Anna Bang Hair Design Tampa - Liscio Japanese Hair Straightening Review

Tia got their hair straightened by them. She told me that she did some research and everyone said that they were the best around. Tia has wavy hair, after she came home her hair was so soft, beautiful, and pin straight. I knew I had to have it!

4/5 years ago I got my hair straightened in Vietnam. I do no know what the treatment was called but I do remember the steps being very similar to the Liscio. Of course, in Vietnam everything is dirt cheap. I didn't personally pay for myself but it was definitely under $200. They also put dye in the mix and my hair with a tint of red. But we are not in Vietnam are we, so I had to do with what is around. 

My hair is considered straight. But I dye my hair and I have a layered hair cut so it frizzes out and the dyes of course damage your hair. The reason I wanted to get this was for the convenience. Ideally I want to just wake up beautiful. Obviously that is not possible but if my hair were to dry straight before I go to bed then that would save my a lot less time in the morning. I am so lazy plus I do not have time to do my hair in the morning.

Once Tia came home with her hair and after I was done molesting it. I told Tuan that I wanted her hair for my birthday/Christmas present. Originally I wanted the Fitbit Force and the Just Dance 2014 but I retracted it and told him I wanted my hair straightened. He was pretty happy about it at first since he did not get me the gifts yet. That is until I told him that it was about $350. He almost died! He gave me the $400 he made in profit from selling his phones. 

Pre- Appointment-  I was so ecstatic to get my hair done. I wanted to schedule the appointment as soon as possible but I had no idea what my work schedule was like. When I finally found out I was free by the time I called on Sunday, they were closed. Again on monday. I left a message saying that I could only get it done Tuesday or Wednesday. After the process you can not wash your hair for 72 hours. I can barely go a day without washing my hair. No way I would go to work with greasy hair so really I needed it done on Tuesday.

Setting up the Appointment- Tuesday morning, while I was cramming for finals and waiting for them to open, they called be back 20 minutes before opening time. YAY! Unfortunately, Anna told me that they were full today but I could get it done Wednesday. She also said it would be okay if I washed my hair Saturday morning before work. That would be about 60 hours instead of 72. She asked me about my hair texture, length, and thickness. It was hard to describe over the phone, my opinion of my hair might not be true. She explained to me what Liscio was and everything. I told her that my hair reached down to my bra strap. She estimated the price to be $400. WHAT? I did not expect that one. I've always thought of my hair as medium but apparently it is classified as medium long (I googled that). She said that medium would be shoulder length... Okay, thats just money coming out from their tip. I paid a $50 deposit over the phone. My appointment time was at 10:30, so I would be done around 2:30. It takes about 4 hours to do depending on the length of your hair.

Upon arrival-   Speeding, I arrived at 10:29 on the dot. I was greeted by this lovely cutie! Later I found out that they rescued her in addition to 6 other dogs they have! 

So before we began, Paul (Anna's husband), was like oh your hair is pretty straight. I disagreed and said it was wavy at the bottom but they told me it was because of the layers and the hair dye made my hair like that. Paul told me that if I grew out virgin hair (untouched by dyes or chemicals) that it would be pin straight. We spend about 20 minutes talking about my hair. I started to get nervous because I felt like they were telling me that after the treatment my hair would look the same as it was. But that was not the case, he was just trying to explain and make sure I understood the results. He said that with Tia's hair you could see the difference after the treatment but with mine there would not be. He told me it would make my hair texture different which in turn would make it easier to manage in the morning. That is exactly what I wanted. I knew that it would not be perfect, I just wanted to spend a lot less time on it. I guess the way I told them of my expectations sounded like I was expecting to wake up super pin straight all the time.

Before Pictures- 

This is my everyday morning hair. 

You can see that the layers make my hair curl out.

The bell shape is reenforced from my pillow and my shoulders.

Treatment-  First, we began by washing my hair. When we got back Paul put these ear guards on my ears. I thought they were hilarious. They did not do that for me in Vietnam (my ears had a chance of burning off).

There was a long process in which I do not remember much of the process but we washed my hair several times, the process took about 3 hours. I could not see much since I took off my glasses, I didn't want to wear contacts because I was afraid that the chemicals might sting my eyes like how it is with some hair dyes. That was not the case, I should have worn contacts. I spent most of my time on my phone and blogging.

This is the new heat dryer thing. You know they used to be domes that looked

 like a strainer being held over your head. Paul in the back, Hi Paul!

After Pictures- 

Now that it's all straight and beautiful you can see the flaws in my home hair dying.

The bottom of my hair is from last years attempt on bleaching.

Payment-  Their website is a little messed up because they created a new website but the old one is still linked to the new current one. On the old website they had a coupon on there which I printed out. But they no longer accept. So when I presented it to them they told me about that it is invalid. Okay, I knew it was too good to be true. But in return they gave me conditioner and one for Tia because she referred me and wrote a review for them. It was nice of them because they did not have to give us anything.

The conditioner that they gave to Tia and I, retail value $28.

This is the after treatment, it is included in the the price of the Liscio, retail value $50. 

This is applied to the hair once a week after the treatment is done and left on 

for 30 minutes - 3 hours, the longer the better.

Overall- Their service was good. They were very nice and professional. I liked that they made sure that I understood what the outcome would be and talked to me before they proceeded with the treatment. I bet Paul has done this treatment so many times because when he rinses your hair, he tips your ear back to get any water trapped on the outside (First time that any salon had done that for me). When he dries your hair he makes sure to also dry your outer ears. At one point, he massaged the back of my neck because it was sore from leaning back on the sink for so long. When I was blind and blogging on my Ipad, he brought over a pillow so I could rest it on. I am pretty sure that they were not expecting much gratuity from me. As a poor college student, I did mention to them that the hair treatment was being paid for by Tuan and that it was a gift. Originally, I was only going to give them $40 but Paul was so nice. I tipped them $50. I would definitely recommend this salon to anyone. I am planning on going back to them to get my hair color fixed in two weeks.

Before/After Picture

Repurpose Shopping Bag into a Box

Christmas is quickly approaching and I'm sure everyone still has a lot of present shopping to do. Some stores provide you with complimentary boxes for your items. But what if you do not have any or need more for those smaller gifts? No fear, just pull out those nice paper shopping bags that you been saving because they are too nice to throw away. ( I sound like I'm trying to sell something lol) you know those cute little bag you hoard from your free Victoria Secret panty stash, hollister, bath and body works, sephora, ect.

Side Notes

-I think the best bags to use are the VS and the Sephora ones. They have a plastic layer on the outside and is made of a thicker cardboard which holds the shape of the box much better.

-I like to wrap my presents like this because it gives odd shaped presents a easier shape to wrap. Also when I have multiple small gifts I like to put it together in one box. 

-If your item is smaller you can make the cuts deeper to make a smaller bag and cut off the excess

-If your items are larger you can make the cuts less shallow but leave a little room so that the flaps can overlap so that the top is more stable

-I like my gifts to be snug in its box but you can stuff it to make it rattle less.

Materials

-Paper shopping bag of any sort

-Scissors 

-Tape

-A gift to put in the bag

I'm using this cute PINK VS bag.

1. Place your gifts inside the bag. 

2. Mark the side of the bag for the height the box. I usually just eye ball it but this will be the depth you will cut the corners to.

3. Fold the flap in. Repeat this for all of the sides. 

4. One more to go!

5. Tape your box down. Then wrap it up or slap a bow on it. How easy was that?!

DIY "Sharpie" mug

I've always wanted to do this project. After doing a ton of researched,
here are a few things I've learned:
1. Normal sharpies do not work unless it is for a display piece
2. Cheap mugs at the dollar store work better since the glaze on the mugs are not so great so the marker tends to stick on it better
3. If you want to use sharpies get the Sharpie Paint brand that are oil-based.
4. Pebeo works the best but are also the most expensive, DecoColor is second best, and I would recommend the oil-based sharpie afterwards. ( I haven't actually experimented these myself but this is what my research has lead me to conclude).
5. Use a pencil to outline your design first, you can be fancy and transfer a printed design onto a mug using paper and pencil by imprinting the graphite onto the mug. Sorry, won't go into detail on that here.
6. Use books or something to rest your arm on while you draw your design for stability.
7. If you mess up, its not the end of the world. You can clean off the marker before if dries or even before you bake it.
8. Although most markers say to let dry for 8 hours, just let it dry for about 24 hours to be safe.
9. Do not take the mug immediately out of the oven after baking, let it cool in the oven or it can crack from the temperature change.

I bought the mug a couple months ago at the thrift store so I was not sure how well the marker would stay. When I washed it, hairline cracks were apparently all over the mug. I do not know anything about pottery or mugs so I had no idea if the mug was safe or not. There was no indication at the bottom that told me it was oven or dishwasher safe. So I decided to wing it.

$1 Ginormous soup mug from Thrift Strore

MISTAKE!- At first I tried to gauge how the design would look by drawing on it with a pink expo marker. Worst mistake ever. The cracks become apparent when the mug is washed or becomes wet so the expo marker seeped into these cracks. Now there is a light pink web around the "Shhh..." area.

After that mishap, I sketched out the design on my white board.

I did a lot of online shopping. I and I decided to get the oil-based sharpies at Wal-Mart. Except when I actually when to the closest and happens to be the most ghetto Wal-Mart around they did not have it. Jo-Ann happens to e-mail me a $5 off any $5 minimum purchase. So I went there the next day. They did not have the DecoColor in the size that I wanted but the DecoArt is for glass, it also says ceramics so I got that instead. The marker was $3.99. I bought two so I could use the coupon. Ultimately, I paid $3.18 for both of them.

With the Coupon each Marker was $1.59 including tax.

*(Side Story) SO, there was also an online coupon for 50% off one regular priced item. I asked the cashier man if I could use both. At first he told me, the $5 coupon was not valid until next week. I proved him wrong by showing him the email. I should have known then that he did not know what he was doing because he then proceeded to tell me that if I used the 50% off coupon the $5 off would be invalid because it would be under $5. I hesitated a little because I thought I had done the math right in line, but I assumed he was right since I did mental math and sometimes I am wrong. WRONG. After buying the markers I went to my car to recalculate it and I was right! WARNING MATH AHEAD: $3.99 x 0.5 Coupon = $1.995 for one marker. $1.995 + $3.99 second marker = $5.985 for both. They took off the $5 before tax but either way. The amount was very much over $5 Jo-Ann man. My point is I could have paid $1.05 for both markers, making each marker to $0.53... I was upset since I did not get my super awesome deal but the argument was not worth those $2.13.

I sketched out my design on the mug using a pencil. I wanted the quote to wrap around the mug because I wanted to fill up all that wasted space also I wanted a design on it too. I used about 3 textbooks to rest my arm on for stability while I traced the outline with the DecoArt marker. I forgot to take pictures again.

Once I let it dry for about 18 hours, cause I got impatient. I put the mug in the oven while it was cold. Then set the temperature to 350 degrees like the instructions says. (I'm not positive if this temperature was for glass only but the end product turned out fine). The oven was on for 40 minutes, after the time was up I turned off the oven and let it cool completely.

Here are the final Results!

So awesome! Shhh... this is mom's X-mas present so do not tell her. 

I had an extra clear bag and ribbon from Bath and Body Works. I thought it would be cute to wrap it like one of the candles.

Bern's Steakhouse Review

I did some digging and I found the review I wrote for Bern's Steakhouse. We went there for our 3rd anniversary last year but it is still an experience I remember to this day.

I went here for my 3rd anniversary with my boyfriend. I wanted to go to a fancy place where we could dress semi formally. We had to call in advance to make a reservation although when we got there there was plenty of space for the earlier time that I wanted. There is only valet parking which is $5 when you leave. 

Atmosphere- Walking in I definitely felt like I just walked into a movie set of American Horror story or something. If it weren't for the fact that that place was a well lit restaurant, it would have been a great haunted house.  The place could definitely use a makeover but do not let that fact stop you from going! The waiters and waitresses are well trained and very professional and polite. There are separate dining rooms so you do not have you're own room but you're not overly surrounded by a bunch of strangers. The food was amazing, costly but I feel you get the bang for your buck. 

Dinner- We got lump crab cake for appetizer it was two cakes for $17 it tasted wonderful. the sauce on the crab cakes complimented the dish so well. I ordered the fillet minion steak. I'm not much of a steak fan as you can tell I can't even spell the name correctly. What I liked the most was that the side dishes that came with the entree came constantly one after another so I wasn't starving and there was almost no wait time for my food. Each of the entrees came with salad, French onion soup with little biscuits, baked potato and on the plate with your main course comes with onion rings sweet carrots green beans. As for the steak... Juiciest steak I've ever had in my life. They age it for 7 days so that the juices seep in. Thinking about it now just makes my mouth water. 

After dinner they packed any unfinished food in a TO-GO

box for you and ask if you want dessert so they can make a reservation for a room for you upstairs. I was expecting a personal tour of the place like I've read in many reviews but I was never offered the choice. Although I over heard the table behind me was. Walking to the dessert room was a tour in itself. You can see the different dining rooms.The kitchen is open along the walkway so you can peer inside.

Dessert- The dessert rooms to me looked like a maze of barrels, you sit in a mini room/half barrel shaped room which has a music box so you can choose your own music. Along with a call waiter switch that didn't work in our room (we flipped it on and off various times , lol whoops). I adore how dessert can consist of three different desserts. I ordered the chocolate peanut butter truffle which came with a banana an what seemed to be banana ice cream along with a chocolate mousse in top of a brownie covered in chocolate topped with Oreo crumbs... Delicious! While my boyfriend had a scoop peach sorbet, very fruity and full of flavor. 

Overall I the experience was wonderful, it was a once in a lifetime thing for me but I would bring my parents there to share the experience.

Photo of angel for your viewing pleasure.

Welcome to the world of Sephora

I find that whenever Tia steps up her makeup/cloths, I end up matching her since we always go shopping together. Less money for me but it's so worth it! My mom has always scolded me for using drugstore makeup since she believes that it is cheap quality and the chemicals in them can run my face. I do see where she is coming from so I decided that anything that goes on my face should be high end such as tinted moisturizer and concealer. Eye products such as eyeshadows, and eyeliners I don't mind from the drug store since it won't cause my face to break out. Although drugstore eyeshadows are less pigmented than the higher end ones.

Laura Mericer Tinted Moisturizer for normal skin in Nude $42 and 

Smashbox concealer in light $22

The photo above is from my very first Sephora experience. I say experience because I had a wonderful time shopping there. The lady that helped me although her eye makeup did scare me a little she was extremely helpful and nice. Another girl helped me find the concealer but she didn't seem as into it as the first lady. I have combination skin but the lady said I would be ok using it for normal skin and that color best suited my skin. When the girl put on the concealer for me she used Sephora's airbrush concealer brush. Oh my god, I felt like someone was rubbing clouds filled with marshmallows and rainbows on my face. I knew I had to have it. I was told that the Smashbox concealer was the best for under eye coverage and for the red spots around my nose. But when I applied it on myself, I feel like it didn't cover my dark circles. I returned it, perhaps I do not know how to use concealer correctly. I'll have to explore on my own.

The Dior highlighter was given to me as an early Birthday present from Tia. I went out to find a dupe of the highlighter. I bought Physicians Formula bronzer that looked like it had similar colors. A blogger claimed it was a good dupe but I found it to be overly shimmery. This is one of the most beautiful highlighters I've ever seen. It makes your skin look RADIANT.

Dior Shimmer Powder $45

 It even comes it with it's own pouch!

 It's hard to see in the picture but there is a giant CD holograph on the top of the lid. 

I've used it everyday for a month now and it looks almost brand new.

So pretty~

This is just the few of many things I've bought from Sephora. I have a few gift sets in which I will post up later. I want to dedicate an entire post to each of them. I have so much to say about them! I LOVE SEPHORA! Shut up and take my money!

Christmas is coming!

Although it is not even Thanksgiving yet, we already have our Christmas tree up. Actually, we put up our first Christmas tree two days before Halloween. That night we suddenly had an urge to go out and buy a tree. We had already started present shopping and we were running out of place to hide the presents. We bought and decorated a beautiful Christmas tree, a modern, simple tree for our modern simple home. 

I dreamed of this tree since we first moved into our apartment (It is our first Christmas here). A white tree filled with black and silver ornaments. The pre-strung lights on the tree were multi-colored but that was ok, it still looked beautiful. We forgot that we needed an extension cord to reach the outlet so I forgot to take a picture of it lit. But unfortunately, this tree was short-lived. Our cats loved this tree as much as we did. They used to be able to fit in the tree but alas, now they are all too fat. So they completely ruined the bottom, bending the branches downwards. We returned this tree after being abused by the cats.

By chance we stumbled upon this tree while on our search for a white tree at Target. I love this tree because it is not your average tree. It is unique and very very modern. It is labeled for indoor and outdoor use. We used the same ornaments from the first tree but toned it down a bit. The branches are a bit flimsy but the plus side, the cats can't climb on it. It also might be due to the fact that we drenched it in that anti-cat citrus spray. 

No presents (sad tree)

Lots of presents (happy tree)

Everyone got their own signature ornaments that represented each of us.

Polar Bear (Me, cause I'm a december baby also it was the closest thing to a panda)

Iron Man (Tuan, much cuter and cheaper than the boring one at Walmart)

Hello Kitty (Tia, they didn't have makeup but HK does represent her well)

Pizza (Connor, he's white and can eat any kind of pizza, what can I say?)

Since we're on the subject of Christmas, I'll tell you a secret. Sandy Claws left presents for me to give to Sami and Leeah. I got them for only $1 each at Target, in the little dollar section at the front of the store!

For your viewing pleasure!

Leeah is super fluffy so red would stand out over her fluffy mane. Sami would look good in either.

Sandy Claws and her elf helper!

Hello Kitty Costume

For the second day of week before Halloween, I decided to dress up as the oh so popular Hello Kitty! I do have a lot of Hello Kitty items. Also I've never dressed up as Hello Kitty before. After hours brainstorming on what items in my closet would scream Hello Kitty, I remembered that last year Tuan bought me a Hello Kitty dress from Hot Topic. Perfect!

Although you don't have to have a real Hello Kitty costume to be Hello Kitty. As long as you are wearing the colors, maybe adorn yourself in her products, and/or draw on some whiskers and maybe some cat ears you will be good!

Clothing- If you do not actually own anything Hello Kitty, any outfit coordination of pink,red, and white would be fine. Hello Kitty's outfits over the years have changed in color. Her outfits range from blue/white, red/pink, blue/striped red and white, and pink/dark pink. Just type in Hello Kitty in google and you will see what Im talking about.

I wore nude tights underneath to keep me warm and to make my legs look super smooth and soft. I paired my outfit with black ballerina flats from Payless Shoes. You know, those flats with the bows on them that everyone has.

Accessories- Put on everything you can find! I wore a set of earrings that Mom gave me for Christmas last year. I wore my glasses so that I would match my nerdy Hello Kitty earrings. The pink and red Hello Kitty silly bands, I found from my little cousin. Also I would have worn the Hello Kitty ring if it weren't for the fact that I clean and touch food all day so it would get really nasty. The necklace was something I quickly put together. The Hello Kitty pendant was something that I saved off a necklace that I threw away long ago. The hole was not large enough to string through anything to I had to add it onto a hoop. I used the necklace that my mom got for me on her Cozumel cruise.

I only wore the two on the right since I only have two sets of piercings. 

These were chosen out of a multi colored set, I wanted my outfit to match.

Hello Kitty ring from Caitlin.

Hair- I straightened my hair to keep me warm when I work. It can get really cold there. I did not have time to make a cat ears or the giant Hello Kitty bow. Instead I wore a red bow that I bought a long time ago from Claire's. It would from the $10/10 item clearance.

This was from a set of 4 bow hair clips.

Makeup- I went with a pink/purple eyeshadow. I used liquid eyeliner to draw the whiskers on my face because it tends to last longer than cream or pencil as long as you don't touch or rub it. Everyone's face is different but this is what I did for myself. When drawing in the whiskers I used a eyeliner pencil to mark where they will begin. Looking into a mirror I drew a mark where the outer edges of my pupils ended and where the bottom of my eye socket met. Right underneath, about right in the middle of my cheeks is where I placed the middle mark. Then the last one underneath that. My goal was to get the whiskers on my cheeks so what when I smiled my whiskers would move.

Below is the final product, again the awkward pose is to show off the bow in my hair.

Batman Costume

Halloween is around the corner! Everyone is scrambling around to find a last minute costume. I've been brain storming costume ideas since September. Also for work we dressed up in costumes since halloween is on thursday also it was to promote our halloween party packages at pump it up or more like to accommodate them.

Originally, I was going to dress up as Katniss from the Hunger Games for work but since the kids probably won't understand what it is I decided to save it for actual halloween. Also I was going to be Pikachu, a pokemon, but I did not have the time or the materials at hand to create the look. So I went with Hello Kitty and Batman/Batgirl.

I saw some really cute DIY Batman masks online and decided to do my own version. The other versions used felt but since I only had black canvas fabric, thats what I used and it turned out pretty well.

First I cut off a rectangle of fabric that would fit onto my face. I held it up to my face and used my fingers as place holders to where I wanted the mask to end. I used a white pencil to mark those spots. I repeated this with the tip where the center of the mask would be and at the bottom center of the mask where I wanted it to end on my face.'

Using the points of reference I created, I slowly sketched out the batman logo. Once I was satisfied I cut out the soon-to-be mask.

Afterwards, I held the mask up to my face, positioning it exactly how I wanted it to sit when I wore it. Using my fingers and the white pencil, I roughly outlined my eye sockets. Picture below.

 After outlining the eyes on the mask, I went over and made the eye holes more symmetrical. Then I cut those out too. To measure out the elastic I held elastic along the mask and wrapped it around my head. I put it in the position where I would want the band to go around my head. I wanted the elastic to go under the top layer of my hair so no one would see it. I definitely made sure that there was enough length so that I could wear the mask all day but not too much so that it would not slip off. I sewed on the elastic to the mask, going back and forth multiple times to make sure the fabric would not give during work.

Back of Mask

Front of mask

In order to show off the mask, I decided to clip my bangs up with bobby pins. I felt like I was not dressed up enough so I made a little bow out of left over ribbon from a Harry Potter Apron I made for my roommate. It was really simple. I tied a bow and then strung it on a bobby pin. It did require a lot of fixing when I put it in my hair since I did not secure the bow in any way to hold.

For make up, I just did my normal routine but I wore black eyeshadow for the first time.

Asian eyes are hard to see any amount of eye shadow

Not too bad

Looking back now, I should have cut the eye sockets more near the corners of my eyes. It seems unfitted.

This creepy pose is to also show off the bow in my hair. The batman shirt I got at Walmart for about $10. It has a yellow cape on the back. Super Cute.

The finished costume. Normal black leggings were worn along with black ankle boots. Steve photo bombing me in the background as always.

I had a tough time trying to figure out which boots would be more appropriate for the costume but looking at all of the batman/batgirl pictures they wear leather looking boots. But basically boiling it down any pair of black boots would fit perfectly. The less lace and the more simple it is the better.

Selfie with Jenna (FBI) after a long days work at Pump It Up ;)