Me? Wearing colour???

Every once in a blue moon, I put down my neutral palette and pick up something colourful. Today it was a beautiful shimmery blue/green that I've had for years. Unfortunately it is unbranded but it's such a rich colour ugh I love it.

I tend to wear colour mostly on my lips as most of the time I have my glasses on so there's not much point in doing colourful makeup.

I used a shimmery white by MUA for my inner corners and added depth to my crease using an unbranded dark blue. 

For my liner, I used Illamsqua Precision Gel liner as always. 

My lashes are Red Cherry #48 and #28 that I cut up and stuck back together. 

I dabbed Shocking Pink on my lips by Barry M to add just a little bit of colour.

I really like doing makeup posts but I usually keep my makeup the same most of the time. But when I do my makeup different to, I will definitely post about it!

Thanks for reading :)

Minimal makeup

Today I just had to run a few errands but I still wanted to put on some makeup. I didn't really want to do a full face of makeup because I'd be taking it off when I came back. So I opted for a more 'natural' minimal look.

I used Barry M Flawless Matt Finish Foundation as it's a very sheer foundation and a decent shade match for my skin. I feel that it still looks very natural on the skin and allows your skin to show through. However, I've noticed that it contains some red pigments in that tend to streak on my skin sometimes.

Then I just put on some B. Makeup mascara. I rarely wear mascara as I just can't seem to get on with it (as well as bronzer and blush grr) because I feel it just serves no purpose other than make my lashes all clumpy due to my lashes being dark already. But seeing as I had no other eye makeup on, I thought I might as well.

I filled in my eyebrows with an unbranded grey eye shadow. I prefer grey as I think black looks too harsh and grey has more purple tones in which matches my hair. Plus I think it looks a lot softer. I finished my brows of with sweep of GOSH brow gel to keep them in place as they tend to look unruly sometimes.

I think it's very easy to buy vegan and cruelty free makeup in the UK because Superdrug has it's own brand as well as being a major stockist for other vegan and cf brands.

I then finished off with some Crazy Rumors lip balm in Spiced Apple on my lips. I love these lip balms and they have a great wide range of flavours. 

Thanks for reading ^.^

Getting the most out of your hair colour

When it comes to semi-permanent dyes, most people know that they fade really quickly or that some of them aren't as vibrant as they could be.
It can also be quite costly to constantly be buying hair dye especially if you have long hair.
I'm going to share a few tips and tricks that I've learnt on my journey with semi-permanent hair colour as well as being a hair student.
Hopefully these tips and tricks get you more long lasting colour as well as a much more vibrant colour.

The texture of dye

The texture of the dye is one of the most important things when it comes to how vibrant the hair is.
With semi-permanent dyes, you're gonna want to look for something that is thicker such as La Riche Directions or Manic Panic. Dyes like Crazy Colour or Adore are more liquidy and have more of a water content than they do of dye so more water is going into your hair instead of the dye. I use La Riche Directions as it's affordable and easily available.

Put it on dry hair

A lot of instructions on dyes say that hair should be damp when the dye is applied which doesn't make sense really. When hair is wet, the water molecules are in the hair which takes up space in the hair that could have been replaced by dye. So if you put the dye on dry hair, more of the dye molecules will get absorbed into the hair so you should get a more vibrant and long lasting colour.

Try not to put anything on your hair

Hairsprays and products often contain alcohol which draw moisture out of the hair as well as semi-permanent dye. In the past, I've used a lot of hairspray and I've noticed that parts of my hair would be a lighter colour where I'd used hairspray. Dry shampoos can also have this effect especially aerosols cans. A dry shampoo like Lush's No Drought is a god send for semi-permanent colour as it doesn't contain alcohol and stops hair from looking greasy due to less frequent washing. Look for alcohol in the ingredients of products, the further down the list it is, the less there is of it in the product.

Cool water

When you do wash you hair, wash it in cool water. The warmer the water is, the more colour will come out of your hair as it open up the cuticles on the hair shaft.

Make sure that it's absorbed into the hair

When you apply the dye to your hair, you should leave it on until you can touch your hair and no colour goes on your hands. A lot of people like to leave it until the dye dries which they can do as the dye will act as a deep conditioner as well (this is because they're vegetables dyes) which is good but it can be quite time consuming. After about half an hour, you should be able to touch your hair and have a very weak colour on your hand or a whiteish conditioner colour. This means that the pigments of the dye have absorbed into your hair.

Hopefully with these tips, you can get a long lasting and vibrant colour.
I live by these hair tips and I rarely have to dye my hair (about 2-3 times in 3-4 months) and the colour stays pretty vibrant

I hope these tips helped somebody and feel free to message me or leave a comment if you want to know more or if you're confused about something :)

Pretty Zombie Liquid Lipstick Review

So I've finally got round to doing this review, only like 4 months after I got the lipstick, gah!

Anyways, the lipstick I bought is called Three Witches and can be purchased here.

This is what it looks like:

It's an actual violet lipstick! I've been on the hunt for a violet lipstick for as long as I can remember. Many brands claim that a lipstick is violet but they have more red tones in than blue.

It dries to a matt finish however, it is not kiss proof.

For reference, my foundation is Illamasqua Skin Base in Shade 9.

From first application at 1pm.

12 hours later at 1am.

I was very surprised at the longevity of the lipstick as the website claims it's not kiss proof but it doesn't wear off easily but I think that's something to do with it being matte as I find that matte lipsticks tend to last longer.

Overall, I am very pleased with the product, however I will not be ordering from Pretty Zombie again in the future. This is mainly due to the fact that I placed my order on 15th September 2014 and hear absolutely nothing from the company about my order until I e-mailed them on 7th October 2014. They replied to me and asked me whether I wanted a refund or if I wanted them to actually send out the lipstick??? Like obviously I want my lipstick. I was looking on their Instagram and a lot of people were in the same situation as me and the company wasn't even updating any of their social media to let customers what was going on. I finally received my order on the 21st October.

But besides that, the lipstick is quite good but in future when I run out of this colour, I'll be getting I'm Royalty by Jeffree Star Cosmetics.

Thanks for reading.

Madame Madeline haul.

When buying fake lashes, I always buy them from Madame Madeline unless they're the China lashes that are like 40 for £4. I prefer to buy Red Cherry lashes because I like the variety of styles that there is and they're all a decent price.

I was in need of some bottom lashes to match my spikey top lashes that I made and I also wanted some more softer 'natural' lashes so that I can do a soft Gyaru look sometimes.

I chose lashes that I've previously had before such as the 747XS that I've bought and reviewed previously here

These are the lashes I wore ages ago as bottom lashes when I was in college and first trying out bottom lashes. 

I was looking at bottom lashes but they look really sparse and I wanted something with a lot more fullness so this happened.

I also bought my same spikey lashes #28 cause they look great with my spikey lashes that I made. I use these for bottom lashes so I'm not sure what they look like on top lashes. They're basically the lashes I wear on bottom when I have big lashes on.

I went for something a bit different with these pair of lashes. I like kind of spaced out lashes so I thought these would be perfect. I'm yet to try them on but hopefully they look good with my #747XS.

I also bought more DUO glue because I go through the stuff like crazy! I got the bigger size this time because it was on offer for $5.89 (£3.48)

Madame Madeline is an American website so everything is in US Dollars. Make sure that you have a converter handy when shopping!

I made my order on the 10th June and I recieved them today, 18th June which I think is pretty quick seeing as they came from America.

Each pair of lashes were $2.50 (£1.48) so that's $13.39 (£7.90) for the whole lot which is pretty decent! I also found a coupon code online that gave me 10% off so I paid $12.05 (£7.11) and $9 (£5.31) shipping.

So in total I paid $21.05 (£12.43) which for 3 pairs of lashes and a big tube of lash glue is very affordable.

I also recieved a card with a coupon code on that gives you 8% off your order and a free gift if you purchase $20 or more. The code is falsies.

Thank you for reading :)

How to bleach dark roots with minimal damage.

Ugh it's that time again, time to do my roots! My hair is naturally dark brown/black. My roots grow to about an inch and a half every 2 months so I do them roughly every 2 months.

It's a ball ache to do my roots but I've found a particular method on how to bleach them with very minimal damaging. COCONUT OIL!! I have always have a pot to hand just for that little bit of shine and conditioning when my hair is a tad lack luster.

Anyways, what you do is saturate your roots or wherever you're going to bleach with coconut oil and then run the excess through the lengths. Like you want it to look like you've dipped your head in a fryer. Let that sit in for at least 1 hour.

 

I usually whack a carrier bag on my head along with a towel wrapped around it to keep in the heat and then I go to sleep with it. Do not wash out the coconut oil. Apply the bleach right on top of it!

Then I apply the bleach to my hair by taking small sections across starting from the nape of my neck to the front of my head. I use TruZone 30vol developer and the TruZone blue powder bleach and leave it for roughly 1 hour or 45 minutes and it looks like this

It's like an orangey/yellow colour. I need it to be lighter so that the colours are more vibrant. So I waited for my hair to dry and then re-did my coconut oil on the roots and waited for 1 hour and then used 30 vol bleach for 30 minutes to get this result.

This is more of a light blonde but there are still some brassy tones so I used PRO-VOKE Touch of Silver shampoo. I left it on for roughly half an hour so that my hair went platinum.

 

This is the result afterwards.

I then wait for my hair to dry and then put on my dye! 

This time I used Manic Panic in the Colours Ultra Violet and Green Envy. In my opinion, they're the same as Directions dye but cost £10 and they both last the same.

I hope this helps someone!

Thank you for reading :)

Powder before foundation?

So, Wayne Goss is an MUA who does videos on YouTube, I absolutely love his videos! I love that he loves Julia Davis and does impressions of her in some of his videos. One of his recent videos is a foundation tip. The tip is to apply powder before your foundation but after your moisturiser for a matt finish and to extend your makeup wear much longer. I thought I'd try it out and see how it worked out for me.

When I first applied my foundation at roughly 10am. I used Estee Lauder Doublewear and used Ben Nye Banana Powder underneath and a light dusting on top.

At roughly 3pm. I was a tad shiny but nowhere near as oily as I usually am at this time.

I always get more oily on my nose than anywhere else

And this is when I returned home at roughly 10/11pm. The lighting isn't too great but I was quite surprised because I wasn't as oily as I usually am after a full day of wearing makeup.

So all in all, it's a very good tip! I will be using it in future but I think that I will powder during the day with it because I did get a bit shiny and I don't like that.

Thank you for reading!