GUIDE ☆ Taobao

I've already made a post that explained a little about Taobao, but since that post also included lots of word-vomiting and things about the order I made, I decided to make a new one that is only meant to be a guide. I thought it'd be helpful, since I was a wreck first time I made an order, and people have been asking me for help. So here it is!

Let's begin.

A guide to Taobao 

☆ Basics before you start:

1. Find a good shopping service. 
I can highly recommend kinalink.se. They're extremely helpful, very polite, and just overall the best Taobao agent you can find. You can send them an email to help you understand their order process and order form* if you don't understand it - which you of course can even if you go with another Taobao agent.

* Like with any shopping service, or in this case Taobao agent, you fill out this form so that your agent can order your things for you. You usually fill out things like product name, product link... the things that the agent can help you understand. I didn't understand it the first time, so don't feel bad if you're a little confused. 

2. Understand the value of google translate
Many people have asked me "do you understand chinese? How do you find things on Taobao when it's in Chinese?" and the answer is simple - google translate, or any other translating program. If you're looking for a dress, translate it to chinese. As simple as that.

Scroll down a bit to "useful keywords" in the Search guide-part.


☆ Search guide: 

First of all, this is the search field, in case that isn't clear.

Now, how do you find things? It's exactly the same as ebay, but with google translate, so here's a little searching-for-dummies in case it's your first time. Or just in case you're looking for some tips.

1. Combine your keywords
Type of clothing, or item, or brand. Color. It can be anything from one word to five, or more. Translate these words to chinese and press the orange button. If it's a brand or well-known word spelled with our roman letters, however, like for example Candy Stripper or Rilakkuma - you don't have to translate.

Combine the Chinese words with the English words when necessary. It can look like this "COSPLAY 假发" - "Cosplay wig".


2. Useful keywords
KERA is a good searchword if you want to find creepers and nice, punk-y shoes - you can combine it with the Chinese word for shoes too, but just KERA is fine. LOLITA is also a good searchword for shoes and other things. Definitely combine it with "shoes", though, a lot of dresses. Also good for nice wigs. COSPLAY is always good to find wigs. CANDY STRIPPER, other brands you like, Rilakkuma, and so on. And if you search for COSBUS you can find great, cheap kigurumis.


3. Once you find a product you like, you'll see this right next to the picture.

Price: It's pretty obvious, isn't it? The big orange numbers! Use a converter to see how much it is in your currency.

Shipping within China: Right under the price, 18 or 25.

Size: You see the part where it says "S" and "M"? There it is. It looks different from item to item, but it usually says S, M or L. Sometimes clothes are sized after how tall you are, which is weird, but heads up.

Color: You see all the little jackets? Yup, there it is. It's not always pictures, most often it's the Chinese words for different colors. Your browser should have a tool to translate the page, use this - or copy paste the words into google translate - to figure out which colors are which.

Shops: 

Just like with ebay, there are shops on Taobao. It's a little tricky once you visit one, since it's all in Chinese, but click around until you get the hang of it. Here's a great list with lots and lots of links to some different Taobao shops → Click me please. 


☆ Purchase guide: 

Go to your Taobao agent's homepage
Look for an "ordering procedure" page
Read it carefully
If there's something you don't understand, look up the address and send an email to support

Here's how the ordering process usually goes: 
Find the order form and download it
Fill out the order form
Save it under a new name
Use the email listed in the ordering process explanaition and send the new, filled out order form
Wait for a reply, and your agent will take it from there and update you as they move along


☆ General tips:

1. Seriously, don't be afraid to ask your agent for help.
2. Google. Look up guides and shop lists, link lists and anything you can think of. Really helpful.

3. I just have to say this as well: please don't ask me for links to things I've bought, because I don't have them. They're gone as soon as I've sent my order form. Sorry, but that's how it is ( ; ´ ω ` )

There ya go!

Easy, right? I hope this was a little bit helpful. Taobao is a cheap world of wonders (and fashion) and once you get the hang of it, it really is very simple. Take your time and you'll see.

Happy Taobao-ing!
Hugs and kisses, I hope you're having a great post-apocalypse day ♥

REVIEW ☆ Circle lenses, GEO Bella Grey, PinkyParadise

Lenses: GEO Xtra WBS 205 Bella Grey

Bought from: Pinkyparadise.com

I'm a part of PinkyParadise's affiliate program. So when you buy your lenses from them (which I think you should) enter coupon code irodohieru, and you'll get a free lens case and a mystery gift, courtesy of me!

 REVIEW 

First of all, I would just like to thank the guys at PinkyParadise for being so nice to me. They really are, super polite and cooperative. My emails were answered quickly, my questions and concerns were immediately answered and cleared up, and all communication worked very smoothly. 

I picked the lenses I wanted, got my tracking number, and bam, just a week later I had them in my mailbox. Along with a cute little animal lens case - hippos. I love hippos - and a little gift. 

Now, second of all; 

These lenses are so damn comfortable I am really tempted to keysmash my way through the rest of this review. 

My past experiences with lenses haven't been very good. My eyes have been itchy and red and I've sort of gotten used to crying a little throughout the day. I wore them anyways because I thought it was like that for everyone - at least my eyes looked nice. Now, I don't even think about the fact that I'm wearing lenses. They're just there, and it's brilliant.

I get why PinkyParadise is the biggest site for circle lenses. 

They have a lot of nice lashes and accessories too, so check that out in case you're looking for other things than just lenses! 

I have nothing bad to say about my experience, so this review will just have to be as extremely positive as it is. And now I will end this before it gets too long. 

PinkyParadise, end note; HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 

Over and out for this time dearies, 

xoxo - ♡

☆ SWEET 18 ☆

So October 24 1994 was the day I was born, and that means October 24 2012 was my 18th birthday.

Still recovering from all the celebrating I've been doing.

My parents woke me at six o'clock in the morning with breakfast - coffee, my favorite sandwich, and a teeny tiny cake, all to myself. Or maybe not so tiny after all. It was supposed to be for two persons and I'm just one person. Yes, I ate it all. Not even sorry. It was delicious. Raspberry mousse with cream and jam, covered in grated white chocolate and topped with a cute lil' marzipan rose.

There it is! Looks yummy right? 

Anyhow. I took the day off and spent it... well I don't even remember what I did. Think I walked around the apartment in my PJ's, singing really loudly, to be honest. Then I realized my friends were supposed to come over in like an hour, so I made "fika" in full on panic mode. 

Took a lot of pictures ♪

 The cake was kind of messed up since my dad wanted a slice in the morning. So I filled the hole with "polkagrisar" (candy canes but small and not canes and swedish?) and meringue. But I actually think messy cakes are yummier than super tidy cakes. 

Here are some derpy friends: 

Emilia, Marijela (with a blurry Alex in the background) and Clara! 

I have friends, look!

I know Alex doesn't like to be in published pictures so I will keep him to myself. Alice showed up later, but I'd sort of forgotten about the camera (I'm sorry honey). And Jözz was supposed to be there too, but she was sick so she couldn't come. Anyhow, we had a great time! I love these guys ♥ 

And here's a bonus pic: 

Marijela put marshmallows on my headband... 

After dinner with my parents (where I got that yucky glass of wine. I hate wine. But it was kind of symbolic. Symbolic and disgusting. I really. Hate. Wine), Alice and I went to the movies and saw paranormal activity 4. Weird movie, by the way. I don't know if I can recommend it or not. Maybe if you've seen the others. 

Well, spending the rest of my birthday with my awesomest girlfriend was a great way to end it at least. 

Then there was the party with my huge family this weekend. 28 people (that's just my closest relatives, aunts and cousins, etc. Everyone couldn't even come). Alice and Alex were there too and everyone got kind of drunk and stayed really late, so overall it was a great party. 

That's about it! 

But wait a minute, I know what you're thinking.

What about the damn gifts?

For starters my grandmother gave me Photoshop Elements 11, which made my voice all high-pitched (thank you grandma). Then I got a gift-certificate for two piercings, so my mouth area will be punctured soon, another gift-certificate at H&M, money, a massage, that dotted shirt I'm wearing in the pictures, a bottle of strawberry wine...

Alex got me the book "Pawnee - the greatest town in America" by Leslie Knope - a character from the TV-show we're obsessed with, Parks and Recreation, and Alice made me a keychain. A little Rilakkuma wearing a rose headband. So cute ♥

But the best thing that happened that day;
my parents made me debt-free.

I almost started to cry. Seriously, I can't really describe how good it feels to have that weight off my shoulders. Now I can start over. Can't imagine starting my 18th year - my first "adult" year - in a better way. I love my parents so so so much.

I have nothing more to say about my Sweet 18 now!

So this was a really cheesy and overly happy entry.
I'M SORRY BUT MY BIRTHDAY WAS REALLY AWESOME, OKAY.

Thank you awesome friends and family for making it so great. Now back to being miserable. Kidding.

Over and out! Much love (ી(΄◞ิ౪◟ิ‵)ʃ)♥

"WHERE AND WHAT" INTERNET SHOPPING
Once and for all, this is a compilation of links to the shops where I buy most of my clothes and accessories.

TAOBAO INFO →
(At the bottom of the linked post I've written about shopping service, translating, etc)

∙ Wigs: Ebay, Taobao. I don't have a particular store I go to. I usually search for cosplay wigs.
∙ Clothes and accessories: Ebay, Taobao, Gina tricot, Cubus, H&M.
∙ Brand clothes: Cdjapan.co.jp/apparel
∙ Circle lenses: Pinkyparadise.com → enter coupon code "irodohieru" and receive a mystery gift!

∙ Favorite brands: Monomania, BOY LONDON, SUPER LOVERS, Listen Flavor.

∙ My absolute favorite place to shop: EBAY. No particular shops. I see something I like - a piece of clothing, a print, a color combo, anything - and use keywords to hunt down something similar.

∙ Useful Ebay searchwords for not-really-knowing-what-you're-looking-for-just-windowshopping: KERA, lolita, cosplay.

I'm sorry for not answering this sooner, since you were wondering, dear readers, but now I have! I hope this cleared things up ♡ Now let's move on to the rest!

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Amandanissen: What's some of your favorite places to shop, and do you have any tips for finding things on etsy/ebay which suits your style? 

Answer : Actually, the best tip I can give for ebaying is to take inspiration from other places - like tumblr, for example - and use that to find things you like. I find it quite hard to just casually windowshop on ebay. Like with my LSD galaxy cat shirt. I saw that on tumblr, "I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE", went on ebay, typed in "cat galaxy shirt", and found it. It doesn't have to be as specific as that, but knowing what you like is always good, right. Then it's just searchwords, searchwords and more searchwords until you track it down ☆

Anonymous: How do you shop things at Malkomalka and other non-english shops? 

Answer: I bought my MALKOMALKA from Taobao (got them with legit tags and everything, so they're not fake), but otherwise I use a shopping service! I've heard Celga is good ☆

Anonymous: I don't know if you answered this though, I'd really like a list of Japanese fashion brands you buy from? ` n `

Answer: My favorite japanese brands are; SUPER LOVERS, Listen Flavor, Sex Pot ReVeNGe, Candy stripper and Monomania ☆ !

Anonymous: Where do you get your wigs and what price are they around?

Answer: If I order wigs from Taobao, around 8 USD, if I order from ebay, between 18-20 USD ☆

Anonymous: Everyone has so many great questions but...
I would like to know what hair products you use. O.O
I have brown and light pink hair, but the pink part never went back to normal and since you are so used to all this I would really like to know the things you like to use/find good for damaged hair like shampoos, conditioners or even home made treatments and things like that. (:
And... Just wanted to say to you that you really are an inspiration to me and you you are a really beautiful and nice person! *-*

Answer: Agh thank you sweetheart ♡ I just want to hug you. Let me see if I can give you some pointers! If you want a good color result, avoid any hair product with silicone. I like schwarzkopf's products. Basically, avoid products that contain silicone. Look for shampoos and conditioners with keratine in - if possible, something with oil as well. Also, investing in an expensive argan oil can really be worth it. Buy argan oil and a good hair remedy from your hairdresser (if you can afford it, it's a good idea to buy shampoo and conditioner from them as well). 

If you want a good at-home remedy: Beer, two eggs, mayonnaise and olive oil. Divide it in your hair and wrap it in plastic, leave in for as long as you like (minimum 10 minutes). Hope this helped!

Anonymous: So when you order from Taobao, how much does the cost add up to (if you don't mind sharing >_<)? And the shipping? Also what shipping method do you use? Do you use any agencies? What are your favourite stores on Taobao?

Answer: I answered all of this in my Taobao post... oh well! My stuff were in total around 700-1000 SEK if I remember it right. The shipping was 700 SEK I think. I used kinalink.se, china airmail small and I don't have any favorite shops, I just browse around with random searchwords like "nebula", "KERA", "lolita", "MALKO MALKA"... and so on! ☆

That's it! 

Much love to those of you who asked me questions in the Q&A (not just the ones I published in this entry)! And to those of you who didn't as well, of course ♡ Once again I'm going to end this post by saying goodnight. Maybe I sleep a lot. Or just like writing when I'm tired. I don't know. Doesn't matter! At least I'm sick today so I have a legit reason...

Have loads of sweet dreams and happy Friday! 

xoxo 

Pics or it didn't happen...

Well here it is. That blonde thing, me when I was fifteen. 

In this picture I had already lost like 8-10 kgs. I've deleted all other pictures of myself from that time, unfortunately, so I don't have any earlier pics than this one, except for baby/kid-pictures. 

I told you I used to look different.
Just felt like posting this for some reason! 

Dear lord I'm happy my fashion sense has improved since then... 

Anyway, moving on to other stuff: this weekend I'll hopefully have time to make the Q&A video! Thank you so much for all the questions, I'm really grateful ♥ ! I'll answer as many as I can in the video, and all other questions will be answered in a post here, I promise. 

That's the end of this random post. Hope I didn't traumatize anyone. 

Sweet dreams and puss och kram! 

Q & A

Eylo, like my friend Alex would say. Good afternoon!

Decided my next video will be a lil' Q & A session. Thanks for all the suggestions dearies, got a lot of great ideas - Q & A being one of them! ♪♪

So now it's time to collect some Q's to connect to some A's. Ask me whatever you want, anything from I don't know questions about my toenails (what) to clothes, shopping, food, or how heavy my adorable fat cat is. Aske me to do things, show things, etc. Whatever random thing you'd like to know. Pretty please? It'd be fun answering some questions~!

Figured I'd gather the Q's here so there's a way to ask me stuff anonymously. 

I'll be waiting for those Q's okay ♡ ! Squishing my cheeks to show my love:

Oh god what if no one ask me anything now I'm scared and embarrassed before even posting christ.

TUTORIALS ☆ Basic makeup, basic short wavy hairstyle

I was going to clean my room but then something happened. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

My first video hair- and makeup-tutorials!

I was so nervous posting these for some reason. Guess it's because I'm still kind of hesistant towards internet in general, still, since the break I had for about a year. It makes no sense that I still get the creeps from time to time since I have accounts everywhere now. Anyway. It turns out it was a lot of fun making these ♬♪ and the feedback I got was over all very positive, so once I posted vid no 2 I wasn't as anxious about it. Thank you guys for all the lovely reassuring comments!

Yep. I think want to start making more videos from now on. I need some help with it though.

Any suggestions on video topics?

I was thinking of a Q&A thing, since it might be fun. But other than that I don't really know. Q&A? Clothes? DIYs?

I would really love some ideas, if anyone has something in mind they'd like to see. Help? ♥

Pusselipuss until next time alla hjärtegryn. 

xoxo 

New things ☆ Taobao shopping

Morning people ♪ ! 

It's been a while now. What has happened since last time, you ask? 

Among many things, this: 

A few weeks ago, me and my best friend Alex made a huge order from Taobao. Last week our stuff finally arrived! It was insane, not kidding. The combined weight of our packages was 21 kg (46.3 lbs). Me and my girlfriend Alice were both sick and since Alex was in school, we had to carry these terrifying, cardboard bombs all the way from the post office. We weren't feeling so great afterwards. Doesn't matter. Who can be anything but happy with clothes, clothes and Rilakkuma everywhere, right? 

I mean, look at all these things! 

1. Galaxy print oversized tee 

2. Panda t-shirt, me and Alex bought matching ones 

3. Adidas leopard print t-shirt

1. SHOES! I searched for lolita shoes and found these. Not so lolita, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for either. 

2. High-waist black shorts

3. A lovely jacket with studs, kind of looks like a leather jacket, but it's not

4. A bunch of Kreepsville accessories

I went completely Rilakkuma crazy...

1. Two backpacks, one Rilakkuma and one Ko-Rilakkuma

2. Rilakkuma wallet, Ko-Rilakkuma earphones

3. Ko-Rilakkuma nightgown

4. Rilakkuma pyjama

And I bought a Ko-Rilakkuma fleece pyjama for my friend Emilia, as a birthday gift! 

Last but not least: 

1. I've always wanted a cow kigurumi ;;

2. Mint green curly wig, a Gothic Lolita Wigs model

That is it, 10 kg!

I was like a child on Christmas Eve. Or like almost-eighteen me on Christmas Eve, I'm still pretty excited about Christmas. Anyway. 

Should write a little more about Taobao, I suppose. It is basically like Chinese Ebay. But, like with most Japanese or Chinese websites, you'll need a shopping service - or in this case, a "Taobao agent".

The one I use is kinalink.se. However, Kinalink is a Swedish service, but I've heard many good things about Taobaospree as well. Wonderful Josephine used Taobaospree, and she was happy with her order. 

So Taobaospree as a Taobao agent, highly recommended! 

Shopping on Taobao is really easy once you find your agent. You translate your search word to chinese, with google translate for example, paste it into the search field and press enter. Once you find something, just follow your Taobao agent's purchase procedure. Usually it's as simple as filling in an excel document and e-mailing it to your agent. Done! 

This was my third Taobao order. All of the things I bought add up to around 1000 SEK, shipping included. Insanely cheap for this amount of stuff. Needless to say, I have every intention to make another order! 

Not right now though. No, no. Saying I have no money would be an understatement. 

I've actually gone as far as banning Taobao and Ebay in my browser settings. Will have to survive without window-shopping, lord have mercy. 

Whatever, it's not the end of the world! Instead I'm going to take this opportunity and save some money. It's not like I need more stuff. It'll be nice having some money saved up for something bigger in the future! In the meantime I'll only spend money on a few treats, once in a while, like going to the cinema. I'm usually too cheap to do things like that since I save all my money for clothes, stupid as I am. 

Anyway! I'm sick so I'm going to curl up in bed and watch TV for the rest of the day (* ´∙ω∙`) Coughing up my damn lungs. Hope you're feeling better than I am!

Hugs and kisses from cap'n iro ♡ !

A part of my life story

This blog is usually about my interests and fashion, the fun things going on in my life. Today I want to write about something else. A more serious matter. I have to tell you something. 

A few weeks ago I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder type two. 

Basically; depression with periods of out-of-control and sometimes damaging happiness.

I will probably regret posting this later on. But right now, I want to tell my story.

I've been thinking so hard about how to write this for quite some time now. So many words to use. It's better to just keep it simple, right?

Well, the cat is out of the box now. 

Why am I writing this, you ask? Simple. I understand people I talk to frequently online have been wondering and worrying about me going to the hospital all the time. I've been tweeting about it, for example. I'm sorry if I made anyone worried in vain. I've been going to the hospital to do tests in order to get the right amount of medication to help me deal with the symptoms that comes with this diagnose. Blood samples, heart and liver function, ultra sounds, and so on. Nothing more serious than that. I'm actually happy I've finally gotten the help I need, weak as it may sound. 

Truth is, the past years have been hell for me. 

When I'm down, I don't like to write about it online. Or even talk to my friends about it. I do, but not very often. I feel annoying if I do. People in general seem to be deadly afraid of any kind of imperfection or weakness in other people, it's completely ridiculous. We're all different, but the one thing we have in common is that no one is perfect. People seem to me ignoring this. So I like to keep things to myself, most of the time.

It was all really confusing before I got it confirmed that something was "wrong" with me. The thing with bipolar disorder, is that it sort of resembles regular moodswings. Only these bipolar moodswings are ten times worse, follow a weekly schedule, and there's never even a second of peace and quiet. But still. It's like moodswings. So I thought I was supposed to feel as - pardon my french - fucking miserable and lost as I felt, because I was a teenager. I actually felt bad for letting it affect me as much as it did. When everyone else was coping with life, why couldn't I? 

For a week or two I would sit on the couch, playing video games, watching TV. Or just stare at nothing, depending on how bad it was. I did push myself to do something each day though. Like seeing a friend, or going into town, taking a walk. Dressing up and taking an outfit picture. Just because if I sat all day the guilt and anxiety would kill me. 

"Oh god my friends will forget me and they will find new friends and I'm going to die alone and never accomplish anything in my life, I need to do something" 

Even if I felt like crying and thought everything I said just sounded stupid, I pushed myself to smile and act normal. For as long as I needed. Then it was back to the couch, completely exhausted and empty. Constantly tired, sleeping twice as much as I should. Completely lost my appetite. Got anxiety attacks over the most irrational things. I would literally kill myself with angst over something stupid I said in kindergarten, seriously. It wasn't fun at all, I tell you. 

Then out of the blue, I would wake up one morning feeling like superman. 

This phase is one I still have to deal with, since I've been given the medication that only affects my down periods, while waiting for the one that needs more "investigating" before knowing how much I will need of it. 

It's the weirdest feeling ever. I feel super creative. I can't stay still for one second, I just run around with all these ideas and everything is so much fun. In fact, it's so much fun I can't decide what I want to do first, so I end up doing a hundred things at once and leave unfinished projects all over the apartment. It's good, in a way, the extra creativity is something I like. But it's so stressful not being able to stop. And it's definitely not fun losing big chunks of your memory, noticing you've spent all your money on ebay on things you don't remember buying. 

It only gets that bad over the night, though. You see, I stop sleeping during these manic periods. The brain gets a little crazy with no sleep. I can at least pretend to act normal, if not a lot happier than usual, during the day. 

I actually prefer my down periods over my up periods. 

And the carousel goes round, and round, and round. Never slowing down. 

When I stopped going to school completely, since my depressive weeks were longer than my manic days, my parents finally accepted the fact that I might be "sick". Both my aunts are bipolar, and my mum has seen how hard it was for them before they got help. They're fine now, living life like everyone else, but it was still hard for her to accept that I was going through the same hell as she had seen her sisters go through. I don't blame her, I wouldn't want to see my kid in the state I was. By the end of last year I finally started seeing a doctor in order to find out why things had gotten so bad.

It was such a relief getting my diagnose. 

A massive weight lifted off my shoulders, learning my moodswings weren't normal. I could get help. Feel like everyone else, get back on my feet. I didn't have to experience this emotional rollercoaster for good.

I've been through a lot in my life. In short words, was bullied all the way up to sixth grade. I came across a person that mentally abused me and controlled me up to eight grade. I comfort ate and locked myself inside, afraid of people. I became overweight. I lost weight. Ended up battling an eating disorder, which I've still not fully recovered from, to be honest. Then came this complete crash. 

Through all this I've never given up, though, and I can say that I'm proud of myself. Even at my lowest point I've still fought to make things better, looked for that light at the end of the tunnel. Eventually I've learned to keep my head high and stay strong, no matter what. Because I am strong. Even if I have to live and deal with this diagnose for the rest of my life, I know I can do it. It's not the end of the world. My aunts are living normal lives with their families. So do and can I. Life will be good for me. 

Just because I have a diagnose it doesn't mean I'm no longer human, or that I've lost my personality, have to be treated any differently. I hate that people seem to think so. Really. Especially with bipolar disorder, it really doesn't affect you at all, if you're lucky enough to get the right help and have people around you to support you when you need them.

I'm really happy with my life now. I'm over all just... happy. I'm so grateful for my friends and for everything that's going so well for me, in every way. Things are really looking up. 

No one will probably read this all the way to the end. I know I wrote quite a lot, haha. But I want to be honest about this. I'm not ashamed and I wanted to clear things up, for those who have been wondering. I wanted to give a message too, I suppose. 

Stay strong and you can do anything. 

Time to say goodbye. If you've stayed with me until now, thank you for reading. I appreciate it. 

Just going to post this now before I regret being so honest. 

Go on and have a wonderful day ♥

Quick update!

I just changed around a little bit, so now two more Snow White thorns and roses headbands are availabile! I figured since they sold out so quickly, that must mean I should make more of them instead of the Little Mermaid for example. 

I have like an "empty canvas" I just fill up with flowers, so it's no problem. Look at me, rolling with the punches! 

Have to get ready for school now, bye ☆

New products in my little store ☆

Evening bloggy! 

So the only thing I've been doing for the past few weeks is sewing my fingers off, basically. Finally finished everything up today and took some pictures of my work. And here's the result! 

First up is "Bubblegum Bitch"

Probably my favorite! I wouldn't really wear it myself, but whatever. I'm happy with it ♬ And it's called Bubblegum Bitch so what's not to love, right. 

☆ One Bubblegum Bitch up for sale ☆

"Lavender Baby" 

☆ Two Lavender Babies up for sale as well ☆

"Babydoll" 

Named after my favorite Sucker Punch hero. 

☆ One Babydoll up for sale ☆

"Little Mermaid" 

A successful experiment, I'd say! Turquoise x black was requested by a nice tumblrer, so I made a prototype and it turned out quite nice! 

☆ One Little Mermaid swimming in the ocean ☆

(Dear god what did I just write)

"Snow White" 

Can't go wrong with the classic black and white ~ 

☆ Four Snow Whites up for sale ☆

All of them are up for sale now on my storenvy → irosgarden.storenvy.com. 

I'll also sell some at the Japanese Flea Market here in Sweden this October. 

Anyways, would like to once again thank everyone who's constantly giving me feedback and keeping me going with so much kindness. I love you sweethearts. I wish you all the best in the world ♥ And also, thanks to everyone who suggested and requested colors! I hope what I've made lived up to what you had in mind. At least a little bit! 

Hope everyone's having a great Sunday!

Hugs and kisses from iro

Life at my new school

Time to tell the tale of the magical place that is my new school, G2. 

It's a an ordinary high school that basically looks like an abandoned factory from the outside and is like Narnia on the inside. I'm not even kidding, but more on that later. Apart from the Narnia-part, it's pretty much a regular high school. Kids between the ages of 16-18, lockers, classrooms, so on. Anyway.

In Swedish high schools, each class has a different orientation/focus with courses assigned to that orientation. Like a major. So there are classes like swedish, english, math, all the regular stuff, and on top of that art students have art, florist students learn and work with flowers and music students write songs. And hairdressers like me obviously have hairdressing-classes. 

Right now we're learning how to hold the scissors. 

Our first homework; sit in front of the mirror and practice so you only move your thumb when cutting.

Ridiculously entertaining. 

The salons we work in are super nice too ♫ The whole school is being remodeled so everything is fresh and new. We'll be taking customers in here once we're good enough to actually attack human beings. 

The pic to the left is from the salon. It's still a little messy with the furniture, but almost done! 

The pic to the right is from this place called "Här". It's a shop exclusively for hairdressers where you can get all these things you can't find anywhere else. Like the haircolors. Look at the haircolors. I seriously didn't know what to do, just went around drowning everything in tears of joy. 

Seriously, the benefits and things the students get from this school... It's crazy. First it's the shopping place. We also got a MacBook air (a lease, but we get to buy it for like 1000 SEK when we graduate) and a bag packed with tools. 

2 scissors, 5 brushes, 4 combs, 1 knife, 6 big hairclips, around 2000 hairpins, 1 toolbelt, probably something else I forgot and some scissor oil. 

I want to keysmash so badly just writing about it, haha. 

Really, it already seems like a great school. The teachers are beyond great and the other personnel too. Of course, since it's quite far from the inner city and most people that live out here are wealthy, I do stand out a lot. The first day of school people stared at me like they hadn't seen a human being before. My friend Marijela, who's in her third year, told me her classmates talked so much trash about me after seeing me. I couldn't care less. People are so narrow minded it's embarrassing. It only makes me want to dress even more extreme to show them no matter what I will always hold my head high and set a good example by smiling and being polite. 

Truth be told, I'm only there for the education. If my classmates are nice and I make a few friends, that's always nice. But if I don't, then it doesn't matter. Since I've already passed two years of high school with straight A's in all the basic courses like swedish, english and history for example, I will only be there for at the most two classes a day. My classmates are very nice though, so it won't even be something worth thinking about, but still. 

It's kind of nice for once feeling like I really can do this. I look forward to learning and moving on from the past year, which has been horrible, to be honest. 

So it's an awesome start. Even more awesome because of this; 

You walk through this corridor, a regular, old, boring corridor, and you open that little door you see at the end... 

...and you end up here. 

A little village with classical swedish cottages, trees, streets and even a water pump. 

This isn't a very good picture to capture all of it, I didn't have much time so it had to be this or nothing. Still. Freaking Narnia. Classes are held in all these little houses. The principal lives in the yellow one. And my face the first time we walked in here can not be described. 

That's about it for this time! I'm so looking forward to three years at this place. Even though my classmates are two years younger, I have to go three years instead of the one year I had left in artschool, and yada yada, it's so worth it. Happy Saga is happy. 

Wish anyone who's reading this all the niceness and positive energy! Goodnight until next time ♥

TUTORIAL ☆ White hair, step by step

I was planning to finish this and post it yesterday, but things got in the way (things like lying on my floor screaming at my stomach to stop torturing me. I ate something bad). So I'm posting it now instead! It's time for...

Iro's white hair tutorial

★ INTRO ★

Each part of this tutorial will consist of a longer more detailed text, then I will make a shorter summary at the end. So you can choose how much you want to know ~

I've had white hair on and off since I was around thirteen. Apart from white I've also had every other color and hairstyle possible, but I've always gone back to white, grey or silver. It's been hell for my hair but I least I know my stuff when it comes to going through that hell and come out of it with a lovely color. Time for me to share this knowledge with you!

★ STEP ONE ★

Bleaching.

The key to any shade of silver, white or grey is proper bleaching. But you can not just bleach your hair five times in the same day and expect it to be done. This will severely harm your hair, and the color result won't even be that good.

The science behind it goes like this; when you bleach your hair every straw ”opens up” and lets go of the amount of color it can until the straw is closed again. This is what's harming the hair, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. The thing is, it takes around 1-2 weeks for the straws to close again.

So how do you bleach your hair to get the best result?

Simple, wait 1-2 weeks between every bleach.

The bleach I use is Schwarzkopf's L101 Silver Blonde Platinum Lightener.

(This comes with a silver conditioner. Do not use this if you want white, not silver/greyish hair)

Apply the bleach, then wrap your head in aluminum foil for best result, follow the instructions on the package.

I suggest you bleach your hair at least twice, even if your hair is very bright. The white dye will stick better if the hair is newly bleached. If your hair is darker, you need to keep bleaching every two weeks until your hair sort of looks like on the picture below.

Apply a good hair remedy after every bleach. There are recepies online if you don't want to buy one. Use a good conditioner with keratine in. Avoid all hairproducts with silicone, as silicone also has a bad effect on the color result.

★ STEP TWO ★

The last bleach.

When you only need to bleach your hair one more time to be done with the bleaching step, it's time to purchase some good toner. The Silver Blonde Platinum bleach comes with a conditioner with purple pigment in that will (eventually) give you silver hair. So you can use this if you want to, but if you want white hair, I suggest you stay away from this.

The white toner I use is Directions White toner.

Bleach your hair the last time, wash your hair with shampoo, not conditioner, and blow dry your hair. Directly apply the dye. Here, don't care what the instructions tell you, leave the hair dye in for as long as you possibly can. I usually set a whole day aside just to dye my hair.

When you wash it, don't panic. Your hair will be purple.

★ STEP THREE ★

Purple pain.

Now, when your hair is purple, you have two choices (depending on how damaged your hair is and how much more it can take before falling off):

Wait for the purple to fade, which it will after a few showers, or bleach your hair one last time.

Mine was way too damaged to be bleached again, so this is how I looked for weeks. Like a sunburned, purple mushroom. With temporarily terrible skin. But I powered through, dammit.

★ STEP FOUR ★

 Voilà.

Once you've bleached or tortured yourself through step three,

your hair will hopefully be white as snow! I've been living with purple hair for weeks, and this is my end result;

If I were to say something to sum this up, it would be that white/silver hair takes patience. A lot of patience. It's hard on the hair so you have to take it slow. But it's a kind of awesome haircolor, so it's worth all those weeks right?

★ STEP FIVE ★

Making it last.

Simple! Mix in some white toner with your conditioner each time you wash your hair and leave it in for a few minutes. This makes it last a lot longer. After a few weeks you'll have to re-dye it though (and possibly bleach it again).

★ SUMMARY ★

Bleach: Wrap your hair in tinfoil while bleaching. Wait 1-2 weeks between each bleach, keep bleaching until your hair is as bright blonde as it can be (see picture). I use Schwarzkopf's L101 silver blonde platinum bleach. Do not use the silver conditioner that comes with it if you don't want greyish hair.

Dye: Right after the last bleach, wash your hair. Do not use conditioner. Blowdry, apply hairdye. I use Directions white toner. Leave in for as long as you can, the longer the better.

Kill the purple: Either wait for the purple to fade, or bleach another time. Depends on how your poor hair is feeling.

Done: yes, you're at the end of your journey!

After work: Mix your conditioner with some white toner every time you wash your hair to make it last longer.

★ THE END ★

That's it! Now, I have to say this is what I do. I can't guarantee it will work for anyone, of course. But a few tips, tricks and guidelines are better than none, correct?

I'm going to make a video about hair too, when I figure out how to use the webcam on my new MacBook ( ´∙ ω ∙) 'til then, have a good weekend! Hugs and kisses ♥

Upcoming stuff

Evening ♪

I just thought I'd make a quick post about some things I've been working on for a while, and will soon post. It's also a few things that have been on my mind and have been writing down, so I'll probably post that too since I think it's something that may be helpful to other people, or just good for me to share. Anyways!

1. White hair tutorial
- A surprising amount of lovely people have been asking me for white hair advice lately, so I'm making a step-by-step guide. I'm thinking about making a video...?

2. Online shopping
- There's a reason I'm broke at the moment and that may be bad, but at least I know where and how to online shop, dammit. Also I've been asked to make a post about this!

3. Self-consciousness/my past
- This is what has been on my mind. I've written quite a lot about it. I don't know if anyone would want to read it, but this is my blog, so why shouldn't I post something that is really close to my heart?

4. New designs
- I have a lot of sketches!

5. Inspirations, random thoughts, probably my awesome new school...

To sum up, things I'm too tired to write about right now haha~ Today I had my first day at my new school and I'm completely exhausted. A bit low too to be honest. But that's how I usually feel when I relax after a nervous day. My school really seems good though. So I'm happy about that, finally.

This is how I looked to day anyway~♪ Have other pictures but I'm too lazy to move them from my phone today, haha.

So that's it for this time! Goodnight my sweets, hope your tomorrow will be a great one ♥

My fashion progress... From tomboy to black and white girly girl ♪

Evening bloggy ♪

It's quite interesting to see how my outfits, makeup - my style in general - has changed since I first started getting into street fashion. I noticed when I was cleaning my folders, so... here's a big picture post ᕦ(o⌣o*)ᕤ

First of all... I don't even know what to write because it's kind of weird looking back at this time, haha. I stopped dressing in visual kei clothes, and this is what happened. The Bieber tomboy (just happened to be at the same time as I came out of the closet. Coincidence? Hm).

These are only face shots, but I was still very self-conscious about my body and didn't feel comfortable in this style, to be honest (シ_ _)シ 

Just thought I'd show these as some sort of "before" shots. On to the change I was talking about! 

Last autumn: First pics of myself I posted on tumblr (*ノ・ω・） 

Started wearing more japanese brands again; like HELLCATPUNKS, Algonquins and SUPER LOVERS.

Winter/spring: This is around the time I started to slooooowly embrace my more girly side. The pigtails is what started it. Seriously. I was still very into visual and oshare kei (which I still am but don't wear as frequently) and these are some of my fav outfits even now ♪ 

Spring: still boyish, but with the wigs came the false lashes, lenses and girlier makeup...

Still spring: Getting close to where I am now! Tumblr was affecting my fashion more and more. I LOVE this pastel goth style that's trending now, and I started taking inspiration from my dashboard. 

Skeleton tights, round sunglasses, star eyebrows, creepers... (｡･ω･｡) 

Spring/early summer: This is when I found "my" style, I think. The pic at the top is what did it. More and more black and white outfits, more and more trending tumblr inspiration. And nowadays...

Now: Black and white invasion. 

I almost exclusively base my oitfits on black and white clothes now. I was afraid to at first, because I thought "black and white is kind of boring, isn't it? No variety". But I think I look different from day to day, even though it's mostly black and white, so I proved myself wrong there. I must say I love dressing like this (゜u ゜) 

Black and white and something pastel-ish to stand out from the rest is what I go for~!

The devil horns, these glasses and my spikey headband has become my favorite accessories. All things I could never imagine wearing just six months ago! It's fun seeing how quickly my style has developed to what I'm wearing today. 

Hmm I wonder what I'll look like six months from now? 

Well that's it for this long post, goodnight, sleep tight and dream sweet dreams! Or just shut up and go sleep like a log (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡