Beachy Waves Without the Heat.

Now i'm the type of girl who loves the whole messy, i-just-got-out-of-bed 'do, but as many of you may already know - it's not as easy to achieve as it looks!  I've tried using crimpers, triple-barreled curling irons, etc. and nothing had given me the effect i've been looking for.  I remembered a tutorial i had watched by Thea, xrubyredlips on Youtube, and thought i'd give it a go again - i've tried this method before & really liked it but last night was the first time in months i'd tried it!

(link to the tutorial: Part 1, Part 2).

These photos were taken when i got home from school so the waves had dropped a bit, but this is the kind of effect this method to getting wavy-beachy hair gives :)

You start with damp, uncombed hair straight out of the shower & start kind of scrunching it with your hands.  You then spray it with a bit of hairspray - i used Herbal Essences Tousle Me Softly hairspray - before braiding it & putting it in messy buns.  You'll have to watch part 1 of the tutorial for that as it's quite hard to explain!

 After doing all that, you go to bed, wake up the following morning, take your hair down from the braids & buns, blast it with a blow dryer (with a diffuser on it!), spray it with a bit more hairspray (by a bit i mean a lot) - i used my trusty Tresemme Tres Two Hold hairspray - et voila!  You can leave your bangs up or down as well, i just pinned back sections of hair on both sides of my head to give it a bit of volume & also because that's just how i roll :)

It's SO simple, and that's coming from me! 

Please excuse my Myspace poses ;)

Definitely have a go with this tutorial if you love the bedhead-chic look like i do :)

I'd like to thank those of you who left such amazing comments on my last post, it soo incredible feeling so supported by you girls.  Honestly means a lot ♥

Hope you all had a lovely Monday!

Ask me anything / Tweet tweet!

♥

Deep Cleaning Your Makeup Brushes. ♥

As you may already know, it is very important to deep clean your make up brushes at least once a week, to get all the colors you used on them out, but to also prevent bacteria buildup.  If you let the bacteria build up in your brushes, you're more prone to breaking out - never a good thing!  Cleaning your brushes regularly can also lengthen the life of them!

So, what's the difference between deep cleaning & spot cleaning your brushes?:

Spot cleaning is a good, but temporary cleaning of your brushes.  There are many spot cleaning brush cleansers out there to use, and i use the MAC Brush Cleanser for this.  I use spot cleaning mainly for my eye brushes, since i use different color eyeshadows, as it allows me to get the color out & use a different shade of eyeshadow.  I also use it on my face brushes when i don't have enough time to allow them to completely dry.

Deep cleaning is obviously more thorough & 'deep' than spot cleaning.  How i think of the difference between the two is if you were to just rinse your hair under your shower head, without using shampoo, it gets out some oil & dirt, but doesn't truly clean your hair - as opposed to using a deeper cleaning agent, like shampoo!  Kinda make sense? :)

Now, onto the procedure! :)

Note the dirtiness & product still on the brushes - yucky!

So what you want to do is find a good deep cleanser to clean your brushes.  You don't want to use a shampoo that you use on your own hair, because that will be way too harsh for the brush's hairs.  My favorite product to use is Johnson's Baby Shampoo - it's super affordable & works really well!  This massive bottle costs under $10 & will last me for ages!

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♥ Step 1: Lay out your brushes on a towel next to the sink or wherever you're cleaning them.

♥ Step 2: Grab one brush & run it under warm water, make sure not to tip the brushes with the hairs facing upward at all after doing this, because it can cause really bad damage to your brushes - trust me!

♥ Step 3: Squirt a bit of your shampoo into the palm of your hand - the bigger the brush, the bigger the puddle needs to be!  Less is usually more, but if you didn't take as much as you actually needed, you can always take more shampoo or wash it twice.

♥ Step 4: Swirl the brush around into the little puddle of baby shampoo.  It'll lather up really nicely!  Occasionally squirt out the foam from the bristles between your fingers & thumb.

♥ Step 5: Once you think you're done, rinse hair under warm water & squirt out everything until the water runs clear.

♥ Step 6: Reshape & lay brushes flat to dry on the towel!  Depending on the brush, it may take a couple hours to a day.  I usually wash mine in the afternoon & leave them overnight to dry to be ready to use in the morning.

Voila!  You should be left with gorgeous, clean, nice-smelling brushes ready to use!


Hope i helped some of you girls :)



♥

DIY: Earrings, Hair Accessories, & Phone Case :)

This past weekend i was inspired by Lisa & Katie to make cute little things to wear and to put around my room.  I was feeling super crafty & ended up making some things i'm quite proud of :)

Crafting is a fantastic alternative to going out and buying jewelry & hair accessories - because it saves you money and it's also a fun hobby to do over the weekend or whenever you fancy :)

I made an assortment of bows, flowers, & a lone strawberry for my hair as well as earrings.

How i made the cuties!:

I made the bows out of ribbons & hot glued clips that i already owned to the back.

I made the flower clips for my hair by snipping off flowers from this fake bouquet we had around the house & hot glued them to clips.

I made the strawberry clip out of felt.  I sewed the main red part to the green stem, and then sewed little bits with white thread on the red part to look like seeds.  I then hot glued the finished strawberry to a clip.

To make the earrings i found buttons that my mom keeps in a huge container (it's a massive collection from over the years) and found matching ones.  I then hot glued the backs (more toward the top so it kind of hangs off the ear more) to earrings i don't wear anymore :)

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ignore my cracked Crackberry :O

Oh!  And i also made this little phone case that i was originally just going to make into a plushie, but discovered my phone would fit in it, so i chopped off what would've been his ears & just sewed around the body, leaving the top open to slide my phone in :).  I wanna name him!  I just can't think of a name...my phone's name is Daisy so it would be cute if they kind of went well together!  Suggestions?  :)


:) Twitter / Formspring

♥

A Bath Fit for a Queen :)

After reading Darling Heart's post on a milk and honey bath fit for Cleopatra herself, i was intrigued and did a bit more research!  I ended up brewing myself up a bath that very night and although the water was scalding hot resulting in me draining most of it & adding cold water (therefore it wasn't as luxurious and filled with milk & honey :/), it was actually quite nice.

I'll have to try it again, but checking the temperature of the water before adding any ingredients :)

Here's what i used in the bath! - common household ingredients really :) :

♥ a packet of Equate Oatmeal Bath Treatment (optional, i just thought it would treat my skin even more :)

♥ a bit more than a cup of milk

♥ lots & lots of honey (about a cup)

♥ essential oils - i personally didn't use them because i don't have any, but it would be nice to use these to add a little delicious fragrance to the bath!

Since milk is used in the bath, i was concerned that i would smell of spoiled milk or something (know what i mean? ha), but i couldn't smell a hint of milk!  Yaaaay.  Just thought i'd let you girls know in case you were wondering like me :)

While the water was running and the water was about half full, i added all the ingredients - milk first.

Oatmeal next.  You'll probably have to crumble the oatmeal a bit more once it's in the water, so it's not so clumpy and lumpy (lolz).

Last but definately not least, honey.  Mmmm!  The honey is a bit harder to get out of the glass than the milk & oatmeal (obviously Laura...geez ha), so i simply ran it under the tap & poured that into the bath.

This is what the bath should look like after you've added everything :)  All you need to do is pop in & relax!

I have a recipe on how to take the perfect bath HERE if you want to read that, i promise you'll love it ♥♥

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I really recommend you ladies to try this bath out yourself!  It's nice not going out and spending money on bath goodies when you can just make your own nourishing bath with ingredients you already own :)  If Cleopatra bathed in milk & honey, there must be something amazing to it right?

♥

How-To Enjoy a Lush Bath :)

I was in the middle of soaking in my Lush bath the other night when i came up with the idea of sharing with you lovelys how to fully enjoy your own Lush baths!

Bathtime, to me, is not just lounging in a water-filled tub for 20+ minutes, it's that special time that you can just relax & escape reality for a while.  In this post, i'll tell you how to make the most out of that precious time :)

What you'll need:

♥ a tub

♥ hot water

♥ your favorite Lush products - a bath ballistic, melt, bubble bar, soap, shower gel, etc. (my faves right now are The Comforter bubble bar & Rock Star soap)
♥ candles, they're optional, but they can really help to create a relaxing mood :)

♥ hair tie

♥ a nice cup of caffine-free tea

♥ light food (fruit, crackers, etc.) or my favorite..chocolate!
♥ something to do so you don't get bored as quickly - a book, iPod, etc.

Instructions:

1. Get everything you need together & lay it out in an organized fashion so you don't forget anything or have to rummage around.

2. Leave your phone & anything work or school related out of the bathroom - this is your time to completely forget about those things :)

3. Remove makeup & tie hair up.

4. Start running hot bath water.

5. Pop your favorite Lush products into bath (This is my favorite part!  Well, aside from enjoying the bath a'course ;)

6. Hop (haha, pop...hop) into bath & turn off water (or other way around).

7. Time to get cheesy....Take deep breaths, close your eyes, and really soak in the scents & warmth of the glorious bath.

8. Enjoy for as long as you please ♥

9. Don't forget the tea & snacks!  If you start getting bored, listen to soothing/comforting/happy music, read a good book - just be careful not to drop it into the water!

10. Wash with soap of choice.

11. Drain bath water & run shower, i usually shower in cooler water after a bath, it just feels nice & refreshing - shampoo/condition hair, wash face, etc.

12. Dry off, moisturize, put on warm, comfy PJ's, comb hair, brush teeth, etc.

13. Get into bed & dream pleasant dreams.

♥