Review: Hair Secrets Hair Extensions

Hi everyone! I am back with another brand review. I wanted to do a review much earlier than this. Unfortunately, I had a really awful skin allergy that sprung up about a week after filming my Bellami review. And I still have a fair bit of these rashes, though they’re no longer as itchy as they were a couple weeks ago.

So today’s review is on one of my most favourite, and my most prized, hair extensions set: Hair Secrets.

As you can see, Hair Secrets is definitely one of my most favorite brands! Here’s my video review of this set. As with my previous review, I talk mainly about hair quality and the weft make in the video, and the rest of the details can be found in the meat of my blog post below.

Styled hair with Hair Secrets

What’s Available?

Hair Secrets offers only 1 length – 20 inches, but in 2 volume packages:

1. The For Fine Hair set comes in a white box and is ideal for fine to medium hair texture. This is AU$169.
2. The Ultimate Volume set comes in a black box, as in the photo above. It’s the set that I own, and costs AU$199

The weight of each option is not published on the site, but I recall reading on their Facebook feed that the Fine Hair set is 120g, while the Ultimate Volume set is about 190g.

Site Quality and Ordering Process

• Hair Secrets is a salon quality brand of hair extensions, and because it’s a “pro” brand, you can really see that in the design of their website, which is clean, pretty and looks like a real legit e-commerce site.
• Hair Secrets has 2 different sites: the Australian site, and an American site for international orders. I don’t think you can order from the AU site, and anyway, why would you want to? The pricing difference is crazy, and I think the AU site pricing probably includes hair dressing services to professionally blend the extensions into your own hair.
• There’s tons of colors to choose from, 30 shades, including various highlight and lowlight combinations, so there’s really a shade in there for everyone.
• The down side of having so many shades, I guess, is that ensuring all of these shades are properly stocked takes forever! Many of the darker brown shades are perpetually out of stock. I ordered my set back in January. It’s a shade lighter than what I wanted to get. It’s now April, and the shade I wanted has only been restocked now.
• As I previously mentioned, neither the AU site, nor the international site publishes the weight of the hair and that really sorta keeps you guessing on what you really need, especially if your own hair is more on the medium thickness, not really fine but not really thick or voluminous. My recommendation is, of course, to just choose the set with more hair, because you can just reduce the number of wefts you put on your head.
• Rating: 4.5 stars

Delivery

• Expedited shipping with tracking from Australia to Singapore is 2 weeks, and I think that’s pretty standard.
• I’ve also seen a 3-day processing time to before the hair actually gets shipped out from their facility, so in all, it’s a good 2 and half weeks to get to me.
• Shipping fee is $19, and definitely on the more expensive side, as other Australian companies I’ve purchased from offered free shipping.
• There are coupons for free shipping in some of the Youtube reviews for this brand, so go search it out! 🙂
• Rating: 4 stars

Packaging

• This brand’s packaging is un-frickin-beatable! It comes in a super cute luxurious box, and inside, it’s packaged in a black silk organza bag. Perfect!!
• Rating: 5 stars

Hair Secrets Box Packaging. Can you tell I love it so much?

Hair Quality

• The shade I purchased is It Was All A Dream, which is a medium brown with red undertones. In other companies, this would probably be a #4 shade. Maybe slightly lighter. This shade is actually too light for me, though it’s hardly noticeable in photos. I really wanted Celebrity Meltdown, but it was out of stock when I ordered, and I’m impatient, so this is what I got.
• The hair quality is super soft, incredibly silky and so so smooth! This is the silkiest, smoothest hair extensions set that I own, and in terms of that type of hair quality, the only other brand I own that matches this is Headkandy.
• The hair shaft of these extensions are thick and blends so perfectly with my own hair, which is also very thick!
• Hair Secrets is one of the few double drawn extension sets that I own – this means all the hair are a single length, which guarantees that I get hair as thick at the tips as it is at the top!
• Strangely enough, even though this is so smooth and silky, the hair seems to be very prone to tangling. And when it does get tangled, it gets impossibly snarled and I normally have to take a few minutes to pick the snarls apart with my fingers before brushing through the hair. That’s not bad though, because it tends to get tangled in with my own hair, which is probably the source of the bad tangling (my hair was previously permed, so yeah, prone to tangles!)
• This extension set has a blunt cut, so all the hair is a single length and it may look a bit unnatural when you clip them in and don’t get it professionally blended. Hair Secrets recommends bringing the extensions to your stylist to get them professionally blended. Obviously, I didn’t do this, because I don’t really like anyone snipping locks off my precious extensions, and in fact, I do really love these blunt cut sets.
• Rating: 4.5 stars

Clip & Weft Quality

• The clips are not the tiny, super unnoticeable clips that I have in most other sets I own. It’s a little larger than the clips even on my Headkandy set (those have medium-sized clips). They’re also stamped with the brand, so you’ll never forget it’s Hair Secrets 😉 But even if these are a bit on the larger side, they really grip onto my hair really well! No slipping off at all!
• There’s lace backing and good, sturdy stitching on all of the wefts.
• The clips are sewn at the top and sides to make sure they don’t flip flop on your head, and because they’re sewn on so securely, the extension wefts really lie flat against my head even though the slips are a bit on the larger side.
• There are 7 wefts in total in the Ultimate Volume set, and wearing all of them in my head makes for the most even distribution of hair possible.
• Rating: 5 stars

So obviously, from the ratings on each category, you can tell that I love love love these extensions! They’re superb quality that I just can’t find any other set that matches these. I do wish the restocking period was shorter than the 3 months it took to restock the color I originally wanted. And of course, this set is really on the pricy side. But I think I definitely got what I paid for and in fact, I’ve finally ordered the Celebrity Meltdown set that I wanted to get! Here’s to hoping I get it before my May holiday trip to Manila. I’m raring to wear this set when I go back to see my boyfriend!

Overall rating: 5 stars – I got what I paid for!

Hair Secrets, you just got the full 5 stars!! ❤

Review: Bellami Hair Extensions

Hi everyone! I’m back (finally!) Sorry for disappearing. I really got carried away with the rest of my life (mainly work D:) but I’m back again, and hey, this time, I even have a video review!

So, as you can probably tell from this review, my current craze is clip-in hair extensions! I live these stuff! It’s like instant long hair in a snap!

My first review is on one of the brands that I feel has a really good internet presence: Bellami Hair Extensions! There isn’t a ton of reviews on this brand on Youtube or elsewhere yet, but there’s lots of pictures floating around on Instagram and Facebook, so for the opening of my new Youtube channel, Jillie Girl, I thought this was an awesome place to start!

On the video, I talk mainly about what I liked and didn’t like about the hair, but this blog entry will be extremely long-winded as I try to cram in as much other stuff I thought worth mentioning as I can. Also, I have a structure for my extensions reviews, so hopefully, that makes info gathering for you, prospective extensions buyers, easier.

What’s available?

Bellami offers 2 different types of human hair remy extensions:

1. The Bellissima set is 220grams, 22 inches and costs $199.99
2. The Bambina set is 160grams, 20 inches and costs $159.99

Site quality and ordering process

• I think Bellami has this perfectly down to pat: fantastic model photos of the hair, a clean website that’s easy to manage and has a good amount of info on the products.
• The customer service for Bellami is also unmatched. The owner, Nikki, is friendly and extremely prompt at answering emails! We exchanged quite a bit of mails in my first order because I wanted expedited shipping to I could take my extensions with me when I go on vacation. Turns out that they still wouldn’t be able to make it, but I so appreciate the effort Nikki took to help me out.
• For ordering, there’s 2 weights and lengths available for purchase:
  1. Bellissima 220g 22″
  2. Bambina 160g 20″
• There are 10 colors available, and the browns get sold out pretty quickly. But the shop appears to be restocking pretty fast. Once a shade/length gets sold out, it gets restocked within a month of getting sold out.
• Rating: 5 stars

Package Delivery

• Shipping is a $5 flat rate to anywhere in the world and I think that’s fantastically good!
• It took 2 weeks to ship from Canada to Singapore – perfectly ok shipping period for me, since except for US shipping, everything else does take about that time to reach my corner in the sun.
• Rating: 5 stars

Hair Packaging

• Hair is packaged in the 2-flap plastic packaging, with a small compartment for a tester strip, and the rest of the hair sealed in the larger compartment.
• I don’t like that 2-flap thing, because I have to twist the hair up in a bunch to get them back into the large compartment, but I think the tester strip is wonderful. Not all companies provide that, and I really appreciate having a tester strip to check the color out.
• Rating: 4 stars

Hair Quality

• Color: My first order, #2 Dark Brown is a perfect match. My 2nd order, #4 Chocolate Brown, has a slightly warmer undertone than my hair, but I like the color better because it’s so rich and yummy-looking!
• Hair is super soft and silky and doesn’t tangle a lot, even though I’ve worn it for really long hours (like 12-15 hours) at work.
• The hair has a silicone coating that disappears the first time you use hot tools (or over a few wears if you didn’t use hot tools). I am not saying it’s a bad thing, since none of the stuff melted into my curling iron. Just saying not to expect your hair to be as shiny as the first time you took it out of the packaging.
• The hair is cut with so-called “Natural” ends, which means they’re wispy and really kinda straggly and thin. I don’t like that because I have long hair with a blunt cut. You could see exactly where my hair ended and only the extension hair was left, unless I curled the hair. I wouldn’t have minded so much but the 22″ extensions was ridiculously thin at the ends. However, the 20″ set was perfect. Managed to use it with straight hair and it looked fantastic.
• The hair also didn’t hold a curl very well. I curled my 22″ set with a 19cm curling iron barrel. The curls unraveled after about 6 hours, and looked frizzy when they unraveled. It might be the humidity here in tropical Singapore, though. I may also have overdone the hairspray, which magnetized the humidity all the more.
• Rating: 3 Stars

Clip & Weft Quality

• There are 10 wefts in total. I think each piece is double-wefted for the 220g set. This means excellent coverage!
• Each weft also has a kinda lace backing onto which the clips were sewed. I love that! Makes the extensions flat and flush against the back of my head.
• Clips are sewn both on top and on the sides, so the weft doesn’t flip flop when the hair gets tugged.
• Clips used are small and snap in place perfectly well. Bellami has my favorite clip type!
• Funnily enough, that lace backing is also the weft’s downfall: there were a number of stray strands from the machine wefting. There were some darker color threads, like dark red and dark blue. That was ok. Those just affect the hair’s ability to curl. But I found 2 strands of yellow thread. They stuck out really badly! Fortunately,  found them and snipped them away before I first put on the extensions.
• There were little tufts of hair that would fall out when I brush the hair! OMG I think that’s awful!
• Rating: 3.5 stars

Wearing my Bellami’s

There are so many points for consideration, but I think the wispy ends and the stray threads were kinda annoying. I do think the 20″ set is gorgeous! But the 22″ didn’t suit me well, and I think it’s too pricy for bad stitching and that little tufts of hair falling out is terrible. If I only bought the 20″ set, I would give this 4 stars. But since there were a good number of things I didn’t like about the 22″, this gets:

Overall rating: 3.5 stars – Could be better

I won’t be repurchasing the 22″ set for sure. The overly wispy ends made me feel like I was wearing 140g instead of 220g of hair. But I may still be back for another 20″ set 🙂

Review: Jewelove No. 5 Lashes

Hi everyone! So, I decided to come back real fast to try to review each of the eyelash sets I purchased from Zalora and Sasa before I forget my promise 🙂

The first set I tried was actually Dolly Wink, but I wanted to give that set another try some other time because the first time I put it on, the lash band poked at my left eye quite badly. I don’t know if it was because the lashes were not all that good or if I’m a moron who doesn’t know how to not hurt myself.

Anyway, I decided to review Jewelove No. 5, and I promise today’s post is going to be a real review, and not my usual half-assed commentary about how awesome I think everything is.

This is what the packaging looks like, and it’s my very favorite!

Isn’t it pretty? I’m always drawn to the Jewelove eyelashes on the gyaru makeup display rack at Watsons because of of the pretty floral packaging. Just look at that pretty box and compare it to the bland-looking packaging that the current run of Dolly Winks, and more specially, the Ardell lashes, which have boring black packaging. I’m just really a sucker for florals, I guess.

I don’t have a any translation for the packaging, which is in Japanese, but I do recall the that the description on the Watsons packages said these are “Natural Soft and Fluffy” or something like that. And I must say, that is just spot on! It’s still a little on the long side if looked at sideways, but it’s so beautiful and natural nevertheless!

Up close and worn.

I love that pretty flare on the outer corner, and yet it looks so natural at parts where, really, eyelashes should be both short and sparse (inner corners).

Just pulls the look together so beautifully!

I went with a really natural eye look with these lashes and I think they just work so well for work.

My room is an awful mess in the morning, and my hair is flat every single workday -_-;;

I think I’ve also mentioned before that one of the things I really like about false lashes is how they retain the curve at the band after use and reuse. The Eyemazing lashes that I got were like this and Jewelove was the same, thought not to the same extent as the Eyemazing ones.

In sum:

• Look: 5/5 – this is just perfect: fits the width of my eyelids just right, band isn’t too long, lash hairs are perfectly flared outward. Lash hairs are matte so none of that plastic-y look from cheap lashes.
• Comfort: 5/5 – Besides Ardell, this is the first pair I’ve worn that didn’t bite into my skin.
• Reusability: 4/5 – I find some hairs get slightly displaced when cleaning.
• Packaging: 3/5 – I love that pretty floral box but I can’t stand that disgusting glue that these eyelash manufacturers use to stick the lashes to the box! WTF it’s so chunky and sticky and gross and so difficult to remove! I do like the fact that each pair is individually boxed in separate plastic compartments, so if I didn’t have a lash case, I could just carry the compartment in my makeup bag in case I wanna take the lashes off.
• Price Point: 2/5 – If you buy this retail at brick and mortar stores in Singapore, it’s $22.90, and for 2 pairs, that’s a little steep, considering you can buy 3 pairs for $3 (price point of my Fashion Electricity practice lashes). I know the quality is just different, but for $11.45 per pair, I just think it’s atrocious. Best to buy this online from a retailer like Sasa. I got mine for $13.10 from there.

Overall Rating: 19/25

I don’t think that’s bad at all, considering I only had good things to say about this pair 🙂 Having said that, even if I just find this so pretty, if Sasa never sold this pair again, I would probably never repurchase because it’s just too expensive here in Singapore.

Ciao, folks! off to watch my Law and Order reruns!