In A Pinch?

One of my readers told me I should make a post about those in a pinch moments we all have. I think we have all been on a first date and you're wondering how dark your mouth looks from all the red wine you've been drinking. Or you made it all the way to another city for vacation or work and you forgot your makeup bag! As vain as it all may sound, it's horrible and a helpless feeling! 

I've come up with a few helpful tips to help you get through these tough times (ha!)...

Okay, so we will start with the red wine. My sister and I have this joke that after we start drinking red wine we have George Washington's mouth or a mouth of a peasant from the 18th Century. We both have super white teeth normally but red wine completely stains the teeth and mouth! If you can get away on your date or where ever you are, I really love these red wine mouth wipes. I found these at Spec's but I'm sure you can find them at any liquor store or super store. They are about 6 bucks and totally worth it if you are a wine drinker.

I love these too because on the inside of the container is a little mirror to help you out. The wipes are so small you can even sneak doing this in public if you are brave enough like I've done before. They don't taste the best, but get the job done!

Let's just hope whoever you are out with or dating won't judge you for your 18th Century mouth.

So after your date you are leaving the next morning for a work trip and you left your makeup bag at home! That red wine really got to you. This has happened to me before and you really don't want to go a few days without makeup but you also don't want to spend a fortune buying temporary makeup. All you have to do is buy the essentials. All you need is a liquid foundation, a creme blush, and mascara. Especially if it's a trip for work or a weekend get away, you most likely only need simple makeup for your everyday look and not a nighttime look. 

Make it to your nearest Wal-Mart and buy my favorite drugstore items all for around $25!

I love the Revlon PhotoReady makeup because it always looks so natural. Use your fingers to apply this to your face. You want to use it sparingly because the warmth from your fingers tips will help spread it evenly. I usually always have a powder in my purse (which I wouldn't have forgotten in my makeup bag) and I would dust that on top. If you don't have a powder, don't fret! You can go without it for a few days. If you feel you are getting oily during the day and don't have your powder, take a piece of toilet paper and pull apart the sheets if it is two-ply. Gently dab the paper on the oily parts of your face.

Next, use the Maybelline Dreamy Bouncy blush as your blush and lip color. Is is a creme based blush so it is super easy to use with your fingers. Dab your pointer and middle finger into it and gently dab onto the apples of your cheeks. This blush comes in all different pretty colors. Then, using a little bit more of the blush than you did for your cheeks, swipe across your lips. I know you most likely have a chapstick or a lipgloss in your purse you can put on over it. 

Then, use the Covergirl LashBlast mascara. This is one of my favorite drugstore mascaras that will make your lashes look long and thick. If you want to spend a couple extra bucks, buy a thin angled brush and use the mascara as your eyeliner too. Take the mascara wand out of the tube and then dab your angled brush on it to get the extra product off. You can use that easily as an eyeliner. It may be a little harder to wash off at night, but also gets the job done for an in a pinch moment!

Those are just a couple of my little tricks that I have used over the years. What's your favorite in a pinch trick? Has there been a moment when you needed a quick fix and weren't sure what to do? I want to know!

Brows For Days

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I had a pretty fun weekend hanging out with some good friends that I don't see often enough! This is the result of hanging out with my favorite drag queen....

Jimmy and I filled in each other's eyebrows and had a good laugh after we finished. Speaking of eyebrows, I had two clients and a good friend ask about my brows and how I get them to look the way they do (not like the picture!). 

I think your eyebrows really make your face and just pull everything together whether you have your going out makeup on or your everyday simple makeup on. Everyday I fill in my brows. Even on days when I'm running late and don't put on makeup, I always make sure to at least fill in my eyebrows because I love the way it looks.

There are a lot of great eyebrow kits you can buy at Sephora or Ulta such as Brow Zings by Benefit Cosmetics.

With this product you can mix the two colors together to get the perfect shade for your eyebrows. Mix more of the dark brown with the light for a darker shade and vice versa for a lighter shade. If you don't want to spend the money on a kit, use what you have from home. When I'm in a pinch I just use a dark brown eyeshadow from one of my pallets. Just make sure whatever shadow you use doesn't have a shimmer to it. I like to use a thin angled brush to shade my brows just right.

Here is my eyebrow before filling it in and after. The difference isn't super dramatic and still looks natural. Sometime when I go out on the weekends and I do want a more dramatic look, I fill my eyebrows in a little darker than usual. Just like anything else, practice makes perfect! I also only wax my eyebrows about once every 6-8 months and tweeze the rest of the time. Try filling in your brows for the day and see what a difference it makes on your appearance!

For the rest of my weekend I went on a bar crawl with some friends on East 6th St. and had a lazy Oscar watching Sunday. I highly recommend going to Jack Allen's Kitchen on Sunday morning for their brunch buffet. I think my eyes were bigger than my stomach that morning but it was so good! 

Who were your favorite dressed celebs from the Oscars? Mine were Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Aniston, and Nicole Kidman.

I'm hoping this week flies by and this crazy Texas wind dies down! I'm also in the process of changing my hair color again... pictures to come once it's finished! Happy Monday everyone :)

Tease It To What?

I know some people are wondering what the phrase "tease it to Jesus" means so I will explain! In cosmetology school we were all really into big hair. I LOVE big hair and seriously can't get enough of it. So to get my hair big and voluminous I tease it (back combing) with a brush at the root of my hair. I'm sure you have heard the phrase "the higher the hair, the closer to God" well in school it was "tease it to Jesus" so there you go!

I want to share this phrase with you all because it really means something to me! Sometimes it's easy to get wrapped up in things or people to distract you from other things in your life that are really important. I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of that and get too wrapped up in things that shouldn't be at the top of my priority list. With that being said, I think it's so important to stick to your goals and dreams FIRST and take everything that comes with it second. 

Today was my big move in day and it went way better and faster than I expected. If anyone in the Austin area is moving I would call Longoria Moving company. I have used them 3 times since being in Austin and it makes moving SO much easier!

This is my cute little apartment that I moved into and I really love it!

Today was slow, rainy day at the salon but saw a couple of clients. I had a woman come in who's hair was just completely matted to her head and was full of tangles. It took me a good 15 minutes to just brush her hair out before we washed it. I took a few inches of length off with some long layers and it made a WORLD of difference for her. Oh my gosh I couldn't even believe it. She also said that she washes her hair once a week (which is okay for SOME hair types) and when she does she sometimes only rinses and doesn't use shampoo and conditioner. 

I am telling you hair products can do wonders for your hair and the health of your hair. And they have to be GOOD products! Not the kind that you can get from the grocery store. Organic products are getting bigger everywhere and it's definitely the next big thing as far as hair care goes. At my salon we are organic and we use all organic hair color as well as hair products.

I used to not even be a believer in products that you can only purchase in the salon but I am 100% a believer now. Even my mom who knows absolutely nothing about hair commented on how healthy my hair looks the last time I went home. They seem expensive and you think you can get the same thing at the grocery store but that is not true at all. The difference between salon products and grocery store products are the ingredients. The stuff you buy at Wal-Mart has alcohol and sulfates and all kind of bad stuff for your hair. 

Here are a few of my FAVORITE products and what makes my hair shiny and moisturized...

This is the Kevin Murphy Hydrate Me Wash and Rinse. This is an all organic shampoo and conditioner that is going to put a lot of moisture back into your hair. Since I have ombre hair and my ends are lighter they are pretty dry, especially in the winter! This stuff makes my hair feel awesome.

This stuff is AWESOME! It is called Marrakesh Oil and you can buy it on Amazon.com. I do one pump into my palm and rub it together and put it at the ends of my hair. Whatever I have left over on my hands I run across the top of my hair. Sometimes oils freak people out thinking it makes their hair greasy but knowing how much to use and what to use is key. This makes my hair so shiny and I love it!

If you are into volume like I am (bigger the hair the better) then this is the product for you. I squirt a big snowball size of it into my hands, rub together and put at the base of my hair. Blow dry your hair all the way upside down and your hair is going to be huge... Just how I like it!

What are your favorite products to use? That is my regimen for now but it's always good to change it up! Don't be afraid to try something new and remember, you get what you pay for! Can't stress that enough... Saving one head of hair at a time!

Happy Hump Day!

Manic Monday

Grateful to get through another Monday! This weekend was jam packed of DRIVING for me! Speaking of jam packed, my family and I have had this joke between all of us using the phrase "jam packed and jelly tight" from a summer when we went to Disney World. We were on a bus going to the park that was super packed and very hot and our tour guide described the bus as that. So my weekend was jam packed and jelly tight full of driving it felt like.

Saturday at the salon was a good day. I did hair and makeup for a girl that was getting her UT graduation pictures taken and she was super sweet. I had a few other clients and then one client who didn't show up and didn't call. Note to you all, if you ever can't make an appointment, just call and cancel! Especially in my industry, we get paid commission only and if you don't show up we don't get paid. That time slot could have been used for another client that would have showed up for their service.

After work on Saturday I drove to San Antonio and had the idea that I would stay all weekend until Monday morning but totally forgot we had a bridal show to work at The Oasis. So Saturday night I spent it in San Antonio which was fun and then I left the next morning to go to The Oasis. The turn out wasn't as great as we expected it to be but it was a great experience anyway. The girls and I got to do the hair and makeup for the fashion show and also got to have our own booth there too.

This was one of the girls I did hair and make up on

Everyone ended up looking great and they all got to wear these amazing head pieces too!

The girls I work with - Destiny and Kristan

Our beautiful view of the day. I always forget how pretty The Oasis is and I need to go more often! It was definitely a fun day just getting to hang out with the girls I work with and meeting new people.

After being at The Oasis all day I drove back to San Antonio for the night and came back this morning for work. I am definitely crazy, I know this. So that is why today has been a manic Monday. Work was great today and saw a now regular client of mine that I love. I also found out that my application for my new apartment got approved and I scheduled movers to move me in on Wednesday!

This week has a lot in store for me not only for my move but some work opportunities too! I am feeling very excited and very hopeful for the future!

Also, for those of you wondering how my coconut crazy clients hair turned out, it turned out fine. It was definitely not how I wanted it to look ONLY because she wouldn't let me put a toner on it! Sometimes bleach can turn the hair an orange or brassy color and when you add a toner to it, it cancels those colors out and gives you the shade of blonde you want. So since she didn't let me use a toner for whatever wacko reason she had for it, it was a little brassy. Other than that, her hair looked good!

I hope everyone has a great week and stay tuned for my big move and news on my new opportunity coming up!

TGIF!

Happy Friday! I wish I could actually believe in the phrase "TGIF" but I will forever be working Saturday's for the rest of my life in a salon! Which is okay by me because that's when I make the most money. So tomorrow it will be TGIS!

Now that February is sloooowly coming to an end, wedding season is about to be here! 

(That's my cousin who's hair and makeup I did for her wedding. And me on the end!)

Like they say "don't judge a book by it's cover" it has the same effect for a wedding party. My salon specializes in weddings for hair and makeup and it's one of my favorite parts about my job! A few months ago a group of 12 girls walked in with their over sized white button downs with their initials embroidered next to the collar. I immediately thought they were going to be a hard group to handle, but they were surprisingly a super fun group! All of the girls had been friends since high school, just like my friends and I. It was so easy to get along with each of them because we were all so similar in so many ways.

Wedding parties can be fun but trust me, there is usually one bad apple of the group. And it's not ever the bride! It's always some random bridesmaid or one of the moms. You can do anything in your power to try and make that client happy, but no matter what you do she will hate it. That's just the way it goes in salon world. Lots and lots of crazies!

Two of my good friends got married in November and I had the best time at their wedding. The wedding was at House On the Hill in Austin and it was the cutest wedding I have ever been to! It seriously looked like a Pinterest wedding.

 The weather was perfect and the champagne was flowin'!

Sugar Mama's cupcakes were served and there were even a few gluten-free flavors in there too.

Speaking of champagne flowing, my date who is also my best girl friend passed out in the bathroom for the best man to find. It was definitely a wedding to (not) remember! What's your craziest story from a wedding you've been to?

I wish you all a fabulous weekend and hope you have something fun planned! I have a day full of clients tomorrow and then I'll be off to San Antonio to see my boo and I can't wait!

Coconut Crazy

Happy Valentines day! I always say how much I hate this "holiday" but I have to admit I actually kind of like it. Whether I have a Valentine or not, I like the feeling of all the love everyone shares on this day. I like the pink and red and cutsey decorations. I even enjoy all of my Facebook friends bragging about what presents they got from their boyfriends too.

Here is a picture of my Valentine's Do...

Today was interesting to say the least... 

My 4 pm highlight and haircut appointment came about 40 minutes early. She showed up with wet hair and my manager told her she might want to go and blow dry it with one of our blowdryers so that we can get started right away after I finish my first client. She insisted that it wasn't wet and that she had coconut oil in her hair and she didn't want to wash it out.

So I finish my first client and send her on her way and get my coconut lady, Amanda*, in my chair. During the consultation she began to explain that she had coconut oil in her hair and that she has left it on before and had organic color applied to her hair and it is fine. I have never done color with any sort of oil or wetness to the hair before. She swore up and down that she has done it before and that the coconut oil protects her hair better from the bleach we would have to use for her highlights.

I was very confused but was also trying to please her and give her my professoinal opinion. I asked her to show me a picture of what she wanted and she showed me a picture of Kate Moss with platinum blonde hair. Amanda's hair was all sorts of different colors ranging from a medium brown to an orangey blonde. But with the massive amount of oil on her hair, I couldn't even really tell what her natural color was either!

I began to explain to her that I did not feel comfortable doing her color with all this oil on her head and asked if we could wash it out, dry it, and start from scratch. She refused. She even said that she would pay $20 extra to leave it on. At this point I knew this appointment wasn't going to be easy...

I do her highlights and then it came time to rinse it out. She then reaches into a bag she brought and wants me to use her organic shampoo and conditioner even though every product we use at the salon is... ORGANIC! I put her craziness to the side and said "fine". Before she sits at the shampoo bowl she pulls out a gallon of water for me to use instead of our sink water.

Yes, she brought in two gallons of purified water for me to rinse her hair out with. I am silently laughing inside and I can only imagine the facial expression I made as she requested this from me. I finally convinced her that I needed to use our water to get enough water pressure to rinse out all the color.

She was so intent on leaving her coconut oil in her hair and she was not budging. So for those of you going to a salon for any type of treatment, don't have product in your hair so the professional can do her work the right way! 

For any hair stylist reading this, what would you have done? What has been your most difficult client to deal with so far in your career?

What is your favorite hair "trick" that you live by/believe in? I can't go a day without my hairspray and my teasing brush!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Hair Chair

It's amazing what you can learn about a person in such a short amount of time. With each client that leaves my chair, I feel like I gained a new friend. Sure, we may not see each other outside of my salon but I definitely know them on a different level before they walk out the door.

Sitting in the chair of a hairdresser is like a (almost free) therapy session. I get to hear her complain about her last hairdresser and we swap horrible dating stories. The funny thing is that the most unexpected client can have the most in common with me.

Yesterday I had a new client to the salon that came in for a haircut. She was an older woman, in her late forties, early fifties named Karen* and lives in a small suburb outside of Austin. She wears her hair in a ponytail every single day and only wanted a trim. So I immediately ask what she does for work and why her hair is always up. She told me she is an ER nurse and has been for 16 years. I love when I talk to a nurse or someone who works in a hospital because I love hearing about the crazy stories they have. So I ask her what her crazy stories are and she thought hard about it for a minute and finally said "you would be surprised at how many men come in with objects up their butt." She just flat out told me about men sticking things up their butts for fun (or curiosity?).

My immediate reaction was to laugh and then tell her that is EXACTLY what my aunt in Plano says! For years she has always told these outrageous stories about these (stupid) men and their excuses for why a piece of fruit or a vegetable is stuck up their butt! So I ask Karen to be more specific and she told me a story about a man that came in the other week with a cucumber stuck so far up there that they had to open up his abdomen just to get it out. "What's his excuse?" I asked and it was, "I was out on my tractor naked and I fell off onto my cucumber patch."

Really? As if anyone actually thinks that cucumbers grow out of the ground vertically.

So there we had one odd thing in common with her being a nurse and her crazy stories and my aunt who is a nurse with the same stories. Karen actually has some family that lives in Plano, which is where I am from, as well.

I went on to ask her more about her personal life and if she was single/married/dating and she said she has a boyfriend. I asked what her boyfriend does and where he is from and she told me he is retired now and from Mexico. That was another thing I screamed "me too!" about (not my boy being retired, but being from Mexico).

The guy I've been seeing is from Mexico and english is his second language. I asked her if she knew any Spanish and she said that she is starting to take Rosetta Stone and that it helps here and there. I am very interested in taking a Spanish class once I get some extra money and Karen said the same thing.

To make a long story longer, I find it so interesting that someone who is 25 odd years older than I can have so much in common with me. It makes me believe that age really is just a number and that some people get too hung up on it. I can see youth in almost all people and it is inspiring to me. I can only hope that when I'm older I can still have a fun side to me no matter where I am in life.