Change Is Inevitable.... When It Comes To My Hair

Hey!.. So we all know that I am very fickle when it comes to my look. Well, I loved loved loved my red hair and I adored my dreads!.... But red just didn't feel like ME. It was cute and fun and the dreads were definitely #ALOOK (shout out to Handsome Deville) but, I was craving my blonde. So i took to google and youtube to figure out how to get it back without having to Amber Rose it up.
First, I took my beloved .dreads out to assess the color situation...hoping that the red had faded away.

As you can see, the color was alive and well. And the way i had my hair wrapped around each dread left me with some pretty gnarly curls.

After a day or two of searching, I found a not so harsh way to strip the red out of my hair... Vitamin C and Shampoo!.. Wait, what?
Yes! I crumbled maybe....12-15? Capsules of vitamin c (you can use any kind of straight vitamin c. The powdered kind, the giant tablets, or the regular capsules that u take with water like i did) and grinded them in a tupperware dish til it was a fairly fine powder. Then i added about the same amount of shampoo that i'd use for one wash (i'm very liberal with the amount of shampoo i use btw) and a teeny bit of water to get it to a liquidy texture. I mixed these things together until it was a bit creamy...yet grainy. I slathered this mixture all over my hsir, from ends to roots and then put a plastic cap on it and wrapped my head in a scarf. About an hour and fifteen minutes later, i rinsed it out and shampooed my hair one time. BOOM!

So much of the color had faded!...But it was still fairly pink. So i went back to youtube to consult some videos of this proccess and found where i had gone wrong. I put the mixture on dry hair. So, back to crumbling, grinding, adding shampoo and water and mixing. This time, since my hair was wet, i worked the mixture through my hair as if i were shampooing it, then plastic capped it, scarfed it up and left it in for 2 hours and maybe 15/20 minutes. I rinsed and washed snd HOLY MICHAEL'S CRAFT STORE! i could see blonde! It was that faded pink-ish blonde, but it was def blonde...aside from my roots, which were my natural hair color. Ps: I had a picture of that result, but I deleted it because i didn't realize i'd be blogging this... let's not judge here. After the second process, i loaded my hair with a good amount of organic coconut oil and put it in a single braid at the (get this lingo) nape of my neck. That's how i went to sleep.
Anyhoo, what's thoroughly impatient girl to do when she feels that just about all of her red color is gone? Go buy blonde dye, of course! To the drugstore i flew the next morning to get my Feria Ultimate Platinum!... but they didn't have it, so i opted for Absolute Platinum.

Looks fancy, right? Exactly... it's sure to work!
I rushed home, to get my blonde on! But i had thought about a comment my friend puddin made about being a "slave to my roots" and figured i would pretend to be a pro and try to give myself a bit of an ombre look.. i'm not a pro.. i'm an idiot. I applied the blonde dye to my roots first, skipping sections to make sure some of my roots would be blonde and some of them would stay dark... because that's what i vaguely remembered possibly seeing one time a year ago on youtube... i left the color on my roots in a plastic capr for about 50 minutes before applying the rest of the dye to my almost blonde but still a bit pink remaining hair. i replaced the plastic cap and left that on for another 30 minutes?... then i washed it out, applied the anti brass conditioner that comes with the dye and rinsed that out after 7 minutes....
Um... So... remember i said i was an idiot?... I wasn't kidding. WTF WAS I THINKING????? My "technique" and impatience left me with some pretty nice blonde hair... with pink, orange and dark brown roots!!! Wha-...wha-...What was i going to do? Like... wtf was life supposed to be with this hair? I couldn't help but laugh at how bad it was. But maybe.. it was just because it was wet? I deep conditioned for an hour with coconut oil in a plastic cap. Rinsed that out and went to bed, convinced that i'd wake up to fairly decent hair.
HA! My roots laughed in my face! They literally laughed and did a dance of humiliating severeness on my head...

Notice the anger on my sleepy "i just worke up to hair that hates me" face... notice the legit blondeness, yet absence of roots because i wouldn't dare photograph those warlocks....I knew i had to quit life right then and there... OR... (warning, amazingly bright idea coming) I just go get more platinum dye and redo it. Right? Just try the blonde one more time! BRILLIANT!.. but wait.. i don't want to be Amber Rose's brown-skinned twin...right! I was going for ombre right? Ombrizzle fo shizzle right? Ombreezy fo sheezy right? Om- sorry. Um... i'll go darker in the roots! I'll go... black? NO! Brown...Chocolate brown! CHESTNUT BROWN!!! To the drugstore!... with a scarf on!

I stared at the browns for a good thousand years because... I have NEVER shopped for brown dye before. All i knew was 1. I love loreal products. 2. I have to buy something.
I opted to shop the Preference line and landed on this little gem...

Number 5CB "Medium Chestnut Brown" in the "warmer" colors. Ran home, locked the bathroom door, divided my hair into four sections (two in front, two in back), mixed the color in the applicator bottle and applied the color to my roots, and used my fingers to rake the color through my hair to the not-quite-halfway point of the length of my hair, so there wasn't a stark line of difference between the brown and blonde. I did this with each section, making sure to keep the length of the brown the same for each section. Then i sloppily clipped all of my hair together where the blonde began, used the excess color in the bottle to really get my edges covered and put a plastic cap on. Ps: i knew that some of the brown dye would get on some of the blonde, but i figured that it would help with the ombre effect.

After sitting for 30 minutes or so, i washed the color out, used the brown dye's conditioner on the brown part of my hair and the anti-brass conditioner on my blonde ends.. rinsed and FELL IN LOVE!!!! 

Here it is! Just air-dried.. as u can see, my hair has no personality or consistency when it comes to texture... it's just hair. So i braided it...

And the color looked pretty dope! I was convinced that i was now an ombre master!... in my head. 

But I needed to style my hair with no heat and i figured i'd give Bantu Knots a try. And this is the end result of that...

Maaaaybe not perfect, but there is definitely more volume and texture in my hair. And the color really looks amazing! I'll try this again, but with bigger chunks of hair, since my hair is so deceivingly fine.

There you have it folks! I'm back to blonde, with a new twist! So happy with my results! I swear, I am just like you and i have had my share of mishaps and fails... but i recommend that we all just keep pushing the envelope and trying new ways to Dazzle! It usually ends up being well worth it. *flips newly colored hair* ha!

For more of me:

www.facebook.com/yourmk

Instagram: @RacquelMUA

The Makeup Social: @Racquel_G

And for bookings, contact 

RacquelMUA@gmail.com

or

www.styleseat.com/RacquelMUA

I'm Back... For Now

Hey!!! I've been in this funk for the past few months and have been completely NOT into Dazzling.. especially since I never go anywhere.
Well, I finally got fed up with myself. I mean, how do I expect to get back to feeling like myself, if I don't force the issue? I mean... C'mon son! So the other day, I decided that I would just throw on a full-face of glam and not worry about my lack of plans for the day.

Day 1:

Ok, let's just go throught the steps i took to achieve this look...
I lined my brows with burgundy lip pencil and used a spoolie brush (looks like a mascara wand) to brush the color through my brows. Then i used an angled brush to add a dark brown shadow to my brows and, again, brushed the color through with the spoolie brush. Next was concealer. I used a small concealer brush and a consealer about 2 shades lighter than my skin from my Coastal Scents Camoflage pallet to highlight/perfect the shape of my brows..  See my brow tutorial here.

Next up was my lids. I primed my eyes from lash line to brow with Wet N Wild eye primer from the Fergie collection. This stuff really works, but can be difficult to get a smooth application, so i apply it with a flat shadow brush. After priming, i broke out my Coastal Scents Revealed 2 pallet...

And highlighted my brow bone with the color fourth from the right on the top row. Next, in the crease, i used a tapered crease brush to apply the color on the bottom row, left corner. To sort of marry those two colors, i used a fluffy-ish blending shadow brush to add the color at the top row, fifth from the right and blended the colors together.

From there, it was time to get a little dramatic. I used a dark brown Wet N Wild Color iCon eye pencil  to draw a line along my natural crease. Then I used a short-haired blender brush dipped in the color second from the right on the bottom row (don't be fooled, it's a darker color than it looks) to set the pencil in my crease as well as blend upward. Using my flat shadow brush, I added more primer to my lid where no color had been added and then used that same brush to apply NYX shadow in Hot Orange using a patting motion to build the color. Using that same type of flat brush, I applied a yellow/gold shimmery loose pigment that I got on ebay for like, a dollar, to the inner corner of my lid. I applied Wet N Wild cream gel liner with a liner brush and some lashes, and moved on to my face.
I used a beauty blender sponge knock-off to apply Mary Kay Time Wise Matte Wear Liquid Foundation in a mixture of Bronze 4 and Bronze 5, all over my face except directly under my eyes. Then, using the same concealer I used on my brows to highlight my face. Check out my highlight/contour post here To get an idea of where i apply my highlight. Next, i used a small stipling brush to blend the concealer and make it look smooth and not so heavy. Instead of contouring with concealer, i used an angled face brush and Black Opal pressed powder in Deepest Espresso to contour my cheek bones and frame my face. I used a fluffy shadow brush and the same pressed powder to contour my nose. I used a powder brush to apply a bronzer from Elizabeth Arden (it has minimal shimmer and gives more of a glow than a sparkle.) to the area where my highlight and contour meet along my cheek bones as well as around the edge of my face and down my nose.. very lightly.  I used an angled blush brush to apply Mary Kay Mineral Cheek Color in Golden Copper and Cherry Blossom to the apples of my cheeks and blended outward. Since my face was done, I moved back to my eyes.
I lined my lower lash line with my dark brown Color Icon pencil, then used an angled liner brush and the second color from the right on the bottom row of my Revealed 2 pallet to smudge the brown liner out. I applied Mary Kay Ultimate mascara to both top and bottom lashes. And used a black Color icon pencil on my waterline.

On my lips, I lined them with a brown pencil, and smudged the color inward. Then i applied a Wet N Wild lipstick in Think Pink, blotted, then patted the same yellow/gold loose pigmenti used on my eyes, onto the center of my lips.

I set it all with Mary Kay Finishing Spray, and that was that!

All of these photos were taken in front of a window that faced the sun and had white sheer curtains. No flash, no retouching.

For more of me:
www.facebook.com/YourMK
Instagram: @RacquelMUA
The Makeup Social: Racquel_G
and for booking:
RacquelMUA@gmail.com
or
www.StyleSeat.com/RacquelGuess