, but that I've gotten very accustomed to
• Free company exercise activities 
• Egg tarts from Hong Lim Park
• Full length mirrors in bathrooms with great natural lighting for when you wanna show your friend your outfit cos it's totally on point that day

Last but not least, my work friends! If you're reading this, keep fighting the good fight and soaring towards greater achievements. Thank you for all the guidance, care and advice over the years/months of knowing me. Working was made easier with you around and you will be deeply missed.

Anyway, onward ho! Thanks for reading! BIG HUGS!

You give good face

So I wrote a post about this a while back when Nic was vying to be shortlisted for the top 6 out of 15 finalists for Nyx Singapore's inaugural Face Awards. Anyway, because of her talent, hardwork and dedication, she actually was shortlisted for the top 6!

Her third and final challenge was to create a makeup video around the theme of "Royalty" and she decided to do a video of TWO looks - The queen of light and the queen of darkness! Nic has a lot to be proud of, she's a self-taught special effects makeup artist, a newbie to video creation and editing, and also a newly minted pro skills props maker (she made her crowns and sceptor from scratch)!

Mad pro makeup skillz and photos courtesy of @electric.eggplant

The award ceremony to announce Nyx Singapore's first ever "Beauty Vlogger of the Year" was held on the 13th of July at Pixel Studios and invited us to get to know each of the 6 finalists a little better while also showcasing their videos. I thought they all did well but obviously I was rooting for Nic to win and to get $5000 worth of Nyx makeup and an all-expenses paid trip to California to attend the Nyx USA Face Awards Finals. Unfortunately, Nic didn't manage to bag the top prize  (which went to Rosalie Parnes who goes by @wink818) but I think she's got so much to be proud of since she really grew from strength to strength, learned crazy awesome makeup skills as she competed, and delivered masterful looks that were winners in my eyes.

Giving her short interview about what inspired her looks

Finalists and judges

Still a winner

OOTN!!

Le makeup by yours truly complete with insane flyaways

With pro makeup artist Larry Yeo

Mouse squad for life

I'm always ruining normal photos

Didn't get the memo that we were doing "sexy"

So I thought I would write a post to commemorate the event and pay tribute to Nic's skills, talent, passion and diligence. If you're a makeup junkie, or someone who appreciates art, or even just someone who appreciates hard work, please give her your support. Watch her videos on her YouTube channel and follow her on instagram at @electric.eggplant and do send her positive vibes!

Thanks for reading!

Dark brown is the new black

So when I was 12 years old, my classmate found the first strand of white hair in my head. She sat behind me in class and saw it shining on my head and she helped me pull it out. Then she found a whole treasure trove of them and proceeded very monkey-like to help me rid my poor head of them. My teacher told us to quit it but that day really cemented my lifelong yearning for ridding my head of them.

I'm not 12 anymore so by now you can imagine those little a$$holes have multiplied and spread like some disease on a colony for the diseased. I may be being dramatic right now, hard to tell. Since pulling them off my head, while satisfying, could potentially turn me into a bald eagle (minus the cool eagle flying bit), I've had to turn to less violent methods.

I used to dye my hair with either L'oreal or some Japanese brand box dye. But now with my no animal testing policy, I've shifted away from that and found a non animal-tested brand on iHerb called Herbatint!

We don't really have many cruelty-free solutions for hair dye here in Singapore so I really didn't have much of a choice but I combed iHerb for all the hair dye brands they had and found that this one had good reviews so I thought I'd try it out. I normally buy jet black dye and kinda let it fade to my natural soft black but I read that the product was quite dark so I chose the 2N dark brown.

The product comes in two little bottles and you need to pour it into a plastic or glass bowl in equal proportions and then mix it to make it to a gel-like consistency. Slap on the plastic gloves and spread it into the hair like a pro. Although I failed at that part. I'm used to using bottle applicators so this was kind of a mess but I was prepared and had spread newspaper all over my bathroom floor like I was going to be painting my bathroom.

After applying it kind of messily all over my head, I waited 40 minutes (according to the box, this is super important to be adhered to) and then washed it off. It didn't smell unpleasant like the normal ammonia dye I used to use, and it wasn't too drippy (although I used a disposable shower cap over just in case)

Because of its more natural ingredients, it definitely didn't make my hair feel like it had been treated to a chemical bath, and I felt that less hair than normal fell. In addition, my hair didn't smell gross!

I think I'm pleased with the results. It's been about a week since, and my hair looks pretty good, it's covered most of the white hairs (except for those I missed because I'm so bad at DIY hair dyeing).

Damn I look good with this new shade

Pros of Herbatint:

• Cruelty-free
• Doesn't smell gross
• Covers white hairs
• Natural ingredients are not harsh on the hair
• Affordable - It's about S$15 on iHerb

Cons of Herbatint:

• No applicator so can be messy to apply
• The gloves provided aren't great, they're too short I feel

All in all, I'm pleased with the purchase and happy to repurchase when the time comes (boo hiss I hate you white hairs!!!)

Hair that's as dark as my soul

Thanks for reading!