The Pixie Cut Mom

I am probably the last person on earth to feel fashionable, trendy or cute but sometimes I get a little spunk in me and go for it. I don't want to be stared at or the center of attention. Blending in is ok. Until I got the nerve to make a drastic change... to my hair.



Long for me is a beautiful, stringy mess with few options and more headache than I care to deal with. Post-partum hair loss was my main motivation to make a change followed by the desperate grabbing hands of my little man while nursing.

The above was Thanksgiving 2012. A couple of weeks later I took the plunge to cut several inches off and go for a slight bob cut (thank you, Mary!)...

I let this grow out over the course of the next 4 or so months (laziness) and decided I was ready for yet another slightly more dramatic change.

 My newest inspiration started here with Dear Whippy and her longer pixie style.

 

And this was my result (thank you Sarah!)...

 

I realized I was not much for the longer sideburns and hair around my ears. I was spending far too much time flat ironing to perfection, which seemed unachievable.

It felt almost like a Lego hair piece.

After I decided I didn't like the Lego look I went back to my hair stylist with new inspiration from my good friend, Ginnifer Goodwin.

 Ok, so we're not "good" friends, but my minor obsession with the TV series Once Upon A Time made me absolutely fall in love with this style far more than I had previously thought I might.

 

 

My husband recently took up photography and photo editing as a hobby. Enjoy his wonderful work!

 

 

 

I couldn't be happier with the outcome of my hair!

I am still working on the styling aspect. There is so much to do with the pixie but many of the more fun styles need a fair amount of product and a bit of practice. Currently all I use to style my hair is my blow dryer, flat iron, hair spray and volumizing powder. It does require almost daily washing in order to have a clean styling slate. You're also looking at cutting it ever 4-5 weeks.

 

 If you were considering the pixie don't expect to be able to jump out of bed in the A.M. and be on your merry way. If you do this you will look like, as I saw once described, a derranged teenage boy.

(After I experiment more I will share with you the products I find work best for me and the respective style. I'm taking tips from several different pixie ladies!)

You will begin to find that accessories such as head bands and clips become a necessity to avoiding the same look every day if you're like me and don't have much styling time on a busy day. There's no need to spend an arm and a leg on them though. Check local overstock stores like TJ Maxx or Ross. They often have them for $1-$5. If you are interested in the clips I'm sporting in some of my pictures you can find them here on Amazon. In the future I plan to make my own assortment, of which you can find hundreds of tutorials if you simply use dear old Pinterest!

 

 

 

 

Normally I wouldn't promote this aspect because "natural beauty is all you need" according to my husband... who is he kidding. I'm a woman! But honestly, make-up can really make this style pop and truly do its magic. Your face is fully exposed with little focus elsewhere and the before and after is surprising when it comes to putting your face on. There's no need to over do it but I feel like the fun part of the pixie is you can apply a more natural make-up coverage or an evening make-up coverage and still look fabulous! There will (hopefully) be more on that in the future as there isn't much opportunity for the evening look in my present daily life.

 

 

 

 

I suppose I'll end with a thought:

Long hair is elegant and is the timeless and modest picture of being a lady, but don't be afraid to take the plunge in to super short hair if you've considered it! You can still make it look beautiful and feminine! I did it somewhat gradually but I'll be honest, nothing can truly prepare you for this sort of drastic change no matter how short you thought you were before. You'll be shocked at first and likely question every ounce of you that ever thought it would be a good idea, but the compliments will pour in and probably overwhelm you (be humble!)... and confidence will gain. Learn from what others before you have done to make it work. Feel comfortable with your choice and embrace the short hair trend!

 

 

Natural Face Cleanser & Make-up Remover

 

 

One of my favorite homemade health & beauty products so far is the natural face cleanser I found at The Prairie Cottage. Shelley shared this simple 4-recipe cleanser that got pretty good reviews from followers.

 

If you're new to natural cleansers this one may sound completely strange to you... olive oil?! It is actually a great cleanser all by itself. You can read up more on it here at TheOilCleansingMethod.com but the basic concept is that you're replacing the bad, hardened oils in your pores with fresh clean oils!

 

On to the very quick process. You'll need:

 

2 teaspoons liquid soap (I used Dr. Bronner's Almond castile soap)
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons glycerin (found at GNC or health food stores) 
1/2 cup olive oil   

 

Add the ingredients to a food processor or blender if you have one. I used my Ninja. Mix it until everything is well-blended and creamy. Pour it over in to your pump bottle and there you go!

I doubled my recipe which fit perfectly in a Wolfgang Puck spaghetti sauce jar (pictured above). Most of it is now in the pump but the jar works great for extras and is left under the bathroom sink to refill the pump as needed.
 

 

 

This stuff is an AMAZING moisturizer and make-up remover. I used to use coconut oil as my eye make-up remover (which worked wonderfully btw) then wash with some other random cleanser then follow up with a small amount of coconut oil for my moisturizer. This new cleanser completely eliminates that three-step process and puts it all in to one!

 

I use a couple pumps in the bath, or at the sink. Massage it well all over your face and neck and gently around your eyes especially if you have mascara or eye make-up on. Then gently wash away with a wash cloth and warm/hot water, whatever you can stand. You may need to rinse the cloth then gently wipe away again, but don't be intimidated if your face feels slightly oily. This is ok. You don't want to strip your face dry because then you will over-produce oils to make up for it then you're back at quare one.

 

My husband does not like this. He said he used it a few days and swears it is the reason he broke out worse. Don't tell him I said this but I think he didn't give it a fair shot. I am planning to try a different recipe for him. He's stubborn and probably won't touch this stuff with a 10 foot pole again!

 

 

Try this out for yourself, I think you'll totally love it! Leave me and/or Shelley at The Prairie Cottage your feedback :)

 

~Lisa~

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gel Polish Review!

My review on Gelish Gel Polish! 

A few weeks ago I decided to purchased a Gelish kit. I hate paying to get my nails done, and I never keep up with it. Plus if you go for acrylics they are so harsh on your nails that if you decide to get them removed it takes a long time for them to grow out completely and recover. Regular polish is also a bust on my nails so my hope was to have more success with gel.

Many nail salons offer gel polish but you're looking at about $25-$30 every time you want it done. Typically every 2 to 3 weeks is when you should redo them. You don't get fill-ins because it's just a thicker polish they apply in coats so each time you go they have to remove the polish and start a new "set" over.

What You Need to Get Started

I purchased the Gelish Basix Kit from Sally Beauty Supply. I paid $45 for it. I have actually seen the kit for about half the retail price on Amazon so be sure to shop around before buying in store.

With this kit you get:

- Mini Gelish Ph Bond

- Mini Gelish Foundation

- Mini Gelish Top It Off

- Mini Gelish Nourish

- Mini Gelish Cleanser

- Mini Gelish Artificial Nail Remover.

This kit claims it will last you about 15 applications. I did, however, have to purchase additional nail remover after the 3rd application.

You do not get any colored polishes or a UV/LED lamp. These must be purchased separately, and a lamp is required in order to set the polish properly. I purchased a basic mini UV lamp.

My Experience with Application

Initially I decided to try the gel minus color, just using what came in the Basix kit. Definitely pleased with the results! The polish stays shiny the entire time you wear it, and it gives the nails a great protective coating without damaging your nails like the drilling and filing needed with acrylics. Just the regular kit application took about 15 minutes total. Once you decide to add color the process will begin to take a little longer.

After a few days of the natural color I decided to buy polish so I went with the basic white so I could do a french manicure. This process was a little more difficult. I do not often french tip my nails so it takes a little patience to get it just right. Fortunately gel polish is pretty forgiving and you can fix minor booboos with the polish or a fingernail if the edges get a little uneven.

Each coat, after the foundation (which cures for just 1 minute under UV) MUST be cured for 2 minutes! Otherwise it will not set properly for the next coat and could cause the final product to not work once you cure the Top It Off.

When I added the clear polish coat over the white tip it smeared :( I'm not sure if this had to do with not curing the white tip color well enough, if I put the white polish on too thick (which could cause it to not cure well), or if the regular clear Gelish polish I chose to coat over the white was just not a good pick...??

You can see a little in these photos where the polish smeared back slightly from the main white tip area. It was actually much more noticeable to me than these photos give credit. From a distance nobody would really notice though.

 

Video Tips

It took a little research but I finally found a video on YouTube of a girl who had a good polish idea for french manicures. Instead of using just the plain clear polish she chose some light glittery colors that make the finally product look cute plus I was somehow able to not smear the white tips using this method! Who knows what I really did wrong last time....

The video is long and ultimately shows you stamping and design at the end, but all I was interested in was her application of the Light Elegance color along with the french tips using Sheek White.

Here are my nails using the Basix kit, Sheek White and Light Elegance. I applied this coat approximately 2 weeks ago. Don't mind my crooked filing.

 Nail Repair

Before I put this coat on I had the corner of my pointer finger nail (the one in this image) tear back by the finger. That was a bummer :( So I purchased a nail repair kit and applied the polish over it as normal. The gel polish will not create a good enough coat of protection, without some sort of repair, to hold the tear since it still has flexible tendencies.

I have been pretty rough on this coat of polish with installing hard floors, rearranging furniture and painting so unfortunately I had the other pointer finger get another slight tear in the corner. I went ahead and did the nail repair kit over the tear and gel polish instead of completely redoing the polish on that nail and appling the repair underneath. That worked just fine but of course that spot of the gel polish will not be as shiny since the repair is on top. Ultimately I roughed that nail up too badly and it ripped the whole tip off. I will have to buy glue-on tips in order to redo the gel polish with a french tip on this nail. 

Adding your own tips is perfectly doable but you have to file down the surface because gel polish will not adhere properly to shiny surfaces!

Apply Gel to Kid's Nails!!

I did apply gel polish to my daughter's nails. She's almost 4. She does not bite her nails (typically will pick at and peel them) so I felt comfortable doing it. Obviously her nails are much much more thin so I was very generous with filing and it takes a lot of patience to get a 3 1/2 year old to understand the process will take some time and she has to be still. Amazingly it worked and they lasted approximately a week. She also did not pick at her nails and peel the excess like she would without gel polish. 

It's hard to "seal in the edges" (see the video, she shows how you are supposed to do that after every single coat) of a toddler's nails so it did leave hers open to easily peeling off, plus she loves playing in the dirt... I guess that saves me the trouble of soaking them off! Nonetheless she loved it and I can't wait to do a mani/pedi with her again soon :)

The Breakdown!

Cons:

- A bit time consuming (unlike regular nail polish) 

- Removal takes 10-15 minutes before you can apply another complete "set"

- You can't use regular nail polish with it (OK, there is supposedly a way to properly use regular nail polish but I'm ok so far with purchasing the Gelish colors to do it all gel. You'll just need to do your research on that.)

- Price: The polish prices do add up. They cost about $10-$13 so if you like to get funky and creative with each new application you'll need to buy the polish for it, but since it does last 2 to 3 weeks it's not like you have to buy polish every time you turn around. I buy a new color maybe once a month or longer.

Pros:

- It doesn't damage your nails like acrylics

- Gives a little added strength

- Stays shiny

- Looks natural and not bulky like acrylics

- Very affordable compared to having them professionally done. 

- Works great on toes, too!

I hope my input has been of some help to you ladies out there looking for a new way to do adorable, lasting manicures and pedicures :)