The John Frieda Precision Foam Colour challenge: to dye my hair whilst the babies napped

What with my newborn, Kiki and a 2.5yr old crazy toddler, aka The Crazy Kid, finding time to get my hair colored at the hairdresser just isn't possible at the moment. In fact, it had been over 7 months since I had last been to the hair dresser. I have been finding more and more greys in my hair, which drive me mental. I am not sure whether other people can see them but to me they stand out like neon lights and I am way to young to go grey! I used to pluck all of my grey hairs; however, I am rapidly losing the battle and if I don't stop this habit I will soon end up bald! That meant that I was in the market for a great quality dye that would cover the greys that I could easily do myself at home. The John Frieda Precision Foam proved to be such saviour! I had about 2 hours in the afternoon where both of the kids' naps overlapped so my challenge was whether I could dye my hair in that time!

Before shot - hair is pretty dull

The instructions were very simple to follow and preparation was minimal. They dye had to be applied to dry hair so I washed it as usual in the morning but did not apply conditioner. To prepare the dye all I had to do was add the colourant in bottle 1 to the developer in bottle 2, which also served to be the foaming bottle. When the 2 chemicals were added, the solution had to be inverted 5 times to mix then I was ready to go.

What's in the kit

The mixed foam

I applied the dye to my roots first as covering greys was a priority for me. I would squirt a handful of foam then section my hair and work it into the roots. Once the roots seemed covered I applied handful after handful of dye until my hair was saturated and I literally couldn't apply any more. I have shoulder length hair and I could not get through the whole bottle. There was probably still another 20mls or so left so one box would be plenty even for long hair.

I applied as much foam as my hair could hold!

Once the foam was in I had to leave it for 25 minutes. In that time Kiki woke up, of course, so I had to go in and feed her. Even with all the bending and walking around the house I did not spill one drip of foam anywhere, not even on the baby (I think I would have gotten in trouble if Kiki ended up with a big dye stain across her face!). I also usually make a terrible mess in the bathroom when I dye my hair but not this time!

After the time was up I had to rinse my hair until the water ran clear then apply the condition supplied for 5 minutes and then rinse again. This entire process took me approximately 45 minutes.

I have naturally dark brown hair and the colour I trialled was 4BG - dark chocolate brown. The colour was perfect for me. Very close to my natural colour just warmer and shinier. I was super happy with the colour and if I want to stick with a natural colour this will be the perfect shade for me (though next time I might try one of the red shades for a different winter look). Once my hair was dry the first thing I did was to search through my roots to find a grey hair. I couldn't. They were completely covered. Having dark hair means that greys really stand out in contrast but there wasn't one in sight.

The afternoon after dyeing my hair it was very fluffy however I think this must have been because I hadn't completely rinsed all the product out. When I washed it the next day it dried as normal into my defined curls. So the dye left it in great condition - really shiny and healthy looking with complete coverage of greys.

Shiny new hair. You can't tell from this pic but
I can assure you there are no greys!

So, was I successful in my challenge to dye my own hair whilst the babies slept? Nearly...when I got out of the shower after rinsing the conditioner out I found out both kids were screaming the house down. I think Kiki woke up wanting her milky friends and she then woke Crazy, who thought Kiki was getting extra mummy time without him so he wanted in on the action. It took me about 15 minutes to calm them both down, then we were all friends again, although I was disappointed that neither of them commented how pretty mummy's new hair looked!

I will definitely buy this dye again. In fact I have already bought 5R - medium red brown - to try out next!. It was so easy to do at home that I was (just about!) able to complete it whilst my kids napped. There is no way I could get my hair dyed at the hairdresser in even a quarter that time so it is perfect for my needs!! Highly recommended for anyone who wants high quality hair colour but doesn't have the time or funds to go to the hairdresser.

Have you tried the John Frieda Precision Foam Colour. What colour did you go for and what did you think of it? What is your go to home hair colour?

Just a reminder that I am giving away two haircare packs, worth over $60 each, that contain the entire Tousle Me Softly range. Click here to enter.



All opinions are my own and I received no remuneration for this post. These products were provided to me by Beauty Heaven as part of their trial team.

Get Tousled with Herbal EssencesTousle Me Softly

I have quite curly hair so when I was given the option of trialling the range I thought that it would be perfect for me. Most days I want as minimal maintenance as possible - I want to wash my hair and be done though I don't mind styling when I am going out.


Tousle Me Softly Shampoo and Conditioner $5.95 each 300ml

The first thing I noticed about the shampoo and conditioner was the scent. It is described on the packet as being a violet scent but to me its more of a fruity floral scent but it is absolutely gorgeous - one that I would like to wear as a perfume.

I have naturally curly hair and don't really need to do anything to get defined curls. My hair is also a bit oily. I found the shampoo cleaned it really well, although I did need to wash it every day (though this is the case with every shampoo). It left it beautifully fragranced and soft, and it did not appear to strip my colour at all.The conditioner also left my hair beautifully fragranced and soft and completely tangle free, and really shiny. It did help to define my curls, but left them a little bit fluffy if I didn't put any product in.

All in all I was very happy with this shampoo and condition. I especially loved the fragrance which really lingered in my hair - much longer than other shampoo/condition fragrances. I loved how it left my hair really soft, clean and completely de-tangled. The only thing that I wasn't 100% satisfied with was that it did leave my curls a little fluffy - this wasn't a problem if I used product in my hair, but some days I just want to wash my hair and race out the door and when i did this my curls weren't as defined as I would have liked them to be.
This is ideal for people with wavy hair as it will really accentuate your gorgeous waves. It can still be used by those of us with curly hair, though I'd recommend also using a styling product to get your curls really defined and not fluffy looking.

Tousle Me Softly Spray Gel RRP $6.50 170ml

In the past, I haven't liked using gels as they made my hair look too crispy. I would always inadvertantly apply too much and end up that stiff slicked down rock hard look which I really hated. If I ever did have to use hair gel in moments of desperation, I would always mix it with water to get it to a more manageable consistency - so, this product being a spray gel meant that it was already one step ahead of tub gels as it was already the perfect consistency for me.

I applied it after I had washed my hair with the Tousle Me Softly shampoo and conditioner. I towel dried my hair, combed it, sprayed this through my still damp hair about 5 or 6 times, then scrunched it and let it dry. It left me with really defined bouncy, beautiful curls. I was actually really impressed as I was expecting the curls to still be a bit on the hard side/crispy but they weren't at all - they were beautifully bouncy and natural looking.
The scent is the same gorgeous fruity violet scent which is the most beautiful perfume for you hair.

I would highly recommend this to anyone with thick unruly curly hair as it makes it so easy to get your curls back in control and leaves them so well defined. I will definitely buy this again.


Tousle Me Softly Hair spray $6.50 236ml

The first time I used the hair spray I put way too much in (about 20 sprays worth) and it did leave my hair looking and feeling crispy. I applied it at the end of the day on dry hair before going out to dinner in a hope to reinvigorate my hairstyle but instead it left my hair crispy and just set in my dodgy end of day hair style.

The next time I used it, I applied it after showering on my towel dried hair. I simply combed my hair, sprayed the hair spray on (about 5 of 6 squirts) then gently scrunched my hair and let it air dry. I was left with beautifully defined, soft bouncy curls that weren't at all crispy but were soft to touch and they remained defined for the whole day.



Tousle Me Softly Mousse RRP $6.50 192g

The mousse comes in a fairly big bottle and is easy to apply - a 2 second squirt gives you a mountain of mousse to work with. The instructions on the booklet attached to the product say to apply it to your roots and work it through your hair; however, my hair already has stacks of volume and I hate it when I put too much product on the roots and they look crispy. So, instead, I washed my hair (with the Tousle Me Softly shampoo and conditioner) then towel dried it then combed my hair. I then turned my head upside down and scrunched my curls with the mousse, working it through the ends of my hair. It did leave my curls very well defined and they didn't frizz up or drop at all during the day. They did feel a little bit crispier than I would normally like; however, when I looked in the mirror they didn't look crispy and were still nice and bouncy.

This product would be perfect for those with finer hair that need a bit more volume. I liked this product a lot - it did leave my curls looking beautifully defined; however, I probably wouldn't buy it again but that is only because the spray gel is better suited to my hair type - so for finer hair wanting to define curls, definitely give this a try but if your hair is more on the thicker side you might want to give the spray gel a try instead.

If you don't have naturally curly hair, the mousse can be used to create curls. Apply the mousse to your hair then twist chunks of your hair around your fingers to create curls.

Of the three styling products, I found the spray gel was most suitable for my hair type.


Win the entire Tousle Me Softly range!

If you think that this range might be suitable for you then you are in luck as I am giving away two packs, worth over $60 each, that contain the entire Tousle Me Softly range. Click here to enter.


Have you tried this range before? What was your favourite product. If not, what do you use to define your waves and curls?


All opinions are my own and I received no remuneration for this post. These products were provided to me by Beauty Heaven as part of their trial team. The prizes for this competition were provided by Herbal Essences. All images are courtesy of Herbal Essences.

Win one of two amazing Herbal Essences prize packs

As I mentioned on Friday, I am back from procreating! And what better way to make a return to blogging than with a giveaway. The wonderful people at Herbal Essences have provided two amazing packs for my readers to win. You can wash away your winter blues with a luscious tropical paradise in the shower!

The Herbal Essences winter style prize pack is worth over $60 and contains: 

• 1x Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner from the Tousle Me Softly range
• 1x Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner for the Long Term Relationship range
• The entire Tousle Me Softly Styling range (mousse for easy tousling, flexible hold hair spray, tousling spray gel)
• 1 x treatment product
• A Supersized Set Me Up hairspray

  
These two ranges are described by Herbal Essences as:

Long Term Relationship range Do you love your thick and full head of hair? Ready to go the distance? To get long, satin-soft hair, engage every strand in a long term relationship with a fusion of red raspberry and Brazilian silk. help protect against damage and split ends when you use our shampoo and conditioner enriched with hydro-activated silkening ingredients and split-end protector. go ahead, you grow your hair as long as you dare.

Tousle Me Softly range embrace your softer side with perfectly imperfect, wavy hair. layer our products together for soft, tousled waves that beg to be touched—not that they need to beg and hey, since we work well together to create one luscious look, it’s almost mistake-proof!

How to enter

Firstly, you must follow my blog either by Google Friend Connect, email or Facebook. Then post a comment with either your best hair tip or a funny hair related story.

I will choose one winner based on the comment I like the most.

The second winner will be randomly selected using www.random.org. If you really want to enter but have no good hair tips or stories then simply write 'pleeeeeeaaaaasssse enter me!' and you will go into the random draw!

Entry is open to Australian residents only and will be drawn at 8.30pm on Sunday 17th June.

Good luck!


All opinions are my own and I received no remuneration for this post. The prizes for this competition were provided by Herbal Essences.

25% off Yaby, Make Up For Ever, Mario Badescu and many more

I just thought that I would give you a heads up on an amazing sale if you haven't already heard about it. Makeup and Glow are holding one of their famous sales and are offering 25% off their entire range of amazing brands including Make Up Forever, Yaby, Mario Badescu and many many more.

I have shopped from Makeup and Glow twice and both transactions were a dream. I had a complete inability to apply foundation well so purchased a Beauty Pod (which I describe here); then for Christmas, after lusting after it for a year, I received the Yaby World of Pearl Paints 40 Palette (that I still need to swatch and review for you guys but see below just how delicious it is!).

After learning about the Make Up For Ever range from makeup legend Donna Mee I was so keen to try out the range at IMATS last year; however, the crowds at the stand were insane so I only walked away with two of the aqua eyeliners. Now there is a much easier (and calmer) way to purchase the range!

In addition, the Mario Badescu range was the only thing that helped to heal the hormonal acne I suffered from when pregnant with The Crazy Kid.

To get your 25% discount, all you have to do is enter the code SALE into coupon code box - see below for instructions. Be quick as the sale ends on Tuesday 5th June and items are already selling out fast.

Have you bought anything from the sale? If so, what did you get or what was on your wish list?


All opinions are my own and I received no remuneration for this post. All images used in this post are courtesy of Makeup and Glow.

Introducing Kiki

As you may have noticed I have been very quiet for the last couple of months. Well, I have been busy procreating! Our beautiful daughter, Kiara Isabel (who has already been nicknamed Kiki), was born on 30/4. All is going really well. So far she is incredible chilled out, only ever crying when she wants to catch up with her milky friends again! The Crazy Kid seems to like her, though whether he shares his makeup collection remains to be seen!

I hope to get back into blogging  more regularly as I found it to be a wonderful outlet from the kids! I have a tonne of reviews to share of products I was sent throughout my pregnancy that I was unfortunately just to tired to write about. Fingers crossed Crazy and Kiki are kind to me and don't leave me too tired to write!

As a welcome back to blogging I will be hosting a giveaway this weekend, so check back on Sunday for the details.

Here are a few happy snaps on our new edition!

Fresh baked bub (the moment was ruined seconds later with me
vomitting everwhere - damn anaesthetic!)

The only photo we have managed to get with both Crazy and Kiki in it!

Looks like she loves baths as much as her mum does!

Hopefully Kiki does plenty of this so I can keep up with my blogging!

So, what products would you like to see Kiki reviewing in the near future??!!

Toot Toot! All aboard the Shellac bandwagon

On the weekend I lost my Shellac virginity. I know, I know...it has been around for ages, I just hadn't managed to try it. I can be a tad stingy at times, so the thought of dropping around $100 (that is what I imagined that it cost!) to get my nails done seemed a tad excessive - I could get 5-10 bottles of nail polish for that price. However, it seemed that all the Shellac stars were aligning on the weekend and I was to be a Shellac virgin no more.

It all started the other night when I was lying on the couch. My husband happened to glance over at my feet and exclaimed:

'Holy sh*t! Your toenails are weapons!'

'I know' I sighed back. 'I can't reach my feet to cut them anymore' (I am 36 weeks pregnant so bending over, and breathing at the same time, is a skill I am no longer able to perform.

'Can you cut them for me?' I whined?

'F*ck off!' was his response (now before you judge him I must tell you that he has a serious foot phobia - he even hates his own feet - so I was sh*t stirring when I made that request!). He then followed up with the most wonderful words ever, 'Can't you pay someone to do it for you?'.

So, with the green light to go and get some pampering done, I started planning. I was just going to hit one of those nail bars sometime next week, a simple pedi was all I really needed. But, luckily for me, the Shellac gods were smiling. As I walked down to Thomas Dux to pick up some fruit for the Crazy Kid's post swimming lesson snack I happened to walk past a beauty salon that had a sign in the window:

Special - Shellac Manicure - $20

Wow! That was a heck of a lot cheaper than I was expecting and it caused me to make a sudden detour, much to the annoyance of a hungry Crazy Kid. 'How much is your Shellac pedicure?' I enquired. '$45 for the spa pedicure'. SOLD! I straight away booked in for a Shellac pedi the next morning.

When I got there they asked if I'd like a manicure as well - at $20 it was impossible for me to say no! Plus, whenever I get pregnant my nails become terrible and they start to peel like crazy. I usually have nails that are as hard as steel, so this is quite annoying for me. I suffered from morning sickness terribly in both pregnancies so my theory is that my body has to divert precious nutrients away from non-essential areas, such as my nails.

I decided to go for a subtle colour on my finger nails. Usually I will have the brightest nail polish imaginable. However, I know my life is about to get crazy and that I won't have time to remove the Shellac, so I didn't want to have trashy looking chipped nails for months on end. Instead, they will just have to be subtly trashy! Since my toe nails grow so much slower, and my thongs are about to go into hibernation in favour of sneakers thus allowing me to conceal any trashy chipping or regrowth for a good 3 or 4 months, I decided to indulge my love of brights. What do you think of my choices?

For anyone who hasn't heard of Shellac, it is a brilliant nail polish system by CND that gives you chip free nails for at least 14 days. Firstly, your nail is prepped to remove any bumps and completely smooth them out, then the CND Shellac base coat is applied. This is then cured with a UV lamp. Two coats of your chosen colour are then applied, and again each coat is UV cured, before a final top coat is applied and cured. When you leave the salon your nail as are completely dry so the mani or pedi can't be accidentally wrecked. The results, to me, look like acrylic nails; however, the polish can be removed with acetone without damaging your nail. Apparently, you can even apply normal nail polish on top of your Shellac manicure and your normal polish will last 14 days without chipping.

I am stoked with the results. My nails look better than they have in a long long time. The finish is so glossy that the polish looks wet. I definitely will be Shellacing again!

If anyone lives in or near the Lane Cove area (about 10 mins away from Chatswood, Sydney), I got my nails done at A Beauty, Shop 22, 45 Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove 2066 (in the Lane Cove Plaza). It's not the flashest looking place, in fact it looks a tad dodgy; however, the results were fantastic. If you don't live near Lane Cove then most good nail salons should offer Shellac.

Have you Shellac'd? If so, what were your thoughts on it? Do you have an awesome salon you can recommend?

Bloom Leap Day sale: 40% off between 9.00-11.00am

Another top Australian company having a Leap Day sale is Bloom Cosmetics. The image below will have all the codes you need to get your massive discounts!

Bloom products are gorgeous. I have been using them on and off since they first hit Myers (back when they used to sell candle and soap making kits!) but I particularly love their nail polishes (previous reviewed here). They are such good quality and the have an amazing array of colours - over 80 - so, at nearly half price now is a great time to stock up. But get in quick - the 40% discount is only until 11.00am, then it drops to 30% (still a bargain though!).

I have now told you about 2 Leap day sales - Bloom and Pod Puraceuticals. If I come across any more I'll make sure to update here ASAP!


I have no affiliation with Bloom and received no remuneration for my comments.