icyabstract makeup

Rambly Hello Again + Hair 'Rescue' Haul

icyabstract — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:32:58 SGT

It seems that my blog is at a bit of a stand-still right now, major apologies for that. Just as I had anticipated, work swarmed me the minute I scanned my finger print and stepped through the office's glass doors. Not that I was expecting anything different, we're talking about catching up on 4 months of work (and a wrapped up campaign) here!

Of course I had help while I was gone and a colleague did a good job of handling things while I was not around but that calm and collect period where I spent the afternoons doing nothing but singing nursery rhymes and changing diapers have long gone. It's now a whirl and flurry of activities starting from 9am all the way till 6pm or even later these days as I have some freelance projects on hand too.

All in all, pardon my neglect on this space.

Amidst this I actually tried drafting some entries here and there but I think the distractions of work on hand and the rushed state of mind made it incredibly difficult for me to word anything well and proper hence I gave up thinking about blogging as a whole and dedicated myself to work so I can clear the backlog over there. Though in that process, I was piling the one over here. Oops.

Nonetheless despite the quiet on my blog, life still went on in terms of makeup hauling, using and all that so let me try to give all that a mention one step at a time! Again, you can follow me on instagram for more instant and up-to-date happenings with me (@icyabstract).

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Starting off, here's a little life saver that I picked up during the last week of my maternity leave. Trust me, I am kicking myself for not having picked it up sooner.

During my leave since I was home most of the time, I did not bother with washing my hair much.

For hygiene reasons I still do once my hair is at an unbearable state, which is normally 4 days in. Though for the rest of the days if I need to head out for a quick run of errands or if I am just too darn disgusted with the state of my hair, yet cannot muster up the time to wash it, I turn to the wonders of Dry Shampoo.

Thus, despite the slightly higher price point, I succumbed to Oscar Blandi's Volumizing Dry Shampoo.

This is available in 2 sizes and while the smaller one would be a bit handier to maneuver around with use, I picked up the larger one for the ease of having more lying around. After all, if I were to start using it religiously, who knows, I may go through it quite fast.

Though I can't comment on how long (or short) a canister of this would last but given my experience with aerosol dry shampoos as a whole, they do stick around for awhile!

Here's a shot of it along with my former love, Klorane's Dry Shampoo.

True to what it claims, the Oscar Blandi dry shampoo is a very fine and invisible mist on the hair, carrying a very soft and faint scent. I don't pay attention to how it smells and it does not stick around once on so I can't explain what it smells like.

Nothing intrusive, that is.

Probably a very unnecessary shot but I wanted to do something like this at least once. ha!

Well long rambly haul aside, I guess I just want to say that I am glad I finally got my hands on this 'can' of awesome.

While I am thankful that my hair doesn't get immensely greasy these days (as opposed to when I first got out of the daily washing routine), it can start to look flat due to the then length and heaviness.

I wanted to spare you the look of greasy roots though I know a comparison would be quite fancy to look at but instead here is shot of 3rd day hair with nothing but a spritz and ruffle of Oscar Blandi just before I head out.

Why do we need shampoo again?

Okay, I'm kidding.

It would be quite gross if shampoo did not exist but I am sure you get my point. While it looks like there are white bits on my hair in the image above, I assure you it is merely the 'reflection' off my hair. The mist does not impart any white at all - hurray to those with dark hair.

This was a great help in my long haired days, which are now over but more about my new hair soon!

Thanks for reading this ramble!

p.s. Yes I have changed the body font of my blog, incase you are wondering why it seems to be different. I wanted to spice things up yet don't have the time for a revamp so this was most appropriate! I am also a little obsessed with this font right now.

What? It has been 4 months already?

icyabstract — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:26:04 SGT

Hello again! Before I dive into the sea of entries to come / clear, let me just do a quick update on what's up with my life as of now. I will keep it short but I cannot promise that it would not be at least a tiny bit rambly!

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It is so cliche but true, time flies!

In the blink of an eye, 16 weeks had flown by just like this and here I am, out of maternity leave, back at work.

Well, work is work, nothing new and most have been doing it for a long time without a complaint yet I can't help but pull a sad face at that thought. Aside from the usual I'll-miss-my-baby thing, I had finally gotten the hang of my 4 month routine and am now asked to re-adapt to a whole new one. A new one that involves very, very little sleep on top of the little sleep I already had.

Though such is life and I guess I can't complain. Besides, many (m)others have done this and gone through it just fine so it really is no biggie. I assume?

Regardless, my point of this quick entry is also to 'forewarn' you guys that while I did establish a bit of a rhythm in blogging again, that may be lost with this new schedule.

After all, once I get home from a long day of work all I really want to do (and have to do) is tend to my little one. Hence the amount of time I can dedicate here (be it photo taking, editing or writing) will lessen no doubt.

All in all, I think all the rambling above sums up my situation very well. If you were not very interested in the words, here's the keypoint to take away - I am back at work, boohoo.

Though just for kicks, here is a preview of some entries to come!

I have snapped and edited (resized) most of these pictures and am mainly short of the write up, which I will manage when I get some time on my hands.

So... do stay tuned for these!

Thanks again to all for sticking by my inactive periods and there are so many things that I would like to post on here but as of now sadly, time does not permit. I do hope that along the way I can, eventually, get into the swing of things and start putting up more entries aside from the ones I have lined up to write about!

For now, this is definitely what I am missing the most about the last 4 months: 24 hours with this little being!

If any of the above 'previews' interest you more you can drop a remark and I will see to drafting that one up first! Else, it is whatever comes to mind when it comes to mind.

Thanks for reading!

As always, do follow me over at instagram (icyabstract) for quick pictorial updates of what is going on with me!

Brief Baby Break

icyabstract — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 19:15:21 SGT

Oh hey, alliteration in the title!

P.s. This was a sticky post, ~~scroll past this to see if there are new updates!~~

But anyway, hello again everyone and it has certainly been awhile since anything happened on this space. Those who follow me on my social platforms (twitter, instagram), you may be in the know of what caused this absence and what's up with my life right now.

Though for readers who only patronize my blog I thought I would throw up an official announcement here too!

[Read on about the official announcement...]

New Polish (MAC's Mean & Green) & Good Ole Pals :)

icyabstract — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:15:01 SGT

A bit of an On My Nails entry and a bit of a Hello, whatsup post.

Last week I had the chance to meet up with some long time beauty pals that I have not seen in for-ever – Mag, Sarah and Sophia! Boy was it good to catch up with them all again even though it was for a brief period and over dinner but it is almost like having a social life and I definitely missed that, and them!

With the meetup, Mag had also handed me a loot I troubled her to pick up on my behalf along with some extra items thrown in! Thank you Mag!

One of the items happen to be the MAC Mean & Green polish, which to my knowledge was released with Venomous Villians.

I love such 'oil-sleek' tones that flash various shades when it hits the light. I had contemplated this beauty but never got it because I already have Space Cadet which is almost an exact dupe.

Though thanks to Mag I now have both this and Space Cadet!

I doubt I would have to introduce this popular beauty very much but Mean & Green flashes crimson, magenta, olive and all with a tinge of gold, depending on how light reflects off it.

Above were shots with my phone and here are some camera shots where you can see the sparkles in greater detail.

Such beauty!

Polish aside, here are some random little snippets that the lovely ladies had put up on instagram! Snagging them for my entry, hope you don't mind :)

From Sarah's instagram:

From Sophia's instagram:

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The latest update would be if I don't disappear at any random time within this week, I would most certainly be 'gone' next Monday. By gone I really just mean transitting into a whole new part of my life which is all of a sudden making me feel nervous.

I don't think that I would have zero time for my blog after but I presume I may be MIA for 1 to 2 weeks at least and that makes me feel like churning out as much as I can, while I still can!

We'll see how it goes but if this space suddenly becomes silent... you might just know why ;)

Thanks for reading this brief update!

p.s. Today is the boy's birthday but due to a teenie-tiny surprise I have in store for him, I seem to be more excited than he is! ha!

Disappeared but not quite gone (yet)!

icyabstract — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:02:04 SGT

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!

Huge Life Update: One on the way...

icyabstract — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 14:04:29 SGT

Hello everyone!

Well, not a beauty entry this time and it's somewhat a life update that could prove lengthy so... don't say I didn't warn you!

I have been planning or writing this entry in my mind for awhile but not taken to pen-ning it down and have been procrastinating it up until this point. Though I feel I should share about this soon, before I don't quite get a chance to properly mention it.

And for those who may be guessing from the title, yes, I am expecting!

I have been for the past 35 weeks now actually and am rather close to the full term so I figured it's really a now or never sort of entry.

What I battled with was really how to best mention because I had probably expressed it before that it would be so random to throw on a life update, e.g. "hello I'm pregnant!", amidst lipstick swatches and eyeliner mentions but hey, that's how my life rolls on here I suppose!

Nonetheless I wanted to share this piece of exciting news with you all, my friends and readers because it will inadvertedly affect my blogging in one way or another, I'm pretty sure about that. On top of that, it is good news to broadcast and most of my closer pals and family were in the loop but I guess I wasn't too ready to deal with a whole social media sort of broadcast till much later on when I'm settled.

And by settled I guess it means when I'm almost due and battling with backaches, leg aches and all sorts of final term pains. ha!

If you ask me prior to this, I probably would say that I may not be ready for a kid yet at the same time my sentiments about having kids would be, it's best to have them young (and get it over and done with, ha!). Ironic isn't it? I guess if I really planned, gone about with life and did it the 'usual' route, I may not have my first kid till... maybe 27?

Not that there's anything wrong with that because that means more financial stability etc but I guess sometimes when you just leave things up to life, life happens according to how you secretly want it to?

Enough of me blabbering as this super text heavy now but I would round this post up and say I think I got quite lucky with this pregnancy.

I have heard stories about people feeling horrible, blah and all that but aside from the backaches and body aches, mobility issues and not to mention feeling crazy hot all the time, I actually felt a lot healthier through this! My skin, face and body, was in a much better condition.

In fact, I think the clear skin condition that I am facing right now may be partially credited to this.

There are bouts of tiredness and being easily irritable but I am thankful to the support from close and good friends who gave me advice along the way along with very supportive family members and loved ones -

The boy massaging my feet and running my errands, his mom cooking nourishing food for me which includes having those top-grade birds nest every weekend (seriously, most luxe diet I have ever had in my life), my mom happily shopping for maternity wear for me so I can skip long and tiring shopping trips.

There are many more people to thank like Mag for sharing her baby knowledge to me and being there when I have questions, well-wishes and supportive messages from friends I had known for a while (thank you Iris and Sophia!) along with colleagues who had asked me to sit and do nothing when everyone else was carrying and shifting stuff aruond during work events.

There are really too many to mention but in all, it was quite an experience and the most priceless of all is feeling the baby kicking, moving and being alive in you. When you think about it, it's quite beautiful to be carrying another life and it makes you realize how miraculous life can be.

But I shan't get philosophical and let you all off from my massive ... word vomit (bad time for this phrase, I know).

While I am not the most experienced, I guess I could answer and share some personal encounters with pregnancy if anyone is curious. Though like I said, I am fumbling and learning along the way too!

I haven't been the most active on here or posting the most exciting content, reviews etc so.. apologies to the readers that have consistently checked back and all. You all are greatly appreciated!

For the most part, I know I may have turned a little 'boring' on here and the lack of need for glammed up looks these days (since I hardly head anywhere worth dressing up for) along with my partial laziness when it comes to getting ready have left LOTDs, interesting mentions, event entries and reviews scarce.

While I can't promise that over time I will get back into regular postings and all would be like before, because I envision I will have my hands full with the little one, I will still try and upkeep what I can on here! The thought of closing this site down has never crossed my mind since this has been my little 'pride and joy' over the years but perhaps some absense here and there may happen and I hope you guys are okay with that!

As much as I wish I could juggle it all (which maybe I could, who knows!), I guess life happens!

Well, so much for wrapping it up but here's a shot when I was 30 weeks along!

It looks like a pretty small bump for something that far along, at least that's what everyone says to me, but over the past 5 weeks I think the baby had grown immensely! Must be that final term growth spurt thing.

Oh! And this baby is just in time for the Dragon Year too. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing...

Thanks for reading!

p.s. It's a baby girl if you are wondering! "小龙女" as a lot of my relatives put it. ha!

Frivolous Update of Sorts

icyabstract — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 22:38:42 SGT

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!

Update on Life + What Happened at MBS

icyabstract — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:30:18 SGT

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!

Clio's Kill Black & Peripera on our shores!

icyabstract — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:22:27 SGT

Hello!

Taking a break from setting up and customizing to do up a blog post! In the midst of figuring Adobe out so I'm running on the trial version right now but all's good... for 30 days!

But anyway, to the point of this quick entry...

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Clio and Peripera have made it to the shores of Singapore!

They were brought in by the same lovely people who brought Skin79 to us. The Kill Black range from Clio and full makeup range from Peripera have been available from end October at selected Watsons outlets.

I had received a variant of products from both brands and I'm quite stoked to give them a shot, especially so for Clio!

Lee Hyori is currently the 'muse' for Clio and when I saw her promotional pictures sometime in early September it piqued my interest to research more about the brand and want to try their products. One point would be how gorgeous the photos seemed to represent the products, provided those are the exact ones used in the photoshoot!

I guess it would also have to do with me being a mini fangirl for Lee Hyori. She's gorgeous and has a great personality on shows, I could go on but I'll stop.

And to think I would not be swayed by a spokesperson or pretty promotional image!

If you remember, back when I first announced my inspiration for turning to purple/plum shadows, the image I featured of Lee Hyori was one for Clio's Gel Liners (namely the purple shade).

Here's one of the many promo pics she had for the Kill Black range, along with a CF (video commercial).

Sorry there isn't much of a mention of Peripera here as I'm rather new to the brand myself but I will be doing feature entries with swatches and product pictures of what the items I had received. There will be one for Clio and one for Peipera so stay tuned!

Thank you for reading and sticking around my blog-draught!

Blessing in Disguise?

icyabstract — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 02:41:11 SGT

Hello everyone!

In my previous post I rambled on about my older computer crapping out on me and while it was still scary since it's the second time it has happened I had a better idea of what to do and what the problem was.

Bottom line:
That macbook pro was 4 years old, a 2007 model running on Tiger OS, it was about time for me to move on with life technology.

That would mean finally getting a new and very much needed macbook pro, which I just picked up today. Can't lie that I'm excited because I've been wanting the Lion OS ever since it came out!

I'm still getting the hang of not needing to be plugged in to a power source and I will finally be able to sync my iphone to my computer! Yes, all this time I never synced or backed-up my iphone because Tiger just did not accept change.

All that's left to do is to get my hands on the softwares (Adobe programs, Microsoft Office) and life will be back to normal. Blog entries will also be right back on track after that! Aside from photoshop I have no clear clue what to use to resize and watermark images so that's a missing piece right now.

If anyone happens to be wondering about what happened and what I did (for reference maybe?) you can read the grey portion but if it doesn't interest you, just skip it!

Crash Report (hurhur)
I didn't get my macbook diagnosed at Sapura again, because you'll have to pay a diagnosis fee of $80 and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to pay for anything on the old macbook anymore. Aside from repair which will probably be about 1.2k (from previous crash experience) I can get a new set and then have the old hard disk removed and use a mount/adapter to read it. Sapura mentioned that the process of removing the hard disk will probably cost me S$100. I then went over to the Apple distributor (Multimedia, across Sapura) and they are able to remove the hard disk for me, for free! So long as I buy my laptop with them, which was what I planned to do. As for the mount/adaptor, you can get a basic model from CH (2 stores down Mutlimedia) for S$25 because the Multimedia sells the more complicated ones at about 100 plus.

So at the end of it, I bought the mount/adaptor, brought my laptop to Multimedia to remove the Hard disk and got a new macbook pro from them!

While it was a mini heart attack of my laptop crashing, I guess it was about time and my laptop was trying to use some tough love to prove its point.

Thanks for reading!