QUICKIE REVIEW: Bumble and Bumble Spray Chalk

Bumble and Bumble Spray Chalk in Blush Pink

So, on my recent travels I tried out the Bumble and Bumble Spray Chalk in Blush Pink. My hair, if you haven't read before, is turquoise and darker blue, and pretty bright. I thought it might be nice to try some pink accents for a little change, so chose the Blush Pink colour, in the hope i'd look a bit like a living doll. 

It's difficult to review this positively from my point of view, but it's not a failure of a product, it's just not for me. You see, it's basically a hairspray, with holding power, that gives colour as well, so if you want to create a big quiff and hold it up with a flash of colour, this is your best friend. However, if you want to just colour the ends, which lots of girls want to these days, this is where your problems are going to start.

First issue I have, is it goes EVERYWHERE. It flakes off, getting on your clothes, which is annoying. Secondly, it makes your hair hard, and knotty, and dry. It's bound to because it's basically a hairspray, but it was really tough to brush out, and my hair felt disgusting afterwards. I wasn't a fan.

Personally, I would recommend this for a fashion forward up do, where you'd be using spray to style anyway, but if you just want your locks to fly free, this is definitely not an option.

If you do want to get involved though, you can get this for a rather pricey £15 from Bumble and Bumble online

REVIEW: Bleach London Washed Up Mermaid Hair Dye (Super Cool Colour) and rambling about Kurt Cobain

Bleach London Super Cool Colour in Washed Up Mermaid

So, I gave a heads up, and a rambling opinion about this brand Bleach London a few weeks back, and to be true to my blogging ways, I decided to buy one of the so called, super cool colours, to give them a go. Now, I would put up pictures of how using this dye turned out, but sadly, it washed out before I got round to it, but I will say that the above example is pretty much the exact colour you will get on a very pale bleached head of hair. 

The colours available from Bleach London are very limited, but they're on trend, with names referencing current trends, like Bruise Violet, which references one of my favourite bands from when I was a young teen, in 92, Babes in Toyland, imparticular their song Bruise Violet, seen below

Babes In Toyland - Bruise Violet (92)

First let me have a ramble, I met Babes in Toyland, namely Kat, a few times when I was 12/13, she was massively messed up but obviously really cool. It kind of irritates me that loads of kids love this band now, just because they weren't massive then by any stretch of the imagination, and suddenly they're being ripped off wholesale by so many bands now, and girls who have NO belief in what these Riot Grrrl bands stood for, it's just a fashion thing. Dickheads. Appropriating a culture to sell hair dye is  bit weird too....but then again, Marc Jacobs appropriated the grunge thing in 92, and somehow found a way to sell raggedy plaid shirts and ripped jeans and army surplus boots for hundreds of dollars. Appropriation gets right on my tits.

And on ANOTHER rant, I bought Company High Street Edit this week, and in the center pages covered kids that dress like their famous parents. Anyway, on this page they had photoshopped Frances Bean Cobain, linking arms with her father Kurt Cobain. You know? The man that SHOT HIMSELF IN THE FUCKING HEAD WHEN SHE WAS A BABY? Now, call me reactionary, but isn't that a little bit, no, VERY INAPPROPRIATE???

Frances Bean and her father, together, er, at last...

Also, i'd like to point out to the dickheads that write that magazine, that 'Papa's playlist' is massively WRONG. Soundgarden weren't liked by the cool kids, certainly not Kurt, Doll Parts was on the album that although he was alive when it was written, he was dead by the time it came out (I saw Hole play a couple of months after Kurt took his life, it was a horrid, attention seeking, disgustingly wrong mess) and er, he probably wasn't listening to In Bloom, off an album he came to despise. I won't sound like a total Nirvana geek, although I do know the bands he talked about loving in the press, often to Everett True, but remembering the day Kurt took his life, I was at a guitar lesson (I gave up quickly, I am bad at learning) and my best mate called me and said 'don't kill yourself, I don't know if I can remain strong' and I was like 'er, I loved the band, but I didn't know the guy!'. I had bought tickets to see them at Brixton academy (yes, they weren't massive enough to play bigger venues i'm afraid) and I went and got a refund and used the money to go and see PWEI instead. Nothing was precious! I'd actually got sick of the Nirvana fanboys and had given away all my albums that I had on cassette to kids in the year below, including the really rare stuff like the double A side with Jesus Lizard. 

Shit. I'm meant to be reviewing the dye aren't I?

Basically, the dye is easy to use, its thicker than your average Crazy Colour, or Manic Panic, so you can chuck it on your hair with your hands and it won't run all over your neck. The colour is basically the colour you see in the example above, spot on, but it washes out REALLY quickly. It's an on trend colour, it works well, it is conditioning, and it's not TOO pricey, but frankly, I would rather use a dye from a well worn company who have been doing these colours for years, mix it with a conditioner or pastelizer, I mean, Crazy Colour do one for less than a fiver, and you then save tons of money in the long term, because you just need a drop of strong colour, mixed with your chosen mixer, and it'll probably last the same amount of time! What Bleach do is take the work out of it for you, if you want a surefire colour result thats easy to use and washes out pretty quickly, then give it a go. 

I'll update with a picture of the result when I've faded my bubblegum blue by Crazy Colour. 

You can pick up Washed Up Mermaid by Bleach for a fiver at selected Boots. 

NEW (and desired): L'Oreal Professional Hair Chalk

GIRLS! I HAVE A HARD ON FOR HAIR CHALK!!! I am mega serious. I WANT THIS AND I WANT IT NOWWW!!!

I may have mentioned before, I have blue hair. Starts off dark blue at the root and goes through to a turquoise shade at the bottom. I'm sorry to offend the many ladies of the uk but I'm a dip dye hater. Specifically the natural blonde with the pink or whatever colour ends. It looks rank. Colour is there to be enjoyed, putting two colours together that don't compliment just feels like a waste.

Enough of my prejudices though. ON TO THE PRODUCTS!

This is what the heroes at L'Oreal have to say.

"Right now, brightly-coloured hair is bang on trend. From the editorial take on the catwalk to the super wearable street-style hairstyles, we’ve been seeing coloured ombré everywhere. The NEW Hairchalk range from L’Oréal Professionnel is our perfect product to achieve the look. With five flashy colours and three sophisticated shades, you can achieve a great multi-coloured mix of  hairstyles either at home or in your salon."

Now, I have never used the traditional hair chalks you'll find in the high street stores. They're not strong enough to do anything to the colour I already have all over my head, and generally if I want a colour in my hair I just do it. I've gone from luminous orange to pink, to purple and pink, to blue and pink and now turquoise in the last year. I love colour. I don't feel like me if i'm not peacock like about the hair.

So what's so amazing and got me so excited about these hair chalks?

There's an example below....

Do you see? The nice lady has DARK brown hair, and they've applied the chalk (which is actually a liquid) and it has completely covered her dark hair colour!!! Not only this, but the hair isn't a nasty clogged up mess that will transfer everywhere and go all hard and stiff. It moves! It's free like the wind!

Look! You can paint BLONDE over DARK BROWN!? Do you see now how amazing the possibilities of this product are!? Sorry for all the punctuation crazy but seriously, this is amazing. You can go mental on your hair without having to bleach it, or use straighteners to boil it into your hair and damage it horribly. You can paint on colour and do whatever the hell you like.

The colours available will be...

First Date Violet, Sweet Sixteen Pink, Blue Ocean Cruise, Coffee Break, Red Carpet, Black Tie, Garden Party and Bronze Beach.

Personally i'm going to go bare crazy with Garden Party like below...

STUNNING.

So. How do you use these cheeky tarts?

The L'Oreal Hairchalk and Applicator gives hair a temporary yet fantastic hair transformation. The paint on colour, in garden party, works on both light and dark hair and applies easily with the built in applicator. Colour will last for up to two washes and is stain resistant. The highly pigmented liquid gives a natural look and dries quickly once applied. - R.K.

Directions for Use:

• Use the applicator to apply the chalk to the desired sections of hair
• Allow to dry
• The colour washes out in two washes

ARE YOU KIDDING? So basically I can paint this on, with given tool, it dries quickly and is STAIN RESISTANT?

I swear, if you knew my ex girlfriend, and what she looked like (even more peacock like than I) I'd have had a field day painting this all over her head, with the added bonus of not burning her scalp with bleach because of constant changes (she went from purple to yellow in one sitting, it was painful).

The best news? You can buy it NOW NOW NOW BABY!

It's available at Look Fantastic for a mere £15 a bottle (spensive but so essential) and as soon as I have some money, i'm going to be going paintbrush crazy with this shit. Trust.