Temporary Hair Color with Hair Chalking! (& some Senna Cosmetics)

So I have been seeing a lot of beauty bloggers doing this hair chalking thing, so I figured I would give it a go. Since doing something to yourself is usually a hell of a lot harder - I recruited my friend Kelli (aka Same Name) as my guinea pig in this endeavor. You might remember her from my Prom makeup posts awhile back. She has huge boobs.

What you need (and I'm doing this in the cheapest, most cost effective way possible. I am not going to tell you to go out and buy all kinds of expensive shit that you don't really need):

- Soft Pastel Chalks (do not freaking buy oil pastels or you will HATE YOUR LIFE)

- A handful of plastic sandwich bags (if you plan on doing a lot of strands, you'll need more - I used these instead of rubber gloves because I don't have rubber gloves laying around my apartment for fun)

- Container of water (I used a Cool Whip tub)

- Blow Dryer

- Straightener

These are the pastels I used.. 

I got them at Pat Catans craft store & they were like $6.99

Here's what our finished product looked like:

Step 1: Dip the strand of hair you're going to dye into water. I varied the sizes of strands I did on Kell, but I wouldn't go much bigger than like an inch or so. Unless you plan on dying the entire strand from the root, you only need to wet the parts that you want to have color on them (about halfway up if you're just doing what we did).

Step 2: Dip the tip of your chalk into water and then color the strand while holding it in your hand with a plastic baggie over it. This part gets pretty messy, so the baggie helps a little bit. Make sure you don't rub the strand back and forth or up and down because you will matte the shit out of the hair and whoever you're doing this to will want to strangle you. Just use a downward motion and try and spread the strand out so you don't miss any sections.

see how it's all over my hand? 

the baggie makes it easy to just color it without getting it all over yourself

Step 3: Once your strand is colored, let it air dry for a few minutes and then hit it with a blowdryer to dry it out a little before you straighten it to prevent frying your hair. If your strand is really knotty (some of them will get like that, there's no preventing it sometimes), try and brush it out GENTLY before you dry it. If you brush it after it's on the dry side, you're going to get a bunch of chalk dust flying around and you'll lose some pigment.

Step 4: Once your strand is dry (or mostly dry), run it through a straightener to seal in the color. I didn't turn my straightener up all the way heat-wise since some of the strands I was going over were still slightly damp, but it's up to you. I also curled her strands during this part, too - but you can just straighten them if you don't want curls. NOTE: THE CHALK WILL GET ON YOUR STRAIGHTENER BUT IT WIPES RIGHT OFF SO DON'T WORRY !!

We also used a double color technique where we did some strands red on the bottom and then purple on the top.. It looked pretty because they kind of faded into one another whenever we dried them. 

And just a couple tips - the chalk dust got on Kell's shirt a little bit, so you might want to wear something you don't really care about when you're doing this. It wasn't anything crazy though, so you don't need to go buy a poncho or anything. 

And since we were doing hair, I also did her makeup :)

I used Senna's "Itsy Bitsy Lashes", which are just meant to go on the outer wing of your lashes & are great for a more subtle look. They definitely did enhance her lash line even though they're small, though. I'm a big fan of them and they come with glue right in the package. I also smudged some of Senna's Black Violet Velvet Eyeliner on her lower lash line, as well. I did a post on that a little while back.

Purchase Senna's Itsy Bitsy Lashes here!

Hopefully this gives you guys some creative ideas for things to do with your hair this spring & summer! The chalking could be really pretty with prom hair if it was worked into an updo, as well :) Let me know if you will be experimenting. Thanks for reading, as always! XO!

Senna Gets Springy With It

I'll tell you what - Senna treats me like a freaking princess. I am extremely grateful to have a relationship with them & I will forever sing their praises. Not only do they make extremely high-quality makeup that I am always impressed with, they are an all-around good company.

About a week ago, they sent me over a few of their new shades for Spring. I usually change up my makeup routine fairly dramatically when the weather gets warmer & these seem to fit in pretty well with what I do with my face in the Spring. I tend to stay away from super dark colors and I definitely play around with brighter colors a little bit more. I don't know - something just feels wrong about celebrating Easter with black smokey eyes and an obscene amount of bronzer.

So here's what I will be gushing about in this post:

Pressed Powder Blush in Tres Jolie - $18.50

Velvet Eyeliner in Black Violet - $18.00

First of all, Senna's packaging is really awesome, as always. Second - I want to add in that the eyeliner has a smudge tip on the opposite end which I forgot to take a picture of.

Anyhow, the blush is nice on my skin tone. I am pretty pale, but I have a little hint of olive in my skin. The website describes the color as a "clear glowing pink" which is pretty accurate. It has just a tiny little hint of shimmer to it, but I definitely wouldn't classify it as sparkly. This is a huge plus in my book because I don't enjoy looking like I dunked my head in a vat of pearlescent glitter.

Looks pretty natural, just a little color which is all you really need.

Oh yeah - I cut all my hair off, too..

Next, this freaking eyeliner applies like butter, I'm not even kidding. I get really annoyed whenever I get a new eyeliner and I have to shove it into my eyelid with the strength of Jesus in order for it to spit any type of color out onto my skin. Fresh out of the package - this eyeliner goes on smooth and really pigmented. 

I have issues with purple liner and shadows because if they're not dark enough, they can make me look like I'm sick. This shade is called "black violet" and even though I was skeptical, I found that it's just dark enough and doesn't have that "pinkish" color to it whenever its smudged out. I like to take colored eyeliners and apply them thick, then smudge them out around my eyes. I usually don't pair it with shadow, just a little bit of black liner and some black mascara. It's kind of a happy medium between smokey eyes and light makeup. With a pop of color - it's a really cute and easy look:

Senna also makes this really easy since they include the smudge tip right on the other side of the liner tube. Really quick and easy, and it's a nice medium between too heavy and too light. Perfect if you feel like a full-on smokey eye looks too harsh on you.

And if you have blue eyes like me - purple makes your eyes pop.. a lot :)

So if you'd like to try either of these products, you can find them both on Senna's website at www.sennacosmetics.com. I want to take the time to send a big THANK YOU their way for making me one of their trusted blogging partners, as well. They're a great company, and I hope you will all give them a try if you haven't already! Hope you all had a great Easter, as well!

The 3 Deadly Sins of Eyeliner

Eyeliner is a great tool when it comes to enhancing your eyes. Let's clear that up before this post takes a turn for the worst. It's meant to enhance your eyes, not smother them. It's a great way to darken up your lash line, add definition, and make your eyes appear wider.

I am starting to think that states need to start making girls take a test in order to be allowed to wear eyeliner - because holy CRAP. I have seen some flippin' DISASTERS.

I understand that eyeliner is a hard one to master. I'll admit that when I first started wearing makeup, I avoided liner like the plague because of one bad experience. It's not exactly natural to place a pencil basically IN your eyeball - but like everything else, practice makes perfect. My issue here isn't with the girls who openly admit they suck at eyeliner, it's with the ones who think they are good at eyeliner and are actually the ones committing these beauty-related felonies. If you can't do eyeliner and you know you can't do eyeliner, baby - it's gonna be okay. Breathe. Right now, I'm going to show you right now the 3 things you need to avoid in order to maintain somewhat of a decent look going on in and around the eyes. As long as you steer clear of these masterpieces, you're gonna be fine just fine.

Sin Number 1 - The Cat Tail

There is a big.. and I mean BIG.. difference between doing a winged out edge and committing the sin I prefer to refer to as "the cat tail". The cat tail consists of simply drawing a line anywhere from a half an inch to an inch STRAIGHT outward from your lashline. It's not thick and it's not thin.. it's just - a stupid LINE. A "winged out" look is meant to give your eyes more shape and define them. You keep it close to your lashline and you just angle the liner up SLIGHTLY upwards. It's meant to look chic. I'm curious as to what the girls wearing this look think this does for them. The only shape it's creating is a random horizontal line poking out from the corner of your eyeball and the only thing it's defining is the fact that you might have no idea what you're doing with an eyeliner pencil. I also want to add that many a chick who commits this sin are also guilty of the disco on my browbone trend. A true match made in heaven if you ask me.

Sin Number 2 - The Close But No Cigar

This one is my personal favorite. Basically, the "close but no cigar" consists of a mysterious floating line positioned way too far above the lash line. I am 100% confident that this is due to the fear of stabbing yourself in the eye with the pencil - but I can promise you that the number of girls who have gone blind due to eyeliner stabs to the cornea is probably pretty low. In fact, it's probably 0. This does nothing flattering at all. ever. period. It's downright confusing. And the funny thing is, I see a lot of older girls do this (and by older I mean like 20's & 30's). It's just lazy to me. You couldn't have taken the additional 15 seconds to concentrate on what you were doing to make even a little tighter of a line? Was it worth it? Did you spend that extra time you saved by drawing a random line 1/4ths of the way up your eyelid doing something AWESOME???? Touching your eyelashes with the pencil is not going to make them spontaneously combust - that I can assure you of.

and finally -

Sin Number 3 - The Black Line of Death

I don't like hooker-esque eye makeup, ESPECIALLY eyeliner. Personally, I think a TON of eyeliner looks trashy and it actually makes your eyes look SMALLER, totally defeating it's purpose. The "black line of death" is probably the most common amongst those who think they are makeup gurus when in fact they're committing heinous felonies like this on a daily basis. A line.. actually, excuse me - CHUNK of jet black eyeliner that goes halfway up your eyelid is not okay. I see that you winged it out, nice touch - but you still look like an idiot. I'm not sure who put it into the heads of these divas that a lot of eyeliner is sexy (we can probably thank Jenna Jameson) - but I can assure you that it's a very dated look and it makes you look like you have creepy little raccoon eyes in pictures. Lay off.

I hope that some of you agree with me on these looks and for those of you who struggle with liner - I'll do a little tutorial soon that offers up some tips and tricks that might make it easier for you. Remember that you can touch your eyelashes with the pencil and that less is almost always more. Hang in there, bb's, & I'll talk to you soon!