Hey dudes and dudettes,


Today I'll share what I've been up to for the past month. I decided I want to kill my hair and get it to white.
Pretty much this (kind of):


Day 1 - I used HairB4 stripper from Boots to remove the reds from my hair. It lightened my hair, some reds were left, but significantly less than before

Day 14 - Bleach 1. I waited at least "1-2 weeks" as the HairB4 instructions suggested before using bleach on my hair. It was extremely yellow so I used a semi-perm dye to tone it down. Looking back I should've used a normal toner.

Day 21 - Waited another 7 days before bleaching again. Toned it again after. UGH YELLOW

Day 26 - Got impatient so I went to the hair salon in the end and paid money I regret paying when they promised me a 'white' result and I walked out with what you see on the bottom right above.

Now, what most hairdressers never told me (yet always accepted to take my money and do it) is that I cannot get my hair to white, because my natural hair colour is pretty dark. So this is literally as far as it gets. Needless to say, I was a bit pissed considering I just bleached my hair 3 times for nothing.

Or I thought it was nothing.

Then I kind of fell in love with the blonde. The one after the second bleach to be more precise. After I give my hair a well deserved break, I'm thinking of using L'oreal Majiblond 900S to go Babydoll blonde


What I learned:

• L'oreal Quickblue Bleach Powder is the best bleach money can buy. Also when you bleach you need shitloads of bleach. Cover every single hair in that stuff. By the time you're done it'll feel like you have rocks instead of hair. 
• Wella toners are the best toners, especially the Wella T18 White Lady for white. It made my hair completely gray (but I forgot to take a pic while I had it because I wasn't a big fan of it...)
• Whoever said you can't pull off blonde if you're pale and don't tan is a fucking liar. 
• Shea Moisture (also on Amazon) is an incredible brand for hair products that'll moisture your hair like nothing else.
• Clariol Shimmer Light Shampoo and Conditioner is the best toning set to cool down your yellows. Pretty much as good as that Wella toner, but less damaging.

How do I know all this? Research and trial and error. I spent A LOT of money buying a lot of things this month (and not just this month) - looking back, it would've been cheaper to just get it done in the salon..... wait no. Not really. I read over 40 different blogs and forums with results using different products and came to the conclusions on which to buy from that. My only regret is wasting that money at the end thinking they can make it white, when I failed at it. For anyone who wants to get white hair: YOU CAN ACHIEVE IT by doing everything I did above, maybe even with 2 bleaches instead of 3 and just the Wella toner, but YOU MUST HAVE NATURALLY LIGHTER HAIR. It doesn't matter if you've been dying it forever and it's been bleached. There's only that much colour you can remove from your hair. Such is life



I hope this was useful and hopefully you guys can learn from my mistakes. If you have dry, damaged hair, do yourself a favour and get the Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter shampoo. It's sulfate-free, organic, super rich, maybe a bit too heavy for some people, but if your hair needs moisture - it'll thank you for this. It's colour-safe and not tested on animals.



What have you been doing to your hair recently? Thinking of experimenting? I can help! Let me know your troubles in the comments below~


I'm still quite happy to have bleached and toned my hair so many times over a short period of time and still heave pretty good, somewhat healthy hair. I barely see a difference.





P.S.: There's this iPhone app called HelloTalk that connects you with people who want to learn your language and they can teach you theirs. It's pretty much the best thing I've seen ever for studying a language. I'm already improving my Japanese at the speed of light!



Disclaimer: I am not sponsored or get paid by anyone to say the things I say. I'd never lie to you guys and I don't take bribes. Ever. 

WISHTREND Haul Review and Favourites

Hey dudes and dudettes,

How's summer treating you? Or winter if you're in Australia! ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ

I'm not a big fan of humidity and hot weather. I'd take cold winter over hot summer any day.
But hey - when we don't like something, we do something about it! Staying cool, with the fan next to me and taking showers daily is keeping me sane. Probably not the best solution for my body, but it's been helping. Don't forget the scrub once a week in the summer and use moisturising soaps, as showering every day may be too harsh for your skin and leave it dry, but at the same time you don't want to give the chance for those dead skin cells and sweat to pile up.


On topic! I got myself a nice haul off WISHTREND recently, after watching Eunice Unni's videos:

This one's a bit long, but well worth it. If you don't have the time to watch all of it, look at the icon on the bottom left and just check the products you're interested in.

This one's shorter and more summer-orientated. 

The product I wanted to try the most was the Nightingale Toning Eraser (Original), as I've been looking for a good peel for a long time, something strong to use once a week and to give my skin that extra kick.

Needless to say, I'm extremely happy with it! I've only used it once, but my God - did it make a difference instantly! I applied 3 layers one after another and waited 5min before applying a serum. My face went really red and it was slightly tingly as I went for the Normal/Original formula, not mild or gentle. I went full out hehe~ o(*`・ω・´*)ﾉ

My skin became really shiny and smooth after I used it and on the next morning it was like BABY BOTTOMS. I had quite a few pimples and a massive zit on my cheek, which were almost gone overnight! I was so happy about that. My skin went from having a bad week to having a great day. I even made a super happy reddit post about it. 

Here's the ingredients:

Overall mark: 10/10 will definitely be buying more!

The next product I got is from the second video - the Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin Drop Serum. 

I like Klairs in general, but don't super LOVE it. I know it's good, but I've never been amazed or super impressed with any of their products. They're gentle and don't break me out and don't do thins worse, but don't make a huge difference either, if that makes sense. It's kind of the same with this serum. I like it - I like the feeling it leaves and it definitely helps with acne, which is all I ask a serum to do. At first I thought it's a little bit like the OST Vitamin C serum so I put almost a whole pipette on my palm and spread it over my face, then I realised it's actually really oily! I didn't expect that, so I ended up putting too much on my face. 3-4 drops are more than enough.

Ingredients:

 

Overall mark: 8/10

Next is 23 years old Badesil Cream. One of my most favourite products of all time!!! I'm actually considering putting it in my HG - I want to see the long term effects first. 

It is recommended to use it as night cream and put on a few layers, which I've been doing, but I loved it so much I decided to use it during the day as well, since there's barely any sun in the UK, as you may know. First impression of it: it absorbs fast. I mean super fast. By the time I was done applying it my face was as if I don't have any cream on at all. So I put a few more layers of it on trouble spots, as recommended by Eunice on the first video. The next day my skin looked so much better - healthy glow, pimples calmed down and faded away and really soft to the touch. Even my boyfriend noticed a difference and he never really does. The only downside is that I don't find it super hydrating. If my skin needs extra moisture, I would put another moisturiser after this cream. I would imagine I'd never use it alone in the winter. For now I am finishing it with the Innisfree Real Olive Oil to keep the moisture in. 

Ingredients:

Overall Mark: 10/10 

Last product I bought was the Berrisom My Tripple Tint Balm. I also own the Berrisom Tattoo Lip and found it to be quite a quirky little item. It's great for going out, when I know I'll drink or eat, as it won't go off.

I got the Tripple Tint Balm in orange, you can see the colours on the side of the packaging in the triangles. What it's meant to do is do natural gradient on your lips. Here's how I apply it. As you can see, it's not very saturated, which was definitely a bit of a let down, but overall it's a great tint, very moisturising and the gradient is quite subtle. Great when you're going for more natural looks. It doesn't last trough food and drinks though. 

Overall mark: 6/10

I was playing around with mini studio backgrounds, so here's a bonus photo of my current top daily items:

Top left in the large tube is the Su:m37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick, which is probably the most hyped item on the internet. Everyone loves it. I like it too but don't find it quite as fascinating as everyone seems to believe it is. It's a good cleanser, it's a fancy packaging, but essentially I see it as a good facial soap in a very easy to use stick packaging. You can get equally good items, if not better for a lot less money, except they won't be in a fancy packaging. 

Bottom left is my most beloved Innisfree Olive Real Essential Rich Oil, which is an oil you leave on your skin. Not a cleansing oil, but a leave-in oil. I use 2-3 drops of it at the end of my rotation both AM and PM to keep all the products and moisture in. It's an absolute must-have for dehydrated skin! 

Next to it in the middle is the 23 years old Badesil Cream, which you already know about from above, next to it the Klairs Vitamin drop and behind poking from the flowers is the Toning Erased.

In the middle you can see the DEARBERRY Raspberry Lip Balm, which is my favourite lip balm ever! It's super moisturising, helps fix my chapped lips in minutes and I also use it as a little exfoliator: I put on a sufficient amount, leave it in for 2min, then take a cotton bud and use it to wipe it off my lips. You'll see all your dead skin from your lips on the cotton bud, it's amazing! Ater you're done put another small layer of the lip balm on and BAM, perfect lips. 

I hope this was helpful to you guys, I wasn't trying to be overly positive, but I think I ended up being super lucky with my purchase. I'm starting to think I know my skin so well, it's helping me shop all the right products for it. 

Have you bought things from WISHTREND before? At first I was only looking at their youtube videos, but now I'm a little bit addicted, as they have an interesting variety of products you can't find anywhere else online and they all come with very detailed instructions on how to use them. Also, loce Eunice! 

Let me know what you think and what your summer resolutions are in the comments below!

The Face Shop: Scalp Refreshing Mask review

Hey dudes and dudettes,


Today I'll be reviewing the Scalp Refreshing Mask from The Face Shop.

I saw it on Recommended products at Jolse, so I decided to give it at go, as I'm currently in the process of slowly bleaching my hair and my scalp needs all the support I can give it!

Also, as learned on Get it Beauty - caring for your scalp is extremely important and it makes your hair healthier too! (if you can't watch this episode in your country, use Hola Chrome extension and change your country to US!)

(also, if anyone has seen those white/brown bottles anywhere, please let me know! They were the most praised product in this episode and I couldn't find them anywhere)

Ever since I saw this episode, I started using a separate shampoo for my scalp and my hair. For my scalp and roots I use a sulfate-free and silicone-free scalp shampoo with keratine, bought from Amazon and for my hair I use the Shea Moisture Shea Butter shampoo, it's also sulfate-free and I'm a big fan of this brand as all of their products are very natural and absolutely great. I'm on my 3rd bottle of shampoo I've used from them. I spent a bit of £££ on conditioner, as that's really important for me, as recommended by reddit/r/hair I went for a large bottle of Shiseido Tsubaki Damage Hair Repair Conditioner and I absolutely love it! It makes my hair soooo smooth and silky. I also use the conditioner AFTER I use my hair mask. A lot of people use the conditioner before hair mask, but I've found that doesn't work as well as shampoo > hair mask > conditioner. You always want your conditioner to be the last thing you put on your hair. 

Let's get started with the review!!!

I washed my hair, as usualy with my shampoos for scalp and hair, then rinsed out, towel dried it a little bit, then I started putting on the rich, creamy and suuuper minty Scalp Refreshing Mask. The moment I started putting it on my scalp and hair, I realised why it's called 'refreshing'. It has very heavy smell of mint and freshness. If you're not a big fan of the smell and feel of it, this is probably not your thing! I personally love it though. The whole time the mask was on my head I had this super chill sensation, like I'm brushing my scalp with my toothbrush. Also, there's small granules in the mask, it's not smooth or runny like other masks, it's very rich and has a texture, so I decided to rub it into my scalp for about 10min, like a scrub. There's no English instruction so that felt like the natural thing to do. 


After I was done massaging my scalp and putting a sufficient amount of the mask all over my scalp and hair I put my hair around in a donut shape and covered it in transparent foil. This is something I always do when dying my hair and using hair masks. It helps the product to stay in and develop as much as possible, by containing the temperature and goodness inside, without exposing it to outside factors. I also rarely put on the masks for 30min, as instructed. I leave it on for at least an hour and if I don't have the time to spare, I leave it overnight.



And finally on the last step - washing out the mask and seeing the results!
I have to say, I'll miss the minty cool sensation on my scalp, but it has to be done.
I always rinse for at least 5min, as you never know when there's some product left in your hair. And I hate it when that happens as it leaves your hair greasy and clumpy. You can even wash out your hair with lemon water if you want to go trough the trouble, I've heard great things about it and I've told myself that if I ever become so poor I can't buy my hair products any more I'll wash my hair with soda/lemon. Of course, you don't have to be poor to try this method out, a friend of mine is a strong supported of the nopoo way and her hair is absolutely amazing! 


Here's my hair after I washed the mask out and once it dried up. Also no, I almost never use hair dryer. I really dislike it and what it does to my hair. I'd even go to bed with wet hair sometimes, which I've heard is really bad... I also used some Argan oil on my hair, I always do after showers and once it dries up. The current one I'm using is from WISHTREND, it's not oily at all and I use it on almost daily basis.

(still a little bit wet at the end, as you can see)

I have to say, my hair feels super smooth and silky! It also smells of freshness. I'd even recommend this mask to my bf, as he loves fresh smells like these. I'd imagine it's really popular with guys in Korea.



Overall:
Does it 'refresh'? Yes
Does your scalp feel better? Yes
Does it smoothen the hair? Yes
Does it moisturise dry and damaged hair? No
Will I use it again? Yes, not sure if I'd buy it once I'm done though.
Rossi Rates: 7/10

Hope this was helpful for you guys. Let me know what you think and what your favourite hair masks or hair treatments are in the comments below!

Hyper Japan!

Hey dudes and dudettes,

It's been a looong time, I know. But this blog's about to get resurrected from the dead!... I hope! lol

I'm pretty bad at keeping up with stuff when things are happening. I just couldn't give the blog priority for the past few months, but then I remembered why I started it in the first place - for myself. It helps me keep track of stuff, remind myself things, keep things tidy and most of all - talk to you guys. I know you're out there.

Today I'll share my experience at Hyper Japan Expo in London. It's my first time going to the expo, I always voided it, because it lacks the cosplaying stage, it's probably the expo with least cosplayers in the UK. But I thought I'd give it a go anyway, since it has a big stage for Japanese fashion, predominantly Lolita. So I dressed up accordingly! 


It only took me about 2 hours to do this makeup.ヾ(●ω●)ノ


What I used: Lei Lani Wear White Face Finisher after my morning routine and pretty much as a primer, Missha Signature Real Complete BB Cream in #13, Heroine Make Eyeliner and Mascara, Kiss me Touch Me Blush and Lips, 3CE Cyan waterproof Eyeliner, The Face Shop Design my Eyebrows in Light Brown and Innisfree no-sebum mineral pact.

I also used the Geo Princess Mimi Green Apple Circle Lens. They're pretty much my first circle lens experience and I'm really happy with them, after a day of wearing them I barely felt any different than not wearing any contacts at all. I was worried I'd feel like I have something in my eyes the whole time or it'll irritate me, but it was just the first few seconds that were unpleasant. Especially considering this is a very large circle lens, I'd recommend it to newbies such as myself.


And then I wasted another 2 hours queueing just to get in. It was intense. And hot. I envied all the lolitas/cosplayers with parasols and umbrellas.



The Hyper Japan show was.. ALRIGHT! Haha, apart from my painful shoes experience, which happens pretty much every time I go on a con (you think these flats are comfy?!? Think again after 8 hours of walking in them!). The best part about the show I'd say is all the foods, but there were massive queues for the best stuff, such as shaved ice with red bead mmmmmmmm


There were a few artist shops with some things you can also buy on Etsy, a little bit overpriced in my opinion, but I understand the artists have to make profit at events like this. Still, there's no way I'd pay £30 for adorable, reusable fake nails. Especially not when the next booth is selling a slightly less adorable pair for £10. Sorry lovely artist lady! 

There was a major lack of cosplayers, especially compared to any other con in the UK. There were mostly lolitas for the fashion show, which I decided not to attend due to too many people and loud everything. But I still took a few photos with some amazing people I met around:


Absolutely LOVED this Kidd Icarus (?) cosplayer! If anyone knows her, please let me know in the comments below!


Cuteness overload!!!


cannot... resist.... cute stuff...


My best Hatsune Miku face ever. It's spot on, I know.


I also bought this bikini Monokuma, because.... WHY WOULDN'T YOU!?!? U PU PU PU PU~



An adorable lolita!


Suuuper cute food shop lady! She matched her background very well


Probably the best merchandise on the show (?)


Fell in love with this absolutely stunning Princess Mononoke (?) cosplayer! Such an amazing outfit~

Phew! That's it for now. 
I'm glad I didn't buy as many things as I thought I would. I tend to buy a lot of things on events, but I always look for the event exclusives that you can't buy online for cheaper, however this particular event was lacking those. Which is good for my wallet.

I'd overall give the event a 4/10 and will probably not go again, unless there's something I really want to see. I'll also go early in the morning, not in the afternoon, because the queue gets insane for the lazy people who refuse to wake up early on a weekend, such as myself.

Another thing you may or may not have noticed - I changed my hair! I decided it's time to do what I've always wanted to do and go blonde. I'm on my way there, as I don't want to pay a ridiculous amount to get it done at a salon, I'm doing one step each week. I'll make a post about that too, once I'm done with the final result. It's been a learning curve so far and a lot of chemistry involved. I feel like I'm smarter now! Wish me luck with the step next week!

What events are you guys going to in con season? What do you go for and what's your experience like? I loved dressing up and getting loads of looks and attention hehe, but I think I'll definitely go as a photographer next time. I kept telling my bf he should take more focus, giving him VERY DETAILED explanation of what exactly I want the photos to look like and he didn't seem pleased with it. I'll just do it myself next time!



I'll update very soon, until then - stay cool!