Monday, 28 July 2014

DIY Hair Colour Tutorial

Pink and Purple Hair

 I've had ombré hair for almost a year now, and that was a huge step for me in the fact that I don't usually colour or do anything with my hair, despite wanting to. So since its fairly blonde for the majority, I thought I would spice it up with a bit of colour, this is temporary and lasts anywhere from 3 - 30 washes. I did this all myself and I'm really happy with how it all turned out. If you're interested in knowing what I did. Keep reading.






 
The Product:
Here is the dye I used. They're both by the brand 'Fudge' and they're the 'Paint Box' colour dyes.They have a HUGE selection of colours and you can find them, here. The colours I used are Red Corvette and Blueberry Hill. I mixed the red with some conditioner to make it less intense as I didn't have an actual pink colour.

I also have some hair separating clips (these are TONY&GUY) a comb, Gloves and an old t-shirt.

Before:
This is my 'Before' picture. There is no product in my hair, this is just how it is naturally. It doesn't matter if you have anything in your hair because step one is to shampoo it. The instructions I'm following are from the back of the tubes of dye.







 Step One: Brush and Shampoo.

Shampoo your hair to get out any product and to make sure you have a nice clean canvas to work with, then towel dry. The hair needs to be wet/damp for the dye to develop. I separated my hair into two layers, I clipped the top layer u and out of the way.






Step Two: Apply the dye.
Though I seem to have quite a lot of hair, its actually quite thin and fine, so I don't need a lot of dye, I started out by squeezing about the size of a marble into my gloves and then worked that into the selected hair. I made sure to totally saturate the ends with dye and have it slightly uneven as it blended into my natural hair, basically following my ombré, I didn't want just a straight line of colour.
 



When you have all the hair covered in dye, let down the other layer and keep them slightly separate, I personally didn't mind if the colours 'bled' together a little bit because I like that effect, however if you want clear defined colours, wrap them in plastic wrap and clip out of the way. 

 Step Three: Processing
Apply the second colour of dye, I triple checked that I had all the blonde I wanted covered. I left just a small amount blonde where so it doesn't look like such a harsh transition. I let both of the dyes touch each other during the processing stage. If you don't want them to touch wrap them in plastic wrap and clip out of the way, or use plastic freezer bags, just slide your hair in, tie up with clear elastic and then clip up. Its a lot cleaner. Plastic can help with the processing. Leave colour on hair for 15 - 30 minutes. Rinse out until water runs clear and then condition your hair as usual.

 Step Four: Rinse, dry and style.
I blow dried, brushed then styled my hair, with the NuMe Lustrum. For these curls I used the tapered wand (the one that looks triangular). I was so happy with how the colours came out and how the transition from my natural dark brown hair, to the small amount of honey blonde, into the pink/red and down into the purple.




Close up of curls/colours.
Here you can see the colours blending into one another and looking vibrant. Because the red was 'watered down' with conditioner, it came out pinky / strawberry blonde which I'm very happy with. The colour may was out quicker thought because it wasn't 100% dye. If you're after a pink colour you should probably by the colour you want unless you don't mind about early fading.





 After: End Result styled.







Before                            After

 Final Comparison.








Monday, 21 July 2014

Nail Art Tutorial

Aztec Gold




This style of print is everywhere you look, jewellery, fashion and even nail art, I love it. Its perfect for spring and summer with light colours and pastels but with a change of colour it can be just the right amount of detail for a winter look.



Step One: Clean Nails
Remove all nail polish and then give them a once over with some nail polish remover to make sure they're nice and clean.
Step Two: The Product.
I'm using three Sally Hansen polishes for this. They're all from the 'HARD as NAILS XTREME WEAR' range and they're some of my personal favorite polishes to use.
 The three polishes are:
'100' "Invisible" a clear coat I use as a top coat.

'300' "White On" a nice opaque white.

'485' "Golden Eye" a gorgeous gold shade that goes on smooth but has plenty of sparkle




This is nail stripping tape, I got this and about 25 other rolls from ebay for approx $2.00 sssuuuuupppppeeerrrr cheap and no shipping. I'm sure there are a million other places to get it from. I chose to use it in a pink shade so it would show up in photos (however it did bleed into the colour slightly so keep that in mind) This product is something you can leave on the nails, or remove like a stencil such as what I've done.



Step Three: Painting the nails
I did both hands like this, however feel free to choose two colours of your own. I'm thinking for more of a winter look changing to a black or a navy blue instead of white. The options are endless.




Step Four: Detail.
I did a really basic design, to be honest this was quite time consuming and tricky, I did it to one hand only (my original intent anyway) I was going to do more of a zigzag pattern but for my first time using the stripping tape I thought I'd do something 'simple'
 




Step Five: Paint over - BE MESSY
Paint over the tape with opposite colours, so keep that in mind when painting your nails for the first coat, whatever one you want more colour of, paint the opposite colour first. On the gold nails, I painted them over with white and on the white nail (accent nail) I painted it over with gold.
Now I have opposite hands because I chose to do the design to one hand only and I really like the look of them.
I stress about being messy, make sure you've covered all the base colour polish up, its easy to clean up rather than having to go back when the colour is dry and painting a small little line.
Step Six: Remove Stickers
Peel off the stickers carefully (I used tweezers to help me) and then slather on a coat of clear polish to make sure the edges don't flick up and tare. As I said before the pink did bleed into the polish a little bit, but I don't mind, its all a learning experience.

Thats the final look and I hope you like it. Thanks!