7 Things I Miss About Brisbane!

So many of you may already be aware that at the beginning of this year I made the move down to Melbourne from Brisbane. I was born and raised in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, and every place in between. So as you can imagine, packing up my entire life and moving to a whole new city that I'd only been to once before (in 2005, at that!) was a big thing.

I've now been living in Melbourne for over 5 months (seriously, how did that happen!?) and lately, the nostalgic feelings towards the place I called home for more than 18 years of my life have been slowly creeping up on me.

So, as an attempt to move through my homesickness, I've created this list of 10 things that I really miss about living in Brisbane!


1. Being So Close to the Gold Coast's Theme Parks. I'm pretty sure that I spent just about every weekend of my childhood at one of the many theme parks on the Gold Coast. Coming from the North of Brisbane, it took a good 2-3 hours each way by bus-train-bus, but it was somewhat of a ritual and totally worth it. I was obsessed with theme parks and roller coaster and all of that stuff for the longest time.

2. Summer Storms. A lot of people, my own mother included, absolutely hate Queensland's Summer storms. Me on the other hand, I can't get enough. I love the smell of the rain, the sound of the thunder and how pretty that crazy-ass lightning is when it strikes down on the city. Growing up, I loved standing outside during the storms (which almost always caused a blackout where I lived) and just watching them.

3. The CBD. I mean, it's kinda boring and the surrounding suburbs are nothing compared to the likes of St Kilda, South Yarra, Fitzroy, Brunswick, Moonee Ponds etc here in Melbourne. But it's so simple, everything's pretty much centred around the one strip along Queen Street Mall making it easy to find your way around. No confusion there!

4. Friends. I'm not the most social person so I didn't actually leave too many friends behind up in Brisbane at all. But still, the few friends I did leave behind are some of the loveliest people and I miss seeing them more often!

5. Sushi. A weird one, I know. But sushi is my absolute favourite food and in Brisbane, you could find it literally everywhere. It seems to be a whole lot less popular here in Melbourne, which I personally find utterly depressing.

6. The Laid-Back Atmosphere. Okay, truthfully I think Brisbane is a bit too laid back for my liking. But at the same time, I really hate how uptight everyone is here in Melbourne, and sometimes I feel like taking a step back and relaxing a-la-Queenslander style.

7. Living by the Beach. I grew up living no more than a couple of blocks from the beach, and even when I moved further inland I was never more than 30mins from the closest beach. It was totally affordable and the beaches were lovely, but living close to the beach in Melbourne is rather expensive and since I'm not full of money... (Plus, the quality of the beaches was pretty great!)


xx Chontelle Louise

JoBaz Max Strength Hair Colour Remover | Review

So a couple of days ago I picked up a box of Loreal Excellence Creme hair dye in Dark Golden Blonde, planning to try to achieve a more natural looking blonde.

Disaster.

I had it on for just under 10 minutes and it came out as a bit of a neutral/ashy light brown. I was devastated. I'd spent so long, and so much on getting my hair back to blonde, and suddenly I was basically back where I had started.

What my hair looked like after applying Loreal Excellence Creme in Dark Golden Blonde.

As you can tell in these pictures, my hair still looks relatively light. This is due to the fact that the sun was glaring as I took these, in person it was much darker but these are the only pictures I took. I took these snaps in the car on the way to Priceline, where I picked up the JoBaz Max Strength Hair Colour Remover for $29.99. The price was steep, but totally worth it.

JoBaz Hair Colour Remover comes in two strengths, Normal and Max. I considered using Normal because I was only going from a light brown back to blonde without any colour build up, but after speaking to the lovely lady at Priceline decided to go with Max strength just to be safe.

This product basically works by breaking down the colour molecules that hair dye deposits into your hair so that they are able to simply be washed away, leaving your hair at it's lightest colour. I say lightest, because it's not always possible to return to your natural colour. If you've ever bleached or highlighted your hair, then that is the colour it will return to as it is not possible to remove bleach. The same goes with box dyes containing peroxide (bleaching chemical), as sometimes darker colours still contain peroxide so when you darken your hair, you're also unintentionally bleaching it. It's also worth noting that JoBaz Colour Remover cannot remove cuticle staining, which can be caused by using fashion colours or henna dye.

Anyway. The process.

So the box contains three parts; Part A (the developer), Part B (the applicator) and Part C (the buffer). Parts A and B are combined and then applied to your hair. You've got to make sure to soak your hair in this stuff so that you don't end up with any uneven patches. Once you've done that, you'll want to wrap your hair in some sort of plastic to conserve heat (allowing the mixture to develop faster). I used an old plastic bag.

My hair after application, wrapped in plastic at the start of the development period.

You let this develop for a minimum of 30 minutes. You're supposed to ensure you're in a warm room with no draft so as not to slow down the development process, but seeing as though it was about 6*c at the time and there's no heater in the bathroom, I improvised and heated my hair using the hairdryer. 

At the end of the development period, just before rinsing.

The next step is simple. Rinse. Rinse, rinse, and rinse. And do it well. This is really important, as if you haven't rinsed properly you're not gonna loosen up all of that unwanted colour. You need to rinse for at least 5 minutes, but 10 minutes is recommended. I rinsed for almost 20. You follow this by applying Part C (the buffer) like a shampoo. Lather, leave it on for a minute, then rinse for 5. This is literally the make or break of the entire process, as the buffer is the vital step that will grab hold of and remove all of the now-broken-down colour particles. Do this well.

After rinsing, you repeat the process with the rest of the buffer, and you're done. If your hair is feeling a bit dry then you can condition it, however just remember that this is supposed to make it harder for colour to stick to your hair so you won't be able to recolour immediately. If you do plan to recolour, stick to temporary or semi-permanent colours. This is essential, as permanent colours contain peroxide which will cause your hair to re-oxidise itself - meaning it'll go back to the darker colour.

The results post-JoBaz Colour Remover, back to blonde!

All in all, the process was relatively simple (quite similar to the process used for most box dyes) and the results were seriously great! I'd definitely recommend this product to anyone going through a hair crisis and hoping to remove a darker colour from their hair, or remove years of colour build up in preparation for recolouring.

Before and after!

As for me, I might recolour after a week or two when my hair is softer and healthier again. But this time, I'm sticking to light blondes. If/when I recolour, I'll be sure to make a post about it!

Have you tried JoBaz Colour Remover?
What were your results?

xx Chontelle Louise

Life Update | 25 May 2015

The last two weeks have been pretty crazy - a good kind of crazy! First, I had an interview at a local cafe and may soon be doing a trial shift, fingers crossed! So yay for employment(maybe)! If one positive piece of news wasn't enough, the next day I got another - I've been accepted to study Public Relations at RMIT University starting mid-year - one of the best uni's for PR and communications courses!

A bit of a background on my study life - I graduated high school back in November of 2013. I enrolled into a Journalism course up at USC but ended up deferring and switching to ACU in Brisbane city because I couldn't get up to the Sunshine Coast for class. So in July 2014 I began Arts (Journ & Comm) at ACU, but after some major family and personal issues along with realising I found Journalism boring and dirty (just my opinion, no hate on journos!!), ended up leaving that. Then I travelled to Europe and the UK for a while, came back to Australia and moved down to Melbourne where I joined my part-time acting course. Obviously, I'd missed the first semester's intake so I've just been settling into the city, job hunting and doing my acting course lately. Then it finally came time to apply for mid-year intakes, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I love communication, social media, etc etc, and public relations was the perfect course. So yeah, here I am, about to begin PR at RMIT!

And then to top off a good week, I got another piece of good news - I scored myself a short Social Media Internship with a new Melbourne based design company. So that happened!

So yeah, it's been an eventful two weeks to say the least! I'm in a pretty great mood right now with everything that's been going on, and I can't wait to get busy - having nothing to do is surprisingly depressing to be honest!

How has your week been, receive any great news? Let me know in the comments!

xx Chontelle Louise

5 Reasons To Travel While You're Young!

You don't have any major responsibilities right now. As you get older, graduate, get a full time job, get married and have kids, or whatever path your life takes you - you're going to have a whole lot more responsibilities that'll tie you down. You won't have the same freedom you used to, to just take off and see the world and not have to worry about anything else.

You're never gonna have this much energy again. You're young and full of energy. You've got the freedom now, and you're only gonna get older from here on out. Why waste your youth sitting back home, following the daily grind, bored out of your mind? Take this opportunity to travel to every place on your bucket list. Hiking, swimming, skydiving - whatever it is, this is your chance to be able to do anything you'd like, while you still can!

You can see the world on a students budget. Even if you've recently graduated or aren't studying, you're still eligible for those fab student budget holiday deals on offer. STA Flights, Black Market, Contiki, they all have some amazing flight and tour deals all over the world and a huge portion of them have age restrictions, generally 18-25/30 years of age. Not to mention, you're in ripe condition to go to youth hostels and backpack your way around any continent you like!

You'll grow in ways you never could back home. Travelling is an incredible growth experience that you simply could not have by staying in the same one place. Seeing the world, discovering both yourself and whole new cultures, exploring cities and traditions... all of this will allow you to see the world in a new light. The experiences you have while travelling will change you as a person - for the better - and you'll come back with a refreshed perspective on life. Or maybe, you won't come back - you may fall in love with a new city or a new someone and carve out a new future you'd never have without travel!

If you don't go now, you may never go. Because the truth is, quite often, life gets in the way. There's always a 'what if' or 'but' or 'later', but that's no excuse not to travel. If you can travel now, forget about the 'what if's' and just go. It's now or never!

xx Chontelle Louise

I've been nominated for The Liebster Award!

Hey everyone! So this is a bit of a delayed post seeing as though I was nominated almost a month ago when I was just under 200 followers, and I'm now sitting on almost 300 - but I've finally gotten around to doing my Liebster Award Tag post!

The Liebster Award Tag is basically a fun way to discover great new blogs with a following of 200 or less lovely readers, and get your blog noticed! I'd like to say a massive thankyou to Ema from All The Good Blog Names Were Taken (Everyone should check her blog out)! Thanks so much for the nomination, and I loved reading your blog and your Liebster post! <3

Anyway, let's get started.

If you're nominated - the rules are:
1. Thank and link the person who nominated you.
2. Answer the nominators 11 questions.
3. Nominate 11 small blogs who have less than 200 followers. You should believe that they deserve the award and include their link in your post.
4. Create 11 new questions for your nominees to answer. Notify these nominees via social media/blog.

QUESTIONS

♥ 1. What's the one thing you're most proud of?

This is actually a pretty difficult question. I guess the thing I'm most proud of right now anyway is that I've just been accepted into uni for mid-year entry this July, so yeah, I'm pretty proud about that!

♥ 2. What is your biggest fear and why?

Actually I have three big fears. Mirrors, water, and darkness. I've seen too many scary movies and learnt too much about ghosts and portals and other worlds and demons etc and mirrors and water having reflections/being pathways to the other side scares the shit out of me! And darkness, well, if I can't see what's around me then I can't feel safe!

♥ 3. Before you die what are the five things you HAVE to do/achieve?

Okay. 

1. I need to visit almost* all of the countries in the world - I say almost as obviously, there are several that are just not safe to visit unfortunately, some that you cannot visit, and some that I may not really want to get around to.

2. Write and publish my own novel. This has always been on my bucket list.

3. Live in London for at least a year, if not forever!

4. Learn to speak both French and Dutch!

5. Create my own fashion sleepwear label - it's a massive dream but who knows what can happen!

♥ 4. Do you have any scary/cool ghost stories?

Actually I have quite a few, in fact more than enough to create an entire post (or two) about them - which has given me that great idea! If you'd like me to make a post on my own ghost stories then mention that in the comments below and I'll get on to it! But anyway, one that stands out began around 10 years ago when we moved into a new house. It always felt like there was someone (or several someone elses) there with us. The most notable thing from that house is a 'magic fairy wand' I used to have, which was kept in the rumpus/back room of the house. It was battery operated but I hadn't used it since I was like, 6 or 7 (so 3 years before we moved in). Late at night, between midnight and 4am, it used to go off, making it's 'fairy ding' kinda sound. We couldn't find it for a while, but when we eventually did, it didn't work (despite going off the night before). We opened up the battery case and lo-and-behold - the batteries had exploded, long ago! That night, it went off again. And continued to do so for years.

Very creepy.

♥ 5. If you could go right now to anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

I'd buy a one-way ticket to Paris, France! Paris is my absolute favourite place in the world, I just loved it there and miss it so much! Amazing atmosphere, people, food, scenery, architecture, culture - everything about Paris is perfect! 

♥ 6. Where would you like to be n 5 years time?

I'd love to be living and working somewhere in the UK or Europe, in an amazing job and earning a good income to be able to support myself and my mum too, travelling a lot and enjoying life!

♥ 7. What is your idea of the worst first date imaginable?

The worst first date.. hmm.. as far as location goes, they'd better not take me to Maccas or somewhere cheap and nasty. No, you don't have to spend heaps of money on my but you do need to respect me, take me somewhere decent please, even a walk in the park and a picnic (next to free to do) would be fab! And please, nobody rude or self-centred or mean. Deal breakers.

♥ 8. If you were sent to a deserted island, and could only bring 3 things, what would you bring?

My camera, my laptop, and a journal.

♥ 9. Sweet or savoury? 

I'm definitely more of a savoury kinda girl. Don't get me wrong, I love sweets and all but I can only handle it in small amounts. Savoury stuff on the other hand, I can't get enough!

♥ 10. What couldn't you live without?

Honestly, there are several things I couldn't live without. Coffee, for example, is like the elixir of life for me. I need it, daily. Or else :') And then there's my baby girl Jasmine, my mum, and her girl Angel. <3

♥ 11. When do you think you'll be officially old?

I have no idea really, I think for me '30' feels like it'll be old. I mean there's a perceived change between twenties and thirties from fun and adventure to settling down

I really enjoyed answering these questions, so thankyou Ema! <3 

I have nominated the following blogs for the Leibster Award:

Manon

Elly

Eden
Nat

Okay, I know the rules call for 11 small blogs but honestly, I've never been that good with rules and all! I have seen so many blogs both big and small and so I'd like to nominate ALL of you with 200 or less followers reading this for the Liebster Award tag! <3

These are your questions:

1. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

2. Why did you start your blog?

3. Cats or dogs (or both)?

4. What was your favourite subject in school?

5. All-time favourite movie?

6. Growing up, what was your ultimate dream job?

7. Have you ever been bullied? Share your experience (if you want).

8. Chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry?

9. What is your least favourite food?

10. What do you want to study or do when you leave school / what are you studying / what did you study?

11. Describe the qualities of your perfect match.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Thanks for reading <3

xx Chontelle Louise