Today is a very good day indeed, my blog has now reached over a million page views. To me, that's an insane number. To think that my blog has been viewed over a million times is surreal, and not something I ever would have imagined when I first started up, all those years ago.

Moving on to the actual post, and it was Eid al Fitr on Sunday, and as has now become tradition, I bleached my roots ahead of the big day. For the past month or so, my hair has been like a beautiful rainbow-esque mish mash of pastel pink, lilac, blue and peach; and as much as I loved it, the topping up and general upkeep was getting to be a bit much, so I decided I'd switch back to platinum, white blonde hair all over for Eid.

Removing vibrant colours from the hair can be a bit of a ball-ache, however, as mine were pastel shades I didn't need to bleach it, shampoo would suffice. I simply stopped my regular colour top-ups and reverted my shampoo to Head and Shoulders, which just seems to eat colour for breakfast. It's also quite drying, so I made sure to apply a nourishing hair mask after it.

I started bleaching my roots on Saturday, still unsure what day Eid would actually fall on (in Islam, we follow a lunar calendar, so we wait for the sighting of the new moon), and proceeded to rinse out that bleach once the time was up. Next up, I grabbed my bottle of toner (Wella Color Charm in T18) and realised there were only a few drops left. Why do we do this to ourselves, seriously? We keep almost empty bottles so long, we forget they're empty, and trick our brains into thinking we have plenty left. WHY?!

My roots still looked a touch yellowy, but I couldn't really tone them, as I had no toner, so I started rooting around my magical drawer of hair things in the bathroom and discovered some buried treasure right at the back, just underneath some latex gloves and a 10 pack of shower caps (can never have enough emergency shower caps in the house). What was this treasure? Gold? Silver? Pieces of Eight? Diamonds? No.

Directions hairdye, in lilac. YES! I could use this as a toner!

NO! That's almost run out too. (Again, why?!)

But that little tub of Directions got me thinking about all of the other Directions dyes I had, and as I was wearing pastel pink for Eid, why not colour my roots pink instead? I had it pink whilst in Japan last year, and I LOVED IT, and I've always had visions of reverse ombrés on my hair, so what better time to experiment than just a few hours before the biggest celebration of the year?!

So I dug out my Directions Carnation Pink, which is my favourite pink hair dye of all time. It's a very, very bright pink, so bright in fact, I don't actually apply it neat to the hair any more as it looks like a Barbie pink and reminds me of her convertible car she drives with Ken. So to tone it down a bit, I mix it with a white conditioner, which dilutes the colour to a Strawberry Milkshake colour.

I then proceeded to apply the mixture to the roots with my fingers, as with a brush I find that the final effect can look a bit too uniform for an ombré, whereas with my fingers, the spread of the dye is a little more uneven and I can start to work it down the hair away from the root and hashtag blend that shit. I left it in for about half an hour, wearing one of the shower caps from my 10 pack, as it retains the heat from your scalp and keeps the hair moist. Then, rinse it off, allow to dry naturally and boom - Pink Reverse Ombré.

I'm really loving the Reverse Ombré, which is kind of like the well known and much loved Ombré, but instead of having darker or natural looking roots that transition to lighter or coloured ends, I thought I'd go with coloured roots, transitioning out to more natural (ha!) looking ends. It's an idea that I've toyed with for a while, and I can imagine that blonde roots with black ends would look incredible, the contrast between these colours would make it striking, and it would seem so surreal, almost like living pop art!

 

Contents: Two 7.5ml bottles of 'Bond Builder' and one 100ml bottle of 'Bond Maintainer'


INGREDIENTS







HOW TO USE


STAND ALONE TREATMENT

Bond Builder

Bond Maintainer


RESULTS

In case you didn't know it already, H&M have their own beauty range. Also, if you really didn't know that, just where have you been?

Their range includes a huge collection of liquid lipsticks, eyeshadows and yes even nail polishes. And my, the range of nail polishes is vast, so vast in fact, they are fast becoming my go-to polishes. And don't spit out your coffee on me, I'm even going to go as far as to say that I much prefer them to Barry M. I'll just give you a moment to digest that before we go on...

Ok, so now that you've regained consciousness, the reason I'm committing such blasphemy and preferring H&M's nail polishes over our beloved Barry M, is due to the colour selection. It really is huge, and contains something for everyone. For example, if you're looking for a mint shade, they have that. But, they have four or five various different options to choose from! They also go above and beyond the standard colours by giving so many shade options, as well as offering iridescents and metallics.

I'd gone in to H&M to replace my beloved 'Skylight' polish, which can best be described as looking like Alien Blood. Unfortunately they didn't have any, and there didn't seem to be any space for it on the display either, so perhaps Aliens have stopped donating their blood for us earthlings to wear it on our talons? So I had a good browse through the range and purchased 'Toprock' instead, which is a turquoise iridescent shade with a slight pink sheen that appears as the light shifts.

The formula is smooth, possibly the smoothest I've ever tried, and is slightly runnier than most other polishes out there, making application easy. It does take about three coats to get that opaque look, but if your nails are shorter than mine you could probably get away with just two. I also found that you don't get bubbles appearing as you layer it on, like other polishes. It's long lasting too, I'm wearing it as I type, and have had it on my nails almost a week, with minimal chips around the tips, but that's more to do with how sharp they are. The bottles also look minimal and sleek, making for good dressing table eye candy.

The great thing about the H&M nail polish range is that they cost just £3.99, so it's fairly cheap to try out a new shade. Though I would say that it would be nice if they ran some deals on them occasionally, in a similar fashion to those we see on Barry M every so often.

OH. MY. WORD. Beauty Bakerie Lip Whip. Where have you been all my life?

For the past few years I've been loyal to Lime Crime's Velvetines as 1) they were the most readily available liquid lipsticks and 2) their shades really speak to me. What's happened in the UK now though, is we're starting to see a huge spike in the availability of Liquid Lipsticks from a whole host of brands covering a huge spectrum of shades.

Beauty Bakerie are just one of those brands, and whilst they have a large range of nude, muted shades, they also have a series of brighter colours (YASSS) and metallic liquid lipsticks that I'm really keen to try out.

They boast that their liquid lipsticks are smudgeproof and waterproof, bold claims, and I've seen countless reviews online hyping the lip whips, saying that it's one of the longest lasting liquid lipsticks out there. I've seen videos swatching it, running their arm under water and trying to rub the swatch to show how it doesn't budge. It's in my nature to be skeptical of all this kind of hype, and the texture of the skin on your arms is quite different to the texture of your lips anyway. But it's also in my nature to be curious, and to at least give something with this much hype a chance (I'M A BEAUTY JUNKIE OK).

And then Beauty Bakerie teamed up with ASOS to create two exclusive new shades, one being the ASOS Nude, and the other, the *ASOS Red. I just had to try the red!

First things first, the packaging is cute af. It comes in a frosted glass looking bottle, with a twisted effect making it appear to be almost shaped like a unicorn's horn. The lid is a lovely green-mint shade and comes with a doe foot applicator inside.

And it's on the inside where it starts to get really interesting. The ASOS Red is a loud, bright red with subtle orange undertones. It's absolutely stunning, and looks so different when compared to the ocean of reds currently out there.

The formula is thick and creamy, and applies quite smoothly to the lips with minimal drag. The doe foot applicator picks up just the right amount of product, and reduces the risk of overlaying. The pigmentation is spot on, just one swipe really packs a punch with opaque, high coverage colour. It dries to a matte finish within minutes, to the point where I touched my lips with my finger immediately after it dried and my lips actually felt soft!

It isn't the most lightweight formula I've tried, and once applied to the lips I can actually it's presence, but at no stage does it feel uncomfortable. I find that describing the formula of this liquid lipstick to be quite a contradiction, because it feels flexible, it's adhered so well to my lips, that even when talking, smiling, eating and drinking, it almost feels like it's part of my lips and won't budge. So it's flexible, but also immovable.

Lip Whip passes the glass test too, whilst drinking, I found that I had ZERO transfer on my glass. This is a lipstick that actually lasts, guys. And I'm talking hours and hours. Even whilst eating, it manages to stay intact, not feathered, nor budged, nor faded, cracked or flaked. The only exception is if you're eating something oily, because that oil will start to break up the lipstick.

But of course, that long lasting formula does come at a slight cost. So whilst it may well be longer lasting than any other liquid lipstick I've used, it's also quite a drying lipstick. Within moments of applying the lipstick, my lips feel a little dry, so I'd highly recommend exfoliating and moisturising your lips well before application to help you get the best out of it. Also, if your lips start to feel dry throughout the day, I find that applying Blistex Relief cream gives that much needed moisture without removing the lipstick.

In terms of removal, Beauty Bakerie do have their own oil-based remover however I just used a generous amount of coconut oil, which served to remove all traces of the lipstick.

In summary, I can honestly say that the Lip Whips are amongst the best liquid lipsticks I have ever tired. As for their smudgeproof, waterproof claims, I would fully back these off. It even goes further than that though, it doesn't flake off and damn, this stuff doesn't budge - believe the hype, people!

Although Beauty Bakerie do have some weird and wonderful shades, like 'Apple Pear Smoothie', I really hope they come out with more fluorescent, neon shades in the near future. From what I can see, they do appear to be ever growing (and now I can see why!) and they're going in the right direction, so I'm looking forward to seeing what other shades they can come up with.

Beauty Bakerie can be purchased from ASOS along with the exclusive ASOS Red, obvs, priced at £16 with free delivery if you spend £20 or over. 

*Sample