Aussie Lusciously Light Event
Quick catch up! Sorry for the long pause in posts this week, but I finally had an interview for a phd position and was quite preoccupied with general preparation and fretting! I think the interview went well, so I just have to wait and see now. I’m off to visit my family for a week now that all the interview stress is over, so I’ve scheduled some posts to make up for my absence :) It’s really annoying that I can’t seem to comment on people’s blogs on my phone, so I will only be on Twitter while I’m away and I won’t be able to comment :( If anyone knows how to comment from a phone let me know though, would be nice :)
The Aussie Lusciously Light event was last Saturday and it was a lot of fun. It was nice to meet lots of lovely people, even if I was socially awkward!
This is what I wore on my nails for the day. I recently picked up some Bourjois So Laque polishes and wanted to give them a go. First I used Rose Satin (the pale pink) and then I taped off the tips to add some Beau Model (a turquoise/blue/green/hard to describe colour). I had to use two coats of Rose Satin to get an even finish, but I could get away with only one coat of Beau Model. Next to the rosy pink the turquoise blue looks more of a minty green. It’s really difficult to describe the colour, but it lies somewhere between blue and green, that I know! :P I wanted to add another stripe of yellow on the tips, but I was using Rimmel Sunshine and it was quite sheer, so I only had it on my thumbs. Please excuse ‘the claw!’ nail picture, I wanted to get my thumb in the shot.
I wanted my nails to match my dress I was wearing. I wore a lovely floral number, it’s my only option as I couldn’t really wear my usual black to a Spring/Summer themed party! :P
The room it was held in was amazing! It looked very cool with the bubble machine and balloons!
It was a really fun event, the brilliant ladies who organised it did a really amazing job! There was a lovely lunch with cheesecake dessert(!), a candyfloss machine, champagne tasting, a photographer and great hairdressers! I had my hair done and I said to do anything to it. It was sectioned up, wrapped around tin foil and heated, then backcombed into a large rock n roll giant curly hair do! It looked pretty awesome, I’m really surprised how large it was! It’s pretty different to my usual hair which I normally wear straightened.
I also learnt that I cannot pose for photos without looking stupid. I need to devise some sort of photo face to use that is acceptable and not demented! :P Seriously though what are you meant to do with your arms when you pose for pictures? I just look really awkward :s
(picture belongs to tissueclouds)
It was fun to meet lots of fantastic bloggers, everyone was so nice! There are lots of pictures floating around, but the lovely Maria of tissueclouds took some great pictures like the one above (more here) and she wore the most beautiful vintage dress!
There was also the lovely photographer Sam Whitney taking lots of pictures all day. I had my picture taken after my hair was made gigantic and again I only have my two faces of demented or slightly sarcastic. I shouldn’t be allowed out!
I had a really great day, it was fun meeting such lovely bloggers :)
Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink and Aussie Lighter Style Update
I thought I’d put my latest hair stuff all in one post, so as not to bore you repeatedly with it! :) Last week, before I went away, I received a new wig from the lovely people at Aussie. I didn’t have time to play, but I was excited to see myself as a blonde. It’s one of the few colours I have never properly tried. I have been blonde, but it was more of a honey blonde, never platinum/white blonde.
The wig is a longish bob cut, very similar in length to my current hair. It has a fringe which proved handy at hiding my dark eyebrows! I guess that I something I would have to bleach if I were to go blonde, I look a bit scary with dark eyebrows and blonde hair. I wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have such substantial eyebrows!
Here I am with the wig on, looking rather scary! I don’t think that light blonde suits my skin tone. I thought dark colours were meant to make you look more pale, but this wig seems to make me look a bit peaky! I whacked some (a lot) of the Eyeko MyCoral Crush blusher on and Sleek lipstick in Candy Cane to liven me up a bit!
I kinda like the blonde because it is so different for me, but I think it would be a nightmare to maintain. I’d have to toner it too death to keep away the yellow. Plus I blush quite a lot and when I was blonde before, whenever I blushed I looked like my head was going to explode! The blonde hair seemed to make my red cheeks look even redder! :s Ok, I have to put the wig away, I’m starting to like blonde and I don’t have time for that kind of upkeep and I’d have to change all my make up again. Stop tempting me blondeness!
The first reaction I had when I put the wig on was that the cut and colour were very similar to the ‘suicide blonde’ in the film ‘The Number 23′. I’m not obsessed with the number 23, nor am I going to jump off a building, but I like the hazy blonde look.
Although if I was to number the alphabet…Gemx = 7+5+13+24=49 and 4+9=13. Sparkle =19+16+1+18+11+12+5=82 and 8+2=10 FINALLY 13+10=23! :o
It was amusing how long it took me to fudge something to equal 23!
I really like The Number 23 as a film, so much so I saw it twice at the cinema, once with friends then I dragged my OH to see it. I like trashy films :)
(My Suicide Blonde look)
(The Suicide Blonde from The Number 23)
As much as the blonde is tempting, when I took the wig off I realised how much I suit and love my hair colour at the moment. Before I went to visit my family I ran out of my usual Special Effects Virgin Rose hair dye and the bottles I’d ordered didn’t arrive in time. So with my rather faded hair I nipped into town to hunt for a similar pink/purple dye, not wanting to face my family looking faded. I went to the alternative shops and found plenty of dye in the various shops which was fantastic! They didn’t have my usual Special Effects, but they did have some Manic Panic, I similar brand that I had heard good reviews about. I picked a colour close to what I thought my current dye was.
The colour I picked was Hot Hot Pink. The dye itself comes in a round pot instead of a squeezie paint type bottle Special Effects come in. It is much easier to get out of the pot than the squeezie bottle and the Manic Panic dye was slightly more watery, but it smelt identical. Because the dye was more watery it went further on my hair, so I needed less dye, which was quite good. I left it on for about an hour and washed it off, then for the moment of truth!
I was left with super pigmented and really soft and shiny hair! Best of all the colour lasted double that of my old dye. I didn’t realise until I looked at old pictures, but my new colour is much pinker and brighter. I think that’s why it seems to last longer because it is a lighter colour I don’t notice the fading from dark purple to pink as much. Hot Hot Pink seems too fade from pink to err…less pink? It doesn’t really change that much, it seems to loose intensity rather than fade to a lighter colour. Here is my new colour:
It might not seem that different. In fact I thought it was pretty much the same colour, but if you see the picture below of the last time I dyed my hair with the Special Effects Virgin Rose dye. It was much more purple before (see below) and now it is more pink.
(my hair previously – dyed with Special Effects Virgin Rose)
So what do you think? Blonde or dark and pink or dark and purple? I’m not sure which I prefer anymore! Aussie have booked me in to have my hair appointment in two weeks, so I will have to decide what I want to have done :)
Phew…that is a long post! Well done if you get to the bottom! To congratulate you I will tell you a secret…My blog has been going for a year! On May 5th last year I installed a WordPress blog during a break from exam revision stating I was going to make a beauty blog. I didn’t start blogging officially until the end of the month when my exams finished, but quite cool stuff! So I am planning a giveaway to celebrate. I’ve ordered some goodies and I will put up a post when I receive them :)
I hope you have all had a lovely week! Can’t believe it is Friday already! I will be slightly afk this week due to a wedding this weekend and my dissertation is due in next Thursday, so I hope you all have a lovely weekend and week to come! Think of me slaving away over a large document while you all enjoy yourselves! :P xxxx
Beau xoxo Handmade Ladybird Hair Accessories
I saw recently that a lovely blogger that I follow - Dreams That Glitter – has a shop on Etsy called Beau xoxo. She makes lots of pretty hair accessories which she hand-makes herself. I picked up some goodies the other day and they arrived super speedily! I went for a bit of a ladybird theme as you can see and a free pink bow was thrown in as well! The packaging is really sweet and the hair accessories are really well made.
The ladybirds are red and glittery, but the glitter doesn’t come loose and get everywhere like some glittery hair accessories do, which is great! The ladybirds are really sparkly in the sunshine and I love the ladybird ribbon on the corsage.
The corsage has a french barrette to clip it to your hair which is nice and secure and the hair clips are bobby pins that are tight/strong enough that they don’t keep slipping out of your hair. I always get annoyed if I have to keep re-positioning bobby pins all day, but these happily stayed where I put them. Well, until I tried to scalp myself when I got my sunglasses tangled in my hair, but that was my clumsy fault :P
I have a lot of hair accessories, it’s not very often that I don’t have something clipped to my head, unless it’s really windy outside. I really love these clips, especially the corsages because they are quite unique and you can use them in lots of different hair styles.
There are lots of different, cute hair accessories on the Etsy shop and I think Dreams That Glitter is thinking of adding wire headbands too in different pretty fabrics, which would be lovely :)
Are you a fan of hair accessories? :) xxxx
Revlon Plum Seduction and CND Amethyst Sparkle
I bought this in my recent Boots haul. I bought Essie Bermuda Shorts awhile ago to match my hair, but it was a little too neon. I love Bermuda Shorts, but when I saw this I had to have it. It is very similar to Bermuda Shorts, but it is more of a non-neon cousin. It is called Plum Seduction, it doesn’t look very plum like, it’s more of a fushia pink/purple. Plum I imagine as a darker red/purple, but then again my hair dye is called Virgin Rose! Who names these things?! :P
I like Revlon polishes, I’m never sure why some people don’t rate them. I have quite a few, they all apply well and I like the bottle and brush. They don’t have a great range, but I like what they do have. This is two coats, applied perfectly and it has lastly 5 days before I chipped my thumb. I have hardly any tip wear, apart from the thumb, which is pretty hard wearing.
Here is me pulling some weird pose to show the colour match to my hair! This colour is a pretty good match, it lasts well and basically I love it! :D Now the problem will be getting me to use any other nail polish, I like this one too much!
After having to take this off because I chipped it, I was browsing for a new colour. However, I missed my purple nails so the compromise was to put the Plum Seduction back on, but with CND Amethyst Sparkle over the top. Here is how it looked. I should have put two coats on really as it looks a bit streaky at the edges, but I love the sparkle over the top! :) I’m often reluctant to pick the same polish after I’ve removed it, but this one I made an exception. Do you always feel that you have to change the colour of your polish every time you take it off? Or do you have favourites you are happy to wear over and over? :)
Have a lovely weekend everyone! I’m glad it is here! I plan to write my literature review and for the first weekend in ages, just to relax! I have a couple of films I haven’t seen and plenty of things recorded on Sky+, I might even get my Christmas cards written! I received my first card through the post today! xxxx
More bleach! Re-dying my purple hair
Oooh two posts in one day! I felt bad not posting any during the week, so I’ve put up these two today as they kinda go together anyway. I have a few more things to put up, so hopefully I’ll have some spare time in the week. :)
Before my Brighton trip I re-dyed my hair! I’ve gone a bit darker and had more wider slices bleached in which I dye Special Effects Virgin Rose. I much prefer it now. I hated dyeing it before as I was tinting the brown purple because it wasn’t dark enough and looking like I’d been hit in the face with purple and the back part was just a mid-brown. Not the greatest of looks! I like my new dark brown and I can get away with slopping on the purple dye without worrying about tinting the brown. I like the larger slices too, it makes it slightly easier to dye and looks nicer. Annoyingly, I’m running low on purple dye and all the UK sites to buy it from seem to be out of stock or not taking orders due to the snow. :(
Here is a rather funny view of my new bleached bits. As you can see it isn’t bleached to white, more of a yellow, but it still comes out really bright purple. For purple tones you really don’t need to bleach to white. When I had pink hair I had to have toner as well to make it white because when the pink faded it looked yellow/orange. This dye luckily fades to a pale purple/pink, so I’m happy with that. :) In fact, I’m very happy with the dye this time. Now it’s just the upkeep! I’ve been dyeing it every Sunday, which isn’t too bad. I do destroy the bathroom in the process though.
For anyone wondering about the upkeep of semi permanent colours like Special Effects hair dye, it does fade if you shampoo your hair, but I only leave my dye on for about 15-20 minutes when I re-dye it, so it really doesn’t seem that bad, especially as it is only once a week. I normally put the dye on, brush teeth, clean bathroom, then shower, and that seems to be plenty of time for the colour to take.
Here’s a really good tip I’ve learnt recently for removing hair dye stains on the bath/tiles. Nail polish remover! I read online about it and thought I’d give it a go. It was 100 times better than bleach! I tested it first by getting a cotton pad, soaking it in remover and placing it on a pink bit for a few seconds than removing. The pink was gone! I have tried bleach before, but it’s smelly and doesn’t seem to work as well as nail polish remover.
I have a giant assignment to sort out today, I have to research fighter pilot cockpits and write a research proposal on how to test the performance of the pilots attention. It was interesting at first, but now it is annoying. It is surprisingly hard to find a list of tasks that have to be performed in a cockpit (snigger)! Oh well, after wednesday I will only have some group work and my literature review left, very much looking forward to that. :)
Have a good weekend, what is left of it! Have a good week also! xxxx
Essie Bermuda Shorts
This is my new favourite polish! I bought it in the ASOS free delivery/sale awhile ago. I don’t normally just buy random colours off the internet without seeing swatches of it somewhere first, but I really wanted to find a pink/purple polish a similar shade to my hair. I saw this one and the name Bermuda Shorts made me wonder if it was going to be a bit too neon and garish…but it was on sale, so I ordered it anyway! :D
I apologise for the short nails, this was just after I’d chopped them a little too short. This is my first Essie polish, I love the bottle with the raised name down the side and the brush was good too. I put on one coat and it dried in a couple fo minutes to a matte finish like most neons do, I decided to stick another coat on to even it out. The formula and brush are great, I didn’t even need to do a clean up because it went on so nicely. I put a top coat on to make it shiny as I prefer it to the matte finish.
And a shot with my hair! My hair slices are a bit more purple, but I like it. My slices have turned into a pink now as I haven’t dyed it for two weeks. I am booking a hair appointment next week and I want thicker slices so I’m letting the semi-permanent colour wash out a bit. I think Virgin Rose is my favourite Special Effect dye I’ve used as it fades so well. Even though my hair is faded it just looks pink rather than the horrible orange colour you get when a red fades. I’m looking forward to getting it done though, it looks so much better afterwards. I’m leaving it a few extra weeks of rubbish hair as I’m taking my mum to see 30 Seconds to Mars in Brighton in a couple of weeks. It’s one of her favourite bands, she is more down with the kids than I am! I have never been to Brighton before, but I’ve heard the shops are awesome. If anyone knows of cool places to visit while we are there feel free to let my know?! :D I’ve been told to visit The Lanes, but apart from that I have no idea what is there, but it should be a fun trip.
Hope everyone is keeping warm and attempting to not get blown away in the weather!
Sick For Cute Review and the Un-tried Mission!
I love Sick For Cute! <3 They always have such…cute things! I normally talk myself out of buying stuff as it comes from the US and has a not-to-steep postage charge, but I do tend to spend £20+ if I do an order. This time however I had to do an order!
I follow Sick For Cute on Facebook and they have giveaways and post about new/restock items. When they posted about a new Harry Potter golden snitch necklace/locket, I had to own one! :D I also bought a sparkly bat hairclip which was the same colour as my purple highlights in my hair.
Another cool thing about Sick For Cute is they always include cute postcards/magnets in their packages, I have they stuck all over my desk, a testament to my repeat ordering! :p
The necklace is great, it’s the perfect length for me, quite short, collarbone length and it doesn’t have one of those danglely length extending things on the back, that often drive me mad until I attack it with pliers. The chain is attacked to wings, one each side. The wings are attached to a hollow ball locket. My favourite thing is because the ball is hollow, when the wings knock against the ball they make this lovely jangly sound whenever I move. The noise sounds like what I think a golden snitch sounds like! <3 Awesome! <3 Now to find something to put in the locket, any suggestions? :)
I’ve been playing the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Wii game this week. I’ve had it ages and completed it, but it’s fun to just pick up and play. I now have serious RSI wrists now though from all the potion making/spell casting! It’s silly and I’m sure the postman has caught me through the window and laughed before! :) I can’t wait to see the last film, 50 days or so till part 1! :) Although I was a bit worried about them keeping the director from the half blood prince film, it was pretty poor compared to the previous films. The new trailer for the film released soon looks pretty good, and true to the book, so hopefully it should be fun!
I’m currently re-watching the last season of Doctor Who, with Matt Smith, <3 Sky Plus! :) It’s a good season, nice re-vamp, I’m looking forward to the next season! Also, Stargate Universe starts again soon! I’m on spoiler avoid duty as the US have already had their first episode. Finally something to watch on TV again!
The Mission!
Upcoming posts will consist of me on a mission. The mission is to try and get through all my un-tried nail polishes! I have about 10+ polishes I haven’t tried, but have owned for awhile. I shouldn’t get any more until I’ve tried them. Ok so I did a Barielle order, but there was an 20% offer code! The code is still valid and is from Lipglossiping, a wonderful beauty blog, I suggest everyone should follow!
Special Effects Virgin Rose Hair Dye
All appears to be well after rinsing the dye off my hair. No emergency trips to Boots or hairdressers! Yay! The colour came out really bright on the bleached highlights my hairdresser put in for me.
I wasn’t sure about it at first because my dark brown had been slightly tinted a plum colour at the front and ofc, I didn’t apply any dye to the back part of my hair so that remains a normal brown. After two washes the dark brown/plum has faded a bit and it all looks a bit more blended together now. I’m likely this for a nice autumn colour, I can get away with darker make up as well, without looking to goth-ly pale. :)
I love Special Effect dyes, I have quite a few of them. This is the first time I’ve used Virgin Rose though, and the main reason I went for it this time, is that I’ve heard it fades nicely, from a purple to a pink-ish colour. So If I didn’t like it, I could leave it to fade without it looking to crappy. When I used to dye my hair a bright pink, it used to fade to a salmon pink then a weird grey-ish colour! :/ So, hopefully this will fade nicely. :) I’ve already washed my hair three times, and it’s still just as bright as when I first did it. Compared to the old pink, which I used to top up every 3-4 days, this colour is doing great so far!
The only thing I regret is just having ordinary thin highlight-esque bits bleached in. I should have gone for larger single chunks instead. It would be more noticeable and would make it a lot easier for me to dye, without getting all the plain brown bits covered in purple dye as well. In the past I had big slices of colour, but because they were on my parting, roots were a problem. Doing it with the highlights this way, I can avoid roots for longer. There’s always pros and cons I guess! :)
Does everyone dye there hair? I’ve had to dye mine since a teenager due to early grey :( Even though my mum is in her 60′s and still isn’t grey! But still, I do enjoy playing with hair colour. :)
Hair Dye/Die
I finally had a haircut and dye today! I am Miss Premature Grey, so I’ve been looking a little scary for the past few weeks. I am currently growing my hair for my wedding, so it looks boring atm. I have had short hair, no longer than a bob since I was about 14, and it’s current length of just on the top of my shoulders is a personal best! Alas, dull, brown, shoulder length hair is quite boring to grow/style.
I’ve had phases of ‘crazy colours’ in the past, when I’ve had jobs that allow non-natural colours.
(Some of my previous hair dyeing attempts)
Finally, I have a job that I can dye my hair again and to make myself happy about being really bored with growing my hair, I’ve decided to have my hairdresser bleach some bits and I’m breaking out the cupboard of Special Effects Hair dye.
The difference between now and then is I have a slightly lighter base colour which is close to my natural darkish brown. Special Effects dye did not take on my previous bases, but they were close to or were black! So here I am, regretting I just plonked a load of Special Effect Virgin Rose dye on my hair. I had highlight-esque streaks, lightened by my hairdresser, at the front for me to dye. Unfortunately my attempts at just getting the dye on those lighter bits was not so good. I dread to think what my hair is going to look like. I might end up with a weird, varying shades of purple front bit and brown the rest… I already have a couple of back ups plans:
1- Indulge in profanities and put purple on my whole head.
2- Panic and send OH to Boots tomorrow for Head and Sholders in an attempt to get the semi-permanant colour out.
3 – Panic and send OH to Boots tomorrow to buy bleach and have another go.
4 – Panic and send OH to Boots tomorrow to buy a black dye and lets forget the whole thing.
5 – Return to hairdresser in tears and beg for her to fix it.
6 – Everything is fine, crisis averted until I have to top-up the colour in a few weeks.
Gah…I hope for 6, but due to past disasters, they often end in 4! Black dye ahoy! Time to get in the shower *suspenseful music*
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