10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Me

Hello everyone!

Happy Christmas Eve and Happy Holidays – I don’t actually celebrate Christmas but I’ve always loved the festivities. Today I bring you a more personal post, I suppose you can categorise this as a lifestyle post. As the year comes closer to an end, I promised I’d do more lifestyle posts and other posts where you get to know me a bit better – so here I am!

Here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about me:

1. I am very shy.

I’m one of those people that are like super quiet and shy when you first meet them, but as I get to know you better I tend to open up and become more comfortable around you. The amount of times people have thought that I hated them upon meeting them for the first time is way too many! I’m just a bit shy that’s all haha.

2. I love The Simpsons.

I feel like many people that don’t know me would find this silly, but I love The Simpsons. The TV show has been apart of my life for so long and I just can’t let it go haha. It has some great classic moments from the very early seasons and some other good moments from the newer seasons.

People tend to hate on the newer series because they find that it’s lacking in humour and what not, but I still watch it and like it. I have to give credit where it’s due, the animation has improved immensely since the older seasons and I think that’s another reason why I like the newer series as well haha.

3. I’m 155cm/5’1.

I’m tiny and often have trouble getting things off the top shelf haha. I remember once I was at Coles (a supermarket, for my non-Australian audience) and I wanted a water bottle from the top shelf and after many tries at obtaining it, I eventually gave up and walked away in defeat.

Sometimes it can be hard to get a good view at concerts as well, but lucky for me, I always stay at the very front of the stage/mosh pit, so I can get a better view.

Also, not to mention, it’s handy having a boyfriend that can get things off the top shelf for me haha.

4. I started wearing makeup seriously when I was about 17.

I feel like such a late bloomer when it came to makeup. I see 13 and 14 year olds nowadays with MAC and shopping at Mecca Maxima (a makeup store) on the weekend and the times have truly changed.

I remember when I got my first makeup product/s, they were from my cousin, but I had no idea on how to use them so I ended up not using them. They were just products like BYS and Lip Smackers – my starter products.

When I got to high school I tried makeup again, I wanted longer lashes and also attempted eyeliner. My friend taught me this mascara hack but still I had no idea, all I knew was that I wanted longer lashes haha. I remember buying a very cheap mascara and eyeliner from Kmart and eventually abandoned those as well. The eyeliner I got was terrible.

When I was about 15-16, I used to work at a chemist and I was always so mesmerised by the makeup we stocked. I would constantly fix the stands and clean them and stock them, whatever I could do to just play with it (well not play with it, but admire it up close). Around the same time, I got into my first serious relationship and one day I wore kohl eyeliner (I did a wing) and the whole time I was with my boyfriend HE DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE. When I got home that night I found my liner had smudged haha, I can’t believe he didn’t even notice THAT.

After my 17th birthday, I received some makeup (a contour palette) and I started wearing makeup more – brows, eyeliner. As I reached my 18th birthday, I included blush and highlighter and eventually I bought more and built my collection. In the last 2 years of highschool, I wore makeup almost everyday (just the products I mentioned above though). Even looking back now, my makeup could’ve been improved, but as they say, you live and learn.

Being 20 now, I have definitely improved my makeup skills, but I’m sure in a few years, I will look back at when I was 20 and think that my makeup skills were terrible hahaha.

5. I can’t contour to save a life.

I’ve mentioned this on IG a few times, but I seriously can’t contour. I’ve tried changing brushes, applying with light pressure, the trick where you make a fish face, literally everything. I still can’t contour – so I skip this step.

It always ends up looking muddy when I do it or it strips away my foundation. I love the light contoured look though 😦

I guess this is something I hope to conquer in 2019, I’ll give you guys an update next year haha.

6. I’ve never owned a foundation.

I’ve previously expressed this fact. I’ve never owned one. This however is mainly due to:

• Nothing matching my shade
• Reaction to certain foundations
• Don’t wear foundation everyday
• Don’t like the feel of foundation

I’ve tried the Maybelline Fit Me Foundation before, after hearing all these raving reviews but it was a miss for me. It made my skin all itchy so I had to return it.

I would purchase more drugstore foundations but I can never find a good shade match for me 😦 They are all either too pale or make me look orange. Not to mention lack of testers in stores – most get stolen, never had a tester, misplaced, are broken/way too dirty or empty.

I prefer high end foundations because I like that I’m able to get a tester/sample for it and then see how it works for my skin. Even though it’s pricier than drugstore ones, I know I match the various shades available.

7. Most of my makeup was gifted via PR, won in giveaways or presents from friends.

Yep, about a good 80% of my makeup was given to me. I’ve only bought a few things like a few brushes (though the mass of it was from PR), eyebrow products, eyeliner and I think that’s it. All my other products like highlighter, eyeshadow, mascara, lip products and blushes were all given to me.

I don’t mean to brag about this, but it’s just extreme luck. I’m grateful to save a lot of my money because I have most makeup products already, but at the same time I would like to buy (more of) my own because then I can get other products I want.

One of my friends has given me over the years products such as blushes, falsies, eyeshadow palettes and liquid lipsticks. These were mostly birthday gifts though.

I hope to purchase more products in the future, but I’m a ‘buy when I need’ rather than ‘buy because I want’ type of person so it might take some time before I can replenish some items 🙂

8. I’m terrible at Maths.

In year 12/my final year of highschool, I took the higher level Maths. In NSW, the Maths levels for the senior years (year 11 & 12) are General Mathematics I, General Mathematics II, 2 Unit (2U) Mathematics, 3 Unit (3U) Mathematics (also called Extension I) and 4 Unit (4U) Mathematics (also called Extension II). General Mathematics I was very simple Maths, just well, general Maths. The same with General II, it was more about life applicable Maths such as calculating blood alcohol levels, just stuff like that.

I did 2U, which was the 1st level in the harder Maths. This level was the type of Maths taught at universities if you took a STEM related course. We learned stuff like parabolas, differentiations and graphs but harder kind like y= x^3.

Extension I and II were extremebly hard. They were the type of equations were you’d spend a whole page and a good 10-20 minutes to solve, only to receive a singular answer.

Anyways, 2U was pretty hard for me, mainly because I got frustrated every time I got an answer wrong. I guess I should’ve studied it more and asked for help more often. My teacher kind of scared me though, she was known for being mean and she often made jokes about her students to the class. So I wanted to avoid that and just blend into the walls.

Out of the 4 assessments in the final year, I only passed 1 and just by one mark. I was pretty beaten down about this, but I knew it was too late to change Maths classes.

I didn’t do that well in my final exam either, but I know I tried my best and that was that.

In the end, it didn’t really matter because at the time I did this level of Maths for what I thought I wanted to do at university. After getting denied entry into the course, I did something else and I kept changing my course. But now I’m happy to say that my bad marks in Maths really didn’t matter. I look at it as more of a learning situation – to be better and challenge myself for future scenarios.

9. I love photography.

I’ve always admired photography and I guess that’s one of the reasons why I started my IG. I liked the idea of capturing a moment.

When I was in year 9 I think, about 14-15 years old, I purchased my first camera. It was a compact one from Sony and cost me about $100 or so dollars. I saved up my money for it (I didn’t have a job yet) and I finally bought it. It was really fun to finally own my own camera that I bought with my own money. I used it when I went out and it was just a lot of fun.

In year 10 I think, when I was 16, I bought my first DSLR. It was valued at $1200 but I managed to get it for about $750. I had a job then so this was money I had saved up again. It was like a dream to finally get a DSLR. I browsed catalogues for months trying to find a good camera and a good deal and eventually I did. I got the Canon 700d Twin Lens Kit set and I brought it overseas that year and that was really the first time I used it.

I loved using it to capture memories I had when I was with my family and on holidays. I’ll admit I’m no expert in photoshop and all that and I have always said I’ll learn how to use my DSLR better, but honestly it’s been like 3-4 years now and I still haven’t learnt haha.

As the years went by and as I went overseas more often, I’d always bring my DSLR. I don’t use it much in Australia because I can;t be bothered to take it out with me because it’s so heavy and I can just capture things on my phone, you know.

In 2017, I won a polaroid camera in a giveaway and I was stoked. I had always wanted one of these but for the price of $90~ + film, it wasn’t a worthy financial investment for me. I was so lucky to have won that giveaway AND it came with some free film. I’ve since finished the film and bought my own.

Polaroid cameras are such a gamble though. If you get the lighting wrong then the photo comes out wrong and vice versa. It’s all about patience and adjustment.

It usually sits in my room collecting dust but even though I enjoy photography, I actually don’t take photos that much. I rather live the moment than constantly be on technology. I only really use my cameras when I’m overseas.

10. I love sparkling water.

A controversial topic considering the amount of hate sparkling water gets haha, but I love it! It’s like lemonade without the lemon, it’s just that fizzy goodness. I hate how it’s so expensive though.

That’s all I have for this week, I hope you enjoyed learning more about me. I’d love for you to share a fact about yourself below so we can get to know each other better 🙂

With love,

Irene