Lush Henna Hair Dye Review and Q&A

Two months ago I decided to try Lush's Henna Hair Dye in Caca Rouge.  Way back when I started dying my hair red, I used the packets of henna you can get at places like Sally's Beauty Supply.  But I decided to try the Lush version because it has extra ingredients to help condition the hair.  As you can see it arrives in a bar that you have to break up.

Once you break it up, you then pour hot water over it and start mixing it.  This takes a while and you have to keep the mixture warm all the while, until it's the consistency of brownie batter.  Since I had super long hair at the time (more on that later), I used all the bricks and it made A LOT of dye (I ended up using about 90% of it)!  Next, I started putting it on my hair - and it was MESSY!  OMG, so messy.  Once you get it on your hair, you have to wrap your head up in plastic and then wait for about 3 hours.

Nice, right?

Then you rinse it out.  And this is even messier than the application, good grief, it took forever to get that stuff out of my hair and my shower looked like I had potted plants in it all day long.  But once I got it all out, my hair felt great and I got a nice red out of it.

Here's the color and my new hair cut.  As you can see I did a big chop.  I got so tired of having all that hair and decided to cut off enough to donate to Locks of Love.  I'm loving the new 'do and haven't missed my long hair for a second!

So what are my conclusions about Lush's henna?  I would say, if you want a natural, not stinky alternative to other at home color, then go for it. Just know it takes a while to develop and can get messy.  I wasn't 100% satisfied with my results (mostly meaning that I need a bit of a brighter red, it looks a little brighter in the photos than it actually was).  And I felt like it faded a little quicker than I remember my henna fading in the past.  Would I buy again, probably not, I don't feel it was $26 worth the effort.

Now on to the Q & A!

I was recently tagged by one of my bloggy besties Sheryl over at How to Make a Life for a little Q & A! Here we go... 1. What is your favorite season and why?  I have a tie and it's Spring and Fall, I love them because of their transitional nature. In Spring the days get brighter and nature starts "waking up".  In Fall I can't help but love that crispness that is in the air.
2. If money were not an object, where would you travel?  I would do a complete around the world trip, there are so many places I want to go and things I want to see.  I would start in Iceland and go from there!
3. What is your favorite Television series?  I recently finished binge watching "Breaking Bad" and it was insanely good, so well acted and crafted, it was sort of TV perfection.  As for my all time favorite show, I have to say "The Andy Griffith Show" it set the bar very high for all the sitcoms that came after - funny with heart.
4. Coffee or Tea?  Tea - iced!
5. What makes you happiest? Being around my friends and family (especially at the beach)!
6. What are three things you can't leave the house without?  Phone, sunglasses and lip balm.
7. What is your favorite topic to blog about?  Fashion shows, the trends, my favorite looks, all that stuff!
8. If you could be any animal, what would that be?  I honestly have no idea.  Maybe Karl Lagerfeld's cat - talk about a pampered pet, she's got a maid!
9. What is your favorite music to listen to?  Pop - Top 40
10. What is your favorite procrastination activity?  TV and Internet.  Pinterest probably is my biggest time suck...

Book Review - "DIY Dye" by Loren Lankford

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of the book for purposes of review. All opinions are my own.


I was kind of surprised when a PR rep for a publishing house reached out to me for a DIY hair dye book review, but then I remembered that this is one of my most read posts and well, I think I know why they contacted me - ha!  

DIY DYE by Loren Lankford $14.95 (also available at Amazon in hardcover and kindle editions)

But seriously, I've been dying my hair at home off and on for over 20 years. And boy, I wish there was a book like this when I first entertained the thought of dying my hair.  The book is written by Loren Lankford who is a freelance writer who has worked on magazines such as CosmoGIRL!, Cosmopolitan,  Entertainment Weekly, and Jane. She has an Etsy shop called Southern Dropout.  And yes, she still colors her own hair!

There's nothing crazy in depth here, I mean you aren't going to graduate cosmetology school by reading this, but you will have a better idea about what your options are for at home color, the steps you should take and what will work for you and your comfort level.  It's a guidebook more than a textbook, written in easy to understand steps and language.  And don't think she just covers "crazy" colors, she covers every color!  

I was so pleased that she covered henna, because I started out my color journey with henna and black coffee and have been toying with the idea of dying it with henna again (taking a break from the box color).  And with the information from this book, I'm going to do it!

She also covered dying with Kool-Aid!  My bestie did this in college and we could have used the wisdom in this book for a better method.  Trust me. our method of getting that color in her hair was ugly.  Let's not even talk about how much I would have used this book in college.

I was surprised how much I loved this book and how much new information I got from it.  I feel like there are more options and methods that I want to experiment with.  Hair chalk being one, I was a little intimidated and now I'm going to try it out.  After I get that henna on my hair - I just ordered this and will report back on my results. 

I highly recommend this book if you or someone you know is interested in learning more about DIY color options.  It's a great resource!

DIY - Souvenir Coin Magnets

Here's a pretty easy DIY that I tackled a few weeks ago. 

If you've ever done any international travel you know that you can end up with a lot of extra coins (the paper money you can cash out at the bank, but the coins, well you are stuck until you or someone you know makes a return trip).  Well, we had a bunch of coins from various places stuffed in a jar, so I culled through them to find the prettiest/shiniest/most interesting.  I then trucked off to Michael's and picked up some round magnets (I got two sizes, since I had some small and larger coins) and some glue that works on metal.  Then all I did was glue the magnets on the backs of the coins, let them dry and then they were ready for hanging stuff on the refrigerator!

It is such a quick and easy project and everyone who sees them loves how they look!  Plus, the coins aren't just hanging around the house as clutter, they are useful souvenirs!  Win - win!!

Weekend DIY - Cashmere Sweater to Pillow

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Thanks for all the well wishes last week!  I'm feeling better and ready to get this week going and actually ticking some stuff off my "to do" list.  One of the biggies on my list is getting the husband's closet cleaned out and organized (the man has more clothes and shoes than I do with most of it being worn out or just not used any longer).  As I emptied out his closet I ran across this lovely grey cashmere sweater.  Great, right?  Only not.  Because the darn front was chock full of moth holes (great).  Well, I just couldn't throw away all that cashmere, I put it aside and thought about what I could do with it. 

Ah ha, I could try and sew a pillow cover out of that sweater.  I had a leftover bolster pillow insert from my girls worn out chair we got a few years ago.   Let the fun begin!

The sweater before the cutting began.

Cut the sleeves off (to use later) and got the back isolated so the sewing could begin.

Folded the back of the sweater (facing inside out) horizontally to the top of the shoulders and started hand stitching (I don't have a sewing machine).  Just a quick and dirty straight stitch across the whole thing.

The bolster insert

Turned the now tubular back of the sweater so that the stitching is on the inside and pulled the tube over the bolster.

Since the tube didn't cover the ends of the bolster I decided to cut the ends of the sleeves off, use the widest part of the sleeve (from shoulder to about elbow) to cover each end.

Turning it inside out, I took the elbow side of the cut off sleeve and just gathered the open end and just stitched it together (again by hand).  Nothing fancy just so it holds together.

Turn the sewn sleeve part so that the stitching is on the inside and then I slipped the sleeve over both ends of the bolster and tucked it under the tube sewn earlier.

Then I just tucked the raw edge of the tube against the sewn sleeve caps and just stitched over it (again quickly and by hand).  I used black thread I had in my sewing kit.  Could I have gone out and bought some grey thread so it matched?  Sure.  Did I want to buy something for this project?  No. The challenge with this DIY was to use what I had on hand to create something useful with out spending any $.

Here's how it looks when the whole thing is stitched.  Not bad right?  We'll call it "charmingly rustic".

Here's the finished bolster on the sofa.  It's not perfect but it is useful.  And so soft.  If the cats or kid eventually messes it up then no harm no foul.

Have a great Monday!

A Little Friday DIY and Thank You's!

Is it Friday yet?  It is?  Oh, thank goodness, because it's been one heck of a long week playing catch up and miserable chilly rain with some thunder mixed in for good measure.  I'm ready for some sun and warmer temperatures - was it really just a week ago that I was sweating it out in shorts?  Welcome to Spring in the South.  Anyway, between my kiddo's barf sessions last weekend I tackled a short and sweet DIY.  I found these two remnants at Joann recently and snapped them up.

I had seen the nailhead corkboard DIY on Bryn Alexandra's blog amost a year ago and wanted to tackle it in my own home.  Since our house is on the market, I wanted to "neutralize" the inspiration board in my office area and make it seem more like art than a jumble of images that people don't really want to see that don't know me.  Here is the before:

 And here is the after (I decided not to put the nailheads on it because I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this fabric on the board when we move).

Now for the other fabric - I have a hand-me-down white wicker chair that have some pillows that just don't work.  So I just draped (for now) the fabric over the pillows to make it look prettier and blend with the room better - no one ever sits in the chair so it will stay nice and fluffy and in place.  It made all the difference in the world.  When we move I'll actually commit to a recover of the pillows ;o)

All in all, it took me probably about 45 minutes from start to finish.  Easy peasy!

Also, I've neglected a couple of thank you's for some recent giveaways.  Back in January I won a $25 gift certificate to ShoeClips.biz from the lovely (and super chic) Jessica over at Style Obsession.  Let me tell you I had F-U-N picking out my winnings - here's what I picked:

Lovely black chiffon flower shoe clips and some sparkly gold shoe clips.  I love them so much!  Shipping was fast and ordering was so easy.  Thank you Jessica!

Earlier this month, I won a $45 CSN gift certificate from the stylish Shea over at Bon Chic Bon Gastronomique.  I haven't spent it yet, but soon, very soon.  Thanks Shea!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

Favorite Post - I want this! - a trench with orange buttons

I’m currently on a family vacation - it’s actually more of a “staycation” with a few little jaunts here and there. So for this week, I decided to repost some of my favorite blog entries from the past. I’m sort of guest posting for myself – ha! If you are a long time reader, you may remember these, if not it’ll be like all new stuff! Either way, I hope you find them interesting and fun! See you back on 7/12!


I love when I spot a trend that you can incorporate into your life right now, perhaps with items of clothing that are already in your closet (and you can modify easily for a quick update).  This was one of those times.  Still loving it!  Originally posted 2/8/10:
I've noticed a small trend going on - trench coats with orange buttons - and I love 'em! 

Stella McCartney trench with wooden buttons - $847.50

Loewe Spring 2010 RTW

The good thing about this look (if you like it) is that you can either take the trench you already have (or just get an inexpensive one), hunt down some orange buttons and switch them out.

These I found online at M&J Trimming.

Hmmmm.  Turquoise buttons would look pretty nice too, or kelly green ones, the list goes on and on.  What do you think?

Images (from top to bottom) via The Outnet, Style.com, M&J Trimming