The Kitchen Spa

Did you know you probably have half a spa lying around in your kitchen. Nowadays brands seem to have an extra notch on the 'pro' side of our list making madness. But why spend tons of money on treatments when they can easily be made at home, in the comfort of your own kitchen.

Take the latest beauty wonder, coconut oil. The stuff and homemade beauty products are as thick as thieves. I can name countless uses, not even mentioning that cooking with this stuff is so much healthier than butter and olive oil. It can be used as a moisturizer, flyaway tamer, makeup remover (just make sure it's properly washed off). But I particularly love it in a mix with honey as a hair treatment.

Mix one tablespoon of each. It's a lot easier if the coconut oil is at room temperature, so take it out of the fridge in the morning when you want to use it in the evening. It's much easier to apply to wet than to dry hair. You can leave it for about thirty to forty minutes, or if you really want to treat your locks, leave it overnight. Finish by shampooing and conditioning like normal and you'll be left with gorgeously soft and shiny locks.

Honey can also be used in a face mask for acne prone skins. Mix three teaspoons of honey with half a teaspoon of cinnamon. They both have great antibacterial properties which will give the skin a good cleanse will diminishing redness.

Did you misbehave and does your skin now need a brighten after the weekend? Then a mask of banana and oatmeal will do the trick. Take half a ripe banana and a quarter cup of oatmeal, squash the banana to mush and mix with the oatmeal. Pat it onto your skin and let it sit for a good ten minutes, then rinse off. This is actually pretty similar to the effect the Lush Oatifix fresh face mask has. Similar ingredients as well!

On a final note, if you're going to try any of these face masks for the first time, please do a patch test on your hand or arm first. You never know if you're allergic or sensitive to any of the ingredients used.

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Going Ombre + How I did it

I have played with the thought of going ombre for so long, but never had the guts to do it. My regular hair stylist pretty much refused to do it and other salons were going to charge me ridiculous amounts of money. So I finally bit the bullet and bought a box of super plus blonde hair dye. After buying the dye I put it in my beauty cupboard and avoided looking at it for a few weeks. Safe to say the incredibly blonde lady on the front was scaring me shitless.

But yesterday evening, when I really should be doing schoolwork I decided that I did not have to wait any longer. The ombre had to go in right at that moment.

I used a drugstore bought blonde hair dye pack. I have been told that using a highlighting formula works better and faster. But that was just too scary.

Schwarzkopf Blonde Super Plus Intensive Blonde is what I used to achieve my ombre effect. My hair has been dyed before, but never bleached. (Beside the average hightlight here and there). And the only part of my hair that still had old faded hair dye in it were my lenghts.

I followed the directions on the pack to mix the dye. I wore the gloves that came with the dye and made sure I had a pair extra because I was pretty sure that I was going to have to bleach twice.

The first time I bleached it I only applied it to 2 inches from the bottom, making sure each strand was properly covered in the dye. I wrapped tin foil around my locks and let that sit for a good 50 minutes. The pack said 45 but after periodically checking the process I though it needed a little more.

After that I rinsed out the dye but didn't use any product in it. I blowdried my hair and reapplied the dye. Only now I coated the bottom 6 inches. I let that session sit for another 45 minutes. And boy was I scared. I was pretty sure that my ends would NOT be able to handle the second bleach. Imagine my relief when I took off the foil and rinsed it out and treated it with a deep conditioner.

The result is a subtle but nice ombre. At the moment I don't think I should take it up higher or go any lighter. This was just what I needed, because I was so bored with my hair.

What I am wearing on my face

L'Oreal Linda Evangelista eyeshadow kit, darkest shade in my brows

Garnier BB cream for oily/combination skin

Collistar Sun Effet bronzer in 08 Champagne

YSL Effet Faux Cils in Black

Catrice absolute color lipstick in Tell Me A Berry Tale (mattified by a loose powder)

DIY Drippy Chanel Logo t-shirt

Hey hey, lovelies!

I saw this amazing and super easy DIY on one of my favorite blogs The Londoner, you should definitely go check it out. She has the best recipes on there! I'm actually making her grilled chicken wraps for Easter.

This DIY is a Chanel drip logo t-shirt, or tank top, which is what I did. It's super easy, you can go fetch the .jpeg off of that amazing blog. Go on.. do it. Besides the print you will need

- transfer paper

- a light colored t-shirt or tanktop

- scissors

- iron and ironing board

STEP 1: Print out the logo onto your transfer paper

STEP 2: Cut out your logo with space left on the edges, this is to protect your logo from fraying once it is transfered onto your fabric.

STEP 3: Follow the transfer paper instructions and use your iron to transfer the image onto your fabric. Peel off the backing paper and let the image dry.

Once you are done, your shirt should look something like this! So fun right? A drippy Chanel logo all over your boobies! I can't wait to wear this baby around town. I think it would look great with some skintight dark blue jeans and a pair of killer heels. Watch out clubs, Kelly is on her way.

DIY Karl Who? t-shirt

I have always loved the 'Karl Who?' shirts and tote bags. And it seems that Karl himself likes them too because he was spotted sporting a Karl Who? tote bag some time ago. As much as I liked the print on the t-shirts available for sale, I just wasn't prepared to drop a wad of cash for a t-shirt that looked so simple.

Making this shirt was terribly easy. First I searched DaFont for the perfect paint-like font. Then I typed out the words in a Microsoft Word document and printed them onto transfer paper. I bought a very simple loose fitting gray t-shirt fro H&M, although it will look great on white t-shirts as well. I'm thinking about doing a white one as well.

Next, I alligned the printed words on the t-shirt, covered them in baking paper and used a hot steamless iron to transfer the print onto my t-shirts. And then you're done! I used transfer paper from the dutch store HEMA. I'm not sure if all transfer papers work the same, so make sure you read the instructions before you set to transferring prints and texts onto fabrics.

I really like this shirt and I wore it to my favorite bar on NYE. Paired with skintight black jeans and a leather jacket. My hair was really big voluminous and curly and I wore a silver and purple smokey eye. A little more intense than my New Year's Eve budget make-up tutorial. And of course I wore the wonderful sequined mask from my last post.

EDIT: As an anonymous commenter pointed out, I forgot to mention something important. It's key that if you're printing texts onto transfer paper, you should always print text mirrored. If you don't it will be backwards on your final result. So thanks anonymous commenter for pointing it out!

Nail SOS: How do you fix a split nail?

Hi guys!

The greatest annoyance in the life of someone who loves long nails and nail-polish as much as me? But, especially with the kind of job I have, keeping long nails healthy and in one piece can be quite a challenge. Whenever my nails reach the right length and I'm loving the way they look, one of them splits and throws off the whole balance.

But, thankfully, there's a quick fix to save your precious nail. Keep in mind, this only works on nails with a crack/split in them. When they're completely broken off, go sit in corner and weep. Just like I would do.

What you're going to need:

- a tea bag

- nail glue (normally used for applying false nails)

- scissors

- rubbing alcohol

- cotton pads

- a buffing file

First, take a cotton pad and apply a bit of the rubbing alcohol to the pad. Rub it on your nail to completely dry it and to make sure there are no oils left on it. Cut the top bit of the tea bag off and throw out the tea.

Cut a small strip of the tea bag material to fit right against your cuticle. It doesn't matter if it's longer than your nail. See the picture below to see what I mean. Apply a bit of nail glue to your nail and make sure that you get it right on the crack/split. Put the piece of tea bag on your nail and make sure you smooth it out. If there's some air underneath the tea bag, put some clear wrap over it and press tightly to smooth out any bumps.

When your tea bag is all smoothed out, cut away the excess paper at the tip ofyour nail. Now take some more nail glue and apply it over your repaired nail. Make sure to smooth it out again.

When the glue has dried, your nail won't feel as smooth as it normally does, and neither will the tip. So just take your buffer file and file the tip of your nail to make it feel nice and smooth. Take the medium buffing part of your file and carefully buff it over the baseof your nail. Only do this when the glue is completely dry, to prevent the tea bag from moving around on your nail. We don't want that.

Now, you can apply your favorite ridge filling base coat and paint your nails your favorite color. No one will now that you broke your nail!

This quick fix will probably last you about four to five polish changes. That's if you use a non-acetone based polish remover. When you use an acetone based remover it will last three to four times. If you want to remove the tea bag and the glue, soak a cotton pad in acetone based remover and wrap it around your nails, followed by some tinfoil. Let the tinfoil/cotton pad package rest around your nail for about five minutes and the glue and tea bag should slide right off.