Stella and NARS Dream Team

OK Wow!!! I am loving Stella Tennant being the new face of NARS. She is one of my all time favorite models and never fails to impress. I seem to be seeing her everywhere recently, I don't know if it's the nod to the 90's we've been seeing in fashion or that awesome walk at the London 2012 Olympics that made everyone take notice of her again? Whatever the reason I'm very happy about it.

Her hair in this shoot is just freakin awesome, it's like glamorous grunge!! The way they manage to make it look edgy and modern but still maintain femininity and glamour is exactly the break we needed from the soft, bouncy and done look we've been seeing for too long now. It's also the perfect look for NARS as it goes perfectly with their philosophy of no rules for beauty.

To get this look at home is actually pretty simple. Start off by blow drying you hair with a flat brush, preferably with a product that has a good flexible hold like Aveda Confixor Liquid Gel £14. If your hair is a tad on the curly/frizzy side I would straighten your hair too, but with a bend and not too close to the root so you don't loose the volume. Finish with an old school wax that's going to give your hair hold and shine like Bummble & Bummble Sumowax £21.50 and you're there. But remember, be liberal with your application of wax so you can get that slicked finish look, but make sure not to go overboard. Greasy hair doesn't look good on anyone, except maybe Severus Snape.

Hair-Up Class

A quiet afternoon in-salon can still be a productive one, as I found out today. Having a chat with the very talented Karyn Holloway (my go to hair up guru) about braids, prompted the start of a stunning little hair-up.

Karyn showed me how to do two variations of the same braid, the "Laced Feather"

and the "Laced Ladder".

both stunningly simple, quick and effective ways to dress up your hair.

Being us though we took it a wee step further. We started to think of how it could be incorporated in to something more advanced and more striking. What we came up with involved big hair backcombing, quite a bit of hairspray and a super glamorous, red carpet worthy hair-up.

We used a ghd IV Styler and ghd heat protector spray to smooth out the hair and then proceeded with the braid from the right side through to the back of the head. Then came the serious backcombing and shaping of the victory roll through the top of the head using Osis Glamour Queen hairspray which continued in to a soft bun at the nape of the neck. Give it all a light misting of Moroccanoil Glimmer Shine Spray and you have got yourself quite the striking hair-up

I always love these types of hair-ups. the old school glamour of the 40's and 50's but chaneled in to a more modern extreme is always fun to do and even more so to look at.

Schwarzkopf BonaCure Fiberforce Review

Well where do I start? I had a quiet day last week and actually had time to think about how I wanted my hair to look. For some reason I thought that red would be a good look, let's just say it wasn't (no, there will be no photos of the disaster that was my red hair). Having black hair for the past 9 months meant that a little bit of bleaching was in order before we could think about putting red anywhere near my hair *smiles innocently*.

So to make a long story short I ended up frying my hair and making it a violent shade of strawberry (not chic). As you can imagine I changed the colour immediately but unfortunately, the damage done by the bleach was not so easily fixed. However, as luck would have it, we had a new treatment arrive which promised amazing results and the chance to restore my hair to its best with shine a softness to boot!

The new treatment is called FIBERFORCE. It's part of the BonaCure range from Schwarzkopf and is a combination of an in salon treatment and take home products. The products in the FIBERFORCE range use micronised hair-identical keratin to go deep inside the hair and re-bond the cell membrane by filling in the gaps. This is what makes our hair fibre strong and resilient

The range consists of a Shampoo (£11.55) which cleanses the hair gently, a rinse out Conditioner (£12.75) to fortify the hair, a Spray Conditioner (£12.75) which strengthens and gives body and a Fortifier Treatment (£14.45) that deeply penetrates to rejuvenate the hair. The Salon exclusive part of the treatment is the Keratin Infusion Serum which instantly replenishes your hair and starts working on filling those gaps.

I have to say that I did feel the difference straight away and even though it's only been just over a week it feels almost back to normal. If you abuse your hair as much as I seem to, this is a definite must have. So get asking your stylist about it now.