Tag Archives: beauty

We hear a lot about the removal of brassy tones in blonde hair, but it’s not just blonde hair that can be left with brassy tones. So what is brassiness? Brassiness refers to the unwanted warm tones which can develop in dyed hair. It does typically happen when dark hair is dyed blonde, but it can also occur in highlighted, or lightened hair too.

Redken explain the brassiness process well;

To understand why this occurs, you’ll need to understand what’s happening during the whole hair lightening process. To lift dark hair, bleaching with a mix of ammonia and peroxide is usually a necessary part of the equation. When hair is bleached, melanin, a dark brown to black pigment, gets diluted in a process known as oxidation.

If you want to avoid brassy tones in your brunette hair, one option is to choose a cooler toned or neutral toned hair dye. They can also turn brassy, but they’re less likely than warm toned hair dyes. An easy solution for brassy tones for any hair colour is toner. Toner really can work miracles, providing you choose the right colour.

Using toner to attempt to correct brassy tones is sometimes known as being demi-permanent, and can help to correct any unwanted yellow, orange or red tones lingering in your hair. It is only a temporary fix, and something you’d need to use occasionally to try and keep brassiness at bay.

Blondes talk about the efficacy of purple shampoos, and the same purple shampoos can help brunettes too. Depending on the colour of your brassy tones, it’s recommended that you use a purple shampoo to correct yellow tones, whilst a blue shampoo will correct orange tones.

There are things you can do to try and keep brassiness at a minimum, such as avoiding direct sunlight and the pool, as the chemicals can create brassy tones. Whereas sun exposure can make your hair colour fade faster. You can also use haircare products which are specifically designed for coloured hair, as these products tend to consider brassy tones, and will help you to keep your chosen dyed hair colour for longer.

For some professional hair care in the comfort of your own home, enlist the help of a mobile hairdresser. An expert hairdresser can answer all your questions on hair dyeing and give your tailored advice.

Charlotte Tilbury is such a mega hyped brand with a great social media presence which has definitely helped boost the brand’s profile. I really like that Charlotte Tilbury has ten ‘iconic looks’ which are promoted on their website and on the counters, alongside the products required to create each look.

It’s a genius concept as it does make people more likely to want the collection which goes with their favourite look. I first tried the Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadows with the Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Glow Instant Look In a Palette, and it was love at first try so I’ve been dying to try more of her eyeshadows so I was delighted when a very special friend of mine gifted me the Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette in Dolce Vita as she’d read a comment I made saying how much I liked the shades.

There are at least nine different versions of the Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette to choose from, and I have the Dolce Vita version of the palette, which you can purchase individually for £39 or as part of the Dolce Vita kit for £80 alongside a mascara and eyeliner. There’s a tutorial over on the Charlotte Tilbury website showing you how to create the ‘Dolce Vita’ makeup look – although it’s now called the Bella Sofia Kit. Charlotte Tilbury recently renamed the Dolce Vita Palette as the Bella Sofia Palette but the packaging, shades and everything else haven’t changed at all.

“Darlings, my Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette eyeshadow in The Dolce Vita / Bella Sofia features luxurious copper-toned, bronze and champagne colours in an easy to use eyeshadow quad. 

• Get 3 fabulous looks in seconds, depending on the occasion and intensity you want!

• Each shade in the eyeshadow quad is full of colour-rich pigments

• The velvety soft formula keeps your eyeshadow in place all day.

• Ideal if you want an easy to use eyeshadow routine that will take you to any occasion.”

The Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette has such stunning packaging, but let’s face it.. the whole makeup range is beautifully packaged with an art deco theme of rose gold and burgundy which is now synonymous with the brand. The Charlotte Tilbury Bella Sofia Luxury Palette is a shiny burgundy plastic compact with a rose gold metal base holding the four eyeshadow pans.

The four shades are given individual names across the whole Luxury Palette collection with shade one being the “Prime” shade, second the “Enhance”, the third is “Pop” whilst the “Smoke” shade is the fourth. All of the quads have the same layout but of course you use the shades how you see fit, but I like the layout as it helps give direction on how the palette can be used.

Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette – Dolce Vita / Bella Sofia Review / Swatches

The swatches are as always, two circles in each pan with a dry fingertip onto dry and unprimed skin but I usually only have to one swipe of my fingertip but with this palette I did have to do more than one swipe for all four shades. I think this is down to how firmly pressed the four shadows are, but they don’t swatch very well however they perform a lot better when applied with a brush which is all that matters as we’re not going to wear eyeshadow on our hands/wrists.

The Prime shade is a very pale champagne shimmer, the Enhance is a shimmery reddy toned brown, the Pop shade is a chunky, glitter gold and the Smoke shade is a deep chocolate brown satin which sometimes almost looks like a khaki shade in some lights. £39 is expensive for four eyeshadows when you compare it to the likes of other brands with palettes around the £40 mark for 12 shades but the packaging is undeniably luxurious so it’s definitely a splurge purchase.

There are no mattes in this particular Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette so I wouldn’t recommend it if you prefer mattes over shimmers, but as far as shimmers go, they are flattering as they’re very smooth and don’t accentuate texture. I do think the Pop shade could be improved as it’s very chunky and prone to fallout, and I know the pop shade is designed to give a pop of brightness to the look but the texture isn’t the easiest to work with unless you’ve got a dampened flat eyeshadow brush or fingertips.

I only ever apply the Pop shade with my finger as I feel like it flattens the chunky pieces down for a more foiled effect, but the other three have a beautiful texture and colour payoff. It’s a very beautiful eyeshadow quad, and the packaging is simply stunning and whilst it’s not the best eyeshadow formula I’ve ever tried (the shadows in the Beauty Glow Palette are far, far superior) it’s still a quad I get a lot of wear from as the shades are so versatile and easy to wear.

Have you ever tried one of the Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palettes?

I absolutely love the L’Oreal Life’s a Peach Skin Awakening Blusher, so when I saw that L’Oreal had launched a highlighter within this fruit themed collection, I was sold. The L’Oreal Icoconic Glow Highlighting Powder has a bit of a tongue twister name, and it’s definitely not a typo even though it looks like you’ve just spelt iconic wrong. The L’Oreal Icoconic Glow Highlighting Powder is themed around coconuts, hence the ‘coco’ within the name.

L’Oreal Icoconic Glow Highlighting Powder

The L’Oreal Icoconic Glow Highlighting Powder launched alongside a liquid highlighter; the L’Oreal Glow Mon Amour Highlighting Drops in the shade 05 Icoconic Glow. This highlighter is available in just one single shade; 01 Coconut Addict, but I don’t know if there will be more shades added at a later date as this shade isn’t going to work for everyone.

“It is time to skip the snooze button and get up and glow, with the NEW L’Oreal Paris Highlighting Powder in the shade Icoconic Glow. The soft powder highlighter blends effortlessly onto the skin to enhance natural radiance with a prismatic champagne glow.

Complete your glowy make up with the luminous sheen which is the perfect finishing touch to compliment any look. This highlighting powder flatters all skin tones. This is the perfect highlight for your no-makeup makeup look! “

The L’Oreal Icoconic Glow Highlighting Powder is housed in a compact which is identical to the peach blusher, with a coconut shaped design on the top of the powder. This highlighter is £8.99 and contains 9 grams of product which is generous for a drugstore highlighter, but £9 is still quite pricey.

This highlighter is insanely difficult to photograph as it doesn’t impart any colour whatsoever. It’s the strangest formula / shade in that it just adds a pearlescent sheen to the skin for the prettiest glow but it doesn’t look like makeup. This swatch is eight swatches and you still can’t see it, but that’s actually what makes it so special.

You can apply it anywhere for a gorgeous luminous finish, almost like the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders. It’s marketed as being a highlighter, but I’ve been using it as more of a finishing powder to add luminosity to my skin. I can imagine many people being disappointed as it’s not a typical highlighter, but I love it so much and if you like a subtle, more natural highlight, it’s perfect.

You can find the L’Oreal Icoconic Glow Highlighting Powder right here.