How to maintain a darker ombré on blonde hair

 After having coloured my hair everything from the lightest blonde to pitch black in the last 15 years (and most colours in between, including red and purple!), I feel that I've finally found the ultimate colour for me. Experimenting is all good and that, but when you find a colour that suits you with and without makeup on, you should probably stick to it. The funny thing is that the colour I'm really happy with at the moment isn't too far off my own natural hair colour, but all the same it needs maintaining. 

I've got sort of medium/dark blonde hair naturally, but I don't like being quite so blonde. It makes me look... too nice and innocent :P
What really improves the way my hair looks is darker roots, which creates a natural looking ombré and gives more depth to my hair.

What's annoying is the blonde roots that keep growing out, and this is my little how to guide to maintaining a darker ombré on blonde hair.

 

 Firstly, I've started off by choosing a hair colour that is 1-2 shades darker than my natural hair. I've gone for a 5, which is a neutral medium brown which has neither warm nor cold hues in it.
Rather than using the bottle as an applicator like you would normally do when doing home colouring, I pour the mixed hair colour into a bowl, and I'll use a hair colour brush to apply it with.

Secondly, I divide up my hair into 4 sections. Hot, or what?!

 Starting with one of the back sections, I then divide the section up parting by parting (about 1 cm apart), applying about an inch of hair colour around each parting going from the bottom and working my way up through the whole section.
Repeat the same procedure with all 4 sections, and make sure that you always only apply an inch of hair colour wherever you are in the process. This way you get an even result and a natural looking ombré.

It can be a bit tricky at the back so you may need to ask a friend for help, but if you're used to colouring your own hair you can manage to do it all by yourself.

Use a second mirror behind you and it'll be easier to keep track of where you've applied the colour.

Try to "smudge" the colour out the further down the hair you get to avoid getting a sharp edge.

 Let the colour sit for the amount of time given in the instructions (usually around 30 minutes), wash out, and style as usual.

Moment of truth...!

 Seeing as I've coloured my hair ombré lots of times I've got a longer gradual ombré as you can see. If you want to achieve this look straight away you can apply a slightly lighter hair colour than the roots on the mid section of your hair, and keep the tips the lightest.

 I would probably describe my hair colour as "bronde" - brown-blonde.

What do you think of the result?

About once a week I use a so called "colour bomb"; a coloured shampoo to keep my hair colour looking fresh and radiant in between hair colourings. I've chosen the Color Mask Shampoo from KC Professional which has been developed especially for colour treated hair. It contains plenty of pigment for instant results, and the shade I've gone for is beige. This shade is ideal for dark blonde to light brown hair to remove any yellow shades you may have from old colour or bleach.

A fabulously stylish charity poker night with a Great Gatsby theme

When an opportunity to dress up arises I would never turn it down. So when I was invited to an event with a Great Gatsby theme, I got super excited! I've always adored the gorgeous style of the 1920's with the headbands, the feathers, and the glamour in general, but since it's not the most common style nowadays I've never before gotten the opportunity to dress this way. Sure, you could get inspired by any era in your outfit choices, but to get the opportunity to go all out like this is quite rare.

We arrived at the event with great expectations. The invitation said Sky Lounge, which is the bar at the very top floor of Hilton in Leeds with the best view in town, and it couldn't get much more luxurious than that. We were greeted with champagne, and I was amazed about the effort everyone had put into their outfits. All my fellow Leeds bloggers looked absolutely stunning!

My two favourite girls; Dash from Mode Lily and Laura from Top Style Advice, were my partners in crime for the night, and I love how we all wore very similar outfits. I had chosen a cream lace midi dress with thin straps from Boohoo, paired with black satin gloves, a black lace headband, and of course a 20's style long pearl necklace - all typical accessories from the era. I also put my hair up in some sort of curly side do to complement the style even more.

After the welcome drinks we were taken into another room where the real event was about to start - a Texas hold'em poker tournament in the name of charity.
It was all arranged by Ladbrokes Poker, we got taught the rules and betting systems properly, and then with our fake money we played to win £500 which would go towards the winner's favourite charity.

We all started off with poker chips worth £1,000, and after a couple of test runs we eventually got the hang of it. I've never been much for poker (except for strip poker in my teens!) but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
It was actually really exciting!

Dash was winning big all the time!

Beginner's luck... ;)

Just look at her smug face!

They were serving fab quality canapés...

...and lots of wine (which you ended up downing cause you weren't allowed to put the glass down on the poker table... oops!).

Like taken from some old glamorous Great Gatsby casino film, right? ;)

Everyone looked so amazing, and had put so much effort into their hair, makeup and outfits! Here are some fabulous fellow Leeds bloggers.

I don't actually know who won in the end, and I don't think any of us cared cause we had such a great time. I just wish I would have lived to see the real 1920's Great Gatsby era and could dress like this every weekend! 

Cheers!

Thanks to Ladbrokes Poker for a fantastic event, and thanks to Search Labs for the lovely photos.

How RatsEye Design gave new life to my old bleached tattoo

When your old tattoos start looking like this, it's no fun anymore!
It's quite embarrassing, to be honest.
I was super happy with this tattoo when it was new (early 2008) but after several years of sun damage, this is what it ended up looking like. That, combined with the fact that I went to a sloppy tattoo artist! This just shows how important it is to research your tattoo artist before you decide who to go to. Although it probably looks worse that it is seeing as my tattoo was a light brown with very light flowers from the beginning.

To the rescue came Zannie from RatsEye Design Tattoo. She's originally from Sweden, just like me, but moved over to England a couple of years ago and started up her own tattoo business in Brighton. 

It has been a year since I went to see her now, and I'm aware that I've been teasing you with my lovely cover-up in various outfit posts ever since. Well, here's my story!

When I first came to RatsEye Design Tattoo I asked Zannie to just fill in my old tattoo, but she refused! She said it was flat and lifeless, and had some ideas for the flowers. Inspired by Alphonse Mucha's Art Nouveau flowers, she started working on a sketch that would transform my tiny dead flowers to massive blooming ones!
What I really like about Art Nouveau flowers is that they're not perfect, but you could say that they're at the end of their glory just before they die. I also love the dusky colours of this era, and this was what we were going to try to replicate.

Zannie drew up the new sketch for the cover-up onto my old tattoo with the help of some stencils, but also by freehand.
As you can see, the basics of the tattoo would remain the same, but the flowers would be twice as big.

 Hearing the tattoo machine for hours was not fun!
Tips for when getting a bigger tattoo: bring a book and some other sort of entertainment, as well as sugary drinks and snacks to keep your blood sugar up. Like it or not, but you do bleed quite a bit, and it gets you tired.

Part one of the process done - the outlines!
Just as with my other tattoos I've gone for a dark brown rather than black, as I think it goes better with my skin colour. Black goes so green after a while...

 Over all, Zannie sat bent over my shoulder with that horrible buzzing right in my ear for almost 7 hours! Talk about draining! But it was so worth it!

I really couldn't be happier with the beautiful Art Nouveau style flowers that ended up on my back rather than that bleached shit that was there before. Zannie is a perfectionist and takes her time, but I'm definitely staying faithful to her and RatsEye Design Tattoo from now on!

A year on, and the tattoo still looks perfect!
Another tip is of course to take care of your tattoo properly when it heals, otherwise you could end up with uneven colours. Don't pick any scabbing, and keep it moisturised with a mild but thick cream such as Bepanthen.

Have a look through Zannie's work on RatsEye Design Tattoo Brighton's Facebook page.