LUSH Hair

 In most situations I look for a bargain. I tend to steer away from luxury brands when it comes to cosmetics and toiletries. I used to be a head and shoulders 2-in-1 kinda girl (because I had some dandruff once when I was a teenager) and washed my hair every day. 

Hair dried naturally and then styled in mini buns for a few hours, after using daddy-o & angel hair shampoo then aga's conditioner. Plus increasing white hairs!

My hair has changed a lot.... When I was young it was hella straight, very fine hairs but lots of them! Over the years I permed it, dyed it, straightened it, tonged and bleached it. Now it's got a bit of a frizzy waves thing going on if dried naturally, and the white hairs are much thicker and coarser than the dark brown ones, so I've had to change with it. People have been telling me for many years that I should stop washing my hair everyday. The thing that persuaded me was Jonathan Van Ness (bless him!), when he said Imagine what your favourite t-shirt would look like if you washed it every day. Yep. That one sank in! Plus long hair takes forever to dry and style and as I said, my hair has changed. If I just let it dry naturally nowadays I look like I've been dragged through a bush backwards! I don't want to spend an hour on my hair every friggin' day! So a few years ago I started washing it every 2 days, then 3, then 4. Nowadays I have wash day where it's washed and freshly styled, day two where I can just brush it and wear it down again, day three when I use dry shampoo and wear it down, then day 4 when I create an up-do. The bonus being that clean hair won't stay up in a do, but unwashed hair is great for plaits and buns etc! Sometimes I do an extra up-do day if I know I want fresh hair for a special occasion.

Angel Hair Shampoo Bar - The most gentle shampoo you'll ever find

So anyway, if you're washing your hair less often, the products you use and how you use them are extremely important. I knew re-training my scalp was going to mean having gross hair for a while, so I also accepted that stopping using head and shoulders would make my scalp an itchy, flaky nightmare too! Obviously when your scalp gets reliant on anti dandruff shampoo, you're gonna get dandruff when you stop using it, but honestly.... I don't have bad dandruff and I probably never did. The first month of changing products was greasy, itchy and flaky as fuck! But worth the pain to get past the reliance on a bottle of chemicals, right?!

Daddy-O shampoo - For White and blond hair to get rid of brassy tones (but works on really dark hair too!)

Now then. Let's not mess around. LUSH is everything and everything is LUSH! Lush isn't cheap, but when you find the right products for you, it's worth every single penny! I'm not sponsored by lush btw, I just absolutely love a lot of what they make. In fact, my bathroom is (almost!) entirely lush. I'll write more about the body stuff in my skin post, but for now, lets just say that I have tried almost every hair product they make and I know what works for me. I'm gonna tell you about it now!

Stage 1

Brush hair before getting it wet!

Flyway Hair Shampoo Bar - Gives body to fine hair

Stage 2 & 3

Lather, rinse, repeat! Not necessary if you wash your hair every day or every other day, but after 4 days, shampoo it twice dude! The first wash takes off the grease and build up. The second really washes and cleans the hair. If you think your shampoo isn't lathering up very well, that's probably because it's just taking a layer of grease off. repeat it and you will notice a massive difference in the lather, I promise!. Now then, LUSH shampoo bars are the dogs bollocks. As with most products you have to find the best ones for you and I use two that contain sodium coco sulphate. I actually don't have anything against sodium lauryl sulphate (the liquid shampoo's I use contain it!) it's just that I really like Angel hair and Flyway hair. For the record, before these were released New was my favourite and it was EXCELLENT for getting me through the rough patches when my scalp was confused! 

Wasabi Shan Kui Shampoo - stimulating and generally a great all rounder!

The liquid ones I use are Daddy-O and Wasabi Shan Kui. What I use depends on how I want to style my hair because they all have different qualities, but generally speaking it goes angel hair followed by Wasabi or Daddy-O followed by Flyway. Angel and flyway have very subtle fragrances that don't really stick around, Wasabi has a delicious citrusy smell that stays fresh, but Daddy-O is STRONG! It leaves hair smelling like a less sugary parma violet. It's amazing, but not for the faint of heart! 

Angel hair & wasabi shampoo, then glory conditioner. Blow dry and hot brush.

Notes - for gods sake don't shampoo the ends of your hair! They're already dry enough without stripping them of even more moisture and remember, they'll get some shampoo when you rinse out what you've used on your scalp. Concentrate on the scalp and a few inches of hair from the roots. Make sure it's all properly rinsed out!

Glory conditioner - Hardcore conditioning

Stage 4

Conditioners from LUSH are basically hair fragrances. I can tell you which ones are fabulous conditioners, but in terms of scent it will be very much personal to what you like! On the plus side Lush will give refunds or exchanges for products if you don't like them, they're amazing like that. I'm super fussy about scent, so some of their best products are smells that I can't deal with because they don't suit me, but I'll shout them out anyway! For instance Power is the best conditioner they make. perfect for every styling option you ever want for your hair. It used to be called hair necessities and I loved it. It smelt like maple syrup and cake to me, but it was recently re-branded as an afro hair product and the scent was changed. Heart broken to report that I hate the new scent.... dunno what it is. Jasmine maybe? Whatever it is I couldn't deal with it on my hair so I had to exchange it. The conditioning though, is still amazing. World changing! Softening without the build up of silicone that high street brands leave on hair. If you dig more floral scents then I recommend this above all others. I'm sure it's wonderful on afro hair, but it's also brilliant on my hair which is fine and relatively straight, so you know it's an all-round banger of a product!

 The other conditioner I love but sometimes the scent can be a bit much, is Candy Rain. Fantastic conditioner with a super sweet candy smell. If you like scents that some others may consider sickly sweet then this is their 2nd best conditioner after Power! Particularly good scent combo with daddy-o as it makes me smell like a sweet shop! I am currently also using the following..... Aga's is good for natural days as it doesn't seem to be the best for styling, but it smells fruity, like sweet plums and Ilove the scent! It's not going to work if you need quite intensive conditioning but if you want a light conditioner that smalls amazing then this is for you. Glory is the deepest conditioner and it's my new favourite. It's so good for wavy days where I use a hot brush or straighteners to make my hair a bit Jessica Rabbity! How to describe the scent..... there is definitely a lime-vibe along with some florals, so it's great with Wasabi shampoo. All the other conditioners I’ve tried from lush (most of them now!) haven’t given me the softness I like, so the ones above are the only one’s I’d recommend.

Aga's silver conditioner - Another anti-brassy product

Notes - Slather generously (depending on length of hair!) on to the ends and lengths of hair, and massage in to the hairs. NEVER THE ROOTS! If you want flat hair and greasy roots then go ahead, but honestly, conditioner is not made for all over the head! I leave it on for a minimum of 3 minutes while I wash my face and clean my body, then I use a brush that I keep in the shower to brush the conditioner through and remove the tangles. The conditioner helps the brush to move through the hair and also gets rid of knots that would be problematic when styling. I leave it for another minute or so then rinse rinse rinse!

Day one of a good hair wash! My hair needs a trim so split ends are my fault, not Lushes!

Honorable mentions!

Damaged Hot oil treatment. If I want a deep conditioning I'll use one of these bad boys. All over the head and scalp once in a blue moon and it feels like my hair has been on a spa day!

Revive hair moisturiser (used to be called R&B!). I cannot explain how surprised I was by this product. I have tried SO many things to tame the bottom of my hair and make it smoother and less frizzy, when I brush it the day after styling. I was sure that this would be heavy, greasy, sticky..... but it just works wonders! You only need a TINY amount. rub between your hands and then smooth over the ends of your hair and it just calms it down. It has a floral smell that people often notice and (positively!) comment on. It's so good for wavy or curly hair. a Miracle product! If your hair goes frizzy at the bottom when you brush it (or you want defined curls!) Then this might change your life!

No drought dry shampoo powder. This smells like sherbet! I used to use batiste (didn’t everyone?!) But wanted something a little less toxic. The lush dry shampoo isn't for everyone though. If you have dark hair then this might be too noticeable. It's fine on me thanks the all the greys. It's also a bit heavy. Needs to brushed regularly to keep it looking fresh, but I've found that with most dry shampoo to be honest. 

I tried this once before and was like.... errr how do I use this?! It comes loose in a bottle so how do I avoid chunks and lumps if I just put it on to my head? You shouldn’t really use hands or the oils from there make a paste right? Thankfully a reviewer on lush fixed everything. Kabuki powder brush! I’m considering putting some in an old loose face powder tub too. Best smelling dry shampoo and pretty dang natural!

Whoop, there it is! The day three greasy crown.

So here is my day three greasy hair. I just dust the powder on the use the dense brush to buff it into the hair. It's pretty effective. 

Just try not to use too much or it will get a bit cakey! For those of you who don't want the faff then I use a spray dry shampoo too and that will be in my next hair post!

So to sum up, lush has helped me completely revitalise my hair routine and made my hair fabulous again. It seems hard to believe that a four day old unwashed head of hair could still smell lovely, but it does! My hair just doesn't smell dirty. If I wear it up to bed or when cooking ect, I can smell the lovely scents the moment I take it down. I know my scalp still smells good too because my partner is always sniffing my hair when we're snuggling! 

So then.... day by day shots!

Day 1- wash day! Daddy-o and angel shampoo then candy rain. Blow dried, lower section curled with straighteners and diffused at the roots. I have accepted that my white hairs are pretty wild and like to stick up and out.... I don't try to tame them as it helps with the volume. Big hair that smells like a sweet shop!

Day 2 - just wake up and brush! I sleep with it down on the first night as I find it stops my scalp getting a bit hot and therefore a tad greasy overnight. I put it in a bun and wear a (super sexy.... you know it!) Shower cap while showering so it doesn't get wet or steamed. This way I get a slightly less bouncy but very similar style as the day before.

Day 3. Dry shampoo on the roots and a good brushing!

Day 4. Up do day! My hair is a bit more solid on day 4 so it lends itself to styles that wouldn't hold well if it was all silky! Ponytails are always better with greasy hair (in my humble opinion!).

Big post about a small thing. Some things in life you just have to be evangelical about.... one of those things for me, is LUSH hair care!

I'll do another post asap with the non-lush products I use on my hair because as much as I'd love to be full lush, there are still a few things that they haven't perfected for my sort of hair. Only a few though!

Eyes + Pudaier eyeliner colour review

Pudaier eyeliner set.... full review below!

I developed a stye on my eye just after Christmas. I couldn't wear any eye makeup for over a month, and I found myself over excited about getting back into eyeliner. I particularly wanted to take advantage of the coloured eyeliners I had in my make up drawers! Lets be real. Some are shit. Quite a few were always shit (shout out to Stilla for not very pigmented, sticky, hard to apply liners), some looked awesome but melted into every bit of my eye socket (s'up Rimmel) and some got thick and unusable very quickly after opening (I'm talking about you NYX!). But a couple were ride or die. And more than a couple of new ones were added to my bag of tricks!

Speaking of ride or die.... this white one is Rimmel. Sad to say it's no longer available but there are a few white liner options. one of which is at the bottom of this post, so fear not! I find that with very light colours I need to wear mascara or I look odd, so I've got a cheap and cheerful kiko mascara on with the lighter liners and no mascara with the darker ones.

 

Barry M Hi Vis Eyeliner in Charged up

Now then. Barry M Hi Vis liquid eyeliners are bloody excellent. They're pots rather than pens but they apply really well and are very matte. Charged up is a super unusual acid yellow toned green. I love it! it's a fabulous pop of colour but not too in-your-face. I think wearing mascara with these would look great, but I was just trying them out so no mascara here. Think it's a cute and youthful look without!

 The colour pay off is amazing and they actually last for a long time. I find that some matte liners get dry and flake off very quickly, but these did pretty well. The wing was always gone by the end of the day but that is always the case with me because a) I have wrinkles in the outer corners of my eyes, b) I wear super dewy concealer under my eyes, c) I get a bit of a greasy face by the end of the day and d) I'm always doing stuff that wipes my make up off like touching my face, snoozing or snogging. So the fact that even a tiny bit of these eyeliners survive is a testament to their quality! 

Barry M Hi Vis Eyeliner in Unleashed 

Case in point. I forgot to take a pic of this one during the day, but this was taken after midnight after a days wear that involved much touching of the face! Unleashed is a neon pastel pink. Again, a rather unusual colour.

Barry M Hi Vis Eyeliner in Amp Up

I know I look cross eyed.... not the eyeliners fault! Amp up is a stunning bright teal colour. very striking.

The colours are so good! I'm gutted that I couldn't get hold of the purple one, but 3 out of 4 ain't bad. I really recommend these. They are bloody marvellous and super affordable to!

Lottie London Stamp Liner - Wing Edition

You know what my every day liner is from my previous post, but a new favourite is the Lottie London stamp eyeliner. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it does tend to end up looking super cute. It also lasts fairly well compared to other black felt tip liners that I've tried before. I do pat some setting powder on to this liner when I wear it thick like this (if you use the wing end its gonna be thick!) Because I have half hooded eyelids and it will melt into the sockets otherwise. Lasts really well with a dab of powder though!

It also helps me to do looks like this. A fair bit of practice and work, but worth the effort!

Pudaier eyeliner colour pen set

Now then. The big section is gonna be a review of something that I saw on Instagram. They are sneaky buggers and they know what I've been googling! So I saw an advert for some coloured eyeliners that looked too good to be true. I managed to find one YouTube review by an English lady who had also seen said advert and then ordered some to try. It wasn't the most helpful for a number of reasons but it did seem like they were eye safe and pigmented so I threw caution to the wind and ordered the whole set. That way I got free delivery too.

Here is the full set! It actually turned up pretty quickly. Some reviews were complaining about 20+days but as these were shipping from outside the UK I would have been fine with that. As it turns out they came in about a week!

They don't have shade names but they cleverly have the colour on the font. So the set contains white, black, bright blue, dark green, burgundy, red, dark blue, yellow and pink. I wish there was an orange but apart from that, this is a pretty incredible set for the cost of around £30 (this included a discount code, but even at full price it's still only about £4 per liner!)

I just had to do the swatches against my tattoo! Damn it's made it clear that I need a touch up as soon as life gets a bit more normal again.... my yellow spot has almost disappeared in some lights! Anyway. Look at this madness! The colours are amazing!

I do wish that the red and green were a bit brighter, but in a way the darker shades make them easier to wear on regular days and a bit more subtle. I just have to show you guys what they look like when worn, so I took a photo every day that I tried a new one.

I will tell you straight away that I heartily recommend this set and absolutely give Pudaier my stamp of approval (for whatever that's worth!). Let's get into it!

This is the burgundy liner. I knew I'd be into this one as it's really unusual. It's a reddish brown colour and is super wearable.

So first thing's first. I've got sensitive eyes and skin and these don't sting, itch or irritate me. Easy to apply. I always find felt pen liners drag a bit but that's the age of my skin I think. Still simple to apply and dried nicely. Didn't smudge, wasn't sticky, didn't wipe off. Has a sheen to it as you can see, so these aren't matte liners. More like satin! This lasted almost all day. It only started to flake off a tiny bit when I was tired and rubbed my eyes. So impressed with this first one!

Oh my god this forest green is EVERYTHING! 

Such a beautiful colour! Same application, satin finish, dry down and staying power of the burgundy one. I even braved the outside in this one and it was gale force winds with occasional rain. Didn't budge. Totally in love and couldn't wait to try the next colour on day three!

I am aware that I look VERY serious in this photo. Probably because this was my 3rd attempt to put the yellow liner on! Its certainly harder to use than the green and maroon ones. It's a bit sheer but as it turns out, it can't be layered up. So you pretty much need to be able to do it in two swipes.... one across the eyelid and the wing to join up. You can touch up but quickly and no dragging. Otherwise you get chunks and it pulls off what's already there. 

The lighter eyeliners often seem to have the same problem. It's the same with white ones. It takes a while to get it right so if you don't have a steady hand or much patience then it might drive you mad! Anyway, I think it's fair to say that these eyeliners aren't all the same formula, but I could tell that from swatching (more on that later!).

Hopefully you can see that I managed a nice line eventually?! I had to persevere because my search for coloured eyeliner BEGAN with looking for a yellow liquid liner. I've tried a few and they've all been shit, so I really wanted to give this one a go. It might be that the ink pot yellows from Pudaier have more colour pay-off and are easier to use? But frankly it's the best one I've tried to date and now I know how to put it on I'll wear it lots. Still looks cute even if it was tricky to do!

Errr hello colour pay off! This is a very impressive eyeliner. To get this much pigment from a felt tip liner is pretty surprising! 

This one was very almost a one swipe line, that's how easy it was to use. It's brilliant. You might have noticed it's also quite similar to the Barry M one.....

The Barry M is slightly darker and a tad more teal coloured than the Pudaier one, but as the Barry M is easier to get in the UK, I'd say that it is the more sensible option if you just wanted a bright blue. Of course if you like some of the other colours too then damn, get the whole Pudaier set!

This is a double bubble. The black Pudaier liner (standard slim felt liner pen, doesn't seem too smudgy yet!) And the NYX that's the point liner. I got the dot liner recently from beauty bay and I'm highly unimpressed with it. It's too dry to do a proper dot so you have to keep pushing and then the dot gets huge.

Anyway. Don't buy the dot liner! The Pudaier black liner is decent though. Wonder if they might come out with some liner stamps? I'll buy them if they do!

The red is a bit darker than I was hoping for. It's not too dissimilar from the burgundy one. It's a bit tricky to use though as it doesn't layer too well. It's more pigmented than the yellow, but has a similar formula that needs to be applied super quickly.

It looks cute but it's not the best of the bunch. If I could get hold of the colour pop red liner I'd love to compare. I do wish I could find a good quality scarlet liquid liner! Anyway, I think this might be a bit crumbly because I tried to go over the top so I suspect it won't last all day, but if it's like the yellow one I'll get the hang of it I'm sure!

Now then, the pink liner in this collection is an outlier. All of the liners are felt tip pens except the pink. The pink is liquid with a ball bearing inside (which you can feel when you shake!) And has a very fine tipped brush head. It feels similar to a pen but it's actually a brush.

Unfortunately it arrived with a lot of the liquid in the lid. It went on pretty well as you can hopefully see. The colour is fab and it's easier to apply than some of the others, but I'm concerned that it was already feeling very dry by the time I was finishing the 2nd eye. I shook it and not much more liquid seemed to arrive!

Hopefully I'm wrong and it won't be too dry to use again, because this is a great colour. I tried the stilla pink and it was far too sheer and sticky. This one is far superior! I've contacted Pudaier to say it arrived in a bit of a state, but no response yet so I'm not sure of their customer service quality!

Oh this one is special! Firstly it is just pretty, it's a lovely colour and is easy to apply. More impressive to me is that it doesn't bleed out all over the place. I have never encountered a dark blue liner (I've had at least three, one of which was NYX, one Rimmel and one more I've forgotten the brand of!) And they have always dissolved into a dark mess and got all over my socket crease within an hour of wear!

This dark blue doesn't do that! It stays put and doesn't bleed. Plus it is a proper blue. I find so many other blue pens veer towards petrol blue rather than royal blue. 

I think I'm going to wear this one a lot! It's dark enough to look like a regular eyeliner from far away but up close..... cor blimey it's a deep blue sea!

I started with a white liner so I might as well end with one! The rimmel one I have is a touch easier to use as it's a bit sheerer and has a thinner formula. Of course that means that it's not as white as this one. This one is very bright and impressive. It would work really well for makeup art!

As with every white eyeliner I've tried, you have to be careful when applying or layering, or it could start to look a bit like tippex! I'm wearing black mascara with this as I always do with pale liners. It's impressive. not sheer at all!

I have to admit to being VERY impressed with the Pudaier coloured liner set. I couldn't find much info about them and I didn't order for ages because I think there's a lot of crap advertised on instagram! I actually can't believe how good they are. They're mostly easy to apply, the colours are great, the don't bleed (despite my greasy face!), they last all day, they don't smell like chemicals or irritate my eyes and they come off really easily without staining. Plus they are a bloody bargain! All I will say is that I wouldn't describe these as matte, apart from that they're really worth the money.

I think I will go back to their site and order a few of their coloured eyeliner pots to get the colours I'm now missing - a purple, a bright red and a proper orange! I now trust the brand to make good quality eye-safe liners!

No shade to the eyeshadow brigade, but balls to that palaver! My colour pop (no pun intended!) is coming directly from my eyeliners from now on!