Platinum blonde and pastel pink hair

Finally I have super blonde platinum hair. And a new, "longer in the front, supershort in the back" edgy haircut as well. A while back here in my hometown Turku, a local hair salon called Avantgarde decided to organize a happening where they would give free haircuts/colouring for about 80 people. However, there was a condition: the hairstylist would have totally free hands. This wasn't a problem for me because I've had supershort hair and I've tried literally every possible colour. You can imagine that people went crazy when they heard about the happening. Why is it that when it comes to getting something for free, people freak out?

Normally a haircut and colour would cost about 100euros. Me and my two cousins decided to be crazy and try our luck. Lucky enough, I live next to the hairsalon so we were looking from my balcony when people would start gathering in front of the salon. All in all we waited 12 hours before we were finished,crazy huh? 5hours waiting outside...In the middle of winter...in Finland. It was a freezing cold evening and I still shiver when I think of those 5 hours in minus degrees :)

 Even if it got very cold, I have no regrets. The people waiting with us were super nice, and we were all making jokes and cheering each other. I got a fabulous hair colour and cut. In addition my hair was shiny and felt super soft. My colour was very blonde in the beginning so the the stylist decided she would "alter" it just a "bit". I was a bit surprised when she started putting baby pink goo in my hair :D I was actually happy when the stylist said that the colour would be "icy strawberry platinum". I love Nicki Minaj's cotton candy hair! In the end the colour doesn't really look like pink, only in a certain light.

Hair in process

Paul Mitchell: Platinum Blonde shampoo

L'oréal Preferance pastel toning conditioner in Soft Rose

  I've maintained the platinum and "pink" hair with two products, Paul Mitchell's Platinum Blonde shampoo and L'oreal Preferance pastel toning conditioner. The shampoo is actually a violet shampoo which takes any brassiness away. I use it once a week for 5 minutes. There are many good violet shampoos on the market,but right now I prefer the PM. Good alternatives are Fudge's Clean Blonde Violet shampoo and L'oréal Professionnel Silver shampoo. The PM shampoo costs about 15euros, but it will last for long. The smell reminds me of cucumber :) 

As you can see from the picture, the L'oreal pastel toning conditioner is pretty pink. In order for the colour to show properly, you HAVE TO have blonde hair.  I've tested and come to the conclusion that if you want a truly light baby-pink shade of pink, it's best to mix the pastel conditioner into your normal conditioner. I use a quarter size amount of the pastel conditioner, and same amount of regular conditioner. But IF you want a pinker shade, use the toner conditioner only and leave for longer than 5 minutes. The colour will fade away in a few washs so you have to reapply pretty soon.

The next picture will show you how light of a pink shade I have, you can barely call it pink. But I assure in bright daylight it looks baby-strawberry pink :) I put a white paper in front of my face for the colour  to show better.

-Anne

New hair cut and colour

Lately I've been craving for platinum hair. After seeing these pictures I just had to do something about it!Michelle Williams has probably the nicest short hair cuts in Hollywood :) I myself have had a pretty short haircut for the last hmm, 4 years, but lately I've been trying to grow the asymmetric cut. My hair has grown, but the model was simply flat and horrible.  I've also been trying a more natural colour for about 4 months, something that is almost like my real hair colour.

Before colouring and the hair cut

 The fact is natural hair is just not my cup of tea. More edgy and strong colours as well as short haircuts suit me and my character better :) I thought that maintaining non-brassy blonde hair is way too time consuming, but now, to be honest I think that it's worth it! A few days back I coloured my hair at home with L'oreal Paris Récital Preference 10.21 Stocholm. It gave a nice ashy tone and made the previous colour slightly lighter. I still need to bleach my hair once ir twice to get just the right shade of blonde.

 Here's some pictures of my new hair :)

As you can see from the middle picture the shade is pretty blonde already. But as I said earlier, I want it to be platinum. When I was a kid I had almost white hair so that's the reason for my craving :) 

-Anne

Accessories and self tanning products

What a week. Today I finished my Final exams, the one today was just awful, Advanced Marketing research. I also had to say goodbye to one of my exchange friends and it was so sad. Now I can focus on travelling! Niagara falls during the weekend and Miami Beach on wednesday, I'm so excited! The problem is that I'm so pale at the moment! I have to get a bit of a "tan" before going there. I really like self tanning lotions that have a hint of color in them. In my opinion gels are easier to apply and are not as sticky as lotions, so I've usually been using L'Oreal Sublime Bronze tinted self tanning gel. It has small "gold" sparkles in it and gives your skin an instant hint of bronze color. It's perfect if you need a "healthy glow" fast. The only minus is that you need to apply quite a lot of the product, so the small bottle won't last that long. However, in my opinion the tan colour comes faster than with normal products so you don't need to apply it many times to get a proper "tan".

Because my skin has been so dry lately, I decided to try Jergen's natural glow daily moisturizer. It promises to give you a gradual tan and decrease the appearance of cellulite in 7 days. I still haven't used it for 7 days in a row because I'm a bit too lazy for that :D But the product has really tiny sparkly "glitter" in it, so this is what probably makes your skin look smoother.

Here's some other stuff I've bought recently:

Forever 21 + Ardene

Ardene

Ardene

Love at first sight at Forever 21. The color is more pink in daylight.

Essential for Miami!

I know it's pretty bold...

 But Beyonce and Lady Gaga look so awesome with dark lips, so I have to try it too! :)

Purple eyeshadow and a new trench

It's a beautiful spring day in Toronto, and I finally got my trench in the mail today! Wuhuu! It's by Laundry by Shelli segal, and it just what I wanted it to be.

The only mirror in the apartment :) Scarf from HM

As I was wearing a very bright scarf today, I felt that my make up has to "match". So I did a purple-bronze look:

Revlon Photoready primer is a good primer for combination skin, it's not too greasy and feels very soft and nice. Clinique anti-blemish foundation is one of my favourite foundations as it has a high coverage and it doesn't give me any break-outs!

Since I first tried Sleek make up eye shadows, I've been hooked! They have a lot of pigmentation, so you don't have to apply tons of it. The palettes are also very cheap, even if the quality is good, only about 8-9 euros if i remember correctly.

Au Nature I divine palette - For this look I used the white one on the lid,

Original I Divine palette- The bronze one for the crease, and the violet on the base of my lashes.

If you love "thick" looking lashes, you will like the L'Oreal's voluminous carbon black mascara. Maybelline's master precise is ideal for doing narrow lines. It's not my favourite, because I prefer thicker appliers,but it's ok.

The Body Shop bronzer is not the cheapest one, I think I paid about $19 but I like Bodu Shop products and the fact that it has a lot of colour, so you don't need to apply that much. The Joe blusher is very light, but gives a nice glow.

My eyebrows are very light and narrow, so a good eyebrow pencil is a must!

Killing that flu

Just last week I bragged to someone that after my swine flu episode two years back I haven't been that sick. Well, of course this was a mistake, cause since friday I've felt absolutely miserable! And after we had planned an evening with friends and going to a gig with my boyfriend, well, I got even more sick. So for 3 days I've been trying to get rid of this flu and this " I look as horrible as I feel" feeling :) Here's some of my ideas.

 First of all rest is the key. It's okay for me to sleep during the night(yes, I did sleep for over 12hours last night) but during the days I want to do something,e.g. go to the gym! But as it might harm especially the heart, I've just been hanging on the sofa or doing the dishes(which is weird for me!)

 Green tea is great for you if you're sick, and otherwise too. It's full of antioxidants and it also cleans your body, and actually fights bacteria. If you have a tummy ache, Green tea with mint is perfect. I found this delicious Blueberry tea (from Tetley) last week. I like almost all green teas, but this one is amazing! It smells and tastes like real blueberry.


Drinking a lot of water or low sugar drinks is crucial. Tetley's Infusions, Redtea liquid iced tea mix is my new favourite drink. I drink way too much coke,which is unheathy in every single way, so I've been drinking this instead. It's made of all natural ingredients, including Rooibos tea. Rooibos has a a lot of antioxidants, minerals. In my opinionthe Redtea doesn't taste much like tea, it's more like juice, but my boyfriend thinks that it really does taste like Rooibos. ( He hates Rooibos, so...) I mix whole bag into about 1 litre of water instead of half a litre, cause I don't want it to be too sweet. Just delicious. Anyone who likes Rooibos (and berries) or wants to drink a healthy juice drink should try this! I think I have to buy this before I move back to Finland, because we donät have it there.
 

from google

Veggies and ginger! When I'm sick I can't really eat that much meat, so I prepared a noodle-tofu-veggie wok with chili peppers, ginger and garlic. They all have been proven to kill the bacteria causing the flu faster.

Ginger has been used for centuries for colds, as it takes away nausea and boosts the body's immune system. I sometimes drink it as a tea, with a hint of honey.But remember that you need only a tiny amount of ginger, as it's quite strong!

Almost every time when you get sick, it starts affecting on your mood and appearance as well! I haven't been this pale and had such visible dark circles under my eyes in a long time. Just horrible! Fortunately I had the cure for these in my bathroom! Nivea's happy time shower cream smells so fresh, that after a shower I immediately felt better! It also leaves your skin very soft, as it has moisturizer in it. Scrubbing your skin when you're sick also makes you feel better and makes the skin appear less pale. I used  Freeman's pink grapefruit Exfoliating scrub. It smells so good! It makes you wake up.

Sometimes putting a bit of make-up might do wonders! I decided to cheer myself up by applying just a bit of make-up. Usually I put on a "decent" amount of it(meaning quite many products), but now I didn't feel a need for that. It may be hard to even notice the make-up and the bathroom lights seem to create dark shadows underneath my eyes! But before the make-up I looked like somebody who hasn't been sleeping for a week, so that will do :D


- Anne

Beauty products of the week

Last two weeks I've been shopping beauty products like crazy. I think it has something to do with Spring! I've been looking for a chic trench coat and leather ballerinas from Toronto like a maniac, but I think I just have to buy them online. Thank god there is shopstyle.com!

Here's some of the things I bought and absolutely love!

Becham signature perfume. Really nice fragrance with undertones like patchouli, amber,orchid and musk. Very good for a night out.

I still can't believe that I found one of my alltime favourite moisturizer, the L'Oreal Active Hydrafresh when I was doing my grocery shopping today. The smell is just so fresh and reminds me of the past(and summer!) It's really light, but still gives my combination-slightly dry-skin the hydration it needs. I was looking for this product in Finland for a few months, but it seemed like nobody was selling it anymore?

The very popular Revlon Lip Butter in 075 Lollipop.  

About the Revlon Lip Butters, they are simply genious! I already have a few other shades. They are just perfect! I hate it when sometimes even with the best lipstick my lips get really dry. That's why I love a lipstick with moisturizer and the lip Butter is just perfect for that. Even if it's moisturizing, the colour is just amazing and stays on pretty well. If you want to buy quality make-up, but don't want to spend all your money, Revlon in my opinion has some of the best lipsticks on the market.

- Anne

Keeping that hair Blonde and healthy

T and I are both blonde, and sometimes even we feel a bit annoyed how much "work" it needs to keep the hair nice. It helps that we're not naturally that dark haired, but still the roots need to be coloured every now and then. I have actually been thinking lately that I will give my hair a rest and not bleach it in a few months. It will be hard, but thank god summer is coming, thus my hair will get light naturally :)

Women who have blonde hair know that sometimes the colour might change into an orangy or yellowy tone. Another problem might be that the hair is very dry. My hair gets quite dry during the winter time and I've noticed that the water in Toronto is weirdly drying! Here's some of my personal favourite products that help my hair stay shiny, conditioned and NOT yellow :

From left: The L'Oreal professional Silver Gloss Protect System Shampoo( what a long name!) has a lot of violet pigment in it, which in my opinion is a good thing. The violet in the shampoo is a complementayt colour to the yellow and it  makes your hair more of a silvery colour. I usually wash my hair with this 1-2 times per week and let it stay in my hair for about 5min. My "normal" shampoo at he moment is John Frieda's full repair.

The L'Oreal Shine Blonde Seraflash conditioner is my ultimate favourite conditioner. It makes my hair silky and also has a tint of violet in it to reduce the brassiness. I usually mix a small amount of this with the Tigi's Bed Head Moisture Maniac Conditioner. The Moisture Maniac is a great conditioner for anyone because you can also use it as a hair "mask" if you have very dry hair! 

-Anne