Beauty Archives - Page 27 of 45 - Violet LeBeaux

Temporary Purple Hair Colour with Illamasqua Cream Pigment

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 21, 2011 | Beauty, Beauty-Tutorials, Hair, Tutorial

You know me, I love colorful hair. I love unnatural hair and I love being able to change my hair on a whim, that’s why I love hair pieces and wigs etc. That’s why when I was a kid in the 90’s/early 2000’s (is that even a word? I refuse to call them the naught-ies) I fell victim to hair mascara and 3 wash colours. In primary school I developed an obsession with blue/red/purple streaks and if it hadn’t been for the uniform rules at school I would have gotten them! The first time I dyed my hair I did it bright red and from there I never looked back. My favorite at the time was bright red with around 3 inches of blonde at the bottoms, I loved it so much!

So fast forward to around a month ago when we met the Illamasqua creator Jullian Kynaston and he told me something interesting… Part of Illamasqua’s idea is that Make up should be for everyone and why should it stop at the edge of your face. In fact he told me that the Illamasqua cream pigments could be used on hair too. I actually squeed… it was a bit embarrassing.

I’ve had visions of purple streaks to compliment my pink for a while and I had a pot of Daub in my draw that they sent waiting for review so I was pretty damn excited to try the idea out!!

This is my result…

It looks a bit patchy but I’m putting that down to being overambitious and trying to do too large a section first try. Pretty damn cool if I say so myself. But here’s the important question… Does it feel as crinkly and terrible as hair mascara did in the 90’s? No. Not even a little bit. This doesn’t dry hard at all because, well, it’s made to be used on the face. Big plus right there, mine lasted around 3 days gradually fading at which point I decided to remove it and try a different style, it had worn a bit but still looked pretty good.This is how I achieved the look:

Section the parts of hair I wanted purple, put a piece of toilet paper underneath…

Painted the hair with a make up brush…

Got frustrated with how long that was taking and used fingers instead…

Allowed to dry for a few minutes….

Brushed out to separate the hairs….

To give it even more of a natural look I added a little dry shampoo to the mix and brushed that out too.

Perfect. Feels the same texture as the rest of my hair, doesn’t leave purple everywhere and washes out with water or a little oil free make up remover.

This is perfect for those who want to experiment with colour but not commit or who change their likes often. There is not one thing that I don’t like about this colour in my hair, it’s the perfect shade to compliment the pink! Now I want to get a bunch of them and try different ideas! Like painting hearts on my fringe or something else fun like that!

So yes this first day it looked a bit patchy because I was impatient but the next day it had worked in better and looked completely even and natural. Kicking myself for not thinking to take photos of that >_<

Next time I will work with smaller sections to get a completely even coverage first go rather than waiting for it to settle in on the second day. Still very happy with the experiment especially because I can get rid of it so quickly when I’m bored! 😀

Curly Gyaru Updo Hairstyle Tutorial With Celeste

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 20, 2011 | Beauty, Hair, Hair-Tutorials, Tutorial, Video-Tutorials

After the fun we had last post I decided I would share all of the videos Celeste and I made the last time she was here. After finishing up with her ~~Hime style~~ squid hair we decided to give one of my favorite styles a try: big curly one sided up do thingy covered in flowers. Catchy name yes?

I will be doing a lot of these videos again as proper tutorials once I get Sophie back from the laptop fixing place because James has set me up a fancy new video area with nice lighting and a backdrop. Celeste is coming back soon so we can do more together too!

Again no talking, just music so feel free to imagine this conversation in the background:

Violet: I think this style is kind of Marie Antoinette-ish at least that era. Well maybe not in a really historically accurate way but still pretty.

Celeste: Pft very pretty. Almost as pretty as Nyan cat!

Violet: Hahaha! James has been trying to play that all morning on his guitar>_<

Celeste: I wonder if I could get my school band to play?

Violet: Nyan orchestra! So cute!

Celeste: I like this style, very pretty.

Violet: You should do it at home for work!

Celeste: Meh too hard to get up that early XD

Violet: True, also get up so much earlier just to look like the wind blew your hair over to one side and you fell in a garden of flowers?

Celeste: Ahahahahaha!! *sending photos to roommate*

Roommate: Cyndie Lauper!!!

Violet and Celeste: -_-‘

Hope you enjoyed!

So if you want to see the photos James took of Celeste or read more about our day, check her post over here!

Side note: I managed to find a place to fix Sophie, thanks for all of your suggestions guys!! She should be back in action tomorrow-ish 😀

Cedel Hair Spray Review

by VioletLeBeaux | Jun 10, 2011 | Beauty, Review

I go through a lot of hairspray, I use it pretty much every time I do my hair and I am very demanding as to what I expect from my spray. It takes a lot of oomph to hold up some of the silly styles I wear so my spray needs to be hard wearing but I also like having my hair down and reasonably natural so it needs to have movement.

I’ve tried a lot and hands down my favorite is Cedel Hair Lacquer with the black label, I’ve gone through many cans of this!

Brand- Cedel
Product- Hair Lacquer
Cost- around $7
Available from- Priceline, pharmacies and online stores like this.

One of the things I judge a product on the most is smell and this one has a pretty powerful smell so I suggest you see if you can try some in store before buying. Personally I like the smell because it reminds me of when I worked in theatre and it doesn’t linger around long unlike a lot of the other hair sprays I’ve tried.My favorite part of this spray is that it is meant to be brushed out rather than washed out. This is a huge plus for me because I hate washing my hair every day and I hate products that leave a residue in my hair. At the end of the day I gently brush this out until my hair is smooth and it’s like it never existed. Big plus.You’ve seen a lot of my hair styles on this site before so I thought I would put the spray to a real test, here is how it does holding my fringe straight up in the air. No teasing just spray…Brushed it straight up with a comb:

Gave it a good spray either side and on the top:

Not bad!

Very Something About Mary 😉

Now how will it go when I brush it out…

After 3 brushes:

A couple more…

Good as new.

There’s something in this formula which just seems to be magic with my hair, even when it’s down I can spray it over gently, give it a tiny brush and it’s in place but still really natural and there is actually movement. I think the versatility is what makes this a really interesting product and that’s probably why Cedel has been in business with it since the 30’s. No fancy gimmicks, it just works. They also make mini handbag sized ones so plus one for that too.

Verdict- Strong smell but works better than any other spray I’ve used. Price is great, bottle is big and it’s very versatile. I wont be switching any time soon. DO WANT

Melbourne Illamasqua Julian Kynaston Snapshots

by VioletLeBeaux | May 29, 2011 | Beauty, Life

Snapshots time!

As promised here are the images from the blogger meet up/interview at Illamasqua meeting the creator Julian Kynaston ^_^

Stef and Jacie asked a lot of really intelligent questions, I’m not good with interviews because I prefer just to listen and learn. We talked about up coming plans for an Illamasqua scent, the S.O.P.H.I.E charity’s launch here as well as so much more.

The lovely You’ve Got Nail got it all on video so I would suggest taking a look see for a really interesting interview!

The highlight of the night for me was when he mentioned that the Illamasqua girls at the Chadstone counter had recommended me to him and told him to look out for me. So sweet!

All of the lovely ladies and Julian together:

The rest of James’ photos are here!

That week was so busy, the previous day there was an event at Kiehls to promote the fact that they are lowering their Australian prices to be more in line with the international prices. OMG A BEAUTY COMPANY LISTENED TO OUR COMPLAINING!!!

We were treated to yummy sushi 😀

The full list of prices being dropped can be found in store, some of them are up to 50% less now!

Celina and I with the lovely PR agent Jess who is super tall and had the cutest outfit.

I had to take a photo of her shoes because they were EPIC! I can’t believe she had been walking in these all day!!

Most of the MBBE girls were there as well as other bloggers, it was awesome getting to meet so many new lovely people!

We each had our skin looked at and were recommended custom products to suit. This is my attendant Daniel, he was super nice and even managed to squeeze in advice for James XD

No other company has ever bothered to ask James if he wanted samples so he was pretty chuffed! I’m going to force him to write a review of them here too mwahaha! I’ll be reviewing the products I was given too after I’ve tested them suitably.

We learnt about the history of the brand and spoke about the price drop. I have to say that I am in favor of anything that involves bringing Aus prices to a reasonable point compared to the rest of the world.

Dr Skeleton is in the house!

Favorite photo of the day involved stealing James’ hat 😉 It was a really wonderful night out yay for Kiehls and I’ll let you all know how I go with the products!

The rest of James’ photos are here.

I’ve been digging through all my old photos looking for something specific so I thought I would posts some of the ones I found on the way today.

I found this photo the other day and it made me miss Brisbane a bit, well not so much Brisbane as our old house. We used to have a direct view into the city from our old place, this was the view from our balcony at sunset:

Speaking of pretty views this is the view from James’ parents place on the Sunshine Coast. Sometimes they would let us have a holiday there and I totally miss that too! Waking up to the ocean is nice, though there was about 12093091283 birds that lived in that tree outside who made it their mission to wake me up every morning at like 5am *_*

Saw these ages ago, heehee clearly someone who works for this company has been spending too much time listening to me…

James and I are mature as ever…

We do pay for our immaturity though, there was something in that icing which burned like hell! We ended up having red marks in the shape of the moustaches for a few hours after *_*

I found these photos of progress doing embroidery and it made me want to start up again.

I have so many half finished crafts laying around that it’s probably a bad idea though >_< They are all really long term projects though like cross stitches or big embroidery bags or other things that take lots of time and commitment so I find it hard to have motivation to keep going if I can see the end in sight. I really want to start knitting something again too but I feel like I should finish the other stuff first. Bleh, I’m in a crafting rutt and I need to re-motivate myself.

I think it’s probably all the rain that makes me just want to sit inside with a hot chocolate and nap all day. Very bad for productivity but damn nice anyway!

I’ve set up my sewing machine properly now so it’s out all the time in hopes of motivting myself. Maybe I’ll set up my tea warmer there too to bribe myself off the couch and away from the computer haha!

All the rain makes me want to buy cute gumboots for walking around town too XD I keep seeing cute designs around…

I also tried to clean out my nail polish collection but that just resulted in making a bit of a mess >_<

James continues to experiment with alternative hair styles but I’m not sure any of them are working for him…

I’m still completely fascinated with the architecture here and it seems everywhere we go has a pretty building or a stunning interior…

And I suppose that’s about it for now… I should stop procrastinating by writing this and go try to finish those crafts I was talking about!

Do you guys get into a crafting rut sometimes too? How do you all find motivation to get started again!? I need suggestions ;_; Should I try to persevere and finish my big long term crafts which I’m bored of or should I get right back into it with something small, easy and fun?

Zoya Flash Collection Nail Polish Swatches

by VioletLeBeaux | May 15, 2011 | Beauty, Nails, Review

When the ever awesome You’ve Got Nail mentioned she had a present for me I didn’t think it would be a whole collection of Zoya polishes *_* I had mentioned wanting to try them because the brand is so highly regarded and she gave me the whole Flash collection! I was in heaven XD

Let the review begin!

Brand: Zoya, Flash collection.

From: The lovely You’ve Got Nail gifted these to me! You can get them here. Extra props for the Zoya website because they have so much extra information on the polishes like the finish, the colour intensity on a scale of 1-5 and you can order spoon samples. I very much like companies that go the extra mile like that.

Price: $8 each or $36 for the set

Volume: 15ml

Bottle: Squareish, thinner at the bottom, rounded corners, flared black top. Easy to store and stack, looks very nice, no complaints here.

Brush: Average size, and very flexible. Very smooth bristles.

Drying Time: Roughly the same for all of them. Reasonably quick drying time.

Colour Name: Jolene.

Description: Nice bright slightly blue toned pink.

Thoughts: This whole collection totally lives up to it’s name, it is BRIGHT. These are good bright summer colours, probably nothing office job appropriate here XD Following on from that this pink is a big blueish pink, it’s bright but it’s got a depth that I often find missing from other colours this bright.Good for: -Decora style manicures, I can see this looking good with a LOT of bling over it. -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures.

Colour Name: Maura

Description: Bright as hell orangey red.

Thoughts: This is one of those show stopper colours. You can’t get much redder than this. The thing that really made me love this collection was the consistency. Every single polish had an equally good formula and every one was pretty much opaque in one coat and looked stunning in two.

Good for: -Grabbing attention -Flame themed nail art -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.

Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures. -Any remote kind of subtly.

Colour Name: Jancyn

Description: Traffic cone orange. Can’t put it better than that.

Thoughts: Love this colour because it’s completely versatile. It’s pretty and could work in so many different ways, I’m thinking this with black lace tips for Autumn, or white polkadots for Summer. I don’t normally like oranges but for some reason this was my favorite out of the collection.

Good for: -Halloween themed nail art, reminds me of pumpkins and candy corn. Man I wish it was easier to get candy corn here!! -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.

Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures.

Colour Name: Dana

Description: Darker deep pink, in some lights it verges on the red side of things.

Thoughts: This is one of those fun colours which seems to be different in any number of lighting situations. Sometimes it’s a bright pink, sometimes it’s almost a deep red, it’s a very interesting colour combination either way and it sets it a bit apart from being just another boring pink.

Good for: -A slightly different/modern take on all of the old fashion red manicure designs. -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.

Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures.

Colour Name: Robyn

Description: Bright sky blue.

Thoughts:

It can be hard to find variations of blue polishes but this is a nice change! Out of all of the polishes in the collection, this is probably the one with the most variation between coats. It’s very build-able so I imagine you could create some really interesting designs especially with multi layered konading.

Good for: -Sky/rainbow nail art -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. Would like to try using this to multilayer konad. -Bright fun summer or spring styles.

Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures.

Colour Name: Perrie

Description: Redish purple.

Thoughts: Out of all of the colours in this collection this one is probably the only one that isn’t immediately bright and summery. It fits with the collection when you look a them as a whole but by itself it kind of reminds me more of an overcast kind of day. Not that it’s a bad thing, I actually really like the colour and it did feel a little easier on the eyes after all of the super brights 😉

Good for: -Good base or highlight for gothic designs. -Probably good for Konad because these are all very opaque. -Spring/summer themes without going too far over the top

Bad for: – Office/conservative work friendly manicures. -Being bright and cheery on it’s own

VERTICT: As a whole I loved the collection, while they aren’t exactly colours I would wear plain every day they are all versatile and opaque enough to be really valuable colours for nail art. The formula is smooth and has a great smooth consistency which makes it easy for beginners to get a nice finish. The price per bottle is reasonably cheap for Aus so I wouldn’t hesitate to order. DO WANT.

Eyemajic Eyeshadow Applicator Review

by VioletLeBeaux | May 8, 2011 | Beauty, Review

I love me a good gimmick. Give me something shiny with a new feature and I’m all over it XD I’ve seen and tried similar systems to this before with mixed results so when Eyemajic arrived in my post office box from their PR agency I was intrigued.

For those who haven’t seen these before, the basic idea is that these little strips apply fancy eyeshadow for you and are aimed at women who don’t know/don’t have time to apply complicated looks. The pack has enough for 2 applications and costs $4.95 or a 5 pack for $10.95 from Miss Lacy.The two pieces come in a little plastic packet which has a peel off back. Each foam paddle thing has 3 colours which are complimentary. Mine was brown, pink and white. You can see that some of the shadow had rubbed off in the corner of the paddle in transit but not enough to make a difference to the finished look.

The idea is that you press it to your eyelid then drag to the side to apply. You can see from the picture that the paddle was a bit small for my eye but after blending it didn’t matter much.

After once swipe most of the make up was on my eye. Though it wasn’t very easy to apply with precision.

The right eye seems to have a lot more of the white than the left and I couldn’t get them very close to the lash line because of the shape of the paddle. Having an upwards curve at the bottom seems like a good idea but when your eye is closed the curve really needs to point down to match the eye shape.

After the swipe:

Nothing was left on the paddle:

After applying the other one, it looked like there was more of the top silver colour on the right than the left, once it was blended you couldn’t tell though.

I used a brush to blend the colours in and distribute them evenly around the lid and this was the result.

So all in all I like the idea and it’s very easy to use. The colours blended well and while they didn’t look good on me I imagine the colours would go well on someone with a different skin tone. For the long term it would be much more cost effective to just buy a palette of eye shadow, a brush and learn how to apply yourself but these definitely have a place. They would be great for girls just getting started in make up or for girls who don’t normally wear make up at all to use at special events. They don’t require any skill to use and provide a nice result but you also lose out on the ability to completely customize a look to the most flattering one for your skin tone and shape so it’s 50/50.

Verdict- definitely have a purpose and would be great for girls who don’t know how to apply make up. Easy to use, applied smoothly and decent result. DO WANT but for my kid sister (if I actually had one ) or to teach friends how to apply make up or if I only had like 5min to get ready. These would be a good back up plan for last minute outings or to keep in your handbag for emergencies 😉

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