Review: Bleach London Bruised Violet and Washed Up Mermaid

Hey All

I'm a massive fan of coloured hair. I love to have my hair different colours and Bleach London are colours I've been aware of over the past year but never tried till now. (I love there white toner but that's a whole other blog post!)

My hair is currently pretty white blonde and has had all the colour lifted on it various times at Kamigata and had the amazing Aveda colours in (you can see a post on it here). Matthew who works his colour magic on my hair is leaving soon so I decided to grab my housemate and try colouring my own hair again. 

I actually did a strand test. Usually I don't bother but as I couldn't decide which colour to do (I also bought blullinni.

After the strand test I decided I loved bruised violet and washed up mermaid so after watching Matthew do a colour melt technique on my hair last time I decided to try doing that. Basically you need three tint brushes. One for each colour and a blending one. You add the top colour at the roots and the bottom colour to the tips leave about and inch in the middle and use the spare brush to mix excess colour from the two to blend in the middle. This helps avoid as harsh lines.

I did like that they were premixed as it makes application easier and means if you want to experiment with colour you don't have to use the whole bottle in one go!

As I can't see the back of my hair I explained to my housemate what I wanted and she kindly did it for me. After applying it to freshly washed damp hair I waited 20 minutes and rinsed. First thing I noticed were on a full head of colour both were darker than the stand tests.

Secondly it hasn't taken brilliantly in some places which is a bit disappointing. I had expected better results. But saying that I do love the shades and I can't wait to see how it fades. I'm hoping it's as pretty and even as Aveda colours!

But I do have to say my hair is feeling very soft and not at all dry!

Have you tried bleach london colours? Any tips or colour suggestions?

Love M

xxx

Aveda Colour at Kamigata

Morning All

I've been experimenting lots with my hair lately so I thought I'd share with you. Especially for our South Wales followers as the salon I'm loving is a Cardiff one.

For ages I got my hair done in Guy Christian. I'm a believer in you get what you pay for and love a luxury salon as it feels like a feel treat. After telling myself I couldn't afford it I became a groupon gal and jumped from salon to salon. I convinced myself I was happy but after a few disasters when I saw Kamigata advertising on Facebook for colour models I jumped at the chance.

Kamigata is a salon in St David's 2 and whenever I've walked past I've wanted to try it. Anyone who knows me will know over the past 6 months I've experimented with my hair a lot but after a few disasters at the hairdressers (they died it pink but it didn't take to half my hair so looked fruit salad esque, when they 'fixed' it two weeks later with lilac again it didn't fully take!) after this I decided to do it myself. After the condition started to get bad in Jan I had a good 5 inches cut of my hair and it died brown to make it healthy.

As soon as the hair dye went on I wasn't happy. I didn't feel like my hair was me, I felt bland an unhappy with it and quickly ended up putting a blonde box dye on it.

The first transformation by Matthew!

Kamigata were asking for hair models to test out the new Aveda colours. Aveda were a brand that traditionally followed natural hair (you should check out Matthew's balayage skills. A natural ombre!) but due to the trends of bright colours have released some amazing pinks and blues which can be mixed to make other colours.

In daylight. I love the shade it came out.

After a chat with Matthew I felt in much more capable hands. He lifted my hair all over so it was an even base an applied the pink from the collection. We applied it wet at first so it had a toner effect and left my hair with a gorgeous rose pink effect (this is what I want for summer!) as we were playing around with colour we decided to go brighter! Here is the amazing effect.

As it started to fade it turned a lush rose colour!

The thing that has impressed me the most with the Aveda colours is the gorgeous way they fade. No patchy fades and washed out to a soft rose pink then back to basically blonde.

The faded effect!

After this we decided to play more. Let's go three colours. We used the pink mix from before, the blue and mixed the blue with bleach to give a purple colour. I love how mixable the colours are to get results you like. You can get totally different shades of pinks, purples and blues.

eeek it looks scary!

The finished result.

I love how the green and blue poke through.

Unfortunately my hair has to be normal for the next 8 weeks. I'm totally converted to Matthew. I totally trust him to do whatever to my hair as I feel like he already knows me. It's been ages since I trusted someone so much with my hair! I can't wait to let him play again once my brother's wedding is over!

Again it faded to lush icey tones!

and back to rose pink! I couldn't be happier with how it fades!

And here we are now. I can't wait till next Thursday for Matthew to work his magic! We are thinking blonde/ash toned next!

Are you someone that experiments with hair? If you're South Wales based I can't recommend Matthew enough. He's done some beautiful work.

Love M

xxx

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feel like I should say this isn't a sponsered post nor did kamigata know I was a blogger. I just struggle to find a hairdresser I trust and wanted to share when I have find a good one!

Beauty Rehab

I haven't written one of these posts in a while and had quite a collection of products building up!

Firstly I had a lot of minis to get through so decided to kick start my using my back log of products I'd try and use some of these:

The Aveda Damage Remedy products I previously blogged about here.

I absolutely loved them and would buy in a heartbeat if I could afford it!

The Dead Sea shampoo was pretty average really, I had it from a recent hotel visit that I took to keep in my gym bag. Probably wouldn't buy this.

I think as a beauty obsessive taking vitamins is pretty important though I prefer to get mine through food (yum!). These were alright though I personally can't be bothered taking them any more, do you bother with vitamins?

Not really a beauty product but i was interested how many people took them!

I've had this foot spray for yonks from my mum, had a really nice smell and was quite refreshing on the feet but wasn't something I used very much.

Neither was the Scholl foot spray, I decided to try and use them up so they weren't wasted but I don't really like feet so pretend they're not there ;)

The Vichy Normaderm (also featuring in the photo below, bad photo skills!) was absolutely amazing, I'd definitely buy this again if I didn't have lots of others to use. Loved the effects and not too pricey either!

Ted Baker Body Scrub....I wasn't a fan of this as I dislike the oily effect some scrubs leave and this was one of them. A good scrub but hated the oiliness! Wouldn't buy again.

Good old Sun Swim and Gym shampoo for coloured hair! I was worried my hair would be affected by the chlorine in the pool but this put my mind at rest and helped keep the colour looking good.

Beloved Liz Earle! Have bought myself more of this and will continue to buy more as it's working well for me and probably most other beauty bloggers have all raved too!

Soap and Glory Righteous Butter - not much needs to be said about this as it smells amazing, everyone always compliments me on the smell and it works a charm! Just not good when you're putting skinny jeans on afterwards!

St Tropez Spray Tan - love this also but its such a shame that it doesn't last barely any time, probably 2 full body applications in a can and there are others out there with much more value for money.

Love the product, not the price!

I ended up throwing these 2 out...I bought them both when they were new out and haven't ever used them much.

Have been trying to use them up by wearing them to the gym as they're lighter and I still need to wear something to cover my skin (I know it's bad!) but basically i couldn't be bothered with them anymore.

The tinted moisturiser is too dark for my skin and seems to clump on my face.

The mineral foundation was chalky and separated on my face also, basically they're both horrible products that I'm disappointed I bought.

No7 usually have a lot more promising products than this!

Also another product I have barely used, Dr Nick Lowe Purifying foaming cleanser.

This is barely used and if anyone wants it they are more than welcome to it???

Its £12 I think, but I just cant get on with it anymore seeing as my skin has decided to react to almost every thing!

Let me know if you'd like to try it :)

Think I need to up my game in the 'use up product' stakes, It's coming up to Christmas soon and I expect a whole load more products will find their way into my life!

Far too exciting, Christmas is my favourite time of year!

Have you used any of these products? What did you think?

L xxx

Review: Aveda Damage Remedy products

I realise these are only tiny samples but I just had to blog about them after the effect they had on my hair.

This is the Aveda Damage Remedy trio:

My hair isn't in bad condition normally, and in fact I never owned a hair oil until 2 weeks ago.

But recently my hair has been feeling awful, especially at the ends.

It's really frustrating as after straightening it twice all year and curling it about 5 times, as well as getting it cut at least every 2 months, it should be in pretty damn good condition!

I use heat protector and occasionally some Sebastian Potion 9 when I remember and that's usually all it needs.

However I think because I've been growing it for so long it's probably in need of some TLC.

This was why I ended up investing in a hair oil (Tresemme Liquid Gold if you were wondering, post soon!)

I've always been pretty lucky with my hair but in my hour of need, my nan (of all people!) had been given this in a shop and donated it to me, perfect timing!

This is the Aveda Damage Remedy set and contains a shampoo, conditioner and leave in treatment.

The details are:

Damage Remedy Shampoo

Organic Damage Remedy Restructuring Shampoo is a gentle daily cleanser most suited to dry, damaged or chemically treated hair. It helps repair damaged hair. With the addition of Quinoa Protein, Babassu and Coconut Oil your hair is moisturised and restored.

Damage Remedy Conditioner 

Damage Remedy Restructuring Conditioner is a lightweight yet deep daily conditioner. The formula using Quinoa Protein, phellendron and Sandalwood repairs and restores the hair shaft resulting in smoother manageable healthy looking hair.

Damage Remedy Intensive Restructuring Treatment 

Damage Remedy™ Intensive Restructuring Treatment combines essential flower and plaint oils to repair and rebuild. It restores and moisturises the hair shaft and helps to smooth out the hair cuticle. Used twice weekly alongside the three step programme hair is restored to shiny healthy condition.

So onto my thoughts...the shampoo and conditioner both smelt lovely.

It's really hard to describe but I could smell a sort of almond and aniseed type smell at different times which was odd but nice all the same.

Definitely couldn't smell the coconut oil in the shampoo, but it lathered up nicely and my hair felt very clean afterwards.

The shampoo was also thicker than others I've used suggesting it was a lot more moisturising which I'm guessing it was with the result it gave me.

The conditioner felt very nice to put through my hair as it sort of melted as I applied it.

I ended up using the entire tubes of shampoo and conditioner in one go as my hair felt like it needed it and 10ml isn't a lot!

I left the conditioner on for a good few minutes in the shower and my hair felt a lot better even whilst still under the water.

Lastly I used the leave in treatment just before I blow dried my hair which was a serum type product, if a little runnier than normal.

The result was that my hair felt absolutely amazing and I loved it!

I would definitely consider buying these 3 to see what the long term effects are if the short term effects are so instant.

Other products just don't seem the same since and my hair doesn't feel as great a week later so I'm going to have to try something else as at the moment my budget won't stretch to Aveda.

It's a shame that the tubes weren't a little bigger really! I'm going to have to dig through my collection and find some hair products to use up.

Have you used Aveda products before?

I've heard lots about them but have never used them, this was my first time and I'm thoroughly impressed!

L xxx

Also don't forget to enter our Selfridge's Beauty Box giveaway!!!

You can find it here