Let's talk about hair; more specifically hairstyles. I've never been one to do much with my hair, even when I actually had it long enough (princess length a.k.a. waist length) to do anything with it.
The two main reasons for this were that: I had acne throughout my teens and early twenties and long hair is the perfect security blanket/curtain to hide bad skin behind. Secondly, I've always been the type of girl that likes my hair to be very, VERY low maintenance i.e. a quick brush-and-go type of thing. When getting ready, I spend so long on my makeup the last thing I want to do is then take extra time out for my hair. Plus, I'm lucky, my hair is naturally straight and always behaves itself no matter what the weather (yes, I've always wanted curly hair, what can I say, the grass is always greener...). This isn't to say that I've never experimented with my hair, I've been a light blonde, strawberry blonde, ginger and brunette; I mean how else would you explain my "high school" title of "most likely to appear in a hair commercial"!
Anyway, now that my skin has more or less cleared up and I went for the big chop a couple of years ago, I find that adding a simple thing like a flower crown (or a bow, let me know if you want a blog post with those) can really change up your look, and it takes less than a minute to put on your head #winwin.
THE RED FLOWER CROWN
For this first look, before most of my curls had dropped out, I combined this red rosed flower crown (from Claire's similar here, here and here) with a red dress and a bold red lip (my trusted Sephora Cream Lip Stain in 01 Always Red) with my usual waterproof pencil eyeliner (Prestige Total Intensity Eyeliner in 02 Bold Brown) and blush (Clinique Cheek Pop Blush in 03 Berry Pop). Personally, I think the green leaves from the crown matches my eyes perfectly and combined with the red roses which matches the lips and dress makes for a very pretty look!
THE WHITE FLOWER CROWN
This look I think would be perfect for any bride who is going for a bohemian themed wedding (similar here), or really cute on the flower girls (you might have to find smaller ones to fit their tiny heads, so this adjustable one from Claire's too might be perfect for you!). For this look I just switched up my hair a bit by Kirby-gripping (bobby-pinning) half of my hair along the crown area (of my head not the actual flower crown!) and changing my lipstick to a combo of a nude lipliner (N°7 Precision Lip Pencil in Nude) and lipstick (L'Oréal Color Riche in 253 Blush In Nude which is no longer available but any nude shade would do).
THE MINT FLOWER CROWN
I couldn't finish this blog post without at least one flower crown in my favourite minty colour!
For this look I took out the Kirby grips and because this flower crown is actually more of a head band and less of a crown it gives a bit of a different overall effect (similar here and here). Furthermore, since most of my curls had fallen out by then it also looks a bit straighter. But had my hair been a tiny bit longer, I would have attempted to repeat the 3rd hairstyle from my Best Dressed Wedding Guest blog post) which involved a side fringe braid (starting from my hair parting), then braided on the other side (starting behind the ear) in the French Style this time (i.e. adding hair as you go) to form a crown (got to sneak one in there somehow) and as you run out of hair reaching the lower right of your head, twisting it inwards (like a mini chignon); lots of pinning required...especially with short hair!
Makeup-wise I stuck to my previous nude lipliner and lipstick combo but I wanted to add a bright mint eyeliner above my brown one...you can just about see a turquoise-y tinge to my eyelids in the first photo but that's about it! So I'm going to name and shame and...shock horror it's a KIKO products that has let me down! Their new Tropic Heat Eye Marker in 02 really didn't work for me here (smudging all over the place!), But I'm not going to give up so easily as the till lady had a perfect minty winged eyeliner with a slight highlight using the white marker in 01, so it is possible! I just have to find the right trick to it. #crossingfingers
Okay, so I might have actually curled my hair for these three different flower crowns...only because I think they look better and give more of a "fairy wandering in a twinkly meadow" kind of vibe! Which my two burnt fingers clearly didn't appreciate what I was going for (a.k.a first time using straighteners to curl hair) but we got there in the end! Even if it only lasted about two hours (...remember when I said my hair is naturally straight?! Yap I meant it, it rarely holds a curl!).
Anyway, hope you liked it, and that my fingers' sacrifice was worth it?! Speaking of, I'm wearing Essie's Chocolate Cakes on my nails throughout all three looks (my favourite brown almost black polish...the name might have something to do with it too). ;)
What's your go-to summer hairstyle? Are you like me; must it require minimum effort?
Have you ditched the flower crown in favour of the choker like a certain miss Swift?!
What's the funnest hair colour you've sported so far? Wigs count!!!!
xxxemma