Author: hoiyinli

I Became an Artist During the Pandemic

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I haven’t blogged in months and now I’m back writing in a completely different light. For those who follow me on my Instagram anyway, you’re up-to-date. For those who may have discovered that I was missing in action or simply didn’t know that I existed until now, the main title is the update in a nutshell: I became an artist! Firstly, I hope everyone is okay in what’s been a turbulent 2020 to say the least. I know certainly for me, all the good came with all the bad both emotionally and mentally during the pandemic lockdown. For the first time in a long time, I had time to make art – time I always said I didn’t have (in order to make art). Suddenly with a lot of it, I thought I’d make do and before long, I realised that it was healing my mind and soul especially during the days when I was feeling rough. That’s how I know now that art therapy is totally a thing. As cliché as it might sound, …

#Selfcare Sunday Series | Navigating Friendships and Deciphering Toxic Negativity

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Happy Sunday! Amidst everything crazy that is happening right now, I hope you are all keeping well and being kind to each other. I also need to keep my mind off it too so I’ll be attempting to write more. Firstly, I’d like to say Thank You to everyone who commented on my post about Getting Over My Anxiety for Driving. It was a topic that I desperately needed to write, even if no one was going to read it (clearly I don’t trust page views). But reading some of your comments to confirm the similar struggles that you had, particularly for driving, was really heartfelt and helped open up a whole new avenue that I didn’t know existed. I no longer felt as stupid and actually, I would like to promote this sort of topical confession/discussion more in the future. #PositiveMentalHealth #Positivity 🙂 I’ve been keeping up with driving so much so that I’ve enjoyed it in the past few weeks. I’m hoping to tackle dual carriageways soon but only once the weather calms …

How I Edit My Photos

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Living in the UK means that we don’t get a great deal of sunlight except in the summer but even that is difficult as our seasons have blurred drastically in the last couple of months. Today I’ll be showing you how I edit my photos – and yes, this includes those already featured on my blog! Whilst every photo has its own characteristics dependent on things like lighting and shutter speed, I generally use the same steps for every photo that I edit. There are however, some rules I abide by first before editing anything. My first rule of thumb is to make sure that the base of the photo is good enough to edit. This includes good lighting (or at the very least, average lighting), a considered composition and a decent quality all-around. If all these boxes are ticked, it will make the editing process a lot easier and more successful. To give you a bit of guidance, I never take photos in artificial (bedroom) lighting because I know from experience, editing will never …

Review: L’Oréal Infallible 24hr Foundation

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I’m so happy to be back at reviewing some products! I realise that they’re few and far between but I do love writing a good, detailed review. It’s just not often that I have enough to say about a given product and you should know that I want to give a quality review as much as I want to be interested in the product I’m reviewing whether for a good reason or a bad reason. Today, I’ll be reviewing the L’Oréal Infallible 24hr Foundation. I bought this foundation completely on a whim with no prior knowledge to it. I seldom watch beauty YouTube anymore so I have no idea, no recollection, of whether this foundation has been hyped about or not. I have also not read a review to do with this product so this may be the most unbiased review you’ll have seen me write. Let’s begin shall we? FYI – I have combination/oily skin with the tendency to suffer from dehydration. I purchased the foundation in shade 120 Vanilla. What is it? It’s …

#Selfcare Sunday Series | Getting Over my Anxiety for Driving

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Disclaimer: This post purely writes of my own personal experience. It does not define anxiety and its entirety because everyone’s experience is just that: personal. Whilst I don’t think my content would be triggering for anyone, I still feel obliged to add a trigger warning in case you suffer (or have suffered) from a severe form of anxiety. Lastly, you all normally are anyway, but please be respectful in the comments box. Thanks! Note: This post is lengthy. If interested, I hope you have a hot beverage accompanying you! — If there is one thing that I have really learnt in the past year, it is mindset. This time last year, I was a bit of a wreck (for reasons that actually have nothing to do with the main topic of this post). This time round, I’m in a really positive place actually and it’s been a very productive January despite everyone seemingly using the term ‘Dry January’. Sometimes, it can take as much as waking up and feeling different about the world around you. …