Go Bold or Go Home with Bleach London

Bleach London is the brainchild of Alex Brownsell and Sam Teasdale – two friends who went from experimenting on their pals hair in the kitchen, to a sink and seat in a WAH Nails salon. From there, the brand has continued to grow, constantly gaining momentum. Now, they have their own salons, products sold nationwide, shipped worldwide and plans to open up international salons.

If you haven’t already noticed, Bleach London go big or go home.

They were the first salon to really focus on experimental colour, rather than cuts. They became pioneers of the trade by being as daring and bold as possible.

Not only do I love Bleach London for their exciting colour choices, branding and products, but their entire ethos is admirable. Environmental sustainability is at the very heart of their brand values. Their cardboard is 100% recyclable and they aim to do the same with their plastics by the end of 2018. As well as this, they are 100% cruelty free and vegan, with not a single animal derivative in their products. Boom.

My mum has been using their rose and violet shampoos and conditioners for as long as she’s had lilac hair. She absolutely swears by them.

My sister, a former hairdresser, practically begged me to use the Awkward Peach ‘Super Cool Colour’ on my hair. I kept putting it off as I’ve never dyed my hair, but when I saw them for a third off at work, I impulsively snatched the last one of the shelf and bought it. After Bleach London saw my social posts about my new do, they kindly offered to send me more goodies to review, including some of their new makeup range!

Super Cool Colours

Awkward Peach

The Super Cool Colours are a Hair Colour Cream Mask. They last between 2-10 washes depending on how porous your hair is. Bleached or dyed hair is more porous than natural colour, and so I knew mine wouldn’t last the full 10 washes. I also knew that it would take a little longer to actually take to my hair.

I washed my hair with my usual shampoo (which atm is Garnier Ultimate Blends, for anyone wondering) and then towel dried my hair. As I have long hair, I applied around half a bottle of Awkward Peach to my damp hair, making sure to get it all over. I brushed it through with a tangle teaser, twisted it into sections and put it into a topknot. I then put a carrier bag over it to stop me getting it all over the house, and left it for just under an hour. The packaging says 30 minutes, however I knew that wouldn’t be long enough for my darker hair, so went a little over.

I rinsed out the colour and dried my hair with the hairdryer to reveal my new colour. Now, every colour will look different on different types and shades of hair. Mine was a very subtle change, but one I seriously loved. The colour was a peachy, almost rose gold, mostly noticeable through the ends of my hair, and much more noticeable in direct sun as it caught the light. It left me with some really beautiful  pink and peach tones that I’d love to have permanently. I’m not ready for a hair commitment, which is why the Bleach London Super Cool Colours are so great – you can change your hair every week with no commitment!

This one washed out in around 3-4 washes, with it being one of the lighter shades, but I have plenty left to use it again!

Tangerine Dream

I’ve always wanted to know what I’d look like as a proper, fiery ginger. Hayley Williams circa 2010 kinda ginger.

Bleach London allow you to experiment on your hair at home, but still provide salon-quality finishes. Ginger can be a hard one to master, with some looks somewhere between ‘I set my head on fire’ or ‘I poured a tin of Heinz Tomato Soup on my hair’. Home dyes can also often look patchy, or the opposite – totally blocky and flat. Bleach London’s products look great, and give you those complimentary tones running through without all the fancy techniques hairdressers use to achieve similar results.

I applied Tangerine Dream the same way as I had done with Awkward Peach. However, I only left it for the recommended 30 minutes with it being a brighter, stronger colour.

When I dried my hair, I was shook. I had mixed feelings about the result, but I can’t say it didn’t work! My hair was brighter than the sun. It was certainly more of a reddish tone as opposed to a vibrant orange, but as previously mentioned, the dyes don’t look the same on any two people. I think it looked more orange in sunlight, but more red indoors. It definitely gave me some cool Autumnal inspo, though. As I wore it for longer, and styled it a few different ways, I started to really love it. I definitely liked it better after the first wash faded it a touch.

This one was a little more stubborn to get out due to it’s blue undertones, lasting over three weeks. That’s even using anti-dandruff shampoo to try and help remove it.

The Big Pink

I won’t lie, I totally chickened out of putting this on my hair on Sunday night. After Tangerine Dream stayed on my hair for so long, I was a little worried about this sticking around for a few weeks too. I had planned on just dying the underneath of my hair for a fun look. When it actually came round to it, I backed out last minute. I will eventually whack it on in an impulsive, bold mid-uni-year crisis. Until then, I’ll just stick to the lighter colours like Rose and Awkward Peach.

Makeup

Matte Le Blanc and Gordon Brown Lip Kits

These Matte Lip Paints come with their own matching lip liner and retail at just £12. Bleach London wanted to create a makeup range, but straying away from the usual glam and keeping it cool. Keeping it Bleach. The lip kits come in eight shades, ranging from nudes to reds, and from blacks to blues.

Matte Le Blanc features the Matte Le Blanc liquid lipstick and matching liner, and Gordon Brown features the Bleached liquid lipstick with matching liner. Matte Le Blanc is a quite light, peachy nude, whereas Bleached is a warmer, brown nude.

Bleach London recommends exfoliating your lips first for a smoother application. I also like to apply a lip balm before applying, as these lip paints are quite drying. I like to use them together to create an ombre lip look, with Bleached on the outer part of the lips and Matte Le Blanc in the center.

Build Your Own Palette

The ‘BYO’ palettes came about as a way for Bleach London and its consumers to minimise waste. Building your own palette means you’ll only buy the colours you love and use, reducing both product and packaging waste.

Bleach London sent me their small BYO palette, which is £8, whereas the large is £10.

Inside my BYO palette is:

• Glitterati – Golden
• Glitterati – Washed Up Mermaid
• Glitterati – Rose
• Glitterati – Text Me Black
• Metallic Louder Powder – GS4ME
• Legal High Lights – BerwickStreet Floor

The Glitterati pans are high pigment pressed glitters, with the Metallic Louder Powder being a metallic shadow. The Legal High Lights is.. yup, you guessed it – a highlighter. All of these pans are magnetic and stick to the BYO palette to keep them all in one place. It also makes it easy to remove spent pans and replace them with new ones.

The Glitterati shades are SO pigmented, however I would recommend using a glitter primer on your lids just to prevent fallout and create a cleaner look. Just look at how compact that glitter is!

I wanted to create a makeup look using some of these fab products, and I also wanted to do something a little different to what I normally do.

I used my NYX warm neutrals palette to create a nude, matte base. Then added the Metallic Louder Powder to the crease of my lid. Next, I used my NYX Glitter Fixer to cut the crease. Now for glitter – I packed on Washed Up Mermaid and a tiny bit of Text Me Black directly onto the lid. I then used the NYX palette on my lower lash line and the Collection glitter liner in Lagoon to try and create a more dramatic cut crease.

I don’t usually go for warm-toned highlighters, but I used a little bit of the Legal High Lights just on my cheekbones for a bit of glow. To finish the look I used lip kits Matte Le Blanc and Gordon Brown in the ombre effect mentioned earlier.