Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Sponsored Review: The Five Wits Wigs - Lily Vanilla Diamond Sparkle (Part 2)

Hey everyone! I'm back with Part 2 of my review of the Lily Vanilla Diamond Sparkle wig from The Five Wits Wigs (you can read Part 1 here). To quickly recap, I was sponsored this wig from  The Five Wits for my Eli Ayase cosplay that I will be starting on soon. This part will discuss fit, quality, looks, etc. Please note that all photos do not have any filters which could change the color of the wig, and the wig has not been styled beyond a comb through for neatness (this is the wig straight out of the bag). So, let's begin!



As I said in Part 1, this is advertised as a very long wig, and that it is. On me, and I'm 5'0", it goes down to about my waistline. It's not extremely thick, but not thin either - I'd put it somewhere in the middle. 



This is the longest wig I've ever had, and like I said I did no styling to this other than a comb through with my fingers. The strands to get a little clingy/fly away when pulled away from the wig (which you can see on my shoulders a bit) but this is something to be expected with any super long wig. The texture of the wig is not very silky - it's more like real hair - so this does help with it not becoming a tangled mess really easily despite the fly away strands. You can also control this with hair spray or other products. I won't be doing much of any styling on this since it's already basically in the style I need, but it seems like it would lend itself to easy styling. 


Here's a look at the top of the wig (I brushed the bangs to the side with my fingers). It's not a skin-top wig, and like I said it's not extremely thick, so depending on styling or way the hair falls you may see the mesh of the wig cap and wefts at the top. Not a big issue, but something you may want to keep in mind especially if you're planning on doing a lot of styling. 

Overall, I really like this wig for the quality and the style!

Detailed Quality: 10/10

For reference, my head measurement is 22.5'' and I have lots of thick curly hair. As many wigs are, this one is a little tight on me, and I did not fasten the straps on the cap. Not blatantly uncomfortable, but I think this will be a wig that I will not be able to wear a wig cap with and will instead braid my hair and pin up because I don't think I could wear this for an entire day at a con without a headache. However, this is something I have to do with most wigs because of my hair plus the combination of wig cap and wig can give me a bad headache so I'm not really surprised. Here's what The Five Wits says on their site regarding sizing: 

"They are one size fits most. There are adjustable straps at the back of all the wigs to make them fit on bigger or smaller heads, and the cap is pretty stretchy. We test them on a model with a 23″ head circumference and waist-length (but thin) hair. If your head is quite large or you have a lot of thick hair we suggest completely unfastening the adjustable straps for the largest possible size"

Despite being very long, it isn't heavy, and doesn't drag your head back from the weight. Here's what the inside looks like (you can see the straps on the sides):


The wig is well-constructed, with wefts sewn very neatly in. The quality shows!

As far as fit, the only reason I don't give this wig a full 10/10 is because it is a little tight when I tried it on with my hair in a wig cap, and I know this would lead to a headache after a few hours. However, if you have thinner hair or thick hair and pin it up, it should be just fine. 

Fit: 9/10

Lastly, the wig came with a tag with instructions on how to care for and style it, which is great! I suggest keeping it somewhere handy - you never know when you may need it. 

 

All-in-all, I think this wig is of really nice quality! It retails for $40.00, and I definitely think it is worth the price! Especially with long wigs, you really don't want to get a cheap wig because it WILL tangle horrifically. This wig gives you great quality for less than more expensive long wigs which can retail into the hundreds. 

Money's Worth: 10/10

Rating Wrap-Up

To wrap up this review, here's my ratings of this wig and The Five Wits from both Part 1 and Part 2 in one place. I also want to mention that while I was sponsored this wig for free by The Five Wits, these are my honest reviews and evaluations (i.e. they didn't give me a free wig in exchange that I only say nice things). 

Customer Service: 10/10
Shipping and Packaging: 10/10
True to Advertised Color: 10/10
True to Advertised Style: 10/10
Initial Quality/First Glance: 10/10
Detailed Quality: 10/10 
Fit: 9/10
Money's Worth: 10/10

So that ends Part 2, and the quality-portion of this wig review. I will be posting Part 3 in a few months (likely April) when I shoot my Eli Ayase cosplay and I will talk about impressions of wearing this wig for a long period of time, styling experiences, and fit to character. Overall, I highly recommend The Five Wits - they have both quality products and great customer service! I actually ordered another wig from them during their Black Friday Weekend Free Shipping special for my Frank n Furter cosplay! 



(My shirt is from Nineteen Sixty Three Clothing) 

Thanks!

- Birdie 💚

Monday, November 6, 2017

Sponsored Review: The Five Wits Wigs: Lily Vanilla Diamond Sparkle (Part 1)

Hi everyone! Recently, The Five Wits Wigs graciously provided me with a sponsored wig of my choice from their shop in return for a return (Thanks, The Five Wits! I appreciate it!) I have received the wig, and will be writing my detailed review of this wig on here and on my Facebook page. I will be writing this review in several parts - I'll be starting today with my review of the shipping, packaging, and first impressions. Part 2 will be quality, fit, size, etc. Part 3 will be my final reviews once I have completed the costume I plan to use this wig for. So, let's begin with Part 1!

The Company: The Five Wits Wigs



First off, The Five Wits Wigs is a high-quality wig company based in the USA. They travel around to conventions, and you may have seen their wig booth before in your local Artist's Alley (I first found them at Anime Boston 2017). Here's what their About section on their site says: 

"The Five Wits is a geeky traveling business belonging to Ruth and friends. Maybe you met us at one of our many conventions, or maybe you stumbled across us on the Internet. However you got here, welcome! We’re artists, costumers, writers, and geeks of many fandoms. If any of this sounds familiar, you’ll feel right at home.We also run a site for our art and writing called The Five Wits Press, and our non-wig sales are made on our network site, The Five Wits."

Be sure to check out their site, they have an endless amount of wigs to choose from!

In my correspondence with them, I talked to Jessica and Birdy. I wanted to give them specifically a shout out for the wonderful customer service! You were both great to talk to!

Customer Service Rating: 10/10

First Glance: Lily Vanilla Diamond Sparkle

For my review, they requested that I choose 3 wigs, so that I had backup options in case my first choices were out of stock or unavailable. I was lucky and was able to get my first choice! The wig I chose is called Lily Vanilla Diamond Sparkle. Here's what it looks like on their website listing: 


And here is the description from their website listing: 

"This silky platinum blond wig has blunt cut bangs and luxurious length. This heat resistant wig is great alongside many different skin tones, and works for a lot of different characters. It’s easy to style, to set angle, and to make look amazing."

I chose this wig for my Anime Boston 2018 "Big Build:" Eli Ayase's Ball Gown from Love Live! School Idol Project. 


Shipping and Packaging

In my correspondence with Jessica, the wig was shipped using Priority 2-Day Mail on November 1 (Wednesday), and I received it on November 3 (Friday). It came from their site in Oklahoma to me in New England. The shipping was really fast, and the package came in great condition with no tears or rips. Now, I am also in the US, so I can't attest to the timeline to receive international orders. 



The wig came carefully packaged with a net and in a plastic bag. 


It's a very long wig, and in my past experience wrong or careless packaging can result in long wigs arriving tangled and gnarled. This wig arrived in perfect condition, with no knots or tangles! Obviously, I did have to run my fingers through it to straighten it out as it has been curled up for a while, but that is to be expected with any wig. 

Shipping and Packaging Review: 10/10

First Impressions

Here's the wig when I first took it out of its bag: 


For color, it was very true to the photos on the website (for what it's worth, all my photos were taken indoors and not in natural lighting). Something I did want to note was something that Jessica actually mentioned to me in her email. This wig is a platinum blonde/gold color (don't think platinum in the sense of, say Draco Malfoy 😆). Jessica mentioned that Eli Ayase's hair from screen shots is more yellow blonde. I do want to shout out that I appreciate the attentiveness of The Five Wits team, in that they took the time to look up the character to make sure I got exactly what I wanted (see my customer service review a few paragraphs up 😀). Personally, I chose this color because I wanted a more realistic tone for Eli. I feel like that REALLY yellow color looks great in the anime, but would look really fake in real life, so I chose this blonde instead. So, if you want a more true-to-life tone for Eli, this is a great color, but if you want that banana-yellow anime color, this isn't the wig for you. But like I said, this wig is definitely the color it is advertised as, and is just what I had in mind. 

True to Advertised Color: 10/10

This wig is indeed luxuriously long, as the website said. I'll talk more about this when I do my Part 2 review when I try the wig on and discuss fit and such. It has well-defined bangs as advertised, and it's beautifully even in terms of weft lengths (I've gotten wigs in the past where the length was not consistent throughout the wig, and it gave a very cheap, low-quality look). 

True to Advertised Style: 10/10 

The quality is very nice. It doesn't have the shine that some lower-quality synthetic wigs have that give them a very artificial look. The texture is quite nice as well - again very similar to real hair in that it's not overly-silky (which can lead to tangling). The wig base is very nice as well. It feels durable and of good quality without being bulky or leading to that "wig head" look (I'm sure you know what I mean). 

Initial Quality: 10/10

Well, that's all I have for now! Stay tuned for Part 2 over the next week where I will discuss fit, length, and go into more details once I actually try the wig on and post some photos for you to see it "in action."

Thanks again to The Five Wits Wigs! It's been a pleasure doing business with you!

- Birdie 💚