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ejridener

~ "This above all; to thine own self be true." – Hamlet, William Shakespeare.

ejridener

Category Archives: College

Fashion hair colors: color upkeep

22 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by ejridener in Beauty, College, student, Uncategorized

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Tags

beauty, black hair, College, color, fade, fashion color, fun, hair, highlights, natural hair, salon, save, teal, time

Fresh out of the salon, the highlights were subtle against my black hair.

Fresh out of the salon, the highlights were subtle against my black hair.

I had wanted to do something “drastic” with my hair color for quite some time but had never found the time to go to a salon. I’ve been dying my hair black since I was 13-years-old and have always wanted some purple or red to add some spice and pazazz. The problem? I didn’t trust myself enough to bleach my hair at home.

On May 7 this year I finally took the leap and went to the salon to get a fun color put in my hair.

To start, I would like to point out I take care of my hair. After nine years of dying my tresses black multiple times a year, I’ve learned a few things along the way. First, don’t wash your hair every day. This is a general trick used by people whether you’re trying to keep your dyed hair hydrated or your natural hair healthy. Second, my conditioner, Wen, helps keep my hair hydrated as well. Third, don’t dye it immediately. I usually let the roots, or my truth as I call it, come in a few inches before re-dying in order to avoid adding layer upon layer of dye to “fresh” hair. I don’t use any product in my hair either and can probably count on one hand the amount of times I’ve had to use hair spray.

All of this has helped keep my hair from feeling like straw or even, in more drastic and pun-ny terms, dying.

I had just switched salons in March and liked my hairdresser. Because I had been growing out my roots (to the point of my hair looking like it had been dip-dyed) she asked me about my natural hair color and as she sheared off the old black I told her about my desire to put some blue highlights to stand out against my normal black. I was lucky because my hairdresser loved the challenge of “funky” colors, particularly the ombre hairstyles.

Here, two months later, two of the highlights are visible against my faded hair.

Here, two months later, two of the highlights are visible against my faded hair.

My present to myself after another semester of college down was getting teal peekaboo highlights. For anyone not familiar with peekaboo highlights, they are highlights between layers of your hair. They don’t sit on top but they’re not the bottom layer like what was so popular a few years ago. They literally are a peek of color.

After an hour of bleaching and re-dying I was walking out of the salon with dark teal/blue highlights peeking out of my black hair.

And here’s where the purpose of this blog post comes into play.

At the salon as my hairdresser was putting bleach into my hair, the receptionist came over with a clipboard, a pen and what looked like a release stating I understood by getting a fashion color the salon was not liable for the quick fade. I had already planned out how I would keep up with the color but, as explained to me by my hairdresser, many girls come in getting a fashion color thinking it will last for months without fading.

Wrong.

Fashion colors usually last a couple of shampoos and start fading quickly, kind of like a slippery slope of fade. Some ways you can avoid it are using cool water when washing your hair and a color save shampoo but in general you only have a few weeks with peak color. The salon had everyone who was getting a fashion color sign the release in order to prevent angry customers from threatening litigation over their hair.

Because they would likely be laughed out of any judge’s courtroom.

So from May 7 to today, July 22, I have still managed to keep my peekaboo’s in pretty good shape.

When I brush my hair back, the highlights are fully visible.

When I brush my hair back, the highlights are fully visible.

First of all, I kept my normal rule of not shampooing my hair everyday; your color can’t get up and walk away unless you give it the means to. Second, I bought Redken’s Color Extend Shampoo as soon as I left the salon. Third, I use started washing my hair with cool water but have gradually made it warmer. By no means is the water hot but it is basically lukewarm. Fourth, I don’t go into the sun as a general life-rule so I don’t have to worry about the sun naturally fading my hair.

And you know what? My highlights look great two months later.

I did buy a semi-permanent teal hair color to do touch-ups if necessary but I’ve been lucky enough in not even opening the bottle yet. I’m sure other colors fade faster no matter what precautions you take, like red for example, but I’ve been exceedingly lucky. Maybe it’s the formulas she used or maybe it’s just the color but my black dye has faded more than the teal.

Confessions of a make-up hoarder: Nyx Cosmetics

10 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by ejridener in Art, College, college, Life, student, Uncategorized

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abandoned, cheap, College, eyeliner, eyeshadow, hoarding, Kat Von D, lipstick, make-up, Nyx Cosmetics, reliable, Sephora, student, Too Faced

Being a college student sucks for your bank account and being a make-up hoarder sucks for your already sad wallet.

I piled my Nyx collection into my sink. Please note: I can think of at least three things missing seeing as I've misplaced them but there could be more I'm forgetting.

I piled my Nyx collection into my sink. Please note: I can think of at least three things missing seeing as I’ve misplaced them but there could be more I’m forgetting.

I blame “RuPaul’s Drag Race” for two things; making me experiment with my face and my love of Nyx Cosmetics. In high school, I was never big into putting a lot of make-up on my face and stuck to eyeliner only. Sometimes I would branch out to lipstick and eyeshadow but both would end up smudging something fierce and making me look like I faced a hurricane head-on and lost.

Once college started, I found myself looking more into different primers for eyeshadow and ended up with a Sephora Beauty Insider membership due to the amount of money I was spending on two items at a time. My favorite was Too Faced’s Shadow Insurance Primer and Sephora Collection eyeliners. I was very into Kat Von D’s eyeshadow palettes but being a college student meant I had to plan when I would buy anything seeing as the cheapest item I would purchase was $20 if it was on sale.

DSC_0855College students don’t have that type of cash to toss around when one cheap version of a textbook costs $250.

In a neighboring town to my own, an Ulta Beauty was built and I consider it my make-up savior. In one section of their store was a Nyx display and, remembering the early days of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the make-up provided to the competing queens, I made my first Nyx purchases because my rationale said, “if they’re drag queen approved then they have to be worth it.”

I haven’t looked back and I think my abandoned Sephora account is covered in dust and cobwebs.

Let’s break this down: a sale item at Sephora for $20 or at least five to ten regular priced items from Nyx for $20. Usually with cheaper brands you get what you pay for and what you’re paying for is a weak pigment and a smudge if you breathe wrong.

DSC_0845Complete opposite with Nyx.

I haven’t had a problem with the brand as of yet. I love the matte lipsticks and lip crèmes the most because of the wide variety of shades and the amount of time they last without a lip primer. I will say I managed to eat an entire meal while out with my mother and didn’t have the embarrassment of my lipstick wearing down to a line around my mouth. Instead, I had slight feathering around the corners but my purple lips were intact.

Speaking of lipstick, I’ve found my favorite shade and it may be my favorite until I leave this realm. The not-so-great part is many people really like this shade. “Siren,” a matte lipstick, has been worn nearly every day by me and when the tube started to get to a low point, I went to order more online but it was sold out. Yes, I panicked but calmed when I remembered I could just go buy it in-store. Nope, sold out there too. When it was finally back in stock I bought two tubes just in case. They currently reside nestled in my overstock case still nestled safely in their plastic wrapping.

DSC_0853For the most part, I keep the style of make-up I apply the same: darker color into the crease, lighter on the lid and a light shimmer to highlight below the arch on my eyebrow. I’m usually always wearing a dark lip, either “Siren” or the Simply Vamp Lip Cream in “Enamored.” My favorite palette is probably Love in Florence in “Prima Donna” and I have yet to try the Hot Singles eyeshadows ut have been eyeballing a few shades.

I would like to point out I’m not as bad as what I am making myself seem. I don’t sneak off to buy a new palette, though if I’m near a Nyx display chances are I will go home with something, and I don’t have make-up stashed around my house because I’ve run out of places to put them.

Admittedly there are times when I’ve stumbled out of bed early in order to at very least draw my eyebrows on, I’ve stared into the mirror and asked myself, “am I high maintenance?”

Answer: Nope, just determined.

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“Outlander” season one review

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by ejridener in College, Literature, Television, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Black Jack, Claire Randell, Diana Gabaldon, England, Gaelic, Game of Thrones, Jamie Fraser, outlander, redcoats, review, Scotland, starz, television

4874_900Warning: spoilers ahead.

With it being summer, I’ve found time to play catch-up on “new” shows and if one thing is for certain it’s I am drawn to shows that take place at least 100 years ago.

Earlier this summer, I finished season one of Showtime’s “Penny Dreadful” and now I’m watching season two. I loved the show but seeing as I’m now at the point where I have to wait for the new episode each week (or until the new season starts), I had to find a new show to binge.

This is where Starz’s “Outlander” comes into play.

I searched different Starz and Showtime series and I was drawn to “Outlander” for a few reasons. The first was the time period, or least the time period most of the show takes place in. The second was the time traveling aspect of going from 1945 to 1743. The third was the beauty of the Scottish Highlands.

I started watching not realizing the show was based on a book series by Diana Gabaldon and honestly it didn’t effect my viewing. You know how sometimes when either a show or a movie is adapted from a book you are left feeling like you’re missing something? “Outlander” hasn’t made me feel like I need to read the books in order to understand what’s going on so there’s a huge plus.

The show starts off in 1945 post WWII Scotland as an English woman, Claire Randall, and her husband, Frank Randall, are taking a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands. Unfortunately for Claire, she visits some old standing stones named Craigh na Dun and is transported to 1743. She encounters her husband’s ancestor, Jonathan “Black Jack” Randall, who turns out to be the season’s villain. She is rescued from Black Jack by a group of Scots, taken to Castle Leoch and kept under the orders of Colum MacKenzie to stay as the castle healer. Eventually, Claire is forced to marry Jaime Fraser, nephew of Colum and Dougal MacKenzie, in order to protect her from Black Jack under Scottish law. Through many ups, downs and extreme downs, the season ends with Claire, Jamie and Murtagh Fraser sailing to France in order to seek safety.

Claire Randell, "Outlander"

Claire Randell, “Outlander”

That’s the extreme short version of the story. Here are some details about the characters and why I’ve come to love this show.

Claire is one of the strongest female characters in a show I have ever seen. She was a nurse during WWII and seen plenty of gruesome war injuries. Being a woman of the 20th century, she is not used to being “put in her place” by her husband. When she’s thrown into the 18th century, she acts and speaks differently than the women of the time. One of the funniest parts of the show is watching the men react to some of the things she says and does. Because she is from the future, she also knows what is going to happen and where they will take place.

Jamie Fraser, "Outlander"

Jamie Fraser, “Outlander”

Jamie is a bit of a mystery that slowly reveals his past. You know his back is severely scarred and know it was Black Jack who did it but you don’t get the whole story until later. Claire has tended to Jamie since she first landed in 1743 due to an injury from a battle with the “Redcoats” and we see the connection early on between the two characters. Jamie is considered an outlaw because he escaped from prison and anytime the British army comes into contact Jamie is forced to hide. Though Jamie’s uncle Dougal MacKenzie forces Jamie and Claire to marry in order for Claire to be protected under Scottish law, Jamie isn’t exactly angry about the situation they’ve been put into.

Black Jack, "Outlander"

Black Jack, “Outlander”

Black Jack is nothing short of a villain. He is the first person Claire runs into in 1743 and he attempts to rape her before the Scots take her. Your opinion of him just continues to drop from there. He takes pleasure in the pain he inflicts on others and views Jamie’s scarred back as a “masterpiece.” The truly messed up part? He mentally injures Jamie far worse toward the end of the season due to his sexual obsession with breaking Jamie.

Which is where the controversy surrounding the season finale of “Outlander” comes up.

There is an intense, physically and mentally, rape scene between Jamie and Black Jack. It’s made know earlier in the season that Black Jack gave Jamie a choice: take the lashings or give me your body. Jamie chose the lashings and he eventually escaped Black Jack’s clutches. The Redcoats catch Jamie again and Black Jack saves him from execution moments before he was to be hanged. After a terrible round of torture and a threat to Claire, who had tried to free him, Jamie surrenders himself to Black Jack and the rape scene is shown in flashback after Jamie is rescued.

The funny, and not funny as in humor, part is not much media coverage was given to the scene. I am a huge “Game of Thrones” fan and with the latest rape in the show, so many people were outraged and many media outlets took stands against the scene and asked “has ‘Game of Thrones’ gone too far?” That particular rape scene was not visible but you could hear the actions and the camera zoomed in on Theon Greyjoy who was forced to watch it happen. The “Outlander” scene was much more graphic and the exploited psychological damage done to Jamie was much more intense yet not many stories popped up. Is this because the show isn’t as popular as “Game of Thrones” or is it because it was a male raped and not a female?

I know it seems like I absolutely love the show and can see no wrong with it but that would be false. I have one problem; the Gaelic. I’m not saying it’s aggravating that the Scottish characters will speak Gaelic at length or just a few words here or there because I think that adds to the authenticity of the characters. I hate not knowing what they are saying though. Usually when you’re watching a movie or show where a different language is used there are subtitles telling you what they are saying so you, as the viewer, can be in on the secret. There are no subtitles in “Outlander.” It drives me crazy that I don’t know what the characters are saying back and forth but I think I know why they’ve been left out. Claire doesn’t know Gaelic and as the narrator of the show, she brings up how those around her will speak in Gaelic in order to keep something from her or to exclude her. I feel like the audience is supposed to get the same feeling in order to sympathize with Claire’s plight.

I’m excited for season two! I haven’t read the books and I don’t know that I will get around to it therefore I’m not sure what’s ahead for Jamie and Claire but I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with the two in France.

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