Poking a bit of fun at Rapunzel

And last a cute one...

Found here

Two easy face masks

Moisturising semi-mask

• Around one table spoon of your normal day cream
• 5 drops of hemp oil
• 5 drops of argan oil

Mix and “paint” on with a mask-brush

Allow to work for as long time as you have

Wipe the excess off with a cotton pad

Simple anti-blemish mask

• A portion of a simple moisture mask that you know can be left on for 30 minutes without drying out or irritating you
• 5 drops of tea tree oil

Mix and “paint” on with a mask-brush

Allow to work for 30 minutes

Wash off, tone and moisturise

Today’s hair

3 Dutch braids braided into one.

I am kind of proud of how it looks from the front, and how I managed the Dutch braid in the back since I could only feel my way… But braiding the 3 Dutch ones together wasn’t as good-looking as I thought it would be

My lemon water recipe

My lemon water recipe is derived from a recipe for a traditional Chinese medicine cleanse. I think it was supposed to cleanse your intestines and liver.

I kept making it because some times supplements leave a bad taste in your mouth and this doubles as a palate cleanser.

The supplies for approximately 4,5 liter

• 3 lemons
• 1 lime
• 1 chunk of fresh ginger
• Green tea
• Bowls, bottles and filters 

Peel the lemons roughly and blend them.

I like to throw the peels in the sink, then putting the plug in and pouring boiling water over: It smells wonderfully clean and fresh (Plus, DIY humidifier. Yay!)

You want to pour boiling water over the lemons first, then repeat with the lime and ginger.

The undiluted lemon-water can stand for a long time without getting super bitter, but the ginger water will get incredibly nasty if you allow it to cool completely before filtering.

Lemon + boiling water on the left and pulp from peeled ginger and lime on the right.

My kettle holds a bit over 1,5 litre water so in the end it adds up to around 4,5 litre.

The “filter system” set up (Yea, very scientific. Ha-ha)

I filter the big pieces out first, and then run it through a tea-filter.

If you accidentally mix up the lemon water and the potentially nasty ginger water that can’t stand with pulp in it for too long, look at the pulp: Lemon floats and ginger-lime will sink.

Next, brew up a kettle of water for green tea.

Green tea is good for just about everything and it will soften the flavour a lot.

White tea would work too.

I pour all filtered blends in separately and pour identical amounts in all 3 bottles.

(I prefer using cleaned soda bottles because I can just return them after a single use)

The finished result will have a funny green-yellow-even orange tone depending on the mixture and amounts used.

It tastes refreshing and slightly bitter.

It’s good for up to a week in the fridge. 

Current obsessions

I generally try to keep my weird non-hair obsessions off my hair blog, but it has been really difficult after I found the Memebox. I received the Mask edition a while back and absolutely loved it!

One of the products (Sua Young Berristure) was a bit too heavy for my face, but I’ve been using it for the dry skin on my shins. Spreading the love for other parts of my skin!

Other products have been just so awesome! The funny little Purederm Vitamin C Facial Pads left me with the smoothest skin I think I have ever felt.

The Iope-box arrived and I've used the products for a few days. I had expected trouble since high-end products are usually full of pointless perfume and other crap just to make the product smell, feel and look good (Pure poison for my sensitive skin!) But there have been no problems at all. Quite the contrary actually: My skin has been glowing, happy and felt moisturized. 

On nights where Hubby works and I’m awake, I will substitute my routine that ends with me sleeping with a “naked” face with an Iope routine: After cleaning my face the usual way, I will use the Essential Skin Boosting Serum, Essential Face Oil, Eye Cream and Relief Cream.

But here is the funniest thing: The Iope Air Cushion XP natural #21 that came with the box is the perfect fit for my skin tone! Seriously perfect, the best matching foundation I have ever experienced. How strange is that? After so many years searching, it turns out my best matching foundation ever is a Korean superfoundation I randomly got with a skincare box! 

Looking forward to trying the Lip and Cheek compact.

(The boxes the products came in are so pretty in silver and dark blue that I have carefully put them back in instead of tossing them out. That is so not like me that I can’t figure out if it’s amusing or embarrassing.) 

I have two hair-obsessions firmly stuck in my head too. I want a good bang/wig piece: One that matches both my hair colour and the texture of my hair.

And I want to both henna and indigo. I want to do just the lightest of henna glosses. One that doesn’t require a ton of upkeep or risk of staining everything in the bathroom. One that just ever so gently makes the red tones in my hair a little more prominent.

Henna will also provide something for indigo to “grab” onto. I want to ever so slightly darken my ends. After over a decade of exposure to sunlight, they are noticeably (To me) lighter than my roots. Just the lightest of tints.

Last obsession of the day: An Anon gave me the versatile blogger award!

Will you please contact me at ladyigorsbelltower [at] gmail.com? I would like to know your name and if you have a blog I can refer to!

Gossamer at Gossycrafts gave me the Liebster Award some years back, which was awesome too!

Maybe I should use the Award-rules to answer some questions about myself instead of the rather dull “About me”-page?

Hmm? 

Mathalicious!

Good news, everyone!

As I announced back in April, I would be featured on Mathalicious! 

Kate Nowak promised me that the lesson would be a featured lesson sometime this summer and the time is now, this week!

Link to the blog post

Link to the lesson (Note the tabs on top of the page)

I’m a little bit embarrassed but very happy and flattered!

Be sure to check it out, it will only be the featured article this week (Week 31, 2014)

Annoyed

I’ve been annoyed since yesterday about the pictures of the SPF experiment.

I took so many pictures in variating light conditions and yet I couldn’t catch what I saw in real life.

Frustrating.

Two months spent with that increasingly disgusting mess parked in the window and it feels basically wasted.

It’s not the first time I’ve wished I had a better camera for hair photos.

But, this is the thing…

Outside of pictures for my blog or for UTT, I have never been unhappy with my phone camera.

And even if I had a better camera, I wouldn’t remember to bring it along with me, and if I did, I would probably reach for my phone instead.

So am I really willing to pay for a camera I will basically only use for blogging?

I get no money or goods out of blogging or posting on UTT.

It’s my hobby of sorts and my only reward is the comments I receive.

Am I really willing to pay for a camera solely for the purpose of hair photos? 

The sun protection experiment 2 months update

It's been two months since I started my sun protection experiment.
Time to report on what I have found.

I used up the Goldwell Dual Senses Sun Reflects Leave-In Protect Spray during the experiment, so the last two weeks I only used the Schwarzkopf Bonacure sun protect on the hair SPF test.

First
I have never thought of just how much dust and crap is in the air outside. I found out shockingly quick though. The set-up got really, really nasty in just a few days. I guess it got worse from sitting literally just inside a usually open window and being coated in a spray a lot. The wetness should really attract lint and stuff.
Still though. Ew.
Well, I guess the lint in the air explains why you some times take your hair down from a perfectly smooth updo and find mysterious tangles?
Seriously nasty though.

So please, please ignore the disgusting specks and dust caught in the hairs!
I tried to pick them out, but they almost seemed to "fuse" with the hair and spray-residue.

Second observation
The hair SPF test has a glossiness to it that makes me very suspicious of it. In my experience (And just I might be a cynical old rat here) this type of glossiness usually mask a crappy product hiding damage and making people want to buy it again for the "healthy shine". 

Third
The skin SPF really stained the cardboard. You can tell where the sticky tape is holding the hair in place: Under there, the cardboard still has its original colour. Around it, the cardboard is stained a yellowish brown that looks like aged paper.

Fourth and the most important
I definitely see colour differences:

• The skin SPF patch is definitely darker than the control patch.
• The hair SPF patch is definitely lighter than the control patch.

I took 63 pictures in total trying to get the effect, but I think it's very difficult to see any difference on the photos. Damn. I guess it's time for me to get a proper digital camera instead of my camera phone. The thought of buying a camera that would be used pretty much only for blogging does make me cringe though... But right now I have done a serious experiment where I feel I can't properly show the results due to camera quality and that makes me very unhappy.

Anyways. Pictures.

Indoors and in artificial light conditions, no flash

Indoors and in artificial light conditions, with flash

Outdoors and in natural light conditions, indirect sunlight

Outdoors and in natural light conditions, direct sunlight (Morning sun)

Outdoors and in natural light conditions, direct sunlight (Mid day sun)

In reality, the direct mid day sun made the hair SPF test very, very shiny, but that didn't even translate well in my phones camera. Hmm. 

So here is what I'm wondering
Does the skin SPF actively darken the hair or does it protect it from fading?
It does appear that the cardboard is slightly darker around the SPF for skin though!
So does it mean that the SPF for hair has darkening/miscolouring properties?

And does the hair SPF actively lighten the hair or does it just not protect from fading?

Let's compare to a fresh patch of shed hair from the collection. I got the shed hairs balled up a little more tightly than the SPF test, so it appears slightly darker in the middle. 

Indoors and in artificial light conditions, no flash

Indoors and in artificial light conditions, with flash

Outdoors and in natural light conditions, direct sunlight (Mid day sun)

Does anyone recognize any lightening or darkening ingredients in the products? 
Full ingredient list in first post. 
I'm not an ingredient expert (Not at all), but does someone else recognize any potential lightening or darkening properties in the ingredient lists?

I must admit I got a little weirded out by the potentially lightening effect of the hair SPF and put Schwarzkopf Bonacure sun protect back into the cabinet for now. 

Does anyone have any input on this?

Do want

Okay, I know the pattern of these would disappear the second you put them in use, and that you would never see them in my hair anyways because they’re too big for my pitiful ends and that I’m a grown woman… But dammit, I wanted these to work for me!

Today’s hair

Ropebun with the soaring butterfly Flexi

My favourite thing about rope buns is the pretty rope-pattern I can see from the front