Casual Heart/Flower Side Plaits Hairstyle Tutorial ^_^

by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 3, 2010 | Beauty, Hair, Hair-Tutorials, Tutorial

The lovely Celina asked me for a hair tutorial for something that could be worn to a wedding. It needed to be cute but not bride-thunder-stealing-cute XD

I’ve been really enjoying casual looks with plaits and braids lately so I figured I would incorporate that into the style again ^_^

This is the finished product, a plaited headband with a plaited heart and flower!

What you need:

Brush
Hair Spray
Pins
Clip to hold other hair out of the way.

Start with clean hair and brush out any knots.

Using your finger or a pin start sectioning a piece of hair starting from the top of your ear and moving backwards.

Clip it up and out of the way:

Underneath that and just behind the ear take a small section of hair:

Plait that section ^_^

Use a pin or a hair tie to keep it from coming loose for the moment.

Now on the other side of your head take a section near the top and pin it out of the way:

Plait another section under that and secure the end ^_^

Now with the first plait you made pull it over the top of your head like so:

Pin it on place like this:

Using the second plait make a loop:

Continue with the loop so it turns into a figure 8. Here you can either make it really tight so it looks like a bow or looser so it looks like a heart when it’s finished:

Pin it in place and cover the pins using a flower or another decoration:

Now you can unclip all of the sections you pulled back and fluff them up. You should have something like this:

Finished!

From one side:

And the other:

From here you could curl the rest of your hair for a more dressy look or leave it straight or wavy ^_^

Depending on what else you’re wearing at the time this can either be a really dressed up style or nice and casual!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, lots more to come ^_^

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Overhead Plait Hairstyle Tutorial For Summer

by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 2, 2010 | Beauty, Hair, Hair-Tutorials, Tutorial

With the whole new hair thing I’ve got new inspiration to start doing hair and beauty tutorials again ^_^

I’ve had a lot of requests for styles involving braids and plaits which I suppose makes sense considering that mori styles are becoming more and more popular and coming in to Summer they keep hair off the neck!

So this is one of my favorite Summer styles, mostly because it’s cool but it also looks like it took a lot more time than it actually did XD

What you need:

Hair ties
Bobby pins
Brush
Hair spray
Flower pins or decorations

Start off by sectioning your hair into 2 even pig tails.

Braids Hair Tutorial

Plait each section like this and tie the ends. You might need to experiment with plaiting overhand and underhand to see what looks best in the finished product because it can affect the way the plait sits on your head. I find that overhand works best on me.

Braids Hair Tutorial

Now take one plait and pull it upwards.

Braids Hair Tutorial

And over the side of your head:

Braids Hair Tutorial

Hold it very securely with your fingers and remove the hair tie.

Braids Hair Tutorial

Roughly pin it in place using the bobby pins. It doesn’t need to be perfect because this is just to hold it while we work with the rest ^_^

Braids Hair Tutorial

Now grab your other plait and pull it upwards too:

Braids Hair Tutorial

Hold it over the top so it crossed over and covers the end of the first plait. You probably won’t be able to get this one as far over your head as the first one because it has to go over a lump. As long as it reaches the half way point it’s fine though.

Braids Hair Tutorial

Hold it in place and remove the hair tie.

Braids Hair Tutorial

Now using a pin catch a small amount of the first plait:

Braids Hair Tutorial

Pull the pin over the end of the second plait (still holding the little bit of the first one) and push it back the way it came but underneath. Kind of like you’re following the line of a “U”. This is the most secure way to use bobby pins and they won’t just slide back out!

Braids Hair Tutorial

So when you’re done it will look a little like this and most of the ends of the plait will be hidden.

Braids Hair Tutorial

You should repeat this in a couple of the bumps of the plaits on both sides and front and back. If you do that then the ends will all be incased and nothing will be going anywhere 😀

Braids Hair Tutorial

Decoration is the key to not looking like a milk maid so I generally choose flowers and cover the back ^_^ The extra pins always help keep everything in place too. If you don’t want to use flowers then I also like pining pearls or little diamantes etc. Very cute!

Braids Hair Tutorial

Lastly it’s time to straighten your fringe or whatever you want to do with it!

Braids Hair Tutorial

From the side it looks a little messy because I didn’t push the flower pins in far enough but you get the general idea!

Braids Hair Tutorial

Finished!

Braids Hair Tutorial

Nice and cool for Summer and very versatile for different styles!

Hope you enjoyed and found it useful ^_^

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BB Cream: Skin79 Hot Pink Review

by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 30, 2010 | Beauty, Review

This is the first in a series of posts comparing and reviewing BB Creams… I’ve been using BB Cream for around a year now and it can be really hard to find brands suitable for caucasian skin tones so hopefully this will help when you guys are shopping for some! Do keep in mind when comparing that my skin is very pale naturally with cool pink undertones and freckles.

First on the the review pile is one that was sent to me by DBeautyShop.com:

Skin79 Hot Pink Triple Functions BB Cream

Available from: DBeauty Shop

Price: AU$32.89 (on sale from $43.89)

Supposed Benefits:

Whitening
SPF25 PA++
Wrinkle Free

Shipping from DBeauty Shop took around 10 days to Australia which is around average for international shipping. The service I received was very prompt and the website was nice and easy to use. The only thing is that you need to do a search for BB Cream to find it, there is no category listing.

Comes in a nice pretty pink box:

First thing I noticed was that the bottle is massive. It’s a pump action thing that spits out the exact amount your need each time. LOVE that. It’s functional and looks good on the counter so couldn’t possibly love the bottle any more. Price is about average for what we pay for BB Cream here in Aus. According to my overseas friends that’s a hell of a lot more than them XD

BB Cream Reviews

It’s quite a heavy cream, which offers good build-able coverage. It is fairly thick, almost like sunscreen which I suppose makes sense considering the SPF25 in it XD

The texture means that it can be difficult to get an even coverage. Fingers don’t cut it with this one, I got the best coverage using brushes but sponges worked alright too.

BB Cream Reviews

No make up:

BB Cream Reviews

Just the BB cream:

BB Cream Reviews

As you can see it does cover my freckles very well but it also has a darker tone than my skin so I look a little dull. I think it would work well on someone a little darker than me. The texture felt quite heavy to begin with but after it was completely dry I didn’t notice it anymore.

Lasted well throughout the day and the coverage was good by the end of the day. I would say this is more on the hardcore spectrum of BB Cream, if you were to layer foundation over this (or even just a thicker layer of BB) you should be able to cover pretty much anything you want. If you wanted one less step this is probably enough to replace foundation.

VERDICT: Quality is good, coverage can be very good if applied well. Bit orange for me but nice none the less. Super useful bottle, large amount of cream. Generally DO WANT but on someone else’s skin.

Illamasqua Myer Melbourne Counter Opening :D

by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 28, 2010 | Beauty, Life

Last weekend I was lucky enough to get to go to the launch of Illamasqua’s Myer counter here in Melbourne. It was so much fun! I went with all of the MBBE girls and it was like a gigantic playground 😀

All of us had a lot of fun playing around with the awesome hand painted mannequins on their runway!

Having heard so many good things from my overseas friends about the brand I was super keen to try everything out, especially the foundation. I have a really tough time trying to match my skin because it’s so pale. Everything either looks too dark or too orange :S Having heard a lot about how awesome the range of foundations were I was first in line to test it out with the lovely make up artists!

Very excitingly they actually had a shade of the Rich Liquid foundation that did match me 😀 😀 😀

It made my skin flawless! After testing how long it lasted for the rest of the day and night I was so pleased that I went back to buy a bottle last Friday! I’ll do a review soon with some proper before/after pictures so you can see the effect.

Everything there was set up really well, the staff were super friendly without being pushy (which as you all know I love!) I’ve been back twice since then and they were all just as lovely.

Looking through the shelves there were so many products that really appealed to me. Lots of bright things and lots of encouragement to experiment with different looks. Lots of colours and styles that you wouldn’t find in department stores normally. The tag line for the brand is “Make up for your alter ego” which I really like. I love that they embrace the more out there styles.

James took so many photos that day that I’ve put them all in a side show to make it easier ^_^ You really need to see the awesome job the make up artists did on the girls! So much eye candy 😀

Very fun day and I just know I’m going to be going back soon haha! Big thank you to the lovely Christabel for organising the day for us!

Have you guys ever tried Illamasqua before?

3 Hairstyle Ideas With Pink Hair Extensions

by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 24, 2010 | Beauty, Hair-Tutorials, Tutorial

In my last order I bought a pink hair extension from Bodyline. I liked it but it wasn’t super wearable straight away because it was a different length and texture to my hair. So what to do with it?

First thing I decided to do was make a clip in fringe. I measured my own fringe (or bangs for those in America) and then added an extra inch and cut:

Pink Clip in Hair

I then trimmed it to the correct length and made sure the edge wasn’t too blunt so it matched my current fringe.

Unfortunately I had used a little of the pink to test a synthetic hair curling technique that The Fashionate Traveller told me about. So I needed to re-curl it into a fringe-ish shape.

On Leanne’s advice I curled the hair on itself, pinned it and boiled some water.

I put it in a bowl and pored water all over it. I soaked it until the water was cool then left it to dry. Done!

Once it’s all brushed out you should clip it in and style it with your fringe. I used a straightener to gently move any wayward bits into place:

You can hide the top with a headband or brush your fringe over it, I like mixing it with my blonde so it’s a bit stripy! This is me wearing it with the other extensions I bought from Bodyline. I’ll show you how I styled them another day ^_^

There was a lot of left over so I decided to make some small single strands with the left overs. These aren’t overly pretty but good for mixing into other styles.

Grab a bobby pin an thread a strand through.

Loop it around and using a couple of other hairs tie it in place. Secure with a little bit of glue and make sure you do it tightly so there’s danger of it coming apart while you’re wearing it!

Repeat with the rest! Again not particularly pretty at the top but that will be hidden among the rest of the hair!

Lastly what to do with the left over random bits that can’t go anywhere else or are damaged?

Well you could use them as a very stylish moustache…

Or use your hair brush to tease them into a big puffy ball which can then be included in bun hair styles…

So to use it I did two big puffy buns…

Then mashed the pink into one of the buns. Pin and hairspray and you’re good to go!

You could always cover both buns with pink completely. I chose to be asymmetrical and just did half of one ^_^

So there you have it! 3 different things with 1 $6 hair extension ^_^ What do you think?

Bobbi Brown Myer Melbourne Counter Opening and Palette Reviews

by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 23, 2010 | Beauty, Life, Review

Until MBBE I was a Bobbi Brown virgin… is that embarrassing? According to my friends it is XD BB is a luxury brand here and it’s always been out of my price range so you can imagine how excited I was to have the opportunity to try the products out!

Celeste and I were invited to take a tour of the new Bobbi Brown counter opening in Myer and it was very eye opening!