Hair Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Conversations through the middle

Beauty round-up – nails, face and hair

July 9, 2012

New gel polish brand Belle Gel has launched a kit designed to give you salon perfect nails at home. This handy product contains everything needed to create beautiful, high-shine nails in 12 on-trend colours.

I was at the launch of Belle Gel so heard about the kit first hand from company founder Susan Tompkins and I was impressed by her obvious dedication to her product. It was six years in development and has just gone on sale via the Belle Gel website.

While application obviously takes longer than when using a regular nail varnish, it is not complicated and the results can last up to two weeks. The kit comes with a UV lamp for curing or drying the nail colour, as well as cleanser for preparing your nails, primer, gel remover, brush, cuticle pen and nail file. There’s also one colour included – deep red – to start you off and I bet you won’t be able to resist buying others. I particularly like the Midnight Blue and Mocha shades, and the Burnt Orange would look great on holiday with a tan.

I can’t wait to create a gel manicure at home and I’ll report back on how it goes. In the meantime though you can find out more here.

Boots 17 is gearing up for the festive party season with the launch of Dazzle The Night, a limited edition collection full of shimmer and sparkle.

I love the Shimmer Rocks – frosty pink and pearl nuggets that you apply as blusher or simply swirl over your face for an ethereal glow. There’s also Wishing Star and Glimmer in the Night – they sound like they should be rock songs, but they’re actually nail colours that are full of party sparkle. The collection is on sale from the end of November.

Also from 17, the Smokey Eye Palette is spot on for creating that dramatic come hither look that has been around a while, but shows no sign of disappearing and is perfect for parties.

The new Colour Radiance collection from Dove promises to help keep dyed hair looking good for longer. As someone who has to colour her hair (thanks to genes from dad’s side of the family – he was grey by the time he was 23), I’m really pleased to see an affordable range of products to use at home.

I have to colour my hair every six weeks or so and it is difficult to keep it looking shiny after the first few days, so anything that helps keep that glossy, happy feeling has to be good. I haven’t tried the products, but there are four in the range – shampoo, conditioner, intensive conditioner and leave-in conditioning and care spray. They all contain something the company calls colour revitaliser technology and it’s claimed, keep colour vibrant for up to 10 weeks. Colour Radiance is in store now.

Help support good causes with The Body Shop’s Dragon Fruit Lip Butter. Every purchase of the product will see a donation to one of three charities: Kidscape, BUAV, or People & Planet. The great thing is though, you get to choose where your money goes as there will be a voting box in each store, so you can follow your conscience as well as pampering your lips.

All of the profits from the lip butters will go to charity, through The Body Shop Foundation, which was set up in 1989 and has so far donated more than £19 million to around 2,500 organisations.

Lisa Jackson, the foundation’s CEO, says the product “is a great way to extend the reach of our global funding by reaching people directly”. She adds: “Through The Body Shop Foundation lip butter we can reach more grassroots charities with more money.”

Sounds good to me. They’re on sale from August.www.thebodyshop.com

The value of blogging

May 10, 2011

I’ve been reading a lot in the past few days about what blogging means to different people, what should and shouldn’t be said, whether you should allow ads or not and if you do, whether this makes you a good or bad blogger. I’ve also been reading about things I know nothing about such as ‘linkys’, which make me realise once again that I have so much to learn about the whole thing.
For some people, sponsored posts signal the end of grass roots blogging; ads detract from the experience and reviews, well, from what I can make out they are frowned upon too.

But I fall into the camp of opinion that says an individual’s blog is an individual’s self expression. If somebody wants to include ads, sponsored posts or paid for reviews in their blog then that’s up to them. As so many comments on the subject point out, nobody is forced to read a blog, if you don’t like a blog then don’t visit it.

For me, blogging is a way of writing creatively. I can comment on my life or things around me that otherwise I wouldn’t get to do. It allows me to explore subjects I don’t write about in my day job and it means I can follow my interests – for example, I love writing about beauty, skincare, hair and general fluffy stuff. I do get to write about that stuff in my work life, but not as much as I’d like.

When it comes to product reviews, I say what I think of any product I’m reviewing. I’m not paid by PRs to post, I do so because I love products, and beauty, and skincare (see above). If anything, blogging generates PR leads for me, keeps me in the loop about new services, products and launches valuable for possible freelance work that otherwise I might miss. In the same way, services or products or events I come across in my day-to-day work can prove useful for my blog. It’s all one big cicle, with overlapping areas feeding into each other.

I love to write, even about nothing in particular, which is why I love to blog.

Putting the colour back

October 28, 2009

Yay! Haircare experts L’Oreal think they have found the answer to grey hair. Researchers at the company’s centre in Clichy, Paris, are developing a treatment they hope will restore grey hair to its original colour – and it could be on the market in 10 years.

Patricia Pineau, L’Oreal’s Research Communications Director, says: “Hair is an enigma. It is a fibre, a material with physical properties. It is also a living organ that grows, greys and falls out.”

She continues: “When hair goes grey there is a progressive disappearance of the melanocytes from the hair. While there are still mealnocytes in the hair, there is still hope that it could be re-pigmented.”

I can’t wait. As somebody who started going grey in her 20s (thanks Dad!) and who hates the muss and fuss of hair dye, it can’t come soon enough.

Luxury haircare

October 16, 2009

Tigi is one of my favourite haircare brands – not least because the products smell so good. Their new S-factor Diamond Dreams shampoo and conditioner is fab, with exotic ingredients such as cashmere, Champagne, diamonds and pearls – I felt like a million dollars after using it.

Meanwhile, big hair is back according to the catwalks, and a volumising spray such as Bed Head Superstar Queen For A Day Volumising Spray, together with Superstar Blow Dry Lotion, will help you get a head for heights.

One of my all-time Tigi favourites is Bed Head Brunette Goddess shampoo and conditioner – because I am of course and because it smells of toffee.