So yes, I was in London. I counted down to the New Year with my family and a whole lot of strangers. It was packed like a can of sardines.We left our hotel at 11+ because it took a lot to convince the father to allow us to go see the fireworks. My sister and I had a few locations in mind after doing a lot of research but the father was very insistent on just following where the majority of the commuters were heading towards? He said "Do you think you know better than the locals?" I mean... I researched the best spots so obviously there's at least some truth to the locations I had chosen. Anyway, we ended up taking the tube to probably Waterloo or St James's Park Station (I honestly can't remember) and stood somewhere behind the barriers that were there. I just remember Big Ben being in my line of sight (Found the pic from Google because I only had Snapchats of the fireworks but this was my exact view!) Bad memories from the father aside, my trip to Europe was wonderful. I never blogged about my Europe trip, I think. I went to Zurich & Geneva in Switzerland, then Paris, France and finally London, UK. So if you want to read about it or wanna know what my itinerary was (halal food recommendations, hotel recommendations etc) (I planned it from scratch) then leave a comment or tweet at me (@therebell)!

Not exactly a highlight of the year but definitely a major experience for me. First relationship, first breakup so it was crazy overwhelming for me. As much as I would like to not admit, I was a complete mess for months. A total wreck. We broke up in February 2017 and I think I'm finally over it now and that took ages but I'm finally okay. I think I'm able to take it as a learning experience. I certainly don't regret being with him because we had a lot of great moments and a lot of firsts for me – first time eating Stuff'd (LOL don't judge me it was life-changing), first time stargazing on a mountain in Indonesia, first time going to The Projector, Henderson Waves, Cloud Forest + Flower Dome, first (and last) time eating gyoza, and let's be real – my first time going on a date haha. So I mean, sure I'm bitter, but I'm not going to let that overwrite the fact that I was very happy in that relationship, while it lasted. But now I'm ready to move on to better things!! 

Over the past two years, I've had multiple crazy hair colours (managed to strike that off my bucketlist!) I've gone blonde, turquoise, green, purple, red & black. This year I've had pretty normal hair – I had a short period with greenish-blue-purple hair because I wanted to finish off whatever dye I had, then I dyed my entire head black because the green was so hard to get rid of. And finally at the end of the year, I bleached my hair a lot and dyed it a shade of nude brown. Now I'm trying to focus on keeping my hair strong and healthy!

No pictures for this one either because PDPA lmao. I got to participate in a surgery for a thigh abscess removal and it was pretty cool even though I was terrified. I was standing there right next to the surgeon with my ears wide open, willing myself to magically develop bionic hearing, waiting to hear instructions from the surgeon and then passing the surgeons the correct equipment/instruments with the correct technique! I was shook. The room was cold but I was sweating. It was a pretty cool experience, scrubbing in, wearing my sterile gloves and that gown and shit. A few weeks after that, I was working in an Obstetrics Unit – Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. I saw and touched an aborted fetus, I helped out pregnant women pre- and post- birth. It was nice. Scary, but nice. 

I always thought my skincare was on point and I pretty much only did cleanser, toner and acne cream at the time. Man, I was delusional. I've always had oily skin so I skipped moisturiser/sunblock because it always made me feel greasy. I was wrong. I started reading r/SkincareAddiction and learned a lot. 

Here's my skincare collection now:

(L-R): Back Row – Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner, Cerave PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion, COSRX Ultimate Nourishing Rice Overnight Spa Mask, Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask, Origins Clear Improvement Active Charcoal Mask, Origins Out Of Trouble 10 Minute Mask, Hada Labo Gokujyun Lotion, COSRX Centella Water Toner, D'RAN Tea Tree Calming Toner. 


Middle Row – Klairs Freshly Juiced Drop Vitamin C Serum, COSRX Centella Blemish Ampule, TIAM CSource Vitamin C Serum, The Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution, The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%, Retin-A 0.05%, The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%, A.H.C Phyto Complex B5 Ampoule, Hiruscar, COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Cream. 

Front Row – COSRX Honey Overnight Mask, COSRX PHA Moisture Renewal Power Cream, Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream, Alba Botanica Hawaiian Facial Mask, Sand & Sky Pink Clay Mask
.

I took this picture a couple months ago and have added a couple new products since but I'm still testing them out! Obviously this is a lot of products, and I don't use all of them everyday. (My favourites are the ones coloured purple). Right now, my routine consists of the Klairs Vitamin C Serum OR Retin A and a whole lot of moisturiser. My skin has definitely cleared up a lot but it's not perfect so I've still got a long way to go. I totally recommend going on r/SkincareAddiction or r/AsianBeauty for skincare tips/recommendations!

In October 2017, I decided to get my shit together and lose weight. I did it. I lost 5.8kg in exactly a month. My weight fluctuated throughout November and December and I was in a funk throughout most of January but I just started exercising again yesterday so hopefully this year I'll finally........ do this right.


Just a quick little section for some tv show recommendations. Started watching these in 2017 so if you're looking for something to watch in 2018, here you go:

(L-R): 1st Row: Chicago Fire, Jane The Virgin, Z Nation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place


2nd Row: Fear The Walking Dead, Younger, Shooter, Timeless, Code Black


3rd Row: Merlí,  Zoo, Grand Hotel, Jessica Jones, T@gged

Obviously I watch A LOT more series than this, but these are just some that I started in 2017 and they're some of my favourites that I really really enjoyed. Sometimes I livetweet while watching some shows so you can check those out here.

3 palettes that I absolutely adore. Two I purchased myself and the third was a gift from my friends.
Juvia's Place The Masquerade Mini Palette, Juvia's Place The Nubian Palette & Urban Decay Naked Heat Palette!!! Love all three, super pigmented, very little fallout. I'm obsessed.

Probably the best time of my life. I went with my friends Fatin & Syahirah and I really want to do an entire post about it soon.......... hopefully I'll get around to doing it sometime soon. Please leave a comment or tweet me if you want to see pics and highlights/itinerary for my trip to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia thx

Until next time,
♡ Tiara ♡