Hello! It has been a long while since I have done a tag or a questionaire entry.

Because I feel the sort of entries I am churning out, or have a mind to put out are a bit of a ho-hum lately, I thought I would do take a little breather (for myself and hopefully you) and wander into a quick tag post that I chanced upon on Roseanne's blog.

I hope these Questions and Answers are interesting enough for you so... here goes!

(inserts mandatory self-shot else the entry is all words)

I think I am wearing NARS Majella here. Think.

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1. Do you wear the same style everyday or do you change it?

Somewhat a yes and no. In terms of makeup my looks are rather standard yet I do change and try various shadows / shades if I have the time for it. Though my favorite way to switch up my every day look is by playing around with my lip shades — a bold red one day, a nude, an orange-red or pink the other etc.

2. Do you do your own mani/pedi or go to a salon?

I prefer to file, buff and paint my nails on my own. Maybe it is because I don't have a whole lot of time to sit around now? It sounds like a nice indulgence to have once in awhile yet sometimes I feel what I do is enough for myself. ha!

3. How long does it take for you to put on your make-up?

My usual look with mascara and the works takes me about 30 minutes (a big improvement from the 1 hour that it used to take me!) while quick looks can take 5-10 minutes and elaborate / smokey ones taking longer of course.

4. What do you do first? Face or eyes?

My Face! Unless I am doing a smokey or glittery look where I know I will encounter a crap load of fall out, otherwise I always do my face first. It helps me gauge the eyelook better, somehow.

5. Do you “collect” make-up or just buy what you need when you need it?

To a certain extent I 'collect' yet I do use what I 'collect' as well so nothing remains sitting around just for display. Though of late I am starting to be more rational with my purchases and don't simply buy something for the sake of owning it. Unless it really is super duper pretty, heh. We all have weaknesses.

6. How often do you wear false lashes?

Hardly ever. I would wear them for Fashion Features just because they make the overall makeup look appear better on camera and occasionally during events but otherwise mascara is usually enough for me.

7. Do you do a full face of make-up everyday?

Everyday meaning work day then yes, pretty much. I wear close to nothing on weekends unless I have something on.

8. Do you wear make-up when you are home alone or with family?

No of course not. Who would though... just wondering.

9. Will you leave the house without make-up?

Yes. If you asked me this 4 years ago maybe my answer would be 'NEVAAAA' but over the years I have started to feel more comfortable in my own skin and aside from filling in my very sparse brows, I have ventured to Orchard without anything else on so I would say going without make-up is not a big deal to me now.

10. How many high end products do you have?

I sure don't have a lot compared to others yet I don't keep track either. Why would I?

11. How often do you change your handbag?

Whenever I need a new one. ha! I am quite fuss free in this aspect. I used to match my bags to my attire  but now I just couldn't be bothered. If everything fits, I'm good to go.

12. What time do you get up and go to sleep?

Since it is back to work, I wake up at 7 plus in the morning. As for my bedtime, it is highly dependant on what time baby wants to sleep; if I am lucky, it is usually around 12 or 1am

13. How often do you work out?

Now, sad to say, never.

14. Do you speak a foreign language?

I don't speak it well but I can understand basic conversational korean and I can read hangul, that's about it. Though I am intrigued with languages and if I had the chance / time to I would love to pick up more.

15. How did you come up with your blog name?

Oh no, not this question again. Basically icyabstract is a username that my younger teenage self created and it just stuck around till now. If I had a choice I would have renamed my youtube / blog something less poser-sounding.

16. What kind of camera do you use for photographs?

For the most part my trusty SONY A350 though occasionally I throw some mobile shots on here too.

17. What is your favourite color?

Purple! Though specifically I like the light pastel variants of it, such as lilac and lavender.

18. What are you doing with the rest of your day?

TGIF! After the mandatory bore at work, the rest of the day includes some catching up with beauty pals, playing with makeup and then date night with hubs before returning to mommy duties.

Hope everyone's Friday sounds awesome be it chilling or just resting!

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And that is the tag! Word is the original tag is a whole lot longer but Roseanne (who I got these questions from) filtered them down to 18 more relevant questions. While I was not tagged by her to do it and picked it up to do on my own, I hope no one minds. I just needed a little entry to just ramble and 'unwind' in.

With that said, I tag Eliza, Sophia and Mabel to do this tag and anyone else who is interested!

Thanks for reading and do bear with me again in these busy periods where my blog is at a bit of a lull.

Hello!

So sorry that I have been disappearing from here or just not entirely exciting of late. I know the beauty realm is abuzz with new brands that are making or have made their way to our island. Along with beauty spaces being revamped, fun launches and all that fancy and exciting stuff. In fact, I have been living vicariously through twitter and instagram with regards to these, which sounds kinda sad... I know.

As of now, my life (sadly but excitingly in its own way) is revolving around a different kind of buzz and it's the whole last minute jitters, making sure all is in order and prepping so I don't forget any essentials.

Amidst all that, I have been trying to grab some me-time when I can; allowing myself to slack around for a bit, just laze in bed, have masking sessions and all that frivolous stuff. I don't believe that I can't catch a breath after (amibitious?) but it really is all about enjoying the calmness and I suppose peacefulness of things right now before everything changes!

After all, according to the doctor, it can be anytime now!

Of late I haven't been in much of a blogging mindset of late and I do draw a blank when I hit 'New Entry' but I'd like to think it's just a phase and that words will return to me? ha!

Though honestly, you know that feeling when you write something and just keep deleting it? Yes.. that's happening to me. Bleh!

Actually, this was part of an intro to another entry I was doing up but I figured, an intro this length is madness so I extracted the whole life update bit and decided to do a .... life update!

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I know it's not much but to let you know that I'm alive, well, and still have an active little kicker trashing around in me making it her mission to prevent me from sleeping at night.

But throwing a little beauty / makeup relation on here, here's another sneak peak at the messiness that was my dressing table earlier today.

Dundundunnnn~

Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend!

Mine would most likely be spent pram-hunting along with a trip to the airport to pick someone up. While I am itching to go on a holiday, that is not going to happen anytime soon but oh well, airports are fun regardless!

Thanks for reading this random update!

Hello again, I disappeared off here for a little while.

Work has consumed me and work-aside, I have been 'laborously' (only because it's not exactly that labourous) customizing my new device to take over the world.

If you follow me on twitter, I have officially swapped over to the Android. Finally.

Alls good and nothing has changed much as I have a slight inkling of how Android works, thanks to my LG stint from a few years back but there are some discoveries to be made with all the updates and such.

Being my OCD self, I had to get a case and 'beautify' the outlook of my phone before I started using it so here's how my SIII looks now.

Sidetracking but can I just gasp at the quality of Samsung Note's pictures? I used the boy's phone to take a shot of my phone and the quality is kinda awesome.

This make-shift phone get-up is sitting on the cutesy, girly side but I have some 'simpler' cases coming my way and a super cute dust plug I can't wait to use.

Just wondering, is anyone else as OCD about this as I am? You must have a phone cover before you start using your phone?

That aside, I will have some stuff for you guys soon!

Not too much makeup in terms of LOTDs since my makeup life has been a bore lately.

I have been a little lazy with my contacts and would rather sleep that extra 15 minutes and head out with glasses instead. The weekends have also been demoted to makeup-less periods instead of the color experimentation period it once was.

Regardless, I still have posts covering hauls, some makeup mentions, skincare, bodycare and more coming up soon!

I have the pictures taken since it is another OCD of mine to snap pics before I use anything. All I need now is to find time to sit down and write them all up.

Bare with me a little through this barren blog period!

Alrightey, all that aside, I finally caught Batman! I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it but I really liked the show. It's a lot darker and more storyline driven though what really got me most hyped up was the end of it. I was a little anti-Anne Hathaway playing Cat woman and while I still don't think she was the perfect choice, I think she did a good job.

And a random statement... I knew that good guy was that. I knew it! He just looks it! Okay, I'll leave that ambiguous statement there. Those who have seen the show would know what I am talking about!

Until next time, thanks for sticking around and I promise proper updates soon!

I'm still on the look out for Android apps so if you have good task ones / twitter apps etc, do recommend!

Hello again!

Well, a week late but here is that entry that I said I was going to do. Initially I had one thing to announce but it ended up being balled together with another to be one giant life update.

I don't do update entries so much anymore because frankly, I don't have very interesting things going on in my life that often. Plus I typically just stick to beauty ramblings in this space along with sprinkles of life, however a blog is still a blog and I like to just pin down and document little 'milestones' in my life be it small ones like changing jobs (which I did, more about it later!) or slightly bigger ones like the one I am about to unveil.

So first... remember that MBS weekend? Well.. this happened!

Together with 2 very awesome and dear friends, the boyfriend (no longer able to call him that) had planned this surprise and proposed to me - again.

I didn't tweet this because half the time I was still in shock and took awhile to really think and process about what I wanted to share on here such that it gives you a glimpse of us but doesn't bore you with personal details.

But why... again?

No, I didn't reject him the first time but rather I've always told him I'm not a girl who appreciates diamonds so I don't need that extra money spent on an engagement ring (hell, I'd rather save that for a honeymoon!) and I think if we have already planned to spend the rest of our lives together, I don't need a huge event or want him to stress out over how to propose either. I mean, he has already done a surprise 18th and 21st birthday party for me and I thought I had sucked all the surprise out of him.

Thus he had casually asked the question over our anniversary dinner last year (Sept) and I said 'yes'. It was a simple thing and I didn't broadcast it because... there really wasn't anything to broadcast - no ring or photos or flashy stuff to show so I kept it as is. With that we just proceeded to wedding talks, though the whole wedding dinner thing again doesn't appeal to me, ceremonial stuff must be done.

So.. this second proposal came as a complete, total, mind-blowing surprise because... I didn't think he would do it again.

But his rationale is that all girls want to have a proper proposal to remember and I guess as much as I have told him I didn't want anything flashy, I didn't want a diamond ring... girls are girls and at the end of it I was still very touched with his efforts. My pals had filmed a video but I'll just share the screencap to show you the 'setup'.

So that ended up a whole lot longer and more personal than I had intended but I guess simply putting the image and saying I'm Engaged is not doing the boy any justice. In a way, I guess I just wanted to thank him for the initiative and all to still go through with planning this even though he didn't have to.

Him aside, I am also really thankful to the 2 friends who were as worried as he was and made this proposal happen in such a special venue.

Sometimes in life we move too fast to really stop and thnk but thinking back, there are moments where I question what good have I done in life, what sort of karma points I have racked up to know such awesome people be it loved ones or friends. Not just talking about this situation but also lovely makeup pals I have met and some I have really bonded with and have aided me along.

I'm not some philosophical person but Life is really beautiful if you just take a moment appreciate every small thing!

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Okay, mushiness aside, on to a sad reality update.

So May was an awesome month because I took some time-off between jobs, worked on some freelance stuff to still get some moolah but most importantly, caught up on sleep!

I left my position at my previous company (yes, the offizcat one) and am joining a new one in June, which is tomorrow. Boo.

So while I'm feeling a down at the fact that I'll have to wake up earlier and travel to work with the office crowd all over again, I guess life is life and maybe it all wouldn't be so bad once I actually get started with work.

Incase I disappear for a bit after 1st of June, I'm still alive but probably just drowning in work ;)

Thanks for reading this life update and putting up with all the words!

HEY ALL!
Yes, the Caps shows my enthusiasm.

I wanted to get up a quick quick post saying that I would be pretty busy this week and probably the next due to a project I am handling right now. Thus, the lack of updates over this long a period of time both on my youtube and onsugar. I am sorry! I just couldn't find time to though I have been mobile-blogging a little.

Mobile blogging is me typing out blog entries on my phone, on the go. They aren't complete posts however it does make the blogging process a lot faster as often times I find myself blocked when I sit down and try to blog. I can even spend 15 minutes just thinking about how to start an entry.... Lol?

But regardless, this post was to let you guys know what's going on with me and why have I not been posting. I would talk about how working isn't easy, but I'm sure you all know that already. :)

In the mean time, here's a little Word Search I made featuring what's to come on my blog posts once I find time on my hands to blog. These aren't all to come, but I couldn't include certain stuff cause I didn't know what to type.

I realized some words are painfully obvious, but oh well. Word Search generated by this site.

Thank you all for your patience and for reading!

Hello everyone!

I had mentioned this piece of news on my youtube but I know not everyone here might watch my youtube channel so I am announcing it here too!

The big news is that...
I have found a full-time job! Yes, I am starting work 1st September. It's the typical 9am-6pm job that operates 5 days a week though in my case I work alternate saturdays too. My job position is a Graphic Designer.

Though it's not huge news in general it would probably affect my youtube/blogging activities. No more attending of events on working days in the afternoon and I'll have to adjust to working and finding time to manage my youtube/blog. It would be quite a transition but there are bloggers that work full time and still manage to update frequently. Off the top of my head I think of Sophia (retailtherapy) and Iris (RougeDeluxe). Kudos to them and they shall be my inspiration for this! Haha.

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On the sidenote, my new workplace has a smart casual dresscode.

That is completely not my normal style so I would need to go shopping. Any good store recommendations or links to outfits that fit that bill. I'll have to learn how to style myself a whole different way and the only store I can think to frequent now is Zara? Since it is quite corporate but not too cliche with it, and the clothes are still rather chic.

Oh well, I'll have to figure something out.
Thank you for reading this text-filled post (:

So here's the official 'I'm Back!' post!

Technically I have been back for awhile, as you could probably tell from me getting some blog posts up again. I delayed making an official blog post about it because instead of just saying in text that I am back, I wanted to include some photos. And what better photos to include then ones from my graduation - since it was fitting.

Just to update or inform those wondering, I had just graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design. I had posted a graduation post way back, and that was when I graduated with a Diploma in Graphic Design - not to confuse anyone as to why I am graduating so many times!

Here are some photos from the night.

Getting my certificate on stage! That's my lecturer and also the head of the Graphic Design Department.

Brother and I

The boyfriend and I! We are in the same course, classmates you could say, so we graduated together.

I didn't do anything special with my hair since we had to wear the scholar's hat mortar board (thanks Sophia!). Also, it's such a pity there were no full length shots of my dress because we wore the grad robes the entire time. Guess I didn't actually have to bother with my outfit that much!

This was the only shot I had of me when I did not have my robes on, group shot with the boyfriend and my brother.

The panels that are behind us are our exhibition panels - we designed and laid it out by ourselves. The panels explain our project and display the work (or deliverables, as we call it) that we had done for the project. The boyfriend's panel on the left, and mine on the right (see the green spots?). I shan't go into detail about the projects and all here because it isn't necessary.

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Now for something a little more related to my blog, I want to feature a pair of heels I got. I went shoe-hunting the day before the graduation and was glad I managed to find a pair I absolutely adored that matched my outfit. Again, it is a pity there isn't a full outfit shot, but oh well. The shoes are from Charles & Kieth, one of my favorite places to go when getting heels for a good price.

I believe I got it for S$89.90 and apparently this model is quite popular because I picked up the last black pair available (in size 36) at the ION branch. It comes in red and one other color, can't recall it now. The outer material is suede so it does not hurt the back-ankle area unlike most other shoes that do. Despite the heel height, it is comfortable to walk in due to the platform in the front, and it makes me much taller too!

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So that would be it for the graduation update, one more last bit before I end this entry.. I had recolored my hair again! It may not be obvious in the graduation shots because of the dim lighting but I colored my hair a color I used to have - Bright Auburn.

Here are some shots of it under natural indoor and outdoor lighting.

With natural sunlight but indoors.

With natural sunlight but outdoors this time so the sun is a lot brighter.
This was a candid shot my friend took at the botanical gardens. I went there with my parents, the boyfriend, his parents and my photographer friend. Since wearing the robes was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, we thought it would be fun to shoot around.

This hair color tends to look duller with dimmer light, but judging from the photos it seems to look the same so far - though I am sure the intensity would fade.

Previously when I colored my hair this shade, I had gotten a lot of questions about what I had used so this time around I took a photo of the product. And yes, this was a DIY-dye job. I used Revlon's Colorsilk range in the shade Bright Auburn.

This costs around S$7+ to S$10+ depending on where you purchase it from. That's a far cry from the 80-100 dollars I would have to splash out to get my hair colored at the salon.

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So that was my compilation of updates and the official I'm back signal! As I had said I have loads to post up and I wanted to spam post them all in a span of one to two days, but I just might be spreading it out a little more. Just so it isn't so suffocating to read so much at once, and at the same time so I can rest a little. Not gonna lie, I have been slacking and doing nothing but sleep the past few days, I feel as if I am hibernating!

Here I go rambling again, I totally miss blogging and I just feel like I'm blurting everything out as I type. I hope this entry wasn't too long and thank you all again so much for reading and sticking with me!

Entries will be going up as per normal (pre-hiatus) again! Yay to that (:

Thanks you Roseanne, xladyerika, chloesque and popsyche for nominating me for this award! The nominations were made awhile back but I haven't gotten this entry up because of the 'rules' of it.

Here are the rules:

• Thank the person who gave you the award

• Paste the award on your blog

• Link the person who nominated you for the award

• Tell 7 interesting things about yourself

• Nominate 7 bloggers or less

• Post links to the 7 blogs you nominated.

Yeap the highlighted rule is what I am talking about. I have actually posted a couple entries listing interesting facts about myself so coming up with seven more was actually quite hard. Therefore I will not be listing seven more, instead I'll talk about one fact and link my past entries/videos that contain random facts (for those who haven't seen or read it).

So my one fact is:

I love glow in the dark things.

To make up for the lack of facts, here's a random video about some glow in the dark things in my room. (filmed with phone cam hence the quality is crap.)

Past Random Fact Entries/Videos:
- Kreativ Blog entry
- 16 Facts/Tag entry
- 20 (more) interesting facts entry
- 5 Random Facts Video

And now I'm going to break another two rules by not nominating anyone since almost everyone is nominated already. If you wish to do this tag definitely feel free to do so! So that is it (:
Thank you for reading!

Wow it has been a couple days since my last post, about 5-6 days to be exact. That period might not seem like a long interval, but it feels so to me as I am used to updating once every couple of days.

I've decided to segment the entry so it's not like a giant block of unorganized text.

Update on Me

So, what have I been caught up with? Well, nothing new here... yeap, school.
I was just done with a Marketing Presentation, hence the absense. I had been rushing my guts out to get it done and the Chinese New Year holiday being just before the presentation did not help. Imagine having to worry about marketing concepts while visitng relatives. How sad.
P.s. No I'm not in a Marketing course, it's just a module we have to take to understand marketing.

I shan't bore you all with my assignments, I just wanted to do an update letting you all know that I might not be updating as frequently over the next month (all the way till end March) because I feel I should really focus more time on my assignments. I feel that I have been letting myself be distracted with all the side stuff (read: Not that these makeup things are bad, I do love doing it, but in life we should prioritize) and I have not been putting in much effort with school work.

I can't explain it, but it's that feeling that you get when you know you didn't give your all and you regret it when the results aren't as pleasing... you know?

I will not be pulling out the B word or the H word just yet because those words feel very definite.
The B word being break (as in taking a break) and the H word being hiatus. I have a feeling that from the period of April to June I might be pulling those out since it is going to be my final term in school. Though no certainty on that just yet.

I hope you guys can understand! I absolutely love doing this makeup stuff and I feel it helps me de-stress but I should rank what is most important and right now it's my studies. I am not disappearing from the face of the makeup realm of course. I will update sporadically, comment on entries, be on twitter, upload some pre-filmed videos (for situations like this!) and all.

I'll post another summarized sticky-entry about this status update to inform those who skipped out on this because of the length. Nothing has changed of course, I hope that you guys will be patient and bear with my absence. Thank you for that! I will not start to fade off the community, which is what I notice with some people who started updating less often. ha~

So that was way lengthier then I had planned!
Now to introduce some photos to balance this out, I would like to feature one of the outfits I wore on Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year Outfit

Thus far I have only had 2 Chinese New Year outfits because I had gone visiting for the first two days. I didn't have a camera on the first day, but this was what I wore on the second day:

Dress from Hot Miami Styles, you can find this one here (obvi the model rocked it better then I did with her *ahem* package).
I would like to stress that I am not deliberately mass-including HMS in my recent entries. It's just that for Chinese New Year there's a custom to wear new clothes and I haven't had the time to go shopping, so I suppose this would fit the bill. Plus I really do like the articles I chose and they seemed to fit the occasions. (:

And I am wearing a little tube-bra under and it is supposed to been seen (not a wardrobe malfunction). Mainly because I find that the front is a little low for such family-oriented activities whereby we all know the elderly members like to comment on how we have grown and what we are wearing. That too would explain why every single year, my makeup for Chinese New Year is always neutral and simple. I don't want any 'You're so young and you're wearing so much makeup' comments coming my way.

Here's another photo with the boyfriend:

~ack... flat hair.

So that's the outfit, I didn't have any time to do anything special to my hair such as style it or curl it so I simply threw a clip in it.
No mention on the makeup because as I've said, it's just a neutral eye and I don't remember what I had used to be honest.

Now moving on to the last and rather random point...

Reality TV - Survivor & ANTM

Why oh why?
Why do they have to launch the new seasons for Survivor (Heroes VS Villain) and America's Next Top Model during my busiest period in school. Well, of course the world doesn't revolve around me so I should just get over it.

But I just wanted to share my love for Reality TV Shows, namely Survivor and America's Next Top Model. I do catch some others but these two are my favorite ones ever. I can't comment on ANTM's new season yet because it's premiering on March 3rd, but Survivor's first episode was a blast.

I should not rant too much on here about this but for those who have not caught Survivor or have never been a fan of it, you should definitely watch this season! This season is titled Heroes VS Villians and they have brought back players from previous seasons and are pitting them against each other. The heroic, courageous and noble ones against the scheming manipulative ones. I can't wait to see how this game plays out. In the first episode, 2 members (from the Hero tribe) have already sustained injuries during a brutal reward challenge.

Reading this, it's like as if I am working to publicize Survivior, but no I'm not, I wasn't asked to and I'm not getting paid for it (lol). I just get enthusiastic when it comes to Reality TV... and food.

This entry is getting way long, thank you for taking time to read it!
I often let my mouth or in this case fingers run too much.

Disclaimer:
Dress featured was sponsered by Hot Miami Styles.
The decision to wear and feature it is my own. I am certainly not getting paid for it.

I had been tagged by Sophia to do this interesting (non makeup-related) tag.

The rules for this is as follows:

1. open your 1st photo folder in "My Pictures"
2. scroll to the 10th photo
3. post that photo on your site and write about the story behind it
4. state who you got the tag from on your post
5. then tag 6 blogs

As I am quite organized with my folders, most of them tend to be folders in folders in folders. If you know what I mean? So following the sequence of selecting the first folder, I finally went to the end of the 'fork road' and choose the 10th photo from that particular folder.

This picture was taken back in 2009 at Long Beach (seafood restaurant, for those not local). Icky quality because I think it was taken with my mom's phone cam or something? Not sure. Anyway, I had gone there to have dinner with my boyfriend, parents and some relatives. It wasn't the actual day of my birthday, I think, so I was not expecting them to celebrate my birthday there but they surprised me with a cake at the restaurant. I believe it was because my birthday was on a weekday so they held a mini celebration on the weekend.

In 2009 I must say I was very fortunate to have been able to celebrate my birthday four times. Once with my parents and relatives (as pictured), once with my besties from secondary school, once with my god parents (and my family again), and the final time with my boyfriend and his parents. It was quite an experience and I definitely have wonderful people to thank for this (:

So anyway, on to tagging people!
Trying not to tag the same few people:

1. rosannetangrs
2. FacesBySarah
3. lxflickr
4. linnera
5. rainyydays
6. clarachan

And anyone else who wishes to do this, go right ahead! (:
Thanks for reading.