Wella Illumina Colour

So it's been a LONG time since I've posted anything! I started a new job in November so have been working flat out, but nevertheless I haven't forgotten about this page!

My story begins a few weeks ago, when I felt like I wanted to try out some new toners since the only one I stick with has been Wella Koleston Perfect in 10/8. It seems to be the only one that gives me a streamlined colour, with no signs of demarcation when having bleached my roots. You may be thinking, well why change it if it works for you? I think it stems somewhat from getting bored extremely easily when it comes to colouring my hair, plus having more of a variety in what toners I can use seemed like a good idea.

Not wanting to stray too much from the path, I came across Wella Illumina Colour. I ended up going for 9/60 : Very Light Violet Natural Blonde as I wanted to try going a shade darker (which I know is quite a difficult feat to achieve at home!) I bleached my roots as normal, and then mixed the toner with Wella Welloxon Pastel in a 2:1 ratio, and applied. At the time the mixture was VERY purple, I did panic slightly but thought it would just wash out once the application time had passed.. oh how wrong I was! I really don't know what happened, but it had turned all my hair purple APART from my roots :( After a quick bleach bath the colour did disappear, and I had to bung on half a tube of Wella Koleston 10/96 that I had lying around to tone it down. 

So moral of the story is.. stick to what you know!

xox

The Indecisive Ombre

After having solely blonde hair for almost two years now, I'll be honest.. I'm bored of it! In the days when my hair used to be dark, I loved having the odd few blonde blocks here and there because it meant I could dye them all kinds of colours! But with a shade this light I have always been put off slapping a colour of the rainbow on it.. until now.

I've been thinking of colouring my hair for a while now and have always wanted ombre hair, but at the same time didn't have the heart to let go of the blonde mane of hair I have reluctantly kept for all this time. So a few days ago, I thought bugger it - let's do this! 

Having bleached my roots a week prior and still seeing a yellow tinge, I thought I would re-bleach and tone so I would have no hint of regrowth when colouring the ends. I sectioned my hair down the middle and tied the ends to where I wanted the ombre to begin. At first I used a bit of Purple Hill (Fudge Paintbox) mixed with conditioner, and the more I put on the more sloppy I became. I grabbed Cyclamen (Crazy Colour) and added it into the mix. I've always loved blending colours together as they pretty much act like paint, although my intentions were never to be pink!

I ended up with a pink and purple hue. If I was aiming for that colour I would of been pleased, but my moment of indecision and carelessness had left me irritated at what I had done. So the next morning I decided to bleach bath the ends to remove as much colour as I could. Doing this is pretty simple; you just mix up a small amount of bleach powder and a low developer (10 or 20 vol), and combine with an equal amount of shampoo. I painted this on the ends of my hair and wrapped in foil to retain some heat and process quicker. My ends are screaming for a trim, but I begrudge it for the moment as I want to grow my hair past the length it always seem to stay at. After 10-15 minutes, I opened the foil and the colour had almost gone, except for a few deep purple hues. This didn't both me as much, as my main aim was to get rid of the pink.

This time around, I decided against tying my hair off as I think it makes it more difficult to saturate strands and instead, opted for spreading the hair out on foils to give it a less levelled look. Keeping the Cyclamen firmly away from my mixing bowl, I used only Purple Haze and conditioner this time. At first I added about a teaspoon of colour into conditioner and saturated both sides of the hair. I then added more colour to the remaining mixture and painted it onto the ends, so it would add a gradient effect. After leaving it for 30-45 minutes, I washed it out using cold/tepid water. (TIP: When using high pigment colours, to retain the colour use only cold/tepid water as it will help lock it the colour and prevent running. This way you will be able to keep the colour for longer! :))

Ultimately, this is what I was left with. This picture shows the colour better for what it looks like in 'real-life'. In pictures it keeps coming out a more standard purple colour as opposed to the lilac/lavender it presents. So after my silly decisions the first time around, I corrected it and love the bit of change I have injected into my hair.. for now that is!

If you are looking to use a bit of colour, you can pretty much combine colours together or pop some conditioner in to 'weaken' the mixture to get the desired shade you want. There will forever be an ongoing battle as to what hair dyes give you the most longevity, but they pretty much all will give you at least a few washes out of them, or more if you stay away from washing your hair with boiling water!

xx

Busy Busy Busy!

So it's been quite a bit of time since I posted! I've been busy doing lots of extra shifts at work, aside from occupying the title of a graduate still looking for a proper job!) 

I have been lightening my friend's hair for quite some time now, and we are almost there with getting it to the desired blonde shade. I will be bleach bathing her hair next time, and I hope to post up and step-by-step on how to do that. It's pretty simple, but as always it's something to be cautious over purely because you will still be working with bleach. When I tried (and failed, BADLY) to achieve this colour I once had, I was mortified when it turned patchy with added bits of silver everywhere! After a lot of panicking and a little bit of research, I bleach bathed my hair twice and as if by magic my lovely blonde hair had made a very welcomed comeback! 

My lovely lavender hair (R.I.P)

So I promise that a step-by-step will be up in a few days, along with a review (or two!) of some products!

xx

Belated Birthday!

So I turned 24 (eek!) last Thursday. I don't know whether I'm liking the fact that I'm one step closer to 'proper' adulthood, as people still mistake me for being 18 or under!

On the actual day my mum suggested we go to Top Golf. I've been a few times with friends and family and we have always had a good time. Each game is 20 balls each, so we decided to play two games as you are in no rush to continuously play. I would recommend this activity if you are looking for something fun and fairly inexpensive to do :)

I'm glad to say I won the first game (Quite pleased with myself as usually I'm rubbish!) but my brother won the second. It was the hottest day of the year as well, so we could say we had a good round of golf on the green! Haha. The nearest place to me is in Chigwell, but I am aware of a few other locations.

Later in the day my older brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew came over. The kiddies helped me open my presents, one of them was a beautiful ring that my mum got me and inscribed on it was 'my daughter, my love' (which I thought was mega sweet). Afterwards we decided to go to the pub and have some dinner. Me and Pete (my older brother) decided to go for the hottest curry on the menu. Suffice to say.. it was tasty! We returned home and I let the kiddies blow out the candles on my cake :) It was a lovely day; the older I get the more family time becomes important to me!

My younger brother with my niece, and my older brother with my nephew. Family love :)

On Saturday, I went out with my friends to Koko's in Camden for their 'Buttoned Down Disco' event. As my potential attendees were dropping like flies I was thinking flitting from pub to pub was going to be the only answer. On a whim I decided to check Koko's website, I have only been there once before for a gig but I fell in love with the interior of the place! To my surprise I found BDD, an invite only event and it looked quite quirky - just my thing! Eveyone was warm and inviting and it had a nice vibe to the place. I thought it was good the way the invites functioned, as to be kind of exclusive only to those people who had prepared to come beforehand. So I rounded up my girls and we had a super night, I highly recommend it :)

Garden, pubs, more pubs and BDD!

On Sunday against the uncertain weather, I had a BBQ with my family. My mum in typical fashion bought everything you could possibly think of, so needless to say we were well fed and watered :) I shall be cracking on soon with some reviews and such as I feel I have been off the radar lately!

xx

A step-by-step on how I bleach my roots.

Hello everyone! So I'm pleased to be finally writing this post, as it was my main inspiration/motivation to get this blog up and running.

I think the sheer amount of people sharing their methods, tips and tricks is brilliant for those of us who are venturing into unknown territory when it comes to DIY bleaching; it can definitely pay off to read reviews from others when considering what products might work for you. Having said that, I know the products I use might not work for everybody, but currently they work for me :) 

Bearing in mind that I'm still new to DIY bleaching, I'm always on the lookout for different toners and I haven't looked for other bleaching products as for now the ones I'm using are working for me. Before I begin I have to say that I'm not, nor ever will be a trained hairdresser so if you don't feel confident to DIY please go to a professional! :)

Products used from L-R: Tint bowl and slim/wide tint brush, Wella Koleston Perfect Rich Naturals 10/8, Welloxon Perfect Pastel, Trulites RAPID BLUE Powder Bleach, Truzone Cream Peroxide 6% 20 Vol, hairclips, hairbands and gloves. Don't forget an extra pair of hands if you need some help and an old t-shirt! (optional)

Firstly, I made sure I had everything ready and set up before beginning, that way I didn't faff about whilst in the middle of putting the mixture on my hair! Also, I always leave my hair to get as greasy as possible before I bleach it, as the natural oils help to protect the hair as much as possible from potential damage. I mixed the powder and cream developer together using (quite strangely) a disposable fork! (Instructions call for 2 scoops of powder bleach & between 45ml-70ml of cream developer, depending on the consistency you like)

It may seem a bit strange, but by using a brush I always found it quite difficult to mix together. In comparison, the fork's sharp points helped to emulsify everything together and leave the mixture smooth instead of gritty. A bonus with using something disposable is you can obviously just throw it away after use :)

Next, I part my hair from ear to ear and tie the front part of my hair up. My mum always bleaches the back part of my hair as I always have trouble doing so, even when using a mirror to see. It's just more useful to have someone who can actually see what's going on back there!

As my hair tends to take more time to process at the back of my head, we completed the bleaching on that part first to give it a longer processing time. My mum is a fearful woman when it comes to helping me with my hair, so by doing the part of the hair which takes longest it gives her some extra time to put it on and also helps me out in the long run!

By the time she had finished it, you can see just how much it lightened already! This is why I would recommend this brand of bleach, purely because of the amount of lift it gives in a short amount of time :) Taking into account that I use a 20 vol developer, I think it is pretty impressive.

I tend to go from R-L when doing the front section, firstly sectioning down the middle and tying a side off. Then, using the tip of the tint brush, taking 1cm-1inch sections and coating them with the mixture. After completing one side, I then untied the other and used the same technique. Once I had finished it looked something like this, and again you can see the difference in development from completing the first half to the next :)

I left this on for about 90 minutes altogether (from the start of bleaching to the time of washing everything off), by this point it had reached a pale yellow colour which is what I was looking for. I didn't want it to be too brassy in case the toner couldn't neutralise it completely. As processing time is completely dependent on the natural colour of your hair, just keep checking how your hair is getting on by scraping off some of the mixture to expose the hair underneath, and then you can make the judgement as to when you wash it off. If like me, you do not use a shower cap or plastic bag to put on your hair (this helps to keep the moisture and heat in), then you might have to re-apply in places as the bleach mixture will stiffen and dry and therefore, stop processing. Make sure when you are washing bleach off, that you only shampoo your hair if you are planning on using a toner afterwards. Conditioner creates a barrier preventing any colour getting absorbed, so if you applied toner it wouldn't penetrate the hair shaft.

Once I washed it off, I was a little bit disappointed as it seemed a bit darker than what I thought it would be :( Undeterred, I continued on with toning. The toner I use can actually be used as a hair colour if mixed with developer, but I use it by combining it with the Welloxon Perfect Pastel (1:2 ratio - 1 part colour, 2 parts developer). Some toners, such as the Proclere Herbal Toner (which I have previously reviewed) do not need mixing with anything else, but what toner you use, if any, is completely up to you!

This shade of toner is 'Lightest Pearl Blonde'; I previously used the Lightest Ash Blonde and was happy with the result, but I thought I would try this shade just to see if there was any difference in subtlety. Mixing it up it looked a slightly peachy shade, and unlike the ash blonde which looked slightly pinkish when I put it on my hair, this shade came out more silvery when applied. I left it on for 30 minutes even though the instructions say to leave it on for 20 - TIP: be careful with how long you leave toners on for, as your hair is porous once you have washed the bleach off and depending on what base colour your toner is (purple, blue, green), you could be at risk of it turning a colour you never asked for! When you wash toner off, use cool water to help close the cuticle and seal in your new colour :)

The finished product, yay!

So all in all, this process took me just over 2 hours to complete, cost me less than £20 ($30 for all you American viewers!) and left me with some lovely renewed blonde hair! I think that I still have a bit of a journey to get my hair 100% in terms of an even colour and corrected (there are still parts of my hair that are just a smidge darker than what I would like, but maybe that's just because I'm very conscious when it comes to my hair!).

I hope this step-by-step can help anyone who is thinking of DIY'ing, I would definitely suggest using a 20 vol developer and to take your time when considering what products you decide to use, as it will make a massive difference :)

xx

Finally! After two weeks..

..My hair is lovely and blonde once more! After what seemed like forever, my toner FINALLY turned up so I could crack on with bleaching my roots. Once I have finished work over the weekend, I will be posting a step-by-step on how I bleach my roots (pictures included!)

Before and after :)
Toner used was Wella Koleston Perfect Rich Naturals 10/8 (Lightest Pearl Blonde)

For now, I'm a happy bunny!

Three cheese on toast? Why not!

I get it. That feeling of eating something you know will probably cause you to gain a billion lbs. But then I say to myself 'what the heck, I'm hungry!'.

There's not really a 'recipe' so to speak, but this is a yummy treat to eat whatever the time of day. For my cheese on toast I used:

Bread (Obviously! Lightly toasted on both sides)

Mild Cheese

Grated Mozarella

Grana Padano (You can use Parmesan if you wish)

A few dashings of worcester sauce

Just toast the bread, and on one side add a sprinkling of grana padano, then layer on the mild cheese and finally, scatter the grated mozarella. This comes in handy when there might be little gaps of bread untouched by cheese - you can just fill them in! :) After that, add however much worcester sauce you like and grill until melted, bubbly and golden brown.. and hey presto!

(And yes, I had four bits because I am a little piggy!)