Review: Formula 10.0.6 Facial Mask - Deep Down Detox

I love this brand and the face masks and other products I've tried. So this is already off to a good start.

Directly from their website, their little blurb about this mask is: This super-cleansing team of ingredients Orange, Bergamot and Sea Salt work together to detoxify and banish impurities. For a clearer, brighter complexion - book your skin in for a Deep Down Detox today... and every other day!" (http://www.formula1006.com/deep_down_detox.php)

The orange in the mask is the biggest ingredient. Oranges and vitamin c are good for hydrating and brightening the skin. 

I've tried this face mask once before. And I loved it. But this time around? Not so much. 

This is only due to the fact that my skin seems to have changed from when I first tried this mask. The mask felt amazing the whole time it was on my face, until I washed it off.  I seemed to have an allergic reaction or something. That's why there won't be any photos of mah face today. 

While the mask was setting or whatever it's called, there was no tingling or itching or burning. It was only after I washed it off that my face went so red and burnt looking, like I'd been stuck in a desert for months. It was very hot to the touch, even kind of radiating heat like a sun burn. 

I was quite disappointed by this because their other mask (Pores Be Pure) didn't have any effect on my skin. The redness did go away after a few hours and there was no more reactions to be had. 

I still give this product a 4/5 stars just because it is a great brand and they have amazing products. It just doesn't get all 5 stars because of my weird reaction. 

I threw this product away before I got a photo of it, but the picture is just sourced from Google. 

All of Formula 10.0.6 products can be bought at Farmers. They're quite affordable too which is excellent. 

Shannen xx

Lush Cupcake Face Mask Review

I love Lush products, all of them. I am yet to come across a product that doesn't smell amazing or not do the job it's supposed to do. 

I've just recently acquired a sample of the Cupcake face mask. It smells amazing.

On the label it says "Chocolate heaven for oily and teenage skin. Removes excess oil and calms breakouts."

Now as you all probably know by now, I've had some long term issues with acne. It's the one thing I can't stand about my body, and I wished my silly hormones would sort their stuff out. I am nearly 20 for crying out loud, I should no longer be dealing with these teenage problems. 

This is why I though I would try a face mask that might help sort this problem out. It is aimed for people with oily skin or who have to deal with face demons. According to the Lush catalogue, it softens, tones and cleanses with its main ingredients being a linseed infusion, fresh mint and rhassoul mud.

Now, I've only used this sample twice, so I don't know if its helped with my acne or not by calming my breakouts. I don't have oily skin so I know that side of the face mask has little effect on me. But what I do know is that this stuff smells amazing and makes my skin super soft. It also makes my skin feel really clean.

I know it looks kinda gross, but it has cocoa powder in it to make it look and smell like you're smooshing chocolate all over your face. I think it also goes with the name of the mask. The Cupcake mask is also Vegan friendly, which means no animal by-products have been used in the production of the mask.

If you're not a fan of chocolate or something in this mask doesn't agree with you, you could try Cosmetic Warrior, which Lush says "Garlic and tea tree oil work together naturally to keep troublesome spots at bay."

Lush face masks are $18.90 and you get 75g.

My sample was a spoonful and I've still got one or two masks to go, so a little goes a long way.

Especially for something completely natural, so you know you're not putting any damaging chemicals on your face.

I highly recommend Lush products.

Shannen xx

Photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

How to repair very damaged hair

If you guys read my post about my big hair change then you might be wondering why my hair isn't damaged at all. If you haven't, you can read it here: http://kaleidocolours.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/ch-ch-changes.html . Or if any of you have damaged hair from heat or colouring it then hopefully this post can help you.

Whenever I colour or bleach my hair, I always use the little conditioner it comes with. In my opinion, the Napro Pallette one is the best because it contains 7 different oils that are good for restoring the strength and shine to your hair. An added bonus is that it smells amazing because of the apricot oils it contains. I've had a few of these lying around recently, so every second or third day I've put these in my hair for about 5 minutes. 

Every other day that  I don't use those, I use a hair mask. I have been using the Schwarzkopf Kertain one for very damaged hair. I leave this on for about 5 minutes, even though the instructions say to only leave it on for about a minute. 

About once every two weeks, I use my purple shampoo. Now this is for a number of reasons. Mainly it's to tone my hair and remove any yellowness from my hair. But Fudge's Violet Toning Shampoo also helps to cleanse, restore strength and moisture as well as shine to your hair, so it does a number of things in order to restore it to it's healthier state. I leave this on generally for my whole shower as I like my hair very ashy, bordering on silver.

I always rinse out conditioners with cold water. It seals the cuticle and keeps the moisture in. You will also end up with shinier locks once your hair is dry!

When I get out the shower, if I've wet my hair, I will apply a few drops of macadamia oil to my hair. I'll also apply a pump of anti-frizz serum to my hair, because when my hair is dry it gets really frizzy at the ends. Sometime, if I don't use the anti-frizz serum, I'll spray some of this Schwarskopf spray into my hair. It's from the same line as the hair mask. I normally shower at night so my hair has all night to soak in the beautiful smelling oils and moisture from the products I use.

Something to keep in mind if your hair is damaged is to wash it up to 2 times a week. If you are normally a 'wash my hair everyday' type of person, you can train your hair into only needing to be washed once or twice. I used to wash my hair every second day, but even that is bad so I trained my hair into only needing to be washed once a week. I've saved heaps of money doing this because I don't go through shampoo and conditioner as fast. After one to two days after washing my hair I sometimes use dry shampoo. My favourite brand is Batiste and you can get this from Farmers.

Another thing to avoid when you have damaged hair is heat tools. I have a post on one way to do no heat curls, with more coming. But the simplest way to do it is to put your hair into braids and sleep on it. When you wake up you'll have beachy waves. If you must use heat tools, always use a heat protectant. Once i've styled my hair, I use Lush's Shine So Bright split end balm. It helps seal the split ends so they don't travel further up your hair. Split ends take about 3-4 months to form so this is when you should aim to have your trims, not every 4-6 weeks. Unless you aren't bothered about your hair growing that is. 

Once you've got those split ends though, the best thing to do is just cut them off before it gets worse, which is what I did. I'm quite lucky and have hair that grows fast though, so it won't be long before my hair is back to the length it was before I got a cute bob.

I hope this helps with your damaged hair problems. If you have any questions or feedback, hit me up and I'll get back to you!

Shannen xx

Photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

DIY: Almond Oil Hair Treatment

This treatment is very similar to the Coconut Oil treatment I talked about a little while ago (you can read about it here: http://kaleidocolours.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/diy-coconut-oil-hair-treatment.html?m=1). You follow all the same steps, except melting it. It comes in a liquid form already, which makes using it so much easier.

Almond oil has many, many uses. One being for hair, obviously, and others being skin and food. Almond oil helps seal split ends, so they don't split any further. It also substitutes for other leave in products. It can treat dandruff as well as makes your hair soft and shiny. If you want to know about not uses of almond oil, go here: http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/benefits-of-almond-oil-for-skin-hair-and-health/?ref=grk1

I was recommended almond oil by my friends Jo and Sherie. Jo actually gave me some to try, which I did last night. 

I saturated the lengths of my hair, where most damage has been done, especially the ends. I then wrapped my hair up in a towel and went to bed. I went to bed about 10pm and washed it out the next morning at about 8. 

Now as my hair is really damaged, I didn't use actual shampoo to wash it out. I rinsed it out under hot water for a couple of minutes and then applied my purple shampoo. Purple shampoo cleanses as well as helps strengthen weak hair. I left this on for about 5 minutes, rinsed it out and then applied my Shwarzkopf hair treatment. After a couple of minutes I rinsed that out and got out. 

When my hair is wet, I like to braid it so it's not getting in my way or making me cold. I didn't apply any of my normal leave in products just so I could see how well the almond oil worked. 

Now my hair is dry and it now feels just as smooth and soft as it used to, when I first went red. The ends haven't frizzed as they normally do due to the split ends, and I actually like touching my hair now. 

Next, I'm going to try a combination of both almond and coconut oil and hopefully all the perks from both oils will do their magic. 

Shannen xx

Photos taken on my iPhone. 

BLUE HAIR DON'T CARE

I have had many hair colours since I was about 14 or so. Mostly natural colours like black, brown and an assortment of blondes up until my last year of high school. That was when I started experimenting with bright colours. Because I was still at high school, I wasn't allowed to actually dye my hair all one bright unnatural colour, but I didn't really care for the rules and did what I wanted to do anyways (I do not recommend this as it gets you in a lot of trouble). So as an introduction into the world of colourful hair, I started a simple dip dye. As I didn't know of a lot of brands that did colours like I wanted, I used Fudge Paintbox. The first colour I used was called Red Corvette. Now this sounds like it would be an amazing bright red colour but it leant more pink on my hair. After that colour faded and I bleached my hair again, I used Fudge's Green Envy. This colour was amazing and so uber bright! It lasted a very long time on my hair without much fading. I eventually got bored of this colour (I have a short attention span and need change regularly) and that was when I discovered La Riche Directions. This is one of the best brands I have ever used. This was the last time I dip dyed my hair. I used turquoise in this brand. After high school I pretty much stayed normal because of my job, but then I started studying and had to leave my job as it was too hard to work and study at the same time. So when I left I straight away brought Direction's Cerise. And for most of the year I was doing my diploma I had pink hair. Then I had lilac hair, which was just purple shampoo mixed with a tiny bit of cerise and left on for hours. Then I went yellow, which was meant to be orange, similar to Hayley Williams of Paramore. After all that dying I decided to give my hair a well deserved break and went back to my natural hair colour. After about 6 months I decided to do what I love most, which was dye my hair crazy colours. So now I am blue. This time I used Manic Panic which is like the second best brand I have ever used. My blue is Shocking Blue heavily diluted by conditioner.

For my blue hair I don't really have a recipe or whatever that I follow. I just pour a heap of conditioner into a bowl and then squirt tiny amounts of dye in at a time until I reach my desired colour. This time I used a deep conditioner as I had run out of my normal conditioner that I use when I do my hair. Once it's all mixed I do all my roots with a tint brush then I just scoop it up in my hands and rub into the lengths of my hair until its saturated and I'm pretty sure I've covered all of my hair. I then leave it on for about an hour. To make my colour last, I avoid washing my hair as much as possible as it is only a semi permanent colour. I get about 2-3 washes out of my hair before I feel like I need to do it again. As this is the second time I have dyed my hair blue, I noticed that this colour fades to a really nice lilac colour, but leaning more pink. So I don't mind letting it fade a bit longer than I normally would.

I love having crazy hair, but with it comes a lot of attention. I'm not a big fan of this attention I get. I'm very shy and uncomfortable and awkward when it comes to strangers. I'm happy that they like my hair and they think I'm brave to do what I want with it, but sometimes I just wish they would admire from afar. I know I signed up to all the attention having bright coloured hair and I am grateful for all the compliments I get.

I have a video of me colouring my hair coming up on my YouTube channel which I will link below.

https://www.youtube.com/user/shannensykess

Shannen xx
Canon 600D camera used 
18-55mm lens
Photos edited on fotor.com

Products used :
Manic Panic Shocking Blue
Schwarzkopf Ultimate Repair Anti-Damage Mask