Ombre Style for A/W16 with Dylon

Hi beauts,

I've been challenged by Dylon to create my own take on winter fashion using their easy-peasy kits. 

Dylon – ‘Dyes of London’ – was founded by two young entrepreneurs who began selling colourful dyes from a garage in central London. True British entrepreneurial spirit at it's best! 

My mum's used Dylon a fair few times but, although I knew the brand I'd never actually used them myself. Yet, I'm always up for a good challenge and so rose to the occasion.

Revamping Ombre for A/W16

I always think of Summer when I think tie dye, and ombre. Bright colours, sunnies and a festival vibe. However, Mint Velvet gave me the perfect inspo for this challenge with their gorgeous A/W16 range. Their ombre jersey and batwing knit use the soft muted autumnal colours that are synonymous with Mint Velvet. But retailing at £59.00 & £69.00 their also lavish on the Christmas credit card.

This was where Dylon came in for me. I wanted to create my own Mint Velvet dupe but without the price tag.

You'll need: 

1 Dylon hand wash fabric dye in Pewter Grey

Salt (you'll need 10 table spoons) 

A stainless steel sink or a bucket

A £4.00 white cotton Primark polo neck (bargain!) 

Rubber gloves

Gorgeous muted tones

I filled my sink with warm water (roughly 6 litres) and poured in the salt. Then I submerged the polo neck fully before scrunching it out and leaving it damp on the side. Damp clothing takes more evenly and salt helps the colour take better.

Next I added the pebble grey dye. Making sure the dye had dissolved evenly in the water I then took the top and submerged it again in the water letting the dye wash over all of it. Totally satisfying thing to do for some odd reason! 

Once the colour had taken to the entire top I then pulled it out 3/4 of the way and left the rest to soak for a full 45 minutes. Once time was up I drained the sink, washed out the top and sealed it with cold water before allowing it to dry. 

Dylon Ombre Dye Outcome

Before         After

I'm really impressed with the result of my first attempt at dying clothes - especially ombre dying. I think the top looks brilliant with my winter outfit and is a real steal at £4.00 for the top and Dylon Pewter Grey dye retailing at £3.39. The dye could have easily be used to dye at least 4 more top too.

The actual dying process wasn't hard at all - it did get a little messy at times but was easily wiped clean. One thing I would learn for the future though is that the dye on the fabric looks a great deal darker when wet and, as you'll see from my top, creates a much lighter colour when dry. I think perhaps leaving the colour to take for longer may have created a deeper ombre contrast. 

Win with Dylon!

For the chance to test out your own ombre hand dye and machine wash dyes to revamp your winter look enter the below rafflecopter giveaway now. Just follow and tweet to @LauraClaireUK on Twitter and follow @laura_claire88 on Instagram for an extra bonus entry. 

What you'll win: 

• Dylon Toffee Brown Fabric Dye Machine Wash 
• Dylon Terracotta Brown Fabric Dye Machine Wash 
• Dylon Pewter Grey Fabric Dye Hand Wash

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Note: Competition open to UK residents only. 

Love 

LauraClaire

Shadow Switch Review

Hi lovelies,

I'm so pleased to be able to tell you about a new beauty aid product that was sent to me the other day by Beauty Essentials.

Let me introduce you to Shadow Switch the neat little tool that lets you dry clean your make up brushes in seconds. The cute little tin contains a scouring sponge that is washable and re-usable and in a few sweeps of your brush on the sponge it is clean again. How simple is that right. It's as light-weight as you'd imagine too so just perfect for popping into your make up bag on trips.

Over the years I've gathered an impressive collection of eye shadow brushes and kept a strict 'colour type' policy for them so as to avoid the dreaded colour-merge (especially important when going from darker shades to lights as I've experienced a little too often than I care to say #clownface). Yup, that means I have a specific brush that has only been in a long term monogamous marriage with my MAC Shroom eye shadow.

This works perfectly when you're home and can stand in front of truck-load of makeup - not so good however, when you're travelling. This is really when Shadow Switch works a dream.

Quick, easy and super cute. Shadow Switch quite literally, does what it says on the tin! (sorry I couldn't resist)

Buy your dry brush cleaner from Amazon for £5.99 including free delivery now.

Love

LauraClaire