Wednesday, June 24th, 2015
I have to be honest with you, dear blog readers: I really miss having platinum blonde hair. Only because I could change the color whenever I wanted to with Manic Panic, but nevertheless, I miss it. I went back to being a redhead because my hair was totally fried from all of the bleach I’d used to keep it pure as the driven snow, but I miss cotton candy pink, I miss ice queen blue, and I most of all, I miss purple. OHHHHH purple, my long-lost hair color love. How I long for the days you sat atop my head. **SOBS DRAMATICALLY**.
Although you have to bleach your hair to get pale pastel colors with Manic Panic, you don’t have to bleach your hair to use it altogether. Desperate to add some flair to my boring strawberry blonde locks, I decided to use a combination of Pretty Flamingo (a peachy pink, orangey dye) and Cotton Candy Pink dye to create some ombre/highlights/color streaks (I’m not quite sure what to call them, really). I’d tried doing streaks and highlights with Manic Panic before, and it didn’t work particularly well. But Pinterest says it’s possible! And everything you read online is true, obviously. So I took a leap of faith by trying again.
Let me take you through my process…
In an attempt to get the purest color possible, I used Shimmer Lights purple shampoo as a toner. The shampoo is supposed to take out red and yellow tones from blonde hair. I put it all over my hair and planned to let it sit for about 30 minutes. Instead, I got sucked into working on this very blog, and it ended up working it’s magic for about 2 hours. And by magic, I mean it didn’t really work. It left random patches of my hair looking gray and dull. This is step is unnecessary. But if you ever ask yourself, “what does purple shampoo do to red hair?”, then here’s your answer:
Let’s move on to the part that actually matters. Before I applied the Manic Panic dye, I washed my hair and blow dried it. You should not use conditioner before applying Manic Panic. Your hair needs to be totally clean and free of product build-up.
After it was clean and dry, I parted my hair down the middle. I separated my hair into sections and secured them into twisty little buns using bobby pins. I planned on dying most of the hair on the very top of my head with the Pretty Flamingo dye and pinned it all together. Then I randomly sectioned off the hair on the sides of my head into twists, with no real visual plan, because I live on the edge.
The hair at the back of my head towards my neck was too short to pin. From past experience, I’ve learned that the hair back there doesn’t soak up dye as quickly as the front. I applied cotton candy dye back there first. Then I pulled the sections on the side of my head out of their twists and applied either pink or peach dye, alternating colors. I finished off the application by saturating the top twist with peach dye, and a little bit of pink in my bangs.
I let the dye sit on my head for a full 2 hours. When I jumped in the shower to wash it out, I saw that the dye remnants were totally white – a sign that all of the pigment stuck to my hair.
After it was dried and styled, it looked like this:
From the front it looks just a tad pink…
…until I turn to the side. WHA-BAM! Peek-a-boo pink realness.
The fade in the back looks even and matches the rest of my hair.
When I part it on the opposite side, you can really see the pink. I really love this vibrant pink shade. The Pretty Flamingo dye definitely made my hair a lot more strawberry than blonde, but the color isn’t stand-out neon like I had hoped. Next time I try this, I’m going to use Electric Tiger Lily dye for a more intense orange, and apply the cotton candy dye more liberally.
Overall, I’m really happy with these results. I’m not mourning the loss of my platinum quite as much as I was before. I’m thinking this color scheme is going to become my signature look for awhile.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Saturday, April 11th, 2015
Flash tattoos are officially a thing. They’ve been trendy ever since Beyonce made them cool at the end of last summer, and they’re all over Coachella at this very moment. I really love the idea of showing off a tattoo that I can wash off later, but I just can’t get behind the “festival wear” thing. Plus…and call me a hipster/snob if you want…if everyone’s doing something…that makes me want to do it less.
When I saw gorgeous photos of dried flower “tattoos” during a recent Pinterest binge, I knew I had found a flash tattoo inspired DIY I had to try. It was the perfect compromise of festival style, dainty elegance, and originality. My results were everything I had hoped for. Check out how I did it below and learn how to make temporary tattoos from dried flowers at home.
To start off, I headed to the florist. I bought two potted African violets: one with pink flowers and one with dark purple. I figured if I ever wanted to do this again, I’d have a tattoo tree ready for me in my kitchen. They were only $4 a piece. I don’t have much of a green thumb, but maybe I will miraculously keep them alive.
I also wanted some red in my fake tattoos, so I bought two red carnations. I ended up only using one of them for my arms. I felt pretty goofy buying flowers just so I could rip them apart, but, okay.
Pressing flowers the traditional way can take weeks. Instead of sticking my buds in a book and waiting, I dried them out in 30 seconds with a microwave. I put my flowers face down on a paper towel on top of a plate. Then I put another paper towel on top of the blossoms, and then pressed them down with another plate.
The carnations kept a lot more of their color during the drying process. The purple and pink flowers turned brown on the edges and looks a bit transparent. 
The petals on the carnations were much sturdier than the African violets. I thought it would be easier to let the violets dry a little bit on the paper towel before I pulled them off, (you know how things can be a little moist after you take them out of the microwave?) but that did not work. When using delicate flowers, the key is to take them off of the paper towels immediately, and transfer them right-side-up to a dry paper towel.
To adhere the flowers, I used brush-on eyelash glue. I painted a little bit on my skin and carefully patted the flower into place. On petals that didn’t quite stick, I used the eyelash glue like ModPodge and decoupaged them into place. After I finished my design, I sealed the flowers by spraying them with hairspray. Here’s how it finally turned out:
Even though the petals I used to make these tattoos were delicate, the finished product was anything but. They stayed on through wind, under my jacket, and took quite a bit of effort to eventually get off. If you don’t want to commit to having these glued on your arms all day, the tutorial that inspired my process suggests using vaseline to stick on the flowers. I for one will stick to eyelash glue for optimal durability. I’m looking forward to doing this again in the summer for outdoor parties, concerts, or days spent drinking cocktails in the sun.
Also, I am OBSESSED with this blue tea dress from Uniqlo’s Ines de La Fressange collection. I’d been eying it for awhile before purchasing, and it was definitely $50 well spent. It makes me feel like Audrey Hepburn…if Audrey Hepburn had mint green hair.
Wednesday, March 25th, 2015
“Mermaid hair” is a thing right now. It is having a major moment. Ask any fashionable lady under age 30 who’s used Pinterest or Tumblr and she’ll know exactly what “mermaid hair” is. Made popular by rumored lip injection enthusiast Kylie Jenner, if you have “mermaid hair,” you have long, thick hair in a pastel or neon hue, invoking visions of shiny scaled mythical sea creatures. But as a short-haired lady who loves her some Manic Panic, I feel the need to make an official statement on mermaid hair. And that is, fairy hair is better.
Fairy hair is a term I am coining right now. When this blows up on Tumblr, credit me, please. If luscious-locked women get Princess Ariel as their mascot, then I’m calling Tinkerbell for those of us with pixies and short bobs. Tinkerbell is way sassier than Ariel anyway so, win-win for us.
To prove that colored and cropped is beautiful, check out the hair inspiration photos below. I know I’m going to have a hard time choosing which color I want to go for next.
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You can achieve this aqua color using Manic Panic’s Atomic Turquoise, but you might need a little bit of help getting it out of your hair later.
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This purple tone has a cool, grayish hue to it. Silver hair is not just for grannies anymore and is way trendy right now. For a cool pastel purple, dilute Manic Panic’s Violet Night with white hair conditioner. If you’re looking for a warmer purple, go with Mystic Heather.
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Don’t want to dye your whole head? Try out a few streaks or highlights and see how you like it first! You can achieve this color with Blue Moon. Make sure to wrap your strands in plastic wrap after you paint on the dye, so it doesn’t leak into other strands of hair.
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I’ve been thinking about doing this shade of green next on my own hair. I have green eyes and I think it would look really trippy. I’m going to use Electric Lizard to get this shade, but won’t dilute the dye with hair conditioner like I usually do. I want the full effect, no pastel shades this time!
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You could achieve this color with Mystic Heather and a lot of white conditioner. This looks like it has faded from a darker hue, but OMG I WISH MY HAIR HAD THAT TEXTURE. I love how this looks with a little bit of curl.
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I’ve achieved this peachy pink color before by mixing Pretty Flamingo and Cotton Candy pink dyes together, then diluting the mix with hair conditioner. I love this color because it’s girly and fun, and pink fades quite quickly so you can do another color ASAP!
Tuesday, January 27th, 2015
I went blonde in July of 2014, and I’ve never looked back. Well…expect to go pink, and purple, and blue. But white, Marilyn Monroe blonde is the go-to. However, not only does having platinum locks take a hefty amount of salon maintenance, but it also takes some at-home effort too. Bleach blonde hair is easily tainted by external conditions. For me, that’s New York City taxi fumes, the general smog around that lingers downtown, the dry winter weather and whatever water-born minerals don’t rinse out with each shampoo. No matter what elements of the environment might be making your blonde hair dull, I have the solution. Get your blondest blonde with purple shampoo.
There are an endless amount of blonde-friendly hair products on the market, but don’t spend your hard earned cash on complicated formulas and brand names. Instead, head straight to the beauty supply store and invest in a big bottle of Shimmer Lights shampoo, plus a bottle of conditioner. I love this shampoo, except for the nightmares it gives me based on this terrifying PBS Ghostwriter episode circa 1995. But I digress.
The science is simple. If your hair has yellow, brassy tones in it from whatever the f**k has attached itself to your hair, the cool purple tones will rinse that nasty gunk right out, giving you a white-blonde, Elsa from Frozen like hue. Even if your hair isn’t bleached, the Shimmer Lights shampoo and conditioner will clean out any dull yellow tones from your hair, giving you more of a Cinderella look than a banana colored Lady Gaga tone.
Here’s a few tips for application:
After an at-home or salon dye job, your hair might be looking a bit more sunshine-like than preferred. Coat your hair in Shimmer Lights conditioner (NOT shampoo) for 3 minutes, and rinse clean.
If your highlights have a golden blonde tint to them, use Shimmer Lights to make a subtle change. If you don’t want ash-toned streaks forever, switch back to your regular shampoo and conditioner after a few washes.
A little extra shine never hurt anybody. Even naturally blonde locks can get dull, especially in the winter. Switch to this shampoo and conditioner for an extra dose of clean color.
Friday, December 5th, 2014
Ladiez are afraid of pixie cuts. It took me awhile to chop it all off, but now I could never go back. If you have a pixie cut, it might seem like there are only a few styles you can wear in your hair. INCORRECT! Presenting 5 pixie cut hairstyles you can achieve with only 5 minutes of work. Grab a hairbrush, some hairspray and a few bobby pins to get started.
Girls with pixie cuts can get away with the poof just a little bit more than girls with long hair. Instead of looking like Snooki circa the Jersey Shore pilot, pixie cut poofs look like Christina Hendricks in Mad Men.
