March 2017 Favourites

 

Hey! Here are my favourite things of the 3^rd month:

LA Girl Strobe Lite in 120 Watt:

This is their brightest, most sparkly one. I bought it just to test and I can't stop using it. It can be a mute splendour or you could add more and more to go full glazed doughnut. Yasss *in Jeffree Star Voice* 

Left: Applied once. Center: Like 3 coats Right: Phone photo

Garnier Ultimate Blends Bee Propolis Serum:

My hair has been screaming for hydration. So after I pat my hair dry I apply this. It cuts drying time of my hair in half and makes it more manageable.

Monochrome Fashion:

Because of my bright pink hair a.t.m. there is such a thing as too mush colour. When I had normal coloured hair, especially blonde, I'd wear pastels or jewel tones. Lately I've been loving grey with black accent pieces like a bag or a shoe.

Sunny Anderson's Dry Dredged Chicken wing Recipe:

On any day I LOVE Sunny Anderson. She is one of my KWEENS! She works hard, has an awesome dream car, has rescue cats and dogs and is an all round BAWSE on HER terms. She has a lot of 1-2-3 and nunya business recipes. This one is no exception.

Here is the recipe I like the dredge in. Instead of adding multiple spices I add some of those premix spices like chicken spice or BBQ spice. It's not the mess that happens when you make a coating with egg or buttermilk and you need bread crumbs.

For the real (wink wink) Buffalo wing experience, melt butter/ marge and add an equal part hot sauce. Tabasco is what I have. I also love this with the Chipolte Tabasco which is more spicy than hot. Toss the wings in that. Eat forever.

Follow Sunny on Instagram.

Fitbit:

Wow really Michellé? Only now.

Yes. I really started using the whole Fitbit and app to it's full this last month just as the Charge is starting to come apart (And is now off the market). I've been getting my active minutes up, as well as using the food log (though they don't have a South African Food Database I select the UK because it has more options for meals I cook at home).

Can't do the wearable fitness watch. Samsung Health is an app that counts steps as well as log similar data to Fitbit. The app is preloaded on most Samsungs also available in the Google App Store FREE!

Instagram:

No lies this app costs a lot of data but I cannot stop. I need the 'gram. I need to see a cat thatcosplays with food and The Dogist. I need to stalk Badkid Bebe and the Girl Gang. I need to watch Michelle Phan's stories. I need to see Nayeon serve new looks and dog stories (Stalker level: I know she foster failed a Staffordshire Bull Terrier Mix, Gooby Potato). I'm following 507 accounts on my personal. I have a problem. They have a new function to their bookmarks that you can make like Pinterest boards. Bookmark all mermaid hair.

Monday has become my New Year:

Imagine having 52 new starts to the year. Some only pushes reset once a year and most fail immediately. Imagine to be able to reset more than once. Monday has become my reset. If motivation fades by like Thursday there is a Monday to start again. Monday I make sure I drink enough water, work out a little and eat different with Meatless Monday.

Better late than never

é

10 Commandments for Coloured Hair Care

I have had every kind of coloured hair. Box, Salon, Powdered fruit drink. Pink, red, brown, black, ombré, opal, platinum, two tone blond and brown, two tone purple and blue and galaxy. Many people wonder how I still have hair on my head.

Me, for now.

My recent hair experiment lead me to type up this blog. I am a mixture of Jeffree Star and Kandee Johnson.

Here are my 10 commandments for keeping hair on fleek:

Thou shall take pre and post hair colour care.

Don't wash your hair 24 hours before bleaching and 48 hours after colouring. What? You heard me. Not washing before colouring makes sure that the hair gets less damaged. It's protected by it's oils. Not washing afterwards make sure the hair colour bonds to the hair. Yes even though it's dried and you already carried on with your life, there is still sciencey things happening. Even if you just bleached your hair you must wait.

É note: If you are planing to get fashion colour hair. Be prepared to spend a while in a salon/ bathroom. My galaxy hair took me 5 hours by myself and the Barbie inspired hair took me 2.5 hours in the salon. It may take longer as my hair was already like a Level 7/ 8 on the bleach scale.

5 hours of questioning every decision I've ever made

2 and a half hours of thinking of the final scene of Barbie in Rock 'n Royals

Thou shall cleanse hair sparingly. . .

I had to “train” to get my hair to need a wash twice a week. Mondays and Thursdays. See I can even tell you the days. The more you wash the more the colour fades. Over washing also causes damage to hair. For days I just want to shower, I bought a more robust showercap from Dischem. Other days dry shampoo is your friend.

é Note: If you are going the lighter or full on blonde route, purple shampoo is a must. It tones out yellow and lessens brassiness. I also suggest to only use it after the second/ third wash because depending how pigmented it is it can tint your hair purple. Not ideal.

. . . and with grace

Here is where you have to read labels. Not all shampoos are the same. Sulphites causes colours to wash out faster. I use Tresemmé Naturals. It has a low SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) content. It's a basic foaming agent you get in anything that bubbles. Toothpaste, Floor wash, face wash, dish soap, if it makes bubbles, it's in it. (Queue those Facebook posts and e-mails with factoids telling us how bad it is.)

Then when you wash, ONLY wash your scalp and condition ends. You don’t need to shampoo your whole head. As you rise it rinses over the length of your hair, which cleans it. Also the condition only the ends and the length.

Thou shall not do excessive mechanical or heat damage.

Don't rub your hair dry with a towel. I squeeze out most of the water and just wrap my head in a towel. Let the towel do the work by sucking up the moisture. (Also make sure to use a towel that you wouldn't care to get stained. Though it would be a conversation starter if your guests ask you why the towels are tie dyed pink.)

If you have long hair I think that the Invisibobble type hair bands are the best. I don't get as many tangles or breakage with them as with normal or rubber bands.

I also stopped using a hair brush and opted for a wide tooth comb. I'm less likely to rip out my hair with it. It's also the best for combing out wet hair.

I also stared embracing heat free styling. I let my hair mostly air dry. If I have to, I make sure to spray it with heat protection before styling it. Here is an educational film by Guy Tang.

I also switched up my cotton pillow case for a satin one. Here is mine from MrP Home. I also found them to be better for my skin. They also don't make those weird sleep marks on your face.

Thou shall maketh time for conditioning . . .

Once a week I super deep condition my hair. Bleaching is damaging and if it's not treated it will feel like hay.

B*tch stole my look!

I switch up between natural and commercial. Sometimes I smear on some coconut oil. This I leave on from a half an hour to unlimited. When I clean house I leave it on for 8 hours. I also like castor oil.

Commercial stuff I like Garnier's Honey Treasures mask. Or just normal conditioner. I leave it is for 30 minutes and my hair feels great. Also try Palmer's Coconut mask. That stuff changes chemically damaged hair like a boss.

. . . And useth finishing oils

It was a trend so most oils were phased out. Luckily in ZA most women have ethnic hair and ethnic hair love the moisture oil gives.

I usually use oil after I washed my hair. It makes the drying process faster and makes my type A1 hair more manageable. Sometimes, especially more in winter, my ends feel gross and dry so I just work in some oil on the ends of my hair.

Thou shall nourish thyself for hair in future

Now not all of us get those free blue gummy sweets for our Instagram. #Spon #ad. But there are things you can buy for a fraction of the price. If you have a good Multi-vite you are already good to go but because I know I put my hair through a special kind of torture: Bleach

I like Vital's Hair, Skin and Nails gel capsules. They are literally available every where. Dischem, Clicks, Checkers, PnP and even on Takealot.com . If you want to take the vegan route try Natura'sCombin Assist tissue salts Hair and nails. They are also available every where online at Faithful to Nature.

Looks may be easy to come, yet decide on how thy display

I started a hash tag to group all my hair selfies. #Kyknoudiehare. It was two old ladies who obviously didn't think I could understand Afrikaans: Look at the hair. Like I'm not a person. I had people physically stop and stare at me with their mouths open. (For me weird hair feels like normal hair as my Instagram feed normalizes this for me. I follow A LOT of fashion coloured hair women. When I see other unicorns, mermaids, mermicorns I always compliment them.)

Because my hair to so bright, I tend to lean more towards more “natural” coloured neutral make up. I'm not really going for pastel Goth, club kid, Harajuku, cos-player look that is normally associated with fashion colours. Fashion hair with other excessive colours (make-up and clothes) can quickly look like a costume. Even my eye brows are still their normal colour.

If you are not doing the fashion colours and you do a change like from brown to red/ blond or blond to dark you still need to change make-up. When I dyed my hair dark brown after being blonde for seven years I felt like I looked weird until I got a darker brow pencil and got darker lip stick.

Love they hair as is discolours or fades . . .

And it will fade. But not all colours fade equally. Blue and green become muddy but purple and pink become a cool pastel colour but then the roots come out. * eye roll *

Here I usually enlist the help of Platinum/ purple shampoo. Recently, since I coloured my hair with it, I would mix some of Renew's Perfect Colour with it's in-box conditioner with a few drops of the colouring. That is then tones out some of the weirdness.

. . . and know the one that will who will assist when if fails

Let's say it's been 10 weeks, by then your hair is going to be looking pretty real. You need someone to make you come right. I tend to mess with my hair on my own because I understand the basics of hair and hair type science but we can't all be our own Guy Tang.

Come though for us Guy

Now and then it's best to get in a chair of a professional. Look for someone who suits your needs. I had the worst experience at a more high end salon where I spent a lot of money and just got treated like someone they wanted out of their seat for the next one. The next time I went I got second rate service from the stylist because she double booked me with a bride so I got stuck with a junior stylist who couldn't stop complaining about how the other juniors should be helping her.

At the moment I'm at a more old school stylist wit a two chair salon where we judge people who think they can colour their hair blonde in one sitting with a home kit. We also laugh at people who mess up their hair at home and she has to fix it.

If you aren't confident colouring at home, buy the colour and most stylist will assist you with application. They are trained and have the knowledge and the right tools for the application.

That is my commandments for healthy coloured hair. Amen to healthy hair.

é

Favourites: April 2015

I wanted to post more earlier but my dearest dog, Dory, passed away on the 30^th of April. I am still trying to deal with the loss. As soon as I can deal I will probably spam you with a bunch of pictures on a Chooseday post. Here goes my Faves:

Essence Lash Princess Volume Mascara

I saw this item on a display at my local Clicks for a while. But you know how it works. Michelle Phan used it in her video and I had to have it (Brainwashed by media much?) It's a similar formula to the Catrice All Round mascara and the cobra brush design help with a better application.

Johnson's Baby Powder

I have a formulation to write my 'favourite' blogs and this one is for hair. Yes baby powder for dry shampoo. Several times (I assume it's to do with hormones) my hair would get oily with in a day of washing, where I could always stretch washes to 3 days. I don't want to necessarily wash my hair every day. I would poof some powder on my hair and work it through.

Magic Art

I love creative apps. This app moves particles into different patterns and allows you to change background colours and the colours of the particles. I like the bright colours as well as the pastel. I would play around with this app before bed then I see particles when I close my eyes

Oyster Mushrooms

My husband and I usually go monthly grocery shopping together. We both like food. As we shopped by the fresh veg fridge (Say that three times fast!) he pointed out these alien mushrooms. The package claimed that it's the most harvested mushroom. IDK that's what the package said!?

This being something I never cooked I decided to take the simple approach. Melted a good chunk of butter with a bit of olive oil to prevent it from burning. As soon as it started bubbling I added my trusted Robertsons Mixed herbs (Can't remember with Food Network chef had that tip recently to drop in dry herbs to release the oils). Then I added the mushrooms, while boiling the fettuccine. When everything was cooked I combined and it was delicious!

Converse Classic Black and White

Now I didn't really fashion this month. Or for the home'd. But we are looking for a home, went to do things with my mother-in-law, bought clothes for my husband . . . a truly difficult customer. Meaning long hours through busy malls, walking through homes and complexes. I used my 'verse a lot. They are super comfortable and fit with most things in my closet.

Single serving pancakes

I have no images of me making this. I really felt like flap jacks or a pancakey something but I was one person on a week day afternoon. This was the first recipe that poppedup. So easy and delicious!

Something Free:

Taking photos.

With cellphones having cameras, photography has opened up to everyone. My phone's camera is so awesome I shot some of my blog pics with it and they edited very easy with Photoshop. Just go out there and take pictures. Flowers, animals, buildings, yourself. You don't have to share them on social media. Open a file just for images you took and like. This is my 'free' favourite.

Hope you try some of my favourites

é

Flower arranging

When I started this blog I want to teach you cheap, easy life tricks some make impossible or make it seem like you need a life time of knowledge to perfect. Decor, style, cooking, make up and other nitty gritty things people are afraid of because there are professionals in the field. I'm not saying you should learn how to rewire your house or bend and weld your car a new exhaust. Some stuff needs a pro.

Flower arranging is one of those things I feel that, if using your logical human brain, is easy. Here is my way of arranging a bunch of flowers:

My supplies are

Flowers

A Vase

Scissors

Bleach

Sugar

You can use any flowers in this arrangement I used roses. In the other picture I used a mixture of flowers in a standard bouquet. Now I know a lot of things like doing a minor service on my car and how to work my complicated tumble drier (I physically had to read how to use it. And friends who also bought one also told me how they battled) but I don't in general know flower names. I know like roses and lilies and stuff but I go for colours I like or what fits the room. Mostly the colour I like. You also don't necessarily have to use flowers. Some stems with leaves or even herbs can look fresh and chic.

Now vase sounds fancy. Like you should spend R200 on a container to arrange your flowers. I don't have money or time for that. Really? Like for real? I use a simple washed mayonnaise bottle. Ina Garten doesn't have time for that. She uses drinking glasses (See easy tips #50). Put that R200 or more back into your pocket.

To stretch the life of the flowers you can add one teaspoon bleach and 2 teaspoons of sugar to about 1 litre (4 cups) water. I mix it in with a chop stick.

Measure your flowers to your container. Remove all leaves from the stem that would be under the water line

Cut the stem to an angle for more surface area to absorb water. 

To arrange just use your natural mind of symmetry. We all have that. It works on the concept of 'If it looks right, it is right'. Use what looks right to your eye. With the height and colour. If the colour and size of the bloom does not look right, like if there is too much yellow or what, just move it until it looks right. Use what your eye tells you because it's a thing your mind does naturally everyday. Probably without you even noticing.

Place and Instagram that shit.

É tips:

• Check water regularly. The purple roses lasted a good week and a half so I had to refill the water a bit
• Buy yourself flowers. Fo' real. On a budget? There are some bunches for R35. You don't have to buy every week/ day or even month. But just do it.
• Don't stress too much about the arrangement or knowing the names. We use lipstick for blush. Blankets for throws. Linens for table cloths. Martini glasses for pudding bowls and bananas for eggs baking a cake.
• If you have extra leaves from a standard bouquet, layer it around the edge of the flowers.
• Remember to remove all leaves that would be under the water line. They could rot and become all weird and slimy in the water

Hope this let's you start having more flowers in your living areas. What's your favorite flowers?

é