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

Wedding Makeup Videos! Finally.

     I was a DIY bride only 7 months ago, and when I say DIY, I really did everything myself. Probably the thing I have gotten the most comments about from the wedding was my makeup. I figured I would share the look with all of you ladies. Whether you are looking to do your own makeup on your wedding day, looking for some wedding makeup inspiration or just looking for a full makeup look for an event, I hope you can find what you are looking for in these videos.

Here are a couple of pictures from my wedding to show the look in full wedding glory.

 

The videos are ready! It turned out to be so long that I needed to separate it into 3 videos. I think it's just over 20 minutes of video after I edited everything that I could out. It is an entire wedding look after all. I think it turned out really well though. 

The Colors I Used
EYES
MAC Shadestick in Beige-ing
MAC Shadow in All that Glitters
MAC Shadown in Naked Lunch
MAC Shadow in Espresso
MAC Shadow in Typographic
MAC TechnaKohl Liner in Photogravure
BedHead Shadow in Champagne (Highlight)
CoverGirl Lash Blast in Very Black
L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara in Carbon Black
FACE
MAC Prep + Prime
Aveda Tinted Moisture in Beechwood 02
MAC Studio Sculpt Concealer in NW20
Aveda Powder in Cream 01
Aveda Bronzer in Bronze Glow (Discontinued)
MAC Sheer Tone Shimmer Blush in Spring Sheen
BedHead Shadow in Champagne- as cheek Highlight as well
LIPS
Clinique Quickliner in Warm Raisin
Lip Balm

     I hope you enjoy this look and it gives you the help of the inspiration that you need!

xoxo Andi