Sincerely Miss Ash: March 2013

Friday, March 29, 2013

Spring Accessories Wishlist...

Spring Accessories

Wishlist..

Fan Fringe Necklace

Aldo Necklace

Bubble Necklace in Light Citron

Bold Stone Bracelet

Double-Link Bracelet

Michael Kors Ritz Chronograph Watch, Light Tricolor

Michael Kors Hamilton Large Tote

Iphone Case

Skull Print Umbrella

Wouldn't it be nice if money grew on tree's and we could all have what we wanted?!

P.S. I know this has nothing to do with today's post but I had to post a song/video that I am COMPLETELY obsessed with {Of course I am also obsessed with Mr. Shelton}:

Blake Shelton- Sure Be Cool If You Did

This song totally reminds me of my boyfriend and I when we first met and this is why I am so in love with this song.. Don't you love songs that bring back memories?

What are you all doing for this Easter long weekend?

Mine consist of spending time with family and having two Easter Dinners. One with my parents and the other with my boyfriends parents and I am sure there will be lots of pigging out on Easter treats as well {actually that's a fact}. My boyfriend and I are also going to go for a road trip up North for the day and have lunch and go shopping. I just love long weekends, I wish we had them more often.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter...

Sincerely Miss Ash
xo

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Pandora Love

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was good, I had a low key weekend and my boyfriend and I didn't celebrate St Patrick's this year, instead we had some much needed drinks at home while watching the hockey game and lounging in our cozies.. I love having weekends like these don't you?

About a year and a half now, my aunt bought me a Pandora bracelet for my birthday and before this I always admired my mom's and all my aunt's bracelets and I knew I had to have one. If you have never heard of Pandora before they sell silver, gold and rope style bracelets with charms that you can buy separately for them. They also sell earrings, necklaces, watches and rings also if you're not interested in the "charm bracelet" thing.

I ended up getting some of my charms from birthday presents and buying them myself. Each and every charm that I have represents and means something to me which makes the bracelet very meaningful. This is the main reason why I love these charm bracelets, you custom design it yourself and no one else has the same bracelet as you!

Love it....

Here is what mine looks like right now:

I can probably fit 4-5 more charms on it before it's complete...

{tip} The bigger the bracelet the more space you have for charms (obviously). My bracelet was sized but it is a little snug {which is what I like} as I don't like my bracelet too loose, but if you are someone who doesn't mind your bracelet moving around then I suggest getting a bigger one so you can fit more charms on it..

Here are some charms that I have my eye on that I might add to my current bracelet or to my second bracelet. They are so adorable..

I don't like to fill up my bracelet too quickly as there is ALWAYS new charms coming out.

You can find them Here

Now that I have a silver bracelet I am thinking I might want to get the rope bracelet next as something different.. It looks like this:

Cute right?

The Flower Cherry Blossom charm and the frog {prince} charm (shown above) I definitely want those two on the rope bracelet!!

You can find it Here

I also have this ring that my mom bought me from St Martin last year:

I wear it all the time and I am completely obsessed with it!!

P.S. I also want this ring from Pandora:

Isn't it cute? This one is definitely on my Wishlist...

You can find it Here

Do you have a Pandora bracelet and what are your favorite charms or do you have anything else from Pandora? I would love to know...

Have a lovely day!

Sincerely Miss Ash

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Hair Care

This post goes hand in hand with my last post I did when I was transitioning to brown hair and then going back to blonde. During this process I experienced breakage and my hair became really dry while slowly going back to blonde. For those who have experienced this type of transition before you know how devastating it is..

Taking care of your hair is extremely important and depending on the texture of your hair whether it's colour treated, curly, thick, coarse etc. You want to make sure that you are using the right products for your hair type.

When I was experiencing breakage and dryness I took EXTRA care of my hair by using absolutely no heat on my hair for the first couple of months and did a lot of hair conditioning treatments. To this day I still don't blow dry my hair when it's wet. I let it air dry and then once dried I will then round brush my hair, curl it, straighten it etc. I am so used to doing this that when I go to the salon to get my hair done I literally leave there with wet hair {Call me obsessive I don't care}. Honestly though I have seen a HUGE difference in my hair by doing this and as we all know heat is not good for our hair period!

Now on to my current hair care products:

Pureology Hydrate Shampoo

It's sulfate-free, salt-free, has an AntiFadeComplex that won't strip colour. This shampoo is really moisturizing especially if you have dry hair and it doesn't weigh my hair down which is great.

L'Oreal Professionnel Silver Shampoo

Now if you are a blonde you know that using a purple shampoo is a definite must! {No one likes brassy hair}. I use this about twice a week and let it sit on my hair for about 10- 15 minutes. This is the only purple/blue shampoo I have tried that "actually" works for me. I know there is another L'Oreal purple shampoo called "Shine Blonde" and that one didn't work as good as the L'Oreal Silver.

L'Oreal Professionnel Absolut Repair Conditioning Masque

This stuff is amazing when your hair is feeling dry. I use this once a week and leave it on for 3-5 minutes. I love using this when I first get my hair done it just makes my hair so soft and the smell is incredible.

Sfactor Serious Conditioner with Sunflower Seed Oil

This is more of an everyday conditioner. It leaves your hair silky and soft. {Sometimes I will even leave this on my hair for 20-30 minutes}

Macadamia Deep Repair Masque

This stuff my friends is hands down my favorite conditioning masque of all time. I use this once a week and leave it on my hair for 20-40 minutes and sometimes even an hour while I am cleaning the house or watching TV. Your hair will feel amazing after using this and the smell is out of this world!!! I seriously couldn't live without this stuff..

Sfactor Heat Protectant

{UV Protection & Thermal Shield}

You can put this on wet or dry hair but I usually put this on wet hair before styling.

Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment

I put a little bit of this into the balm of my hands and apply it to my hair once it's completely dried and before I have styled it to give my hair extra protection and shine. I also put a little bit more on my hair once my hair is completely styled.

Dove Dry Shampoo
{I am not the biggest fan of dry shampoo but this stuff is pretty good}

I apply it to the roots of my hair on the day's I don't wash it

I like to switch up my shampoo's every time I am done a bottle so my hair doesn't get use to the same product and plus I enjoy trying something new. I don't usually buy any other conditioners then what I have because these conditioners are absolutely amazing in my eyes and because I switch between the three of them my conditioners will last a pretty long time..{Note} If I didn't go through my bad experience with breakage and dryness I wouldn't have all these conditioners. Once my hair is completely healthy then I will probably only have one or two of them!

What are your favorite hair care products?
I am always looking for something new to try

Hope you all have a lovely day...

Sincerely Miss Ash
xo

Friday, March 22, 2013

Blonde to Brown back to Blonde

{Note} I have always been and loved being a blonde and I never wanted to be any other colour than that.. As you read blogs, watch TV shows and seeing people at the malls you always see hair styles and colours that you love and want but some never want to take that step out of their "comfort zone" to do it.. I think a lot of people are afraid of change {I know I definitely am} but change is good sometimes and I have definitely have done that.

Over the last year and a half almost two years now, I have been experiencing different hair colours from adding lowlights to my hair to going a solid colour.

From High School up until a year and half ago, I have always been a blonde and thought I needed to change things up a bit and do something different for once.

I first started off by adding lowlights to my hair with a "Demi Permanent" colour {this is a great option for those who want to change things up without the colour being completely permanent}. Depending on how much you wash your hair will obviously depend on how long the colour will last. For me I am a girl that washes her hair every other day so it lasted for at least 3 weeks before it started to really fade. This was a good start for me because if I hated it then it wouldn't matter it would just fade anyways...

This Picture below is when I started to add the lowlights underneath my hair and a little bit throughout my hair called "peek a boos" {hopefully you can see them as I didn't add to much to start with}:

I ended up really liking the lowlights and did it a second time after that.

Once I knew I liked it over a couple of months, I ended up getting even more daring and did highlights with an "all over Demi Permanent" colour. Let me tell you I was so nervous to do this as I have never done it before and was praying that I would like it.

Well I ended LOVING it.

These two pictures are with the highlights and an all over colour:

OKAY so I did this for about 2-3 months and ended up loving it each time I went but I hated that it was fading because it was "Demi Permanent." SO I thought to myself am I ready to take the plunge and go even darker and perhaps going "Brunette"?

After several months of looking at pictures on blogs and Googling celebrities and what not. I found a picture that I loved enough to bring into the salon with me {I always do this because I feel like the hair colourist knows exactly what I want by showing a picture vs trying to describe it with words}.

The picture I brought in was a girl that was on the Bachelor a few episodes back on "Season 12" and she was also on the Bachelor Pad 2 her name is Holly Durst. She actually used to be a blonde and because she has blue eyes like me and the same skin tone as me, I thought this picture would be the best to bring in.

This was the picture that I brought into the salon:

So I saw the transition she went through and I knew I had to do it but go PERMANENT! I was scared shitless not going to lie and I had ALWAYS wanted to take the plunge and just go for it. I talked about it so much that my boyfriend didn't even believe me when I told him I was going to the salon to become a brunette well he was so wrong. lol

After sitting in the salon chair watching my hair go darker and darker this time being a "permanent colour" then getting it rinsed and back I go in the chair for my blow dry, let me just say when I looked in the mirror I DID NOT recognize myself at all. I just straight up didn't like it. I knew it was way darker then what I was getting prior and knowing that this time the colour was permanent made me feel so sick.

This was the outcome:

It was such a drastic change that people didn't even recognizing me at work as well as some friends of mine {obviously this was to be expected} lol. I also had to change the way I wore my makeup to wearing different clothing. Who would have thought by going to a different hair colour would change your whole wardrobe and your makeup routine?! "Annoying"

A couple days after being a brunette I had to go back and get some blonde added to my hair, I just couldn't take it anymore. "Now if someone would have told me that if you go dark and then add blonde to your hair that quickly that your hair would potentially break" I WOULD HAVE NEVER OF DONE IT!!!

My hair was breaking which I have never experienced before in my life, my hair became so dry along with hating the colour all at the same time. It was a bloody nightmare!! So for those who are thinking of changing your hair colour keep in mind that this could happen to you...

This picture is when I slowly started to add blonde
{The lighting in this picture isn't the greatest, I promise my blonde didn't look this brassy} lol

It will be 2 years this August that I went solid brown. My hair is starting to get a lot healthier now but it's definitely taking a long time. I am at a point where I am loving my hair again and I am back blonde with my natural colour in between so when it grows out my roots don't look as noticeable. Everything blends really nicely and I can go longer in between appointments vs going every 5 weeks when I used to be solid blonde {BONUS}. I would like to go blonder eventually but for now I am staying put.

I have been using so many conditioning treatments to not colouring underneath my hair {leaving it as my natural hair colour} to not blow drying it and letting it air dry. Of course once my hair has air dried I would style it afterwards whether I am curling it or whatever but if I can keep as much heat off my hair as possible then my hair is happy!

This is what my hair looks like right now:

Now that I look back I am so glad that I took the plunge and just went for it. If I were to do it again I would do the "Demi Permanent" with highlights again like my second and third picture above. I really really liked my hair then and would totally do it again!

**The following products below are what helped me get the health and shine back in my hair from this process of going sold brown to blonde. Within 2-3 weeks I started to see a big improvement on the way my hair looked and felt. I would really recommend these products, you will love me for it, I promise.

PURPLE SHAMPOO:
The best purple shampoo I have ever used is the VEGAN NO YELLOW SHAMPOO by Fanola.
**You can use my Discount Code: SINCERELYMISSASH at Salonguys.com at checkout to receive 10% off on any Fanola product.

I have also uploaded two videos on my YouTube channel that you will find helpful if you have experience hair damage/breakage or if you are looking for a purple shampoo to eliminate yellow brassy tones in your hair.

GET RID OF DAMAGED HAIR:

BEST PURPLE SHAMPOO: