This tiara came in a pack with a wand from John Lewis, I paid £5 for the set a couple of months ago after hunting down that freakish Marmite chocolate for my uncle and discovering that Selfridges had stopped selling it. I came away without the chocolate, but decided to buy a few bits while I was there as I don't visit John Lewis as often as I'd like. Obviously it was uber girly Hollie I had in mind for it, and the set was a big hit - with the tiara being absolutely the favourite of the two and worn on a daily basis!

It's a headband style tiara - in fact it IS a headband just with a plastic butterfly shaped front piece to create the tiara, it's very clever actually as Hollie just has to put the thin band on as she would a normal headband and the tiara will automatically sit in the correct position at the front of her head. The tiara is moveable to a small degree so can accommodate a variety of head shapes and sizes - Hollie's head is, I'd say, an average size for a five year old and it fits her fine but I've also seen her three and eight year old cousins wear it (and the three year old has a seriously huge head!) successfully so it's pretty versatile. The one Hollie has looks to be slightly different in design to the one in Dooyoo's piccie, the butterfly shaping being the same but the headband looks like it has changed shape.

The headband and tiara are made from a shiny silver plastic and look really great. I love the design of the tiara as vibrant pink feathers have been stuck to it, while the butterfly wing shaping at the top is an excellent touch and really makes the tiara stand out from those bought in Poundland (of which we have a few!). There are a few sequins dotted on the tiara but these are oddly a different shade to those used on the wand, this doesn't matter to Hollie in the slightest but it irrationally irritates me as coming as a set I'd expect the embellishments to compliment each other! Nothing has fallen off and looking at the tiara now I can tell that nothing is likely to fall off for the foreseeable - this is in stark contrast to the wand which lost every single sequin and all its feathers within two weeks of buying it!

Hollie tells me the headband is comfortable to wear and doesn't dig in behind her ears or catch her hair as she removes it. Her hair is bizarrely flyaway sometimes and she mainly wears it loose at home so I've noticed it tangles in the pointed butterfly wings sometimes, this is a nuisance but could easily be solved by her wearing her hair up - she chooses not to so has to suffer the consequences! There's no telling some (willful bordering on insolent) five year olds! Not that she looks willful or anything less than innocent while wearing this cute little tiara! It looks fantastic worn with one of her Disney Princess dresses and enables her to really get into the role - when she wore the tiara to school recently even her teacher said how lovely it was (in a grown up sensible voice to me, not the gooey gushing 'oh aren't you beautiful' voice reserved for her class of five year olds!).

The headband itself doesn't feel overly strong to me, however the tiara has a large surface area which holds the band into a certain shape and prevents stress building up on the thin plastic. I tend to warn Hollie not to pull it apart too widely when she's putting it on or taking if off her head, it doesn't feel in imminent danger of snapping but you can tell it's not going to last forever. Actually it's been remarkably durable considering it's either being played with or is thrown into an overflowing toy box/slung under the bed/left in the garden* and generally not being very well cared for at all! (*Delete as applicable, dependent on Hollie's mood that day!)

I'm happy with my purchase and would definitely recommend the John Lewis Butterfly Tiara to anyone who has a little girly girl to buy for, Hollie absolutely adores it and for me that's the main thing. The packaging of the wand and tiara set is attractive enough that you could buy it as a Christmas pressie for a family friends little girl, or as a stocking filler for your own little princess - it's sure to be gratefully received, and considering the hike John Lewis prices have taken recently I'd say a fiver is a bit of a bargain.