I HAVE PURPLE HAIR (*V*)v

HELLO WORLD! I'm back... Kinda. Anyhoo, those who follow me on instagram may know that I now have purple hair! -insert overexcited face here- I dyed it at 99 Percent Hair Studio at Haji Lane, a pretty popular salon here in Singapore. My friend recommended it to me, and they were having a Great Singapore Sale promo. YAY ME! It was a "bring a friend along" type deal, so Joey and I went to get our hair done! Some "before" photos, in case you didn't know about my brown ombre, which you can read about here (:

featuring the special one, AKHI, at his 21st!

(part of) the SAJC fam ♥

And this is what my hair looked like after dying the top part a lighter brown, and bleaching + purple-ifying the bottom:

UNICORNNNNNN
MERMAIDDDDDD
PRINCESSSSSSSSS

It is apparently normal to dye it a slightly darker shade. This is so the colour lasts longer and gets more vibrant as time passes, especially since quite a bit of colour will come off in the first few washes. As the purple faded, it became more obvious in dimmer light. At first, it simply looked black / really really dark. The faded colour is GORGEOUS in sunlight, if I may say so myself. BEHOLD.

in a dimmer setting

the power of purple is strong with this one

ISN'T IT GORGEOUS??! YES, IT IS. So don't be freaked out if it's slightly darker than you expect it to be at first. The colour had faded quite a bit but was still pretty visible after 2 full months. However, because of a birthday month promo, I went to touch it up again. Sensing a pattern here? Haha, save money where you can, cos good hair don't come cheap, hon. May do a post on dyed hair in general soon... If I do, I'll go more into detail about how I decided on the colour, the bleaching process and everything. We'll see. What colour am I doing next? I'm not sure, but blue or blonde are pretty high up on the list! ... Just don't tell my mother XD

Sorry that its shorter than my previous posts, but the service at 99% was pretty "up there" also! They had plastic ear protectors, got me tea, were attentive. Pretty great overall, actually. The one in charge of me both times was a really nice girl, Wendy! Her hair, and there hair of all the stylists there actually, is freakin ON FLEEK. I also can't recall the price, but both times I got pretty good discounts because of the promotions. 30 and 20% off respectively, I believe. 

But yup, here it is, my purple hair experience! It's past 4am now, and I've still got a submission for uni later today, so ciao for now~

Signing off with sunshine, sparkles, and sakura petals in my purple hair,

Andrea  (｡◕ ∀ ◕｡) 

HIATUS?? (>x<)///

OMG, DID ANDREA FALL OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH AND DIE??

...

No, it's actually much worse than that. I broke my promise of 2 posts a month and gave in to the Lazy Monster and his friends, Procrastination and Sleep. It's been 2 solid months since any posts have been uploaded, and my sincerest apologies for that! I started a part time job in June and that carried on until mid July, when I took a trip to Hong Kong. I also joined NUS RAG activities that month, and in August, uni started, which left me barely any time for anything else. Basically, my excuse is having been super busy... Again, SORRYYYY! Here's a summation of those missing months in photos!

JOEY AND I DURING BREAK TIME ;>

CHURCH OUTREACH!

COLLECTING MY CERT... I'VE OFFICIALLY GRADUATED!!!

MEET VARJO, THE BEST UNI OG I COULD'VE HOPED FOR

I HAVE PURPLE HAIR. I'M ALLOWED PICTURES LIKE THIS.
I MEAN, LOOK AT IT. LOOOOK.

MORE DREADIYs! JEN'S HEADDRESS~~

MEETING OCEAN PARK'S JAMES THE SHARK

7-11 IN HK!

THEY REMEMBERED MY BIRTHDAY!!! -sobs-

NUS USC RAGGGG!!!!

WE BE UN-UN-UN-UN-UNBE-LEE-BA-BLE

BLACK HOUSE SWAG

SO. There you have it... Essentially a photo journal of the last 2 months! I'll be doing my very best to upload posts at least semi-regularly, and clear my backlog of posts (which basically involves the stories behind the above photos, hahaha), so I hope you'll stick with me -hopeful eyes-

<3

Signing off with sunshine, sparkles and sakura petals... At 3am when I have a submission due tomorrow morning, heh,

Andrea \(♥v♥)/

DreaDIYs -- Watercolour World Map

Recently, a very important event took place. LILING GOT OLDERRRRRRRR~ 

♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILING ♥

For those who've read my previous entries, you'd know that Liling is a very special happy jelly that plopped into my life only 3 years ago, and her presence has since become an immovable jelly rock. In case you couldn't tell, I mean that in the best possible way. I love my jelly. CUE JELLY DANCE! (~*v*)~  (~*v*)~

tadaaaa~ look at that smile!
Above: Merryl
L-R: Jen, LILING, Me

For her birthday this year, we FINALLY managed to surprise her successfully, after years of trying. \o/ WE DID IT! It took 3 years and even more tries, but we did it! Other than a meal, I also wanted to give her something extra special, so I went the DIY route, especially since I've been feeling rather crafty. Heh heh heh... What i came up with at the end was a watercolour world map! Liling really enjoys travelling, but I didn't want to just get her a plain old map. In fact, she already has one of those cool scratch maps, where you scratch of places where you've been to, and the colour below the gold scratch layer varies. Mine was meant to be more of an ornamental piece. Like those boards with inspirational quotes on 'em in those pinterest rooms? This map has a personal touch, okay. I decided on the quote "the joy is in the journey" after pestering Jen a TONNE. So... ... JJA JJANGGGG!

check out that watercolour ombre -proud-

The space/small markings at the bottom left (depending on how good your vision is) are indications for her to put a nice Polaroid of the two of us (#^u^#) It's definitely not perfect, and there definitely are mistakes, but I'm still pretty proud of it! First time working with watercolours outside of primary school art class, so I enlisted Joey's help (she's one of my best friends from secondary school, seriously artsy and had a watercolour phase). Here's how we did it! ;D

*disclaimer: Not really to scale. If you're great at geography, be prepared to cough up a little blood. You have been warned.*

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

MATERIALS

Photo Frame -- unless you don't want to frame it. I used a standing one, not a hanging one.

Printed out world map -- get a pic from Google images, and scale it down to the size you want.

Watercolour paper -- I stole a page from Joey.

Watercolours/cups of water/brushes -- Again, stolen from Joey.

Markers -- If you wish to outline the map in ink and for any words/quotes.

Scissors/pencils/erasers -- To trace out the map onto watercolour paper.

A HELL LOTTA PATIENCE

#1

Make sure your map fits within the area of the frame. Remember to leave allowance for the sides of the frame. Don't want to offend anyone by cutting off their beloved country. Then cut out each chunk of land, and trace them out on the watercolour paper before you lose the tiny cut out pieces. I did mine by continents.

this is the one I used (I think)

Tip: Try to make your map as huge as possible. Seriously. And don't worry thaaat much about accuracy, I free handed some parts and left out some islands because they were just too much work. (Sorry Indonesia...) Just include what's important. Eg. The map I printed out had so many tiny islands, but not Singapore. So I drew it in. I don't care if it's not to scale, or if its a negligible dot, IT WILL BE THERE.

#2

Once you've got your general map down, go back in with the reference picture to check for any glaring mistakes and correct them. You can't really erase pencil marks after painting without taking the paint of and stripping the paper too, so this is important!

Tip: I wouldn't outline it too darkly, because the watercolours will bleed out and will most probably go out of the lines, forcing you to reshape the geographical boundaries of the countries like you're Genghis Khan.

#3

It was my first time painting like this too, so pardon the clumsy explanation... First, decide on your colour scheme, and in what order/direction the ombre would go.

7+ hours later... thanks again, Joey ♥

The colours are kinda washed out in the picture, but as (I hope) you can see, we did a vertical ombre. The colours went from cool to warm: blue > purple > pink > red > orange > yellow!

clearer pic of the colours~

#4

Basically, take your watercolour paper and dampen small sections at a time.

Type I: If you like the effect of the paint spreading out, just dot small drops of paint onto the wet paper and watch it diffuse. SCIENCE. However, if your paper isn't wet enough, or you use too much paint, you end up with polka dots, basically.

Type II: Just paint it normally, pushing the paint to where you want it to go. Same with the above, too little water and/or too much paint is bad, only you get streaks/stripes instead of dots.

Note: If you use too much water the paper WILL crinkle a little. You may also get some blotches of very pale colour. Going over it again will make the colour darker, but the water marks and crinkling will remain, which is what happened to Russia...

sorry... /:

See the folds of the paper? My frame is actually already exerting some pressure on the paper to keep it flatter... Moral of the story? Be careful and don't make mistakes. If you do, just start printing, cutting, tracing and colouring all over again. No pressure or anything. That was pretty much my thought process during the entire painting session. That and "My neck/shoulders/back ache".

#5

Darken the outlines and add any wordings you may want on your map. As mentioned earlier, I left a gap at the bottom left for a Polaroid picture. DONE!

my masterpiece, in all it's (limited) glory

I bought these wooden letters from Spotlight, but was unsure if I should use them...

To Liling, blessed birthday, lovie! EYE LUBB CHOO MANY MANY. -huuuug- I'm sorry this post basically showed you what was wrong with the map, which will probably bother you for years to come... You are gonna keep this for at least that long, aren't you? Anyhoo, if you ever doubt my friendship, just look at the stupid super awesome completely perfectly drawn beautiful work of art that is this map.

Signing off throwing sunshine, sparkles and sakura petals at Liling,

Andrea (♥v♥)

DIGITAL PERM @ NUMBER76

I'm backkkkkk~ Again, please forgive the lack of posts! Been pretty busy running around doing stuff, and recently started a new part time job. Hopefully I can save up a lot! ... And maybe spend less, heh.

Anyway, if you follow me on instagram (@slantedalmonds), you'll have seen a picture of me with curly hair! Namely, this one:

not sure if I should call it "curly" or "curled". oh well.

Yup. Basically, I went for a "hot" perm, or digital perm at Number76. My stylist was Shaun, same at last time. However, this time, I was at the Publika branch, with my cousin Kimberly, in fact. It had only just opened that month and all chemical servicces were on 20% off! -happy dance- I originally wanted to colour my hair again as well, but was advised against it. Sigh, the pains of having dead grass for hair (T^T)

It was quite challenging to find the salon, even with GPS, and we wound up kinda lost. We reached on time, but I think we made my father kinda late for his work appointment... Oops? Either way, this branch is as aesthetically pleasing as the Bangsar 2 branch I went to before it, if only in a different way. The space was very open and had a garden-like concept. It was also very... white? Yet warm? Minimalist and clean? Insta-friendly? Along those lines la. I'll let the pics do the talking...

after the long drive, I went to the toilet first. Heh <_<
their hand soap is from AESOP. AESOP. #atas

the view from my seat

the view on the other side of my seat.

mini hanging garden reception area!

I love the look of the textured/ white brick walls, as well as the wood and slightly warm toned lights. It makes it look super clean and well put together, but still inviting. I find some places go overboard with the minimalist thing and it ends up looking very cold and impersonal, like a showroom. On to the perming process!

STEP 1: some solution was applied to my dry hair to prepare it.

Note: I washed my hair the night before so they didn't wash it for me. My cousin didn't so they washed hers.

it was left on (with cling warp over it) for 10 minutes

after washing it out. turban time~

Step 2: They see me rollin', they hatin'

They then plugged me to the heating system. Can't remember for how long, though. The sponge protected my head from the heat pretty well! Just felt a pleasant warmth. The unpleasantness came from the fact that my head felt SO FREAKING HEAVY. Had a slight neck cramp afterwards... Shaun applied the perm solution and rollers to my hair, before letting the trainee take over the heating bit.

really thick hair, so they used every roller they had on me, heh heh

go ahead. laugh. I know you want to.

Step 3: Removing and realxing

Yes, I look like Chinese Goldilocks gone wrong. I know. But according to Shaun, if they don't do this, the perm essentially becomes flat once they apply the relaxant. This way it stays curlier and longer.

again, go ahead. laugh. I know you still want to.

after applying the relaxant... progressed from Goldilocks to Chinese pin-up model wannabe.
WHEEEE~

POST-WASH/BLOW DRY

#glamorous

This was before I separated the curls, because I wanted to let it set before I brushed it out too much. If you want to hear more details about their really great service, you can read my post on getting ombre hair  from back in January. Different branch, same service (: To be honest, I was a tad disappointed because the curls weren't as defined as I wanted. However, it still looks pretty and I like the subtle, more natural look as well. It's lasted pretty well so far... More pics:

You can see the difference when I twirl and blow dry my hair before bed and when I just don't do anything to it. Sometimes, especially if it's hot, I laze around in my poofy alibaba pyjama pants with my hair in buns! I just twist the buns in the direction of the curls. OH! Also, my hair is curled from my chin / jaw area onward, and it curls inward, not out.

PYJAMAAAAAS~

When I go out it's either just hanging around freely or I tie it into a simple ponytail. Here's a pic of when it's tied up:

for those wondering, L-R: me, sher nah, joey, sher koh
my best friends from secondary school! ♥

here's what it looks like today (:

Welp, that's basically it! For those wondering, yes I have gotten lazy. I bathe at night, and with this much hair, it's a total hassle to blow dry, so I usually blow dry it about half way and then sleep with my hair in 4 sections, 2 on each side, curling each section with my hands. I usually flip my hair up when I sleep, so instead of a mass of hair, there are 4 "rolls". Yes, it is as weird as it sounds.

Signing of with sunshine, sparkles and sakura petals around my beautifully curled tresses,

Andrea *cough cough* shameless *cough*  °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

MANI MONDAY -- MERMAID NAILS

It's been a while, huh? More than a month, in fact... My apologies! I guess the consolation would be that I've at least managed a minimum of 2 posts a month, though they're irregular. I WILL IMPROVE!

Anyhoo, I've always been a person that coos over the perfectly manicured nails of others, especially of they didn't go to a salon. My hands suddenly become super shaky whenever I want to apply nail polish, sigh... The other day, I watched a Youtube video by Jenn Im, or clothesencounters, who I have been following for several years and have loved for just as long, showcasing her favourite polishes. One of them was For The Twill Of It by Essie, which totally blew my socks off. It's one of those iridescent ones that change depending on the angle you're looking at it from. There are purple, metallic silver and green hues. Basically, super awesome. It was also super problematic because I couldn't get it in Singapore! BURDENNNNNNN. So on my recent trip to Hawaii, I looked for and found it! YAY ME! -applause-

insta just doesn't do it any justice

told you I sucked at painting my nails...

Since my nail painting and photo taking skills leave much to be desired, here are some photos from Google images to supplement the grainy mental image you now have of this polish.

from essie's site

from www.alllacqueredup.com

Can you see the awesome mermaid-ness of this colour?? Though to be honest, I don't think the singular form is appropriate here... It applied pretty well and the lasting power was pretty average. I'm a kinda "rough" person, and seriously careless, but these lasted a pretty well over a week. When it started chipping it actually peeled off in medium sized pieces, though. I wore it for my cousin's wedding, because my dresses were all black and white. #monochrome, eh? I wanted something with a bit of edge, but more uplifting (?) than a plain black, so TADAAA~

"subtly" showing off my new bag hahahaha

For those who want to get it, there are online sources you can get it from, I believe. Essie polishes are generally quite reasonably priced, and for this colour?? JUST TAKE AND RUN.

Signing off with sunshine, sparkles and sakura petals on my nails,

Andrea (#OvO#)

DreaDrabbles -- GATES

GATES

A tiny face,

An outstretched arm,

A smile freely given,

Innocence out in the

Open.

Paper plate faces,

Coloured walls of hand prints,

Chewed up toys and crayons,

Mischief from minds that are

Open.

Uniform cuts framing faces,

Green ink following red,

Voices restrained for perfect harmony,

Slowly learning to

Close.

Fine lines that bracket,

Veins protruding without strain,

Blocked ears and painted lips,

Guarded eyes that see only rain.

White walls in glass ones,

Only squares to be seen,

No roundness or softness permitted,

No trace of the laughter that had been.

It always happens eventually,

They supposed,

The gates are finally

Closed.

BEACH HOLI @ SENTOSA

A while back, a bunch of us celebrated the Indian festival of colours, or Holi, at Sentosa. We went to Azura dressed in white tops, hoping to get nice splatters of colour on them, but the people around us had other plans... I wore denim shorts there and brought fbts along, and THANK GOD I DID, because the event was a lot less dry than I expected. I guess I kinda assumed it would be like the Colour Run thing that people do, but like a... colour dance?? Since we were technically at a club.

I'm really starting to like the headless ootd thing
for some reason...

I met up with Jun at Beach Station where she was spending some happy time WITH A FREAKING GIANT SNAKE. I'm not actually that opposed to snakes, but letting one around your neck just doesn't seem like a good idea to me...

presentingggg... Jun! THE SNAKE WHISPERER

BEACH TIME! plus, nice legs XD
L-R: jen, me, steph, liling, jun

We proceeded to join Jen, Liling and Steph, who actually met up in the morning, cause Jun and I had church. Well... I had church, but seeing that I'd got back from Hawaii the morning before, I was massively jet lagged and missed it. Oops. Oh well. We met up and stashed our stuff in the lockers. We wound up not having enough space in 2 lockers for our slippers, so we literally just chucked them onto the lockers, out of sight, hoping no one would take them.

We danced together and met a couple of really nice, funny people who would literally shake around like boneless jellyfish to the music. It was HILARIOUS. I also got really tired really quickly and even got a freaking stitch in my side. From dancing. Not even legit dancing. So unfit. All in all, it was super fun and I was thankful that I could catch up with the girls again. It was especially strange going from seeing Jen and Liling every day to just somewhat regularly, so having this "girl time" was great! -insert warm fuzzy feelings here-

We got mostly purple powdered dye, hence the explosion of that single colour all over us. I was a bit disappointed because the back of my shirt turned out nicer than the front hahaha, it had red and yellow and more pink on it. Also, we were told there would be food, and did expect it to be more expensive, since hello, Sentosa and all, but it was freaking outrageous. Can't remember exactly, but I do remember we decided to just go hungry and go get food outside. We also weren't allowed out until we'd gotten clean, but then saw tourists who were covered in what is best described as rainbow unicorn poop get on to the monorail. Oh well. Oh yeah, another thing, THIS SHIT DOES NOT COME OFF. I was stained pruple for DAYS. geez.

vid is courtesy of steph, who hopefully is ok with me posting it. THANK YOU ^v^ 

Excuse the fat arms haha, as I said, UNFIT. Also, the Japan/Hawaii posts are coming, but my dad cleared the SD card after uploading the pics to his com, and proceeded to leave the country (=____=) I'm also going to Malaysia again, this time with one of my cousins as well, so yeah, more delays... Sorry! Heh heh...

Signing off with sunshine, sparkles, sakura petals and purple skin,

Andrea (~^v^)~