by VioletLeBeaux | Mar 16, 2010 | Baking, Notices
Evening everyone! Ok so tonight I’ve just got a couple of things to take care of before we get back to regular posting tomorrow.
- Firstly remember I did a review on Skin MD moisturiser a few months back? A lot of you had questions about where it was available and if it would be available in Australia any time soon. Well they currently don’t have plans to stock in physical stores in Australia but they do ship internationally. The only thing with this is that a bottle costs $18 and the shipping is another $9.95 which is not exactly cheap when you haven’t used the product before ๐
Violet to the rescue of your bank balances!
If you want to order and you enter the promotional code “VIOLET” you will receive 20% off your order!
I know I’m going to be stocking up ๐
- Secondly my blog has also been featured on lots of other blogs lately !
I did an interview with Pretty Wonderland about blogging.
I was featured on All Women Stalk in the post 7 Great Fashion Blogs.
I was featured in a “blogs we love” post on The Beauty Stop.
Tabby over at Life of Mine wrote this adorable post about me.
I’ve also been receiving some lovely emails from you all and I just wanted to say thank you all for continuing to read my blog. I hope I can make it even better in the future!
- Following on from that in an effort to make things even better around here I’m going to be making a couple of changes. Nothing major, just a few things here and there so please don’t mind as I tinker with the site. If something doesn’t work please let me know and I will fix it up! If there is something that you want to see on the website I’ll be putting up a little poll so you can have your say ^_^
- There is also a competition coming up for you all to look forward to!
Lots of love!
by VioletLeBeaux | Mar 15, 2010 | Craft, Hair, Hair-Accessory-Tutorials, Tutorial
Lately everywhere I look there are pompom hair bands so I thought why not do a pompom hair band tutorial!
Seriously it’s hard to turn around without seeing some kind of variation! I’ve been seeing them worn in hair and as bracelets or tied to bags. At first I couldn’t stand them but they’ve been slowly growing on me… and now I think they’re cute! The only thing is that here in Aus because they are more hard to come by they are very expensive, who wants to pay $20 for a hair tie?!
So I decided to make my own and it took around 10 minutes.
What you need:-Pom poms in various colours
-Stretchy jewelery thread
-Needle
-GlueDecide on the pattern you want and lay out your pom poms in a circle. I used 9 medium pom poms but you might need more or less depending on how big you want it and how squishy your pom poms are.
Get your stretchy jewelry thread and thread it onto your needle.
Pick up your first pom pom and thread it onto the elastic. Don’t go straight through the middle, go slightly to the side so you can fit as many pom poms onto it as possible.
Thread them all on!
Once you’ve got them all there, thread your needle through the first one pom pom again. Pull the thread tight to form a circle. Depending on how thick your stretchy thread is you might need to go through all of them again to make it extra sturdy.
Now tie the thread off in a double knot. Make sure to pull the knot extra tight but be careful it doesn’t pull the pom poms too close together or you won’t be able to stretch it over your hair! Finish by adding a tiny drop of glue to the knot for extra strength.
Taadaa! I am Wonder Woman deflecting bullets!
The lovely Super Kawaii Mama shows us you can use all kinds of sizes and colours:
Great for entertaining yourself as well.
And SKM’s doggie is an even cuter model:
And of course you could just wear it like a normal person…
Enjoy ^_^
Next post is going to be a Hime Gyaru FAQ so if you have any questions this is the last chance to get them in ๐
Let me know if any of you make a pompom hair band too! |
by VioletLeBeaux | Mar 13, 2010 | Hime Gyaru, Outfit Of The Day, Review
Quite a while ago I placed an order with Bodyline Japan for quite a few items as a belated Christmas present from James ^_^
A lot of you asked for a review of the items so here it is!
Website:
The site is very easy to use with a standard shopping cart and the ability to pay via Paypal or credit card. Shipping is offered via DHL at a flat rate of US$20 or EMS with a rate depending on your country. The site has a huge amount of items to choose from so it was a little hard for me to stay in my budget! ๐
Shipping:
I chose DHL shipping to save money. DHL has a rather bad reputation from other people I’ve spoken to, depending on what country you live in *cough*America*cough* they have been known to expedite your package through customs and then several weeks after delivery present you with a bill for doing so. As far as I’m aware this doesn’t happen in Australia and it definitely didn’t happen to me this time. That said if I was ordering again and I was in a hurry I would spend the extra money for EMS because even though the “estimated arrival time” from Bodyline was arriving on a Friday the package didn’t arrive until 4:30pm on the Monday. The package made it all the way from Japan (via a bunch of other countries) to Australia in around a day and a half and cleared the airport customs very quickly and then it spent the better part of 3 days “on route” to my house. Considering my house is around 30min from the airport that was kind of irritating! Anyway not a big deal! XD |
Here is the package that arrived:
Inside I ordered the following (not the real names but I can’t find half of the things on the site anymore):
James’s mini review of the beannie and hat is “very soft and nice” XD
Ok let’s do the individual reviews!
Spotty Bow
Price- US$3
Made from average quality ribbon, finished quite nicely.
On the siteI thought it was a side bow but it’s actually right in the middle, now looking at it I think she’s just wearing it to the side. The plastic band it’s on is a little flimsy.
Over all: happy with the quality for the price. I’ve worn it several times now.
Short ruffle socks
Price: US$5
The lace is nylon but it’s still very very soft. The actual socks are incredibly soft. I’m really happy with these especially for the price, they are adorable!
Music Note Dress
Price: I think it was around US$35-ish I can’t find it on the site now but it was very cheap.
This is the packaging. Something about Bodyline’s international packaging has always made me happy.
The dress:
I fell in love with this print. It’s not top notch quality, up close the print gets slightly pixeled and one thing that irritates me is that some of the treble clefs are backwards… but unless you’re staring at it from 2 inches away and are a music nut like me I don’t see it as a reason not to buy.
The quality of this dress is fantastic for the price plain and simple. No it’s not the same quality as AP or BtSSB but it’s still better than the average dress you would pick up at Supre or even Target. All of the seams are finished well and though there is no lining every stitch is in it’s place. *edit* I also forgot to mention that this jsk comes with bow ties for the back and shirring with ribbon so the size is quite adjustable. The bow ties are not detachable unlike other brands.
The quality of the lace was as good as any brand piece I’ve seen, no nylon at all.
It came with 2 detachable bows on the collar which I totally love. They are the perfect size to use on my beret or just in my hair. The only problem I had (and this is really nit-picky) was the clips were put on backwards compared with everything else I own so I put them o upside down a few times out of habit ^_^
Eyelashes:
Price: US$1-3
I was really happy with the lashes, here in Aus lashes are usually $8-10 which I think is quite unreasonable. These are a great price and decent quality. They also offer many many different styles.
This was my favorite pair:
Diamantes!
Shoes with bows
Price: US$37
I can’t express how happy I am with these shoes, they are exactly what I was hoping for! I bought them so I would have good walking shoes for Melbourne, the reason I chose these ones is because the front platform is almost as high as the heel so there isn’t as sever slope as appears. Apart from rolling my ankle once they did their job fantastically and I didn’t have any major dramas.
I picked the non-shiny version. They are very sturdily made and surprisingly light. I went through two airports with them and didn’t set off security so I imagine they are made of hollow plastic.
The heels are thick and the bows on the back are so cute!
One feature I really liked was the fact that the top buckle is on a snap closure. This means when you have ridiculously long nails you won’t have problems with putting your shoes on ๐
The tread on the bottom was a nice touch too that a lot of these style shoes seem to miss out on.
The only problem is that being white they do scuff quite easily. That’s not a design flaw, it’s just how white shoes are so if you’re going to get some you should get some shoe polish too.
Stripe Candy Tote bag
Price: US$6
I was a little disappointed with the colour of this one, on the site it looks like a very pastel blue but in reality it’s about half way between my photos and theirs.
The pattern is so cute!
For some reason the straps are made from a shiny slightly stretchy almost cheap vinyl fabric. It’s a very strange choice because it feels so much more flimsy than the rest of the bag. That said I used it to carry my heavy laptop to and from Melbourne and all around the place and it still hasn’t broken. It hasn’t broken yet but I still think I want to replace the straps just to be safe.
It’s lined with pink cotton. For $6 you can’t really go wrong though.
So what does it all look like on? Well it looks like this…
The skirt of the dress has lots of room for a good sized petti. Without the petti it is the perfect shape for hime style.
And co-ordinated slightly differently. Also don’t worry I haven’t forgotten that you all want a tutorial on this hair style, I’m just a bit behind at the moment *_*
Overall I’m happy with my purchases. I think it was great value for money and I was able to buy a lot more items than I was expecting.
Bodyline had such a stigma in the Lolita community because of quality issues many years ago, since then they’ve worked hard to change their image. Yes you will still find maid style items and no not everything there is good BUT if you are prepared to do your research and study the pictures carefully it can be a great place to pick up well priced lovely items.
I will definitely be ordering from them again ๐
Yay Bodyline Japan!