tutorials

POINT à POINT

photos/post: Kristin Ess nail art: Kimberly Hong

It’s good to change things up every now and then. Today let’s have a some fun with the classic French mani, shall OUI!? We’re simply adding two rows of cute little dots below the classic French manicure line. Simple enough, right? Get out your dotting tool and let’s get started! READ MORE…

makeup

WHY NOT…

photos + post by amy nadine, graphic design by eunice chun

We continue our Why Not? Series with this fun one that will really wow your friends! It’s such a playful and creative take on winged-out liquid liner and easy to do with this DIY stencil. After trying to make the scalloped edge with a hole puncher {too small} or drawing it freehand {might work for a lot of you but didn’t for me}, I remembered this heart pattern that I used to doodle all over my notebooks in high school and wondered if the top half could make a nice scalloped edge… and somehow, it did just that! You’ll find this one easier if you enlist a friend to do it on each other, so I borrowed my friend Areana and here’s what we did! READ MORE…

hair

BEAT THE HEAT

photos/post/design: Kristin Ess

Since it’s about 550 degrees here in sunny Los Angeles, I figured this would be the perfect day to show you a quick + pretty way to get your hair up and off your shoulders. Don’t let the 13 steps fool you– this tutorial is fairly simple, just wanted to make sure you saw every little step! Hope you’ve all been practicing your inside-out french braid lately. You can definitely do this with a regular french braid, but I like the volume that comes from loosening up an inside-out braid better. Here we go:

  1. Part your hair starting at the top of your crown and go down right behind your ears. Pull those pieces forward and save them for later.
  2. Put all the hair in the back into a loose ponytail. This will allow the chignon shape to sit a little lower. Optional: you can make your ponytail higher/tighter if you want it up and off your neck.
  3. Lightly tease the ponytail.
  4. Wrap it into a low bun and pin using large bobby pins to make it really secure.
  5. Do an inside-out french braid, starting at your hairline and continuing down behind your ear.
  6. Braid the remaining hair all the way down and tie it off with a clear elastic.
  7. Repeat the same steps on the other side.
  8. Gently tug the braid apart. Start at the front hairline and lightly tug each individual loop/piece until you get down to the elastic. This will “fatten” up your braid and give it much more volume and texture. If layered pieces fall out, you can tuck them and spray them or just let them fall. Totally up to you.
  9. Cross the two braids over each other just above the bun and secure them with some bobby pins.
  10. Remove the clear elastics from the bottom of one braid and give a gentle but secure tease to the ends of the braid.
  11. Wrap it under the bottom of the bun and secure it with a strong bobby pin.
  12. Repeat on the other side.
  13. Tuck the remaining hair under the bun and secure with another strong bobby pin.

Use a hand mirror to look at the back and sides. Check to make sure it’s balanced. Pull a couple loose pieces out around your face if you want a softer look. Hope you all give this a go this weekend! As always, let’s see it! –> @TBDofficial

 

hair

OFTEN OVERLOOKED: THE TOOTHBRUSH

Sometimes we focus so much on what’s new that we forget how many tools we have hiding in the drawers at home. A spare toothbrush comes in quite handy in the hair world and I always keep a couple in my kit. The two best uses I’ve found for this ol’ thing are:

Smoothing down annoying fly-aways + baby hairs around the hair line. Spray a little strong-holding hairspray directly on the bristles of the toothbrush and smooth those little buggers down. On fine hair, I spray it directly on the toothbrush. With thick/coarse hair I usually spray it straight on the little hairs and then smooth over with the toothbrush because with coarser hair you usually need a bit more spray that what you’ll get off the toothbrush.

Cleaning out the vent on your blow dryer is important! Okay, you know when the blow dryer starts getting hotter than normal or even shorts out? It’s probably caused by a build up of lint or dust in the back of your blow dryer. The fan and motor have to work insanely hard and they get really hot if the back isn’t clean + clear. Cleaning that vent out isn’t usually very easy, but with a toothbrush it is! Just run the bristles of the toothbrush back and forth across the metal mesh on back. I like to remove the vent on my ELCHIM dryer, blow the remaining dust particles through using the front end of the dryer, then re-attatch it. The more particles you keep out of the vent, the cleaner it will run and the longer it will last.

What beauty uses do you have for a spare toothbrush? Let’s exchange ideas below!