Heatless Hair Adventures | Straw Curls / Waves #2

Ready for another Heatless Hair Adventure? We are still on straws, but this time I promise the result will be less poodlerific!

Here's what you will need!

What we are going to be doing is making our straws thicker to create more of a substantial curl/wave effect.

Start buy gathering 4 straws together, if you want bigger fuller curls use more. (I'll try that out at a later date and post the results)

Secure with masking tape, you can also use little hair ties but I find this works better for me.

You want to make enough straw rollers to cover your head, I've made 8 in total.

And then once your ready, your hairs all combed through, spray a section damp with water and wrap your hair around the straws from top to bottom, I find this the easiest way to do it.

I then repeated this all over my head, using 7 of my 8 straw rollers and left them in for approximately 3 and a half hours.

The result...

Pretty, tight waves. I'm also wearing the red lip gloss I made from my last post! 

Give this a go and let me know how you get on!

Have a great day!

Jen x

DIY | Lip Gloss

I'm sure you all know by now that I love a DIY. And today I'm sharing with you this super quick and easy DIY for lip glosses.

Here's what you will need:

~ Eye shadow's or Blushers

~ Containers

~ Castor Oil

First up what you want to do is scrape in to your containers an decent amount of your eye shadow or blush.

The first two are MUA blushers in Shade1 and Bubblegum. Then I have a magenta eye shadow, a pale pink and a coral. And finally a cream bush I  thought I would try by Natural Collection in Rosy Pink.

Then simply add in your Castor oil, I just eyeballed it to get the amount I wanted, then simply mix together to combine, make sure you get those little bits.

And here we have all six. What I noticed was that once the shadow or blush was combined with the castor oil the colouring would change, so each lip gloss ended up different to how it had look in powder form. So this is a really important thing to consider.

These are our swatches. The second from the top was the MUA blusher in Bubblegum and this is my favourite shade. The magenta pink shadow turned purple! And is extra sparkly on, would be great if you were creating a scifi or halloween look!

The cream blush is the one second from the bottom and didn't mix overly well with the castor oil. All the other colours came out very nude, which is perfect if your a fan of nudes. Sadly I don't have the lips or skin tone to carry nudes, so I doubt I'll use those.

I did take some photos of the swatches on my lips, but in photo's my lips are really wonky looking so I decided against that! Sorry!

This little DIY was really easy to do and I hope you give it a go!

Credit for the idea goes to beautyklove.

Have a great day!

Jen

How To: Top Knot

Here is my quick and easy how to for the classic top knot. 

Here's what you will need:

A scrunchie, preferably one close to your hair colour, a smoothing brush, a clear hair tye, this one is by Scunci and bobby pins.

1. Start off by brushing your hair up and back in to a high pony using the smoothing brush.

2. Then tie you pony using your scrunchie.

3. Next simply wrap your hair around the scrunchie and pull your clear hair tye over the top of your top knot.

4. Secure any sticky outtie bits with bobby pins.

5. The your good to go!

This hairstyle is great for second or third day hair as the grease in your hair keeps the fly away's at bay and its great for summer! It can look really sleek and fashionable with all hair including your fringe slicked back.

Hope you try out these tips the scrunchie makes the top knot nice and bulky as apposed to flat or tight.

Have a great day guys! 

Oh and happy 100th post!

Jen x

My Top 5 Tips for Healthy, Happy Hair

Hi guys! Today I'm going to share with you my top 5 tips for keeping your hair looking its best.

1. DO NOT WASH YOUR HAIR EVERY DAY

I know that for a lot of people this is something that seems impossible or gross, but forgoing a wash can really help your hair's health in the long run. On your scalp you have thousands of sebaceous glands, which produce an oil that helps to protect the hair and keep it soft, supple and shiny. And if you wash your hair every day, you strip away those natural oils before they have been able to do there job. So try going for every other day and use a dry shampoo like Batiste to get rid of the grease between washes.

2. TURN DOWN THE HEAT

Try to limit the amount of heat you put on your hair through. Let your hair air dry as often as possible, or if your in a rush use the coolest heat setting on your hair dryer. If your not going anywhere don't worry about straightening/curling your hair, let it have a rest, try to do it for 'special' occasions or when your really need too. And when you do, make sure you liberally spray on heat protector to help minimise the damage left by hot tools. Too much heat can leave your hair feeling really dry and brittle. I'm not saying don't ever use them, just use heat in moderation.

3. NEVER BRUSH YOUR HAIR WHEN IT IS WET

Or even comb it. Your hair is its most fragile when it is wet, so pulling a brush or comb through it is a bit like hair torture. Ever hear that horrible rip or snap of the strands? Ouch! It leaves breakage and split ends behind. Instead, what I like to do is find my parting with my fingers and part my hair, if like me and you have a fringe, I do comb this in to position, simply so it doesn't dry in a wacky way. Then let your hair completely dry before combing it through. And believe it or not your hair will untangle its self as it relaxes and dries making it easier to brush out, resulting in less snagging.

4. DEEP CONDITIONING/HAIR OILING

For super soft locks its always great to deep condition on a regular basis. Find a deep conditioning hair mask that works for you and use it at least once a week. Alternatively and some times more cheaply, picking a natural oil that does good for your hair and deep conditioning your hair with it is just as good, if not even better! Try coconut oil, its one of the few that really penetrates the hair shaft. I like to leave it on over night and wash it out in the morning. It leaves your hair super soft and shiny. Read my post HERE.

5. REGULAR TRIMS

Whether it be by a salon or do it your self at home, regular trims can help maintain the overall appearance and health of your hair. Ever noticed how ratty your hair can look if you go a while between hair cuts? And then how gorgeous and healthy it looks afterwards?
But if your growing out your hair, like me you may think that cutting your hair is a no go. The simple fact is, it doesn't have to be. I haven't actually been to the hairdressers this year but my hair doesn't look like its been abandoned either. Instead I've been trimming my hair at home which is really easy to do. The general way that I do it, for example is, if you lift a section of hair up and look at it, how straight/level are the ends? Are they all varying lengths making it look a little bit messy? I simply find the best level and cut straight across. If you want I'll do a hair trimming post next time I'm due a trim. (btw, I'm not a trained hairdresser it will be just me showing you how I do it) But in general keeping up with hair cuts is a great way too keep your hair looking its best.

*Images have been googled and some edited*

Hope you have liked my tips and found some of it of use!
I'll be back with more hair tips later on!

Have a great day!

Jen x

Elf's Kitchen | Chicken Katsu Curry

Hi guys! Welcome back to Elf's Kitchen! Today I'm going to be sharing with you this CHANNEL 4 recipe for Chicken Katsu Curry. You of course can just click on the link and go straight to the website from here, but I have pictures :) pictures make everything better!

This yummy curry has been made super popular by restaurants such as Wasabi and Wagamama's. With its fried chickeny goodness and mild curry sauce its an ever popular dish here in the UK. And better yet its so easy to make at home!

If you can't read my scrawl here is what your are going to need:

• 1 TBSP of Vegetable Oil
• 1 Onion, peeled and chopped
• 5 whole Garlic gloves, peeled
• 2 Carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 TBSP of Plain Flour
• 1 TBSP of Medium Curry Powder
• 600ml of Chicken Stock
• 2 TSP of Honey
• 1 TBSP of Soy Sauce
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 1/2 TSP of Garam Masala
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 Chicken Breasts
• 100g of Flour seasoned well
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 120g of Cornflakes, crushed
• Vegetable Oil to shallow fry

Start by peeling and chopping up your onion. Then peel your garlic. Heat your oil in a pan, then add in your onions and garlic, and saute for a few minutes. 

Then peel and chop up your carrots and add them in. Place the lid on top of your pan and allow to sweat for 10 minutes. You want your vegetables to begin to soften.

Measure out your flour and curry powder then add those in to the vegetables and stir in, allowing to cook for a minute.

Slowly add in your chicken stock, be sure to stir as you go to combine it with the flour and curry powder. Next add in your honey, soy and bay leaf and give it a little stir. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer and thicken for about 20 minutes.

Now you want to add in your salt & pepper and Garam Masala powder. Give it a good stir.

Then take it off the heat, remove the bay leaf and using a stick blender if you have one, blend everything together to get rid of all of the lumps. You'll end up with a nice soup like consistency. Place it back on a low heat just to keep warm .

Next up, preparing the chicken. You want to lay out on a plate, your seasoned flour, then in separate bowls the crushed cornflakes and whisked egg.

Start by rolling around your chicken breasts in the flour until well coated. Then dip them in to your bowl of egg making sure it is all well covered. Finally you want to place them in to your corn flakes and cover up the chicken as much as you can with the cornflakes.

Then in a frying pan you want to heat up your vegetable oil. I put in enough to completely cover the bottom and then a little extra.

What I like to do, as this helps to cook the chicken through thoroughly, is slice through it, but not all the way through, so that as it is cooking you can see whether it is still pink or not. Through out cooking you want to flip your chicken to cook both sides.

Once cooked slice all the way through and serve on a bed of sticky rice and cover with your curry sauce.

Bon Appetite!

Hope you enjoy this recipe and definitely give it ago. The cornflakes give the chicken a really nice crunch but if you prefer you can use bread crumbs instead!

Have a great day guys!

Jen x