Christmas Look

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas, can't believe it's already over. New Year next!

Our traditional family Christmas means my Auntie from London staying with us and my Nan coming over for the day, with lots of party games and champagne in the evening. I couldn't imagine not being around my family and friends at Christmas time and I always look forward to it, not to mention the time off work!

It was a usual pajama day this year involving wrapping up in new fluffy clothes and eating a lot of food, chocolate and drinking wine.

I dolled up a little bit for our evening celebrations, the look I went for was simple winged eyeliner and a dark lip with lashings of my favourite mascara.

I also couldn't wait to use my Remington Pearl curling wand which was a gift from my mum and I was very impressed with the results. I did the curls in different directions to make them look more natural. I love how the curls made my Ombre look.

The wand gets thinner towards the end so you can control what size you want the curls or how tight you want them. It also has temperature controls, I used mine on 180 rather than the max 210 to prevent as much damage. Brushing through the curls with my fingers and flipping my hair back and forth created a more messy look which I prefer.

I set with some Treseme Hairspray.

For my eyes I used Collection Extreme 24 hour Liner to do a simple wing to line the eyes and coats of my favourite mascara to finish. 

For the dark lip I used my current favourite lip combo, using Loreal Indefectible lip liner in 701 to line and fill, topped with No7 matte lip crayon in Rasberry Wine. The colour stayed all night even after many wines.

I finished off by clipping back sections into a half up-do.

Happy New Year!
From Little Lottie
XO

Winter Hair Care

From going abroad to 30 degree heat (read post here) to coming back to 4 degree winter air, then bleaching it for my Ombre look (read post here) my hair has definitely taken more of a beating than usual. The dry winter air is taking it's toll and frizz has arrived for the season.

I had to get out the big guns and take control of the situation, for the sake of my locks. First of all I had my dead ends taken off, after using bleach on my hair the splits became much more noticeable and a trim was WELL overdue.

My love of natural skincare has spread to my love of natural hair care and more big brands are cutting out perfumes, parabens and other chemicals that strip hair of it's natural oils. Herbal Essences have released their Naked range and Garnier have cut parabens out of their Ultimate Blends products. When an offer came on in Boots I couldn't resist trying Garnier's 'The Sleek Restorer' Ultimate Blends set and grabbed both shampoo and conditioner for £3. I have found this to be much less drying than my previous hair care routine and my hair is lapping up the moisture this time of year.

My staple hair oil has been Jojoba oil as it is light however coconut oil is much thicker and usually leaves my hair greasy but recently after a wash I have been applying small amount of coconut oil to damp hair all over my lengths and it has worked wonderfully. My hair is bouncier and looks shiny again, it has also helped keep frizz at bay during the day. It is easy to go over the top with the oils but a bit of dry shampoo hides those mishaps.

Dramatically reducing heat in my routine has been key this winter, although it may be hard it has allowed me to be creative with up-dos. I have also been curling my hair with no heat and love the look of it! I've ended up doing it every night throughout Christmas, read my post on heat free curls here.

Investing in the right hairbrush has never occurred to me before but by switching from plastic to wood you can lose less hair and the wood spreads moisture from your roots to your ends, helping hair grow and be extra shiny, even in winter.

Switching from cotton bedding to a silk pillowcase of head scarf can prevent dryness as well, not only do we roll around and tangle our hair at night but cotton is a material that naturally sucks moisture from our skin and hair, make the switch and see the difference.

There isn't as much need to wash hair in winter because we aren't as sweaty or greasy (nice) but whilst I have been washing I've only been applying shampoo to my roots and letting it wash over my lengths when rinsing, this means using less shampoo (money saver) and also doesn't strip oils from our oldest strands of hair! It's a no brainer.

Drinking plenty of fluids helps our bodies on the inside and out, I've been particularly enjoying big mugs of lemon green tea and almond milk hot chocolates. Mmm.

Be Merry Mug - Sainsbury's 

Christmas tree decs - Next

I hope my hair care tips can inspire you, they've made my locks very happy.    

Don't forget to follow for more Little Lottie 

Merry Christmas!

XO

Lottie tries: Bblonde Ombre

Lately I have had to urge to change my hair, except when that happens my mind resorts to the most extreme change out of curiosity. For what feels like forever I have been growing my hair after one of my 'urges' turned into a disaster, I went shoulder length and had blonde highlights. Gradually as my hair grew the blonde grew with it and when the Ombre craze hit I had convenient roots. About a month ago my hairdresser said the blonde had to go, the bleach in my hair was years old and doing alot of damage. 2 inches came off and ever since the condition of my hair has been the priority but the boring single tone of my hair made me miss the old look so I was thrilled when Jerome Russell got in contact.

Jerome Russell are a salon quality brand that have created a range targeted at lightning the hair drastically at home! The range called Bblonde was interesting to me because it came with powder bleach and cream peroxide which are mixed together to lighten the hair, I personally hadn't come across this in a home dye kit in the drugstore before and went straight for the Maximum Ombre Kit No1 to finally try out the look properly. 

After reading tons of great reviews about the golden tone the kit gave I couldn't wait to see the results. I will always be brunette at heart and didn't want to go too light which is why this kit is great because you can experiment and leave the dye in until you are happy with the colour.  

It is important to do the strand and skin test to know how long to leave the mix in before you have your desired colour and to ensure you aren't allergic.

On go the old clothes, I'm sporting my fabulous 'Barbie' t shirt throughout so please enjoy the romantic shots of Barbie and Ken.

To prepare for the strand test you don't need much of the mixture just a couple of teaspoons.

Mixing the powder and cream makes this familiar blue colour, don't be alarmed!

The brush provided is so useful and makes even coverage really easy, so no need to be concerned about patches! 

I coated a strand from the back of my hair, concentrating particularly on the ends although the blending lotion does a great job with the gradient look.

For the skin test a cotton bud is the tidiest way to apply the mixture. I ended up leaving the mixture on for an hour, checking the colour every 10 minutes then reapplying until I achieved the colour I wanted. The maximum time is 90 minutes.

I was so impressed by the results and could see a big difference from my natural colour. Time to do it all over!

Firstly applying the blending lotion to achieve the gradient, ombre look. This made application really smooth.

Mixing all the remaining powder and cream gave me a really generous amount and considering the length of my hair I didn't need to buy a second box. If after using the kit you wanted to go even lighter Jerome Russell sell the Powder Bleach and cream Peroxide on their own so you can literally go as light as you want! The price is super reasonable and available at Superdrug.

Using the brush to apply to my mid lengths was so simple, the most difficult thing I found was making sure I started from the same place all the way around my head. Most people use their jaw as a starting point for the Ombre affect but I started at the middle of my neck to make the ombre very gradual, applying from the bottom upwards also helps with the gradient look. Make sure to cover your glamorous old clothes with an old towel! Who said the actual process was pretty...

Once fully coated the dye starts to dry, I left the mixture on for around 50 minutes and chilled out with Netflix.

So here are the results! I'm so happy with the look and have no idea why I didn't do it sooner. After reading so many positive reviews about Jerome Russell I didn't worry about the Ombre looking orange or coming out in a block of blonde it is truly gradual and subtle.

The box was stocked with everything I could possibly need and was simple to follow. 

The kit promises to lighten hair by 8-9 shades and it certainly did!

Thank you to Jerome Russell for letting me review the gorgeous kit!

Browse the range here!

Little Lottie xo