Creating & Renewing Dip Dye/Ombre Hair at Home

The other day I decided I needed to freshen up my dip dyed locks! As you can see in my last pics, my hair was looking a bit flat as it had gone quite light nearer the roots and the original darker pieces from my previous dip dye had faded to a warm gingery brown - so my dip dye was beginning to look a bit non existant! It seemed a bit unnecessary for me personally to go to the hair dressers as I didn't want to create a dramatic difference, just a little rejuvenation, so I figured I would get hair experimental and have a go DIY style!

I have shed many pennies, tears and hours of my life doing home colour myself, hating it and then correcting it, so it took me a while to convince myself to do it but I finally did and am really happy with the results! I've decided to do this post because I researched around and found some great tips and product recommendations about creating a dip dye look, but couldn't really find many guides in renewing previous dip dye colour by putting a colour on top and on the ends, so here is my post on how I did it in case anyone is hoping to achieve the same :) My aim was to end up with ombre hair like the lovely Alexa Chung!

Firstly, the products I bought were:

1. L'oreal Excellence Colour Creme in Natural Brown. £6.79 After changing my hair colour for many years, I realised I can't really pull of a dark look without tieing myself to constant fake tanning, so thought I would go for this in hope that it would blend with my blonder ends and be a more natural colour.

2. John Freida Lightening Spray. £6.99. In a way I guess you could describe this as kind of a glorified Sun-in product as it's activated by heat! But thankfully without the orangey tinge! I read some great reviews about this product and some awful ones, so um'd and ah'd about buying it for a while, especially as I have naturally dry ends, but it seemed the easiest and most effective way for brightening so I took the plunge! Note: It does contain peroxide etc so make sure you read the instructions and check it is the right product for your hair!

Ok so here is what I did!

1. Applied the L'Oreal Colour to the top section of my hair, starting at my parting first. I then sectioned my hair and applied the dye at the roots, working my way down till about 1/4 of my hair was coloured. As this was the area I wanted to be the darkest, I left it to develop for 10 mins.

2. I then squeezed some more of the dye on to the gloves and patted and massaged it through my hair till about 1/2 of my hair was now covered. As I wanted to achieve a graduated look, I then left this for 10 mins to develop.

3. Finally using a comb, I brushed through the existing dye on the hair to about 3/4 of my hair length without adding any extra dye. I then left this for about 3-4 mins to develop. I then washed all the dye out and conditioned with the lovely L'oreal conditioner provided.

4. Next I rough towel dried my hair so it was still relatively wet. I then sprayed a good amount of the John Frieda spray on the lengths and ends which had not been dyed and combed this through.

5. I then blow dried and straightened my hair as usual, but did not use my usual protective serum as it would interfere with the brightening spray.


And here was the result!



After not intending to create a dramatic look, I was initially a bit taken back by how much my hair had taken to the  L'Oreal colour as it was darker than I expected. But after a few washes with a cleansing shampoo it seems to have settled a bit more and is less bold. The blonde ends I'm happy with as they haven't come out too brassy or orange, and its good to know that if it doesn't lift to your expectations the first time you can re-spray the ends again next time you wash your hair!

Overall, I'm now really happy with it and am chuffed I managed to achieve it at home, especially as my hair felt lovely and soft afterwards and didn't appear to be damaged by the process. (I think this was due to the L'Oreal protective serum included in the dye kit!) I would of course always recommend going to a salon as most of the time it's not worth the money and hassle but on the other hand you can still get great results at home!

What do you all think? Hope this helps a few of you out!

 

Leather & Studs

Hola! I thought I would do a little outfit post on what I wore to The Editeur blogging event which I last posted about! I'd finally invested in some black (p)leather shorts from Topshop, and I've only just discovered just how much they go with pretty much anything whether you're trying to dress up or dress down! They're so comfy as well so I've been regretting not buying them sooner!

I wore them with a white hi-lo River Island jumper that has a little twinkly silver thread running through it but unfortunately my camera didn't quite pick up on that! I also popped on an Aztec gold pendent necklace from Topshop and my trusty Chelsea boots from Miss Selfridge. The studded tan bag is an absolute bargain from Primark! I thought it looked quite Zara-styley and at least twice the amount its actually worth (£12.99).  To add a bit of a colour, I wore my latest favourite lipstick, a bright coral shade from Barry M!

 For those of you who have seen the last post, you'll remember me saying how fun the event was and amazingly a blogger competition was arranged with a Alice by Temperley scarf up for grabs! Thanks to the lovely Editeur Team and Sarah and Claire, my blog post was chosen and I won the gorgeous tiger print scarf! (See the post on The Editeur website here ) I can't tell you how happy I was when it came through my letter box on Friday! So again a huge thank you to the girls for selecting me! I could definitely rival the wild in it! Here is a pic of it in all it's glory:

Just to add to my blogger happiness this week (sorry if I keep gushing) I was so chuffed to see Fashion Mixbag has reached the 100 follower mark! Not a massive amount in comparison to many other blogs I know, but it meant a lot to me, so thank you to all you fabulous Fashion Mixbag-ers for following!

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

 

The Editeur Event #EditeurAtLarge

Hey everyone! Today's post is all about the #EditeurAtLarge blogging event I was luckily invited to attend a couple of weeks ago at gorgeous boutique, The Editeur, in Chester!

The boutique itself is right up any girls street with a treat of designer loveliness! In store there were perfect selections of various collections from those ever enviable wardrobe names such as Michael Kors, Red Valentino and Alice by Temperley. Swooonnn. I couldn't keep my eyes off all the sparkle, fur, leather and crochet dotted around!

It was all kicked off to a fab start as we were greeted with champagne, party playlist and a pretty selection of yummy cupcakes and nibbly bits! It was lovely to meet and have a good natter with the bloggers as well as all the staff at The Editeur, Sarah from Fashion Dotty and Clare from Tweet who had arranged and put on the whole event! After having a good look around I chose my couple of outfits to play dress up in and pose in for the camera! It took me forever to try and decide, I swear I could have been there all day trying on different pieces! But in the end for my first outfit I went for an embellished Pinko dress which I teamed with a wide brimmed suede hat. The dress was amazing to wear, draping in all the right places and nipping you in at the waist. I also loved the shoulder detail with lovely golden beads! Once we'd chosen, upstairs you could even have hair and make up touched up to get camera ready! Here is how the outfit turned out:

 

The next outfit I chose was from the adorably chic Alice by Temperley range. With lots of lace, tailoring and boho inspired pieces to choose from I ended up going for the amazing Blake jacket and Earl skirt. (I really would do terrible things to own that jacket!) I then popped on a camisole from the Farhi by Nicole Farhi range and I was good to go! I love that the jacket would have even made wearing something simple like a pair of jeans look great! Here is how that outfit turned out:

The shimmering pieces from the Michael Kors collection.

Mustards, browns, leopard prints and blacks from Valentino Red.

          
                         Yummy Cupcakes!                                                       Pinko Pastello Coat

 At the end of the evening we were surprised with an amazing goodie bag which included a pair of  Wolford tights, an ice pop bracelet from Chlobo, that I have worn constantly since, and a hair piece from hat designer Laura Apsit Livens as well as lots of glossies and a couple of Sebastian hair goodies!  

It really was such a fun evening and I had a brilliant time! A massive thank you the fab Editeur team, Sarah and Clare for putting on the event :)