Vegas: Mount Charleston part two

After hiking around in the snow for a bit then jumping in and making snow angels we felt it time to warm up and made our way back to the car. From there we headed out on the scenic route that loops around the mountains, connecting the various mountain ridges of the parks together. We usually approach from the other entrance by Mount Charleston lodge, so coming in from the other direction this time was a lot of fun! We stopped at several view points along the way before eventually ending up at the Mount Charleston lodge for hot cocoa. Definitely recommended after walking around in the cold for a few hours! There's even a series of adorable cabins you can rent up there along with rooms near the lodge, which I imagine is quite lovely. There's also RV and regular camping for those who prefer to get a little more up close and personal with their wilderness.  We didn't have the time for those things on this trip, though we hope to make it back soon and camp overnight! It's really only a short drive from the Vegas Valley so if you're an out of town visitor looking for something different than the usual Las Vegas strip stay I can highly recommend you check out the camping either here at Mount Charleston, out at Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon or Bonnie Springs Ranch! There's a lot more to do in the Las Vegas area than get drunk and gamble away your life savings, and believe it or not our desert landscape offers a bounty of different ecosystems and environments rife with various animal and plant species to encounter. Now that we have Vanticore in our armada to make camping and exploring easier, we're definitely planning to get out and about and explore all the beautiful national and state parks surrounding our fair glittering city.  I hope that you enjoy these photos from our outing and that they inspire you to go out on an adventure all your own! If you don't have a vehicle of your own at your disposal you can opt to take a Lyft, Uber or get a rental car- in this instance getting a rental car (or even better yet, a camper van) would likely be your best route. You can even bicycle out there if you're so inclined!

More photos below!

Vegas: Snow day at Mount Charleston part one

Snow is one of those exceptionally rare things that graces the Las Vegas valley maybe once every decade or so, if we're lucky. Precipitation of any kind is pretty rare in Vegas, with the city averaging  only roughly 2 inches every year, and snow is even more so rarified. It can, and does occasionally, happen but it takes such a lucky convergence of factors that I wouldn't ever try to bet on it happening on any given year. Fortunately for Vegas-dwellers, we have several nearby mountain ranges that are far more prone towards getting precipitation and even SNOW during the colder months of the year! It can come and go quite quickly, so when the snow is visible on the mountains you've got to act fast to really make the best of it. Some years we'll get lucky and the snow will be deep and dense in the mountains for weeks, or even months, and the skiing and snowboarding will be bountiful. Personally, I've never skied or snowboarded, I just like snow. Last time I really got to play in much snow I think it was during the blizzard of 2011 in Tokyo! Given as much, I was super excited to be out in the snow again.  I wasn't feeling all that well and struggled to get very far up the mountain, but I did my best given the circumstances and I'm just grateful we got to go and experience it while it was there. Mount Charleston is about an hour outside of Las Vegas, so if you plan a visit during the winter months you can easily make an escape with a rental car or Uber if you're wanting to escape the city. I highly recommend it, and there are cabins you can stay at up at Charleston if you want to truly immerse yourself into the snowy beauty for more than a few hours. Since we've been having health issues over the past few weeks, we opted for a shorter stay this time round but would love to stay for longer in the future!  We had a lot of fun while we were there and enjoyed our stay. We'll definitely be planning for an extended visit next time. 

Art: Downtown Location Scouting

Unfortunately for the two of us, this year got off on a bit of a rough start. Both Antho and I have fallen sick with different ailments affecting different bodily functions or areas at different times throughout the first few weeks of January, meaning one of us has generally been under the weather for the majority of this year so far... whether that means projectile vomiting from the stomach flu or wheezing and gasping for air with a chest cold, it's been an arduous chunk of time. Even so, we've still managed to drag ourselves out of bed and get out on the town and squeeze in some scouting for locations that we could potentially use as a background to photograph our tie-dye because I'm a relentless perfectionist. It can be rather tricky doing product photography like this as you want to highlight the item itself that's up for bid while also creating an interesting and visually striking image, one that stands out from the competition and communicates the vision and personality of your brand. It's been a long, curvaceous and informative road since we started our Etsy shop back in late 2015 but even with all that we've learned and improved over  time there's always ample of room for growth and improvement left yet. On this trip we spent our time downtown looking for locations with decent lighting and interesting features that photographs well. These were some of the winners this round through. Vegas is quite fortunate in that the last few years has seen a wide-scale embracing of murals and public art throughout downtown and the arts corridor along with some surprising spots in the city, leading to some incredible usages of architectural space to create beautiful designs. There's no shortage of stunning murals to choose from, along with all the intensively designed exteriors (and interiors) of the casinos abundant throughout the city. On this particular outing we also happened upon a demolition in progress, so those photos will be included as well because I don't know about you but I personally find the construction and deconstruction of buildings fascinating, especially the megalithic casinos that perpetuate and profligate throughout Las Vegas like an incurable form of herpes that brings in buttloads of money. 

Art: Winter ice-dye round four rinsing

I've spoken a couple times now on how when it comes to rinsing the tie-dye after saturating it with dye it feels nearly endless, and this will likely forever remain true. On the other hand, as the dyes loosen their hold on the fabric and excess color runs off it can be exceptionally pretty to behold. Water splashes off in a wide array of directions and when you think you might have finally hit the end of the color run off you can squeeze the fabric and experience a fresh new blast of colored water. It's important, after all, to remember to take time to enjoy the ride and savour the process. Life is short and while we're still young (for now) there will likely come a time that untying the strings or loosening the rubber bands grows to be a difficult process. By then we might have an army of tie-dye minions helping us to process our creations, but maybe not. There's no telling what twists and turns will crop up in this adventure called life, so enjoy it while you're here. 

Tie-dye is a form of color therapy for me. Colors are well known to influence moods and is widely used by advertisers to give their company an edge. Don't let that information make you paranoid- it's just a way that brands can further their aesthetic impact. While having reds and yellows proliferating through a restaurant might make consumers devour their burgers faster, when it comes to the clothing you wear it's more a projection of the mood you want to embody. Maybe you're feeling vibrant and optimistic, leaning towards sharp greens and vivid yellows or perhaps you're more into soothing blues and tans, a shirt that takes you to a relaxing afternoon on the beach without the Hawaiian florals.  The colors we use changes often and we don't always re-order the shades we use. This is due to a few things, like tastes evolving or a different vibe at the time, or simply because it was a limited edition color and was sold-out. It's not that we're trying to be elitist by using and then discontinuing our use of any particular color, as we remain open to bringing them back at any time it feels right. There's so many color options out there we don't want to miss out on any particular variations because we got caught up on one specific shade, ya dig?

For now, enjoy this peek behind the scenes of our creations. If you'd like to support our work and get hands on your own tie-dye feel free to stop by our Etsy shop! We'd love to have your help making the world a more colorful place.

Art: Winter ice-dye round four

Of course I've got more tie-dye for you, folks! I've said before my goal is to vastly increase our inventory this year and there's only one way to do that: make a whole lot more tie-dye! Woo-hoo! This is no punishment for us, though the rinsing process can at times be arduous- or perhaps it's better to say tedious more than anything, as no matter how much you rinse it seems like there's always a little more left. The process of ice-dyeing is itself rather magical to me and I absolutely adore seeing the reveal in the fabric as the colors slowly work their way from powdery dusting to technicolor tapestry. This post will only focus on the first phase of making the shirts- the dyeing process. Next post up will be more rinsing shots as those are pretty enough to merit their own separate log. Hopefully you don't mind, as this cuts down on the overload of photos in a single post and spares all of our servers and networks an extensive data binge. 

For this round it was just me, myself, dyeing as Antho was at work when the urge to create combined with the knowledge there was a half-melted bag of ice sitting outside our front door. I jumped to it and made a couple of 2XL/3XL tee-shirt dresses similar to this one. I posted the results on our instagram and it sold within moments of the listing going live! That was super exciting! We'll definitely be making more of these dresses as they are, like I said on Instagram, fabulous for summertime and it really was super comfy! The 2XL/3XL is a bit loose on me but we have small/medium and large/XL dresses on their way, too.  

Summer is coming and we've got you covered! This 2XL v-neck dress is super comfy and perfect for a day at the beach or a casual hike. More photos coming soon! . This will be live in the shop soon! . Etsy.com/shop/710visuals . . #tiedye #icedye #plussizefashion #plussize #2XL #2018 #summerstyle #summervibes #summer2018 #rainbow #rainbows #roygbiv #colorful #rave #festival #boho #bohemian #hippie #trippy #psychedelic #fashion

A post shared by 710Visuals (@710visuals) on Jan 20, 2018 at 12:39pm PST

For the actual dye process I was extremely anal retentive detail oriented when choosing and preparing my colors. We've invested in a decent selection of dyes to play with now, so there's a lot to choose from! I pulled them all out and made stacks based on the colors to create a precise rainbow fade using more than 15 different dye colors. Excessive? Perhaps. Sometimes I just can't help myself when it comes to being extra. 😘

More photos below!

Art: Bellagio Fountains Caricature

The day after Christmas, despite the cold air and crowds, I found myself sitting near the Bellagio fountains awaiting a friend. It was a pre-destined meeting that evening, one that had been eagerly anticipated and planned in hushed whispers. Rumor had spread among our colleagues and Antho sighed as I hopped from the van, tools in hand. I had to be quick, stealthy. Hands stiff and cracking in the cold I set up my station; a chair, a clipboard, art supplies and a purse. And then, I waited. 

And waited a bit more.

My phone would buzz with the occasional update, until final confirmation: "We're on our way."

Yes, we.

You see, this stealth caricature set up was all a rouse, a grand set up for what was about to come. Our friend and my colleague Brando (the man behind VR Evolution on Youtube) had long-since planned his proposal to his lovely girlfriend Tia, and I was to help him pop the question via an "impromptu" caricature of the two. I had done most of the drawing prior to meeting with them so that I could guarantee it being of a quality I felt satisfied with giving them for such a monumental event. Once they found me I had to downplay my own excitement as I added the finishing touches and stalled for time to try to make it feel more organic. Luckily, Antho managed to find parking at a nearby casino and was able to make it back in time for the final reveal. He captured the photos to commemorate the moment, and this blog will hopefully help provide a little reminder of this precious experience. Thankfully for all involved, Tia said yes and the two went away on a staycation for a few days after this to celebrate! Brando's sister also arrived to stealthily capture some photos or video from a different perspective, which is awesome. 

All in all it ended happily and I look forward to seeing the next stage of their sweet story while grateful for what part I could play. 

💗Congratulations guys!💗 

Art: Winter ice-dye round three

Yes, yes, we have MORE! 

Trust me dolls, there's likely going to be quite a bit of these over the next year. I'm infatuated with tie-dye and especially ice-dye if you haven't noticed from previous posts over the years (like this one , this one, or this one from 2015, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, or this one through 2016, or even this one from 2017)... tie-dye is magic. Tie-dye is love.  And if there's one thing we've got a crap-ton of in our house it's love! 

Since it's been a bit cold these past couple months we've had to change up our process a little to ensure that the ice actually, you know, melts. It's not been terribly inconvenient though our living space is small and bringing our projects indoors limits our already limited space a bit further as we have to by hyper-vigilant about any potential leaks or spillages. We have a method that works and has worked smoothly for us so far so I'm pretty happy with it for now. An additional bonus is that bringing the projects inside means better lighting and an even easier time satisfying my itch to peek at every possible instance to see if anything new or exciting has revealed itself! Eventually I'll figure out how to do a time lapse. Eventually. 

For now, here's lots of pretty photos!

Art: Winter ice-dye round two

More ice-dye! What can I say, I love almost everything about this process and it's so much fun! We tend to have a variety of blank t-shirts floating around at any given time so all we really ever need to pick up is the ice so we're prone to spontaneous dye sessions when the mood strikes. This is ideal for us as inspiration can occur at the most random of times and I like to strike while the iron is hot- or, in this case, while the ice is still cold.  This being the desert the ice tends to change states pretty quick during the warmer months, though currently we have a little more wiggle room which is nice. In the process we've been accumulating quite a back catalogue of freshly made shirts that have yet to get properly photographed and listed on our Etsy shop, so for now they're in a bit of a limbo. This has been a little frustrating for me as I'm definitely the hardline type-A in this relationship and feel a need to stay perpetually productive. I always carry two different agendas and a plentitude of pens in various inks and viscosities to work in tangent with the complex color-coded system of tabs I use for my agendas denoting tasks accomplished or goals and events I'm looking forward to or striving towards... I make spreadsheets for fun. One of my biggest goals for 2018 is to dramatically increase our shop inventory and I've felt pressured to get cracking on it before this month slips away into the next. On top of that we've been cycling through various illnesses in various parts of our bodies (chest, stomach, sinus, blah) for most of this year so far... so, really, I suppose there's a very good reason we've been in a bit of a stagnant pause on listing items. I'm grateful that we're still being productive and at least creating, but I've got high-in-the-sky dreams for what I want to accomplish this year and I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself... perhaps 2018 is the year I should breathe deep and try to be a little gentler on myself. These things will get done, and soon, but they'll get accomplished even more gladly when I'm not stressing myself or Antho out about having not already done it. We've still been scouting locations and making new inventory, after all, so it's not like we've simply sat idly by... though, in a sense, that's a lot of what ice dye is- waiting... but I digress.  

Here's some pretty pictures of the process!

Vegas: Opportunity Village Magical Forest

Opportunity Village is a well-loved Las Vegas destination and a fixture of the community. Funded in 1954 the not-for-profit organisation have been working to help members of our community with various disabilities through a wide variety of services- from arts and crafts classes to vocational training, community employment and more. They claim to be Las Vegas's favorite charity and they might very well be right. For the holidays Opportunity Village opens it's doors to the public and goes all out with their Magical Forest extravaganza, a festive holiday experience for the whole family! It's a lot of fun and there's so much to see and do, from carnival rides to a psychedelic 3D maze (it was intense and really fun, my kudos to the people who made it happen)...there's even a train! We had a lot of fun wandering through the illuminated corridors together. It was a brisk night out so I wore a unicorn onesie for warmth, which entertained a few people. Better warm than sick, right? #Unicornlife

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The Magical Forest is only open for the holiday season, so if you'd like to visit you'll have to time it for then. It makes sense, of course! It's beautiful and I would recommend dropping by if you happen to find yourself in town in time. Since Opportunity Village is a not-for-profit organisation the cost of admission goes towards helping the people who need it, which is a nice feel-good perk. There's also ample hot beverages and food available both inside and outside the village, so if hunger strikes while you're out never fear! We had pretzels and hot cocoa along with some fancy cashews with a sweet and crunchy coating. It was all pretty tasty and fuelled us up to continue our adventure!

More photos below!

Art: Winter Ice-dye session

If you didn't know, Antho and I have a little shop on Etsy where we sell tie-dye. It started out as a simple spur of the moment idea, something to do for fun on a Tuesday night. Our first run was simple but terribly exciting, and we had barely a clue what we were doing but we knew that we certainly had a blast doing it! After that we started dabbling our toes in the multi-colored waters as often as we could and now nearly 4 years into our relationship we've been making tie-dye on a fairly regular basis ever since. I can't say that we know all that much more about what we're doing these days, but we definitely have fun with it and have made well over 300 items thus far! My goal is to triple that in 2018 and that means a lot of folding, lots of ice and lots of dye. I'm so very much okay with that and Antho seems to be on board, too! 

This is great because it's even better to have a partner to help with the process as rinsing out the shirts after letting them soak up the dye can be an arduous (albeit photogenic) process, as no matter how much you rinse it seems like every little movement or squeeze releases yet more dye in what can sometimes feel like a never-ending and futile quest. Eventually you do, thankfully, hit a point where you can unfurl your newest creations and get an idea of what the design will hold- the ultimate reveal is after you've rinsed them out completely and dried them, but after waiting for the dye to cure and spending so much effort in rinsing there's a lot of anticipation built up. It's always exciting to see what new images and designs are revealed along the way, and the entire process is a lot of fun. It's so relaxing to me compared to doing the caricatures and the response has been quite positive! We look forward to making many more unique dye designs in the future and I hope to share as much of that process with you as I reasonably can! It's important to us as the creators and makers behind 710Visuals that people have the chance to see the love and beauty behind the shirts as well as the end results. It's all about enjoying the ride along the way, right? 

Vegas: Marvel Avenger's Station

Do you have a favorite superhero? I always have a hard time deciding and it often depends on which movie I've watched most recently and enjoyed, though I must admit I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Thor (maybe because he looks kind of like Antho) and Ragnarok was some of the most fun I've had at a movie in quite a while. We went and saw it in "D-box", which is an interactive chair that moves and helps immerse you even deeper into the action going on in the screen! It was a lot of fun and during the flight scenes, fight scenes, and rest of the movie our chairs would angle and thump, recreating the sensation of flight or the vibrations from sitting in the bleachers while a serious injury occurs on the screen ahead. We actually made it a double feature and caught Justice League in D-box, too, but since this post is about Marvel's Avengers Station I won't dawdle with any further talk of D.C. related shenanigans.

Tickets are required for entry into the Avenger's Station, so this isn't necessarily a super-budget-friendly option if you've got a large tribe. Since it was just the two of us it wasn't too bad and we had a lot of fun! Once you find your way to it the experience begins in the gift shop, where you'll find all sorts of fun goodies for your favorite in the fandom. There's also life-size Iron Man suits, statues of the Avengers, Funko Pops for the collectors, and so much more- there's even fancy luggage for those who want to be low-key while they take their fandom on the road. I believe the experience has determined start points, which might have to do with the size of the party as we were joined by several others who began the tour at the same time. Before the tour starts you get to wander the store freely, giving you plenty of time to ponder any potential souvenirs or must-get items for when you return. 

There are plenty of photo opportunities both inside and before the tour, and photographs were welcomed! This is great fun because inside the exhibit you'll find awesome things like Captain America's shield and his bike, both of which are intended for you to interact with. Smart folks optimising photo opportunities to spread the #hashtag and location tagging awareness. Free promotion, right? Here's my contribution to further that end and share some of the awesomeness of the experience with those of you who might not be fortunate enough to be able to visit! We had a lot of fun and enjoyed our visit. I've recommended it to multiple people now when asked about things to do in town, too. It's packed full of fun and informative exhibits teaching you more about the histories and science behind your favorite Avengers and lets you get up close and personal with some of their tools!

More photos below!

Hair: My experience with Lime Crime Unicorn Hair dye in Charcoal

My love for Lime Crime has been documented here before, and when I purchased their Unicorn Hair dye in Leeloo I also picked up Charcoal to give it a shot because, you know, two birds with one stone and all that. I was really excited to try this color because it's marketed specifically towards darker haired gals so you know the color pigmentation should be pretty intense! My natural hair color is obvious from my roots to about the top of my ear which is to say it's naturally pretty dark brown, while the rest from ear down has been bleached over time with multiple applications of 10 volume developer and PrismLites bleach in the purple shade. I've bleached my hair in the past using a 20 volume and toner the next day, so I know how my hair reacts with the 20 volume developer. I opted for 10 volume this time around as I didn't want to go so shockingly blonde so fast, obtaining more of an ombre sort of effect by going a little higher with the bleach each application. I don't apply it to my ends every time, either. Most people won't use 10 volume developer for anything more than giving a color application a little more oomph, but my hair has reacted well to this slow-and-gentle bleaching method. That being said, I had several shades varying from deep natural brown to a light yellow going on through my hair length prior to application of the Charcoal dye. Most of the Leeloo had faded out and I gave my hair a round with the bleach the day prior to brighten it up a little further. There were still some yellow tones left, but I figured that since it was intended to give color to brunette hair it would work out on the lighter parts. 

The dye itself looks sufficiently dark and once it was on my hair I was quite excited. I'd been sporting varying shades of pinkish-orange-blonde since the spring and wanted to tone it down and go cool for the winter months. In the end I succeeded in a way, though the end result wasn't quite what I anticipated. 

Vegas: the Springs Preserve Sustainability Gallery

Have I made it clear yet how much I love the Springs Preserve? Whether we're talking about their seasonally-limited but wonderful butterfly exhibit, their live animal exhibits, the Nevada State Museum, seeing where the city and our water came/comes from in Boomtown & Waterworks, hiking the trails along the expansive grounds, wandering the gardens in summer or late fall, getting spooky during the Haunted Harvest event for Halloween, or scoping out one of their limited exhibits like the Space Exhibit in the OriGen museum last September we always have a blast when we visit the Preserve! Antho and I are both members and have been since shortly after our very first visit. It's been well worth it- even though the cost of admission is quite reasonable, we've gone so many times that the memberships have more than paid for themselves. 

During this visit it was a cool, crisp December day and the Springs had gotten themselves gussied up for the winter Holidays. There were very few other visitors on this day, probably because it was pretty chilly out. We found our way to the Sustainability gallery, which we had walked by several times but never ventured into- a shame because we had a lot of fun! It was a wonderful surprise and we enjoyed exploring the exhibits. Upon exiting the Sustainability Gallery we found our way to the actual food gardens where we were pleased to find tomatillos, peppers and broccoli all going strong- though the broccoli was covered in aphids. Creepy little buggers...we didn't realize they were even bugs until we got closer and inspected the broccoli, at which point we were both a bit skeeved out. Antho went in for more photos trying to capture a good close-up of the little crawlies, though! I kept a safe distance and looked at the other plants while he did that... it's not that I'm terrible with bugs, if need be I can catch a spider, I would just rather not interact with them unless I really have to. I've handled tarantulas and various roaches in museums and biology classes, things of that nature, but I'm good with that being the end of it. Luckily there were plenty of other plants to enjoy! 

Yuck!

More photos below!

Vegas: Ethel M. Chocolate Factory Cactus Garden Illuminations

Ethel M. Chocolate Factory is a true Las Vegas institution, having been in the city since1981 after being opened by Forrest Mars Sr., of the Mars chocolate brand- if you didn't know, Mars is the company behind Snickers and M&Ms so you know that if their mass-produced candies are reliably good then their specialty stuff is going to be something else. Their goal at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory is to produce some of the finest chocolates in the entire Mars company's portfolio using recipes handed down from Forrest's own grandmother Ethel. Ethel was the inspiration for what Forrest later went on to do with chocolate in his company later on, so we're pretty lucky to have this place in our little valley. There are some real world class chefs and culinary artists throughout Vegas due to our profile as a world-class tourism destination and the locals get to reap the rewards of that, too. 

The factory will be especially familiar for any Vegas locals who went to school here, I bet.  I grew up in the city and attended several schools around town and one of the strongest memories I have is going on a field trip to the factory! It's a lot of fun and you can catch a glimpse at the magic going on behind the scenes. During this visit we were stopping in with a lot of other folks as the factory has a large cactus garden that lights up for the holidays and is free to the public! Not surprisingly it's a popular attraction and a great boon to the profits of the factory too, as people stopping in to see the free tour will get a delicious piece of chocolate before finding themselves in the gift shop. The sweet taste of the decadent chocolate lingering on the tongue makes it hard to resist when confronted with multiple displays of glossy, sprinkled, filled, cream, dipped, assorted chocolates here! There's bound to be one for every taste, whether you're a fan of nougat or chocolate covered cherries, hot chocolate or boozy barrel chocolates bursting with depth and flavour.  You can make your own boxes, too, which is genius! Never again will you have to nibble your way cautiously through a box of unbeknown flavours trying to avoid a landmine. Take that, Forrest Gump! This is 2018, baby, and we can select whatever chocolates we want in our boxes, thank you very much. 

The illuminations in the garden are, of course, stunning! We had a lot of fun wandering the paths and looking at the displays, hot chocolates in hand. If you stop in for a visit during the winter we can definitely recommend their hot chocolate, they were delicious! Photos of the lights and the rest of our visit will follow below. 

My experience with Lime Crime Unicorn Hair in Leeloo

Another Lime Crime post! 

I'm rather smitten with them, to be honest. So far I've had pretty good luck with all the different products I've tried from them, and I've made a point of it to seek out different formulas and try things I might not otherwise to get a better idea as a whole. I was impressed enough with their velvetines formula and found myself oogling their shade selection of Unicorn Hair dyes long enough that some of them went on sale and I finally jumped! I was really pleased with the results of Leeloo in my hair. I'd been using various dyes from Sallys Beauty Supply to get an orange-pink shade but figured I'd give the Unicorn Hair a shot and since my hair already had warm tones in it they should play well together. The worst thing a fashion hair dye like this will typically do is stain your hair a color you don't necessarily want or simply not take at all, but I knew going into it that reddish-orange should play nice and if it didn't take I'd chalk it up as a lesson learned and whine a bit. I purchased Charcoal (and more velvetines, because love) at the same time as a backup or experiment shade, and I'll have a post on that soon, too. 

As much as I love Manic Panic and have used a wide selection of their hair dye over the years (like the time I went pink in 2015, then turned that faded pink to turquoise, and that faded to a seafoam shade, and I tried electric lizard for glowing green hair, or that brief but beautiful time I had lavender hair) I've had some duds, so even established brands can sometimes have an off formula. Leeloo, in my experience, worked great! Definitely no dud here! The color was super bright and intense, reminiscent of blood orange. I left it in my hair for about an hour and forty minutes before rinsing until it ran mostly clear. It definitely took a lot of scrubbing and there was so much color run off in the shower! That happens with tie-dye, though, so I wasn't terribly concerned. I took cold showers for the first couple weeks and stretched out the time between showers when possible with dry shampoo. It stayed pretty vivid for the better part of a month, and faded to some pretty shades of peachy-orange-blonde along the way. It didn't stain my towels or pillow cases, which is nice.

When the dye was soaking, we carved (and I painted) pumpkins!

About 10-12 days later after a couple washings.

About 15 days later and another couple washes.

After that point I started using warmer water and washing like regular as I grew more eager to test out charcoal! Overall I was very happy with the performance of Leeloo and still have roughly 1/3rd to 1/2 the container left and may dabble with it again soon as the weather starts to melt into spring again.

💙💚💜💛💖

Overall I was super happy with how this hair dye performed! It was extremely bright and vivid the first couple of weeks and faded into a gorgeous peachy-pinky-orange blonde that I really enjoyed. 5 out of 5 happy hearts.

Hope you enjoyed this post!

XOXO,

NAU