s u m m e r ♡ f a s h i o n

It is September, and it is officially not summer anymore. Well, at least not really, I am not entirely sure, because Sweden has been playing tricks on me for the past two weeks. My father once said "Sweden is more bipolar than you" and thought he was so flippadoodelin' clever he was practically jumping with joy when we were talking about the weather and changing seasons here, and while I aged thirty years from listening to that clever joke, I had to admit that he was actually right. 

Two days ago it was pouring so heavily I almost drowned and it was so cold I could barely feel my legs, yesterday was so warm and sunny my eyes wanted to crawl out of my skull. 

I will regret saying this in a few weeks; but I actually want Sweater Weather to unpack its bags and settle down comfortably, already. I am actually quite done with summer. 

So, I figured it could be a nice idea to say Good Bye to the season with an outfit post? 

Yes.

s u m m e r ♡ f a sh i o n 

2 0 1 5

Wig: Taobao

Lashes: Dolly Wink

Choker: Taobao

Padlock necklace: SEX POT ReVeNGe (available at CDJapan !)

Tee: Sheinside (do not support anymore, read here) *

Shorts: Some shop in Harajuku, sadly not for sale online!

* A tip, use Google to find alternatives to Sheinside. You can either type in "Bambi tee Sheinside" and save an image of it to use for image search, or simply stay with the web search results and see if you can find it elsewhere, without having to use image search. 

♡

Rose crown: Meltychocolatemoon (lovely Raichi !)

Wig: Taobao

Necklace: Closet Child 

(also available at Innocent World, and various other Japanese brands)

Dress: SisterS Point

Peignoir: Beyond Retro

Lenses: GEO Holicat Sexy cat grey 

(apply coupon code irodohieru @ Pinkyparadise !)

♡

Wore this for Club Cosmos, hence the cosmos theme. Super original...!

Headband: Just a good ol' satin ribbon

Wig: Taobao

T-shirt: Vulpaevulpae.bigcartel.com 

Necklace: A gift made by Alice

Lenses: GEO Eyes Cream RayRay Grey 

(apply coupon code irodohieru @ Pinkyparadise !)

Eyeshadow from H&M, lipstick from Viva La Diva, 

gem stones from a hobby store.


♡

Hat: BikBok

Wig: Taobao

Top: Sheinside (do not support, read here !)

Pins: Taobao

Skirt: Beyond Retro

Tights: Some shop in Harajuku, have not found them online!

Socks: H&M

Shoes: Y.R.U (bought at Dolls Kill)

Lenses: GEO Eyes Cream RayRay Grey !

♡

Headscarf: Glitter

Wig: Taobao

Choker: Paris Kids (in Harajuku)

Necklace: Gift from mother

Dress: Sheinside (I repeat - do not support !)

Tights: Taobao

Shoes: Y.R.U

Lenses: GEO Eyes Cream RayRay Grey

♡

I only managed to repair my hair to a somewhat decent state towards the end of the summer, so there have been a lot of wigs... Boy do I wish it had looked this good all summer. Wigs are warm. Not recommended.

♡

Featured here are things from SEX POT ReVeNGe, Vulpae 

and Wildly Unpopular Apparel, which are all favorites. Just, for the record !

♡

I consider "Only weak people do not wear black in the summer" one of my mottos in life, so I suppose these last few images - the strangely pink and perky one in the upper left corner aside - saved me from completely failing my own philosophy this summer. 

I have been thinking about whether I should start making more "hello this is what I have been doing lately" posts here, so that might be something that will pop up here in the future! Do you think it would be a good idea? 

Hm. It feels incredibly strange writing a question to people I cannot see, while pictures of my own face are staring back at me. 

Oops, there goes my sanity. I guess winter really is coming.

Anyways! I hope your summers have been great, I am one hundred percent sure you deserve only the crème-de-la-crème. ♡ Thank you for stopping by! Take care, ok?

p a s t e l ♡ c o m e b a c k

Title is - obviously - referring to my new hair color!  

Okay, to be fair, I have had it for about a month now... but I have not yet posted it here, have I? So why not. Let us say "new" and move along. 

Was not even blonde for a month, I think. I am so very indecisive it is almost amusing. 

Before and after, anyway.

 

For this, I used Directions ("Neon Blue"), which is my go-to hair dye brand. I get my Directions from Kawaii Shop or Shock here in Stockholm, but you can find it ridiculously easily on eBay. Literally, it takes two minutes.

Neon Blue is quite a dark shade of blue with purple pigments, so I mixed it with conditioner to brighten it a bit. Pastel things up a notch, so to speak! I used about one cup of regular conditioner, I think I have some Elvital repair type thing, with a little less than a teaspoon of hair dye, give or take a few drops.

This method is great, because you will certainly not have to run to the store or order new hair dye every other week, as I would have had to do if I had gone with a lighter shade of purple dye. So, it is highly recommended! However, I feel obligated to add that you cannot do this with permanent box dye, only with conditioner-based semi-permanent hair dye. Things will go horribly wrong if you try to mix permanent box dye with conditioner ("and you will get cancer and die").

♡

Now that I have washed it a few times, it has turned a little blue though, to say the least. But I think it still looks rather good, so I will wait a while before buying some pink conditioner to throw in the mix and going purple again.

Seems like no matter what I try, I always end up going back to blue. 

Seems like no matter what I try, sooner or later I always go back to blue. 

Oh, well. 

Over and out, petals! ♡

m a k e u p ♡ cheap knock-offs vs. brands

Trying to write these long entries I have planned for such a long time, is really not having a very positive effect on my creativity, nor my ability to actually go through with it. I have repeatedly apologized for my messy brain, and surely it must be getting old by now, so I will just say that from here on out I will just write what I feel like, and what I have planned will come when it comes. Simple as that!

So, today’s topic, completely out of the blue?

The beauty of brand makeup. 

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. The reason as to why, is me growing up a dedicated cheapskate, who would rather chop her own arm off with a kitchen knife, than spend more than 300 SEK on a cosmetic product of any kind. That is, until a few weeks ago, when I finally gave up, and bought something I have literally been dreaming about for a very long time – The Too Faced Chocolate Bar nude eyeshadow palette.

Just looking at it is makeup porn, I am officially converted.

The thing – and the reason I am even writing this post – is, I learned a very valuable lesson from this experience, after going through a very stressful couple of sweaty what-have-I-done days. I have used this palette almost every day since I got it, and when I think about it, the price of all the cheap questionable quality products I have bought without feeling bad about it, probably adds up to a couple of 100 SEK bills more than the Chocolate Bar cost.

And I barely even use those cheap guilt free products.

Ironic, huh?

After the Too Faced palette, came a lip balm and cheek palette from TheBalm, as well as an eyeshadow palette from the same brand, and a foundation from MAC. Touching my savings made the cheapskate inside my skull throw a tantrum, but you know what, it has been completely worth it. (Note: All from http://www.beautybridge.com/ ! Highly recommended seller, they have great offers and coupons and stuff too.)

Remember; "If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad"!

So, what else is there to say about brand makeup?

♡ Q u a l i t y : When it comes to eyeshadows, in particular, the cheap ones are far less pigmented, and do not look nice and vibrant for as long. Cheap black eyeshadows are okay – I have one from H&M, and it is completely okay – but black is black, it is technically not even a color. Very hard to mess up.

As for foundation and powder, I am never ever buying cheap foundation again. There is a major difference when it comes to how the skin cooperates with different foundations, and if you like me have sensitive, dry skin, investing in a good foundation is a… well, good, idea. My old foundation made my skin flakey and cakey, but my MAC Studio Fix Fluid foundation covers everything up instead.

If your skin is not as dry and uncooperative as mine, a cheaper foundation might work, however! Just thought I would add that as well.

♡ V a r i e t y : This mostly applies to shadows and lip colors, obviously, but this is where the biggest difference shows – you actually get a lot more for your money. A basic palette from H&M comes with four or five different shades, whereas most of the bigger brand palettes come with over ten different shades. If you think about it, it could actually be that if you buy several palettes which combined add up to the same number of colors as one of them more fancy palettes, you might even be paying the same price. So the question is; which option is more worth it?

♡ D e s i g n : Let us face it, an eyeshadow palette that smells and tastes like chocolate (please Saga Malva, just shut up about this goddamn thing already) is much more appealing than one of those five shade basic palettes from H&M that I just mentioned. Not to mention TheBalm! I love TheBalm and the half-naked cowboys posing with the apple themed lip balms.

♡ F u n : I could not come up with a better title for this one, so let us ignore the somewhat pretentious feel of it. This part goes hand in hand with design, anyways. Quirky products are just as nice to look at as they are fun to play with. I can honestly say I have enjoyed doing my makeup a whole lot more lately, and it has actually been very inspirational as well. Heck, I even made a YouTube video!

♡ E a s y : Because these palettes are themed, in colors and whatnot, it is much easier to match the different shades and create looks that “make sense”, if that makes sense. Pun intended. It also helps a lot to see the colors next to each other on the palette, so you can do some combining in your head before trying it out on your eyes.

♡

When should you go cheap, then?
Well - brushes, eyeliner, mascara, and perhaps you can live without the fanciest brand of clear lip gloss because real talk, they all look exactly the same.

Money management, when and what to invest in is another topic I could write a book about...! Surprisingly enough, I hate math, but I love numbers. Oh well.

♡

As always, this post got quite long, but I do get quite a few questions on this subject, and I really wanted to share my experience, because converting has done so much for my creativity and inspiration!

Now, there is also a lot to say about ethical makeup as well, but I am planning to write another post on that subject, after hearing some gross things about a certain brand called Lime Crime. Too Faced and TheBalm are cruelty-free, I can say that much. Just now I discovered MAC is no longer cruelty-free, after moving their production to China (long story short), but MakeUpStore is a good alternative. I have some more digging to do, before I can publish a well thought out list. To be continued in part two.

Time for me to go offline and get some work done.
Have a great week everyone! Take care until next time. ( ´ ▽ ` )



P.S. In case you missed it, here is my new video makeup tutorial !
Shamelessly advertising myself.

t u t o r i a l ♡ [ Aye Space Captain ! ] video and product list

Okay, I am just going to post this. I have a lot of things to say - for example, I ended up completely panicking with the music - but it is unimportant. Going to stay positive! It is my second video, hopefully someone will enjoy it despite the somewhat messy editing! And most importantly, I had a lot of fun with this look. 

Brought to you by the glitter and aliens 

I always come to think of when I am wearing this sweater:

[ Aye Space Captain ! ] Makeup Tutorial

p r o d u c t s ♡ u s e d

B r u s h e s :

Every day is Caturday set from Forever21 

H&M's own brand 

eBay

L e n s e s :

GEO Eyes Cream RayRay Gray (click !)

- Get them from Pinkyparadise, and apply coupon code irodohieru!

La s h e s : 

Upper lashes - PLAYGIRL from Decorative Eyelash

Lower lashes - Off-brand value pack from eBay

Duo eyelash adheshive

F o u n d a t i o n : 

MAC Studio Fix Fluid, NC15

Manic Panic Dreamtonic White (it's vegan!)

P o w d e r & b l u s h :

MAC Blot Powder Pressed, Light

Estée Lauder Deluxe All-Over Face Compact

E y e s h a d o w : 

H&M basic smokey eyes palette

- All shades except light light grey used.

M a s c a r a : 

Max Factor Wild Mega Volume

Isadora False Lash Wings

E y e l i n e r & e y e b r o w p e n :

Dolly Wink

Off brand liquid eyeliner

Wet & Wild liquid eyeliner, brown

Isadora Eyebrow Pencil, 21 Dark Brown

L i p s : 

Tony Moly Cat Chu Wink lip tint, Cherry Pink

Face Stockholm Nektar lipgloss, Äppleblom

♡  

There we go! Again, I hope someone enjoyed this or found it helpful! Feel free to subscribe if you like! But then you have to go to bed, it is getting late. 

Much love to each and every one of you (and please be nice, remember it is only my second video, haha...) !

P.S. Oh my, looks like I almost forgot these lovely behind the scenes treats.

t u t o r i a l ♡ video and product list!

I have to say, this turned out a bit awkward, I had to cut it quite ruthlessly to not make it too long (I started with 50 minutes and literally butchered it to get down to 10),
the camera angle in the talking parts was a bit unfortunate, so enjoy the lovely sight of the underside of my chin.

Now, I always apologize too much, so I will bother you no longer.


Modern Witch Vibe Makeup Tutorial
A little inspired by American Horror Story: Coven

p r o d u c t s ♡ u s e d

B r u s h e s :

Every day is Caturday set from Forever21 (standard flat brush)

H&M's own brand ("smokey" eyes brush, round and angle brush)

L e n s e s :
GEO HoliCat Sexy Cat Grey (click)
- Get them from Pinkyparadise, and apply coupon code irodohieru!

La s h e s : 

Dolly Wink

Top & bottom (click)

Duo eyelash adheshive

F o u n d a t i o n : 

MAC Studio Fix Fluid, NC15

Manic Panic Dreamtonic White (it's vegan!)

P o w d e r & b l u s h :

MAC Blot Powder Pressed, Light

Estée Lauder Deluxe All-Over Face Compact

E y e s h a d o w : 

Too Faced Chocolate Bar

- White Chocolate, Marzipan, Black Forest Truffle, Triple Fudge, Haute Chocolate

M a s c a r a : 

Isadora False Lash Wings

E y e l i n e r & e y e b r o w p e n :

Dolly Wink

Off brand liquid eyeliner

Isadora Eyebrow Pencil, 21 Dark Brown

L i p s : 

The Balm How 'bout Them Apples? cheek and lip cream palette

- Caramel, Cider

Clinique sheer lipgloss (that I hae had for at least five years, no shame...)

Done!

Thank you for watching,
and please enjoy this sexy foursome of screenshots.

r e c e n t ♡ l o o k s

Another "just thought I would post these real quick post."
So much for saying Japan part three would be up next. Oh well.

♡

Firstly, I went to my best friend Jözz (known online as Sayariin), and fixed my hair, after months of my dad saying "hehe, you look like I did in the Eighties!" 

The headband is from a store called Glitter, 

lashes from some brand called Decorative 

(I found them at Donki in Japan), 

glasses from H&M, 

jacket from SEX POT ReVeNGe.

♡

And then, secondly, my most recent experiments. The months of looking like my father in the Eighties also included a serious amount of neglecting myself and not being very creative with my looks. Zero inspiration. At the moment, it seems like I have it back.

Flower thing from eBay, 

wig from Taobao,

lashes are Dolly Wink,

sweater from H&M. 

I do not feel like posting the whole outfit here, because I am not too happy with the picture I took, but I did post it on Tumblr. Just click these little words, and you will get redirected to it.

Beanie from Wildly Unpopular Apparel, 

wig from Taobao, 

lashes from Dolly Wink, 

padlock necklace from SEX POT ReVeNGe,

shirt from Wildly Unpopular Apparel. 

This and the picture below are my favorite looks from the past couple of days,

 for the record.

Hat from H&M, 

lashes from Dolly Wink,

sparkly gems from a toy store 

(it is not a freaking bindi, they are from a toy store),

wig from Taobao,

necklace from Dolls Kill,

zodiac t-shirt from Dolls Kill.

♡

Now, here are two more proper high-quality outfit photos as well!

Hat from H&M,

cardigan thing from Dolls Kill,

necklace from Dolls Kill,

sweater from Dolls Kill,

jeans from H&M,

Qozmo platfroms from YRU.

Hat from H&M 

wig from Taobao,

(yes, wearing it a lot...),

collar tee from Taobao,

sweater from H&M,

 necklace from Dolls Kill,

pins from Eyecandy,

(my best friend Emilia aka Pastelbat's Storenvy ♡),

skirt from H&M, 

tights from H&M,

socks from H&M,

Qozmo platforms from YRU.

Also, wearing the same lenses in all of these pictures. Their peculiar name is GEO Holicat Sexy, in grey, from MapleLens.

♡

That is it! Next time will actually be Japan part three, I promise. Most likely it will be all about the food porn me and Sofia, who goes by Neonkan online, engaged in, before and after the concerts we went to. Will be writing about those too, because it was everything I have been dreaming about since I was eleven years old and I am still very emotional and baffled by what I experienced. Emotional roller coaster, I tell you.

Oh now I am getting flashbacks, time to log out and shed a couple of tears. 

Helvete. 

Bye bye, and good night (it is night here right now, let us pretend it is in whatever time zone you are as well). ♪

P.S. Kind reminder that my new Instagram is @Captain_iro . . . My old one was one of the accounts that got lost a while back. My password got reset, and I never got an email when I tried to reset it again. Sigh.

B o d y ♡ S h o p

I have a few membership and bonus point cards to a few places. One of them is a big grocery store chain called Hemköp, another one is another big grocery store chain called Willys (these are some serious adult points right here), then there is Espresso House because I live in Sweden, where you either drink coffee and have a fika (something to drink and something to nibble on at a café), or die a gruesome, lonely death, H&M, and last but not least – drum roll please – The Body Shop. 10% discount is nice, indeed.

I always go to The Body Shop when I leave my cave and take the metro to the center of Stockholm, just to creep around like a weirdo, spray perfume on myself and smell all of the little test samples. Definitely my favorite place to be when it comes to shops, aside from IKEA, and huge supermarkets.

I mean, just look how neat the shelves are, 

and how simple and pretty the products are. ♪

My goal is to one day own everything on these pictures, to be perfectly honest. That will take me a while though. In the meantime, I just thought I would share my favorite products with you real quick! 

♡ Perfume, or "Eau de toilette" ♡

These, ladies and gents and everyone in between, are my babies. I am obsessed with anything vanilla or coconut scented, and I have been since sixth grade, when I was on a class trip and a classmate of mine decided to poison the air in the girl’s cabin with her vanilla perfume. I have not been able to shut up about my love for vanilla perfume ever since. My dear mother gave me the coconut perfume as a gift after I had finished my level 7 English and Philosophy 1 courses – I lost literally all of my shit, pardon my French – and I later decided to reward myself the vanilla perfume as well. It had been one of those “when you do this you can reward yourself with that” things for me, but mum sort of ruined that for me, and I am so glad she did.

For this price, I have not been able to find good coconut and vanilla perfume anywhere. They each cost 155 SEK, which is about 18 USD (use xe.com to convert to your currency), fairly cheap for Body Shop!

I smell like cookies all day long, totally worth every penny. Or, you know, krona, in my case.

♡ Drops of Youth ♡

This is the best thing that has ever happened to me. No, not really. I do value my cat, family and friends higher than this unbelievably amazing skin care series, but you get what I am trying to say. Exaggerating for added effect.

The Drops of Youth series!

The Bouncy Sleeping Mask is the best one of them all. You put it on about an hour before bed, sleep, and wake up with a new born baby face. Put on some of the day cream for the same series, and you are good to go.

I am not big on skin care. Questions on the subject usually makes me go “…well, I remove my makeup with liquid hand soap and… then use whatever moisturizer I have within reach… sometimes hand lotion.” I really could not be bothered. The liquid hand soap remains the same, but I can at least recommend this now.

They are a little expensive, sadly, but with the sleeping mask for example, you only have to use a tiny little drop, so they will last for ages. The Bouncy Sleeping Mask is 325 SEK, 38 USD, and the Smoothing Day Cream is 285 SEK, 33 USD.

There is also a face wash and some other products from the same series, but these are the ones I use, and I do not miss the other products. I am not made of money, after all.

♡ Shower Gel and Body Butter ♡

Bonus - Snow Fairy from Lush. Fantastic. 

Other than that, I must say I prefer the chocolate shower gel, 

and the coconut body butter, but these are the ones I have at home.

Do I need to explain why it is nice to smell like cookies and fresh fruit?

There are smaller bottles of shower gel and smaller tubs of body butter, unfortunately I cannot find them online, but anyway; the large tubs of body butter cost 185 SEK, 21 USD, and the large bottles of shower gel cost 85 SEK, which is about 10 USD. I think I think I remember the small tubs of body butter cost around 60 SEK, 7 USD, and the shower gel something close to 40 SEK, 4-5 USD.

If I remember to check next time I go into town I will update this post. I apologize in advance for forgetting. At least I have been somewhat thorough this far, right?

They have a ton of other great products as well, but these are the main ones. I do not think I need to mention any more products, it would most likely just get tedious, I do not wish to make you yawn. And besides, every product comes in so many different scents, these few I have mentioned in this post are more than enough. Mango, coconut, strawberry, hazelnut, Aloe Vera, chocolate, go have a look for yourself!

I know The Body Shop is a bit pricey, and I do try to mostly recommend cheaper products, but you know what? Spending a little more on a few treats is so worth it. You will most likely end up using it a lot more than you would have used a few cheaper, less nice products, anyway. Expensive products tend to last a whole lot longer as well. At least that is what I have experienced so far.

Take it from a true cheap skate; Treat yo’ self every now and then.

You will most likely actually save money by doing so, because you will not feel like “well this is cheap so I might as well buy four wait why am I not using these?”

That is it for me! Now please do have a nice week. ♡

P.S. Next stop; Japan part three! Thank you all for bearing with me and my long writing time, and for all the lovely comments you have left on my previous posts! I am very. very thankful and I want to hug every single one of you.