Friday Special: Iva Insane

Hello again sweethearts!

Today I'm gonna continue to educate you how to treat your hair the right way.
I hope this advices will make you look more beautiful, and let me see less people with unsuccessful haircolors on the streets ;)

Bleaching

I've got a lot of questions how do I keep my hair in good condition, while bleaching it.
Read this blogpost and you will find out what's the underwork for having a beautiful and "healthy" hair (as healthy as you can get your hair when you bleaches it)

My natural haircolor is copperblond/strawberryblonde, so my natural haircolor is quite light but has a LOT of red pigments in :(
Remember that it's much harder to bleach a hair that have been coloured by artificial pigments from haircolor, than bleaching a natural hair.

I only bleach my roots everytime I start to see that ugly, copperblond, little line at my scalp. I use professional products, so I'm sorry that I can't give you any advice what kind of bleach you shall buy at the store.
I mix the bleaching-powder with the activator who has a strenght of "7 vol" or in Swedish terms "2 %"
Sometimes I add a bit of 20 vol/ 6% activator to my mix (Lower number= more healty to your hair, but the bleach need to stay in a little bit longer to get a nice result)
I'm very particular to not "overlap" the bleaching-product at the hair that already have been bleached before.
If you do that, your hair will sooner or later just be a memory laying on the floor.

When you've applyed all the bleach at the roots it's time to let it stays in for a while.
It's very different from haircolor to haircolor how long the bleaching-product must be in, and there's not any given time when it's time for you to rinse out the bleach.
Take your fingers and scratch away some of the lightning-product to see if your hair is white or
yellow as a chicken. If it's still yellow....let it be in for some more minutes. (I don't want to see yellow
chickens running around in town, ok?!)

The Swedish artist Robyn has a lovely blond color. Come on, go whiteblond don't be a chicken ;)

After you've rinsed out all bleach, make sure you treat your hair with good products (bought from a hairdresser-salon!)

You can use a toner to get more white/gray impression to your hair ect.
For me it use to be enough to just use the silver shampoo and silver treatment from Lakmé.

Using semipermanent haircolor

If you like to have a nice, extreme hair color there's a lot of brands that makes semipermanent hair colors.
I've used directions and Stargazer, but I prefer Directions as I think the package is a lot better!
You can mix all the colors together, and you can add conditioner or treatment to the color to get i lighter.
My blue hair has a really simple reciepe- a few teaspoons of Directions turquoise and then a looooot of conditioner.
I think that the haircolor turned out better, after washing my hair once, and got that "lightblue/turquise" color.

If you like to get rid of the semipermanent-haircolor you have coloured your hair with, my tips for you would be to shampoo your hair many,many times (I know that some people thinks that dandruff-shampoo is more effective when you want to wash out the color) If it feels like you still have a lot of unwanted color left in your hair, you can try to make a mix between lukewarm water, shampoo and some bleaching powder to wash your hair with.

If you already have a very damaged hair or you're not 100% sure how to bleach it. Please, go to a good hairdresser who can help you with it! *pointing at myself and force everyone to get tickets to Sweden to be treated by the best hairdresser ever!* ;)

If you curious about what I'm doing the rest of the week. Visit my blog http://www.ivainsane.wordpress.com/
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Hi, Adora here!
Thank you, sweet little sister for this enlightening entry. Much appriciated as usual :)

At my (still not 100% working) web site I have a list of how to mix all the haircolors I've had and there used to be pictures attached. The pictures will be put up again, I'm just falling behind.

I have brown hair originally.
When I bleach, I bleach the "common people" way; I buy Swedens most bought home bleaching : Jane Hellen: Ultra Blonde that lightens 6 nuances. I've used the same since 1984.

My natural hair color seen at the top (I don't color when pregnant).

At this picture I have kind of a more natural blond.

Here's my bleaching procedure:

(I'm working on this right now...)

Question time: My name?

Question:
Nicole Bogaard asked at Facebook:

Hey Adora! How are you? I have a question...how did you come up with the name Adora Batbrat? -xXx-

My very first video. Presenting the Adora BatBrat to the world.
Pink hair is supercute!

Answer:
I already had the name BatBrat registered for my company since many years, and that name just emerged in a dream!
I woke up shouting -I will call my company BatBrat!
My husband was all like; What?! Who?!

Many years later I already had a "famous" swedish name "Slynan" (a version of Bitch) but that didn't work well internationally, so I had to make a new one.
Having BatBrat in the name was acctually not what I planned for.

I wanted a name that started with the same letter I have in my natural name; "A".
I also wanted a name that could be recogniced as goth, so when I figured Adora out I needed something cool, and I already loved the name BatBrat so, what the hell, I re-used it! And Adora BatBrat was born.
Personally I love it <3 It feels very "me".
 
And I might just throw in the answer to my birth name as a bonus:
My birth name is Harriet Ann-Sophie Wimmerstedt.
I didn't take my husbands last name when we married, and I forbid him to change to mine just because I reason I fell in love with Ronny Gärdh and not Ronny Wimmerstedt.
Romantic, right :)

Aww, honey!

My husband must be the cutest!
This Saturday we were in a shop and I looked a bit extra at a quilt that would fit perfectly in Fairlight's room, from Au Maison, so it was a bit pricy (at least in Sweden they are). I really wanted it, but since I'm mostly an IKEA girl I thought this was way over budget. I'm so cheap!

But can you believe! He acted very non-man and acctually picked up om my long glance  at that quilt and the first day the store opened he went in an bought it for me (well, Fairlight's room).
You know stuff like this makes girls all bubbly and happy and "thankful" ;)

So, for you it might look ridiculous, like an old woman quilt, but I have to defend myself by saying it's very "it" in Sweden right now - and we all know I'm the typical it-girl next door *tihii tihiii*
It will look perfect on Fairlight's jumping spring mattress.
Yeah, that's a stereotype UCG; buying overpriced, trendy quilts for the kids to jump on.

A very romantic gesture from my love <3 One might say I have trained him well, or he just want's to do anything to make his princess happier. Either way works with me.

I'M GOING TO LONDON!!!

Everything is booked, checked and sealed in a black bodybag and put in a safety vault under my coffin.
The two Wimmerstedt sisters will swoop in on London like two vodkas on ale and packed with panic chips in every pocket possible! (the truth is we'll only eat fruit and drink water (me) and coffee (sister)).

And - OH, OHHH!!! I just remembered - we can eat NERO's Black and White Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake again!!!! We are totally hooked on those. It was the last thing we bought in London before going home last year. I can't wait!!!

London October 2010

I'm cute

I have the funniest friends ever!
One male friend, Mr N, once said to me:
"I don't wanna say you are stupid, you just have bad luck when you are thinking."
Hahahaa!!! I just love things like this! And it's SO true ;)

One other fun thing is people often tells me I look so darn good on pictures.
I ususally respond; "Yeah, I'm very photogenic, but I'd rather look good live instead of on pictures ;)"
But it's only half true because I either look shamefully beautiful or crazy ugly on pictures, no inbetween.

And in order to show off I'll put up one of the X-tra-x modelling shots that I find very pretty.

My Music Mondays: Depeche Mode

Every summer I packed my bags and moved out to grandma Birgit and grandpa Harry's summer place where I lived the whole summer.
I had my very own set of summer friends and I was always happy to see them.
This might seem so far away from who I am today, but as a kid and pre-teens, I loved to be out in the nature by my self or go fishing fresh bass for breakfast at 04.00 AM with grandpa.

One day I was hanging out with my funny friend "Ulle", it was the summer break between 6'th Degree and 7'th Degree, I was 11, and as we sat in her room taking about far out stuff she put a cassette on.
Immediately I lost track of everything and felt like I was having an outer body experience and I amost got light headed.

"-What's this? WHAT'S THIS, ULLE!!!
-It's some tape I got from a guy I'm in love with.
- But, what is this pure and strange sound?
-They are called Depeche Mode.
Depeche Mode, I mumbled to myself."
That second my life changed forever.
I've found home.


I went back and got a cassette and we sat down in her bed as she copied the two sides with the records: Some Great Reward and Construction Time Again from my new House Gods; Depeche Mode.
I listened to my cassette every day. By this time I knew nothing about the subculture followed with this clean sound, I just tripped and fall by the music.

Still to this day nothing makes me feel better then really good electro music (love excluded).
I have Ulle to thank for finding this life. Thank's, Ulle!
Depeche Mode had such a great impact of my life so it will be next My Music Mondays as well

Where's my poison?!

I've been so sad lately :(
I'm caught in a Catch 22.
I'm so sad I want to drink poison, and the reason for me being sad is I lost my Poison Necklace... see the complication?
But yesterday was a wondeful day when I all of a sudden found my lovely necklace (halsband, for those who wanna learn Swedish)!! It had moved in with one of my rosarys!

Picture borrowed from BB Catsy's Allison. Price for this lovely thing: $10.00

I was so happy, the birds were singing and a rainbow appeared outside my window (or perhaps in my deranged mind) and I was just about to put this lovely thing on when goth depression struck!
The poison had dried, and left was just an empty poison bottle. Buuu-ahhhh-haa-huuuhhh, me so saaaaad...
Me so saaad I want to drink poison, but what the hell? There is no poison for me to drínk.
God hates me.

BB Catsy on etsy.com

M'era Luna festival 2011 - Day 1, video

I sometimes moonlight as a guardian angel, and this is my try out video we had to send in to God to be judged for the last job. I did get it, He was very pleased by my pirouette and the surprised face I pulled at the end.

UCG - what's that?

I have (too) gotten the question about what the F is UCG?
It started with some girl being a bit mad at my überpretty sister Iva Insane and then wrote: "She thinks she’s so much better than everybody else. F**king Upper class goth".

 I can never say no to a good laugh so we had a blast about us being UCG's and joked a lot about us being like the goth version of the Hilton sisters!
We have this as our standing joke now, saying we use Gucci stockings as "German stockings" (my own word for ripped stockings) and such :)

I'm not really up to date on the brawl between this girl and my sis, but I have never noticed my sister being stuck up. To me she is very humble and have a sweet persona, unlike me, who is the cold hearted bitch from hell and only thinks about me, me and me.
I think UCG was a compliment :)

Friday Special: Iva Insane

A week has already passed and today it's time for "Friday with Iva Insane" again!

I'd like to thank everybody for the great response and cute comments from last week blogpost, and I hope you will appreciate the following post as well.

This week I'm gonna tell you what types of hair products every goth-boy or girl must have in their bathroom cabinet. Because I know how much you people color, bleach, put in extensions, back-comb and torture your poor hair.

Okay, let's start!
First of all it's very important to use right kind of products for YOUR hair.
Do you have a damaged hair?
Thick and unruly?
Thin and weak?
And ask yourself "What kind of results do you want with the products you're using?"

Shampoo, conditioner and treatment

For me, it's important to use caring products that rebuilds and moisturize my hair, because I bleach it.
I always shampoo my hair at least two times to wash away the naturally grease from the scalp and the remaining styling products I've used.
Remember that you only need to use shampoo by your scalp (If you haven't used a LOT of products of course) The hairlengths will be washed while you rinse the shampoo out.

When it feels like your hair is clean (and you've got plenty of foam) it's time to start with the caring products.
Squeeze out as much water you can before using the treatment.
Start to apply the product in the lengths and pull your fingers through your hair to get the caring products in the whole hair. (Notice that you shall NOT put the treatment directly to your scalp! Then it will look like you haven't washed your hair in months ^^ )

Let the treatment be in as many minutes as the description says, and then rinse your hair ( Most of them don't need to be in more than 3 minutes).

Squeeze your hair, and pull out as much water you can once again before using your conditioner in the hairlenghts (Notice - hairlenghts) and rinse once again. If you have a very extreme, semipermanent color in your hair you can add some of the color to your conditioner and your hair color will not turn out in a sissy, washed-out way.

When your hair is clean and towel-dry it's time to use the styling products.
I use to start by apply some moroccanoil in my hairlenghts.
If I will use the blow-dryer I also add some heat-protection (It can be in spray or creme-form ect.)
If you'd like some volume to your hair, you can apply the volumizing products when you have blow-dried the hair for a while to get the best effect.

I'm a fan of the 80's crimped hair! After I've crimped all my long hair I use "Dust it" from schwarzkopf proffessional.( you can find it at your hairdresser for about 16 euro) massage the product to the roots of your hair, before you start to back-comb it.

I'll promise you to get a hair that stays in shape for at least one week if you follow my suggestions and being strictly with the back-combing! Finish your hairstyle with some hairspray- Voila!

The products I'm using:
Dust it - from schwarzkopf professional
Ritual salvation - from EVO
Silver shampoo & silver treatment from Lakmé
moroccanoil
GHD heat-protection
Helmut hairspray from EVO
Blond me shampoo, conditioner and treatment with cool tones from Schwarzkopf professional.

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Hi, Adora here.

I'm sure this post is highly appreciated by all (as by me).

Remember; my sister is not only beautiful, she is a professional hairdresser and owns her own hair salon, one of the top 3 in Gothenburg (so she's VERY good!)! You can most definite trust her judgement.

I myself wash my hair once every week, and as Iva says I schampo twice (Schwartzkopf), and always adds a bit of my Directions Hair color to the conditioner to maintain the color. I let it set for only 5-10 minutes. Rinse and style as you whish. This is also the way I mix my pastel colors I've had before (soft pink, light purple, babay blue etc.) but I then have it in for 15 minutes. The result:

Todays make up

Waking up.
WHI-HOOOOO!!! It's FRIDAY :D
Nothing makes me as happy as Fridays *I might lie a bit here, but it's all in good spirit*

The Friday look:

 Went with a fine knitted top with a square hole, some shorts to show off the new ass I got from stair running, and my wonderful heart stockings that makes me so bubbly and cuddly.
Hair is just some panic hair and is not styled at all.. I often put more time on the make up and less with hair. I think my next 30 Days Challenge should be different hairstyles! I used to be very good with that before going lazy...Lazy is not good! Not acceptable!

First - I'm VERY exited about the new feature "Friday with Iva Insane", then I'm exited because I can bring out my Friday glass and last, but not least I'm going to bake with the kids and get to wear my new heart apron (it still disturbs me I made it too long...but I'll make it work).

I'm keeping up with my 30 Days Challenge even if I'm teased by my kids EVERY single day...
-Haha, you can't go with us in the elevator, you have to run as fast as you can in the stairs because you're in a competition, and we wins every time.
I run like a crazy person, but I can never beat the elevator, and they won't let me get a head start.
One time I actually beat the elevator but that day I run too fast, one stair too much, so I still failed them to the door.
At school there are 4 more stairs and often there are slow parents and kids ahead of me running, so I wait a bit then I run the parts possible, with my kids cheering and telling everyone I'm in a competition..
And it is more fun running in stairs then using my training bike for 5-10 minutes a day.
In my head I'm playing Rocky themesong whenever on the stairs.

I've acctually did the whole running and fake boxing rutine when reaching the top of a big (well, more wide then high) stair in the middle of the city as I sang the themesong.
The people around me just smiled and secretly called the men in white coats.

Todays make up

Today I missed the alarm and didn't get up until my husband got up. Panic!!!
Had to quick fix the make up. So, it was a bit more "normal" than usual, and that's a shame since it was a parental meeting this evening.
Now everyone think I'm like normal (the green hair and the fangs didn't give me away, oh no).
I will still rule, and be a class mum and force the little kittens to do crafting. Mo-ha-ha-haaaaa!

The quick fix make up. I added a lot of glitter under the eye to be more sparkly and feel less ordinary.

For the meeting I had on a (black) puff sleeved dress with my Sonia Rykiel bow attached under my chin, lace stockings, a wide PU belt and a new pair of shoes. No picture unfortunately :( I forgot

Todays outfit

Being a bit casual, in a long sleeved t-shirt with a kitten saying "Born to be Bad".
What can I say? I like to scare people *haha*
I have leggings with spangles and over them I wear a girdle. Shoes are Demonia, with a pink star on.

M'era Luna festival 2011 - pic's by others

I'm so thankful for all the pictures sent to me by others, here are the ones I've seen so far.

Many people might not know, but me and my sister are moonlighting as Guardian Angles from time to time,

currently I'm Hanna's.

 -How did you end up dead?
-Yeah, it's such a funny story! I almost can't tell it without breaking down!

 -On my way home from a chess game I bought me a piece of Brie, and as I was thinking about the sadness that it would soon end I stumbled over a shopping cart, and by accident I didn't pick up my Brie but a Lüger..

 -..so then all of a sudden there was a gun in my hand and I didn't know what to do with it, so out of the blue I just happened to shoot myself, like this.
I could just have thrown it away, but I was so surprized!
Imagine what it would have been like if I shot myself with the cheese instead. I'd still be alive, just a bit smelly.
It's easy to be afterwise..

 -Many people think I did this just because I'm blonde, but it's not true. I did it because I was stupid.

M'era Luna festival 2011 - Day 1, part 4

We went to the joy and the jolly of the festival.
My husband was careful with his pale skin and had an umbrella to protect him.

me and my good friend Colin

 Me and band photographer friend Dani

 My lovely friend Sinja. Be amazed - she made that wonderful outfit herself!
I'm just drinking juice people. Juice!

 Ronny, Hanna, me and two chockingly beautiful girls; Mari and Linda

My pretty, pretty friend Hanna sharing some love

 This can possibly be the cutest couple ever spotted, especially the left person <3

 Me and and my sister Jenni (Iva Insane) and one of our favourite Italians; Ryan.

Saying goodbye to wonderful Hanna for the evening.

 Like a scared deer (or dear, if you whish) at X-tra-x.

 I'm looking a bit like a zombie when hooking up with the fun and sweet Monaco, head of X-tra-x.

 And to top it off, a ghostly picture of the Wimmerstedt sisters <3

I still have some pictures photographed by others from Day 1 left before entering Day 2.

My Music Mondays: Alphaville

Many times one can say I've been re-born.
One time was when I discovered electro music.

1984, I was 11 years old and was not yet allowed to wear make up
;( when my mom bought this record to herself of a german band named Alphaville. Very quickly that record decided to move to my room instead and was frequently played in my Ferguson speakers.

I remember the first time ever seeing the video for the song Forever Young, it made me feel so sad, and wonderful at the same time. This was pure. Marian Gold (real name Hartwig Schierbaum) had an incredible voice filled with teenage angst. I still hold this album "Forever Young" as one of my favourite albums of all time.

Unfortunately I never had the chance seeing them live at their prime (when they were fantastic according to friends), but just some 10 years ago I had the chance and sadly enough it was a BIG disappointment.

You heard his wonderful voice before seeing them, then a HUGE man with a slight beard emerged from the shadows. The crowd went wild.
I did not.

I was SURE this was just some phrank they played us, having some "fake" Marian standing in front as the real one was the voice I heard and that he'd appear from behind in just a second and we would all laugh. But...no. I was looking at the right person.
The voice was almost like it used to be, but they had changed every version to some kind of reggie.
I was devastated.

But only last year I had a chance of seeing them again - and am I glad I did! It was fantastic!
He was a bit druggie people said, so the tour had been filled with crazy things; him spitting at the audince, yelling at them from stage acting out and so on, but I guess he mixed his drugs right this evening because he was like a AD/HD child, jumping up and down, being very funny as humble.
The singing was great and I was REALLY happy when I left.
I doubt I will ever see them live again because I'm scared he'd fail that time and leave me with another bad memory.
Very disturbing to see such a star on drugs though.
Marian has got one of the best voices I have ever heard, and I admire him very much.
Apparently he's having a child with a swedish girl. Is it me?

M'era Luna festival 2011 - Day 1, part 3

Halfway through make up and outfit for Day 1 I just had to freak out a little and dance away in my cool slippers.

Then I had to drink some horrible drink to keep up appearances

(as you might see I tried on another bangs at first, but then I made a similar as my sister did. Apparently I looked like a manga character and they all laughed at me).

Hey camera, look at my pretty sister! Isn't she a doll?!

(White screen lenses in.)

the next drink was easier and more consensual.

Filling up the bag with alcohol, alcohol and some sunscreen.

and then we were ready to take a stroll to the festival.

(my husband really do look like a pygme between us, but he is 186 cm..)

I'm guessing there will have to be a part 4! But tomorrow is My Music Monday :)

Friday Special: Iva Insane

Hi there!
Today it's me, Jenni, the youngest one of the sisters that got the honour to write a post here in Adora's blog.

The plan is that I will write a blog-post here every Friday, and if you feel like you can't wait until next friday for next post you'll find out what I'm doing the rest of the week at : http://www.ivainsane.wordpress.com/

From now on I will switch my nickname "Cienwen Noor" to... *snaredrum*.... Iva Insane! (It's easier to remember, and a lot better, don't you think?) Actually, my middle name is "Iva", and I've always loved that so much! (Thanks mum & dad <3)

In honour of the day I want to dedicate this text to a person you may aldready know!?

She has vampire-teeths, making gorgeous cupcakes, is a great inspiration to a lot of people all over the world.... Yeah! You got it right! My sister, Adora BatBrat of course!
Adora and I have never grown up together. Partly because the difference in age, but also because we're half-sisters and just have the same dad.
My sister has always been a great source of inspiration to me, and I remember how fun and exiting it was for me as a kid to take the train to her over the weekend. She used to "force" me to listen to her kind of music, fix my hair and make up, do some shopping together with me (I was just permitted to buy black clothes of course), and eating apple-pie with vanilla ice-cream at a café were we could sit near the window and look down at the people on the streets.
When I grown a little older (and my feets no longer was to small), she let me borrow her pretty Dr. martens boots when I was there for visit. I can still remember how beautiful I felt like when I was wearing those shoes <3

She settled in as my "babysitter" when I, as a 14-year old little girl, wanted to go to electro-goth clubs to check out handsome guys with black hair and undercuts *drool*
In the summer 2007 she took me to my first music-festival ever- M'era Luna, and ever since then we've been visiting the festival every year. It's like a "sister-thing-weekend" for me!

It's Adora who is the "pushing" person when it comes to trips we want to make or parties we wanna go to. Whitout her I would probably been sitting on my chair and rotted.

I must say that Me and Adora are very close to each other and have a great sis-relationship.
I can always count on her and call her whenever i feel sad, happy, need some advice or.....whatever! <3
She'll never get mad at me (at least not so I notice it) and has a great patience!
She's one of the few persons I would sacrifice my life for, the one that can make me laugh until i burst in to tears, a wounderful mother to three sweet kids and she's so creative and arty that it makes everyone amazed!

I could make this list to a "never ending story" but I think I will stop here and finish my blog-post with:

I LOVE YOU SIS<3

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Adora here.
...I'm speachless...
My heart just bursted over with love <3
Thank you so much for your kind words, sis.
Jenni is, as you noticed, just as wonderful and pretty on the inside as she is on the outside. And that means
I'm more like a pretty shell with a nasty and wicked inside.
But Jenni and I share the same feature; Insanity, so her new name, Iva Insane, is very accurate ;)

I'm very proud to be Jenni's sister, and I love how we both are so mutual even if we didn't grow up together.
My favorite every year is to walk with her beautiful self next to me when we go to M'era Luna.
I love you too <3 <3 <3

I'm so happy she wanted to join me here, and I hope many of you are pleased to know you now can tap in to her life too :)