Beauty Archives - Page 41 of 45 - Violet LeBeaux

How To Store Headbands Cutely – Day 1

by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 7, 2009 | Beauty, Craft, Hair, Hime Gyaru, Storage/Utility-Tutorials, Tutorial

Why aren’t there more options for headband storage?

If you are anything like me you have a billion alice bands/head bands/what ever you call a bow on a rigid frame that goes on your head… and as adorable as they look they are really annoying to store!

They get tangled and if you just throw them in a drawer it’s hard to see which is which! So here is my solution, I’m going to make a gigantic roll shaped like a cute piece of candy to hold them all 😀

This is what it’s going to look like at the end:

So first thing’s first, get all the materials. I’m doing a no-sewing version because my machine is packed up but if you replace the glue gun with sewing it will work just as well.

What you need to make my version of headband storage:

-Fabric -Foam for the inside (I am just going to recycle an old yoga mat but you can buy proper foam) -Ribbon or wool -Lace and flowers to decorate -Glue gun or sewing machine

Now if you’re doing a no-sew version like me you’ll need tape too. You can double your tape as a stylish accessory 😛

Ok let’s get started! Lay out your yoga mat (ignore these steps if you’re using foam for the middle) and start rolling.

You should make sure that the size you’ve rolled will actually fit the headbands so test one out to be safe ^_^

Once you get the right size it’s time to tape it in place.

Now you should measure and cut the fabric out. You need a large rectangle which is long enough to wrap around the mat and wide enough so that it hangs off the end like the wrapper of a piece of candy. Make sure to leave a few inches extra for hems etc.

You should be able to mock it up like this:

Now after you’ve cut out your fabric it’s time to decorate the ends on the candy piece. I like frilly things so I used some frilly cotton lace.

Use your hot glue gun to fix it in place. If you want you can hem the edges but because they are going to be covered with lace (and I don’t have my sewing machine out) it doesn’t really matter.

Taadaa lacy edged 🙂

Ok now let’s make it up. Lay the mat on the fabric, make sure it’s straight and tape it in place.

Roll that baby up!

Fold the ends over and glue/sew it in place.

Now you should grab the end with your hand…

…and give it a good twist. Just like making a real candy ^_^

Grab the wool/ribbon and tie it in place.

This is what you should have now.

It kind of looks like candy but I think it needs a nice candy stripe 😀 So grab some eyelet lace and glue it to the wool/ribbon.

Roll it around in a nice spiral and glue it to the other end ^_^

I hid the ugly ends by gluing a cute flower over the top, of course that’s optional.

So this is it!

Now you just need to add all your headbands and you’re done 😀

Tadaa! Candy head band holder 😀 What do you think? Nice and easy to store and they are all displayed nicely.

How do you guys store your headbands? Am I nuts for needing something this big? XD The sad part is that this one is full now and I think I need another one >_< Let me know your headband storage ideas!

Nail Art… wow it's been a while!

by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 2, 2009 | Beauty, Craft, Nails, Notices

It has been quite a while since I did a post just on nail art hasn’t it?!

I think that’s probably because I’ve been so crazy busy with moving house and everything else I just haven’t had time to do anything fun and time consuming like that. Now that we’re all settled in I’ve finally had a chance to have a little relax and do something for myself ^_^

Yep leopard print! I’ve been a little bit obsessed with leopard print lately!

While I was doing this I videoed everything so if anyone’s interested I’ll make a tutorial. It’s a lot easier than it looks!

Everything was done freehand, I think that the black tips and orange jewels really make it pop, and it looks amazing in the sunlight!

Also I want to give everyone the heads up that I’ll be moving to my own domain soon so you’ll all have to update your RSS readers and favorites etc. Don’t worry I’m going to make it worth your while though… The week that I move over I’m going to post something cool every single day of the week that you guys have been requesting. Lots of tutorials and things and a competition. It’s not quite ready just yet but I hope you’ll all still visit me in my new home 😀

Also don’t forget to vote for my new camera’s name on the side bar! It’s neck and neck at the moment ^_^ Hope you enjoyed the nail art in the mean time!

Hairstyle Questions and Answers

by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 30, 2009 | About Me, Beauty, Hair, Hair-Tutorials, Tutorial

Lately a couple of people have been asking about how I do my hair style and decorate my hair.

When I posted my make up tutorial Victoria Suzanne from Lolita Charm asked:

“I’d love to know about the roses in your hair – did you make them and how are they in such a cute little band? “

Here is a screen shot of my hair from the tutorial (the best one I could find anyway!)

So I thought today that I would talk a little bit about hair and show you how you can turn pretty much anything into a hair clip ^_^

So let’s make the hair clips first. These are my favorite types of roses. They are actually made from styrofoam which sounds strange but they are very soft, durable and realistic. I got mine from Spotlight but I imagine most craft stores carry them.

So what you need is flowers (or whatever you want to make into a hair clip), a hot glue gun and some bobby pins.

Using the glue gun you should put a good amount on both the rose and the bobby pin. Press them together. A good tip is to make sure that hot glue actually gets through the loop part of the bobby pin, this makes sure that it can’t pop out of the glue later.

You should hold the bobby pin where the stem on the flower would go. Normal hair clips would put the clip on a right angle but I find that it’s easier to hide the pin amongst your hair like this. Be careful not to burn yourself on the glue! When it’s dry it should look like this:

If you want you can cover the ugly glue on the back with a small circle of felt but seeing as it’s going to be buried in my hair I don’t mind so much ^_^

You can really do this with anything. Here is a sneak peak at what I’m going to be wearing in my hair at the Nuffnang Christmas party… I bought these butterflies at a junk store.

Now I have an army of butterfly hair clippies!

They are going to look super cute!

So now that you’ve made your clips it’s time to decorate your hair! How you arrange them greatly depends on the look you want. For me I want a hime style look but my other motivation is to cover my re-growth of non-blonde hair so I can wait longer between dyes and damage my hair less. So this is what I start out with:

When it’s up like this, the regrowth is super obvious. I’m sure I could cover it with a hat like a normal girl but with hime style hair it doesn’t go so well!

So to do the style I did in the video you need to start with a base head band. I like to use one which is similar colour to the flowers and has something interesting on it like a bow.

Everything about the style I’m making is lopsided so make sure you pick your best side for the bow!

Now get your flowers, it’s nice to use a few different types or shapes of flowers to make the style more interesting.

So grab one of your flowers (I’m starting with the light pink ones) and attach it. You should slide the flower under the headband because the band will hide the metal bit. You really don’t actually need to get much hair to hold it in, just a tiny bit. I get a tiny bit of my fringe in to it then push the whole way into my pouf.

This is how it looks all the way in. See how it hides everything nicely?

Now add another one on that side above the first.

And one on the other side… For this style I work with uneven numbers of flowers to make it even more lopsided.

Now you have quite a good base to work with, start adding the other kind of flower. You can add as many or few until you like how it looks. I like a lot of flowers so this is what I ended up with 😀

No regrowth to be seen ^_^

Now here are some variations on this look, it’s very versatile…

This time instead of a head band I started with a row of flowers that I’ve glued on a comb.

So add it to the side because it’s going to be your feature piece.

This version requires more flowers if you want to cover up regrowth but still looks cute.

If you are wearing awesome earrings you can pull the bits of hair on the side backwards and pin them over the headband. Here is how it looks with a different headband.

So I hope that answers some of your questions, if you’d like ore information just leave me a comment 😀
Btw if you’re interested in Lolita fashion you should check out Victoria Suzanne‘s blog, it’s full of really interesting articles and she has some very cute hair styles of her own!!

Video Make Up Tutorial- and Eco Tools Brushes Review

by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 17, 2009 | Beauty, Beauty-Tutorials, Review, Tutorial, Video-Tutorials

I have been planning to do this Eco Tools brushes review for a while and remember all that time ago when I promised you videos?

Well today my friends I deliver! Everyone kept asking about my make up so I have made you all a video tutorial on how I do my basic every-day make up. I really hope you all enjoy it, I’m not a pro at editing or shooting things yet but I am learning so be gentle ^_^ Also how awesomely flattering is the screen cap that got picked for the video XD

P.S What do you guys think of the theme song James wrote for me? How sweet of him!

Ok so the other half of this post is about the brushes I used in the video. This is a list of all the products I used in the tutorial:
-Foundation- Innoxa Satin Sheen Buttermilk
-Concealer- Bourjois Brush Concealer
-Powder- Cover Girl Tru Blend Minerals 405
-Mascara- Cover Girl Lash Blast
-Blush/Pink eye shadow- Boujois blush 35 Rose D’or
-White/Black eyeshadow- Be Yourself Eyeshadow
-Eyelash curler- 1000 Hour Lashes Heated Eye Lash curler
-Eyelashes- 1000 Hour Lashes
-Eyelash glue- Lash Me Type 1
-Lip Tint- Bourjois Rouge Hi-tech 65-Cyber cassis
-Lip Gloss- Prestige Vinylwear High ShineJust before the Nuffnang Awards I was sent a box of EcoToolsmake up brushes to test out so here is my review…As someone who is a beginner in make up techniques I am always looking for the simplest, easiest ways to do things. Up until I got this set I was using those little foam applicators that came with my eye shadow pots. They always break and don’t last very long and I found that quite frustrating, I also didn’t like the fact that it was quite hard to get a precise line.

So when EcoTools send me this package I was quite excited to be able to try out some brushes! In this pack there are 5 different brushes and a matching bamboo container, you can also buy the brushes individually and the prices range from AU$4.95 – $22.95 (available from Priceline Kmart & Price Attack) which as I understand it is fairly run of the mill for make up brushes of this level. The brushes in my pack are the following:
-Blush applicator
-Angled Eyeliner brush
-Eyebrow brush
-Concealer Brush
-Eyeshadow brush

I tested them all out pretty well as you can see in the video! I gave them a brief play with before we went to Singapore but the big test was really my make up for the Nuffnang Awards and you can see by looking back at the photos, they passed with flying colours ^_^

The thing with EcoTools is that it’s made from all cruelty-free sustainable materials (hence the bamboo holder). So you can feel like you’re doing your bit for the environment while you’re doing your make up XD When I read the back and discovered that the bristles were synthetic I was a bit apprehensive about whether they would be scratchy but I was pleasantly surprised, it’s so soft it’s kind of like rubbing suede on your face! Also because they are made of bamboo and aluminum they weight practically nothing. That’s great if you’re traveling so you can pack in more copies of Japanese magazines!

My favorite brush is the angled eyeliner one. I don’t use eyeliner often but I’ve found it’s really useful use for getting into to all those annoying parts like the corner of my eyes with eyeshadow! Genius!

I thought the box thingy was quite a handy addition to the pack because I would have no idea how to store something like this. Knowing my track record with my bathroom mess they would probably just end up laying on the counter somewhere ^_^ But now I have the box thingy I’ll keep all my pointy make up items like mascara, lash curler etc in there too!

So final thoughts? Well I’ve thrown out all the old foam applicators and as I mention in the video, I really do like having a set of brushes. I think it’s enough to say I’m using them every day now! I think it will enable me to be more adventurous with make up ideas in future ^_^ I would give these 8/10 over all, they were quite easy to use, the quality and price were good and the presentation was quite cute. I bet they’ll look even better after I deco them 😉

So what is your verdict on my video? Like/dislike? Anything in particular you want to see me do next time? I’m open to suggestions (within reason) ^_^

P.S. Can you totally tell James took these pictures for me because they’re all fancy and arty? If any of you and interested in amature photography you should go and take a look at his blog because he’s started writing tutorials with tips and things now ^_^

Thanks for the reading my eco tools brushes review!

Update- 1000 Hour Lash Glue and Heated Eyelash Curler

by VioletLeBeaux | Oct 7, 2009 | Beauty, Beauty-Tutorials, Review, Tutorial

So if you are a regular visitor here you’ll remember a few weeks back I had a horrible experience with some 1000Hour eyelash glue. Read my review here.

So after emails back and forth with the company that owns 1000Hour (ChemCorp) they were very helpful and apologetic about the allergy. They even sent me a little care package for my troubles! They refunded the money I spent on the glue originally and covered my Doctors costs and the medicine so I wasn’t out of pocket. What made me really happy was that they sent me some complimentary gifts to apologize ^_^

I received a cute little heated eyelash curler which I’ve been eyeing off for a while
Image no longer available.
And eyebrow tweezers with a built in light.
I don’t pluck my eyebrows so I gave the tweezers to my Mum. I have road tested the eyelash curler though!

Firstly I decided that the plain black was a bit boring so I deco’d it 😀 Much cuter no?
The curler comes with a cleaning brush, but there isn’t anywhere to store it so I’ll probably loose it! So here is what my eye looks like without anything on it.

The instructions say that you should apply mascara first and then turn the curler on. You wait 15 seconds for it to heat up. This is my eye with plain mascara:

There is a little light on the curler to indicate when it’s switched on and the AAA battery was supplied in the pack. I think the size is more convenient than a traditional scissor shaped curler, I can store it with my mascaras and eye pencils rather than having to find space for a traditional curler’s odd shape.

Ok so after it’s heated up you use it as if you were applying mascara. Face the heated comb on your lashes and press them upwards. Hold them there for a few seconds and you’re done! I repeated it a few times on each eye. The comb doesn’t get overly hot which was a nice surprise because I was worried about burning myself with my clumsiness XD It was still hot enough to curl and the plastic guard makes it very difficult to touch your skin with the coil. It has 2 heat settings controlled by the switch on the side.

This is after curling:
After adding a final coat of mascara:
The verdict:
I wasn’t expecting to like it because I thought the concept was a little strange but in the end I really liked the result! It was very easy to use and I think it did just as good of a job as a standard scissor one. I like that it doesn’t feel as damaging as a normal curler and the best part: There’s no way to accidentally pinch your eyelid with it! ^_^

It’s made it’s way into my standard make up kit, so that’s a thumbs up from me! Edit: You can buy one from Priceline for RRP$19.95.

Have you guys ever used one of these or have you used 1000 hour lash glue?

How I Get Relaxing…

by VioletLeBeaux | Sep 23, 2009 | Beauty, Hair, Nails, Other-Tutorials, Tutorial

There are some days when absolutely nothing seems to work the way it should. Work explodes into a hot sticky mess, your hair won’t sit right no matter how much hair spray you use, there is nothing but spam in your inbox and you have a migraine the size of China. I am having one of those weeks!

So what to do in this situation but take a little time to yourself and relax.

If you’re anything like me you’re not very good at relaxing. I am the kind of person that needs t do like 10 things at once or I’ll get bored and feel unproductive. So this is my guide to relaxing.

Life can be very tiring!

This is my secret relaxation kit, what you can see is: -Pot of tea (blueberry) -Tea cup (the cutest one you can find), milk and sugar -Face and hair masks -Sleep mask -Nail polish and toe separators -Bueno (Damn it Bueno sponsor me already so I can have free ones!) -Cute silver tray to carry it all on. -Advil to remove horrible headache or something stronger if needed

Optional: -Water bottle -Tv with Judge Judy on because she is hilarious -Body butter for massages -Boyfriend to apply said body butter, nail polish, pour tea, feed Bueno etc.

All of this should be done in bed with lots of comfy pillows or on a relaxing couch in front of the tv.

Preparation: -Make a pot of tea and collect all the needed equipment -Have a warm relaxing shower and wash your hair out, hime styles can be very tough on your hair with all of the spraying and teasing so give some love back to it!

-Apply the hair mask according to the instructions and clip your hair back to let it dry.

My favorite brand of facial mask is Montagne Jeunesse but they are all pretty much the same so just get whichever is available to you. This one is a self heating one.

It looks super gross. Apply the mask according to the instructions, make sure to check how long you need to leave it on for.

At this point you probably look like a swamp monster so take a moment to enjoy that feeling. This effect works even better if you haven’t shaved your legs for ages 😉

Now while the face mask is setting you can take the time to paint your toe nails. If you wear high heels all the time you could also take the time to give your feet a massage, feet take a lot of weight so treat them nicely!

My poor feet are covered in blisters at the moment because I wore some heels without stockings one day ;_;

If you want them to look extra special add some diamantes or a cool konad design. Now I usually make the tea so it has a chance to cool while I take off my face mask. I like lots of sugar! Having a cute tea pot is very important 😛

And don’t forget the Buenos! There is one for me, one for James… or maybe both for me! Before you eat you should wash all of the face mask off. Your skin should feel smooth and beautiful. Then you can enjoy your tea 😀

And if you feel like it you can take a nap! Naps are awesome, more people should take naps. Shh I’m trying to sleep! At the end of this you should be very chilled!