cyndork

Currently sneezing non-stop (I think I've caught the flu?) and listening to Lisa Mitchell's 'Coin Laundry' whilst freezing to death over Perth's winter weather. I thought I would blog for the night, but I honestly haven't got a topic to add!

My life has actually been quite boring since exams finished - apart from working 4 nights a week, I've done nothing new. Oh! Except I'm getting new eye glasses and sunglasses in the upcoming weeks. The thing is, when I originally set off to get the frames I chose these two pairs:

Then as I went back for my appointment, the sales lady told me that she would not recommend these pairs to me as the frames didn't have nose pads (Asian flat nose syndrome) so they would sit on my cheeks and they would be too heavy and whatnot. The thing is - I've been wearing my current two eye glasses and both frames don't have nose pads and they both sit on my cheeks. I've had no problems with them and I don't mind at all. It's all really personal preference.

I was super annoyed when she suggested other frames to buy and she chose all these super ugly frames which made me look unflattering. Especially the sunglasses - all of them were super ugly. She chose these metal ones which weren't stylish at all. When I finally told her that I would be keeping the sunglass frames she kept on asking me if I was really sure I wanted these - it got super annoying and made me mad. I just don't get it, I think I would know what I like and I've been wearing glasses for the majority of my life - I think I understand what I like and dislike. I've had those nose pad pieces before and they didn't even help - they made my eyes and nose hurt and they ended up sliding down anyways. They also get dirty quickly and they turn into a really disgusting shade if they're not cleaned properly. I'm so low maintenance! Then you end up getting pimples on your nose area.

Anyways, I ended up getting these frames in the end:

Yah, they do have nose pads.

Also, there's only 21 days left until I set off for my Melbourne Trip with my sister and my best friend! We're horrible at planning so we're just going to do stuff and plan along the way when we arrive haha. I hope we don't run out of money soon! I'm super excited because this is the first time I'm traveling with a friend and first time not with my parents. Maybe next time I'll actually travel with just my friend and I or JUST BY MYSELF!

It's also 39 days until I get my Invisalign braces off which I'm pretty stoked about and I feel like I've been smiling and laughing more freely now. It's funny how my self-confidence has improved along with my teeth. It's the little things that help my confidence grow. My teeth used to be so horrible that I would only just smile with my mouth closed.

If you didn't know already, it's currently exam week/s in Australia and I had a total of three exams with two of them on the same day! I had Accounting, Economics and Business Information Systems! It has been an extremely stressful week and I wanted to end it by going to The Paper Kites concert here in Perth at the Western Australian Art Gallery. This was on the 19th of June.

After I had finished my last exam at 4:30pm, I went back home to get changed/charge my phone and switch my bag so I didn't need to bring all of my study notes. Then I went to the train station to catch the train at 6:30pm and was just about to reach the Perth train station when it suddenly stopped! The doors wouln't open for a good solid one minute and everyone was just crowding and standing around the train doors. The driver announced that something had happened and that it would take some time to solve it. So, there I was - trapped in a train - so close to my destination and the concert was starting at 8pm!

I swear I was on the train for a good half an hour before they announced they were going back to the last train station! It was already 7:30 around this time and the train was supposed to arrive at Perth at 6:53pm! I was honestly getting claustrophobic and worried that I would miss the concert. My friend, Paige, was already inside the Artbar and she was all by herself and I hungry and thirsty all by myself with these strangers.

As we were dropped off at the train station, we got off, and they didn't tell us whether there would be a train replacement bus so everyone was extremely confused over where to go. I just followed this lady and waited at the bus stop. 10 minutes already passed and there were more people waiting but no train replacement bus so I called my sister (mind you, my phone was running on 15% battery) and she came to pick me up at 8pm!!!

I arrived at the artbar at 8:10pm and I managed to make it on time???!! WHAT THE FUCK. I am extremely shocked at how I managed to make it on time!

Sam Bentley looked right into my camera

Blogged about the novel here. Review is down below - click here

I had the utmost pleasure of seeing an advanced screening of 'The Fault in Our Stars' yesterday as my friend won two tickets through a student competition. She had already watched it once and I was so excited and extremely overwhelmed that my friend chose me out of all of her 900 Facebook friends to go watch it with!

We got to the Belmont Reading Cinema by bus after uni at 5pm and decided to get popcorn. Then we decided to buy drinks as well but then there was a line already forming so I waited in line while my friend bought the drinks and by the time she got the drinks a line had formed from all the way to the outside of the building!!! We also had to give our phones to the crew as we weren't allowed to have any cameras/phones in the building but the two men with the metal detectors couldn't even detect the huge ass laptop and my small iPod we were carrying in our bags haha (Fake metal detectors)

The screen was huge and there were so many people. Luckily we got in early and grabbed great setas! These are the only two photos I have of yesterday as we weren't allowed photos inside the cinema.

This was the before and after photos of watching the film. Need I say more?

Now onto my short review (may include spoilers):

My best friend, my sister and I have booked flights to Melbourne in the month of June so I've been refraining myself from buying anything and saving up enough so I can splurge to my delight in Melbourne. Which is probably why I've been posting all these fashion related posts this month. This post is no exception except it is shoe-related.

And my non monochromatic sneakers - New Balance because they're the most stylish, in trend and comfiest sneakers ever.

NEW BALANCE 996

NEW BALANCE 574

NEW BALANCE 996

Went to Fortune Five to have dim sum today with my family. We ate a whole heap and ended up at Karrinyup shopping centre where we spent most of the day exploring. Mum and I went looking for a handbag for almost 2 hours and she ended up giving up at the check out when she found out the 30% discount only applied when she more 2 or more items. So that was a lost effort. However, I did have my eye upon Fossil's handbags and wallet which I am still admiring and dreaming about until now. My Ooh La La wallet which I purchased last year with my friend at Myer has gone incredibly ragged and I need a new one desperately! Also, my wallet right now is extremely heavy and dirty.

Sydney Zip Clutch valued at AUD$99

I especially love the colour and the look of the wallet as it is a lilac colour inside and it feels so light and sleek. It is made of smooth leather.

Sydney Top Zip valued at AUD$199

The other item I took interest in was this crossbody small handbag which came also in blue but also a metallic pink and gold. I extremely loved the pink but thought that this gold colour would match much more easily with my casual clothes. I've been searching for a small bag in a colour other than brown as all of my other small bags are brown in colour. My friend's friend also has a blue Michael Kors' bag which I absolutely adored but I searched it up and it was valued at over $300 and it wasn't available over here in Perth so sad faces all around :--( Feeling extremely blue right now because I didn't end up getting anything today.

Staying on the subject of 'blue,' I've really been eyeing blue eyeshadow (scuse the pun!) but after looking at many photos with models wearing blue eyeshadow I really want to join in the trend. It's not actually a trend right now, I don't think, as many people still relate it back to the 70's but I so adore the look. Especially this photo of Xiao Wen Ju:

It's appearing more of a green hue to me right now but w/e I still want blue!

I tranced upon an article on Vogue about the fashion term 'normcore' today. To put it simply, normcore means:

a collective, neutral blandness
anti-fashion and anti-trends
it seeks the freedom that comes with non-exclusivity
anonymous, detail-free design
self-aware, stylized blandness

Taken/Read more from here and here.

I'm not sure if these could be classified as normcore but here are some images which I believe fit into the category.

I really feel like my fashion style right now fits into the normcore 'trend' but it could really just be an overall ~ I'm a university student whose too lazy and poor to be fashionable ~ style. I usually opt for black jeans and a plain white shirt or a jumper now that it's getting colder over here. Then I just match it up with my sneakers and I'm set. I am assuming that's what it means to be 'normcore,' but I could be totally wrong.

I haven't done a skincare/makeup routine post a while and it's changed quite a lot compared to last skincare post and my last makeup post. So I wanted to do an updated one as my skin has changed a lot since high school (thank God I survived puberty!)

Before that, I just wanted to put a disclaimer that these products may work well for me (well most of them do) but it does not necessarily mean that they will absolutely work for you as well. I've realised that you just have to try and test what works/what doesn't work for you. That has been my philosophy for cosmetic/skincare products since high school. Which is why some products which worked well for me in high school don't have the same effect for my skin now.

My skin is considered to be combination but more on the oily side (especially on my T-zone!) I really hate having oily skin because I always look so shiny. So many of my products are oil-free and mattifying.

Skincare

Cleanser: L'Oreal Hydra Fresh Foam Cleanser
I use this with my pore brush I bought from eBay. The cleanser by itself is really good at balancing out my skin as it's a good oily control cleanser but when I pair it with my pore brush it just makes it even more effective.

Toner: Biore Triple Action Toner
Surprise, surprise - it's still here. It truly is my holy grail item. I've tried other toners other than this one but this one is ultimately the one I always end up getting. As you can see I might need to restock as I'm nearly through with this bottle.

Moisturiser: Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisturiser in Combination
In my last skincare post, I used to use the SPF one where it had SPF 15. I used to use another moisturiser before this one that my cousin bought for me in Hong Kong but it ran out and I couldn't purchase it either online or over in Australia so I had to get a new moisturiser. I already had my sunscreen which was SPF 50 so I decided to get the combination moisturiser instead. I don't know why I didn't get this sooner - it works so much better on my skin than the SPF one because it works so well with my skin.

Sunscreen: BeautyMate Total Whitening Sunscreen SPF 50
This sunscreen is not that good - to be completely honest - it's really watery and the smell isn't that nice and the packaging is putting me off from purchasing it again. It only whitens my skin temporarily but it does a good job at the whole SPF 50 and preventing my skin from burning from the Australian heat.

Mattifying cream: Nivea Shine Control Mattifying Gel Cream
Another product reappears! Yes, this product does such a good job at making my skin look matte and keeping my oil under control and it also moisturises at the same time. So on those super lazy days (which are most days) where I just stay at home all day - I just wash my face with water only and then just apply this gel cream and I'm set for the day.

I was in my Accounting class the other day and we were Googling out names when I chanced upon this blog and my friends were scrolling through my blog. They were laughing about how little photos my blog had so it sort of motivated me to update my blog with more photos.

14 April 2014

For breakfast, my sister and I went to Sorrento Beach Shack and I was especially craving juice so I ordered the watermelon and orange juice. The juice was the best part of the meal. The breakfast was really heavy for me and I usually don't eat that much breakfast so I couldn't really finish it. The baguette was really hard and the bacon was really greasy so I didn't enjoy it that much. That's why I liked the juice so much because the meal was so oily and heavy for the morning and the juice balanced it out.

When I look back at last year, it feels like nothing much even happened but then I realise that I started university and managed to survive 2 semesters of it! I should feel proud of myself but I don't think I have the personality type cut out for university. I don't feel like I belong anywhere.

Last year was also the year where I felt like I "grew up," I learnt a lot about relationships, friendships and life after high school. Friendships and relationships come and go so easily. Some friendships of mine have been weakening and some I've even broken off to the point of no return. I feel like I have no friends anymore - like I had previously mentioned. I've been neglecting all of my friends but at the same time it's completely mutual. Even the ones I've wanted to fix - they don't want to fix this relationship with me. It's like they don't even try to be my friend so why should I try so hard to fix this friendship?

In Philosophy, I learnt that one of the social rules was that you treat people how they treat you. There was also the other one where you treat people how you want to be treated but I think I follow the first one more because I usually treat people nicely but once they treat me in a certain way I usually treat them in the same way back. I'm so stubborn but that's the way I think. Maybe because of this, people think I'm mean and rude but I'm just treating them the same way they treated me - what's wrong with that?

This year, I've been following this social rule without even realising it. It's been working out great so far, I've gotten rid of people who treat me like trash. Like this girl who used to be my friend back in high school. Then she changed once she got into a relationship last year and she would stop contacting our group, using me for things, and overall stopped hanging out with me and our group. Then there are just friends who have just drifted apart because of distance but they don't make any effort to hang out even when we're both free and stop contacting unless they need stuff from me. I'm so sick of people placing me as their last priority. Why can't I ever be someone's first or at least second priority? What's wrong with me?

Neglect. verb1.
fail to care for properly.

Is probably the word that sums up with blog right now.

It also probably sums up my current life right now as well.
I feel so neglected! Yet at the same time I feel like I'm neglecting everything and everyone. I'm such an introvert at heart and I've been trying my hardest to socialise with everyone but the more I seem to socialise the more distant I think I'm becoming with everyone. I feel like I'm boring everyone with my speech and I just wish I was more entertaining and I feel like my friends aren't my friends anymore. I rarely even talk to them but the thing is - I don't really have anything to say to them anymore? We don't hang out anymore. I'm watching everyone else's life going smoothly and they're going out with their friends or significant other and having the best time. Their life is on track. Whereas all I've been doing is just university assignments and working while making small talk with as much people as I possibly can.

The phenomenon of 'likes' is annoying me so much. Its like a like = how many friends you have/how many people care about you. I hate it so much yet I'm in that downward spiral and it's so hard to get out. How is it possible that I can only get 5 likes and my friend posts the same photo and she gets 65 likes. What happened to karma? What goes around, comes around? Where did all of my friends go? Why don't they like my photo? I know it sounds completely insane to think this but its annoying me so much. I thought they were my friends?

It's almost February but I thought what the heck, I need some goals for the upcoming year!

Set up and establish my very own online store!
Save enough money to go to Melbourne by end of year
Be more hard-working and studious
Stop neglecting my blogger! (aka BLOG MORE)
Get my drivers license omfg

I haven't posted since the beginning of this year and sitting down in front of my laptop and spending some quality time writing down some feeeels have made me miss properly 'blogging' (not Tumblr blogging which consists of 99.99% of me reblogging).

So, I won't ramble on on what I've been doing this past year because none of that really matters as it was mostly just me adjusting to university life and finding out the perils of relationships post high-school.

In the meantime, I just wanted to tell you that I'm heading off to Hong Kong in exactly 3 days! I just have to tackle my final exam tomorrow and I'm set for vacay! I am extremely excited as I haven't been back in almost 4 years! The last time I was there was back in January 2010. I'm going to be in Hong Kong for 1 month exactly but I'll also be touring around in Taiwan for 5 days! I've never been to Taiwan but should be exciting (I've heard there's a Krispy Kreme shop opening up in December which is PERFECT as I am long overdue for one of their donuts).

Another exciting thing is that as I'm eighteen now and more independent, I don't mind travelling by myself in the city instead of following my mum around to the smelly markets where she finds pleasure in picking out fruits and vegetables. I can now properly explore the metropolitan nightlife!! First stop: American Apparel!

Here are some fashion inspiration I am trying to opt for when shopping for pieces in Hong Kong!

I love how she pulls of the whole 'one colour' outfit! I'm bringing two oxblood coloured pieces with me to Hong Kong and so hopefully I can pull it off just like her.

I absolutely love Ju Xiao Wen! I love how most of her outfit consists of black except the shirt and she balances it out with the white on her shoes.

I'm more of a person that likes the whole plain and simple kind of outfit like the one above and the ones below. I find that neutral colours like black, grey, white and denim blue suit me more than bright colours. Which could also explain why I love Winter fashion way more than Summer fashion.

I was watching Laina's video the other day, she's also known as Overly Attached Girlfriend (OAG), about the Number 20 and it got me thinking about my creepy number. However, I didn't realise it until today that I had a creepy number. My creepy number is 34/43 or 3&4.

Here is Laina's video:

So I went to the driving center today to request for an ID card because it's really inconvenient without one. I can't get into bars, clubs, get a new phone, get a new bank account without it. I had to fill in some forms and that's when I realised that both of my contact numbers have the number '34' in them. My mobile number (9134) and home number (9343) and so it reminded me of Laina's video. Might I add that today is also the 12th of April (1+2 = 3) (0+4 = 4)

So then when me and my sister went to have lunch, I was browsing through my cards in my wallet and it struck me that both of my student cards, my university student number (4243) and my high school number (7346) both have 3 & 4 in them. What really scared me was when I added up my birthday and it added up to 34. My birthday is the 8th of February 1995 by the way so it's 2+8+1+9+9+5 = 34. When I realised that, I told my sister who was in the driver's seat next to me and a truck was driving up next to her at the traffic lights. Guess what the truck's number plate was? 534

After I told her about my birthday and the number 34, I went to change the song that we were listening to and it was playing at exactly 1 minute and 34 seconds into the song.

Guess what just happened...I was watching this video when I realised something.

34. 34. 34. 34. EVERYWHERE!!!

Maybe I'm just being paranoid or maybe the number 34 just follows me around everywhere. Maybe everyone has a creepy number. Perhaps it's just a coincidence? I'm not sure but let me know if you've discovered you have a creepy number too!

edit://

I also realised that our new car's number plate is 843 and the bus I take everyday on the way to the train station/university is 344. Also our house address is 7 (3+4 = 7). Will keep this updated if I find anymore of these!

I went to the Fremantle Street Arts Festival (FSAF?) on Saturday with a group of friends and there were heaaapps of people there. I went with a huge group of people from my high school so we kept on getting seperated as there were more than twelve people! So amidst the waiting and trying to get back together - I suggested to my best friend, Sarah's boyfriend, Kirk to street snap me! (Like they do on tokyofashion.com) This was the result! It actually looks like one of those street snaps!! Apart from my fail attempt at being fashionable! My friend, Anaya, looked much more fashionable than me but someone tried to photobomb while Kirk was taking the photo :(

I was wearing: a jumper from dotti, a dress from a no-brand shop, pink flatforms from the no-brand shop, tattoo tights from ebay (Universe), socks from target and ahcahcum muchacha cat bag.

I don't know why it looks black but my dress is actually blue (velvet blue dress)

I also got a, might I add - a much needed, haircut! Before, my hair was a mess. Nonono I'm not exaggerating! It was literally a mess, even the hairdresser said so.

It took me more than 10 minutes just to brush my hair before. The only time I would even brush my hair was after I had taken a shower because that was the only time I could actually brush it. However, starting the end of last year - even when it was wet I could not completely brush it through without there being a knot and tangling everywhere! Also, my hair had been bleached three times due my attempt at getting lilac hair (and failing) and also I dyed it a plum colour after I wanted to get rid of the orange colour from the bleach PLUS the fact that I had been growing it out since year 9. So my hair was seriously damaged due to the fact that I wanted to grow it out past my chest area and the fact that I just bleached the heck out of it!

So a haircut followed! But where do I find inspiration/reference for my new haircut? TUMBLR of course! This is when I fell in love with Kiko Mizuhara and her bob hair! She is absolutely stunning and I will killl just to be her but unfortunately that is not possible...as of now.

I showed this photo to my hairdresser but asked to make it a tad longer.

So I went to my favourite hair salon - OnC Studio It's really difficult for me to find a really good hairdresser place as I am absolutely so picky and they never ever seem to get my hair right. I used to dread going to get my haircut because they always ended up making it look absolutely ridiculous and then I'd cry and try to make it all better by straightening it or something! Then my mum let me grow out my hair so I told myself to never get a haircut ever again. So I didn't get any major haircuts for three years and even if I went to the hairdressers I only told them to trim just a teeny little bit or mention that I was growing out my hair every few minutes.

One of the hairdressers I went to was OnC and I told them I wanted to get rid of the split ends, layers and fringe - mentioning again that I was growing out my hair. However, OH MY GOODNESS, everything was perfect. It felt light and they helped me straighten my hair and I loved it so much. I went there again with my best friend, Yun, to get our fringes cut and AGAIN it was exactly what I wanted. So I went with confidence to OnC and I was totally not disappointed yet again. It ended up being exactly what I wanted.

Before.....as you can see (or not) my hair is all a giant big mess.

lol my shadow looks weird

The hairdresser helped me straighten it as Kiko's hair is naturally straight but I think I like it more when it curls at the ends as it looks more natural & he took a really long time straightening my hair - I don't think I'm that high maintenance to do that! So I wet the bottom parts of my hair. It feels so much lighter than before and I can actually run my fingers through my hair now! (I know right!) I love how I can messy it up and it won't become a huge frizzy mess and the split ends won't distract me during the day as I can hardly even see the ends of my hair unless I turn my head really down. I love it so much and that's weird because I haven't had short hair since year 7 or 8 and I hated my hair back then so much.

I'm trying to grow out my fringe now so that it's the same length as the rest of my hair. I hope I won't find some photo of a girl with straight bangs and suddenly have the urge to cut my fringe again because that ALWAYS happens.

Looking back, it literally took me 3-4 years to grow my hair out to the length I had before. Back in year 9, I remember going on soompi forums and browsing through all the 'grow my hair' challenges and 'how to grow hair faster' topics as I reallllyyy wanted long hair like all those beautiful kpop stars and ulzzangs. So I was so determined to grow out my hair so I could do hair flips and look feminine and beautiful. Little did I know - having long hair was so stressful and hard work. I went through a bottle of conditioner so quickly! Summer was horrible and I needed to find hair ties to tie up my hair so I always put it up in a bun (my hair always tangled so everything was just stressful) and all the sweat went onto my hair and it took hours for it to dry. I don't think I'd ever grow my hair as long as I had ever again.

I'm at the point where I find short hair and bobs to be more attractive than long hair but anyways - if you want to grow your hair out. Just don't cut it at all. Don't worry about it too much. Year 11 and 12 - everything was about exams so I didn't even care about my hair at all and I was surprised over how much it grew without me noticing. You need absolute patience.

The worst hair length is medium length and that's why year 9 I was stressing so much about it because when you're right in the middle of growing your hair out and it's not long enough but it can't be considered short enough too.

This post ended up being really long. Sorry. Bye.

So....ever since I turned 18 I have officially (and legally) been able to go online shopping as my parents didn't allow me before as they believed - I quote - it to be 'dangerous' and that people get their money stolen from online. I think they still live in the stone ages as obviously they've never gone online shopping in the 21st century and I believe they only heard such stories from like yonks ago!

Anyhoo - today I finally got my second item I've ever bought! They're these tattoo stockings in 21. Universe.

OK. Tattoo stockings. First step to getting Juria Nakagawa's look ...well close enough. I don't think I'll ever be able to be as fashionable as Juria to be honest. Bbbut TATTOO STOCKINGS!! I want to buy all of them!! The one I bought was $3 and I really wasn't sure which pattern I wanted so I just randomly chose this Universe one and it came in the mail today. It's a bit small on me and I was so scared of ripping it but I managed to make it at least fit though the design is a bit stretched but all is well! :D

I don't remember if I've mentioned it before but my parents got me a 13 inch Macbook Pro for my university gift! So I bought a case for it online because the second day I got it and brought it to school - I had already scratched it! :( I thought the case would be a more pastel mint green colour but it's actually sort of a darker shade when its on the macbook.

I only just bought this today and it was a really last minute decision. (I had always wanted the other ones before I had ebay) I bought this because my friend suggested I buy it so that we can have WIZARD DUELS!!! Also, I really love Fleur Delacour's wand for some reason. It's actually a more browner shade in the movie but I don't know why it's green for the ones online. :S

AHHH ALSO ALSO ALSO I have wanted this bag for agggggeeess!!! My friend said she would get it for me for my birthday but then the seller on eBay cancelled the transaction so I'm not sure what happened but I bought it!! Hopefully it arrives soon because I can't wait to use it. Ahhh I want it with me already! Look how stylish Juria Nakagawa looks with it!

I want to end this post with some bizarre photobooth photos I have saved!!!!