Store Owners Smile

How Much Are Those Gucci's In The Window?

With all the amazing items we buy and with five years worth of stock in storage it's no wonder that next month my mum and I are opening a store.

I'm super excited, incredibly nervous and extremely impatient.

Time To Furnish My Bungalow.

I have an incredibly traditional boyfriend. So traditional that he won't step foot inside my house. He feels as though he would be disrespecting my family to come kick back in my room despite the fact we've been together a year.

As a win win situation, Im setting up the bungalow in my back yard so we can use it as a kick back room. I've decided on white, black and yellow. Here's some cushions I found in Target. They will go perfectly on the white leather couches I just bought from the St Vinnies thrift store.

I think ill start a decorating series as my bedroom and bungalow are about to get a make over.

Dunno Why I Like This Photo..

But I do.

I Think He's Dying..

My Mac must be sick of the billions of make up and fashion images I save on a daily basis. He froze like this for an entire day and is back in perfect working order.

..... For now.

Just So You Don't Forget..

What I look like. Lol.

Schwing!!

The Difference Between Bleach And Prelightener (Results Photos)

After dying my hair black for more than ten years, I knew that my scalp was bound to retain some of the black dye and cause my regrowth to be an imitation of Madonna in the 80s. 

However, I didn't realize that I could avoid such dramatic roots by simply switching from bleach to prelightener. 

Here is what my regrowth (& hair) looks like TEN DAYS after using bleach and a blonde dye:

taken today

Here is what my regrowth (& hair) looks like THREE WEEKS after using a prelightener (nothing else):

I think that pretty much shows the dramatic difference. Yes the lighting in the photos is different but you have to admit, there is no comparison. Not to mention that prelighteners are less damaging on the hair. 

I have the blonde I want at the moment (in the body of my hair) so all I do is use my Schwarzkopf Nordic Blonde Extreme Lightener L01+ on my roots once a month and voila - I'm a natural box blonde.

Below is the Nordic Blonde range. 

I use the middle one as I've found it gives me the best results and it only takes ten minutes!

Hey Shawtyyyy..

I have mixed emotions about having short hair again. 

On one hand I'm happy, on the other hand I feel ordinary..

I guess I'll get use to it, or put my extensions back in after a week or so.. Haha.

Tape Hair Extensions Removal.

Sorry for the boring title but if I didn't make it sound so clinical, I probably would have said something like: 

"Tape Hair Extensions Removal Was Invented By The DEVIL".. Actually, that does sort of have a ring to it..

Ok I think I'm being a bit of an impatient little baby here because I COULD go to one of my two girlfriends who are qualified hairdressers and get them removed and reapplied but one of my friends is going to charge me $200 to remove then reapply.. And another friend is going to charge me only $80 to remove and reapply but I thought to myself that it's Christmas soon and I should be spending my money on presents NOT my hair so I went on Google, learned how to remove them myself using simple household items and then I went a step further and looked up how to retape and reapply tape hair extensions. 

I've always been more of a DIY girl, thanks to my grandfather who could probably put up a shed with a toothpick and a piece of chicken wire. So after taking into account my money situation, Christmas presents, the traveling back and forth to the cheaper hairdressing alternative (who lives an hours drive away) and my burning desire to try and do everything myself at the same quality and standard of a professional.. I have decided that doing a home job is the best option for me. 

I have found some hair extensions tape on Ebay for $1.29 coming from China, which will take two weeks to get here or I could pay $9.99 for tape that is coming from two states over, that'll probably take two days to get here. As I'm already saving $80 - $200 on my hair, I don't mind spending $10 on the tape and just dealing with short hair for a few days. 

I'm leaving the reapplication of my extensions in the capable hands of my mum. She use to install my  pesky glue in extensions, so a thin tab of double sided tape shouldn't be very difficult for her to handle. 

I am off now to remove my extensions in the correct way, because when the a few previous extensions started to slip out, I removed them myself by just pulling the two pieces of tape apart.. 

Can you say O U C H . . ?

Yeah, it pulled out half my frikin hair with it! Leaving me with a red roar bald spot.

Below is what a tape extension looks like after a month.
It's just grown out, but that is how long my hair has grown in a month. I've done my regrowth twice and as you can see, I'm in need of doing it for a third time. 

This is one weeks regrowth.. 

I've been blonde a year and my black hairdye is STILL coming out. It's disgusting.

I will take photos and video of me removing these extensions properly using home products so you can do it at home and save some money. I will then do a follow up post to show how to retape and reapply your own extensions to save you EVEN MORE money.

Who else has tape hair extensions? I highly suggest buying them. They are the most NATURAL looking and feeling extensions in ze UNIVERSE!

"Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History.."

After receiving a comment from a new subscriber, I went over to her blog and was reminded of the famous quote "Well-behaved women seldom make history." 

After spending a few minutes racking my brain trying to remember who actually said that line, I gave my old friend Google a holler and found THIS ARTICLE. 

I think that article is one of the most true, honest, fantastic, real and amazing things I have read in years. 

I walked away from it completely exuberant at the thought that today was the day I restarted the rest of my life in a new frame of mind. I have never been one to hold my tongue, let someone walk over me, judge me or let them make me feel less than I am but in saying that, I am human and I do have emotions that get hurt just as easily as the next person. Therefore, I was always chained to my fear of other opinions in one way or another..

After reading that article and thinking about Olympia's shamelessness, I no longer hold guilt for anything I have done in my past that I would secretly have been a tad ashamed, embarrassed or paranoid would come back to haunt me. 

The reality of my past is that I grew up in the 00's.. Which means that I took revealing (and sometimes quite raw) photos of myself and sent them to my boyfriends at the time, or guys I was just hooking up with. I have had my fair share of sexual encounters that were impulsive and could be seen as careless. I've said my fair share of filthy, vulgar, naughty and suggestive things. I've watched porn, had and have kinky desires and you know what? So has nearly every woman my age that I know or have ever met. 

I'm not in any way telling you to go out and be a sexual deviant. I'm just saying that there is no reason for anyone to feel ashamed, embarrassed or guilty of the decisions they have made in the moment.

..

Take a ride back in time with me for a moment to the 1960s when my grandmother (who was a "good girl" to her core) was pregnant to her "bad boy" Italian boyfriend, whom she was (at the time) forbidden to be with because he didn't fit the "good" mould that her parents had originally pegged out.

Skip forward to the 1980s when my mum, who was also a "good girl", got pregnant from her "bad boy" boyfriend and ended up a teenage single mother in a small (mostly) Italian community.

Skip forward to more recent times. In 2005 I was not the typical "good girl" yet I found myself pregnant to my "bad boy" boyfriend. I would have followed in my mothers and grandmothers footsteps if fate hadn't stepped in and caused a miscarriage at 17 weeks. 

What I really want to make clear to you is that it doesn't matter what anyone outside of YOUR circle thinks, says or even screams at you. It is your life, you are the one who has to live it - not them. 

So please, I beg of you - live your own life in the way that you wish to live, otherwise you're not living at all. 

Everything That Glitters Isn't Always Gold..

I got home from gym today and was actually in the mood to play around with some makeup before I had a shower. I washed my face, applied foundation to half my face and grabbed the closest bright eyeshadow which was a Mac pigment pot in the shade Bright Fuchsia. 

It's a very dramatic and daring colour, perfect for summer. 

After rummaging around in my makeup drawer I found a matching Glitter Eye Creme by BYS in the colour Cherry Bloom. It reminded me of a tutorial I watched on YouTube called "How To Get Fairy Eyes" (or something along those lines).

Here is my inspiration photo..

And here is my two minute replica:

You can tell it's a rushed job but I found it fun to experiment with such a bold colour and glitter is never "safe" so the combination of the two was so daring. I may just wear this look clubbing on the weekend.

What I Used

In my crease: Mac pigment Bright Fuchsia

On my lid: BYS Glitter Creme in Cherry Bloom

My liner: Maybelline Line Stiletto Liquid Liner in Blackest Black

On my waterline: NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk

On my lashes: Australis TLC Mascara in Blackest Black

First Date Hair, MakeUp And Outfit..

I went on a first date last night and I actually took photos and recorded a clip to show you!!

I think this is the best I've felt in a long time so I was uber confident. 

First I did my makeup..

Then my hair..

Then put my skirt and shoes on..

And here's the video..

Bleach Bun.

I love the day I dye my regrowth. Having fresh blonde hair is so beautiful.. but long hair makes me feel beautiful regardless.

I'm Melting, I'm Melting..

This morning I was melting from the heat, now I'm melting from the rain. Ahh Melbourne.. A years worth of weather in a single day.

Face Of The Day..

Dorothy, I Moved Out Of Kansas.

I've spent all night looking for a suitable apartment/house/unit to rent. 

I decided last week that it's time to take a step up in life and I am ready for a change so tonight I made it official and moved out of home. I'm one of those people who puts their mind to something and has to do it instantly, no stuffing around. I'm not in the strongest financial position at the moment so I've arranged to stay with a friend for a few days and then reevaluate my money situation. I personally think I'm at an advantage because I already pay my mum rent etc so I'm accustomed to bills, rent and other outgoing expenses. I have lived on my own before so I'm not intimidated by the thought although it could potentially be lonely.. Cue room-mate. I have already discussed the possibilities with a friend and it's looking very positive! 

Either way, alone or with a friend I am ready for that official adult step of renting my own house.

Wish me luck!!

What You've Missed..

When I take the photos that you see on my blog, they are usually accompanied by about fifteen thousand other photos that I choose not to post. Some of them are quite embarrassing and thus the fact that they are hidden away... 

They're not the over-posed or trying to be sexy kind of embarrassing, just the borderline clinically insane kind of embarrassing.

So here they are.. (Starting off with a few mild ones to ease you into it..)

The person in this next one definitely requires a straight jacket.

And today.. When my nose was blocked all the way to my brain.. I'm trying the "block one nostril and push the air out the other" technique.