Oh man!

     I am sick. I've been sick all weekend but it usually takes me a while to admit it to myself. Yuck! It's just a cold but I slept like crap all weekend. 

     Hopefully I am feeling better by tonight, we are having friends over for dinner. And tomorrow my best friend drives down from Copenhagen with her husband and their 1 year old. I am really excited but I have a ton to do before then. So sorry for the meaningless and short post but I have a lot of stuff to do.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was great despite the cold. I won a Karaoke Contest on Friday. LOL.

Have a great week!

Hip Hop Horray! Hooo, Hay, Hooo! It's Friday.

     I feel like this week dragged on forever! One good thing this week, we meet some new Americans who were here on their house hunting trip. They will be coming back in a month for good, so it looks like we'll have some new friends. We liked them a lot.
     Last night we went to dinner with them at our favorite place in town. We have to share it with all the newbies (like I'm not still a newbie myself). It's an Italian place called Lo Studente. Delicious food. Their specialty is simply amazing. They have this huge parmesan wheel and they scrape cheese from inside the bowled out middle. Then they come from the kitchen with pasta piping hot, still in the pan and dump it in the cheese. Next they mix it around until all of the cheese they scraped off gets melted all over the pasta. Then they give it to you on a plate with the sauce on the side. It is heavenly!

Ali, scraping the cheese.

The cheese waiting for it's soul mate, the pasta. LOL

DELISH!!!

     Yesterday I promised to start updating the reviews of some products that I have been using for a while. Today I will do two, because they kind of go together. 

      I will start today with the Redken Real Control line. I originally started using the Real Control Intense Renewal Super Moisturizing Mask last Octoberish. I reviewed it here. I liked the mask so I decided to try the shampoo and conditioner. I bought the small bottles and liked those so before I moved I bought a liter of each of the shampoo and conditioner. Yuck!

     It has started building up on my hair. It feels so gross. It was fine at first but after a few months of use it really built up. I hate it now. Luckily I had some left in a liter of Aveda Shampure shampoo and a Color Conserve Conditioner, that I usually used on clients in the US. So I decided to make the change when I colored my hair the other day...

     Because I used the Malibu Pre-Color Treatment to remove the buildup off of my hair before coloring it. A product I actually had a contest to win. Now, this works. It completely removed any buildup that the Real Control had left on my hair so I was able to start with a fresh slate again. I will definitely be using my Aveda until the summer when I get back to the states and can pick up the new shampoo and conditioner that I ordered and sent to my mother-in-laws house. It's a product that I can't wait to try. Stay tuned to see if I like this one.

    

If I sent you one of these treatments have you used it? Did you like it?

Thank you all for reading. I really appreciate your comments and your reading my blog!

Love LoVe, LOVE,

Andi

The poll results are in.

New Same Cut and Color

So the poll ended yesterday, and the results were to keep the same color. The problem was that ends that were colored had faded so much that the red color I used to have was starting to show through. Also I was beginning to get some split ends. I am embarrassed to say how long it's been since I cut and colored my hair, but let's just say it has been since at least Thanksgiving Christmas.

So to freshen up my ends I used Redken Shades. It is my favorite color to use. I always use a demi-permanent color. The only reason to use a permanent one is if you are covering up greys. Otherwise demi-permanent lasts long enough that your roots need to be colored anyway by the time it has started to fade. Also it does almost no damage to the hair. 

I used

2oz 6N + 1oz 8N

The N series has a blue violet background that canceled out the harsh red and orange tones in my hair.

I only put this color on the ends where it was brassy in order to keep the new growth virgin. 

For the cut I only trimmed the layers, taking about an inch off.

I recently realized that I have talked about a few products but not done a follow up of whether I liked them or not. Next week I am going to focus on this.

 This weekend, if it doesn't rain, we might go check out Bamberg, the city with the highest concentration of breweries. Sounds like fun to me!

What are your plans for this weekend?

xoxo Andi

Spring is Finally here in Germany...I hope

     This being my first year here, I can only hope that the cold is gone and the warmth will stay. I love not having to wear a coat. I can't wait to see what German fashion is. In the winter, all you can see is the hair and makeup, which wasn't good. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt though, assuming the hair was messed up by the hats and the make up was skipped so it wouldn't get ruined in the snow and rain. Also, to be fair, I am sure, just like in the US, that the fashion varies vastly from one place to another. Who knows, they might have beautiful hair in Berlin.


     I know Spring just started but I am started to get excited for summer. We are starting to plan trips now. I know we are for sure going to the US in July. We'll be there just in time for July 4th celebrations! My favorite holiday.

     The other trip we are planning I am equally excited for. We are going with friends (hopefully, plans aren't totally set yet) to the Greek Islands, Crete to be more specific.

  Hello Beach. Hello Bikinis. Hello Sunscreen.

     I am so excited! Now I am in the market for a bathing suit and I need to stock up on my SPF's, 70, please!

     Now all I need to do is get my bum in gear at the gym. My husband is talking about trying out the P90X, so we'll see if that happens. He's a lot of talk. LOL I love him anyway.

Do you have any fun plans coming up this Spring and Summer?

xoxo Andi

This week I welcome back an long lost friend.

The Sun!!!    

I actually left the house in a t-shirt today. No jacket. In traditional Michigan Spring fashion, I almost put my open toed shoes on too, but then I thought I might be taking it too far.

Yay for Spring!

More thoughts on this tomorrow. Now, dinner at a friends' house.

Munich in under 100 Euros.

     Early Saturday morning we hopped a train to Munich, or München as the Germans call it. They have what is called a Bayern Ticket. This ticket lets you and up to 4 friends travel around Bavaria all day. It includes trains and public transportation in the city, busses, street cars, subways. Our travel total for the entire day was 28 Euros.

     Because we only had 5 hours to walk around before our train left back home, we ate on the go. At the train station we grabbed a couple of Bratwurst and started walking. A luxury of living in Germany. A delicious lunch for under 6 Euro, all together.

     We picked the perfect day to go. Das Wetter war schön, die Sonne gerichtet. (Are you impressed yet?) It was the first day we could walk around with out coats on all year. We had upper 50's to low 60's all day. It was beautiful.

Walking up to Schloss Nymphenburg

     We took the street car over to Schloss Nymphenburg, the castle, and spent sometime walking around the grounds. I can only imagine how beautiful they will be in a couple of weeks once the flowers start bluming. The castle grounds are huge. It was full of people and dogs enjoying the beautiful weather.
     This is completely free of charge to do. I saw a lot of people doing an afternoon run or bike ride around the grounds. I am totally jealous. I would love to have such a beautiful area to run or bike in everyday.

We even let Georgia run around with out her leash. She had fun.

Swans in the pond at the Schloss

The back view of the castle.

   
     OK, my husband is a total nerd. So we had to go to the Deutsches Museum while we were there. It is Germany's science museum. JP, being an Electrical Engineer, was most excited to see the section about power there. I actually have a cool video of an electricity show that they did that I may put up. We'll see, don't hold your breath. We had fun there too, but after about an hour and a half I was ready to go. I wanted to do the Planetarium there, but since the weather was so nice we put that off until next time.

The Aeronautical section of the Museum

 The entrance to the Deutsches Museum

We will definitely be going back in May, when we have a friend coming from the states. That time I think we will also stay the night in the city, in order to see more.

In my last post I mentioned a video I was going to put up, and I included a cute outtake from said video. Well, my husband so kindly pointed out to me that in the short outtake video that I look like I am pushing my chest out. He was right. LOL, I guess I get nervous about what to do with my hands, so I had stuck them in my back pockets. Anyway, I think I am going to redo that video. So I will put it up eventually, but not today.

I hope you all had a great weekend too. Did you do anything fun or exciting?

Bonus Post Today: My LOTD St. Patrick's Style!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe night. Please, no drinking and driving.

We are going out with some friends tonight. All of the Irish Pubs were full when I called for reservations so we'll be going somewhere else. The point of going out isn't where we're going, it's hanging out with friends. I am sure we'll have fun no matter where we go.

So I didn't want to cover myself head to toe in green, especially since I am doing a green eye, so I snuck it in with a scarf and Marilyn's lips. 

The scarf is from ATL

The jeans from H&M

The jacket is from Forever 21, and I have had it forever (for all of you haters)

The Marilyn shirt is a hand painted piece that I bought at an art fair in Atlanta

 Undies from VS, LOL

Please pay no attention to the state of my bathroom.

I had just finished doing a video and still had all of my stuff out. The video should be ready in the next few days.

Here is my makeup

Oh and here's a cute little blooper from the video I just did. My cat kept interrupting me, but in the sweetest way possible. Enjoy!

Have a great night! Thanks for reading and don't forget to look at my earlier post from today and vote in my poll on the side bar!

I'm stuck at a crossroads that I haven't been at in a while. Please help.

     I have no idea what I want to do with my hair. Color wise at least. For the last few years, I had everything planned out like a road map, but I have just reached the end of the road. I don't know where I want to go from here. 

You are all probably aware that I have been growing my hair out for the last 2 plus years now, and I don't want to do anything too damaging. So blonde is definitely out of the running. 

Ok, not my finest moment, but you get the picture. 

Right now my options are to either go darker, red or stay the same. What do you think looks best on me?

Here are pictures from a couple of different times that I have had dark hair.

Yes, that is purple in my bangs.

The Pros

Going darker a healthy option for my hair.

It's my husband's absolute, hands down, favorite.

It's super shiny.

The Cons

When I do eventually want to go lighter, it will be more damaging, but maybe by then I will be ready to loose some length.

That's really the only con.

Here are some pictures from my red phases. Surprisingly this is my most common phase but am having a hard time finding good pictures. 

Pros
I love red hair. It is to me the most beautiful color. I always go back to it.
While it's the most damaging of my options, it's still not that damaging. And once I get it red, it is just as healthy to maintain as the other options.

Cons
Fellow redheads please don't take this badly, but the redheaded girl is always the friend, not the star. I want to be a star. The positive redhead stereotypes don't work in my favor... I'm married. ;)
It's the most damaging of all of the options.



Now for the whole reason that I am lost as to what to do:
The color that I have now is so similar to my natural color that I could grow it out without coloring it at all. Why not grow out my natural color one last time, until I go grey and have to color it? (Because that's boring, but humor me)

Recent pictures of my hair.

Pros
The healthiest option, as it involves no color at all.
Very low maintenance.

Cons
Boring. Boring. Boring.
I do notice a little difference between the new growth and the previously colored area, but I don't know if anyone else does.

It is hard to be objective when looking at yourself. So please help me decide what to do. Which do you think looks best on me? Of course I am open to other ideas as well, but this is what I have come up with, in order to preserve the health of my long hair. I still want it a little longer. 

Now I leave you with some wishful thinking. It's gotta get nice soon, right?

xo Andi

I Hate Jeans Shopping.

   
     I love shopping. Styles change, my taste changes, sometimes you just want something new. But, if I could have one pair of jeans that fit me perfectly, and would last me the rest of my life, I would never go jeans shopping again. NEVER.
     I had found a great pair of jeans a couple of months ago. They fit perfectly, they were comfortable, they looked good (enough) on me. I figured they would last me a long time. They were NOT a cheep pair.
     Then couple of weeks ago, my thighs rubbed a hole right in the crotchal area of them. I was so mad. I don't own that many pairs of jeans because, like I said, I hate shopping for them. So my only other pair of jeans, is a couple sizes too big, but they would have to do. And they did, for a couple of weeks I wore only those and would wear some other pants when I was washing them, every couple of days.
      On the weekends I would go shopping for a new pair. The brands that I like back in the U.S. are either not here, or ridiculously expensive. Like, a pair that would normally be $150 there is $200-$250 here, easily.
     So I figured, 'Let me get a cheep pair here, to hold me off until I get to the states this summer and can buy a good pair.' That's what I did. This weekend I finally broke down and went to H&M, where I had already tried on a million and a half pairs of jeans on one of my many shopping escapades.
   
     I came home, after only spending 62 Euros, with a pair of jeans a shirt and a scarf. If you have read this far you probably want some pictures. So here you go. Sorry these pictures were taken by me, and I still don't have a full length mirror in my house.

Here are the jeans, a pair of skinnies, 39 Euro.

Here's another picture, my husband just informed me that the other one makes my legs look weird.

The shirt, and below a more detailed view. Around, 14.50 Euro

The belt is BCBG from last summer.

And the orange scarf. 7.95 Euro

It was the color that drew me to this scarf, but I had a hard time getting it to even look orange in the pictures. It kept looking pink.

Did you get anything good this weekend? What do you think of the top? I was debating taking it back. I am not sure I love it, but I finally decided to keep it. I am curious of what you all might think.

An Easy Up-Do How To, Part Two

Here's the video tutorial of the up-do from yesterday. I hope you like it!

I hope you're all having a great day!
xoxo Andi

An Easy Up-Do How To, Part one

     Here's what I am working on for tomorrow.

     We all have little events now and then that we want to look put together for. We don't necessarily want to go all out by getting our hair and makeup done for every little one, though.  It's good to have a few easy up-dos in our repertoire. This is a great look for you ladies with curly hair, btw.

Here's my go to up-do for such an event.

     When doing this video I was sad to realize that my hair has gotten too long for this look. I still did it to show everyone, but it looks much better with shorter hair.

So since I am looking for a new style myself: What is your go to look for a fancy evening out?

Ohhhhh Shiny! All you ever wanted to know about shiny hair, and probably more.

Let's be honest. We all love shiny things.

After all, diamonds are a girl's best friend, right?

 And, where would Lady Gaga be without a little bling?

     I don't think there is such a thing as too shiny, especially when it comes to your hair. I have never had a client say to me, "My hair is too shiny, can we tone that down a notch?" It is a universally coveted trait.

So let's talk about how to obtain this holy grail of hair. There are two factors that determine the shininess of your hair. 

The Color & The Cuticle

Why is the color important?

     There are two types of pigment found in everyone's hair. One determines whether you are blonde or brunette, and the other whether you have red or no red. For now we are just going to talk about the first one, because that is the one that determines the darkness or lightness of your hair. The difference between a blonde and a brunette is not in the color of the pigment in their hair, it's in the amount of pigment found in the hair.

     Blondes have very little pigment in their hair, where, the darker the brunette is, the more packed in the pigment is in her hair. Light bounces off of this pigment. So in a blonde, most of the light passes right through, where a brunette's hair bounces a lot more light back off. Voilà! There's your shine.

Q: I'm a brunette, why isn't my hair automatically shiny?

A: The cuticle.

     The cuticle is very important when talking about shine. The healthier the hair is the smoother the cuticle will be. Obviously the smoother the cuticle the more light reflects off of it's surface. 

So how does one get shinier hair?

     There are a few options all which involve color. What the chemical in any color does is opens the cuticle, deposits the color, and then closes the cuticle again. If you hair isn't super damaged the cuticle will probably be closed tighter than before the color. Which is why your hair looks extra shiny after coloring it.

If you don't want to change the color of you hair at all or are blonde:

Blonde girls there is some hope. You can get what is known as a Clear Gloss, also known as a Celophane. This will just close the cuticle down. It doesn't deposit any color at all. 

Color you hair darker:

Unless you have greys, use a demi permanent color. By darkening your color you will boost the shine there as well by sealing the cuticle afterwords. And demi permanent does little to no damage to the hair.

Last night, at the Oscars, Sandra Bullocks hair looked beautiful, and extra shiny. I loved her old Hollywood style.

So Sandy B's hair,

Brunette: Check

Healthy: Check

Colored: Check

     Whose Oscar style did you love this year? I didn't get to watch because I am in a different time zone. Tell me who else I should look up. 

Do you have any tricks to keep you hair shiny?

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

<3 Andi

Q&A with me

So since it's the weekend I figured that I would do just an easy Q&A post. Thanks to everyone for the questions. I feel like it's been a get to know you kind of week, at least in my blogosphere, so I figured I would participate too.

Do you miss living in America?         

I am really enjoying myself in Germany so far. I've been experiencing so many new things and meeting so many great people that I haven't had even a second to miss home. There are little things that I am starting to miss already, like, different foods that I can't get (they don't eat chicken here!), people looking you in the eyes and smiling when passing on the street, and, of course, I miss my family. So while I am not super home sick yet, I am sure by the time it's ready for me to come home, I will be ready. Right now, I am too busy being excited to be here, though.

Did you always want to be a hairstylist?

I did. When I graduated high school I wanted to go straight to cosmetology school but my dad told me that I had to go to college. So first, I went to school to be a Spanish teacher. After that I went straight to cosmetology school. I absolutely loved every minute of it.

Are there any other careers you would ever want to try?

I really love what I do but I think eventually I will try teaching. I figure when I have kids it might be better to have the same schedule they do. I plan to stay home with my kids while they are young though.

What salon did you work at in ATL?

I worked at Van Michael Salon, in Buckhead.   

How can I rock black eyeshadow without looking like I belong on the Rock of Love bus?

Did you ever get nervous when you started doing how to videos?

I am still nervous. Originally, I was nervous because I am not the super bubbly girly girl type, like some of the other youtube MUAs out there. Hopefully there are people out there who like me how I am. Actually, all of the nice comments are the only reason that I am still doing them. I feel like it's a learning process though. The more I do the better that I will get at it.

What is your favorite movie?

I am a big comedy fan. I would say my all time favorite movie is Office Space. I also really like Inglorious Bastards and UP.    

What color do you think you'll dye your hair next?

For the first time in my life (well, since I have been coloring), I don't know. I am really trying to decide what to do right now. It turns out that the last color I used faded pretty close to my natural color, so I am debating letting my natural color grow out. Just to see it again before I start getting greys and have to color it. If I start working, though, I will have to color it. So we will see.

Do you plan on cutting it anytime soon?

No way, Jose!

Do you think you want to become a mom anytime soon? :)

Andi, you and I really must be on the same wave length. We are talking about starting to try either after the summer or early next year... Fingers crossed. 

Do you have any non-F&B related hobbies?

Oh, yes.  I love cooking and come from a family of great Italian cooks. I am lucky to have that passed down to me. Still, no one can cook like my Grandma. I also love going out with friends, and we have been lucky enough to have met some great people here so far to do that with. I also love to learn languages. I am learning my third language now, here in Germany. I have classes 4 hours a week. I think French will be next.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

-Andi

OMG, There's a Man on my Blog Roll!

    

    

Meet Tomik Dash, Brandon, Ari, whichever!

This boy's got his hands full. He is a fellow hairstylist, a model and the writer of a blog called Vintage Clothes + Designer Drug. I discovered his blog the other day and it is a hilarious take on a fashion blog. I love and admire his writing voice. I find it very hard to convey humor in my writing and he makes it look so effortless. I was dying, DYING reading his latest blog post. Of course I had to share it with you all. I really think you ladies will like it.

Tomik and I used to work together at a famous salon in Atlanta. He was one of my favorite people there. He is as funny in person as in the blog. I can tell you first hand that this is one talented human being. Not to mention gorgeous! Are you blushing yet, Brandon?

Really, check out his blog. It won't disappoint!

     Ask me anything! I'm going to play along with Veronika, too. I am sure I will not get as many questions as she did, but I will also answer anything with in reason. I think it's fun to get to know each other a little more.

 Hope everyone is having a great day!

xoxo Andi

Spring and Summer Runway Trends

     It's March! The sun is starting to shine a little more. The snow has melted (at least here in Germany). Is everyone gearing up for another Spring/Summer fashion and beauty season? I know I am.

     I am really excited by a lot of the trends we were seeing on the runways for this upcoming season. Here are a few highlights.

A lot of the looks used very neutral colors,

like this look from Daniel Vosovic’s show. I love it, it's one of my favorite looks I saw on the runway this year. The golden and bronze shadows blend so well with her bronzed skin. It's really a beautiful look. I love the look of the hair from this show, also. Very undone, updo. Which was also a theme, but I will talk about that later.

Or this tawny look from the Cushnie et Ochs show.

Another popular look this year was barely there makeup. It was done in one of two ways. Truely, nude looking, like this look from Tankoon.

 

Or a bare face with one bold feature.

It was a great plum lip at Peter Som.

A striking cat eye at Devi Kroell

Or, my personal favorite of all of the trends this season, the bare face with bold lashes, seen at Marc Jacobs. 

The past few years, François Nars (founder of Nars), has borrowed the more dramatic looks of the 80's and Japanese geishas. This year he toned it way down to this beautiful look, that perfectly sums up the look of the season.

You've heard it before, bigger is better. That was definitely a theme this year, along with the messier the better it seems. All of the looks were messy-done. A perfect oxymoron. They were thrown up, a purposeful mess. I love it.

 Here's the look again from Daniel Vosovic.

 This look, from the Adam show. 

There was also a lot of loose texture and messy waves. 

Some big beautiful hair from DVF.

In order to include some of these into my look for the upcoming spring/summer season, I snatched a couple of new shadows yesterday. One is the new spring color forecast palate, in color 4, from MAC.

 I also got a new shade from Bobbi Brown called Champagne.

I am on a kind of vacation right now. I am crashing in on JP's business trip to Frankfurt. So I haven't even tried the colors yet. For the next week I am going to be replicating some of the great looks. I will keep you updated!

If you want to check out some of my pictures from this visit, check out my other blog. I actually am going to post them right after I post this, so if you look and they aren't there yet, just give me a few minutes!

So what do you think of the upcoming trends for the season? Are there any in particular that you are going to be getting some good use out of? Do you have either the MAC palate or the shadow that I just bought? If so, what are you thoughts on the colors?

Have a great day!

xoxo 

Andi