A very red, xmasy haul

Long time no see! Sorry about that. I haven't been shopping in a while, there's work stuff, family stuff, you know. Stuff. It was my birthday last week so I have finally broken free of teenagehood and it is very nice so far. I got some money so I went to Westfield and here's some clothes and things I brought.

Autumn Haul

Hi friends, it's been a while. I don't have an excuse. I have loads of half written posts in my drafts, that just need sources or photos or my full attention that isn't at 4am. I'll get to those eventually. Here's some clothes.

I hardly went shopping over the summer, but I did in September and October. Some of the prices I've lost, some of these things are probably not online anymore and not all of these are from the women's sections of shops. Let's go.

Sprinkle of Glitter's Curvy Summer Lookbook

An adorable video from Louise! She's sweet and confident and I really like her style.

Tesco Haul

I understand the stigma surrounding supermarket clothing lines. Cheap clothes, no big brands. What could POSSIBLY be worse?

BaByliss Curling Wand Pro Review

I don't do very much with the actual style of my hair very often. I dye it a lot and an reasonable intense with my shampoo and conditioner to try and retain some kind of softness and shininess the harsh chemicals of platinum blonde dye on dark blonde hair. I also have to blow dry my hair every time I wash it or it becomes a giant frizz ball of terror. So by the time I've spent an hour washing, conditioning and blow drying, I don't really have the energy to do any more with it. If my fringe messed up, I clip it up. If my parting is a mess, I'll tie my hair in a ponytail or a bun. If I'm feeling adventurous, I might attempt (and that's a key word here) a French plait. Sometimes I straighten my hair if it's extra wavy from being tied up but that isn't too often.

But the one thing I have always loved doing is curling my hair. When I was a kid, I did Irish dancing and I remember one year when I was about 8 or 9 I had a competition, or a convention, or something. My mother made me a beautiful traditional emerald green dress (I'll dig out the photos some time, so much praise to her skills) and she curled my hair overnight in rollers. I had a mini blonde afro by the morning. It was amazing. I think I got my first electric hair curlers at age 12 or 13. Pink and cheap. I have so many burn scars from that thing but my hair was always delightful (in my opinion). Looking back, my technique was utterly rubbish. But I loved it. The pink curler got lost, then found a few years ago, then broken. Whoops. Rest in peace.

Although I have had the urge to buy new curlers, a mixture of cringing at the memory of my terrible technique, being too lazy to research decent brands and not really wanting to spend my money, kept me from giving in and going curl crazy.

Then things changed. My brother got a girlfriend and she is delightful. She also has gorgeous long ginger hair down past her waist, which she dip dyes pink and purple and curls. I have been in love with her hair since the first time we met. I finally asked her which curlers she uses because I trust her judgement. She told me a BaByliss wand, not specifying which specific one. I hopped onto Amazon and found the cheapest BaByliss curling wand and brought it Tuesday morning. It arrived Friday afternoon.

In the Box

• The Wand
• Heat protection glove

I was a little disappointed not to have a protective pouch to keep the wand in, as my Remmington hair straighteners had come with. I find the pouch a life saver, both for me not getting burnt as the device is cooling down and to keep it from being destroyed by my chaotic bedroom. No wonder my previous curlers died in this environment.

However I must praise the glove. It works. I didn't burn myself at all in my first usage. What a dream come true.

The wand heats up pretty quickly, though I use the lowest heat setting to reduce damage to my hair. It also cools down pretty quickly, easing my anxiety about having it sat on my bed after use and I accidentally put my hand down on it and burn myself.

The conical barrel creates the kind of curls I love. By making curls that are larger towards the roots and tighter at the ends, they are pretty natural looking. Even on the lowest heat temperature, the curls hold pretty well.

The cord is a decent length at 2.5m and the swivel part at the end of the wand is very smooth. I had no problems to do with not being able to hold it high enough due to a short cord and turning the wand in my hand was extremely easy. Curlers have come a long way from my little pink one of the early 2000s.

It also has an auto shut off feature and turns itself off after 72 minutes. I'm pretty sure this is a fairly standard feature in hair styling products these days but it's always nice to know.

The instruction leaflet says to hold your hair in place for 5-8 seconds but I would recommend 10-15 seconds if you have hair on the thicker side. I also use the wand on the lowest heat setting which probably affects how long it takes to set the curls.

I am impressed. For £20 I have the curls I want in less than twenty minutes. The temperature settings are easy to change between and the heating up and cooling down periods are quick. I would have liked a pouch to store the wand in to have been provided, as I'm probably going to have to shop around to find a cheap but quality one now, but the glove redeems it.

I would recommend the BaByliss Curling Wand Pro to anyone wanting to create natural looking curls quickly and cheaply.

Updates and upcoming

Next week I hope to have three new posts for you -

• What I manage to bear wearing in the heatwave
• Tesco haul
• BaByliss Curling Wand Pro review

I ideally hoped to post this week but it's been extremely hot and muggy so I pretty much have been just trying to stay as cool as possible and work on other projects. I tried taking some photos but it was too sweaty and exhausting. But while you wait for more posts from this blog, if you like mermaids and radio, do take a gander at Dead Fishy Radio. It's one of the projects I mentioned.

Hope you are all still intact and not melting into a fleshy puddle.

Nothing Happened

I wore a bikini and nothing happened - an excellent article by Jenny Trout

here's a snippet:

This year, I made a New Year's resolution that confused some people. By confuse, I mean conversations about it usually went like this:
Me: "Next summer, I'm going to wear a bikini."
Them: "What a great goal! What are you doing? Weight Watchers? Jenny Craig? Are you going vegan? Paleo? Are you having the surgery?"
Me: "I said I was going to wear a bikini. I didn't say I was going to lose weight."
Them: Face melts off like they're staring into the Arc of The Covenant.

I thoroughly recommend a read.