Colour Freedom Metallic Glory Graphite Grey Hair Dye Review

Superdrug: £7.99

It's been so long that even my hair has turned grey~ I apologise guys, I literally have no time to blog nowadays from working two jobs T__T I'm not sure why but I seem to gravitate towards grey hair when I've got no idea what colour to go next - literally my third time being grey. When I first went grey it was so difficult to find a box dye that had the colour already made for you, but now that there is, going grey had never been easier. In the past I used to use Nirvel's grey dye but I've had to move my stuff out and so I don't have it with me anymore. I couldn't decide whether to go for graphite or stone grey, but I went for the former in the end due to stone grey looking like it's almost black on the box.

Lavender Hair - Cerise & Neon Blue Directions

It's been a long time since I've posted about my hair colour so here you are guys~ I totally feel like a unicorn and I'm actually so excited and happy about my hair (as you can tell in the video) :D LOL my eyes are bloody huge in these lenses (there'll be a review on these soon as well - killed two birds with one stone that day) ;P I need to emphasise that all my hair dyeing experiences are experiments, I'm not a professional so I can't guarantee that this would be the exact colour that comes out for you, but it should be close enough if your hair is fairly light :)

I knew colour would deposit on my hair fairly well because my hair has been bleached, but I wasn't sure how the colour would turn out as always - experimenting will come back to bite my butt one day I swear >.< Purple box dyes or ready made purple dyes were never the perfect shade of purple that I wanted so I thought I'll mix my own.

Empties #1

So this is my very first empties post and although it seems like a lot, this is actually my collection over a few months. I mean if I did like a monthly one, there'd only be one thing and I don't think many people would be interested >.< I will be doing mini reviews of these and if you guys want me to do an in-depth one, let me know in the comments below or contact me via the contact page ^^

*Going from left to right

1) Clean & Clear Oil-Free Exfoliating Daily Wash - £3.10
A mild exfoliant with cloudy liquid, this lathers up quickly in your palms and sloughs off the dead skin on your face instantly - creating a smoother canvas. It has that baby bath product smell but it's very subtle so it won't linger around. Most exfoliators I feel are too harsh on the skin because of their large beads, but these are tiny and when I say tiny I mean tinyyyyy, which is gentle on the skin - great for every day use. Definitely recommend for people who have acne prone skin as well, since this is an oil-free wash and although I don't have acne, this helps to reduce the odd pimples that I get very quickly :)

Jerome Russell Blonde High Lift Powder Bleach Review

Purple and Blue Ombré | Crazy Colour - #No.62 Hot Purple Review

Sunlight

My birthday is in two days so I wanted to do something to my hair, although by the time my birthday comes it probably would fade even more :( It's not surprising though that I've yet again dyed my hair because it's normal for me to change up my hair like every few months. Right, first of all I didn't get my hair like this in one go if anyone was wondering, it took me twice before I got something that I'm happy with. I actually feel like a unicorn :D

Pantene Pro-V Nutri-Plus 2Min Intensive Repair Conditioner Review

Gift from cousin

This was part of my uni depart gift from my cousin which turned out to be of great use. I can't seem to find it from Superdrug or Boots for those in the UK but it can be found on Ebay and Savers might have them since they usually have a lot of stuff that has been discontinued.

Claims

• Temporary conditioning benefits
• Helps repair 2 months of damage in 2 minutes
• Helps lock in moisture deep down
• Helps protect hair from future styling damage
• For very damaged hair

As it's from Pantene you can expect it to smell absolutely amazing. Pantene products have always done my hair justice so I didn't doubt that this would also be beneficial to my hair, however what I did doubt were some of the claims being made e.g. repairing 2 months of damaged hair in 2 minutes.

Yes my hair did feel a lot smoother after using this but the effects were only temporary and only lasted for about a couple of days - no where on par with my Vo5 conditioner or the after treatment masks from Schwarzkopf Live Colour XXL. 

I do admit that if you have really damaged hair then this will help you but not very much and I would advise you to use something better. I don't think this actually helps to protect your hair from future styling damage, so you'd still need to use some kind of heat protector; spray type or cream type. 

This is very cheap as well so good for those who are on a budget and don't want to spend loads on hair. I'd still recommend for a better conditioner but if you're short on time and need to be at an event and don't want dry frizzy hair, then investing in this would help give you that temporary moisture that you need for that special day. 

Thanks for reading :)

Hair Update - April 2015

No makeup

Sorry I look ugly, no makeup + bloating is never a good match but meh :P 

I am back with another hair update since the last one I made a month ago. My hair since then has faded loads more; I wanted it to be the lightest it could, so that I could dye my hair the same colour again for summer and the fact that I was just curious as to what my hair colour would be at it's lightest - it can still fade more. 

Read my previous hair update here: http://kelkelxo.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/hair-update-feb-to-mar.html

How To Maintain Red Hair

Red can be such a great colour to have and is most likely one of the colours everyone would change their hair colour to at least once, as it's such a versatile colour and fits almost anyone. However as well as the good points it fades like a bitch and is one of the colours that's very difficult to maintain. Please note that if you've got bleached hair and then dyed it red then the dye is going to fade more quickly compared to hair that haven't been bleached, not to mention that on bleached hair the outcome of the colour would be brighter.

So how exactly do I maintain it? Well:

• First of all what I do is wash my hair less frequently. Yup, sounds disgusting to those who wash their hair every day but trust me, washing your hair every day is actually bad due to your natural oils being stripped out. I usually wash my hair every other day, but when I had my vibrant red hair I made it so that I washed my hair twice a week and if it became greasy at any point, dry shampoo is always at hand. 

• Secondly, when I do wash my hair I make sure the water is as cold as I can possibly take it as the colour pigments don't dissociate as quickly when cold water is involved.

• When washing my hair I use shampoo/conditioner that is made for red hair or for coloured hair in general - I used Garnier's Ultimate Blend. 

• Try not to use styling tools or the hairdryer as much. The warmer your surroundings are for your hair, the more it will fade as heat will quicken the reaction of the colour dissociation, therefore applying heat to your hair isn't a good idea. I personally don't blow dry my hair, but sometimes I do if I'm pushed for time. So either you towel dry hair, air dry it or blow dry it with cold/cool air instead.

Well the secret is out! Tbh it's not much of a secret, it's common sense really but it should help first-timers going red so hope I helped :) 

John Frieda Sheer Blonde Go Blonder Lightening Shampoo & Sheer Blonde Colour Renew Tone Correcting Conditioner Review

Superdrug: £5.99 each

I dyed my hair blonde not too long ago, and as anyone who have had blonde hair before knows (unless you're naturally blonde) in order to maintain this colour, you'd have to use blonde shampoo and conditioner/toner to make sure it doesn't go brassy.

This was the first time I went blonde (my hair colour after will turn out brighter), so in terms of what brand or what I need to maintain it was a mystery to me, but the internet always helps you with that :) I wanted my hair to stay the way I dyed it or even better become lighter, which is why I opted for the lightening shampoo instead.

Shampoo

It claims to "gradually lighten", however I didn't personally notice the colour difference. According to my friends my hair seemed different and asked whether I've actually dyed my hair again, so I guess it makes some kind of difference. It's yellowy with a hint of metallic in it. The smell of this product is citrusy but not so overwhelming that you'd get paranoid about your hair smelling like lemons all day as it eventually wears off. I found this shampoo very drying, like my hair is already absolutely fried from the damage I do to it, but this product made it worse. Whilst I like the scent of this, it made it harder to wash my hair due to my hair being dried out. 

Conditioner

As a conditioner its job to moisturise your hair was utter crap. My hair was still quite drying from the shampoo (I use the shampoo alongside this) and using this hoping that it would moisturise my hair, led to a massive disappoint. The scent of this doesn't is even worse; it doesn't smell nice and in fact smells a bit plasticky to me. It's lilac/lavender in colour which is pretty, but colour of the product doesn't mean anything if it doesn't do its job; unless its hair dye then colour obviously matter >.< It does keep your hair from going all brassy so I suppose it does something right. 

Pros

• Shampoo: hair does lighten 
• Not an overwhelming smell
• Conditioner: tones hair to prevent it from going brassy

Cons

• Shampoo: Dries out your hair
• Conditioner: disgusting scent
• Doesn't provide any moisture

Anyone else tried John Frieda products? 

Schwarzkopf Live XXL Colour Pure Purple 86 Review

Long time no see and this is what happened - I dyed my hair once again. As previously mentioned I did say I was going to dye my hair a similar colour before I went blonde. The colour came out just as I wanted to, but this wasn't my concern as I knew for definite that the colour would come out right since my hair was bleached ^___^ 

Schwarzkopf LIVE XXL - Pure Purple #86

The procedure is the same - mix the developer with your colour cream and shake so that the mixture is fully mixed. Then just apply it onto your hair with gloves, or no gloves if you don't like them or just find it easier with your hands, but mind you, this will stain for a little while so you'll have bright red hands lol >.<

Garner Ultimate Blends The Sleek Perfector Oil Review

Superdrug - £6.66

In the world of girls, using straighteners and curlers are inevitable and because of this, heat protectors are made so that our hair doesn't get as damaged. Our hair is constantly getting damaged whether or not we use any kind of products or technology on our hair. This is because we go out in the sun, prolonged exposure to sun rays, will indeed lighten our hair but also dry it out as well so we need to look after it.

First of all, this is made with pure coconut oil. Those who are into organic stuff will know that coconut oil has great benefits in that it'll make our hair shinier and softer with regular use. With integrated coconut oil, of course the product will smell like coconut so for those of you who don't like this scent, I don't recommend. I personally don't like the smell of coconut oil, but because I've used it for so long now, I'm actually used to the smell and it doesn't bother me anymore.

Superdrug Colour Performance Natural Medium Ash Blonde Review

Hair before

Because I'm lazy and impatient, I didn't bleach my hair a second time so some parts of my hair were still ginger/brown but that's okay I prefer the gradient effect in my hair rather than one flat colour anyway. I did the bleaching and hair dying in one day which isn't recommended because your hair needs rest but I needed to be somewhere the next day and I do not want to go out looking like an orange so I had no choice but to do both in the same day.

Again, I used two boxes of hair dye. I've thought about going blonde before but never really did anything about it but I knew if I did go blonde, I'd know what kind of blonde I'd go, not platinum but also not a very honey blonde either. So I opted for ash blonde, since I like ashy toned hair. I was on a budget (cause student life) so I literally went into Superdrug and tried to find a nice ash blonde colour that I liked and I cam across this and the swatches on the side seem promising as well, even for brunettes. Usually blonde hair dyes don't tend to come out on dark hair but this one it does so score! ^^

Superdrug - £4.29
*Source: Google Images

As usual, go through all the hair dying procedures including strand tests (I don't personally do this because I'm lazy), skin tests, wearing gloves, vaseline areas that would get hair dye on to. When applying hair dye, I tend to wait till my hair is slightly greasy so usually after a couple days I've washed my hair just so it'd create a barrier for your hair and the chemicals, so it isn't too damaging.

Smart Beauty Smart Blonde High-Lift Hair Lightener & Platinum Blonde Conditioning Toner Review

So, this is the start of my hair transformation. I've always said how I'd never go blonde simply because I think it doesn't suit me, but I've decided to turn blonde this time with the initial purpose of just going lighter in order to get a brighter hair colour (same colour as my previous hair colour). The last time I bleached my hair, I used Bleach London's Total Bleach and it was extremely drying, not to mention it was very expensive and the smell just didn't cut it for me. Nevertheless, it still did the job. 

Savers - £2.99 - £3.99
*Source: Google Images

*Definitely get it from Savers, it's so much cheaper than Boots or Superdrug!

I thought I should opt for a cheaper alternative that still did the job, to which I stumbled across this when I went to Savers, and because I used their products before and it did a really good job, I bought it. The contents in the box is the same for any bleach except this includes a purple based toner. 

Hair before bleaching

Because my hair is quite long (boob length), I used up two boxes of bleach. However, if you're only touching up your roots, one box is sufficient.

JoBaz Hair Colour Remover (Max Strength) Review

As you can see I've decided to change my hair colour again. I've only just started my hair colouring journey last year and I'm already addicted - see what hair dye can do to you? Haha :P

But anyway, before I even think about dying my hair again, I'd need to strip the colours of my hair due to build up of dyes and bleach from previous processes. Therefore I picked the max strength one instead of the normal strength. My previous hair colour was a plum/burgundy red based colour and so would be very difficult to get rid of properly. Dying on top of that colour would literally be a waste of your money so I wouldn't recommend you to do that if you've got a darker colour deposited in your hair. However if it's a lighter colour, say a pastel pink/purple then go for it (obviously consider what colour the outcome would be). 

Bathroom & Indoor lighting

My roots grew out massively and basically looked horrible to me, but people have told me that it isn't that bad and some of them even liked the "growing out" effect. I guess the fact that I had a darker hair colour blended in with my virgin hair and so didn't look completely atrocious but I know for a fact that if I were to strip my hair, it would be absolutely disgusting. 

I was really indecisive upon what colour I want to go next so I just bought one box of one colour and another colour (going to mix them) from Schwarzkopf LIVE range in mystic violet and true purple. If you want to know how I got my hair colour before, check out my other reviews from the Schwarzkopf brand :) For now, I'll stay blonde until I know what colour I want my hair - probably deep blue or even pink. Although I heard blue is really hard to get out your hair =/

Schwarzkopf Live Colour XXL HD Luminance - Ultraviolet L76 Review

Hair before in direct sunlight

Hi guys, so this is yet again another hair review from me. As you can see this is my hair colour before I dyed it. I got this in the colour ultraviolet since I liked the colour shown on the box. This dye is supposed to be for people who have darker hair so you don't have to have absolute blonde hair for this to take effect but you do still need your hair to be lighter (you'll know what I mean when you see the box). 

Hair after a few weeks in the sun

You can clearly see here that my hair isn't purple but more red, and I reckon it's because I dyed my hair when it was still ginger so some of that orangey undertone affected the colour. Well, it doesn't matter because I quite liked the colour that came out :)

SmartBeauty Smart Colour Semi-permanent Dye Review

Heyy guys, I didn't dye my hair a different colour, but because I dyed my hair like 2 months ago, some dye have faded and I just wanted to restore some colour back into it :)

Hair before with no filter & indoor lighting + No makeup selfie  #darkcirclegamestrong

For this hair colour I used Schwartzkopf's Live XXL in the colour ultraviolet. I'll write a review about that in another post and maybe do a post on how I got this hair colour. 

So as I mentioned before I wasn't opting for a full colour change but just wanted to top up the colour I already had. I didn't really give a crap about what brand it is - I was having a lazy day and wanted to experiment with cheaper dyes because I is moving to uni in a couple weeks and girl needs to save >.< 

Because this was a cheap dye, I didn't really expect it to do much or even smell good but to my amazement, this dye can match up to the more known box dyes such as Schwartzkopf, Jerome Russell, L'Oreal etc. The only downside to this is the fact that it doesn't include a conditioner, but I'm fine with that because you could just use any conditioner to wash your hair - preferably for coloured hair duh :P

MANIC PANIC (Purple Haze) Review

Hey guys! So this is probably like the third or fourth time I've dyed my hair. As you can tell from the title, I decided to go for purple because purple is a fun colour. Anyway, before I had purple hair my hair was half ginger half reddish brown - I'll attach a photo to let you guys know what I'm on about. I also had long thick hair before I decided to cut it and now I look like a lion or something like that. 

Hair colour before

I know my hair looks more black in this lighting but it's a reddish brown where the darker parts of my hair are.

Now, onto the purple transformation! So I bleached the rest of my hair which weren't already bleached. But won't the colour of your hair be uneven after dying it purple? Well, that's exactly what I was going for - I didn't want my hair to be a completely flat colour. After bleaching my hair, most of my head was ginger with parts where it was completely blonde. You can dye your hair straight after you've bleached it, I just chose to do it a couple days later.