Introduction

Hi there!
I feel like starting blog by doing some sort of introduction of not only myself but also how I got into makeup and hair coloring. I don't joke when I say makeup is my lifestyle. I can spend an entire day just doing makeup and feel super exhausted afterwards but the feeling of joy during and after the work is explainable.
I can't even really pin point when it was when I got interested and fully immersed in the world of makeup. My mom was never some kind of connoisseur but she always had this beautiful range of lipsticks and her makeup always looked very IN. However she was not a fan of letting me wear makeup during my teen years. I got away with wearing eyeliner and little mascara from the ages of 13 to 15.
It was when I was 15 that I started using YouTube to find makeup tutorials. I was really into using bright colors and making my eyes bigger. It was around that time that I found the scene styles and gyaru styles. I somehow managed to try to mix them together by having big dolly eye makeup and black, overly teased hair.
By the time I was 16 I was going through some tomboy/short hair/loose clothes situation where I still wore makeup but enjoyed disguising myself to look less feminine clothing-wise. It was a weird time but for whatever reason I felt comfortable explaining to people that I just wanted to dress that way. Gender roles have never been my thing.

I was 16 and in some loose variation of my school's uniform. Makeup was eyeliner and neutral eyeshadows.

It wasn't until I turned 17 that I decided to go blonde and get more into trying out gyaru fashion. It was also around this time that I started wearing foundation and learning about contouring.
I just realized this is becoming like a timeline and I don't really like that idea. Anyway, fast forward to me being 19 and many things have changed in my life. I went through most of my 18th year being a brunette (again) and it felt like such a detriment on my creativity. So one day I decided I was going to be blonde, but not blonde like I was when I was 17, which was a golden blonde. I want to be PLATINUM BLONDE.
This was going to be a bit difficult since I was full blown brunette. As in, it was a chocolate brown all over. I went to the hair salon and my stylist told me that I had to do it slowly so she gave me highlights and I was mildly satisfied. For about 2 weeks.
I decided to start doing some research since I had never bleached my own hair and I was planning on doing this all by myself since I knew my mom would not be willing to attempt it. After about 3 weeks of research I found a great step by step guide and a list of all the products I needed. The whole experience (2 bleaches and a toning) took me about 5 hours. My hair came out completely white, which was perfect, but my mother had a bit of a meltdown when she saw me and told me I needed some color in my hair. So we went to Walgreens and I bought the lightest shade of ash blonde I could find.
I kept my hair that way for a while. I really did like the super light blonde. However, I knew nothing about purple shampoo and it eventually started getting brassy and more yellow.
I had already been watching videos on how to lighten your hair and everything and I had found some videos on how to get your hair pastel shades and even a perfect white. I had decided to let my hair rest for about a month or two and then I would go in with pastel colors and whatever else.
I had never used any semi-permanent hair dyes so I did more research. Manic Panic was an obvious choice but I didn't feel like paying $12 for a tiny tub of dye. Instead, I found out about La Riche Directions and fell in love with the colors and pigmentation. Plus they don't run or wash out as quickly as Pravana or Manic Panic, respectively.
I found a great online store on eBay that sold them for the same price as they do in the UK and quickly ordered 3 shades, Violet, Carnation Pink, and Atlantic Blue. I had a bunch of different colors and mixtures and truly loved playing with my hair so much.

This was my first attempt at pastel hair. I mixed a smidge of Violet with lots of conditioner. My hair was still more blonde than lilac. This was the best light I could get to show off the color.

Probably one of my favorite hair experiments. I still call this my MLP hair because of great the gradient is and how much my hair looks like cotton candy. This is using all three dyes I had with varied amounts of conditioner.

For the most part I had my hair like in the two pictures above, white/gray with slight color variation. Whenever I used Carnation Pink I would end up with peachy blotches in my hair that I hated and would just cover with blue or purple and eventually go back to this light silver. My hair is also naturally curly and you can see in the picture on the left that my hair was left quite dry and damaged.
I had a lot to learn about hair care during this journey and in the end I think it was worth it. I would only wash my hair once a week with purple shampoo and a leave-in conditioner instead of a regular one. I used the Aussie one that comes in a purple tube. I also started using hair masks and protein treatments.
There's only so much you can do on damaged hair. It will never gets it's full life back.
I didn't mean for this to turn into a hair show but I don't have many pictures documenting just my makeup and in most of these pictures I have some kind of makeup on. I'll try to document my makeup better just for this blog.
Currently, my hair is 3/4 purple and 1/4 blonde. It's a transition I'm going through. I even cut off my dead ends so my length has been slightly affected. It will grow back and quickly too since all the processes I put my hair through don't really seem to slow down it's growth.
I did go back to being brunette in March. It was a mistake and a big setback for me hair-wise and style-wise, but I guess it did let my hair breathe and gain strength before I went full purple.
I hope this posts sets a good foundation for this blog. I will be using it to document my hair and makeup experiments along with whatever fashion catches my eye. I will be trying to keep this blog as free of my personal life as possible, in which I mean I will not be talking about what happens in my life that has nothing to do with these things.
Anyway, thank you for reading!