Making a clip in U-part wig

The difference between a clip in U part wig and clip in hair extensions, is that the wig is one piece of thick hair that covers all of your own hair apart from a parting that you leave out the blend the hair from the scalp. Clip in hair extensions are bulky for how much hair I like to wear and can take a while to put in and style every day. I also wanted to keep my own hair from sun damage when I go holiday this year, as it go so badly damaged last year, I had to dye it dark and I'm loving my bright red at the moment. I'm going to tell you how I coloured, constructed and styled the wig from the outset. This is what the wig looked like on:

I used 14", 16", 18" and 20" hair from Fashion Leader Hair, an aliexpress vendor I would buy from again and again! The hair I bought was body wave and in colours 4 (medium brown) and 1B (natural black). There was about 500g of hair in total and it has to be bleached to be dyed red, I used 40vol peroxide with blue dust free powder bleach, then dyed over that with Mellor and Russell Red Alert as its 99p for a box in Savers and I needed about 12 boxes to cover all the hair. To bleach and dye hair, you'll need foil to protect your surfaces, disposable gloves, mixing bowls and tinting brushes. All of this is available at your local beauty supply store, as well as discount stores like B&M, Homebargains, Poundland etc if you're in the UK, I'm sure if you're elsewhere in the world your discount stores will sell them too, and of course eBay is your friend!

I mixed the bleach and peroxide to a cake batter like consistency, saturated the hair in in, folded it in the foil for about 15 minutes. The hair being brown, and using 40 vol bleach, the hair didn't take long to process light enough to put the red on. After rinsing and leaving the hair to dry, I applied the red to the hair, then again rinsed and left to dry. I cut the wefts into approximately 10" strips to make it easier to sew in rows as well.

iPhone SE unboxing and Aliexpress 6th Anniversary Sale Haul- Phone Cases

I recently upgraded from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone SE. My reason for this is that the SE has all the features of the 6S but the size of an iPhone 5, which is convenient for me because my hands are quite small. I do miss the big screen but in the long run this is better for me, and the camera is better quality than the one on my previous phone and the selfie-flash feature is doing it for me right now! I have the phone in Rose Gold and 64GB.

Originally, I'd preordered with Apple around a week before the release date. I didn't get a confirmation email for a few days however, and it said that I would get my iPhone between the 5th and 7th of April. This didn't seem right for a preorder, the phone was meant to come out on the 31st March but they said I'd 'just missed' the first lot of preorder stock, but if they could get one earlier to me, they would. The 31st came around, still no shipment notification. On the 1st April, I called again, because I was receiving emails saying I could just pick one up from my local Apple store, and that there was stock in Birmingham and Solihull. They said I couldn't go into store and collect one, but I would have to cancel my order and re-apply for financing in store and then if they have one, they could give me one there and then but if not, it would be another 5-7 days. The person on the phone
still couldn't tell me when I would receive my phone, but in the end I cancelled my order with them and ordered with Argos, and received it the next day on 2nd April. I'd never had such slow service with Apple, but they were just being so slow and unhelpful I shouldn't have had to wait so long for something I'd preordered.

The phone is built just like an iPhone 5, so is sleek and compact. The colour is pretty and I like that it has all the great features I was used to, including Apple Pay.

I bought an unofficial charger in rose gold to match, as well as earphones because I went crazy and couldn't get enough.

Recovery from damaged hair: One year without broken tufts, missing patches and frazzled ends

Okay so, it's not quite a year, it's been ten months. But it is about four years since I first decided to start bleaching my own hair at home. I began with thick, curly brown hair that reached just above my waist when I decided I wanted it "ombré", in quotation marks because it really wasn't ombre. It was medium brown with a line of demarkation to yellow bleach blonde tips. It didn't even start until near my chest and always looked odd when in a ponytail or a bun. This started in 2012, which was actually a time before at home ombré kits, balayage instagram trends and Guy Tang blessing us with video tutorials every week. I included a photo of how my at home ombré used to look in 2012, compared to earlier this year when actually none of my hair was bleached but I did the colour myself on hair extensions and found feathering, blending and using more than one tone of blonde.

This started a number of problems for me, as about 6 months after I took that photo, I decided I wanted blonde all over. I went to my local drugstore, bought about 10 bottles and sachets of Jerome Russell 30 vol bleach, had no experience or done any research and began slopping it on my head. It didn't go as badly as I would have you believe, but the bleach blonde on the ends of my hair that I wanted all over, had to go. I had about 4-6 inches cut off my hair, had a fringe and layers cut back in to repair the damage I'd caused and my hair was still thick and full. I was a little upset that I'd had so much cut off, but it needed it and this is probably where my addiction to hair extensions began. I could walk into any beauty supply store in the world, pick up an 18" pack of 27/613 highlighted blonde and it would be perfect.




I'd discovered my mixture of dark and light blonde that everyone was complimenting me on simply wasn't enough and I wanted it lighter. No matter what I did, I always felt I could always get my hair lighter. My hair was becoming fried and I genuinely didn't notice, and if anyone said anything, I was in denial. I think the worst point was when I was gluing bits of hair extension in to my "fringe" that was about 1-2 inches of pure frazzled hair, picture inserted. I honestly didn't realise this wasn't a bad look. The turning point for me however, was coming home from my holiday in June 2015, about to start at a new store with new people who I refused to let lecture me on my fried hair. I ordered 3 bundles of dark hair, went to Savers and bought 10 boxes of hair dye and let my hairs journey back to health begin! The whole time I had damaged hair, I could barely put it all into a ponytail. I couldn't reach my fringe back into a hair tie to put it out my face and I relied solely on hair extensions, as in, literally addicted. I could not go out the house without them in to mask all the broken, sticking out hair. As bombshell as it looked, there was nothing to be proud of here, because every single part was extensions, my hair was so short you couldn't even see the underneath layers when it was down

Dresslink Haul #2

I recently posted my DressLink haul, which was actually from February using photos from my old blog. I decided to place another order from Dresslink because I was pretty impressed with most of the stuff I got from there. I placed the order on 9th April 2016 and received it on the 18th April. I did pay for shipping with Fed-ex as it was only $2 more than the standard shipping, I still think it's overpriced though. Even though Fed-ex promised to deliver within 3-7 days, at $23.36, approximately £16, I still think their shipping is just too much. I understand it goes on weight but I hate websites where the more you buy, the more you pay for shipping. It should be the complete opposite, I get the same thing from everything5pounds, it's like you're being punished for buying cheap clothing! The shipping said 3-7 days and I received it in 9 which is a little annoying, they didn't ship for a few days and I really struggled to track my parcel through their website, as although Fed-ex texted me when the parcel had been picked up, the shipment on my account was from 2014, which is odd considering I only found this website earlier on this year.


 Like I always say with cheap, Chinese fashion, you have to be careful with sizing. I am a size 10 on top and a 12 on bottom (UK sizing, between a M-L in generic fashion) so usually go for the L or XL option.


The first item was this two piece, I bought this entirely because it was in the $0.01 sale. A playsuit I'd previously paid £12.99 was also in this sale, so I was kind of mad. I'll probably take it on holiday with me though as I can really see myself wearing it in rainy Britain. You can buy it here, I got it in size L and I probably should have got an XL because although it fits, it doesn't fit me like it fits the model. It will look cute when I've lost a few pounds and I'm hoping to before my holiday. It has a really annoying zip on the side of the top so there is four fastenings on the outfit altogether, along with both bows and a button at the back of the neck. The material is nice, kind of thin but again will look better in half a stones time.

Dresslink haul

Dresslink is a website I came across through watching beauty gurus on Youtube, and after seeing mixed reviews I decided to try the website out for myself. I buy a lot of clothing that is despatched from parts of Asia on eBay and Wish and this website is basically a haven in which everything you can find on eBay, you can find on here but in the same place. The reviews I saw on Youtube really were mixed, with Channon Rose saying the package she received from Dresslink having such a strong chemical smell that even after airing the package outside, the garments were still unusable and she was probably going to throw them out because she couldn't really donate them in that state. However, SuperMaryFace had done so many positive reviews on the website, I decided to try it. 

I placed my order on the 9th February 2016 and received it on 29th February 2016, 20 days for standard shipping is fair enough however I did pay a lot because this was during Chinese New Year and DHL/EMS were not operating at this time. Shipping cost me £12.46 and I think I would have been able to get express shipping for a similar price had it been available to me. I had 12 items coming to £24.79 so averaging around £2 an item, that's pretty cheap! I thought I'd write my review now after having all the items for a month and worn them all. 

You can click all the images to enlarge them. Prices are estimations because the conversion of pounds to dollars changes all the time. I'll list all the sizes I bought the item in because buying Asian clothing can be hard when you're above a size UK 8. I am a size 10 on top and a size 12 on the bottom, I have a C cup chest and my waist is very small in comparison to my hips/stomach, if that sheds a bit of light on the situation. If your size/shape is similar to mine this may be of some help to you!

 The first item I got was a studded headband. This is actually three headbands stacked together but I liked the statement look of the three together but even one or two on their own looks cute. They were £1.05 each. Nothing really to write home about, they're a little tight and hurt behind the ears but I can say every headband in the world feels like that. Some of the studs feel a little loose and I've only worn them 2-3 times so far, I get compliments on them though and they go well with my newly vibrant red hair.

Rechoo Hair Company review

Through one of my favourite Youtubers, Super Mary Face, I found a company called 'Rechoo', who manufacture hair to your needs, e.g you can pick the length and weight. This is convenient for me because I only wear at least 22" hair extensions and 300 grams is the minimal thickness, because my hair is so thick it is physically impossible for anything less to look believable! I went to their website and found their actual store was through aliexpress, which makes sense: they can access more people who want to buy hair (I don't know many people who use aliexpress for anything else) and as a buyer, you get more protection.

I purchased two packs of their 22" sets in 160grams, so coming to 320grams in total. my hair at the moment is about 12" long from the top of my head downwards, so in some places it is quite short so having such a long length, thickness is important to fill out my hair cut and of course I have to layer it from quite high up. My order total came to £67.26 which is more than affordable for this sort of length and weight, I placed my order on the 24th March and received it on the 6th April. It took 13 days with standard registered shipping from China, which is great as the free option. I'm a little bit unclear about if they make each set for their customers or if they have them in stock already, considering they have a million different colour, length and weigh options, I assumed that would be the case because their aliexpress store doesn't have that many orders nor did I find many reviews on Youtube.

The postman bought me a fairly small parcel so when I signed for it I considered maybe it wasn't my hair, or there had been a mistake with the length or packs I'd been sent. When I opened the package, the hair was inside a really nice bag with the companies name, it's nice that they made such an effort to make it look nice.

W7 Colour Ways review: at-home affordable bleaching kit

Since 2011 I have been using bleach at home to lighten my medium brown hair. In the beginning I made a lot of mistakes but now I'm quite experienced in it. I was going to write a blog on how I bleach hair extensions at home but then I considered that at a beginner level, using cream peroxide and powder bleach is difficult. I know that, as in the beginning I relied on bleaching kits that included brushes gloves.

Dupes for Lime Crime Velvetine liquid lipsticks

For me, no matter how matte the lipstick is I really struggle to wear them, even MAC matte formulas transfer easily. In the past year or so I've been obsessed with bright liquid lipsticks, especially the Lime Crime Velvetine collection. They are slightly expensive at £13.99 but I bought 5 over the space of 6 months. However, I didn't know about the controversy surrounding Lime Crime and the founder. Since I researched about the issue regarding stealing from bank accounts, the founder just being unethical and controversy over supposed unapproved chemicals, I decided to look for dupes because I loved the eccentric colours. I found cheap liquid lipstick collections on eBay, my favourites being MeNow, Qibest and iMagic.

I keep all my liquid lipsticks together but each collection has at least 10 lipsticks, so I had a good sort out and got it down to a small selection of lipsticks that I think are duplicates or similar to my favourite Lime Crime colours! Each lipstick is around £1-2 each and you can buy them separately or the whole collection if you want to expand your lipstick collection, like I always want to!

Please bare in mind I have very pale skin and different pigmentation will make colours show up differently! I've done my best to show the swatches in the best light as possible. Some of the colours listed below are no longer available on the Lime Crime website, but I did buy mine a while ago, if you search the colour on Google shopping though you can still get them online.