Showing posts with label colour. Show all posts

DECEMBER



Y’know how you watch someone do something you can’t, and aside from your first thought being HOLY SHITSNACKS THAT’S COOL, your next thought is, “Oh I wish I could do that”.

Well I get that every time I watch Natasha complete a make-up application.

So at the end of this year, after watching her (not in a creepy way, like, in an admirable/we work in the same space way) talents she asked if I wanted a make up shake up session and I said a wholehearted all capslocked YAS because I have zero chill (literally zero, ask Tash and all of my friends and family).

We picked a day and I went over to her studio/house and we ate pasta with bacon, and then got stuck into changing up the mug of mine.
Natasha created two looks for me; one that was signature Tash glow, and another heavier, smokier look.

I prepped my skin with Eve Lom Hydration Serum, followed by La Mer Soft Lotion.

From Natasha;
SIGNATURE LOOK


 

I’m all about glowy skin and have a less is more attitude towards coverage. To get flawless coverage that looked minimal I mixed 1 part Ellis Faas with 1 part Josie Maran Illuminator (half foundation half liquid gold TBH) applied with a Zoeva flat kabuki.

On areas that need more coverage such as the chin and under the eyes, I buffed concealer using a fluffy domed shadow brush – this allows you to  blend the edges seamlessly and make concealer almost undetectable, it just looks like skin.

The skin always looks fresher with cream and liquid products so I always like to work with cream colours first. Stila convertible colours are my fave because they keep their shine and don’t dry matte and for cream highlighter I can’t go past Copacobana (by Nars). Skin was set with Hourglass Diffused Light (on a fluffy brush applied very lightly), warmed up with Luminous Bronze Light and extra glowed with Mecca Enlightened.

My take;
I still can’t believe that Tash took products I already used and made me look completely different with them. Natasha also gave me a very soft, semi-natural, glowing bronze-based eye that I really loved. It wasn’t overly dramatic but it was a little more lined that I’d usually go for and I loved it. Thought we did have an almost hiccup – Tash forgot I’m allergic to Too Faced Chocolate Bar (I KNOW I’M SO UPSET) and almost came at me with it haha! Luckily we went for Too Faced Sweet Peach instead (palette returning soon, according to Snapchat!) which provided all the warm, rosy-bronze shades you see below. Natasha also used a Stila Smudge Stick along my waterline to create that super sexy, not-too-overdone look.

Natasha’s Take;
DRAMA EYE

 

Black smoky eye using MAC paint pot in Black Ground. It’s super pigmented and dries fast so use synthetic brushes – natural bristles just don’t cut it here. I applied this shadow all over the lid and pressed MAC Black Track shadow on top.

The trick to making a black smoky eye non-intimidating is to blend it out with brown, so I used a medium brown shade by Inglot and Too Faced Natural Matte (Sexpresso and Risqué – mostly under eye) on the border of the eye crease I used the orange shadow in that palette. Warm tones always soften it out and make it much more wearable. Use natural bristles here if possible!
Then I used a Stila Smudge Pot for the waterline and upper lash line – no flick, winged liner ruins smoky eyes and that’s when it becomes a glamour eye.

Amp up the skin with a deeper blush shade and add a bit of contour – Paloma by Nars here!

My take;
Not gonna lie, when Tash was getting her brush worked into the MAC black pot shadow I had a teeny tiny minor freak out because I’ve never ever ever EVER put black directly onto my own lid. Minor panic. Total faith in Natasha, but black is a tricky colour. And my version of a smoky eye almost always involves a wing (that was an interesting moment, I’ve never considered my make up style glam but whaddya know?). All of the layering, blending, dabbing, brushing, smoothing, buffing and smudging was incredible to experience. Natasha made it look easy as anything, never once faltering, even when my eyes pulled their “There’s-nothing-wrong-but-we’re-going-to-water-up-ANYWAY” trick. A favourite for every and any make-up artist I’ve ever had touching my face.

When she had finished I felt like a new woman. My eyes were a different shape, by far more sultry than anything I’d done before, and my wide, big eyes were actually a benefit here, because often smoky eyes lose half their effect when the eye is open. I was a bit chuffed to hear my big ol’ bug eyes were good for something.

Tash popped a Smashbox exclusive lip on me, Phil, a beautiful, perfect pinky-nude and that was beautiful too.

We did a bit of a photo shoot and I gotta tell ya that was probably the best bit. Tash told me to be serious and sexy and sultry and anyone who has a friend knows the minute you try pulling serious sexy faces this happens;



Ten minutes later we had some great shots and a cute Boomerang to boot.

WHAT I TOOK AWAY
I’m on the right track with Ellis Faas and Josie Maran. The way I apply my concealer has completely changed, and whilst I haven’t yet attempted the smoky eye on my own, I have tried the glowy bronze look and I found it easier to do after Natasha’s tips!

THANK YOU FOR JOINING ME FOR THE 12 DAYS OF BLOGMAS! Enjoy Christmas and New Year’s, little birds, and I’ll see you for more beauty-ful adventures in 2017.


Tweet tweet xx

JULY

Melbourne might’ve been cooling down, but my make-up bag was heating up come July. Urban Decay need no introduction – if you’re here, you like beauty, and if you like beauty and sometimes even glance at Instagram you’ll already know the brain child of Wende Zomnir (former beauty queen/current surfer chick/all-round badass) and its reputation for high pigment, high impact products that last all night long.

I’ll never forget ordering my own Naked palette – at that point it was the most luxe, most expensive palette I’d bought for myself, ever, and the packaging reflected that too. Who makes the perfect neutrals palette and then covers it in velvet?!? (Urban Decay do). And that brush that comes with it isn’t your average, let’s-tack-on-a-double-sponge-applicator-for-the-lol’s deal, it’s a full on, multitasking, synthetic fibre double-ended brush, that works amazingly well for all of my shadows, not just Urban Decay.


That said, holy heck, Urban Decay knows how to pull together a good eye shadow palette. Never mind the Naked range, the Electric palette, and the individual shadows give insane colour payout. My favourites? The Moondust shadows. Oh. My. God. So, so, incredibly beautiful and iridescent – I myself use Cosmic, a slightly translucent, silver-based glitter, but my next fave has to be Space Cowboy (because it makes me sing ‘Maurice!’ in my head) as it’s a champagne, rosy based shimmer that makes it look like your eyes have been gilded with rose gold. And who doesn’t want that?!





The Vice lipsticks are also insane. Mainly because there’s one hundred of them. (ONE HUNDRED. 100. WHAT COMPANY BRINGS OUT 100 LIPSTICKS AT ONCE?) Ranging from cream, to sheer, to matte, to comfort matte, literally any and every colour you can think of (from the perfect red to royal blue and a true purple) is available, with a matching lip liner. So ONE HUNDRED LIP LINERS as well. Oh my God. No, I haven’t bought all one hundred (despite the temptation), but I’ve given quite a few as gifts as they come in at $28AUD – which, for the amount of pigment and the texture, is a really good price. Everyone I’ve gifted a Vice lippy to has loved it immediately, and it makes for the perfect Insta selfie. That and Ruby Rose is a pretty cool chick (she was in Mecca Myer literally FIVE MINUTES before me! Just missed her!).
So if you’re feeling like trying something a little edgier, and wanting a cruelty free, predominantly vegan brand to boot, give into your inner Vice and check out Urban Decay this summer. Did I mention almost all the products are waterproof? Festivals and pool parties, here I come – with purple and gold eyeliner, of course.



















Tweet tweet x

MAY

Change is as good as a holiday, right?




Remember way back when, when hope was high and life worth leaving? When I dreamed that love would never die? And God would be forgiving?
March 2015 guys, March 2015. Remember when I said I’d fallen in love? It never died. When it comes to chocolate brown hair, my HEART WILL GO ON AND OOOoooOOOooON. I didn't let go, unlike Rose #Jack5ever

 



So come May, my gorgeous friend @hairbyprue helped me take the plunge. 



And the cut. it was a tad Kylie J but I loved it, and still do! Going brunette was a little tricky considering how light my balyage and blonde were, but Prue did an amazing job getting the colour down. We went short because I basically said “cut off the dead hair” not realising HOW dead my hair actually was. 




In the end, I had a colour, cut and vibe that was very much needed for #kickass2016.

Tweet tweet xx

JANUARY

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.

Desperately, the week of my twenty-second birthday, I attempted to re-dye my blonde roots by myself. Me, with no hair experience – me, who is not a hair dresser, and does not have any kind of colour or toning skills, me who is impatient as all heck…. You can imagine what happened.

things could be better


So I literally rang in 2016 at my hairdressers on New Year’s Eve getting my blonde fixed, and New Year’s Day showing everyone a ‘new me’. So cliché, I know, but hey, gal’s gotta do what a gal’s gotta do when HER HAIR IS PURPLE.

I don’t know entirely how I managed to dye my hair orange and purple, but there we go. See the pictographic evidence below and feel my pain friends, feel, my, pain.

 













My lovely colourist ran a toner through my hair, and essentially colour corrected the orange and purple. Little bit of a trim because I managed to fry my ends. (See when I say disaster it ain't hyperbole.)
 
The New Year inspires people to do a lot of stupid, stupid things – from drinking too much champagne, to making resolutions we all know we won’t keep, to drastic changes as a means of coping with life changing. Again, very cliché, but the lesson I learnt the hard way was that you don’t get to skip change or recovery and get right to the shiny brand new you after a tough break. You need to give it time, and space, and if all else fails, a colourist who really knows her stuff.



Tweet tweet x

Grow baby, grow!


Hello my little birds!
So I've started a process that I want to blog about and share with you, simply because in my own research and YouTubing I haven't found a clear, billboard like, HUGE sign saying "YES THIS WORKS" or "NO IT DOESN'T". I've only really found "SORT-OFs" and "FOR ME, YES". 

It's called the Inversion Method and I'll admit, when I first read about it I was a little sceptical, and scared. Oil? In my hair? But oil make grease? Greasy hair bad? How...? Then I watched this little clip on YouTube by Evin Yalcin and heard that you actually don't have to use oil, but you can rely on your hair's natural oils instead. I find my hair can get quite greasy on its own, so the idea of putting more oil in there isn't very appealing. 
Essentially you flip your hair upside down, looking down, and give yourself a scalp massage for four minutes. At first I was a bit half-hearted, I mean, standing with your head almost between your legs rubbing your head isn't a daily activity, you know? But then I remembered something about myself -
I LIKE MASSAGES. 

So even if this method doesn't end up working for me, I'm getting a lovely mini-massage each night, and I'm ok with that! 


The reason I want to grow my hair out is two fold. For starters, at the moment it doesn't feel entirely healthy - my ends are splitting, I know I've done too much in terms of colour and bleach to it this year already, and it's just a bit of a hot mess to deal with.
Also, I'll admit, I haven't totally gotten over my love, my obsession... the chocolate brown hair.
I mean the gloss, the depth, the shine, how healthy it looks.... ah!
I already know, however, that I can't do another thing to my hair colour-wise until it's healthy again, and I was considering lobbing it all off, but that won't really repair any of the damage I've done. Also, I don't want short hair! As much as I adore a bob/lob, I know they don't really work for me. I'd feel silly chopping it all off since I've been growing it since August last year. 

 
On the left is my hair circa 2013, when it was still mostly blonde and the longest I can remember it being. On the right is my lob from August 2014. I did love my lob, and at the time it was exactly the style I needed, but it's taken a long time to grow out.

I've been looking up home remedies and other solutions for growing long, beautiful hair, and I've discovered three main themes.

1) OILS & PRODUCTS
2) FOOD
3) WATER

OILS & PRODUCTS
Obviously everything you put on your hair will affect it, its growth, and its strength and condition. I've spoken in the past about using John Frieda products to protect my colour, but I haven't been taking good enough care of my scalp. That's right folks, dandruff. Ick, I know, but it has to be said, and it's one of the main downsides to colouring your hair - a dry, flaky scalp will often ensue. Whilst various shampoos, including caffeine and coconut milk shampoos, are suggested for stimulating growth, I feel I need to get my dandruff situation under control first. Which leads us to oils! Aside from the inversion method, all of my favourite YouTubers rave about coconut oil and its benefits for your hair. Recently Kayley Melissa spoke about using coconut oil as a scalp treatment for conditioner, and said that it was far more effective than any other shampoo she'd used. Other top rated oils include Argon Moroccan oil, jojoba oil, rosemary oil, olive oil, and other essential oils too.

FOOD
You are what you eat, and to get healthy, beautiful hair, as well as healthy, beautiful skin and internal organs (woo! internal organs!), a diet full of rich, nutritious foods and proteins is highly recommended. Eggs, avocado, fish, fresh fruits, and vegetables, are all vital to growing strong hair. I'll admit, my diet is in desperate need of an overhaul (one too many coffees and cakes I'm afraid), so I've already been moving to these changes anyway for my own health. Now as an added bonus, I'll have beautiful hair to boot! A lot of beauty bloggers and YouTubers also recommend taking a multivitamin or hair supplement to boost growth, but I want to try adjusting my diet first before I start adding in any sort of extra pills or potions.

WATER
Water. Water, water, water. Seriously. The human body can't do jack without it. It's important for fostering hair growth as well as cell renewal and all those other lovely things our bodies do for us to you know, keep us alive. The human body is 70% water! It's so important to hydrate, and being exposed to fake air and heavy indoor heating has really taken its toll on not just my hair, but my skin and general health as well. A good tip I find is to keep a bottle of water with/near me at all times. Even just watching TV, working, or blogging, if I have water near me, I'll drink it without even thinking about it. Before you know it you'll have downed your 8 glasses (or 2 litres) without even realising!
Tea is also a good way to get water into your system, and a great idea for winter time when drinking cold water is super unappealing.

So here we are - I've been using the Inversion Method for three days now (it's Monday), so I'll be back on the blog this Saturday to give you my results. An inch to four inches in a week? My hopes aren't high, little birds, but I am a bit of an optimist. Make sure you're following beautybyasparrow on Instagram for updates and inspo!

Until next time,
Tweet twee xx

Back to Basics (and a bit of balyage too)

I bit the bullet and went into my hair dressers last week. The re-growth situation was out of control and Mumma Sparrow let slip at her appointment that I was considering chocolate brown and my hairdresser suggested I come in straight away for a consult before making any major colour changes.

And boy am I glad I did!

I always try to arrive early for my hairdressing appointments, just to make sure I’ve given my stylists all the time I can to get my hair right. I’m also one of those people who prefers to be super early for something than running late, and usually I need to take my hair out of its bun/pony tail/braid and brush it out before my appointment starts.

The colour wheel I'm sticking with
Baby Sparrow - natural colour!
I sat in the chair (same one as last time I think?) and got a good look at all the colours available in the Nak soft colour range. Re-growth is a real pain for anyone, but I’ve reached my point over the last few months where as much as I love my blonde, and I love being a light, almost platinum blonde, I can't deal with REGROWTH. OH MY GOD. NO. Over it, so, so over it. I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching (oh that sounds really douchey, I’m sorry) the last few months and it’s lead me to wanting to be as honest with myself as I can and, funny as it sounds, I want to get back to something like my natural colour, something I haven’t seen in, oh, about five years?




This time around a different team member took my appointment and I’ve got to say, he’s brilliant. All of the team are, and no matter who does my colour it always comes out looking superb, but the end result was so, so perfect, I couldn’t be happier. The base/root colour was a mix of 6.7 and 7.7 with 10 Vol, worked down and painted by hand. The light, almost white blonde my gorgeous girl Prue perfected during the pink period was left alone, and became the ombré tips to the darker shade.




The other wonderful thing about ditching the blonde foils and highlights is the time is cut in half! Anyone who’s ever had their hair colour treated or lightened to blonde will tell you that about three magazine’s worth of time is taken up with waiting, waiting… waiting…
This time around I was sitting only for about half an hour, forty minutes, before I was taken up to wash.

While my colour was being done my hairdresser and I had a good chat about life, relationships, and of course, hair. I was a little concerned about my colour, simply because I’ve done a lot to my hair over the last six months, but he reassured me that going darker would look great, but also wouldn’t do any more damage. I’d mentioned earlier on the blog that I’ve got very, very thick hair, and that has been my saving grace throughout all my colour changes. Whilst he had noticed some breakage, my stylist reassured me that my hair was ok, and would recover. He also talked about how porous some hair can be, and that I’m lucky mine isn’t too much so. The big problem with taking your hair down from a bleach-blonde shade to anything remotely darker is that your hair can turn green. Depending on how porous the hair is, what shades of blonde are involved, what type of dye, what amount of Vol is in the hair – it can all lead to a big, green-ish, unhealthy mess. Luckily when you’re working with an experienced colourist using good quality products, those disasters can be easily avoided!
Blonde hair mid. Jan 2015
Pink hair Feb 2015














As you can see in the above photos, although my hair looked pretty, the texture was quite dry and damaged near the ends, so it was really important to stop bleaching and colour treating my hair for a little while.


Let me tell you guys, it’s hard to feel attractive when your head is piled up with dye and you’re wearing what is essentially a high quality garbage bag.




Once the dye was washed out, my hair was thinned a tiny bit on the right side of my head (the heavier side of my part), as to the left of my part, my hair is that tiny bit thinner, and so much easier to handle! Having the two evened out has helped A LOT in the last two weeks alone. Then my hair was blow dried, and given a slight wave/curl, and voila! Done!




It’s actually quite a subtle change – I wasn’t greeted with the shocked gasps and screams that came with my first attempt at balyage, nor the squeals of going to back to blonde, but a lot of people do love it (including yours truly) and I couldn’t be happier, honestly. This colour is going to be so much easier to maintain, so much easier to style, and it’s got the right hint of blonde to be going along with. Stepping down to a darker shade for Autumn/Winter is also pretty exciting, and I feel a lot more confident going along with this season’s trends now that I have the hair to pull them off.

 




Until next time my little birds,

Tweet tweet xx
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)