January 2019 Favourites

Wow. The first month of the year is already gone. I really have to think about favourites but it should be easy because this Jan was 5 years long. Let's just keep jumping into it:

Renew Perfect Colour Retouch

ZA

This is probably their most “controversial” shade. When it just launched it was the colour most people in the comments had issue with. I love this colour. It is the most complements on my hair I've ever gotten. I bought it just before Christmas and retouched the ends because I know it's when I take the most pics. I find it such an easy product to work with because of it's gel like consistency.

Now after my New Year speech, There is nothing about animal testing any where so I will be looking for other options (I still have a purple I need to finish using). It is also a brand from India BUT it is manufactured in South Africa. The Godrej Company owns stakes in many other African based companies like Frika and Infecto.

Available at Dischem, Checkers, Pick 'n' Pay, Spar and Clicks. Cheaper than the full box with bleach (Also don't sleep on the bleach. It's the good stuff.)

Catrice Art Couleurs Single in140 Secret of Le Chrome

🌱🐰

I enjoy single eye shadows that look like a whole blended look. It reminds me of MAC Blue Brown Pigment or Essence Moonlight eyes in 03 Cosmic but easier to work with.

Available at Dischem and Takealot.com at R55.00

Essence Melted Chrome Eyeshadow in 02 ironic

🐰

You need to swatch to understand the intense glitter formulation. Just a warning: It's so soft it breaks so easy. Another multi purpose shadow that wears beautifully as a single and layers well as a pop of sparkle. I will be buying them all though this specific shade is a nice nude glimmer that most if not all complexions can wear because of the warmer undertone.

Availble at Dischem for R60, Takealot.com for R65 and selected Clicks branches. (I'm saying selected because smaller Clicks branches carry less items on the single wall stands. The double carousels carry them.)

New Segment~ Saving the RRR

🌱🐰ZA

Yes. It is also Gluten Free to save money. I usually use this section for fashion but because of my love/hate relationship with fast fashion and clothing sizes and also challenging myself to make clothes instead of buying (That will be a series I want to start) I'll use this space to tell you monthly how I'm saving or being frugal. This only occurred to me as I started working on my post so come back next month for my 1^st tip or hack. Tell me what you think in the comments.

MomsNeedtoKnow.com's Chocolate Pudding

My mother-in-law comes to eat dinner at our house a few times a month. I always like to do a full home cooked meal with an easy dessert. Now I was so occupied with trying to think how to not overcook the fish (It was special guys, I actually made not chicken) and my oven already being full with roasted veg (Because ya gurl usually bakes a cake) that I forgot a dessert.

*first world problem intensifies*

Pinterest hooked me up and it was an awesome easy dessert with stuff I already have.

Add a Vegetable

🌱🐰

WOW lame one Michellè. But it's true. You know with all of the “ new year, new me” but not really bs that floats around Facebook and Pinterest, this was my mantra:

There is always this consuming need to suddenly change everything about what you eat.

- No this

- No that

- No Burgers

- No Sugar

- No damn fun

And next week everyone is eating exactly as they did the year before. Bye Paleo, Keto, whatever trendy diet. Some how diet failure leaves some people worse off than they started. I just decided to start with an easy step: Add a vegetable.

My normal plate is a animal protein, a starch, salad. So all I did was reduce the starch and fill that with a veg. Also a veg I like. Asparagus was huge this season. Marrows, spinach, Pak Choy, roasted peppers.

Bob Ross type Youtubers

As a South African, I've only got to know Bob's content recently (2017). Last year it was a massive trend to follow his instruction and recreate his paintings. Many people just watch him because of his patient, calm instruction to painting landscapes.

I have 3 Youtubers I can recommend to watch if you are into that type of content:

Suzie from Nail Career Education.

I have not done nails in years but I love the content. She dives into nail art, gel and acrylic nail application, removal of artificial nails and testing of new products and lines. Bonus points for if you see her throwing a box over her shoulder. She may be one of the more mature youtubers and her content is well edited and is better produced than most tv shows.

https://nailcareer.com/

Maryna from Poppen Atelier

I can't remember how I found this channel as I have zero interest in repainting dolls but LOOOOVE this content. She narrates while she time lapses redrawing doll faces, makes doll wigs and outfits. In my life I would never attempt but watch the super detail she puts in every doll. Bonus points for Mr Super Clear.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PoppenAtelier

Angela Clayton

I love sewing so I know why I got her in my suggested feed one day. Now she does not super glue together a cut up t-shirt and E6000 pieces of lace to it and call it content. (no tea, some shade Amber Scholl). She sews a lot of mid century patterns and recreates lavish historic costumes. Some times she follows instructions other times she does drafting herself. Bonus if you can count the amounts of times she changes her nail polish.

https://angelacostumery.com/

All these channels are well edited and the narration or instruction is with a calm demeanor. No random loudness or absurd screaming. Most videos are 20 to 25 minutes long and all of them have a weekly upload. A lot of time they all make it feel like we are learning together and don't make me feel like an idiot who doesn't know the basics (which I actually am because I never have repainted a doll, haven't done nails in more that 10 years and sew basic stuff)

Bullet Journal

This I listed as my free as I didn't have to buy anything to start it. I had a book, pens and a ruler. Though many who know me may think I have this elaborately decorated book with drawings and scribbles, my book is basic a.f. with stuff to remember. I have a multitude of lists and dates I need to remember. Written down in note books, Google Keep, lose papers or I just don't write it down and forget when last my dogs got de wormed/ gas got changed/ kilometers of the last time my car got serviced. I decides to compile everything in one place.

Lists for shopping, meal plans to mowing the lawn, birthdays to moon phases are all in this one place with yearly, monthly and weekly overviews. My weekly also has my daily stuff with time slots I usually miss out on. (Like I should be thinking of another post but it's 18 of February and have not posted this yet. Fail.)

That's my stuff for the month of Jan.

Bye

Michellè

Cruelty Free Items you can buy right now.

Trigger Warning for all the perfect cruelty free and vegan people reading wHo HaVe AlWaYs BeEn AlL tHeIr LiVeS. HERE is a low key rant from Fairly Local Vegan. Being destructive makes no one a better person. I'm doing the best I can.

Buying cruelty free cosmetics and personal care items have been at the top of my list the past 2 years. My question to myself was always: Why must an animal suffer/die because I just want to clean my hands with soap/ put on lip balm/ wash my hair/ blend eye shadow. There are no standardized laws about how to keep these animals. They don't play in the field after a day of work or even a safe space to sleep at night. You might think they test only on rats and rabbits.

Nope.

They test on dogs too.

I didn't finish reading and articles or linking because it's graphic a.f. and I just can't. I just typed in “why do they use Beagles for testing”

Digressing . . . vegan items are a bonus and it also seems to be the way the industry is slowly moving towards.

Side note:

🐰Cruelty Free ~ Not Tested on Animals

🌱 Vegan ~ No animal derived ingredients (Carmine, Bees Wax, Honey, Silk ect.) also not tested on animals

Anyways, here are some of my fave products that you can go out and buy today. Not spons, not an ad. Just stuff that I enjoy:

The Good Stuff co.

🐰🌱🆉🅰

Being broad with them because they have a massive range. Cruelty free and most of their range has vegan options(the Bee Natural Range has Honey but it's best to refer to their website to be sure but the packaging is clearly marked). I first enjoyed their hand creams because they absorbed super quickly and after that everything else. I love the shampoo, conditioner, day and night cream, serum, hand wash. I know I can pick up any of their products and they will be great. The exxtra Care and repair shampoo was the BEST shampoo EVER for my bleached hair. I could comb through it the just the shampoo. 10/10 I recommend. 

Available at Dischem and Pick n Pay but the bigger range is at Dischem.

Oh So Heavenly! ~ Clicks

🐰🌱🆉🅰

I think by now we all know the batch gift sets of cream and shower gel you get when the person didn't know what to get you for Christmas/ your birthday. Get ready to fall in love with that sh!t. My love actually started with their lip balm. I was looking for a balm that was cruelty free. I still have good old 'name brand' and popular 'name brand' balms and for the sake of not being waste full I will use them until they are finished but their lip balms are heavy good. The Vanilla Cupcake Bubble balm and the more traditional stick balm in Moisture Burst is always on my repurchase list.

 

As with Good Stuff, not everything is vegan but it's clearly marked. HERE is the link to the full list of options.

They are exclusive to Clicks. The range has hair care, skin care and personal hygiene items as well as fun stuff like air fresheners, Candles and the Positively Pink range where they donate to assist women with Breast Cancer. (Bonus points for that.)

Pick N Pay Green:

🐰🌱🆉🅰

[No Picture because I deleted it. Good Job Michellé]

Here is where cruelty free costs a bit more than our mass produced tested faves. Cleaning products. They are considerably more expensive. Here is my experience with each product:

Dish washing Liquid: I'm sorry. I use this but it is not as effective as old Sunlight liquid. I buy two 500 ml bottles a month because it's so sh!tty. I am hoping buy buying this that they will improve the formulation. Trying to be frugal and spending close R50 on dish washing liquid for my conscience. You do that existential math.

Oven Cleaner: Meh. It's okay. It's a repeat buy, nothing worse or better than competitors.

Toilet Cleaner: At a few Rands more expensive than competitors, I don't feel like it cleans any worse. This is also a monthly buy. I've bought it for the last . . . since it came out. I went to Harpic in November 2018 because of Mrs. Hinch but bought it again. I don't know what that says. Mrs. Hinch is an actual influencer. Boss.

Window Cleaner: This is a top, 5 star product. I will never go back to any other. I don't know what they did with this product but I hope this will eventually be the whole range. Effective and easy to use. It is a jam.

They use to also have an All Purpose Cleaner, Kitchen, Bathroom and Floor cleaner but I don't find them on the website nor have I bought them. Except for the All purpose cleaner that I do buy every two months and it's good. I bought from another brand that you dilute a concentrate so I am still working to use it up. What I can remember is that they were generally good. Hope they are “Window Cleaner”ing them.

Pick n Pay Green in PnP by Pick 'n' Pay.

The Simple Truth

🐰🌱🆉🅰

Come through Checkers. Yaaaaaas. The range is small at 5 products but I am here for it. All Purpose Cleaner cream, Multi purpose Cleaner spray , Dishwashing Liquid, Fabric softener and Liquid Laundry Detergent. I will probably be buying the rest of the range and trying them out. I'm hype for the fabric softener because Mrs. Hinch (here she is again) uses it everywhere. The clean walls to freshen sofas and pillows.

The Multi Purpose Spray I used when deep cleaned 2 bathrooms, the main bedroom and hallway. I used it the clean the top of the closets, walls and tiles in the bathrooms. It worked pretty well. The dish washing liquid is the same as the PnP Green. It, like all of us, it can be better.

Cosnova Brand

Essence Cosmetics, Catrice and L.O.V

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Here is where I feel you need to make a call for yourself. The aren't Leaping Bunny or Beauty without Cruelty approved but HERE is their story

How Cosnova works is; Essence range is age 16 to 25, Catrice is 25 to 35 and L.O.V is 35 and up. Looking at their products and ranges, is that they test formulas and trends in the Essence range, then it gets refined at Catrice and the final version of the same item ends up at L.O.V.

 Fight me.

As a early 30s 'adult' I still love Essence and buy Catrice (just as they planned). Essence eyeshadows are like a will they won't they romantic comedy. Some are patchy and powdery and some are the best shadow ever in the world. Close Too Face like

Pure Nude Single - Coffee Bean ~ Patchy A.F.

Wood you love me Palette - Darkest brown ~ Better

Melted Chrome Single - 02 Ironic ~ Best glittery eye shadow ever!

Too Faced Then and Now Palette - NSFW

Catrice's long pallets are questionable but there new singles are WOW

I love both's face powders (I don't care about ”flashback”, I care about being not shiny irl. I don't plan on exposing my life on Snapchat or stories like some beauty guru) and Catrice has great primers. A few items are also vegan. Though they don't really state it, some of their powders are reformulated to be paraben-free.

I own nothing from L.O.V . I'm too cheap.

I also don't buy any complexion products because range. I can't recommend and my readers can't go in and try anything. Let's be real, this is South AFRICA and the melanin is rich and the time for 3~5 shades are over. Rather buy a nail polish. It's cheaper and they have nudes for all there.

Not manufactured in ZA but they are brought in and managed by South African team, Cosmetix

Essence Cosmetics is available at Dischem, Clicks, Foschini, Edgars and selected Pick 'n Pays.

Catrice and L.O.V at Dischem.

Also all on Takealot.com

L.A. Girl

🐰

This brand is from the USA. Half of my everyday make up is comprised of their products. They have the best range of complexion products that range from BB Creams to full coverage matte foundation. The big Beauty Brick palettes are questionable (please note I still own all 4 and use them regularly) but I like the formula of the smaller Eye Lux 4 pan. I don't want to talk too much about this because this post is already long. That pic has all the items I own and are all well used.

Available only at Dischem.

Wet 'n' Wild

🐰 mostly🌱

The best liquid eyeliner. The best highlighter. One of the best liquid lipsticks. Most affordable brushes. There are a few items even your Gucci of YouTubers love and never replace. LaMer, Sisley and Wet n Wild all live in harmony on one face. They also have a large amount of vegan items, HERE is their list.

I have not once been disappointed with the quality of any of the products (accept again I could not recommend their Photo Focus Foundation. Especially since the first 3 shades launched were not even close to even my colour. I had to use bronzer. Clicks did extend with a few shades, but there is a bigger range shown on the Wnw website.)

Exclusive to Clicks as well as online.

These are my recommendations for a start. If you are deciding to make a change, don't dump your currents. Finish 👏 your 👏 products 👏 .

Don't get discouraged. There will be a time, I feel especially with the cleaning products, where you might not find an item or you get gifted a non cruelty free item. Also don't let the 'perfect' cruelty free crusaders (usually on the internet or a Peta extremist) influence you into thinking what you are doing is not good enough. also get educated by the people will to give advise.

Doing something like reconsidering a brand or item or replacing make up products is 100% better than conscientiously not caring at all. This can go way deeper with “Parent brands” but I feel if you do your research and see the bunny on the packaging you are good to go.

Here are my resources for making choices:

Cruelty Free Kitty

Beauty Without Cruelty Humane Guide for ZA

Vegan SA product Guide

There are many other brands and products but these are the most common and make it easy for a start. Please also know that as I was suppose to be editing the pictures of this post, I was looking for CF hair bleach. Pro-Active or Pro-crastenation?

Michellé

10 Commandments for Coloured Hair Care

I have had every kind of coloured hair. Box, Salon, Powdered fruit drink. Pink, red, brown, black, ombré, opal, platinum, two tone blond and brown, two tone purple and blue and galaxy. Many people wonder how I still have hair on my head.

Me, for now.

My recent hair experiment lead me to type up this blog. I am a mixture of Jeffree Star and Kandee Johnson.

Here are my 10 commandments for keeping hair on fleek:

Thou shall take pre and post hair colour care.

Don't wash your hair 24 hours before bleaching and 48 hours after colouring. What? You heard me. Not washing before colouring makes sure that the hair gets less damaged. It's protected by it's oils. Not washing afterwards make sure the hair colour bonds to the hair. Yes even though it's dried and you already carried on with your life, there is still sciencey things happening. Even if you just bleached your hair you must wait.

É note: If you are planing to get fashion colour hair. Be prepared to spend a while in a salon/ bathroom. My galaxy hair took me 5 hours by myself and the Barbie inspired hair took me 2.5 hours in the salon. It may take longer as my hair was already like a Level 7/ 8 on the bleach scale.

5 hours of questioning every decision I've ever made

2 and a half hours of thinking of the final scene of Barbie in Rock 'n Royals

Thou shall cleanse hair sparingly. . .

I had to “train” to get my hair to need a wash twice a week. Mondays and Thursdays. See I can even tell you the days. The more you wash the more the colour fades. Over washing also causes damage to hair. For days I just want to shower, I bought a more robust showercap from Dischem. Other days dry shampoo is your friend.

é Note: If you are going the lighter or full on blonde route, purple shampoo is a must. It tones out yellow and lessens brassiness. I also suggest to only use it after the second/ third wash because depending how pigmented it is it can tint your hair purple. Not ideal.

. . . and with grace

Here is where you have to read labels. Not all shampoos are the same. Sulphites causes colours to wash out faster. I use Tresemmé Naturals. It has a low SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) content. It's a basic foaming agent you get in anything that bubbles. Toothpaste, Floor wash, face wash, dish soap, if it makes bubbles, it's in it. (Queue those Facebook posts and e-mails with factoids telling us how bad it is.)

Then when you wash, ONLY wash your scalp and condition ends. You don’t need to shampoo your whole head. As you rise it rinses over the length of your hair, which cleans it. Also the condition only the ends and the length.

Thou shall not do excessive mechanical or heat damage.

Don't rub your hair dry with a towel. I squeeze out most of the water and just wrap my head in a towel. Let the towel do the work by sucking up the moisture. (Also make sure to use a towel that you wouldn't care to get stained. Though it would be a conversation starter if your guests ask you why the towels are tie dyed pink.)

If you have long hair I think that the Invisibobble type hair bands are the best. I don't get as many tangles or breakage with them as with normal or rubber bands.

I also stopped using a hair brush and opted for a wide tooth comb. I'm less likely to rip out my hair with it. It's also the best for combing out wet hair.

I also stared embracing heat free styling. I let my hair mostly air dry. If I have to, I make sure to spray it with heat protection before styling it. Here is an educational film by Guy Tang.

I also switched up my cotton pillow case for a satin one. Here is mine from MrP Home. I also found them to be better for my skin. They also don't make those weird sleep marks on your face.

Thou shall maketh time for conditioning . . .

Once a week I super deep condition my hair. Bleaching is damaging and if it's not treated it will feel like hay.

B*tch stole my look!

I switch up between natural and commercial. Sometimes I smear on some coconut oil. This I leave on from a half an hour to unlimited. When I clean house I leave it on for 8 hours. I also like castor oil.

Commercial stuff I like Garnier's Honey Treasures mask. Or just normal conditioner. I leave it is for 30 minutes and my hair feels great. Also try Palmer's Coconut mask. That stuff changes chemically damaged hair like a boss.

. . . And useth finishing oils

It was a trend so most oils were phased out. Luckily in ZA most women have ethnic hair and ethnic hair love the moisture oil gives.

I usually use oil after I washed my hair. It makes the drying process faster and makes my type A1 hair more manageable. Sometimes, especially more in winter, my ends feel gross and dry so I just work in some oil on the ends of my hair.

Thou shall nourish thyself for hair in future

Now not all of us get those free blue gummy sweets for our Instagram. #Spon #ad. But there are things you can buy for a fraction of the price. If you have a good Multi-vite you are already good to go but because I know I put my hair through a special kind of torture: Bleach

I like Vital's Hair, Skin and Nails gel capsules. They are literally available every where. Dischem, Clicks, Checkers, PnP and even on Takealot.com . If you want to take the vegan route try Natura'sCombin Assist tissue salts Hair and nails. They are also available every where online at Faithful to Nature.

Looks may be easy to come, yet decide on how thy display

I started a hash tag to group all my hair selfies. #Kyknoudiehare. It was two old ladies who obviously didn't think I could understand Afrikaans: Look at the hair. Like I'm not a person. I had people physically stop and stare at me with their mouths open. (For me weird hair feels like normal hair as my Instagram feed normalizes this for me. I follow A LOT of fashion coloured hair women. When I see other unicorns, mermaids, mermicorns I always compliment them.)

Because my hair to so bright, I tend to lean more towards more “natural” coloured neutral make up. I'm not really going for pastel Goth, club kid, Harajuku, cos-player look that is normally associated with fashion colours. Fashion hair with other excessive colours (make-up and clothes) can quickly look like a costume. Even my eye brows are still their normal colour.

If you are not doing the fashion colours and you do a change like from brown to red/ blond or blond to dark you still need to change make-up. When I dyed my hair dark brown after being blonde for seven years I felt like I looked weird until I got a darker brow pencil and got darker lip stick.

Love they hair as is discolours or fades . . .

And it will fade. But not all colours fade equally. Blue and green become muddy but purple and pink become a cool pastel colour but then the roots come out. * eye roll *

Here I usually enlist the help of Platinum/ purple shampoo. Recently, since I coloured my hair with it, I would mix some of Renew's Perfect Colour with it's in-box conditioner with a few drops of the colouring. That is then tones out some of the weirdness.

. . . and know the one that will who will assist when if fails

Let's say it's been 10 weeks, by then your hair is going to be looking pretty real. You need someone to make you come right. I tend to mess with my hair on my own because I understand the basics of hair and hair type science but we can't all be our own Guy Tang.

Come though for us Guy

Now and then it's best to get in a chair of a professional. Look for someone who suits your needs. I had the worst experience at a more high end salon where I spent a lot of money and just got treated like someone they wanted out of their seat for the next one. The next time I went I got second rate service from the stylist because she double booked me with a bride so I got stuck with a junior stylist who couldn't stop complaining about how the other juniors should be helping her.

At the moment I'm at a more old school stylist wit a two chair salon where we judge people who think they can colour their hair blonde in one sitting with a home kit. We also laugh at people who mess up their hair at home and she has to fix it.

If you aren't confident colouring at home, buy the colour and most stylist will assist you with application. They are trained and have the knowledge and the right tools for the application.

That is my commandments for healthy coloured hair. Amen to healthy hair.

é

Mall of the South: Not really a Haul haul.

Yeah more like a “Wanted to get BB cream but got carried away looking for a lipstick” thing.

Arm swatches so you know I'm real.

Yardley London got me all: They are not the same. They are similar.

 

Okay, these are the same.

All was done at Mall of the South. Here are the details:

Clicks:

This is a big Clicks so it's got the full roll out of all their stocked brands like OPI, Essie, WnW and Essence.

Wet 'n Wild MegaLast Lip Color in Cherry Bomb: My one sister and I are riding the 90's vampy dark lip trend. After doing some heavy internet swatch research I decided this was the one. And they only had that. One. And no testers. I have previously bought 'Bare it all' as a MAC 'Velvet Teddy' dupe and I loved it. They also didn't have 'Vamp it up' in stock but I did swatch it and it is good. I will have YOU, 'VAMP IT UP'

R44.95

(See later in the post I did purchase another Cherry Bomb and a Vamp it up at my local Clicks.)

Clicks Baby wipes: My arm was getting full of lipstick so I bought some wet wipes. R8.95 for 10

Oh So Heavenly Vanilla Cup Cake Bubble Balm: First saw it on PinkPeonies and bought it the next day. Here is my previous one:

Cool packaging without the EOS price @ R29.95 (If I went last week it was 3 for 2 but who's checking that)

Wet 'n Wild Wildshine Nail Color in Kaleidoscope: Recently I have found out what the term is of the feelings I feel because I am attracted to rainbow holographic things: I AM HOLOSEXUAL.That is the only reason I bought this. Great price at R24.95

Cardies:

"We don't like your big camera so we'll stare at you from down here"

SPCA support beaded Bracelets: I bought one a while ago and wanted the pink, white and blue one. And for a while I saw bracelets for the Red Paw Project. Because of uneducated people and my two dogs being at harm. this is a charity that is getting my money. The Lilo & Stitch is R55 and the steel beads of the Red Paw Project is R150

Dischem:

They had a stock taking during the week so there where people with open boxes every where. I got offered a free skin analysis but I wasn't sure if they would be able to see my skin through the contour, hard layer of concealer and powder.

SkinStrategy Sheet mask loose draws: That's how you know it's getting close to month end. Loose draw sheet masks. Face and neck Boto Mask and serum R14.95 and Soothing and calming Face Mask R12.95.

McNabs SuperCharge Energy Drink in Sparkling Rasberry: How do you thing this post is getting written? Magic? No way son. Anything I can read the ingredients of and understand what they mean, is good in my book. (also Vegan and made with No Genetically Modified ingredients because that is who I am now.) R19.25

Catrice All Round Mascara in Ultra black: Uhg! Yes! I bought it again! At R52.95 try to find a better one.

LA Girl Endless Semi Permanent Auto lipliner in Dark Plum: I bought this liner in True Red and it is true boss. This is the liner I want to pair with the WnW Cherry Bomb.

H&M

Just a slouchy beanie and wool hat. Walking with that bag makes you look like a bad bi*ch. This is the photo I sent my sisters telling them to get on my level:

And that is it.

é

Here are some bonus swatches:

LA Girl Endless Auto Lip liner in Dark Plum

Wet 'n Wild MegaLast in Cherry Bomb over LA Girl Endless Auto Lip liner in Dark Plum. I got this combo for my sister and called it the #Noempielipkit in IDGAF

Wet 'n Wild MegaLast in Cherry Bomb

Wet 'n Wild MegaLast in Vamp it Up

More swatches:

Wet 'n Wild in Kaleidoscope

K bye now.