It's pretty impressive how cheap some pyjama sets are, because you're getting two items for one. I swear by pyjama sets, especially your classic flannelette set, so I had loads of fun seeing how cheap I could get them.

Here are the best PJ sets I found for under $20:

My laptop screen has been broken for a while and I finally got around to getting a quote from Samsung's repair centre as to the cost of getting a replacement LCD screen. They said it would be $280, which is outrageous.

They can charge that much because people buying repairs want their item fixed ASAP, and tend to just throw money at the problem, putting speed and reliability before price. I'm in that camp. I was perfectly willing to pay them whatever they wanted, so I could finally be reunited with my Sims 3 family.

At the advice of my super geek brother, I had a peak around the web to see if I could find a cheaper alternative. I found my way to aliexpress, which I've never used for electronics before, and they had the absolute cheapest options. There were multiple stores offering the exact same LCD screen that Samsung would've sent me, but for $100 instead of almost $300!

The moral of this story is that stuff is cheaper online. Groundbreaking, I know.

If you do decide to buy replacement parts online, be SUPER careful. It's really easy to accidentally order the wrong part! I have a Samsung NP300V5A-S04NZ, and I almost bought a screen that would fit an NP300 laptop, but not the exact one I have. Check all the numbers and letters! Make sure the photo looks right.

Also, if you don't have a tech genius sibling, you can order the part yourself and use a PC fixing service to replace it, if you're not confident.

Aliexpress is pretty well known for doing dupe Black Milk leggings. If you want to have a look at some of the best ones on there, check out this Gems post. As with most Gems posts, we can't account for the quality of each product. But I have gotten my hands on two pairs of leggings, so I can give an overview of what to expect from these lower quality, cheap knockoffs.


I bought these excellent nautical tights, and my friend bought these skyline ones. We're both happy with the look of them. Hers are slightly more pixelated than mine, but it's because the image is a lot denser and more detailed, so it matters less. I was really impressed, actually, at the crispness of mine! They're very nice!




The reason I have my friend's tights in my possession is I refused to let her wear them until I fixed the crotch for her. I got my leggings before her and after only a day of wearing them, there was a hole in the crotch! She wore hers for about an hour after receiving them and they also were starting to come apart at the seam, so I think it's a problem the majority of these types of tights will have.

Crotch hole alert!

You can see where the stitching has come undone.

If you buy a pair of these leggings, I highly recommend reinforcing the crotch before wearing them. It only takes a couple of lines of stitching on the sewing machine. Since it's a very stretchy fabric, you'll want to use a zigzag, or preferably an overlock stitch, like the one my grandma's sewing machine can do (see photo below). Go further than the problem area, just for extra reinforcement.


The weak crotch problem wasn't an issue for me, because I'm an avid sewer, and it really is the only flaw I've had so far. I love my tights and I'm really glad I didn't buy the originals, because I will certainly not get $100 worth of use out of them. I only have, like, one top I can wear these with, they don't go with very much! Once I fixed the crotch (how many times can I write 'crotch' in one post...), they were totally worth over the $7 (USD) I paid for them.

Also, note that neither of us bought Free size. A lot of these leggings only come in one size, which might seem reasonable because they're very stretchy, but it's best to look for variations that have multiple sizes.

Ratings

Beige Nautical Tights
Product Quality: 3/5
Accuracy of Description: 5/5
Similarity to Original: 3/5 (the brown is slightly more purple, the images bigger and the fabric is cheaper. But pretty good still.)

NYC Skyline Tights
Product Quality: 3/5
Accuracy of Description: 5/5
Similarity to Original: 3/5 (the image is much more pixelated and the fabric is cheaper, but also still pretty good.)

UPDATE 3/8/14: Prone to shrinking dramatically in the washing machine!

Guys, I totes read an academic paper and I think you'll be interested in what it's about.

"Omg, what is this, what sane person actually reads academic papers?!" We're called students.

I get forced into reading a lot of marketing papers for my course, and they are very tedious most of the time, but sometimes they are absolute gold. I swear 90% of a marketing degree is consumer tips, backed up by great research.

This study* is an example of some knowledge that is actually very useful to have up your sleeve. It basically provides solid evidence that people will treat you better if you're wearing a luxury brand logo.

"A person who displays a luxury-brand label, not an ordinary label, is indeed perceived as wealthier and receives higher status ratings than a person who does not display a label, as predicted by notions of conspicuous consumption." *

Conspicuous consumption means that a good or service is used by you in front of an 'audience'. Like, lots of people are going to see you driving your car, but a lot less people will see you using your shampoo. We tend to focus more on the things we consume in public, because of associations and branding and all that stuff.

Note the blu tack in the reflection...

I'm a huge fan of psychology and I love employing little Life Tricks. For example, the more you show your palms, the most trustworthy you're perceived as being (fun fact). But I don't have any luxury brand items, unless you count a pretty sweet colour screen Casio calculator or a Samsung Galaxy from three generations ago. Oh, I have prescription Ray Ban glasses, but I think they're pretty embarrassing these days. Thanks, hipsters.

Enter Aliexpress.

Designer knock offs are super common, I don't need to tell you that. I've seen more fake Louis Vuitton wallets than wallets of any other sort. It's very frowned upon to buy fake, because that's kinda a sign that you're trying too hard and being fake yourself. However, we don't really feel the same way about dupes from less expensive brands or dupes that don't have a logo on them. I have a fake Lazy Oaf shirt and a lot of the stuff I own is 'inspired' by designer brands via trickle-down trends or plain ol' copying.

I guess the difference is aesthetics vs brand equity (value). I have a pair or three of fake Mise En Dior earrings, that I bought before J-Law and Rihanna started wearing the real things and alerting me to Dior's originals. I bought them for sheer aesthetic reasons. Most of Dior's earrings are, to be honest, kinda awful, but seem pretty because they have the brand name attached to them. Buying a fake pair of this variety would be for brand equity reasons and that's a little shady.


HOWEVER, I'm all for shady, in small doses! I've already ordered myself a pair of fake Chanel earrings (hopefully more convincing than my DIY ones, pictured above), and I intend to use them for practical reasons. The study found that wearing luxury brands helps in job interviews and collected donations, and other cases. It's a very small investment for some pretty great benefits.

"Seven laboratory and field experiments supported the prediction that people treat a person who displays a luxury brand more favourably than a person who does not or, more accurately, than the same person when he or she wears identical clothing without a brand label." *

Sure, the paper does make it clear that the reason luxury brands make people seem higher status is because they seem like they have more wealth, which is totally offset by having a fake pair of earrings. But who is really going to ask "Are those real?" And if some punk does ask you that, I give you permission to lie.

I'm recommending that everyone should have a convincing, logo emblazoned, piece of fake designer wear, to pull out when you feel like you might need a bit of a boost. Earrings are really great, because they're usually just logos and they're small enough to not be noticeably fake. Also, I think a pair of Chanel, etc, earrings is something a lot of girls would have, even if the rest of their outfit was from Glassons or TopShop. It's something a wealthy grandmother would pass down, or a special birthday present from some very nice parents.

Below, you shall find a wonderful collection of the best fake earrings I found. Bar the ones I made, of course. I went for ones that were very simple and looked expensive, because they're more convincing. If you want to search for more over on Aliexpress or eBay, searching with the brand name won't get you far. Use "brand earrings" or "logo earrings", and scroll through some pages.





*Nelissen, Rob and Marijn HC Meijers (2011), "Social Benefits of Luxury Brands as Costly Signals of Wealth and Status," Evolution and Human Behavior, 32 (5), 343-55.


Further Quotes from Nelissen & Marijn, 2010:

"Participants in the brand-label condition found the applicant more suitable for the job... and also suggested he should earn more than the applicant in the no-label condition."

"Participants in the brand-label condition complied with the request on 52.2% of the occasions, compared to 13.6% in the no-label condition."

"Average donations were higher in the brand-label condition than in the no-label condition."

"Transfers in the luxury-label condition exceeded those in the ordinary-label condition."

Fun .gif Google made for me...

Since Rachel reviewed her Aliexpress watch last week, I thought I should do my one this week. Incidentally, if our watches got into a fight, this is how that would go down (any excuse to post a Star Wars clip I shall take):


BOOM.

There are loads of cool watches on Aliexpress, but I like 'em with numbers, so my choices were limited. I have a hard enough time using analog clocks with digits, so the ones without just make my brain hurt.


It cost me $6US (here's the product page), which is exactly how much I am willing to pay for a novelty watch, unless it's of the calculator variety. I haven't worn it much, except to my exams, I'll admit, because I don't really wear bracelets or watches much.

It's well made, with a nice sturdy strap and so far the time has remained accurate. A problem with cheap watches is that they run a little too fast or slow, so you have to keep resetting them, but I haven't had that problem yet. It does have a loud tick, which I don't mind, but I know that drives some people nuts.

Here are some more photos:

'Genuine Leather'

Star Wars 4 lyf

Very reflective!

I recommend this watch to fellow Star Wars fans and it'd actually make an awesome gift for your nerdy pals.

Ratings
Product Quality: 4/5
Accuracy of Description: 5/5
Similarity to Original: N/A

Happy shopping, and may the force be with you!

Since I got some permanent shoulder decoration, I've been all over the interweb trying to find some tops that will show it off a bit. I don't have a lot of spaghetti straps, halter necks, tank tops, camisoles, etc. That's going to change!

Since camisoles (that's the best word to describe them, right?) are pretty flimsy and light, it's not really something worth shelling out for. I wore a camisole to an Arctic Monkeys concert last month and it barely survived! Glad I paid under $10 for that one!

There are some uber cute tops over on Aliexpress, here are my top finds! I basically included everything that has straps and is a top. It's not a very specific collection...

Play me in, Macklemore!

Seriously, opshops are the BEST for pattern pieces.

NB: The store in the photos is a really great vintage shop in Martinborough called Gertrude Snyder Vintage Treasure. It's an old house converted into a shop, such a cool idea! I bonded with the owner over our shared appreciation of buttons, Etsy and her lovely wheaten terrier, Bella, so thought I should give her a plug! They also have an online store, if you're not planning to be in the area.

So, these aren't exactly the same necklace, but still! Buy 1x pizza necklace from the Nylon shop or 20x pizza necklaces for a lower price?

This necklace has been very popular since I clipped it to Polyvore, btw. I guess it's pretty cool? It's much cooler as a friendship necklace, I think. If you have a group of six besties.

Because how much is a pizza necklace really worth to you? Keeping in mind that it is not actually edible (sad face).

I featured this world map watch on my own blog back in April, when it first arrived. Since then, I've worn it a few times and have received many a compliment on its unique design. The stock photo is quite true to the real deal, the print on the watch face itself is slightly blurrier and the strap feels flimsier than the photo would suggest.

Similarity to Original: 3/5 I can't tell if it's just a coincidence that it looks very similar to the Around the World watch from Urban Outfitters

- Devendra Banhart, Long-Haired Child -

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

 I've still got a couple of things to fix up, but I'm happy with it. You can't tell from the photos, but shaking around my hair like that makes my hair really knotty when it's long, so I'm glad it's shorter now. I live in Wellington, which is super windy year-round, and having practical hair that looks good after it's been tossed around a bit is very useful.

Here are my top tips for cutting hair: