New Hair!

Before

After

Hey lovelies! Firstly I apologise if this post seems all over the place, as I am bloggin' from my ipad, which I actually have never done before so its taking a little getting used to! For a while now I have been getting a bit bored of my hair. I know we all want what we don't have, but I found as my hair was getting longer and longer, my natural shade of brown was making it look a bit flat, so I decided it was time for a small change.
 I have totally done this the wrong way round, and usually people go for a darker colour during the winter months, and a light shade for the summer, but I just needed something new. When I was younger, I used to have blonde highlights put through my hair, but to save money I decided to go back to my natural, dark brown colour. For the past five years I have kept that dark brown so I felt it was definiely time for a change. I had been looking  up pictures of caramel highlights on celebs for a while, and found a few photographs for inspirational colours which I really liked (Cheryl Cole highlights, Jlo, Zoe Hardman etc). I took these photos to the hairdressers and explained I wanted a half head of foils to give me some subtle caramel/light brown highlights, with maybe a touch of dark blonde. As my hair was so dark, the caramel colour wouldn't have taken to my hair, so first I had to have half a head of foils with bleach. This was super scary for me as I had been the same dark brown colour for so long, and had just got my long locks into a good condition from having so much heat damage over the years, (not to mention the horrors stories I have had with home dye kits containing bleach!). The hairdresser let the bleach sit, then once it was washed out, coated my hair in toner to get rid of any orange of brassy tones. She then put a light brown hair dye all over the top, which left me with these subtle highlights. I really like the result, by putting light brown all over my head has left me with several different colour tones through my hair which I think makes it a lot more natural than if I was to just have blonde highlights! Iv found that just by adding these highlights it has created more body to my hair and has definitely livened it up, whilst still looking subtle and not too big of a change. Although I am even thinking about going back and getting some more put through and to go even lighter, which I neverrr thought I would do as I was always so fond of my dark brown!

I also thought I would share a product I picked up, the John Frieda ......purple shampoo, a toning shampoo which states to get rid of any brassy tones in highlighted hair. Iv used this a couple of times and honestly as my highlights are so fresh I doubt it has made much difference, but after a little while when they begin to fade a little I hope this will bring them back to life. I have also heard good things about the Touch of Silver shampoo, so I will definitely give that a try, or let me know if you have any recommendations!

Hope you are all well, I will be back soon will some Christmassy/winter related posts :)

Eyebrow Routine!

Hey beauts! I was recently contacted by a lovely girl who asked if I would do a tutorial on my eyebrows. I was really touched that anyone would actually want to know how I do them to be honest, as I have never thought of mine being anything special! Although I am happy with the way they are, I think we all want what we don't have and I am forever lusting over gorgeous, natural, full brows! I have definitely had some brow disasters through the years (I wish I had photo's to show you all!) and when I was in my early teens, the trend was to have super skinny mini eyebrows, so of course I took to the tweezers and went pluck crazy, leaving me with brows the thickness of a pen line which I regret so much, as looking back at childhood photo's I had very full (although some what bushy and a bit messy) brows. Thankfully, after a little while, and some embarrassing looks later, they did grow back, though I never got my full brows back. On a positive note though, I do feel like the brows I now have suit my face shape and they are super easy to do and maintain so I guess you win some, you lose some! 

Anyway, on to what I do. I am pretty lucky in that my brows do tend to pretty much maintain their shape on their own, although I do give them some help. Firstly, plucking. I don't tend to pluck too often, as I can be a little heavy handed, so about once a week is fine for me (to be honest as my brow hair is so used to being removed it grows back pretty sparsely anyway) and I just pluck the underneath following the shape of my brow bone. To keep the tops in shape, I take a pair of small scissors, nail scissors are good but I find cuticle trimmers to be the best as they have a curved edge which means you arn't left with a really blunt cut across the hairs. I just used these to neaten up the front and trim down any that are too long. 

When filling in my brows, I start off combing them through with an eyebrow comb, mine is from No.7 and came from a set I got at Christmas, but you can pick these up super cheap else where. 

I then use my HD Brows Palette in the colour 'Bombshell'. I got this in my Glossybox last year and have been using it everyday since (I have recently got a back up but even after 12+ months of using it everyday, I still have some left!). Now I believe the Bombshell palette is actually meant for blondes, but even though I am a brunette, I find a mix of the 'Ash Blonde' and 'Medium Blonde' to be absolutely perfect for my colouring. They do look pretty light in the pan, but actually work really nicely to give a natural filled in look, and I find going any darker too harsh for me. For me, I much prefer using a powder to a pencil. I think in my brows it looks a lot more natural, and with the inner shape being quite squared off, a pencil is just too much. 

(Quick Tip: The Gosh Eyebrow Set is a great, inexpensive dupe for the HD Brows palette!)

I use a Royal & Langnickel Silk Pro C490 brush to fill them in. This is basically a small angled brush which some people may find this brush too small but I find it great for creating little lines in the brows to mimic real hairs rather than filling them in very bluntly. I also find it is the perfect size for creating the arch in my brow and pulling it down without leaving it looking fake. When filling in the front of my brows, I tend to turn the brush on its side and apply in the opposite direction to the hair growth, I just find this leaves it look natural and not filled in. After applying the powder, I give it another brush through with the brow comb again, just to get rid of any harshness. 

I will some times then set my brows (usually only if I am going on a night out or have a very long day ahead) with a brow gel, I like the one by Mac but Elf has a great cheaper alternative which I think works just as well! And that's it really! My brows are definitely not perfect but I hope at least someone finds this helpful!

I know it is difficult to do tutorials like this in a blog post, but I hope it makes sense! If you have any more questions feel free to pop them below! Do you have a favourite brow product? Do you fill in your brows or just leave them natural?