Here we go again?

I need help. Mental help. So, before my ombre hair adventure I had black hair for a couple years. I've always loved my hair when it is dark. There is something about it that boosts my confidence. I've had my ombre hair now for a few months and I love it. I really do, but Pinterest has ruined my life and I keep seeing pictures of beautiful dark hair and now I'm feeling the urge to darken my hair again. Not to black, but to a dark brown with black lowlights. I'm not exactly sure how to make black lowlights a thing on my hair, but thats what the caption said for this amazing hair picture:

Should I or shouldn't I? HELP ME!!

ImPress- Press on manicure review

I never really buy press on nails, but my friend & I decided to get matching nails for work. I've seen ads for imPress & a coworker had positive things to say about it, so here we go. Now, they do not require nail glue, but my friend used it with hers because it will make them last longer. I'm all for that, especially because these are about $7.99 or so.

After:

They give you a lot of size varieties, which is smart, but I do suggest getting nail glue if you want it to last a while. It is sticky, but I could already tell if you scratch your nail against something, there is a good chance it would come off. They are gaudier than I normally like my nails, but since I'm doing this with a friend, I can handle it. It is a good product, I just wish it was less expensive. 

UPDATE: About an hour later, the length of the nails were driving me insane. If this happens to you too, I suggest you take nail clippers and shorten them. I was worried that would split the nail and ruin it, but it clipped like a regular nail. I'm much happier now.

Nails of the Week

It's a Nails inc. kind of week.

Everytime I go into Sephora I find myself gravitating towards Nails inc. polishes. They have a large variety including the best spring colors I've seen so far. The polish on the right is their 45-second drying top coat, which actually does dry in that time. The 3D glitter on the left is my favorite glitter polish I own, it equally distributes the glitter in each stroke, so 10 coats aren't needed to actually make your nail glittery!

Finished result: 

The picture makes the blue appear paler than it is, but voila!

Products:
Blue Polish- Chelsea physic garden
Glitter- Maida vale
Top Coat- Kensington topcoat caviar

^Those weird names are the ones listed on the bottom of the bottle

Ombre Touch-up!

I'm in a very very good mood. I have finally done with my hair what I've wanted to do, and it turned out great! Either my last post or the one before I posted a picture of the hair lightening kit I bought and explained how I was going to use it. Since I initially used Feria's Wild Ombre on my hair, I loved the application brush that it came with, but I didn't wash it and keep like I normally would have [because I'm a hoarder]. Instead I bought a bunch of thin combs and applied a bunch of the dye and combed it through to make it go on evenly. I recommend this trick.

Here is a before:

At this point, my hair's ends were a caramel brown, it was pretty, but I wanted it lighter.

AFTER: 

                                                  

It is sooo much more blonde now! All I can say is you MUST BUY JHIRMACK SILVER SHAMPOO!!! It is a miracle shampoo. If you have any orange in your hair, it'll get rid of it. It'll make the blonde blonder and more beautiful. 

I'm just glad I finally have my hair the color I wanted it to it can heal now. Before I dyed it again today I got a trim so it could be healthy again.

Happy coloring everyone!

Touch Up

Ok, so after using the Wild Ombre/Jhirmack purple shampoo combo, I am very very very happy with my hair. However, I do want to make the ends blonder than the Wild Ombre initially made it. I want to point out again that it didn't make my ends as blonde as it should've, but that is because I had red dye on my hair.

SO: I just bought this L'Oreal Paris Super Blonde lightening kit. I've watched reviews for this product on youtube, and I'm super confident I can get the level of blonde I want on my ends. Before I do this, however, I plan on getting a trim on my hair. I already have minor split ends, and since this is bleach, and although the reviews for this product state that it leaves hair undamaged, bleach is bleach.

I'll do another picture tutorial when I use this. So check back!!

New Favorite Nail Polish!

Every time I go into Target I start my trip around the store in the cosmetics department. Pixi Nail Polish is a brand I had never read reviews on or seen anywhere except Target, but it is hard to resist buying a bottle when you see all the vibrant & electric colors they stock. 

The 2 colors pictured above are the 2 I bought, because I can't resist pink, and these two colors are even more beautiful in person. I problem I usually have with nail polish in general is the amount that it chips. I work in retail, and the daily grind usually chips my nail polish within an hour of working, and my first time trying Pixi I wasn't expecting a big difference, but I was surprised with the result!

This is literally the best nail polish I have ever used. I literally had it on for 3 full weeks before it chipped or looked dull at all! That isn't an exaggeration at all either! I have tried a wide spectrum of nail polishes. Every time I go into Sephora I take full advantage of their nail polish bar, where you can remove your current polish and try out their brands, [Sephora brand, Nails inc, Dior, Julep, and more!]

and when I do this I also use a base coat and top coat to keep it looking great. Now, the Dior polish that they have there is $23 a bottle [!!!!], when I used it after a few days it chipped and looked mangey. I don't know if I expected more from it because of the designer brand and the price, but I was not impressed at all. Pixi polish is $8 a bottle, which might be more than you want to spend if you are used to Revlon, Maybelline, or Wet & Wild brands, but I assure you, it is worth spending the $8 for something that is completely worth it.

Hair follow up & Recommendation!

It wasn't super easy to see the results of my hair when I dyed it  over a week ago, but a lot has changed to it, for the better actually.

I wanted ombre hair, but to get my natural color back on top I needed to dye it my normal medium brown.  Of course with brown hair dyes it is well known that the dye will initially be much darker than the box shows, it does fade however, and my hair is now exactly how I wanted it to be.

When I first used the Feria product on the bottom part of my hair, it turned out more orange than I would've wanted. This isn't the products fault, my hair was a reddish brown before hand, and I expected as much to happen.  NORMALLY, I react to fix my hair rather than thinking it out, for example, the bottom of my hair being orangish, I would immediately want to dye it to make it better looking. HOWEVER, I did a little homework and fixed my hair, without damaging it at all.

There is a miracle product out there called Jhirmack Silver Shampoo.

The shampoo itself is actually purple. If you've heard of purple shampoos you will know that they help take out brassiness, yellowing, and orange tones in hair. That is EXACTLY what this stuff did to my hair. The bottle suggests leaving on for no more than 2 minutes. What I did was mix a good amount of this shampoo and a good amount of a deep conditioning mask. I left it on my hair for 45 minutes and the result was better than I could've hoped for.

My hair is much more blended now, and is more of a reddish blonde. Zero orange. I've used the shampoo several times now for the 2 minutes it suggests, there are still subtle changes after each use. I can see more blonde pieces coming through in my  hair.

The great part is that this shampoo isn't hard to find. It is at Walgreens, amazon, and was at my local grocery store. It is only $4.99 too so it won't break the bank.