Faking the Fringe

You probably didn't know that before there was a Quaintrelle Life blog, there was a Quaintrelle Life site! Blogs can be tough to brows when you are looking for a specific tutorial, how to, or feature, so I've been collecting and writing more in depth pieces over at quaintrellelife.com. Though left untouched for a while, a few months ago I gave the site a facelift ready to start updating again, and today the first new tutorial went up!

I have a long time love of Bettie bangs, i think they are just the right mix of retro sexy and retro cute. I don't however really have the hair to pull them off (they are always gappy and thin, yuck!)  and a also suffer greatly from commitment issues with hair (which you'll notice if you follow the link in a second...) So obviously I'm going to have to fake it if i want to enjoy the style! And fake it I do. It is possible to buy clip in bangs, but if you, like me have awkward colored hair, or are OCD about every tiny detail, then going DIY is the best option!

I made myself a set of clip in bangs in a Bettie page style, and now have a tutorial up on the QL website for anyone looking to do the same! making them is super easy to do, and because you'll have hair wefts left over, less expensive than buying a set pre-made (more tutorials for the left over hair weft to follow)

The clip ins are the secret of how I managed to get from this 1st style to the 2nd in 5 minutes instead of 5 months!

Try out the tutorial and start faking the fringe yourself!

Kanzashi Romance

I've been busy with kanzashi making the past few months, but trying not to spam up the blog too much with them. I love making the traditional geisha style kanzashi, and that's been building up into quite a collection! I also love the chance to do something a little more creative with designs as well.

I recently made up a batch inspired by vintage valentines cards and corsages for the shop perfect for valentines date outfits or valentines gifts. I made a decent name for myself back in the day making quirky kanzashi and loved trying some new things  out with these like making rose bouquets and pansies.

Also been adding little traditional mini monthly kanzashi for those interested in collecting a full calender of the flowers like me, without totally blowing the bank! 



Another thing I'm slowly working on is features on how to actually wear kanzashi since a lot of people seem to have fallen in love with them as objects over the years, but no-one seems to have much light to shed on how to use them! I started on the first steps to fixing that this week with some retro looking fashion plates featuring some of the kanzashi available in the shop worn in a 1930's inspired hair do.

Plans in the works for hairstyling tutorials to go with them too in the future. In the mean time if you are looking to buy some there are some rather nice (if I do say so myself ) traditional and retro designs in the Vivcore shop, and here are some kanzashi in action!