5 days of Grey (Hair)

I had a small moment going into trending #greytone hair....

I felt ok with it, and then came to extra makeup to compensate for loosing warmth on my skin...

 

(it looks slightly green in this filter but you get the idea)

spooky Birkie

So I gotten over it and went warmer again.

I think natural warmer hairs have a bit of a non-moment these days. Various pinterest hair-spirations tell us that anything warm is brassy and anything ash is classy.

It sometimes seems to forget that there are women (and men) out there who are actually either natural redheads or copperheads. Not all faces are created equal and some people benefit more from having a bit of warmth in their hair instead of the ice-pole around their face.

E.g Emma Stone

Ofcourse, Miss Stone is gorgeous enough to pull either something cool or warm, but how ravishing she looks with warmer hair?

Alexa Chung

Alexa could also pull both warm & cool thanks to her stunning features. She often has a bit of a copper glow in her hair and somehow I feel it suits her better than cooler hair.

 Debra Messing 

She is not a natural redhead but it works amazingly with the warmth of her complexion.

And Instagram account @beautyisboring has this image of a warmer, honey blonde:

Annelot de Waal flaunting honey tones for Beauty is Boring

I'm all about bringing that photo to my colourist to ask if they could do a similar shade on me.

I liked being a grey for a while and it has helped me being able to accept going grey for real in da future.

German Vogue Editor Sarah Harris rocks her natural grey

I'm happy to see grey hair having a moment so the real greys are feeling more confident about their natural greylights out there.

 So what is your idea about the greytone trend?

March Empties...

A bit early but I won't be emptying anything cosmetic tonight. So before you think it's a joke (tomorrow) I'll post it now:

Photo upwards is empty no 1: a delicious home candle from L'Occitane in Amber. L'Occitane got a head-up from a reknown perfume blogger as one of the affordable but high quality perfume candle. Ambre is indeed quite pure and it is intensely sensual. It only is about € 15 and will keep the room fragantly delicious for 20 hrs or more.

Kneipp has a new bathoil with Argan oil, Marula and olive oils and I was curious about it's "Beauty Secret". I'm not too fond of it because of the fragance.

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Tisserand Massage oil works as a bodyoil and even in the bath. The Energy blend is zesty and fresh and the oils do not take too long to penetrate.

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The Fushi Really Good Sports Oil was a gwp and it's nice, but I will not repurchase as Kneipp has a similar range with arnica that might even cure muscles a bit quicker.

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De Tuinen Macademia Oil has been a hairoil: I love oils for hair and Macademia is a fatty one that has excellent moisturizing properties.

I've blogged about Cane + Austin over here and I loved the easiness of the pads. I repurchased the travel pack, wrapped individually, for travelling. For home peeling I restarted Omorovzica Copper peel again: Mixing up various peels stops the skin from being lazy and I still want to finish that set too. 

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Tammy Fender Intensive Repair Balm was still a part of the sensitive skin set. I brought it over on a sunny holiday as an after sun treatment and it's truly efficient and balmy. Which on a sidenote, it can be too balmy for daily morning use as it stays slightly sticky on the skin.

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Nourish Kale Revital-Eye Kale Biomimetic Anti-Ageing Eye Cream made it to my "Best of 2013"-list and I'm already on a new bottle.

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Kris d'Amour is a line of wonderful organic skincare and so generous with samples. The Rejuvenation Face oil has been a generous supply of 7 days: I wish my skin wasn't as sensible at the time being so I could see the results a bit better. I believe it's quite potent.

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Trilogy Ageproof Smoother has been a sort-of primer product for my skin. I should have put it into creases/beginning wrinkles etc only but I loved it over some larger pores as well. Good primer ability without feeling silicony & not irritating either.

Essence is one of my nail Drugstore favourite for being cheap and effective. The Fast Cuticle Remover really is on par with Creative Nail Designs (CND) or Sally Hanson cuticle remover within a fraction of the price.

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Viviscal Extra Strenght, the classic! My hair is healthy now (thanks to superfoods) but some faster growth would be nice. I finished month 1: I'll see in month 3 if it worked.

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I blogged about Esprique Eyebrow (Adambeauty calls it  'Eyeblow' -> ???)  over here. I like it and somehow I start to prefer a brow-pot or pencil as those show up more. Must be the Cara D effect.

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Silk Natural Finishing Powder in Date Bait is a true unsung hero in my collection. Gah, I should blog about it!!! It's the reason why I ignored NARS light reflecting pressed setting powder as that one is so unsubtle (read: sparkly) next to this formula. It's photoshop soft light filter in a jar! Ok, I still have 'Love Lure" so I'll review that version asap.

Now here's a long story again. Such trauma and relived trauma. But thanks to this B4 Colour hair Colour removal mixture I was able to live through muddy colour a bit shorter than I was about 14 years ago. Shortly: I went to the hairdresser wanting this (bit more polished and blended):

 

And ended up with this kind of colour:

Being 150 euros poorer.

First, I cannot figure why she gave me a muddy dark colour in the first place: I showed her the image of the "blonde in LBD" above to her place and told her that I wanted something similar. I was already quite blonde but I wanted more light on the bottom and some darkness at the top: like about 99% of all actesses and models have these days, not forgetting the fashionbloggers. No biggie, right? Well, Miss Superfriendly Organic Hairdresser turned into something Miss Evil-paint and totally messed up my nice previous colour. I complained, and then she did some dreadful, chunky highlights that looked like slutty-ville. OMG, I ran away before she could harm my hair some more (after being there for 5 hours already).

At home I've been washing with this B4 and it does remove a lot of colour. Pjew! Now the woman has muddy coloured me and did some weird blue toner afterwards so I still have to un-colour for a next round, but I have to give my hair a break first...Poor hairs! Good I have been on Viviscal for a month.

I really want to give her a negative rating on the review site but am not sure if I should do that: should I warn some other women too? I do not want to ruin her business but this has been most inconsiderate after me being so clear about what I wanted in the 1st place!

So that's about it for the month of March: I hope April won't be too traumatic beauty-wise, at least I'll stay away from "recommended" colourists for a while.

Apivita Nature's Haircolor in 9.3 Vanilla: Colour me Natural

Natural hairdyes, how do they live up to the 'chemical' standard? 

 I've tried Apivita's version and this review will look (elaborately/ high pic.ect) upon my experience:

I have lost my hair-virginity this year by experimenting with some L'oreal ombre. After that I went into some softer highlights and later the hairdresser's highlights.

Still, my initial intention into going into haircolour again is to get a softer frame by a more tweeked colour that surrounds the face. I spend a lot of time on the best makeup-colour for my face, why not on the colour of the hairs that surround it?

Initially, I wanted to go by natural dyes. I gotten into the more chemical versions as they are easier to get my hands on, and honestly, more people have tested them. Now it was time to try them and see if they match up to the 'chemicals'.

After last holiday I noticed my highlights had gone too bright and I had to make quite an effort to get frequent roots done. OR, I could lowlight my hair on top and get the 'Victoria's secret' Balayage idea that almost everyone of their catalogue has-> Win/Win -> less effort and more of a Model-'do.

Besides of the hair/total prettiness/etc: Want turquoise sportsbra!

Now I wanted lighter ends. Before I had some occasional highlights in there:

I wanted to go from a colour that is in group 8 to a 9 (like the highlight next to the box).

Before reviewing further I want to say I didn't do a full head of hair for the 1st time, only some strands at various places (bottom-hair (colourscale 8) and top (colourscale 7). I prefer to test out before I experiment: even if it cost me a package of dye, I prefer it than to do a full head and have the wrong colour that has to be expensively corrected by a professional colourist.

Result:

The Steps:

The total content of the box:

1. The haircolour cream in the tube

2. The developer in the bottle (ofcourse, mix 'n shake with 1)

3. The after treatment

4. Gloves: I go for my own hairdresser's gloves in a sturdy latex:

my own professional hairdresser's gloves

5. Instructions:

 

Quite similar as the 'regular' hairdyes.

Verdict:

In process: the application-fluid looked brown which gotten me slightly worried if they had put the wrong colour in the box. When rising out I did see some lightening.

Scent: sweetened artificial honey with some flower extract (still smell some typical developer element but faint)

Feel:  Non-stingy on the scalp.

Effect: It did a bit of brightening on the bottom (colour 8) of my hair but not the complete 9-vanilla colour as on the box, slightly more ashy. The box promised a colour-change for type 7 hairs as well, which I didn't really see

hairdye's promise

After Feel: My ends felt slightly dryer which might have to do I done 10 minutes more as I couldn't see any colour-change through the brown dye mid-process.

Any more remarks: The aftertreat sachet is really too small: I don't really have that much hair and it only could cover a bit of hair.

And?: Right now I prefer Phytocolor for a glossier and more obvious colour effect on the hair.

Conclusion:

Apvita Nature's Haircolour is a natural and non-irritant way to lighten your haircolour by 1 tint maximum.

Availability:

On the Apivita site for €15.80 and the UK-ers can buy it at Marks & Spencer.

Davines Alchemic Colour conditioner in Red

During autumn I always think I could be a gorgeous redhead but I never have the guts to take the real plunge. I have tried some colour-masks in the past, Christophe Robin Red was one of them, but they didn't make that much of a change. Enter Davines Alchemic colour conditoners: "Alchemic" sounds really promising.

The content of the jar looks like one of those Kool-Aid lemonade drinks that are widely available in the U.S, the Caribbean and Latin America too (?).

I always wonder why those drinks are so spiked with colourants whereas most Americans loved to be healthy and fit like their Hollywood starlets...then again, it's the contrast of the US and people have the right to drink their lemonade as colourful as they want.

To see how potent that is:

 Cool Aid lip stain from Paul Mitchell Academy and you can dye yarn with all Kool Aids (here)

What does this have to do with Davines? 

Oh, the colour it disposed on my hair was quite strong. That was something I really liked. On the other side, the colour was as chemically red as the what you saw in the jar.

I had Taylor Tomasi Hill- sorta red in my mind

 It didn't turn Rihanna-ish either but the colour was kinda too teenybopper for me!

It took about 4 session of shampooing to rinse the slightly cherry tone from my hair.

However, I loved how potent the colour-disposition is and might try another hue if I really want to see difference in colour.

As it is a hairmask I found the conditioning properties to be reasonable to good:

Things I finished...up...

Hey, I've finished up some-things !

Before doing my beautyblogger's job to add new makeup/cosmetic collections to my beauty-closet, I decided to try and finish up some things.

1. Christophe Robin Shade Variation Mask in Chic Red

Bijschrift toevoegen

Actually, I prefer the French name Rouge Vénitien that stands for Venetian Red...it sounds more sultry and Italian.

So, didn't we see this before? Yes, you have, only I reviewed the Warm Chestnut shade (here)

I have been using this one continuously for 3 a 4 weeks and it has improved the state of my hair. I used it as a conditioner and you have to see it more as a conditioner than a mask, but still good enough to make hair-improvements.

As for the colour, I thought nothing RED was going on, untill my boyfriend noticed me that my hair looked like a blondish red on top of my head. I have lighter hair there, so I kind of had a deep strawberry blonde thing going on....Wow, I always wanted to be a strawberry blonde without too much maintainance. Now I should only draw in some freckles with an eyebrow pencil and I'm good to go.

But seriously, I loved the scent and I will probably repurchase this when I finish up it's sister the Chestnut Brown.

2. Sophyto Omega Daily Moisturizer sample

I like my organic skincare for the fact that it has fewer additionals to upset a sensitive/reactive skin. I do use some more chemical based products too, but for comfort I often go for the organic varieties. And it's winter again so the skin is just more reactive.

This has been a lovely and neutral moisturizer that is more a basic than a product that would target specific aims (anti-ageing/depigmentation/etc). It is the kind of moisturizer that leaves the skin slightly mat and not with that sheen that some product have, which makes it attractive for people with oily/combination skin.

My only gripe was its scent: It smells like Omega capsules (the ones that still smell) and therefore I am still on par if I would go fullsize. I am testing some other organic skincare too at the moment, and that one is rose-scented and scentwise a bit better.

3. Själ Serum 1 liquid vitamin lift

Let's go a bit Swedish with Själ. I received this sample by choosing it myself with my last Zuneta order.

I haven't been using it long enough to say something about the results but I found the texture to be incredibly watery. In Asian skincare it would be seen as one of those water/toner products with additives against a certain skin-problem. I am not too sure about it. Still, during the time of usage it didn't irritate me and it smelled neutral.

4. Rouge Bunny Rouge Sketches on Water Tinted Moisturizer

You know you really love your sample when you treat it like your own baby and scrape the last tiny bit out of the jar: it's exactly with this tinted moisturizer.

Somewhat a smidge too light for my skintone at the moment, but so foolproof for days you want people to think you are not wearing foundation but actually are having a good skin day!

That will be a purchase in the full size, soon....

Anything you finished up lately?

Brightly Brunette: Christophe Robin Shade Variation Care Mask in Warm Chestnut

Seasonal colour change: it's not just nature but sometimes our hair cooperates as well.

Basically I am not the most experimental with haircolour, but I do like to vary a bit during the season. During the summer I often opt for that mixed bronde colour (somewhat between brunette and blonde). However, when Autumn arrives I like to make a colour decision and decide to leave the beachy blonde in my hair for what it is and go back to my warm-brunette nature.

I thought it would be handy to try out a caring hairmask with a temporary colouring effect. Reviews pointed me to Christophe Robin's colour hair masks, which was a good excuse to try out more pampering haircare with the benefit of a deeper and glossier colour. .

Christophe Robin, as you  might guess, is not your cheap-as-chips and easily available haircare range. I bought mine in a niche-shop in Rotterdam, and I believe you can find it online.

I found an interesting element in the FAQ of Christophe Robin's website that I found remarkably refreshing to read. I tend to veer towards my mid-30s, and I notice that the common advise for Caucasian, slightly fairskinned women is to go more blonde. Remarkably, Christophe Robin has the next thing to say about that:

click on the picture for larger letters ;D

Let me requote:

"blonde actually tends to emphasise dark circles under the eyes. Caramel, subtle copper and golden shades create a healthy glow and are very sensual"

Wow, it is something I knew intuitively and noticed on other women: blonde can look cute and refreshing in summer when having a tan (that masks dark circles and tiredness) but it can make the face look slightly washed out (talking about the pale blonde) without makeup/tan.

So my choice for a warmer chestnut isn't so weird after all.

Nevertheless, hair colour is as personal as you like it to be, so it is the person who wears it that should be happy about it, after all!

The back of the jar advises to leave on the mask from 5 to 30 minutes, and the longer the mask is left in, the stronger the colour. It claims the colour result stays for approximately 3-5 shampoo washes.

The jar of the mask is made of a sturdy black plastic. It contains a lot of product, relatively. It is also quite concentrated and pastlike, so you don't have to use much to cover your hair.

The colour is between a reddened brown and a standard brown.

Results:

I used this mask for the longest time on the jar: 30 minutes and wrapped in cling-film for a better result. I noticed the lighter parts of my hair were slightly darkened, but not something dramatically. The rest of my hair is already a chestnut brown so I couldn't really distinguish a strong colour change beside of a glossier finish and the lighter parts being made a bit darker.

However, I think this mask would work if my hair starts to get grey strands. I think it has enough colour to mask them a bit without dying. That would also mean you have to take regular masks (after every 2 washes) in order to keep the grey out of sight.

Scent:

A slightly chemical baby powder scent: not really matching with the somewhat natural vibe of the mask (without silicons etc) but effective in having that clean-hair scent.

Condition-wise  

I wouldn't consider it to be a deep-treatment compared to my spoiled nature of Kerastase Masks and the likes of it, however, it gives a glossy finish that glistens in sunlight. But for severe dryness I would suggest taking another mask first or use some extra leave-in treatment, e.g the Kerastase Elixir Ultime oil.
It is without silicons, which can be a pro when you like your hair to detox from silicones, but a con when you prefer to have that bit of slip in your hair.
Ingredients: (from their website)

The products contain natural ingredients and plant extracts which combine several actions :

• Nourish and hydrate the hair : oils (lavender, palm, olive, wheat germ, apricot kernel, Volubilis nut, sunflower, peach, Buriti), almond butter and St John’s wort extracts.
• Protect the hair from sun : sunscreens and oils.
• Fortify the hair : A-E-F vitamins and wheat proteins, rice proteins, pulp of philodendron tree and barley, honey.
• Lighten and illuminate : camomile, cornflower lemon zest extracts.
• Maintain the color : blueberry, vitamin E (very powerful natural antioxidant), omegas 3 and 6 and tocopherols.
• Revive shades and restore your hair to a radiant, pure color with completely natural effects : Fiorentina iris, carrot oil, cocoa butter and licorice extract.

Formulated with an acidic pH, our products respect the scalp and hair pH and counterbalance the alkaline pH of the oxidizing coloring products.
Their acidic pH formula tightens hair scales and helps avoid coloring pigment loss.
Alcohol dries whereas silicone gives volume and conditions but does not treat the hair.

The ingredients used in the products are as detergent free as possible so as not to irritate the scalp.

Price:

I bought the mask for €35 which gives you 250 ml or 8.25 fl oz. That is 50 ml more than you would get from a Kerastase mask, as they just give you 200 ml and retail in the hairdressers salon for €35 as well (you can get better deals online from lookfantastic.com or feelunique.com, though).

I cannot compare those two anyway, because Christophe Robin Shade variation aims for colour enhancement in the first place, but I just added this difference in content to show you that they are expensive, but not ridiculously different from the product that quite some women (and men) would allow to pay for their hair by buying Kerastase masks.

Repeat buy?

I actually bought the Chic Red one when it came with a lovely deal (a travel size lemon cleansing balm) but I have to see if it really makes me more reddish. But as I said, I wouldn't buy this mask only for the conditioning/repairing although it still has some good ingredients and conditioning properties.

You can buy it from their own website or from lookfantastic.com and the colours vary from Red, Ash brown, baby blonde, golden blonde. I actually miss a jet black, btw...they should add that colour as well.

Blythe Freshlight Haircolour Maple Brown

A couple of days I promised you a proper review on something quite new. I haven't received my sasa yet, but I received something else that I will review for you in this post. It will be a lengthy review with a bulk of picture, because it's about hairdye, and I think pictures speak a thousand words for those kind of reviews.

Most people reading my blog know I really like Blythe dolls. Yeh it's even my profile picture. They also know I use lots of Asian beauty products and read lots of Asian beauty-bloggers advise. In this combination I purchased Schwarzkopf Blythe's latest hairdye, an alternative version of the other hairdye Schwarzkopf Blythe has been on the market for the last couple of years.

Japanese hairdye companies were the first to launch the innovative formula of foam hairdyes, and as far as I have read from other beautybloggers, they have been better than the Western companies on this field. The colour is better and covers grey and other hairs better. Well, time for a personal challenge on that.

I had bought some hairextensions lately. However, I ordered them a bit too light to fit my colouring, so I thought I could dye them in a browner shade. Blythe's Maple Brown seemed to fit the bill with coming close to my natural shade. So I picked that colour. And the doll looks so cute on it  ♥

So, this is supposed to be the end-result colour: Maple brown:

Here is the extension that will be up for experimentation:

Oh, all pictures on this post have been uploaded quite large, but made a bit smaller for the formula of the blog. Feel free to click them for even more detailed view,

The box outside is written in Japanese, but the instructions are so detailed in pictures that every dummy in every language knows how it will function.

Expectation of colour: In my case, I will have the lowest kind of expectation because I'll experiment on light hair. If you don't have light hair, you might continue reading this review as well, because you might get grey hairs one day, and you can see if it captures the grey hairs as well:

Cute packaging and already some easy instructions on the outside:

Chinese instructions as well:

The bottom of the box:

Unboxing the box brings out a couple of items:

• the white bottle on the left should be mixed with the brown bottle on the left.
• before all of this: put on the gloves 
• the pump after the mixing of the white bottle solution and the brown (do not shake but tip it left and right for about 30 times in a gentle way)
• the sachet on the left is the typical after-treatment
• the pink sheet has even more elaborate instructions: let's have a closer look

All in Japanese again, but still dummy-proof for non-Japanese speakers:

Again: I opened the bottle by screwing the white lid off:

The solution smells lightly like apricots combined with chemicals. But not so strong as some dyes I have smelled.

Applying the brown bottle: the solution in there is a maple brown indeed:

As I said before, NO VIGOUROUS SHAKING, just stirring (sounds like Bond, James Bond).

The foaming action will blend them together a bit more. And the colour of the foam is already a bit of a maple brown:

So there it goes on my blonde extentions:

I've applied it all over, and afterwards I combed it in: that is for the dye to reach all of the hairs:

After 5 minutes: you can see it working quite rapidly:

After 12 minutes:

 I rinsed it out after 16 minutes. This is how it looks wet:

After blow-drying the hairs: In shadow-esque environment: (please click on picture for more detail):

In some more natural light: It seems lighter than the colour on the package, but it sure made the hairs a lot darker.

In sunlight:

The ends in sunlight:

I think the colour has turned out in a rather gorgeous golden darker blonde or light golden brown shade.

It is quite a match to my natural hair-colour, so in my personal opinion I am quite pleased how it turned out. I do think it turns out lighter than what I have seen on the box. But, that is for light hair, so if you have darker hair you might have a different result.

I don't know if I can say if this is suitable for Western hair. As we all probably know, most extensions are made of Indian hair, which has been dyed to look Western, but still has a stronger quality of hair.

The extentions actually are quite similar to my own hairshaft, but then again, I've often heard from hairdressers that my hair resembles Asian hair because of its straightness and the ability to have stubborn cowlicks.

Actually, I think it could work on Western hair too, as the colour does turn out to be slightly darkening, but not to dramatic. And for darker Western hair with a thin hairshaft I suggest it would work as well because of the gentle formula. I think the foam is not really harsh either and quite 'moisturizing' as I might say so. I have been dying extensions before (with John Frieda foam dye, Schwarzkopf Vital Colours, etc), and I can see some dyes being quite stern and damaging to hairs. This one is one of the mildest I have used so far.

So I would actually reorder this one and use it for my own hair as well.

I have bought this box on ebay from hkwai_beauty for $12.98 but right now they only have the Melty Cherry up, which looks quite nice too. There are probably some other sellers that sell this foam as well, but I liked the service from this seller and it's the only one I've tried so far for buying this particular product.