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?

London Fashion Week and Other Stuff!

A happy belated Valentine's Day and more importantly a happy belated Pancake Day to whoever is reading this!

I've been pretty busy of late - I've recently become a feature writer for a new online magazine (http://www.tfvmagazine.co.uk/ - check it out!) so I had the launch party for that last Monday in Mayfair and from last Friday to Monday I was given the amazing opportunity to attend several fashion shows for London Fashion Week and write up reviews on the collections for the magazine.  I cannot tell you how excited I was about this and what an amazing time I had - plus it was such great experience which is always good!

I'm not going to lie, London Fashion Week was a great distraction to something which I'm pretty damn nervous about tomorrow (I may reveal all in my next blog post depending on the outcome......*oooooh how mysterious*).

In my last blog post I mentioned about getting my hair done at Bleach London in Topshop and all I can say is that I freakin' love my dip dye.  The only downside was that it took a fair while but that was expected as getting your hair coloured always takes ages, I just basically hate sitting still! Anyway, I went for a standard blonde dip dye as I figured it was easier to maintain as I wouldn't have to worry about getting the colour topped up (I'm all about saving the pennies!).

Also I'll post a pic of my latest nail art at some point this week so stay tuned for that! 

Time to finish this post as I'm watching The Brits and the ad break is about to finish! Raaaah!

 

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).

HelloGiggles - Mermaid Chic: The Fishtail Braid

If you haven't seen it yet, check out my article Mermaid Chic: The Fishtail Braid featured on HelloGiggles!

Click Me :)

Look At Me Mum! I Have A Sock In My Bun!

Believe it or not, there is a sock in that bun. Yep. A sock.

I came across the sock bun idea on a feature on HelloGiggles and basically it is pretty much the best thing ever. It's cheap, it's quick and it looks flippin' great.

In fact, I loved the idea so much that I tweeted HelloGiggles who went on to retweet me which made me even more happy!

Here is the link to the HelloGiggles article which I stumbled upon and which has consequently change my life for the better -http://hellogiggles.com/diy-sock-bun

So to sum up, socks were obviously invented for your hair & not your feet. Bet you feel pretty stupid now. Just sayin'.

Boredom Leads To Braiding

I don't know why but for some reason when I'm bored I resort to two things: painting my nails or trying out different hairstyles. So seeing as I was extremely bored this afternoon I decided to try out hair braiding, and by that I don't mean plaits and French braids etc but the hair braids where when you were a little kid and went on holiday to Spain you'd go into the local town in the evening & there would be a hair braiding stall so you'd get your hair braided with threads and beads and basically look like a badass 8 year old. Although there would always be ridiculously long queues, mostly made up of other impatient 8 year olds all wanting a badass hair braid of their own. I never understood why there was only ever one stall when it was clearly so popular? Or at least my 8 year old self never really understood that and I guess my 22 year old self still doesn't really understand it either. Anyway, here's how my hair braid turned out:

Not bad for my first attempt, they last for quite a while as well so I'll probably keep it in for a couple of weeks or until it starts looking a bit tatty or coming undone. I will definitely be doing it again though, I mean for one thing it made me feel summery and like my 8 year old self had just got back from a sunny Spanish holiday (when in reality my 22 year old self hasn't been on a holiday in 2 years. Not that I'm bothered. Not at all. I love hanging out at home in the Summer with nothing to do except look out the window gazing at the despressing rain. So. Much. Fun).

So to sum up, hair braids are great, being 8 years old was great but British Summers are not so great. The end. Great!