Fake hair goodies

Got two new things from Rapunzel of Sweden based on my notes about their colour ring. 

First one is a fishtail braided headband that I honestly didn’t think would fit in colour. But it did. 99% perfect. Even had a few comments from friends about how nice my “little braid detail” looked. Colour, texture (Artificial fibres, not real hair) and shine are spot on.

I’m strongly considering if I should get the twisted version in the same colour.

Second goodie: fake bangs.

I had some trouble getting pictures of these. Annoyingly, these are too light in real life, but shows up as a pretty good match on camera!

Maybe I should give the ones that are a shade darker a try?

Nurse-friend suggested I should try to darken them a bit with some indigo. Hmm. Maybe they just need to be washed and treated with some leave in-conditioner or something?

Getting them washed and styled a bit would probably be a good idea. They have a bit of a “bump” near the top seam that I hope I can get rid of.

Tester Korea, test haul

So Memebox went… Yea, I don’t know actually… Pouf?

Rumour among the other (former) Memebox-bloggers is that Memebox stopped shipping to countries that doesn’t have a Memebox-warehouse. Which makes no sense, since they just ship out pre-packaged boxes with no individual variations anyways.

This is something that pisses me off a lot. If people are willing to pay for the shipping anyways, why would a seller/company decide on who they will sell to? You can’t convince me that it’s not worth their time and effort to ship worldwide.

Anyways. Memebox screwing over their international buyers pissed a lot of people off. I’m mostly indifferent. Memebox mostly ended up as a “Meh.” for me and I would buy the boxes, hoping it would be better than it was.

So, anyways. The former Meme-bloggers had some different recommendations out there, and I decided to give Testerkorea.com a shot.

The packing...

Sturdy box and they had put some effort into getting it around customs. I like! Having to pay just to get my already paid for-package into the country is always really irritating.

Good packaging inside too. Very well protected. Plus point for that.

3 nail polishes for free as a gift for me. Very nice! Even has a little sticker with “Thank you” on it. This is the kind of stuff I really like when I buy something. I mean, I could easily take my money elsewhere, but a little gift like this makes me feel really appreciated as a customer.

So that’s 3 points out of 3 already:

• Sturdy, protective packaging
• An effort to get me out of paying extra in customs
• A nice little free extra

Nice bodylotion and bodywash set.

Lots of hand masks. I really like those and I should use them more.

Foot masks. I’ve been meaning to try more masks than just for my face and these seems to be a good place to start.

Facial sheet masks!

A Skinfood tester kit for whitening skin. I’m going to try it for the ugly scars on my shins and see if it makes a difference. If it does, I might get some more.

Two Iope tester kits. I loved the Iope products I’ve tried so far, but the blue set turned out to be way too moisturising for me and made me irritated and itchy. My skin doesn’t like products that are too moisturising and heavy.

Innisfree is an eco-friendly brand that is pretty popular among the K-beauty bloggers. I got a body lotion, a moisturising spray, hand cream, oil cleaner, foam cleanser, toner, essence and lotion in the green tea line.

Benton! One of my favourites. Toner x 2, essence x 2 and sheet masks.

The Yeon toner, essence and hand cream.

Assorted: Banilas Claypatra. On a whim, I tried it for the enlarged pores on my shins and it worked wonders for that, so now I got myself some more. A Sekretkey eyecream with snail filtrate in. I really like that one as well. Etude Houses baby choux base in mint. I really liked that one too: It’s a green tinted primer and it’s really good for my skintone.

My only hair purchase this time: A huge tub of Toneymoley leave in-conditioner. It was pretty cheap so I got it. The positive is that it is good for shine, but the bad is that it makes my hair tangle. Hmm. I’ll be using it up slowly, just adding some pumps to my ordinary leave in-conditioner mix.

The full haul.
Right after unpacking, I realized that the one product I actually needed was lip balm. Doh.

Never fails.

Whenever I have Hubby take my photos I always end up having the same conversation with him:

“Don’t take any pictures yet!”

“Okay.”

“Seriously. I'm not ready yet.”

“Okay.”

“Are you taking pictures??”

“No.”

“I don’t believe you. Just don’t take any pictures yet!”

“Okay.”

“Just don’t take any pictures until I’m ready, okay?”

“Okay.”

And then when I get the pictures on my computer, there is always a bunch of “extra” ones on it. Usually a mix of “artsy” ones (Close-ups of my boobs) and ones where I’m still messing around with my hair.

I found 3 that I liked though: 

Flip!!

Length shots

13½ years and I think I’m approaching terminal. Doesn’t seem like I got a lot of growth since my last length-shot. Hmm?

Anyways.

Ends allowed to fluff up like they wanted. That’s what I get for drying it in front of a fan!

Ends gathered up to see the length better.

Bit of wind.

More direct sunlight. I like the colour!

Q&A

Maybe to help you get into the swing of blogging, you can tell us what you've been doing--just basic stuff? What your life was like away from home/what your job entailed (be as vague as you want), and how your hair was treated (or not ;) ).
Darkhorse

That’s a good idea, thanks Darkhorse!

I can go in detail with the hair stuff, not that it’s been very interesting! 

Work was a mostly-office job with a lot of hours. So my day was pretty much to get up early, whip my sleep braid up in a Nautilus bun and then sit in front of a computer until late in the afternoon. Then I would go train (Still managed to gain some weight since mostly-boring office environments seems to make people bring in lots of sugary snacks!) WO-rinse my hair and braid it, do a Korean skincare routine and go to bed early.

Exciting stuff!

I did CO washes and my Ankylosaurus in the weekends, where I still had to go to the office, but with fewer hours.

Pretty much an awesome benign neglect routine for my hair and a high maintenance routine for my skin.

That's absolutely gorgeous! I wonder if you could post a video showing how to do this bun, please as I find the diagrams confusing...??? Thanks :)AnonymousOn the Suebian knot

Hi Anon.

I actually promised myself never to make videos ever again. Too many “How the hell did you even manage to survive until you were old enough to operate a computer, if you’re really, truly that stupid??”-type people and too many pathetic losers with nothing better to do with their life than to look up stuff they know would offend their claustrophobic world view, just so they can bitch and whine about it on Youtube.

Bu-ut I’ve also been thinking of giving it one last shot where I upload as a private link (Or whatever it’s called: That thing where you can only find and see the video if you have the link already)

So, I’ll think about it.

So now what?

The trouble with not blogging for so long is that I have way too much stuff on my mental “Want to do”-list.

• I need to get Hubby to help me with some length shots this weekend. Seems like the summer weather is finally coming, so good timing for that!
• I had an idea of running through all the styles I can do for a “style library” kind of thing. Minus the ridiculous amount of variations possible of course. That would take forever.
• I have a folder with 39 (!) pictures of styles and variations I want to try at some point. Hmm. Start from one and start working??
• I want to write more about the Korean skincare routine. I seriously love it. And I find it seriously amusing that what works the best for my skin is the high maintenance, time consuming Korean skincare routine, which is the exact opposite of the benign neglect that works the best for my hair. 

I’m probably forgetting something.

Hmm.

It’s probably going to take a while to get used to blogging again. Just yesterday I felt all lost and confused looking for a specific picture in my upload. Hah. 

Back.

And damn, am I feeling disorientated.

It must be one of those “getting older” things: Ten years ago there was nothing a single, good night of sleep couldn’t fix. Wild party the night before? Just flew from halfway around the world? Finals? Everything could be fixed with sleep. Now I just feel slightly confused and disorientated.

Going from a super structured schedule to having a whole month off really messes with my head.

Doesn’t really help that Hubby has signed up for work this summer and is working nights, so I have to turn my day around too. Meh.

I guess I have to make a list of the things I want to fix and try to maintain some discipline about that, or the next month will end up with me on the couch or playing games.

Since my contract for work #2 ends in January, I have a lot of things I want to finish up and write down so my replacement can take over exactly where I left. I also have quite a few ideas for stuff I want to do for my blog.

My 13½ years hair anniversary was a week ago, so I need to take some progress pictures too. I’m quite curious to see if 6 months of total benign neglect has done something good for my hair too…

Radio silence

Yea, it's pretty much all there in the title.

Seems I underestimated how busy I will be until I leave early February. I have a lot of stuff to take care of before that and it's quite a bother.

I absolutely blog for fun, because I  like it and use it as my own tool to not fall into a rut with my hair. That other people find it inspiring too is just a bonus. A very nice one that I appreciate the hell out of, but still a bonus.

But as things are right now, it just makes me stressed to try to keep up with my blog as well.
And come early February, my opportunities to blog will be very different.

So, I think I will have to put my blog on temporary hold for my own sanity's sake.

Fail?

I was so not awake this morning when I put my hair up.

So totally not awake.

I did something wrong with my Chinese bun, I guess I didn't do the sides completely symmetrically, but took turns with the wraps?

Even though it was a fail, I think maybe I could make something of it: The "wrap" adds a certain quality to it, so maybe if I did it on purpose...?

Opportunities

I have been given the opportunity to get stationed (For the lack of better word!) at an awesome workplace again. I absolutely loved it there the last time and it looked so awesome on my CV!

I’m 99% sure I will accept it.

Pros

• Free gym (and a good one!), literally a stones throw from my living quarters
• Good options for doing some yoga in the evening
• It was surprisingly easy work compared to how difficult it’s regarded to be. Of course I will be in a different department this time should I accept, so it might live up to its reputation there
• Living quarters are a stones throw the other direction from my living quarters
• Looks good on my CV
• Nice little village a bit away
• Will give me plenty of time to work on other projects

Not really a pro or a con, but still funny: My family has strong ties to the area. The local museum basically has a wing about my great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather and their family business.

I’m thinking I will go visit them and ask if I can help dig up some stuff from my late grandfather that will make the exhibits a little more fun for visitors.

Cons

• I can’t bring Hubby with me, so we will probably only see each other every other weekend or even less
• It’s 20 weeks this time
• The #%&@ signal issue

Seriously, the signal issue is a huge pain in the ass. The living quarters don’t have wired connections and the last time I was there, I couldn’t keep my wireless internet going at all. To make a phone call I can to stand in one specific corner of the top floor or the call would be dropped.

Either that or go in one of the office buildings and use one of the cabled connections.

Nothing wireless works there.

Despite the cons, I can see myself having a good stay there:

• I would go home for an extended weekend every other week or so.
• I would be closer to work #2 from the location than from home, so I could put more time and effort into it.
• I could put in some serious me-time: Get a good routine going with proper bedtime, gym, healthy eating, fresh air and putting an effort into my skin and hair.

It would be like a project healthy hair 2012.

My routine would be something like:

• Getting up, getting dressed. Glass of water with supplements.
• Drinking my morning coffee and having a drinking-yoghurt at the morning meeting.
• Work. Having a sports bottle with water at my table. Try to empty it during the day.
• Healthy lunch consisting of salad. Supplements.
• Work. Having a sports bottle with water at my table.
• Going to the gym.
• Protein shake or protein drink.
• Post gym shower. Wash hair/deep condition hair.
• Doing the Korean skincare routine if I’m just going to be in my quarters for the rest of the evening.
• Work #2 from my own desk, studying or working on stuff I want to write for the blog.
• Going to bed at a decent hour and getting plenty of sleep

It would actually be really good for me. Hmm.

I probably wouldn’t be able to actually blog a lot, but I could gather up some good material for it.