If you frequent the Living Beautifully forum on Female Daily and read the first part of most threads there (especially the makeup part) you will see her name often there. She was one of the makeup whiz during the first Kelas Dandan that shared her knowledge to FD members at that time. Even though her passion rely on beauty but she’s currently pursuing a career in the banking sector. She also recently just got married and is currently adjusting her life as a newlywed. Without further ado, let’s hear what has she been up to lately.

How did you first fiund out about FD and how has FD affected you?

I found FD through someone’s personal blog when I was a student 4 years ago and had just moved from Melbourne to Beijing for a short-term language & culture study. Moving from a totally classy and never-out-style Melbourne to Beijing with its (most of the times) flashy and eye-catching style, I thought my fashion awareness would go sluggish for the next one year So when I found FD, it feels exactly like finding an oasis in the middle of desert

Through my early joining with FD, I was quite surprised I would find a bunch of ladies with similar interests like mine. I’ve never dug down make up topic that far like what I did with this bunch of ladies! We couldn’t stop discussing colors, pigment, eye liner and even eye lashes on top of posting TOs and FOTDs. Since then, I’m back to my make up passion I’d left during my college years and ran to MAC outlets in Beijing for my dose of pigments!

But FD has given me more than that. FD, not only has given me new great friends and acquaintances, most importantly is, it has given me a lot of perspectives with its witty approach. Not every media is like it, that both enriches and gives you place to express yourself without being judgmental.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your 9 to 5 job (which is very different from your true passion)?

So this is actually my first permanent job since I graduated. I applied as a management trainee in a foreign bank three years ago and has been placed in Risk Management since then. I’d always wanted to work in a bank since I was little (thanks to my aunties!) and I grow to love my job due to the dynamics of given exposure when I handle bad loans and collapse businesses. It’s an interesting experience to see people’s characters behind their unpleasant situation they’ve been dealing with. My work is not only providing them solution, we also develop strategy to approach them.

So this job is not actually too far from my true passion (childhood dream, in fact), but how I wish I could combine my other passions such as traveling, make up and books.

So how do you channel your passion for makeup despite your corporate job?

Corporate jobs has required me to meet a lot of people, internally and externally. And it is everyone’s secret that dressing and looking nice will definitely boost up everyone’s confidence level and helps you looking professional in front of clients and your superiors. I do colorful make up too in the office sometimes and definitely have a lot of fun with my palette (remember Peacock and Going Bananas?). The challenge is to make it still look appropriate for corporate job and not looking like a clown in front of customers.

Any makeup tips that are safe for the corporate environment?

We all know colorful eye shadows are fun, but always try to keep it look natural by blending it well with other muted color, just to make sure you stay looking professional. And no falsies please…

When you first join FD, your makeup collection was huge! Do you still follow the latest beauty product launch and collect them too? Which one do you think is worth buying?

I admit that I haven’t followed new beauty product launch for the past couple of years. Not only I realized that I have to start being careful about my career-starter’s saving balance, I also decided to change my focus to skin care instead. So I’ve been exploring many different facial treatment products such as mask sheets, eye-patch, cleansing oil, sun screen as well as body treatments.

Recommended beauty product worth a dent in your wallet is Lancome Artliner, RMK Cream Foundation and SK-II Skin Signature. They are gems!

So is it true that you met your husband because of FD? Tell us the story please …

Haha..indirectly, yes. So I got acquaintance with Nopai (FD member) since I joined the forum for the fist time but all we’d been discussing was never too far from make up. Along the way, Nopai found out that I’d been joining CFA preparation course and she told me that her good friend is one of the course speakers. I didn’t really pay attention on that remark because “her friend” turned up no show and got replaced by another speaker. But apparently, Nopai also informed her friend and told him that her friend is one of his students. And that was only the beginning, you know how it ends…

What about the wedding? We would love to know more about it and what have helped you survive the pressure.

Gah, I’ve never been THAT busy in my whole life until the days of my wedding preparation started! With my 8-5 (or job from Monday to Friday, combined with my then-boyfriend’s demanding job, for 6 months we didn’t have life outside our wedding prep business. Nonetheless, we decided to savor handling the preparation by ourselves and appointed an event organizer only to help us monitor the wedding on the day of event. I was the one who did all the research and getting first contact with all potential vendors, while he made sure I would not go overboard on the preparation

We tried to keep our wedding as simple as possible, (but personal – with kind touch of contribution by our family and friends). I didn’t even expect for a perfection on my wedding day because, who cares if you have the most beautiful hand bouquet or grandeur decoration? What matters the most it the journey after your bouquet dies and the last piece of cake is thrown away. That’s what has helped me in surviving all the pressure.

But of course, we were so happy we finally made our dream wedding came true. It’s very satisfying to hear from our guests sending their compliments about our wedding (and even the wedding favor!) during our honeymoon. Besides that we know that our beloved friends are there to share our special day with us, we are also proud of saying that we are a successful host to our party (after all this hard works!)

As a newly-wed, how has your new role as a wife changed your life?

Well, it’s greatly affected me in many ways. As the only child and been living not sharing a thing to anyone in your private zone for 27 years, having someone else to share is definitely new. And though I admit there are times when I miss the simplicity of ‘all-by-me’, it’s very uplifting and rewarding at the same time, to realize that I won’t grow old all alone and someone else needs me to be there for him.

What threads do you regularly visit now?

Though I’m now a passive follower, I still rely on FD a lot on various information. Even sometimes when I Google for certain subjects, it’ll eventually take me to FD too! When I was preparing my wedding, I visited Wedding Bells threads a lot as opposed to following other wedding-specific forum. In fact, I found my make up artist and bridesmaids’ dressmaker recommended by FD members. I knew I could never go wrong with FD girls’ opinion

Lately, as hubby and I are planning to renovate our house, I’ve been into house decorating and again I run to Interior Design thread for inspiration and furniture hunting advise. Last but not least, of course, the famous Market Plaza! XD

Any comments for FD and what new thing you would love to see on FD?

I’m very happy to see FD now and to know that FD has becoming one of the most prominent fashion website in Indonesia, I’m a proud member! Like I said before, FD and everyone behind it have given me a lot new insights through its articles which I believe have also helped many ladies out there to feel better about themselves.

I’d be very happy to read more articles from FD editors about financial advise and traveling articles, on top of fashion & make up related articles that you guys have done exceptionally well!