eSalon

Late last week I was pointed to the general direction of a website service called eSalon, which fundamentally is hair color sent directly to your home, it's better than box and a hell of a lot cheaper than a salon. I should know, I've worked in a few.

So, I wanted to give it a try and just see how it worked, how good the product is, and if I'd recommend it to friends. Please bear in mind I have a very CRAPPY cell phone camera [It's one of the original droids] so my photos are not the best, but I will try to make this as comprehensive as possible.

My hair coloring was a little complex so that's why I wanted to test it out so bad. My hair is pre-lightened and in order to get a darker result like what I wanted, I had to do a color fill, to replace pigments lost in lightening. The hair color profile on their site also recognized this and suggested a demi-permanent.

It comes nicely packaged. Everything basically has your name on it, the color bottles and the instructions, and they're very easy to follow! I was quite pleased. Although I'm a licensed stylist it had very comprehensive instructions and it's packaged nicely. 

Down inside the box that was in the middle were some safety instructions, stain guard [which I didn't use], stain remover, conditioner and two packages of gloves, as I had two application processes to go through since my hair is so light. 

Here are some before shots, one close up one so you can see the dimension in my hair and then a farther out one, again bear in mind, crappy cell phone camera. 

The product was easy to mix, I decided to start out with a bowl and their brush to see how it applied. It mixed similar to a box color but it wasn't a pure liquid color, but it did have a slightly thicker than liquid consistency. Relatively easy to work with but the brush size is small so it caused me to work slower. 

This was after I rinsed out their color fill, I didn't notice too much of a difference but I figured to keep going since I wanted to finish what I started, and you know that whole not judging a book by its cover type of thing.

For the second application I decided to keep it in the bottle. Again it mixed well, and the top was already pre-done so I didn't have to worry about cutting off the top or anything. I was really quite pleased with that. I had a brush and bowl on standby if I decided I couldn't do it with just the bottle. 

The mostly, end result. It's still wet but I did blow dry it some. I am pretty pleased with the end result. 

In all, it was a very easy to use product, with great instructions and everything. The times of processing aren't long [5 & 15 minutes] Though I do recommend it's easier to have someone else apply the colors for you. 

Of course it does have it's own restrictions because they can't do lightening but if you want to maintain your color, or go darker it's a fantastic service. 

I do defiantly recommend it though. Happy coloring!


EDIT [9/5/12 @ 6:51PM] I realized I never posted photos of a better final result. Without further adieu, I present the final color, dried, and after a few shampoos, the color is still vibrant, and it honestly made my hair feel fantastic. This is the best that my hair has EVER felt after coloring [especially after two step services] and I have gotten a LOT of compliments on the color.

A far out shot of my color, again after a few days & a few shampoos.

A close up shot of my hair color showing how well it covered, plus the shine it added [not from the flash].

I know I know

I know I need to get better about posting here, however between working, ice skating and being a mom I haven't found the time to really get photos together of things I want to do for this blog.

I don't have the money really to try out makeup techniques, which I want to one day incorporate and my nail polishes are drying out so I haven't done anything other than simple colors on my nails to make for a more finished, polished look while I'm at work.

I am however learning a lot of new styling tricks at work, I got re-acquainted with a curling iron which I feel like that tool is slowly falling by the wayside.

Hopefully soon I can get into a swing of updating to where I have the time each week to do my nails. Here's to hoping :D

Product Review: Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips

So, just yesterday I bought and tried the Sally Hansen nail polish strips. They were pretty pricey at 8.50USD, but I had a gift card and figured I should try them. Why not? [I apologize I lack pictures for every step]

[Picture from Sally Hansen]

The color I tried was "Love Letter" which is a white background, with black lettering in cursive that has various things written, at most I can make out the words "And", "Love", "Mash" and a few various others. 

In the kit, it comes with two packets/containers that are non-resealable with eight strips each, an orange wood stick that has a pointed end on one side, and a flat end on the other, a nail file/buff and of course, instructions. They're pretty easy to follow.

It first states to start out with clean dry nails. Like so:

[Sorry for the bad quality, it was a cell phone pic, and my nails have color stains on them since I work with color on a daily basis.]

This was after I removed all polish, ran some nail polish remover over them and pushed the cuticles back [like it says to do in the instructions]

The next thing I did, was I laid out all the strips that would fit my nails out beside me, and I started with my pinky nail. I peeled the clear protective sheet off, then pulled the backing off, leaving me with a flimsy piece of sticky polish, at that point you need to break off the silver tab. Getting placement down is tricky, I'll admit. That's likely what took me the longest aside from filing it down to size. After I got the nail pressed on where I wanted it, I rubbed all over with my finger, then the orange wood stick that they provided. The first few nails I used their method of getting the excess edge off, but after a while I found my own groove. Which involves just stretching it over the edge, rather than filing it off.

They are pretty, I also had to make sure the lettering was upright. At this point they are pretty time consuming, so if you're in a pinch I wouldn't recommend them. 

This is what the polish strip looks like once the silver tab is pulled off it. At this point, after doing a few nails their way is when I started to just stretch and peel it over the free edge. I'm not sure how well it'll work if you don't have much of a free edge [a nail that extends past your fingertip] I only had to file off/press down small corners after that, which helped speed up the process some, which was nice.

Then when you're finally done, they do look nice. To do both hands it took me about an hour, but I wasn't working straight through I was chit chatting online. However, if I didn't have those distractions I'd still say it took me about half an hour to forty five minutes to complete. After I was done, I applied a very liberal top coat to them simply because my hands are frequently in water, I got a good day's use out of them so far, I'll see how well they hold up the rest of the week, they say they should last up to ten days, I will personally probably have to take them off before then. 

Hope this helps for anyone looking to buy/try them. :)

Plans for Restructure and Growth

Alrighty!!

So, my plans so far for this blog, are to expand into youtube to create tutorials, product reviews, and other such items. I have the youtube channel up, but so far no videos. I want to get my tripod out again and a camera that records video. Though, just now as I was writing I just figured out a plan that can possibly work. :-D

The main product I have to review is the L'Oreal Paris One-Sweep EyeShadow.

Tutorial right now that I can think of, is how to paint your nails.

Any ideas/what you want to see?

I could use my webcamera but it doesn't work the best plus it can be very grainy and that's not what I want. I'd also have to get some savvyness with video editing again, but I'm excited! We'll see where that takes us. :)

Edit: I have a mobile version now live. :)

Working [again]!

Well, my last post I mentioned that I had a big interview in front of the owner's wife. Well, that went well and I got the job!

I started working there on the 10th of October. This company only hires three times out of the year so I feel like I accomplished something major when I was offered the position.

Each day presents itself with new struggles, new challenges and my boss currently is wonderful I feel like I have made good strides in improvements, but as I've told him I know I have a lot of things to learn, but I do feel like each day I get better. I do mess up every once in a while and we're approaching the end of the second week in our placements, its filled with stresses but I don't mind. I might complain every once in a great while but it's nothing major.

I'm excited to be working where I am, it's a big name company in Columbus, and it's a wonderful experience. :)

On the Road Again...

Well, in August I posted about a new job, and I was let go from there since they felt I wasn't "up to par" with my cutting. So, I was let go the middle of the month. I've been hitting the job search pretty hard, and in the morning I have my final interview with a big company, which I'm very excited for. I finished my piece that I had to bring in earlier today.

I'm excited for how this interview can go, and it's in front of the owner's wife. I'm more than just a bit nervous about it. :3

I hope you're well, and I'll keep on goin'. :)

Shoes

Well, after a lot of beating myself up, I eventually left the salon I was working for, however I had a great time there, just the schedule they were giving me was not enough to survive on, especially for how long I held on for.

I left that job and started elsewhere, a new start, I got through two weeks of training in two days. I'll be on the floor cutting starting tomorrow! How exciting is that!

Also, The reason why this is entitled shoes.

Shoes are probably the best investment a stylist could make for his or her cutting career [out side of equipment to cut with] since my black flats [rocketdogs] were falling apart, and were horribly beat up, I invested in a pair of Sketchers. Actually two pairs, just the one I can't wear to work [Shape-Ups are the ones I can't wear to work] And the shoe I got was amazing. It was the Mary Jane style of shoe, it has one strap that goes over my foot one way, to connect to the shoe, goes through a loop to fasten via velcro to the other side. If I can remember it's name or dig up a picture, I will.

So far, I've had great success with both pairs of Sketchers I own. =) They're comfortable, cute and can help provide me the posture I need to be standing on my feet all day.