Bleach London: Super Cool Colour Hair Crayons Review

Mermaid hair - is it just me or isn't that what we're all really after these days?............Oh, right, so is it just me.  Well this post just got real uncomfortable real quick.  Ok, so not everyone wants mermaid hair (I'm pretty sure subconsciously you do though so maybe stop lying? Cool. Thanks.) however Bleach London's Super Cool Colour Hair Crayons allow anyone and everyone to have some crazy fun with their hair without the commitment that you get with hair dye, semi-permanent or not.  These crayons are perfect to add vibrant colour to your hair and know that come Monday it'll have washed out a treat so that your hair will be office-ready and your manager won't need to take you aside to question those festival-ready turquoise hair streaks. 

After trying Bleach London's Super Cool Colour semi-permanent hair dyes, I wanted to try hair colour that was more of a one-day only kind of deal as I have commitment issues when it comes to hair dye.  I picked up my Bleach London Super Cool Colour Hair Crayons in the shades Washed Up Mermaid (like I said, everyone - whether they know it or not - wants mermaid hair) and Out of the Blue from Boots, they're fairly reasonably priced at £4 each plus they're quite big so I reckon I'm going to get a lot of use out of them! 

Bleach London Super Cool Hair Colour Crayons in Washed Up Mermaid
and Out of the Blue available from Boots (RRP £4)

The Washed Up Mermaid shade is a grungy, under-the-sea style of green which immediately made me want to burst out singing 'THE SEAWEED IS ALWAYS GREENER...'** in a decidedly dubious Jamaican accent.  The Out of the Blue hair crayon is a deep, rich blue which is completely mesmerizing with its eye-catching allure.

(**If you don't hear that quote in your head being sung in the voice of Sebastian the crab then there is something drastically wrong with you.)

The hair crayons are very easy to apply and you really don't need to be skilled in hairstyling to use them.  The most important thing that I think is worth mentioning however is to make sure that you either wear old clothes when applying the hair crayon or a towel wrapped around you whilst doing it over the sink as the dust/particles from the hair crayon have the potential to coat surfaces and can stain.  Protection clothing aside, I didn't actually find that much mess came from these hair crayons, I think that as long as you're careful and apply it over a sink then you'll probably be fine but it's always better to be safe than sorry and not risk staining your favourite top! 

Top to bottom: Bleach London Super Cool Colour Hair Crayon in Out of the Blue, hair sharpener included
with each hair crayon and Bleach London Super Cool Colour Hair Crayon in Washed Up Mermaid. 

To apply the colour to your hair, all you do is grab a small section of hair and colour it in like you would if you were colouring in a picture, you then grab a brush and brush through and repeat the process to build up the vibrancy and shade of the colour until you're happy with the finished effect. 

I tried the crayons on both the blonde ends of my hair and my darker natural colour and it showed up well on both sections, it did look more striking on the lightened ends of my hair but that being said, it still looked pretty great on the darker sections too.

The outcome..............already feeling a tiny bit mermaid-ey!

Depending on the thickness and length of your hair, the application process can be a little time consuming but not painfully so - you just need a little patience - plus, the process of colouring in your hair is actually quite therapeutic!


Colouring in my hair braids is my new favourite thing to do!

These hair crayons are perfect for festivals and will no doubt come in handy for Halloween festivities, plus let's not forget that the Christmas season will soon be here and these would not only make amazing stocking fillers or Secret Santa presents but will also make sure that all eyes are on you (for the right reasons and not because you slipped over on a half-eaten mince pie!) at the annual obligatory Christmas office party!

Washed Up Mermaid into Out of the Blue dip dye effect.
(Clearly got a little over excited in this photo, either that or I'm yawning!)

 

Have you used any of the Bleach London Super Cool Colour Hair Crayons? - Drop me a comment and let me know!

Bleach London: Super Cool Colour Awkward Peach and Rosé Review

I am fully comfortable admitting that I'm completely obsessed with Bleach London and I often while away the hours scrolling through their pics on Instagram and tweets on Twitter, like I said, I'm obsessed (but in a totally healthy kind of way). 

Having visited their hair salon at their Topshop concession in Oxford Circus (their main salon is in Dalston) where I treated myself to a 'Bleachenders' dip dye about a year and a half ago, I figured that although I can't currently afford to get my hair done there, there's nothing stopping me from enjoying some of that Bleach London fun and trying out some of their products at home.   

The first products from the Bleach London range that I tried out were two of the dyes from their Super Cool Colour range which I used back in July (I miss summer so much!) as I had a night out planned and wanted to refresh my slightly dulled-blonde dip dyed ends.  The two hair colours that I used were Rosé and Awkward Peach as I wanted a pinky-based colour with a peachy tone to it.

Left to right: Bleach London Super Cool Colour in Awkward Peach (150ml) and Bleach London Super Cool Colour in Rosé (150ml) both available from Boots (RRP £5) .

I mixed half the Rosé with half the Awkward Peach in a tinting bowl and applied it using a tinting brush to my shampooed, towel dried hair.  I only applied the dye to the ends of my hair as this was already lightened from when I'd last had my hair dip dyed.  The instructions state to leave the colour on for 15 minutes but I left it on for an extra 5 minutes because, well, what can I say?  I'm a daredevil who occasionally rebels against hair dye instructions when it comes to timing, it's just the way I was made.

After washing it out and blow drying it, I had a gorgeous, rich, peachy-pink colour on the ends of my hair which I fell instantly in love with.

Looking super serious here!

These dyes are semi-permanent and according to the packaging they last about 2-10 washes which was fine by me as I wanted a colour that would wash out fairly easily.  I found that after the first wash, the majority of colour came out but it left a gorgeous, peachy tint which I think I actually preferred to the vibrant colour that it had previously been.  Overall, the colour lasted about 3 washes which I was fine with as they were more pastel-based shades so you wouldn't expect them to really last much longer than that.  I would definitely recommend both Rosé and Awkward Peach from Bleach London's Super Cool Colour range to anyone as these shades allow you to play about with your hair colour without the commitment and maintenance that comes with some other so called 'semi-permanent' hair dyes -  I definitely can't wait to try out some of their other shades now!

Slight peachy/pinky tint after one wash.  Nice!

I'll be blogging about Bleach London's Super Cool Colour Hair Crayons in my next post so be sure to keep an eye out for that.......only if you want to keep an eye out for it though.......no pressure here!

Have you used any of Bleach London's Super Cool Colours? Drop me a comment below if you feel like it and let me know what you think?

Nail Update: Summer, glitter and sparkles!

So last week I was working the black gloopy nail art look which I absolutely loved, in fact I loved the gloopy factor so much so that this week I decided to update this nail art design and give it a more summery twist by swapping black for pink, glitter and sparkles!

Check it out my lovelies:

I can't help but smile when I look at these - is that a bit weird?

 



This design is not only cute but also pretty damn easy to do so it ticks all those pesky nail art boxes!

If you're interested (and I'm naively assuming you are seeing as you've read this far!), here's everything that I used for this look (minus the nail glue which I threw away because I used it all up):

(Top to bottom, left to right: nail diamante pin wheel (purchased from New Look but there are loads of these available on eBay), cosmetic sponge. Nail polishes (left to right): OPI Original Nail Envy Nail Strengthener, Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat, Maybelline Color Show Nail Polish (shade - Sugar Crystals), Models Own Nail Polish (shade - Snowflakes NP145), Bourjois So Laque! Ultra Shine Nail Polish (shade - Rosé Merveille 45), Barry M Nail Paint (shade - Matt White 66). Nail art brushes both purchased via eBay).



To create this look start off with a base coat, I used OPI's Original Nail Envy Nail Strengthener  which is my standard base coat because it keeps my nails nice and strong.  Then for all the nails except your ring fingers, apply one coat of Maybelline's Color Show Nail Polish in the shade Sugar Crystals followed by two coats of Model's Own Nail Polish in the shade Snowflakes NP145.  While your nails are drying move onto your ring fingers and apply two coats of the Bourjois So Laque! Ultra Shine Nail Polish in the shade Rosé Merveille 45 and leave to dry whilst going back to the rest of your nails you painted earlier.

Using a thin nail art brush, apply the same Bourjois nail polish used on your ring fingers along the tips of your nails creating French tips.  Once done, use an even thinner nail art brush (you'll want this for the precision of your 'gloops') and paint in your 'gloops' and connect them to the French tips you just painted on. 

Going back to your ring fingers, make sure that they are completely dry and if so, grab a cosmetic sponge and dab a little bit of Barry M's Nail Polish in the shade Matt White 66 onto the sponge and then blot it onto some kitchen roll, tissue or tin foil and carefully dab it onto the tips of your nails working down to create a subtle ombre/dip dye effect.  Once your happy with your ombre effect, then apply Seche Vite's Dry Fast Top Coat to blend the white and pink nail polish together even more so.  Then apply the same top coat to the rest of your nails.

To finish off, grab a selection of diamantes for your two ring fingers and using some nail glue apply the diamantes to your ring finger nails.  Finish off with a final application of your top coat and you're all done! 

I hope my explanation made sense, I'm one of those people that has a tendency to waffle on a bit so it can be a real mission for me to explain something relatively simple without making it sound incredibly complicated and daunting.

Well, there you have it, a simple guide to some super summery and sparkly nail art - let me know what you think!

I could stare at these all day!

Lex Luthor Seriously Needs to Chill Out

So, I'm pretty sure that I haven't written a post since late 2012, as in last year. OOPS! I take full ownership for that and have no acceptable excuse other than I've been crazy busy........and Lex Luthor keeps trying to thwart me. Ok so that last bit re Lex Luthor may not be true but the crazy busy bit is!

I have some cute Christmas nails that I did over the festive period for you to feast your beautiful, sparkly eyes upon (yes I am sucking up right now to make up for my absence. Whatevs.):

Plus these standard non-Christmas nail designs aren't bad either:

Not much to report on since my last post. I did make one of the biggest decisions of my life just before Christmas.................I decided to get my hair cut. Pretty big deal, eh? It wasn't even a big decision in that it took me about 5 minutes to decide to get it done whilst drinking a cup of tea and daydreaming whilst watching Strictly Come Dancing. My hair was in a rather bad state from a fair bit of bleaching on the ends (courtesy of DIY dip dyes) and was stained from having been dyed various shades of lavender, deep purple and bright pink so all the unpleasantness needed to be hacked off. So I now have short (ish) hair, although it's not so short now that it's grown a bit (because apparently that's what hair does - grow). My hair for the first time in about 7 years is completely natural in colour - no highlights, no dip dyes, no nothing - just 100% natural redhead. It felt weirdly liberating reverting back to my hair's natural colour and it was nice to know what my actual hair colour was, I mean, I knew I was a redhead, I just had no idea what shade of red I was. Turns out I'm a kind of deep auburn colour which I'm digging (yes, I did just say 'digging', this is the 90s, right?). However, I get bored easily and the time has come to say goodbye to my 100% naturally coloured hair and hello again to the dip dye experience, except this time I will be making no attempt to do it myself.......instead I've made an appointment to get it done at Bleach London which I've been desperate to do for AGES. Yes, it'll be pricey but I've saved up for it and it still works out cheaper than what my highlights used to cost me plus hopefully it won't take as long to grow out so I still have the option of reverting back to natural life again.

So that's it, London tomorrow for the dip dye and a casual persual of Topshop (well, I'm only human after all.................although try telling that to Lex Luthor, he seriously needs chill out).