Hi! So it's been a while! I haven't posted in forever because I've been so unwell for what seems like forever so I haven't been able to do a whole lot but since I tried some new stuff on my hair I thought I'd come and share with you some good stuff aaaand some not so great stuff ^_^
Schwarzkopf Nordic Blonde L101 Blonde Silver
Ok so this is a lightener, or at least I'm pretty sure. Anyway.
It's sorta like any other box hair product you get from the supermarket, it has the little developer bottle and a tube of cream. It also has a small sachet of powder -I think it was called a blonding booster or something.
Lighteners are just bleach -usually a relatively weak bleach, I think they generally stick around 10vol maybe 20vol, but they don't use those terms on the box, just stupid terms like blonding booster.
Sorry, you'll have to bear with me, I've been sorting out my hair since last night and I am exhausted.
So anyway this is going to beat your hair up a little, you should expect that, that's what they do.
I had bleached my roots (a good 10cm or so of them) last night and about 4cm all the way around was orange hooraaay so I thought eh I won't make up another batch of my salon bleach (hairquip yo, check em out, their developer smells like blueberries) I got this box of nordic blonde from the supermarket because I couldn't remember if I had any (or much) of 10vol left.
So you chuck everything in the little bottle, blah blah, shake it up, I was expecting it to turn blue at some point because it says silver blonde on the box, but nope.
Warning - it smells disgusting. You will definitely need some ventilation.
I was also expecting a small brush or something with the pack but nope, just the application bottle yay.
I think I ended up leaving it on for the whole 45 minutes, and I'm happy to say that it worked really well!
I had a couple of spots that I missed bleaching the night before (I still don't understand how that happens when that much bleach is all up in your hair) and it brought them right up to a toneable colour which is AWESOME.
The pack also comes with two silver toning masks.
*cue angels singing*
This stuff is AMAZING
Why do they not sell this stuff in bottles? I would buy that so hard it.. I.. well you know what I mean. It would be my go to toner, conditioner, whatever.
It is a dark reddy purple, almost the colour of la riche directions in violet (which I have actually so.. win?) and it is just ugh fantastic.
Fair warning, don't be like me and watch about seven too many upworthy videos when you should be washing it out. While a fair amount is an awesome white, a lot is a lovely lilac colour.
If you want that, then leave it in for longer, it makes an awesome lilac! If not.. eerrr.. maybe only bump up the leave in time to ten minutes or so...
At the end of the day, it's better to be on the purple side of things because that will fade out to a nice silver and blonde, but orange is a problem so I'll take purple!
This product costs between $13-$15 generally in the supermarket and it is going to be one of my go to products from now on!
Schwarzkopf Live Colour Silver Toner
....
aka disappointment, ripoff, oh good thing I bought two packets.
Now, I saw these in the supermarket several weeks ago and I thought huh maybe that'd be a good toner to use, I'm not a big fan of custom making my own with directions all the time, I like something I can just grab and chuck it in my hair and it'll work great.
If you are like me, this is probably not the product for you. Sorry.
The box doesn't really tell you much about the product except that it's not a lightener and leave it on for five minutes to half an hour. It doesn't tell you how much is in there or anything.
It turns out it's a small sachet -just the one. I didn't measure it out but I'd say you're looking at 30ml-50ml of product.
I had seen some reviews online and people had good results with this stuff, and it was a really good dark purple -so when I saw it for $5 a box (sachet) instead of $9, I bought a couple to use.
I don't know what's going on. Are we getting crappy versions of products here in NZ?
I knew the second I cut open the sachet I shouldn't have wasted my money.
I even had to think twice about actually putting it in my hair.. you see, I've been here before.
How many of you have seen the nordic blonde toner? Comes in a box, purple tube inside, the "toner" doesn't really do a whole lot, not a particularly dark purple, smells kinda gross and overpowering, makes your hair feel awful? Yeah?
Well. Say hello to it's new little sibling.
If I was a betting person, I would bet you that it's the same damn stuff as what was in that sachet.
DISAPPOINTED.
This was supposed to be silver toner. What happened?!
After using the lightening kit (you know, from the same company) and using the silver toning mask in there, I was expecting more of the awesome elixir that I had previously used... However the conditioner I use -steiner silver brights- is darker than this "silver toner". I actually considered just chucking the product out and putting in some of my silver brights.
I should've.
Does the Live Colour silver toner work?
Sure, a little. If you've managed to get to white from bleaching, this is perhaps a good product for upkeep, very little colour is deposited and it's not a very dark purple at all.
In saying that, you could probably find a purple conditioner that costs less and does a better job and doesn't make your hair feel terrible.
One sachet did around ...maybe a quarter of my hair. Which as of yesterday is above shoulder length and has had a lot of thinning done!
This product gets a huge NOPE from me and I will be complaining to schwarzkopf -this is an absolute cop out for a silver toner.
Gimme the silver toner in the lightening kit please!
So there you go, hope that helps someone with their toning and bleaching needs!
If you are willing to fork out the money to get a couple of sachets of Live Colour (or if you've got shoulder length hair more like 4-6) I would suggest just getting the silver blonde lightening kit. Put the lightening stuff away for later, I don't know, but there are two packets of silver toning mask in that box, the two of them generously covered my hair and they worked really great!
❀^_^❀
Friday, 22 August 2014
Sunday, 2 March 2014
How I Got Silver/Grey Hair
WELL. Hasn't it been a while!
I have been super unwell (as per usual?) and really really busy so far this year sorting out the cosmic mess that is my life haha
What does a girl have to do to get a new and improved immune system? New and improved pain receptors would be pretty awesome too!
ANYWAYS.
Let me just say first that I am NOT a professional when it comes to.. well pretty much anything at this point in time lol except being me!
What works for my skin or hair may not work for you.
If you pay attention to your body, then you know your skin and hair better than anyone else and you know what you're sensitive too and how much bad stuff it can handle.
For this, if you have weak hair, you will need to draw out the process so that you actually have hair to look amazing when you're done.
RIGHT. SO.
Unless you've already got white hair, you're going to need to bleach. The level your hair already is will determine what strength bleach and developer you will need and how many times you are going to need to bleach it.
Do not bleach box dyed dark hair. Ever. Ever ever.
You may get away with bleaching over semi permanent dye, but really, chances are that's already been bleached once, and you don't reeeallllly want to bleach over that -especially if you fried it pretty well recently.
I'm not sure about bleaching over hair with blonde dye in it, I would look around on the net to see if anyone else has and what the results were.
Strip colour where you can. I personally haven't had this problem because I let my hair grow out, greys and all, so that when I got it cut I would have virgin hair to bleach -I hear that colour oops is a good product, however I suggest you do your research before using a colour stripper.
You need to get your hair to a pale yellow stage. Many people refer to this as the same colour as the inside of a banana.
I have very dark hair so I had to bleach twice -and unlike most people, I had the most problem with my roots lightening up. They were ridiculously stubborn.
I used ultra lift bleach and 30vol developer (usually I would use 40vol with your average blue bleach powder, however I was advised to not use stronger than 30vol with the ultra lift).
I did two bleaches, one at night, one the next morning.
Please note your hair may not be strong enough for this, mine is an iron horse!
If you don't have strong hair and you can bear to go around wearing a cute hat for a while, you may need to bleach 1 week to 3 weeks apart.
Processing time also depends on the strength of your hair.
Don't push your luck if you know something bad is going to happen!
I then used Wella T18 Lightest Ash Blonde toner.
You can choose to use this with a 10vol developer (it deposits colour but it is not as permanent -nor as damaging- or so I hear) but generally it is used with a 20vol developer.
Open a window. Just. Trust me on this one. Do it somewhere well ventilated cause ...wow... it's.. pretty bad.
I think I left this on for twice the time listed on the box, and I knew that that was going to be my limit.
Again, you know your hair, stay within your limits.
Whenever it was later, I then mixed up my own semi permanent toner - or purple conditioner.
I did a lot of reading online and most places it said to get violet or plum directions and mix with conditioner to get your desired toner colour.
I don't know what plum looks like in person but violet looks more maroon in person (or maybe I just got a weird one?)
So I dumped a ton of colour protect/colour stay conditioner (just about any brand will do the job, I prefer garnier personally for this job) and then added violet dye little by little (LITTLE) and I added a tiiiiny amount of my atlantic blue to get the colour I wanted.
It was still really light, but as I hadn't mixed toner before I didn't want to push my luck. It ended up a bit darker than the directions white toner. And it worked better. Way better!
My hair was now really really light with a slight purple and silver tinge to it.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST!
While I had bought the violet directions to make my own purple conditioner, I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket because I know that the colours they show on the swatches for semi permanents (and just about all hair dyes really) are often not the same as what they really are in the pottle and on your hair.
Good thing I didn't completely trust everything to be good with the violet because that is definitely not the purple I was lead to believe I was getting!
I picked up some Steiner Silver Brights purple conditioner from the pharmacy.
It's not cheap. Let's just get that out there. It's not. Buuuuuut it is cheaper than most other purple conditioners and shampoos in this country.
(Side note, why do they all cost so much on ebay? Shipping aside, if people can get them for like $10 from Sally's or where ever, why are they starting them at $60?! SHARE THE LOVE WITH THE LITTLE COUNTRIES!)
Anyways. This conditioner ...it doesn't smell particularly nice.. It was a bit overpowering to have that all up in my face O-O
BUT it is worth it!
This conditioner says to leave it in for one minute.
Laugh that rule right out the door right now.
I put this stuff on and left it for I think about an hour and a half.
My hair came out silver!!
There were a couple of patches I reapplied, and it helped, but really there are two or three little patches that I should've gone over with bleach and 20vol. Whoops!
The colour looks great! I also did atlantic blue directions mixed with a lot of conditioner underneath (because it's my thing, I dunno).
HOWEVER. IMPORTANT.
That's not the end! Sure, you have an awesome colour, but you still have work to do!
Chances are you fried the daylights out of your hair. It's probably not looking or feeling too great any more.
Time to treat it well!
HOMEMADE HAIR MASK
This is allllll stuff you can get from your supermarket!
Again, I am not a professional, this has just worked for me.
You can put as much as this stuff as you want in your mix, my hair is around shoulder length and very thick, so change it to suit you.
What you will need:
Half a banana (the riper, the better)
Light coloured honey
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Macadamia nut oil
Avocado or avocado oil
I do about a tablespoon each of the honey and oils, if you are using an actual avocado, you may need to add a bit more of that.
Break half a banana up into small pieces and put them in your blender. You'll need to get the banana as smooth as possible because otherwise you will have weird chunks coming out of your hair that look like snot for a few days. I found out the hard way.........
You can then put the banana in a bowl and add the rest, but I like to just stick it all in the blender and give it a good thrashing.
Once it has all been mixed together well, in a bowl, put the mixture into the microwave for about 30 seconds (depending on your microwave). You want it to be very warm, but not too hot to handle.
Apply this mask to the ends of your hair first and then work your way up. I wrap mine in gladwrap and pop a shower cap over top to keep it all in there and warm and all that business.
I then leave it for as long as possible 2-6 hours is what I prefer, but if you are not a thrashy sleeper like me, you could even go to bed with it in.
Now, this sounds like it would be reeeeallllllly oily. It's not! I typically have oily roots and since I started using this mask (before I bleached) I have had no issues!
Another tip for saving your semi permanent colour is to stop using shampoo. I'm sure I've been over sulfate free blah blah blah before, though for some things you may still need to use a gentle shampoo on your scalp -keep it on your scalp, do not put it through the rest of your hair.
For your hair, you can leave out the shampoo and still get a good clean with apple cider vinegar!
Sounds smelly, I know, and yeah it kinda is but once you condition or have a mask in you don't even notice, plus once it's dry it stops smelling anyway!
I think I put 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar to 2 cups of water. I take it a step further by using the water to first make peppermint tea. That helps with the smell too and feels soooo nice on my scalp!
I put the mixture into a cheap condiment bottle from any cheap store ($2 shop etc) so that I can have directed application.
Have fun with your hair colour!
~^_^~
I have been super unwell (as per usual?) and really really busy so far this year sorting out the cosmic mess that is my life haha
What does a girl have to do to get a new and improved immune system? New and improved pain receptors would be pretty awesome too!
ANYWAYS.
Let me just say first that I am NOT a professional when it comes to.. well pretty much anything at this point in time lol except being me!
What works for my skin or hair may not work for you.
If you pay attention to your body, then you know your skin and hair better than anyone else and you know what you're sensitive too and how much bad stuff it can handle.
For this, if you have weak hair, you will need to draw out the process so that you actually have hair to look amazing when you're done.
RIGHT. SO.
Unless you've already got white hair, you're going to need to bleach. The level your hair already is will determine what strength bleach and developer you will need and how many times you are going to need to bleach it.
Do not bleach box dyed dark hair. Ever. Ever ever.
You may get away with bleaching over semi permanent dye, but really, chances are that's already been bleached once, and you don't reeeallllly want to bleach over that -especially if you fried it pretty well recently.
I'm not sure about bleaching over hair with blonde dye in it, I would look around on the net to see if anyone else has and what the results were.
Strip colour where you can. I personally haven't had this problem because I let my hair grow out, greys and all, so that when I got it cut I would have virgin hair to bleach -I hear that colour oops is a good product, however I suggest you do your research before using a colour stripper.
You need to get your hair to a pale yellow stage. Many people refer to this as the same colour as the inside of a banana.
I have very dark hair so I had to bleach twice -and unlike most people, I had the most problem with my roots lightening up. They were ridiculously stubborn.
I used ultra lift bleach and 30vol developer (usually I would use 40vol with your average blue bleach powder, however I was advised to not use stronger than 30vol with the ultra lift).
I did two bleaches, one at night, one the next morning.
Please note your hair may not be strong enough for this, mine is an iron horse!
If you don't have strong hair and you can bear to go around wearing a cute hat for a while, you may need to bleach 1 week to 3 weeks apart.
Processing time also depends on the strength of your hair.
Don't push your luck if you know something bad is going to happen!
I then used Wella T18 Lightest Ash Blonde toner.
You can choose to use this with a 10vol developer (it deposits colour but it is not as permanent -nor as damaging- or so I hear) but generally it is used with a 20vol developer.
Open a window. Just. Trust me on this one. Do it somewhere well ventilated cause ...wow... it's.. pretty bad.
I think I left this on for twice the time listed on the box, and I knew that that was going to be my limit.
Again, you know your hair, stay within your limits.
Whenever it was later, I then mixed up my own semi permanent toner - or purple conditioner.
I did a lot of reading online and most places it said to get violet or plum directions and mix with conditioner to get your desired toner colour.
I don't know what plum looks like in person but violet looks more maroon in person (or maybe I just got a weird one?)
So I dumped a ton of colour protect/colour stay conditioner (just about any brand will do the job, I prefer garnier personally for this job) and then added violet dye little by little (LITTLE) and I added a tiiiiny amount of my atlantic blue to get the colour I wanted.
It was still really light, but as I hadn't mixed toner before I didn't want to push my luck. It ended up a bit darker than the directions white toner. And it worked better. Way better!
My hair was now really really light with a slight purple and silver tinge to it.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST!
While I had bought the violet directions to make my own purple conditioner, I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket because I know that the colours they show on the swatches for semi permanents (and just about all hair dyes really) are often not the same as what they really are in the pottle and on your hair.
Good thing I didn't completely trust everything to be good with the violet because that is definitely not the purple I was lead to believe I was getting!
I picked up some Steiner Silver Brights purple conditioner from the pharmacy.
It's not cheap. Let's just get that out there. It's not. Buuuuuut it is cheaper than most other purple conditioners and shampoos in this country.
(Side note, why do they all cost so much on ebay? Shipping aside, if people can get them for like $10 from Sally's or where ever, why are they starting them at $60?! SHARE THE LOVE WITH THE LITTLE COUNTRIES!)
Anyways. This conditioner ...it doesn't smell particularly nice.. It was a bit overpowering to have that all up in my face O-O
BUT it is worth it!
This conditioner says to leave it in for one minute.
Laugh that rule right out the door right now.
I put this stuff on and left it for I think about an hour and a half.
My hair came out silver!!
There were a couple of patches I reapplied, and it helped, but really there are two or three little patches that I should've gone over with bleach and 20vol. Whoops!
The colour looks great! I also did atlantic blue directions mixed with a lot of conditioner underneath (because it's my thing, I dunno).
HOWEVER. IMPORTANT.
That's not the end! Sure, you have an awesome colour, but you still have work to do!
Chances are you fried the daylights out of your hair. It's probably not looking or feeling too great any more.
Time to treat it well!
HOMEMADE HAIR MASK
This is allllll stuff you can get from your supermarket!
Again, I am not a professional, this has just worked for me.
You can put as much as this stuff as you want in your mix, my hair is around shoulder length and very thick, so change it to suit you.
What you will need:
Half a banana (the riper, the better)
Light coloured honey
Olive oil
Coconut oil
Macadamia nut oil
Avocado or avocado oil
I do about a tablespoon each of the honey and oils, if you are using an actual avocado, you may need to add a bit more of that.
Break half a banana up into small pieces and put them in your blender. You'll need to get the banana as smooth as possible because otherwise you will have weird chunks coming out of your hair that look like snot for a few days. I found out the hard way.........
You can then put the banana in a bowl and add the rest, but I like to just stick it all in the blender and give it a good thrashing.
Once it has all been mixed together well, in a bowl, put the mixture into the microwave for about 30 seconds (depending on your microwave). You want it to be very warm, but not too hot to handle.
Apply this mask to the ends of your hair first and then work your way up. I wrap mine in gladwrap and pop a shower cap over top to keep it all in there and warm and all that business.
I then leave it for as long as possible 2-6 hours is what I prefer, but if you are not a thrashy sleeper like me, you could even go to bed with it in.
Now, this sounds like it would be reeeeallllllly oily. It's not! I typically have oily roots and since I started using this mask (before I bleached) I have had no issues!
Another tip for saving your semi permanent colour is to stop using shampoo. I'm sure I've been over sulfate free blah blah blah before, though for some things you may still need to use a gentle shampoo on your scalp -keep it on your scalp, do not put it through the rest of your hair.
For your hair, you can leave out the shampoo and still get a good clean with apple cider vinegar!
Sounds smelly, I know, and yeah it kinda is but once you condition or have a mask in you don't even notice, plus once it's dry it stops smelling anyway!
I think I put 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar to 2 cups of water. I take it a step further by using the water to first make peppermint tea. That helps with the smell too and feels soooo nice on my scalp!
I put the mixture into a cheap condiment bottle from any cheap store ($2 shop etc) so that I can have directed application.
Have fun with your hair colour!
~^_^~
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Home Made Tomato Sauce!
OK so I apologise for not having exact measurements, I'm not a notes sort of person, when I cook food I have a basic recipe and then I just run with it.
Must be doing alright with it cause what I make always comes out so good!
I'm very very picky so if you are too, the ability to tweak recipes to get the flavours and consistency you want is an awesome thing to have
I am somewhat gluten free. I was put on basically the same diet as coeliacs a long time ago and couldn't even tolerate a crumb of normal bread in margarine. Now I can tolerate a little bit, but I still have to be careful.
I asked a gluten free company that I follow to ask their likers if anyone knew of a tomato sauce available in the shops that I could have based on my other allergies, or if anyone had a recipe so that I could make my own.
The post got several replies, and I went over them to decide what I was going to do.
This might be helpful for people on the FODMAP diet -I forget all of what was on there, but as far as I remember I had to cut out things like onion, garlic, chilli, red pepper blah blah
I cannot have these things. Not even the little bit they have in tomato sauce -and it's not even like you have a large amount of tomato sauce when you have it, but it made me sooo sick.
One suggestion was Pams tomato sauce. On the label, if I remember correctly, it said tomatoes, water, and flavourings.
Flavourings.
When you have allergies that are really bad, you need to know exactly what is in products. Not generally. Exactly.
So I emailed them and it came back that it has garlic in it. The "flavourings"? Garlic.
I am still waiting on a reply for select tomato sauce.
It's a bit disappointing that companies don't seem to realise the importance of this.
At the moment companies can put things like red pepper/capsicum, chilli, onion, or garlic under the general heading of "spices" or "flavourings".
I hope that one day companies will be more specific -they wouldn't dare hide wheat or dairy like that these days!
So anyway, there were several recipes, some general, some more specific.
One suggestion was to simmer some tomatoes, herbs, water and beef stock. Well that was out, I can't have red meat and most stock -especially the cubes- have onion in them.
The main theme in the others seemed to be cooking the tomatoes with herbs and oil and vinegar and then sticking the result in the blender.
Sooo that's what I did.
I can only have low acid tomatoes, and where I live they come in 750gm bags, so let's just say that's how much I used haha.
After washing the tomatoes, I sliced each in half, laid them inside up in an oven dish, and then got to work with the flavour.
I sprinkled over some lemon juice and apple cider vinegar and drizzled over some rice bran oil (my preferred oil)
I then added all my herbs. I have some mixed lot that I just chucked in a container since I'd be using it all together anyway -I think there's marjoram, oregano, and sweet basil in there?
I also added dried rubbed mint, some "italian herbs" (a mix by select -you want to read the back, masterfoods has capsicum in it), some home made lemon pepper (again, read the back of what is in the supermarket, all the lemon pepper I found had garlic and onion in it), and some ceres herb salt which is amazing.
I stuck the whole lot in the oven at a high temp (I think 240C?) and just let them get all soft and squishy.
When they were done, I let them cool, peeled the skin off them, and chucked them in the magic bullet until the mix had reached my preferred consistency.
You may want to add a little more oil to the blender if there isn't much liquid in there when you've put all of the tomatoes in. The first time I made this sauce I needed to, but the second time I didn't.
I would say that 750gm bag made roughly 300-400mls
It tastes SO GOOD. You can switch the oil and vinegar around for whatever you prefer, same with the herbs. You can do whatever you like with it!
Don't expect it to be like store bought sauce, you will be disappointed.
It's a very light summery sauce which is exactly the sort of thing I love, so if you're keen, give it a go! It's pretty easy!
~^_^~
Must be doing alright with it cause what I make always comes out so good!
I'm very very picky so if you are too, the ability to tweak recipes to get the flavours and consistency you want is an awesome thing to have
I am somewhat gluten free. I was put on basically the same diet as coeliacs a long time ago and couldn't even tolerate a crumb of normal bread in margarine. Now I can tolerate a little bit, but I still have to be careful.
I asked a gluten free company that I follow to ask their likers if anyone knew of a tomato sauce available in the shops that I could have based on my other allergies, or if anyone had a recipe so that I could make my own.
The post got several replies, and I went over them to decide what I was going to do.
This might be helpful for people on the FODMAP diet -I forget all of what was on there, but as far as I remember I had to cut out things like onion, garlic, chilli, red pepper blah blah
I cannot have these things. Not even the little bit they have in tomato sauce -and it's not even like you have a large amount of tomato sauce when you have it, but it made me sooo sick.
One suggestion was Pams tomato sauce. On the label, if I remember correctly, it said tomatoes, water, and flavourings.
Flavourings.
When you have allergies that are really bad, you need to know exactly what is in products. Not generally. Exactly.
So I emailed them and it came back that it has garlic in it. The "flavourings"? Garlic.
I am still waiting on a reply for select tomato sauce.
It's a bit disappointing that companies don't seem to realise the importance of this.
At the moment companies can put things like red pepper/capsicum, chilli, onion, or garlic under the general heading of "spices" or "flavourings".
I hope that one day companies will be more specific -they wouldn't dare hide wheat or dairy like that these days!
So anyway, there were several recipes, some general, some more specific.
One suggestion was to simmer some tomatoes, herbs, water and beef stock. Well that was out, I can't have red meat and most stock -especially the cubes- have onion in them.
The main theme in the others seemed to be cooking the tomatoes with herbs and oil and vinegar and then sticking the result in the blender.
Sooo that's what I did.
I can only have low acid tomatoes, and where I live they come in 750gm bags, so let's just say that's how much I used haha.
After washing the tomatoes, I sliced each in half, laid them inside up in an oven dish, and then got to work with the flavour.
I sprinkled over some lemon juice and apple cider vinegar and drizzled over some rice bran oil (my preferred oil)
I then added all my herbs. I have some mixed lot that I just chucked in a container since I'd be using it all together anyway -I think there's marjoram, oregano, and sweet basil in there?
I also added dried rubbed mint, some "italian herbs" (a mix by select -you want to read the back, masterfoods has capsicum in it), some home made lemon pepper (again, read the back of what is in the supermarket, all the lemon pepper I found had garlic and onion in it), and some ceres herb salt which is amazing.
I stuck the whole lot in the oven at a high temp (I think 240C?) and just let them get all soft and squishy.
When they were done, I let them cool, peeled the skin off them, and chucked them in the magic bullet until the mix had reached my preferred consistency.
You may want to add a little more oil to the blender if there isn't much liquid in there when you've put all of the tomatoes in. The first time I made this sauce I needed to, but the second time I didn't.
I would say that 750gm bag made roughly 300-400mls
It tastes SO GOOD. You can switch the oil and vinegar around for whatever you prefer, same with the herbs. You can do whatever you like with it!
Don't expect it to be like store bought sauce, you will be disappointed.
It's a very light summery sauce which is exactly the sort of thing I love, so if you're keen, give it a go! It's pretty easy!
~^_^~
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Product Review Chill Factor Slushy Maker + Holiday Baking
How crazy have the last couple of months been?!
I have a new blog up and another in the making -a little silly considering how slack I am already with this one....
Anyway, most of you will be recovering from the holiday period (some of you may still be recovering from new years eve festivities), I don't know about anyone else but it's been a bit hectic for me -and I still wasn't spared from the flu! In summer! What?!
I'll start with the slushy maker I guess..
SO. I like slushies. I couldn't tell you why, I just do. I've never really liked hot drinks much. I like coffee -but I prefer it iced. I like tea, but again, iced is better.
I also don't really like "flat" drinks, things like juice on it's own or whatever. I like texture in my drinks and I get it from bubbles or ice or pulp.
I got given a chill factor slushy maker for christmas, and reading the instructions, it seemed like a pretty simple thing to use.
Seemed lol
The basic concept is pretty simple really, you freeze the cup then add your drink then squeeze the cup until your drink is all slushified.
You can only put a small amount of liquid in at a time though, and while it did freeze it reasonably quickly, I found that it wasn't fluid like storebought slushies and there was no way I was going to get that up the straw provided.
I used kool aid (water, soda water, kool aid, artificial sweetener) so I dunno maybe it would work better with other drink? I'm on the sugarfree drink train though (and not complaining either because kool aid is amazing, why don't we have this in the supermarkets?!)
Once I got some into my mouth with the provided scoop it was more like I'd bitten off a chunk of ice block than scooped out some slushy.
At the end of the day while this doesn't give the slushy it claims to, it's still a pretty good product for summer I think -and definitely easier than sticking some ice in the blender!
Now let's talk about holiday baking or christmas baking if you want.
I wouldn't say I "celebrate" christmas because christmas doesn't mean anything to me and I find it an incredibly awkward time at the family (not mine) gathering I go to each year, but I do give gifts where I can.
I guess it's partly out of obligation (I'm being given things so I feel rude not to give something also) but also because it's convenient -things are often more on special at that time of year.
Last year money was a bit tight all round, I was caring for my flatmate who had had a pretty significant surgery only a few weeks before and he wasn't exactly able to go out to buy gifts for his family either so I ended up making... well basically cake pops without the sticks.
I decided I wanted to make something again this year to save money, and because I don't know what the cupcakes to buy for these people haha!
I eventually decided on shortbread. I asked my mum about it she said just find something with lots of sugar and butter. Easy, right? Flour sugar butter.
Turns out that shortbread is my eggs of the baking realm.
(Eggs never turn out right for me. Ever. They just don't go how they're supposed to)
I did a couple of trial batches of shortbread before I found an ok place but despite having a recipe given to me by a CHEF ..a few things weren't going my way!
I also hate my oven. It didn't help.
I also made candy cane bark. That was easier than the shortbread!
Candy cane bark is basically chocolate and candy canes. Crush candy canes, melt white chocolate, mix em together, pour onto a tray.
SO. A couple of tips for festive baking.
I wanted to put some mini m&ms or something in the shortbread to liven it up a bit -but those are expensive!
I had some coloured sugar crystals from something I'd made some other time so I poured in green sugar and pink sugar (didn't have red) to each batch.
You can make coloured sugar yourself too!
Recently I got some candy cane hershey's kisses and I liked how it had little things sorta like hundreds and thousands in them -I wanted to recreate that texture with the candy cane bark so I..
I uh.. well I put hundreds and thousands in them...
It's good! I promise!
Next time I will post about home made tomato sauce! (The joys of having so many allergies)
~^_^~
I have a new blog up and another in the making -a little silly considering how slack I am already with this one....
Anyway, most of you will be recovering from the holiday period (some of you may still be recovering from new years eve festivities), I don't know about anyone else but it's been a bit hectic for me -and I still wasn't spared from the flu! In summer! What?!
I'll start with the slushy maker I guess..
SO. I like slushies. I couldn't tell you why, I just do. I've never really liked hot drinks much. I like coffee -but I prefer it iced. I like tea, but again, iced is better.
I also don't really like "flat" drinks, things like juice on it's own or whatever. I like texture in my drinks and I get it from bubbles or ice or pulp.
I got given a chill factor slushy maker for christmas, and reading the instructions, it seemed like a pretty simple thing to use.
Seemed lol
The basic concept is pretty simple really, you freeze the cup then add your drink then squeeze the cup until your drink is all slushified.
You can only put a small amount of liquid in at a time though, and while it did freeze it reasonably quickly, I found that it wasn't fluid like storebought slushies and there was no way I was going to get that up the straw provided.
I used kool aid (water, soda water, kool aid, artificial sweetener) so I dunno maybe it would work better with other drink? I'm on the sugarfree drink train though (and not complaining either because kool aid is amazing, why don't we have this in the supermarkets?!)
Once I got some into my mouth with the provided scoop it was more like I'd bitten off a chunk of ice block than scooped out some slushy.
At the end of the day while this doesn't give the slushy it claims to, it's still a pretty good product for summer I think -and definitely easier than sticking some ice in the blender!
Now let's talk about holiday baking or christmas baking if you want.
I wouldn't say I "celebrate" christmas because christmas doesn't mean anything to me and I find it an incredibly awkward time at the family (not mine) gathering I go to each year, but I do give gifts where I can.
I guess it's partly out of obligation (I'm being given things so I feel rude not to give something also) but also because it's convenient -things are often more on special at that time of year.
Last year money was a bit tight all round, I was caring for my flatmate who had had a pretty significant surgery only a few weeks before and he wasn't exactly able to go out to buy gifts for his family either so I ended up making... well basically cake pops without the sticks.
I decided I wanted to make something again this year to save money, and because I don't know what the cupcakes to buy for these people haha!
I eventually decided on shortbread. I asked my mum about it she said just find something with lots of sugar and butter. Easy, right? Flour sugar butter.
Turns out that shortbread is my eggs of the baking realm.
(Eggs never turn out right for me. Ever. They just don't go how they're supposed to)
I did a couple of trial batches of shortbread before I found an ok place but despite having a recipe given to me by a CHEF ..a few things weren't going my way!
I also hate my oven. It didn't help.
I also made candy cane bark. That was easier than the shortbread!
Candy cane bark is basically chocolate and candy canes. Crush candy canes, melt white chocolate, mix em together, pour onto a tray.
SO. A couple of tips for festive baking.
I wanted to put some mini m&ms or something in the shortbread to liven it up a bit -but those are expensive!
I had some coloured sugar crystals from something I'd made some other time so I poured in green sugar and pink sugar (didn't have red) to each batch.
You can make coloured sugar yourself too!
Recently I got some candy cane hershey's kisses and I liked how it had little things sorta like hundreds and thousands in them -I wanted to recreate that texture with the candy cane bark so I..
I uh.. well I put hundreds and thousands in them...
It's good! I promise!
Next time I will post about home made tomato sauce! (The joys of having so many allergies)
~^_^~
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Product Review: Dove Nourishing Oil Serum & Elvive Arginine Resist
So many things I want to put up, so little energy! Course has me wiped out buuuutttt here's some stuffs anyways.
Two of my favourite products!
I picked these both up on sale for around $3-$4 each, I'm not sure what I'm going to do once I run out because they seem to normally cost about twice that o_o
SO
Dove Nourishing Oil Serum
This stuff is aaaamaaaazing. I bleach the underside of my hair to colour it with "crazy colours", and due to my many allergies blah blah blah even my older natural hair is having a little bit of a hard time staying awesome.
The bottle is a little weird for me. If you have slippery hands and you pick it up, it can be a bit difficult to stop it going off on adventures.
The back says something like three full pumps (I think, it's been a while since I looked).. I prefer to use what I think are probably half pumps, that way you don't overdo it.
When I first started using it I needed quite a bit. I figured that I didn't exactly treat my hair like a princess so it probably needed the love.
It made my hair silky and shiny and wasn't greasy, oily, or sticky -which is a problem a lot of hair treatments at the moment have, especially if they have oils in them.
Over time my hair has become better -I can't say if it's the 2L water a day I drink now, or the serum, but I do think that the serum does have something to do with it.
I only need about half the amount I used to use now, and it does help keep my frizz under control.
The first couple of weeks I used it, the smell was a little bit strong, but now I barely even notice it!
I put it through my hair straight after I get out of the shower, and a bonus is it doesn't make the pillow all gross. It goes on your hair and stays there.
Elvive Arginine Resist Conditioner
I try to keep as sulfate free as possible to be kind to my hair and scalp, so I have not tried the shampoo of this range (it would be great if Loreal went sulfate free in all of their products!)
I picked out this product for the same reason as I picked the Dove serum, I needed some hair care blah blah.
I did have a bit of hair breakage (and before you roll your eyes and go "well DUH you bleach your hair!" I actually have had more of a problem with natural breakage than bleached breakage!), I am a bit harsh to my hair, I have it tied up most of the time and I don't take the time to do proper deep conditioning or anything.
The ad claimed a lot so I thought I'd give it a go.
I was pretty impressed -though I wasn't expecting much.
I can't say it lived up to the advertisement's claims, but it has reduced my breakage and fall by a fair bit and it does seem to be a bit tougher and able to handle more.
I use it in conjunction with my sukin moisture restore and schwarzkopf colour protect (and occasionally a couple of other things).
Sooo there you go! Two pretty good products I think!
Keep in mind that what works for me won't work for everyone, but hopefully these two products will help some people have nicer hair
~^_^~
Two of my favourite products!
I picked these both up on sale for around $3-$4 each, I'm not sure what I'm going to do once I run out because they seem to normally cost about twice that o_o
SO
Dove Nourishing Oil Serum
This stuff is aaaamaaaazing. I bleach the underside of my hair to colour it with "crazy colours", and due to my many allergies blah blah blah even my older natural hair is having a little bit of a hard time staying awesome.
The bottle is a little weird for me. If you have slippery hands and you pick it up, it can be a bit difficult to stop it going off on adventures.
The back says something like three full pumps (I think, it's been a while since I looked).. I prefer to use what I think are probably half pumps, that way you don't overdo it.
When I first started using it I needed quite a bit. I figured that I didn't exactly treat my hair like a princess so it probably needed the love.
It made my hair silky and shiny and wasn't greasy, oily, or sticky -which is a problem a lot of hair treatments at the moment have, especially if they have oils in them.
Over time my hair has become better -I can't say if it's the 2L water a day I drink now, or the serum, but I do think that the serum does have something to do with it.
I only need about half the amount I used to use now, and it does help keep my frizz under control.
The first couple of weeks I used it, the smell was a little bit strong, but now I barely even notice it!
I put it through my hair straight after I get out of the shower, and a bonus is it doesn't make the pillow all gross. It goes on your hair and stays there.
Elvive Arginine Resist Conditioner
I try to keep as sulfate free as possible to be kind to my hair and scalp, so I have not tried the shampoo of this range (it would be great if Loreal went sulfate free in all of their products!)
I picked out this product for the same reason as I picked the Dove serum, I needed some hair care blah blah.
I did have a bit of hair breakage (and before you roll your eyes and go "well DUH you bleach your hair!" I actually have had more of a problem with natural breakage than bleached breakage!), I am a bit harsh to my hair, I have it tied up most of the time and I don't take the time to do proper deep conditioning or anything.
The ad claimed a lot so I thought I'd give it a go.
I was pretty impressed -though I wasn't expecting much.
I can't say it lived up to the advertisement's claims, but it has reduced my breakage and fall by a fair bit and it does seem to be a bit tougher and able to handle more.
I use it in conjunction with my sukin moisture restore and schwarzkopf colour protect (and occasionally a couple of other things).
Sooo there you go! Two pretty good products I think!
Keep in mind that what works for me won't work for everyone, but hopefully these two products will help some people have nicer hair
~^_^~
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Welcome to Daffodil Blue!
So I decided to recycle my blog.
The Road to Ranting served me well, but it's time to move on!
I needed a specific outlet for the things going on in my life, but I am mentally in a better place now, so I thought it was time to revamp!
I have kept some of the previous posts because they are either reviews or posts I think it's important to keep here.
From now on this blog will host product reviews and craft endeavours =)
I hope you guys look forward to some great (and not so great) product reviews, and the goodies I have made, and will be making in the future.
Don't be too shy to ask questions!
Also yay for warmer weather!
~^_^~
The Road to Ranting served me well, but it's time to move on!
I needed a specific outlet for the things going on in my life, but I am mentally in a better place now, so I thought it was time to revamp!
I have kept some of the previous posts because they are either reviews or posts I think it's important to keep here.
From now on this blog will host product reviews and craft endeavours =)
I hope you guys look forward to some great (and not so great) product reviews, and the goodies I have made, and will be making in the future.
Don't be too shy to ask questions!
Also yay for warmer weather!
~^_^~
Saturday, 8 June 2013
Sulfate Free Product Reviews: Eco Store, Yes To, Primal Earth, + Make Your Own Sulfate Free Body Wash!
Sulfate free products are slightly more available now than they were a couple of months ago -I'd like to think we're finally getting through to companies!
I am very picky, and my skin is too, so I can't and won't just settle for any old sulfate free product.
We all have our preferences for what we want our hair and skin to be like, and what we want our products to smell like.
I've bought a few things recently so I thought I'd share my thoughts on them with you all =)
Eco Store Anti Dandruff Shampoo
I've had problems with my scalp for as long as I can remember, I was pretty ok for a few years and then after the water supply was changed it had a big tantrum and I've been struggling to get it under control ever since.
The prescription stuff (ketaconizole?) stopped working, and there was no way I was going to put that coco tar stuff in my hair. No way.
Eco Store finally had a semi decent selection in the supermarket, so I got their anti dandruff shampoo.
Please note, this product has Sodium Coco Sulphate. If you have severe issues with sulphates, I would probably give this one a miss. I did some research and the general consensus seems to be that it is basically the same as SLS -however, saying it's the same thing is massively over-simplifying it.
SCS is, simply put, a very very diluted version of SLS. It has far more of the coconut's fatty acids still, and while some people still call it a "harsh" chemical, I would disagree. That's like having a glass of pure lemon juice, and a glass of lemon juice mixed in with a couple of litres of water and saying they have the same degree of sourness. It's not rocket science that something diluted will be less "harsh". But anyway.
I love this product. First of all, it smells like cola lollies. So yum!
Even though it does have SCS in it, I do not experience a reaction like I did with SLS products. This product does not strip the semi permanent colour from my hair like SLS products and normal anti dandruff products!
It left my hair feeling awesome and my scalp feeling great. And it did it's job well. I am very happy to have found something that works so well for my scalp!
Yes To Carrots Scalp Relief Conditioner
Unfortunately Yes To don't have sulphate free shampoos (as far as I'm aware). I thought I would try this conditioner in conjunction with the Eco Store shampoo (which I had already been using beforehand).
I am left hoping that their other conditioners I want to try won't leave me as disappointed as I was with this one.
It's ok. It's nothing special. I definitely don't think that the carrots one, at least, is worth the rather high price.
It's a bit of a mixed bag I guess.
The only good thing about it seems to be that it helps keep my hair soft for longer.
The bad things are numerous though. One of which is at the time, and for about a day after, it makes my hair feel a bit.. dry and "ratty". It would be nice if it was soft from day one. From when I washed it out. But nope.
It's a bit of a pain to get the product out of the bottle. It comes out in a rather annoying tiny stream.
The smell is not great. It has a really strong tea tree smell. It just reminds me of when I was a kid and had nits. I don't really like the smell in the first place anyways.
It irritates my scalp -I get the same irritation with it as I do when I use an anti dandruff SLS/ALS shampoo.
Lastly it is REALLY hard to wash out. Definitely not something to go with if you're trying to save water.
Primal Earth Calming Face Wash
Now, I noticed earlier while I was in the shower that the tube says "his" on it, and I did find it under the men's razors area in the supermarket with the face balms and shaving creams and whathaveyou, but I don't recall seeing a women's one (also why can't I find Primal Earth Renew anymore?!). It doesn't really make a difference to me anyway!
It says it has aloe vera, green tea, and plant glucosides. It also states it contains coenzyme Q10 and harakeke flax.
I liked the speel on the back, I can't be bothered going to get it, but it says something like basically this product is awesome now hurry up and get it. I like my product speel with a bit of humorous attitude ^_-
I really really really love this product!
It smells sort of like a clearasil? product I used back in highschool, so pretty generic, nothing good or bad about it really.
You only need a little bit to cover your whole face, and I honestly didn't expect it to do much since it isn't exfoliating.. I was pleasantly suprised!
I get NO negative reactions with this wash at all! Which is amazing on it's own.. I had a really bad breakout just before I bought this product, and with two washes it is SO much better! Not completely gone but I'd say about three times better than it was! One particular problem area was dried up completely and flaked off the next day -completely fine!
The areas I usually worry about blackheads are looking a LOT better now, and this product leaves my skin amazingly soft. There is absolutely no need for me to apply a moisturiser afterwards.
It's about the same size and price as anything else, and I would highly recommend this product to anyone!
Now... How to make your own sulphate free body wash!
Supposedly you can use any bar soap to do this, but you may need to add more water than you use in this recipe.
This is using Dove bar soap.
I made one batch with the exfoliating bar, and one batch with the shea butter bar.
I used one and a half bars of each, you can adjust the recipe to suit you.
For every one and a half bars used, add 3 cups of water (or 2 cups of water per bar).
You will need to grate the soap into a pot, add in one cup of water and heat on medium.
Stir every now and then until as much soap as possible is melted, and mixed in, and add the rest of the water.
(If you are using more soap, add more water in the first lot, so if you are using three bars of soap, add two cups of water, then the rest etc etc)
Once you have as much soap as possible melted and mixed with the water, pour the mixture into a glass container or bottle to cool.
Once it is cooled enough, transfer it to a container of your choice. I have also heard that at this stage you can mix in your own skin safe fragrance if you wish.
I do not recommend leaving it in bottles as shown in the picture, you will be better off putting it in something like tupperware, or a bottle that you can squeeze the product out of -for example, a shampoo bottle, or other body wash bottle.
The end product is a really nice and luxurious body wash! It is awesome! Don't expect it to be like normal body wash, what I ended up with was a fantastic mousse like product -very nice!
If you want something a bit more exfoliating I would suggest purchasing some small exfoliating beads or using something like crushed apricot seeds, or maybe even salt, and mixing it in after it has completely cooled.
So that's my review of my latest purchases, and home made Dove body wash! The body wash could even make a nice present for someone! If you make it I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
~^_^~
I am very picky, and my skin is too, so I can't and won't just settle for any old sulfate free product.
We all have our preferences for what we want our hair and skin to be like, and what we want our products to smell like.
I've bought a few things recently so I thought I'd share my thoughts on them with you all =)
Eco Store Anti Dandruff Shampoo
I've had problems with my scalp for as long as I can remember, I was pretty ok for a few years and then after the water supply was changed it had a big tantrum and I've been struggling to get it under control ever since.
The prescription stuff (ketaconizole?) stopped working, and there was no way I was going to put that coco tar stuff in my hair. No way.
Eco Store finally had a semi decent selection in the supermarket, so I got their anti dandruff shampoo.
Please note, this product has Sodium Coco Sulphate. If you have severe issues with sulphates, I would probably give this one a miss. I did some research and the general consensus seems to be that it is basically the same as SLS -however, saying it's the same thing is massively over-simplifying it.
SCS is, simply put, a very very diluted version of SLS. It has far more of the coconut's fatty acids still, and while some people still call it a "harsh" chemical, I would disagree. That's like having a glass of pure lemon juice, and a glass of lemon juice mixed in with a couple of litres of water and saying they have the same degree of sourness. It's not rocket science that something diluted will be less "harsh". But anyway.
I love this product. First of all, it smells like cola lollies. So yum!
Even though it does have SCS in it, I do not experience a reaction like I did with SLS products. This product does not strip the semi permanent colour from my hair like SLS products and normal anti dandruff products!
It left my hair feeling awesome and my scalp feeling great. And it did it's job well. I am very happy to have found something that works so well for my scalp!
Yes To Carrots Scalp Relief Conditioner
Unfortunately Yes To don't have sulphate free shampoos (as far as I'm aware). I thought I would try this conditioner in conjunction with the Eco Store shampoo (which I had already been using beforehand).
I am left hoping that their other conditioners I want to try won't leave me as disappointed as I was with this one.
It's ok. It's nothing special. I definitely don't think that the carrots one, at least, is worth the rather high price.
It's a bit of a mixed bag I guess.
The only good thing about it seems to be that it helps keep my hair soft for longer.
The bad things are numerous though. One of which is at the time, and for about a day after, it makes my hair feel a bit.. dry and "ratty". It would be nice if it was soft from day one. From when I washed it out. But nope.
It's a bit of a pain to get the product out of the bottle. It comes out in a rather annoying tiny stream.
The smell is not great. It has a really strong tea tree smell. It just reminds me of when I was a kid and had nits. I don't really like the smell in the first place anyways.
It irritates my scalp -I get the same irritation with it as I do when I use an anti dandruff SLS/ALS shampoo.
Lastly it is REALLY hard to wash out. Definitely not something to go with if you're trying to save water.
Primal Earth Calming Face Wash
Now, I noticed earlier while I was in the shower that the tube says "his" on it, and I did find it under the men's razors area in the supermarket with the face balms and shaving creams and whathaveyou, but I don't recall seeing a women's one (also why can't I find Primal Earth Renew anymore?!). It doesn't really make a difference to me anyway!
It says it has aloe vera, green tea, and plant glucosides. It also states it contains coenzyme Q10 and harakeke flax.
I liked the speel on the back, I can't be bothered going to get it, but it says something like basically this product is awesome now hurry up and get it. I like my product speel with a bit of humorous attitude ^_-
I really really really love this product!
It smells sort of like a clearasil? product I used back in highschool, so pretty generic, nothing good or bad about it really.
You only need a little bit to cover your whole face, and I honestly didn't expect it to do much since it isn't exfoliating.. I was pleasantly suprised!
I get NO negative reactions with this wash at all! Which is amazing on it's own.. I had a really bad breakout just before I bought this product, and with two washes it is SO much better! Not completely gone but I'd say about three times better than it was! One particular problem area was dried up completely and flaked off the next day -completely fine!
The areas I usually worry about blackheads are looking a LOT better now, and this product leaves my skin amazingly soft. There is absolutely no need for me to apply a moisturiser afterwards.
It's about the same size and price as anything else, and I would highly recommend this product to anyone!
Now... How to make your own sulphate free body wash!
Supposedly you can use any bar soap to do this, but you may need to add more water than you use in this recipe.
This is using Dove bar soap.
I made one batch with the exfoliating bar, and one batch with the shea butter bar.
I used one and a half bars of each, you can adjust the recipe to suit you.
For every one and a half bars used, add 3 cups of water (or 2 cups of water per bar).
You will need to grate the soap into a pot, add in one cup of water and heat on medium.
Stir every now and then until as much soap as possible is melted, and mixed in, and add the rest of the water.
(If you are using more soap, add more water in the first lot, so if you are using three bars of soap, add two cups of water, then the rest etc etc)
Once you have as much soap as possible melted and mixed with the water, pour the mixture into a glass container or bottle to cool.
Once it is cooled enough, transfer it to a container of your choice. I have also heard that at this stage you can mix in your own skin safe fragrance if you wish.
I do not recommend leaving it in bottles as shown in the picture, you will be better off putting it in something like tupperware, or a bottle that you can squeeze the product out of -for example, a shampoo bottle, or other body wash bottle.
The end product is a really nice and luxurious body wash! It is awesome! Don't expect it to be like normal body wash, what I ended up with was a fantastic mousse like product -very nice!
If you want something a bit more exfoliating I would suggest purchasing some small exfoliating beads or using something like crushed apricot seeds, or maybe even salt, and mixing it in after it has completely cooled.
So that's my review of my latest purchases, and home made Dove body wash! The body wash could even make a nice present for someone! If you make it I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
~^_^~
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