Purple hair with Essence Rock Style Hair Dye Powder

2 years ago I tried to dye the bottom of my hair purple with not so great results. Even though I bleached my hair first, the purple just wasn’t noticeable. So much so that I spent an entire weekend away in London with a friend, for her to only notice when we exited the airport when we had returned home! Later that year I tried pink and it turned out well but I still wanted to have purple hair.

Enter Essence Rock Style Hair Dye Powder! I was lucky enough to receive the purple one (Pretty Purple!) at the Manchester Launch and couldn’t wait to try it. So on my last day before starting my new job, I decided to give it a shot as I was going to wash it out at the end of the day. Here’s the results.

The first picture really highlights how my hair does not like purple! But I just couldn’t get the picture right, I even took it outside and it just wouldn’t play nice for me! The second picture does give a better idea of how it looked though.

To use the product, you take small sections of your hair, place the strand on top of the powder where you want it to start, placing your thumb there to hold it in place and then pull the hair down long the stand until you reach the bottom. You might need to repeat that again to get the colour payout you want. Then just repeat the process on however many more strands of hair you want to colour. When finished, spritz your hair with hair spray to seal in the colour. Beware though, there is a lot of fall out with this product, so I recommend doing it over the sink, wearing an old t-shirt and even gloves if you wish (though it do wash out pretty well). It can be a bit fiddly, it did make me wonder if it was in a stick form if it would work better or not. Also if your hair is long and you want to do all of the bottom like I did, one of these powders should do, it does get uses up fast if you’re not just adding a streak or two! My powder is over half way gone but the price isn’t too expensive so I don’t mind. Next time I will be reaching for the green powder!

You may also notice in first picture I have purple lashes. That’s another Essence product that I will be covering in another post along with 2 other coloured mascaras.

The Rock Style Hair Dye Powder comes in 4 colours, purple, pink, blue and mint. Do you think you’d give it a go?

Purple Rain

A post dedicated to my purple nails and purple hair!

During the week, Beaut.ie featured some new Rimmel nail polishes and I fell in love with Marshmallow Heaven. I knew I had to have it. So when I saw they were 2 for £4 in London I went ahead and picked up Marshmallow Heaven and Disco Ball.

Marshmallow Heaven in natural light with no flash

Marshmallow Heaven topped with Disco Ball (Natural,no flash)

Same as above with flash

Also I knocked off one of my 25 Before 25 by dying the ends of my hair purple! Of course though I didn’t get a proper picture before I washed it and it faded a bit. But I tried my best!

Ok, I really should have got a better picture and I probably should have gone with something like pink to help it pop a bit more, my bad!

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 22

Once again I was slacking so I decided to try out a hair style that I might use tomorrow. I went for this simple braided up-do by Oh So Pretty The Diaries. And here’s how it turned out!

I quite like it! And it was easy to do. Here’s how!

1. Tease the top of your hair to give a little volume and then smooth out (this is optional though).

2. Split hair into 3 equal parts. Then split each of those parts into 3 equal parts (so now you have 9 equal parts, A1,A2, A3. B1,B2,B3. C1.C2.C3).

3. Take one of the small parts (for example A1) and plait/braid this. Then plait A1, A2 and A3 together. Secure into place with a clear hair tie or with one the same colour as your hair.

4. Repeat with the B and C sections of the hair. So at the end you will have 3 plaits, which is made up as one smaller plait and 2 unplaited pieces.

5. Loosen out these plaits a bit and then roll up into buns. Secure into place with kirby grips/bobby pins. Spray with hair spray if you wish.

Phew, I hope that makes sense! If not, definitely check the link above where I got the idea, they do a step by step photo guide. I couldn’t do that unfortunately as my boyfriend is playing computer games at the moment! He did say it looks very Heidi-ish.

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 16

Another day, another hairdo! My 3rd one for this challenge and probably not the last. I’m very boring when it comes to my hair, it’s either down or else in a ponytail. Or if I can’t be bothered to wash it, a plait as it helps to disguise greasy hair!

I’ve tried to do a fish tail before but failed because I just couldn’t get what to do in my head. Until I saw this video from The Beauty Department. And soon it began to make sense! And this photo series from Hair Brained Beauty also helped too. Here’s the results!

A close up.

I’m pretty happy with the results. It looks better at the bottom than at the top. Probably because I have layers, bits and pieces started falling out of my hair. But I think I’d try it again.

Make up info in case anyone wants to know!

No. 7 BB Cream for Normal/Oil skin in Light

Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer in Light

Bourjois Eyeshadow in 05

Essence ‘All eyes on me’ mascara in brown

Maybelline Dream Touch Blush Peach

Smashbox Blush Rush in Paradise

Essence Bronzing Powder Matt in 02 Love to be Matt

Bourjois Rose Exclusif in 01

 

T-Shirt is from New Look

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 6

So this is a couple of hours late. Justifiable if you ask me, I was spent most of today sat on a bus! I knew before I left yesterday that I would be travelling home most of the day and that I would probably get in late. Therefore I planned in advance to try out one of Pinterest’s most pinned hairstyle: The Sock Bun. Basically, the idea is to cut off the toe part of a (clean) sock that’s the same-ish colour as your hair, roll it into a tube and then manipulate your ponytail around it.

I found two pins on this, the first one placing the tube at the top of the ponytail touching your head, spreading the hair around it until the sock is covered and then pinned into place. The second pin I found involved placing the tube at the bottom of the ponytail and rolling it towards the head until hair is rolled around the sock in a bun shape. I decided to go with the 2nd technique. I didn’t have time to do this in the hostel, so I practiced on the bus before I got home!

Even though it was slightly messy, I was impressed with how it looks and will definitely try it again. However, when I was in Penneys (Primark) yesterday, I picked up one of these:

A special donut used for these buns and it was only E1.50. I found it a lot easier to work with, probably because the hair sticks between to it thanks to the almost Velcro like texture of the donut. Here’s how the bun turned out using it.

Not perfect either but slightly better. The only downside to this is that I’m not sure if it would suit people with thinner hair as it might be hard to cover the donut as it’s so thick.

Right, I’m off to bed now as I’m still feeling sick. Let me know what you think, have you tried the sock bun before?

30 Days of Pinterest: Day 2

I knew straight away when I woke up I’d be looking at the hair board as my hair needed to be washed but I really couldn’t be bothered. I wanted a quick and simple updo. So I found this pin (and try as I might,I can not find the source for it, very annoying. The closest I got to was this, which has a link for the source but it has I do not have permission to view it).

I wanted to do a step by step photos but didn’t have anyone to help me so the end result will have to do!

A tad sloppy but I think I’d need a few goes to get it perfect. Let me know what you think!

New Hair: A Week Later

So true!

This is pretty much how I've felt since getting my hair cut. Ok, so I haven't really been crying that much but I have lamented the loss of my lovely locks! I should be used to it now, but I'm not. Though I'm slowly getting my head around it and it's not so shocking anymore when I glance into the mirror. I do like how my hair looks so much healthier but it just doesn't seem like my hair.

(Not sure who drew this, so I can't credit anyone! I came across it on a forum, so thank you to that poster for showing it to me)

Hair Behaving Badly

It is a universally acknowledged truth that just before you go to change your hair in any shape or form, it begins to look great. Fact. It is something I have documented several times times in my life.

For example, for the past month and a half, I have been looking forward to getting my hair trimmed. I love having long hair but it was now at the top of my bum and it was just dragging me down. My hair is naturally thick and curly but at this length there was too much weight in it, pulling out the curl and just pulling my overall mood down. It was still relatively healthy and would have given Cheryl Cole a run for her money but I was getting sick of it. I eventually managed getting around to booking an appointment three days ago and low and behold, my hair began to behave itself! So much so, that I didn't want to get it cut after all! I went through with it though and boy am I relieved I did. It has been such a relief, it's a weight off my shoulders, both literally and figuratively. My mood has been lifted and I can swish my hair around more, which is always a bonus. And I will save a small fortune on hair products. I was quite surprised by this transformation in moods, but thinking about it, it makes sense. Hair has always been associated when moods, like having a bad hair day. Washing that man right out of your hair. And getting a bad hair cut or dye job is enough to turn on the waterworks and have a grown woman cry for days. I guess I just underestimated the mood changing power of a hair cut.

Now, back to the original topic. I haven't just noticed this when I go to cut my hair. Oh no, this happens every week when I go to wash it. Washing my hair is one of my biggest burdens, I would almost clean my room over washing my hair. Because of the length and thickness, it is such an effort to go wash it properly, there's more steps involved than I want to count right now (maybe another post on that). I often put it off until I need to wash it and then when I decide I will go have a shower, it starts looking good again! It's like it's saying 'NOOO! Don't wash me, I'll behave I swear!'. Like a bold child. I guess it's just one of those Laws of The Universe, like how you WILL look back on teenage pictures and cringe at the dreadful make up.

Does this happen with anyone else?