Halo Hair Extensions Review

After hearing such good things about the ‘Halo’ hair extension I recently decided to give it a whirl.  I have a mixture of colours in my hair and after much debate finally decided on the 16” Halo Remy Human Hair in Chocolate Brown.  They seemed reasonably priced at £79.99 but obviously this would depend on the quality of the hair.

I have quite long hair anyway but it is rather on the thin side so when I go out I do like to wear extensions just to give my hair that extra oomph. So when the halo arrived I was excited to try it out in the hope it would give me that much needed volume. Below are the pictures of my hair before the extensions:

When the box arrived, inside were my new hair extensions, only very different to the standard ‘clip ins’ or ‘pre bonded’ with just a loop attachment from the hair, funny enough rather like a halo!

When applying the hair I watched the ‘How To’ video which clearly shows how to put in and take out the Halo, and it really was as easy as that!

My first impressions when opening and feeling the hair was amazement at how soft the extensions were. They are 100% human hair, and look and feel such good quality. I matched my hair with the chocolate brown color, which I think was pretty spot on as you really can't tell the extension from my real hair.

I am very happy with how they looked, so natural and easy to put in. I wore the extensions all night and not once did they irritate me at all which is unheard of! As you can see from the pictures they gave me great volume and looked fantastic and I would definitely recommend them to friends. 

These 'Halos' will be coming soon to Lovingbeauty.co.uk which is very exciting for us so please keep checking back to purchase yours!

Stay Beautiful

Gemma x

Nouveau Semi-Perm Lashes

I have been performing semi permanent lashes for about 5 years now and in this time I have seen many new brands and lashes pop up. I personally use the Nouveau Lashes brand, and the Lash Emporium products. There are so many lashes out there to choose from and, if I’m completely honest, they all seem much of the same, just in different packaging.

The most important ingredient to secure good lashes is the glue; it is integral to getting a good application and the most wear out of your false lashes. I have used may over the years, but I have found the best one to be from the Lash Emporium: the ‘medium velocity’ glue. The glue does sting a little on application when the client opens their eyes, due to the fumes of the glue, however this quickly fades and the lashes always last and give the best results by far.

The Truth about Lashes

Your lashes have an average life cycle of between 60 – 90 days, and they all grow individually at different stages, losing on average 1 – 3 lashes per day. You’re more aware of the lashes coming out when you have the extensions purely because your lashes are longer and more noticeable.

Lashes are applied to each single individual eyelash except the baby lash as these are not strong enough to carry the weight of an extension. People always ask me can lashes damage their natural eyelashes and I always reply honestly: 'Anything fake that is applied to your body, whether it be hair, nails or lash extensions, can cause stress to the part of the body being treated'. It is the same for lashes; the first set of lashes and 2 infills will not cause any damage to the lashes, however after that the lashes can become weaker and cause some premature loss of lashes if you continue having the extensions for a long time. Also, if you have a thicker extension than that of your own eyelashes (some people just really want thicker lashes), the weight of the extension may encourage your natural lashes to come out slightly earlier than they would without the extension.  This, in effect, reduces your lash cycle slightly. So, for example, if you have an 8 week cycle, this may be reduced to a 7 week cycle. But don’t worry, it doesn’t damage the actual lashes, and they will grow back to the same length as before if you stop having the extensions. When you do have your lashes removed, you may feel your lashes are shorter. This is purely a psychological feeling; after all, you have just had long, thick, luscious lashes applied so of course you will feel slightly naked without them.

When the lashes are being applied you shouldn’t feel any pain, and it should actually be a very relaxing experience. Many of my clients fall asleep during the treatment. I find 9 out 10 of my clients adore the lashes and become very addicted to having them. 1 out of 10 may love them but just can’t get on with them. This is usually because they do require maintenance every two – three weeks, and you cannot rub your eyes or put mascara on whilst they are on as this can cause them to shed quicker. I also find that one eye tends to always shed quicker than the other, as this is the eye that you tend to sleep on. I would say lashes are for the more high maintenance client, who can find time to spend that little bit longer looking after themselves and find the time for regular infills if you wish to maintain them perfectly.

Tips When Looking for a Technician

Lash extension courses do not usually require any previous beauty training and a course is usually one day only. This does concern me, as there are now so many people thinking they can do a lash extension course and earn a quick money asap, without thinking about the consequences of their clients.

Beaware! Beauty therapists spend two years training and have to learn a great deal of anatomy and physiology to perform treatments. However, this is not the case with a one day lash extension course. Students do half a day on anatomy and physiology and half a day applying lashes, which, as I remember, I got all of 6 lashes on the client before being sent on my merry way with my certificate in hand to start applying lashes to paying clients. These days you do have to go back for a ‘graduation day’, however this doesn’t mean a lot either.

It takes a lot of skill and time to apply a full set of lashes; my first set took me four hours (!) but luckily I can now do them in hour and 15 minutes. However I would say it took me a year of doing lashes day in, day out to perfect them and, without seeming big headed, I’m pretty damn good at them now! This is why I advise all of you looking for a good lash technician to check the following…

·      They should have a history in beauty

·      A minimum of one year’s experience

·      Ask you to fill in a consultation form before the procedure and fully explain what is about to happen

·      Give you thorough aftercare advice

·      Spend a minimum of an hour applying the lashes

·      Charge no less than £65 (a good technician wouldn’t charge anything less - you really do get what you pay for!)

Personally I would be very careful of a technician who has decided to do a one day course on lash extensions, and then perform the treatment straight away. I regularly have clients come to me with terribly applied lashes, which they paid £40 for, and ask me to fix them. This is something I will not do, as I never touch another technicians work - especially a bad one.

Lash extension are amazing and are the perfect accessory for weddings, holidays and parties - just please ensure you find a good technician and follow the aftercare advice. This way you will have lovely long lashes without any problems.

Remember to post any comments, questions of queries for me to answer, and I’ll get back to you asap!

Stay Beautiful 

Gemma Lovingbeauty x

Dare to Bare?

After a couple of our girls recently went on the Bare Minerals advanced make-up training course, we’ve learnt lots more about the brand, and how their make-up can help your skin. Here’s a brief history to explain how Bare Minerals could transform your skin as you know it.

Bare Minerals began 35 years ago, and has since gone on to become a revolutionary brand of make-up, using only natural minerals in its ingredients. Starting in the USA in small apothecary shops, the iconic Bare Minerals foundation is now the number one best selling foundation in the whole of America.


The brand has since built upon the foundation and its all-natural ethic, to expand the make-up collection into other pieces, such as eye shadows, lip sticks and glosses, and so on. All products contain solely mineral ingredients. The reason for using mineral ingredients is to be kind to the skin, as well as treating it. Containing several soothing and calming minerals, the foundation is known to improve the appearance of skin surface and tone. With added zinc oxide as the power ingredient, this acts as an anti-inflammatory to calm down any redness, as well as aid the treatment of blemishes. Also, along with titanium dioxide, these act as a natural SPF, protecting the skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays.

THE FACTS

It is known that certain liquid foundations have oils within their ingredients, including ‘lanolin’; an oil used frequently in make-up that is actually sebum oil secreted from sheep’s skin (their sweat).

 

If someone tends to have lots of blemishes and acne on the face, using these types of liquid  foundation containing oil, can cause the acne to worsen. This is due to the bacteria formed from the  blemishes, which then feeds off of the oil within the foundation, meaning blemishes increase and  almost grow through absorbing this oil. As a result, blemishes take much longer to clear, if they do  at all.

Some chemicals used within some foundations tend to become quite potent once mixed together (with a reported average of seventy ingredients used per foundation on the market). As a  consumer, we tend not to know about this, due to the use of fragrance to cover the strong smell of  the chemicals used as ingredients. However, fragrance is actually an irritant to the skin, which can  cause redness and even an inflamed reaction. Fragrance also attracts the UV rays of the sun, which  increases the chance of skin pigmentation due to no SPF to protect the area.

  

Talc is another ingredient frequently used within foundations and make-up, to bulk up the formula  and create a higher quantity of the product much more cheaply. However, talc is not as harmless as  it may seem on the skin. Talc is known to dry out areas of the skin, which can cause premature aging. Also, with talc’s powdery consistency, it will sit in any fine lines or wrinkles, making the skin appear more aged than it actually is. It is a heavy and clogging ingredient, which sits in pores and can cause irritation and sensitivity.

Mineral make-up has become something of a trend over the past few years, however Bare Minerals is the original creator of mineral foundation. In the UK, it is only necessary to include 5% of mineral ingredients into the make-up for it to be recognised as a mineral make-up product. Bare Minerals is 100% made from minerals. Other brands have, therefore been able to create their own copy-cat versions, without actually using the same ingredients at all.

Here at Lovingbeauty, we thoroughly recommend the Bare Minerals brand, and have seen through our own use the difference it can make to your skin. Please email us on info@lovingbeauty.co.uk for more information, or any advice on your beauty needs!

Stay Beautiful

Lovingbeauty xx

Universal Challenge

Alongside our Flabelos challenge, here at Lovingbeauty HQ we are also putting to the test the ever-popular Universal Contour Wrap. So this weekend I'm off to Indulgence Beauty Salon, Bexleyheath to see if this wrap really works! It's proven to help you lose at least 6 inches guaranteed, the wrap is also known to help firm up the skin, leaving a smoother and more toned appearance. Universal emphasise the wrap is for inch loss, not weight loss, and is a great way to kick start a new fitness plan. 

The wrap treatment involves being wrapped in soft bandages, previously soaked in mineral-rich clay and water. This impregnates the bandages with soothing clay the help draw out toxins from within, and aid in smoothing the skin to leave it soft and supple after treatment. The minerals then absorb your skin, leaving you and your body feeling completely refreshed.

The treatment involves being measured from each limb and part of your body, before wrapping you all over and laying you down in the heated blanket. Your therapist will then attach tiny electro pads to parts of the body, ready for small shocks throughout the treatment to further aid the skin firming process involved. You will then be left for half an hour to relax in the comfort of the heated blanket, giving you a warm sensation throughout the treatment. When your therapist returns, they will take you out of the blanket, unwrap all of the bandages and re-measure each part of the body, before working out how many inches have been lost. For more details you can visit Universals website by clicking here.

Keep checking back for my weekly updates, on Monday I will putting up my 'before' and 'after' measurements from Saturdays treatment, and will be having a total of three treatments over the course of three weeks. With the run up to Christmas lets hope it works so I fit into my party frock! 

Stay Beautiful

Lucy Lovingbeauty xx

Pictures Before …..

So, yesterday I posted a blog about the Flabelos machine along with our measurements, well here are our pictures before we get started. We will update you weekly with our measurements and a photo so you can all see I there really is an improvement!


Girl One:

Girl Two:

Stay Beautiful,

Lovingbeauty Team xx

Flab-You-Lose

As much as we love the festivities of Christmas, we have to admit we do dread the over-eating and indefinite weight gain that comes from eating too much Turkey and a few too many helpings of Christmas pudding. So we decided to turn this into a positive, and put to the test the Flabelos machine from Indulgence Beauty Salon, Bexleyheath; with so much hype and press surrounding it over the past year. Is it possible for a vibrating plate to help you lose the inches?

So to prove what it says is true, we will take to the Flabelos machine three times a week for the next month, measuring themselves at the end of the month to see the results. And of course, we’ll be sharing every step of the way with our lovely blog followers!

All the Lovingbeauty Team have completely different body shapes, so we can see the effect of the Flabelos on different shapes. We’ve taken the measurements, and a picture to show a before-and-after of how they’ll look. See below for the maths bit…

Girl One:

Waist – 26 inches
Abdomen – 32.3 inches
Hips – 36 inches
Bum – 36.2 inches
Upper Thigh – 20 inches
Mid-Thigh – 16.7 inches
Arm – 9.3 inches

Girl Two

Waist – 30.6 inches
Abdomen – 37.7 inches
Hips – 40 inches
Bum – 40.4 inches
Upper Thigh – 23.1 inches
Mid-Thigh – 19.3 inches
Arm – 11.1 inches

Pictures to follow shortly!

Keep checking back for our updates, we’ll keep you all in the loop of our Flabelos diary!

Stay Beautiful

Lovingbeauty

Trendy Lip Transfers

After the success of nail wraps and transfers this year, a few brands have begun to bring out an updated version of the trend; for a different body part. Lip wraps and transfers are slowly making their way onto the market, after being seen in various photo shoots and on celebrities like the super-cool Jessie J (below). 

So we, of course, had to try them out for ourselves at LovingBeauty HQ. We tried and tested the ‘Trendy’ nail wraps, available online at around £8.95 for a pack of three. In every kind of colour and pattern possible, this trend definitely isn’t for the introverted. They can be purchased from Trendy-wraps.com.

Once you’ve picked your favourite pattern, now comes the tricky bit; application. We think it’s best if two of you try this together – one to hold the lip transfer, the other as the model. DIY is not an option as it is quite fiddly and tricky to get the hang of.

Each pack comes with a sheet of instructions, which give you a step by step guide of how to apply. They are easy to follow, however, a steady hand is key. Cutting the lip transfer into the right shape for your lips is the hardest part, as a pre-cut shape is already given as standard, and by placing the shape over your lips, you must determine where to cut the transfer to fit your own lip shape.

Once this is done, take one of the transfers cut into shape, and peel off the plastic backing, revealing the patterned transfer. Place this side onto lips, and using a damp cotton pad, dab onto the paper backed side of the transfer. When the transfer has stuck, the paper will slide off easily, showing the print now securely over the lips. We found getting the actual shape of our lips a little tricky, but the transfers come off with a little oil and cotton wool slowly rubbed off of the area. For little mistakes, we used oil and a cotton bud to trace over the line of our lips and make sure the shape was more even. We also added a little clear lip gloss over the top for added shine which we thought was a great finishing touch!

The pack says transfers last up to eight hours... I lasted three before having to take mine off, but in that time I ate and drank and not a spot came off, so we’re going to bet that they would go the whole eight hours if you wanted them to last! 

Take a look at my lips:

Overall our verdict of the lip wraps: very cool, effective, great for fancy dress, but a little gimmicky and not particularly wearable for a day-to-day basis. Also, we’d suggest not kissing anyone with them on either!

Let us know how you get on with your lip tattoos. What do you think about them?

Stay Beautiful

Lauren xx

(Lovingbeauty's freelance Fashion & Beauty Journalist)