Saturday, March 31, 2012

Sushi, boba and Cue. Oh my!

Oooh la la, today was a really lovely day with my friends~ We decided to have a mini adventure day and explore this little plaza my friend recommended. 
Since we were meeting up around lunch time, we decided to be frugal and go to a conveyor belt sushi place.
If you know me, I am obsessed with conveyor belt sushi places and my favorite local one is Gatten Sushi. I'm pretty sure they know my face there by now... Seriously though, yellow plates are just $2 per plate and red plates are $3... Not to mention that iced green tea is only $1 with free refills. What's not to like?
Om nom nom, I always get my usual plate of ootoro. The fatty part of the tuna is always my favorite cut, it's too bad that it's so pricey.
They also have pretty scrumptious takoyaki. I'm always sure to order it with a side of spicy mayo. Out of all the Japanese places I frequent, I'm positive that they have the best recipe for spicy mayo.
So delicious.
After filling our tummies, we piled into my car to venture towards Fullerton to grab some boba at Half and Half.
Half and Half, I'm sure has some of the best boba milk tea in So Cal. So, driving the half an hour trip is surprisingly worth it!
Whenever we go, the line is practically out the door.
Their decor is really quirky and I'm very fond of it!
I love how there's 2 signs asking you not to mess with the telephone.

Above are some of their best selling items~


Yum, my friends got their usual drinks. Choco milk tea and Rose milk tea, which are really good. I always tend to try a new drink every time. This time I tried the Peach milk tea. It was perfectly balanced and the peach flavouring wasn't overpowering.

I approve of this milk tea!

The lighting inside the boba place was really flattering, so I took a few selcas.. I also tried letting my fringe lay straight. I'm not sure if I like the look or not. It might be something I just need to get accustomed too.


After grabbing our bobas, we were happy to find out that the plaza my friend wanted to check out was just a block down from Half and Half! Oh my goodness, am I glad that we went to check it out!

In 'Yes Plaza', there were 2 Japanese brand shops! Yes, 2!!! I wish I had more cash on me at the time to splurge, I think I was so excited that I could pee, I mean, if I had to pee at that time! Haha.
There was also so much bling and deco items in almost every store in the plaza. It actually made me sad that I have a Blackberry [though I love my Blackberry]. I wish I could have taken pictures of all the amazing stuff, but a lot of the stores had a strict 'no pictures' policy. :[
One of the stores was filled with plushes, k-pop CD's, k-drama DVD's and just every cute thing you could imagine! Outside was a wall of k-pop posters that I had a little fan-gasm in front of... I just recently started getting into k-pop so it was a treat to stare at.
My friend also captured my having a moment gushing over Onew. Haha, it's embarrassing but funny, so why not share it.
Also, at one of the stores there was cute phone charms that fit our personalities well, so I decided to purchase them for each of us! I think they are so adorable!!
Oh, shhhh... I took a picture in one of the stores. But look at that milk mug! It was just too cute that I couldn't resist taking a picture of it!

Also, in the plaza was one of the Asian style claw machine arcades! There were so many cute plushes that caught my eye. I did feed one machine $3, as I was trying to win the iPhone so I could buy some cute phone cases.. Haha!

I am so obsessed with my plush bunny~

Well after exploring the plaza and drooling over cute items, brand makeup and brand clothing. We decided to head down to Cerritos for some purikura/ cue.
Oh my goodness, this is one of the older machines, but look at the 'engrish'! I think I was too entertained by it.

Our bunny charms!
Every time I see this picture, it looks like a drama poster.






I think this picture is one of my favorites....

Any ways, today was just perfect! Even right now, it started raining! So, I'm a happy girl. I would speak more in detail about today, but I need to sleep early because I must wake up at an ungodly early time in the morning!
I have some excitement happening tomorrow, so please wish me luck!

<3CarisseIris

Thursday, March 29, 2012

How to wash and re-curl a worn out wig!

 So, as you guys hopefully are aware of, I am an avid wig wearer. Above are my babies and I wear them almost daily, though, the pink one a bit more so. So, by the end of the month they're a frizzy crunchy mess.
Well, I can't just go buying another wig, nor can I just willy-nilly take a curling iron to them since they're synthetic, meaning, they're made of plastic. There are steps to take before I can bring them back to life, per say and a certain way to curl them.
 Ouch. This is how my pink one looks up close~
My lavender one isn't faring that well either. [This will be the first time for me to wash her, so there is a different way of treating her, but I'll get there when I get there]

What you need for washing a wig:
Gentle laundry detergent for delicates
Cold water
Small basin
Wig brush
Wig stand
*optional, tripod

 So, I fill up my small basin with cold water.
I then take my gentle laundry detergent and only pour like, 1/3 of a cap full into the basin and then swish it around to make some bubbles.
Voilla, bubbles!
Now, before I submerged my wig into the basin, I made sure to give it a good brush through with my wig brush, which I looks like this:
So, I'll let my wig sit in the basin for a good 30 minutes.
While my wig is getting clean, I set up my wig stand in the bath tub... I've kind of just found a way to hang it on my shower rack, but I've seen people use their camera tripods to keep the wig stand off the ground. I've also used the shower handle as a impromptu 'wig stand' but it did end up destroying the wig cap after using it every time..
Well, after the 30 minutes of soaking my wigs, I rinsed them thoroughly in cold water and hung them up to dry off. Usually that takes a good hour to 2 hours for my wigs...

Now onto how to re-curl your wigs!
What you will need:
The alligator clips are optional, but I like using them to set my curls so they have more body and 'oomph'.
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR CURLER IS AT THE LOWEST HEAT SETTING!

I also recommend to get comfy because for me, this takes a good hour and a half, so sometimes I do it on a night that I watch tv and I'll curl my wig on the couch. Today, I did it during the day time so this was my set up. [watching a program on youtube was to help pass the time]
So, when I curl my wig, I like to do so when it's just slightly damp at the tips. Above, is my just dried, clean wig.
I like to go through an with my wig brush, just comb the hair and make sure there's no tangles and the like. [my wig looks so much better already]
Now, I like to take one inch sections starting from the front, and I will eventually be making my way around the wig.
As I take one section, I will thoroughly dampen the hair with my water spritzer [so that the hair won't melt against my curling iron].
I then give it another comb through but this time, with the small tooth comb.
I then use the tong part of the curler and capture the tip of the hair [that's the part that really needs to get unfrizzed at this point] and I will wrap the hair around the barrel and I'll hold that there for roughly 30 seconds. I like to lightly touch the hair on the barrel to see if it's getting dried out. Usually, I prefer to release the hair when it's mostly dry, but there's some dampness left.
[as you get used to curling synthetic wigs, you will find what you most prefer regarding how you style and curl them].
I like to release the hair from the barrel vertically so that it falls into my hand like pictured above. It makes it easier to clip in a perfect curl shape.
I like to clip my hair with the alligator clips because it won't crease my hair and is easy to remove after my hair is set.
Now, usually after my 2nd or 3rd piece of hair, the pieces I pull to curl get thicker. So, this is when I'll start splitting the inch sections I pull into 2 parts.
For a good majority of my wig, I will be pulling away and inch, and then dividing it into 2, like so. I will then go back into just one piece when I reach the other side, near the front of the wig.

I prefer to curl the bottom piece first, so I clip the top portion up with an alligator clip like pictured above.

That is how I re-curl my wigs.
So, I'll let the curls set in place with the alligator clips for maybe 30 minutes and sometimes even 2 days... 30 minutes will allow the hair to set in a curl and when I release it, it will slowly sink into a nice wave. If my hair is set for 2 days, it will stay in ringlets for around 2 weeks.
It all depends on how I want my hair to look like.

Now, on to my purple wig. Since it was my first time washing it and I never brought a curler to it. It's curls should have retained through the cleaning and it should have just taken away the crunchiness and frizz [not like there was a lot]
This is what it looked like when it was dry.^^
^^It's curls became pretty again and it's back to being touchably soft.
To be honest, the only time you would re-curl your wig is maybe after it's 2nd month? You want to refrain from curling it too often because it can lead to breakage and shortening your wig's life.
I honestly only wash my wigs once every 1-2 months and curl them 1 to 2 times a month, depending on how my wig has been faring.

This is how my wigs look like the following day and I released my curls and gave them a quick brush through.
Note: Try to avoid brushing your wigs often and/or combing through them with your hands.



I hope you got something from this tutorial, and that you will enjoy a long lasting relationship with your wigs!
<3CarisseIris