Monday

L'oreal Preference Wild Ombré

Finally a beauty post, hurrah!

At the weekend I had a day off (shock horror) so I went for a little wander around boots.

Like everyone else I've seen a million adverts for this new kit from l'oreal. And I've heard quite a lot of varying reports about how well it works and whether it's worth the money. And if it wasn't for the fact I had some points to spend I probably would've left it on the shelf.....

I'm glad I didn't.

I will say I don't think this kit is for everyone, the brush can be fiddley and you really need to set aside a good chunk of time and think be quite patient. Maybe not best for novice hair colour users. Also the colour your going to get will vary A LOT depending on what your working over.

My hair was already covered with dark brown dye, but I'd previously bleached it in September (so I could have my hair purple for my birthday) so I wasn't dealing with too much dye build up but I still expected a ginger hue rather than golden blonde.

Some people have reported the smell of this stuff to be hideous, and while I won't say it's nice it just smells like hair dye to me..

I fully expected this stuff to not do all that much, and for the first ten minutes it didn't. I was a bit disappointed but I persevered. Now in the application instructions it does say to start at the tips and work up thought the lengths. In a few reviews I've read I've seen pics of folk left with a harsh line between their base colour and the lightened ends. This is my advice,

WORK SLOWLY and if you think your going slow GO SLOWER!!!

I put the stuff on the very ends of my hair maybe an inch at the most. And left it a good ten minutes before coming back to do the next inch, and I repeated this until I got to my desired level and I left last 'layer' on for only about 5 mins before I washed it out.

Here is my after, please excuse the no makeup and horrible artificial lighting but the sun doesn't shine at 3am...

I'm actually really quite pleased with how it came out, it's slightly less ginger in real life but I think the gradual-ness of the colour change worked out pretty well. Well, as well as a non professional using an 'at home' box kit can expect.

I would've taken a daytime shot but lets just say I didn't stop here ;-)

Do follow (links in the sidebar) to see what happened next!

If you have any questions please do feel free to ask either on here or twitter.

Have you tried this product? What did you think?

Or is the ombré hair thing just a bit too cliche? :-)

 

Sunday

Oh Christmas tree

Right now I'm having my annual 'put up the tree and watch Scrooged evening'

It's blissful.

Here is my tree....

It may look slightly crazy but there's just so much love in it it makes me smile every time I see it.

My parents bought me it along with the star and the basic silver baubles the first year I moved into my own place, and every year I pull it out and love putting on those same baubles and all the other ornaments I've gathered through friends and family or on my travels. Every single thing has meaning.

I just can't get how some people shell out a fortune every year for a pre decorated colour coordinated thing. But I suppose each to their own!...


What's your tree like?

Or if your not of the christmas persuasion is there another holiday that your looking forward to?

P.S. When I grow up I want to be the Ghost of Christmas Present!

 

Saturday

Merry Blogmas!

Now first off is Blogmas one S or two?

Answers on a postcard.


I won't make promises on this as I work in retail and have been known to come in from work and immediately hide under my duvet (while still wearing my coat) due to the utter craziness that is work. But I feel I have been quite rubbish of late on the old blog front so I'd like to get a little more back on track.

 

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Christmas.

I love all the obvious fun stuff like parties, Starbucks red cups, giving people I love presents and eating so much I might explode.


 

But I do have a couple of things that I'm really not so keen on like being so skint from buying presents that I'm drinking tap water at the work Christmas party, waiting on the bus in a complete blizzard and the inevitable awkward trip to see some relatives you only ever see once a year.

 

And don't even start me on having to perpetually answer the age old question "so have you found yourself a nice young man yet?" (which reminds me I really should pick up some mistletoe.....)

But most of the time I'll be that annoying one running around singing along to Mariah Carey and making everyone eat mince pies.

 

Are you a holiday lover or are you a bit of a Scrooge?

 

On a completely unrelated note does anyone else find Brad Pitt totally cringe-worthy in that Chanel advert?