Going from Brunette to Blonde isn't easy and I've been mentioning for a while now that I wanted to go much lighter with my hair so that I can get more creative with hair colours. Although I already had quite a bit of blonde in it, it wasn't light enough to use pastel colours or get that real silvery tone which I love at the moment.

For such a long time I've coloured my own hair, and even gone as far as a DIY blonde job which in all honesty wasn't too much of a disaster. As I've grown older and wiser, I respect my hair and it's condition a lot more, and would never attempt to go as light as I have done previously at home. Some things just need to be left to the professionals. I won't lie, I'm terrified of other people going to town on my hair. I'm a do it yourself girl so it's hard for me to put my hair into another persons hands but I have been so lucky to find a hairdresser that puts up with my wild, lengthy requests and I trust her completely. If you are from Doncaster or surrounding areas then I can 100% recommened Cuts and Co, all the girls are always happy to help and I feel in very safe hands with my hairdresser Ruby.

You can see from my before and after shots below just how much lighter I have gone and this was all in one session.

I went into Cuts and Co at 9am and I didn't come out until about 4 o clock! I literally had an entire day of hair pampering. I knew it would be a lengthy process - luckily I had my mum on hand to bring me in some dinner because I was absolutely starving. So here's a break down of how my day looked;

1. I had my first round of bleach using Magibond which was left on for approximately 35 minutes. The bleach was hand painted on to give a lived in look to my roots. This left my hair with a fetching banana tone which is obviously quite normal for a first attempt.

2. I had all of the product washed off and my hair combed through.

3. Second round of bleach, focusing on darker areas, and covering the remaining hair last to lift as much of the brassy tones out as possible.

4. All of the product was once again washed out of my hair. 

5. An ash blonde toner was applied to the entire of my hair, to lift out yellow tones.

6. Hair was washed for a third time. (squeaky clean hair)

7. Finally a lavender toner was added to the entire of my hair to leave a lovely pinky purple tone.

9. I then had my hair trimmed, as it would have been a shame to cut out too much of that lovely colour and my hairdresser convinced me to keep it a bit longer.

10. Last but not least my hair was dried and styled to perfection, just how I like it.

Going from Brunette to Blonde could not have been achieved in one sitting, with such minimal damage without Magibond. For those that haven't yet heard of it, Magibond is a wonder product that is added to bleach and colour to help repair the bonds in your hair. This results in less damage during the bleaching session and also over time. It contains an ingredient called n-acetyl-l-cysteine that creates bonds within your hairs structure, keeping it strong and resistant to damage from bleach. I was dubious about how well it would work, but hearing other peoples success stories using products such as Olaplex that are very similar, I couldn't resist. I can honestly say that my hair is in absolutely great condition and I'm not losing as much of it when washing as I was previously. If you're looking at going considerably lighter but are terrified of causing too much damage to your hair then I urge you to find a salon that uses Magibond. It has worked wonders on my hair and has made it possible to achieve a look that I otherwise would have avoided.

Due to the way that my hair was lightened previous to this colour, it has made it slightly more difficult to get an even shade of blonde on my mid to ends. I am going back to the salon next week to have it freshened up and hopefully remove any stubborn brassy sections. Thankfully my hairdresser is very understanding of what I want to achieve, because quite frankly I am a pain in the ass when it comes to getting what I want with my hair. I have an idea of how I want it to look and luckily she has the patience to take me there.

Hopefully this time next Thursday I'll be prepped and ready to apply some lovely pastel shades and get more creative with my colour so watch this space. Follow my Instagram to keep up to date with my hair journey.

If you're thinking of going from Brunette to Blonde then just remember it can be a lengthy process, don't expect miracles in one bleaching sessions because it's not likely to happen that easily. Have patience and don't cause too much stress to your hair. A good hairdresser will give you the best advice.

Hope you've enjoyed this post, don't forget to follow me via social media and Bloglovin below to keep up to date with my posts.

Quite a lot of people have delved into the creative aspect of designing their own Personalised Phone Cases, but up until a couple of weeks ago I'd never tried it myself. That is until I was contacted by GoCustomized and asked if I wanted to design my own case and quite frankly I was delighted to give it a go.

The website was really straight forward and the dimensions for each case is given to you specifically for your phone type. This means you can get to work using PicMonkey's collage editor or any other photo editing software to create your perfected design. When I say perfected, I mean it took me a while and numerous occasions where I left my design and came back to it with fresh eyes before I was happy. I am quite the perfectionist and I wouldn't be happy looking at my phone every day unless I absolutely nailed the design.

But here is the finished product and I am very very happy with it.

If you are familiar with my Instagram then you will immediately recognise all of these photos. I simply uploaded a number of my Instagram photos from Facebook direct onto PicMonkey using their collage editor and played around with them until I had something I was pleased with. I've taken quite a symmetrical approach in terms of placing food opposite, quotes in a repeated pattern etc because I wanted it to look clean and organised. The only thing I can say that I am disappointed with is that the design has been printed onto the case slightly off centre, but that could easily have been my own fault and I can certainly live with it.

What do you think?

You can Design your own phone case at GoCustomized. From what I can see they cover the majority of smart phone brands so I can almost guarantee you'll be able to make a design for your make and model of phone. There are a variety of different cases to choose from for each phone, whether you want a soft case, hard case, protective case etc there will definitely be something to tick your boxes.

Don't forget to follow me via BlogLovin or social media buttons below if you'd like to keep up with all things KatieLewLa!

I was contacted by Firmoo a few weeks ago now and was eager to try one of their pairs of glasses. You might not have noticed that I wear glasses as I don't really post any pictures when I'm wearing them, but I do need them for focus work so I figured why not try some new ones. I have heard of other bloggers teaming up with Firmoo which filled me with confidence that they would be a trustworthy collaboration. 

Making my decision seemed quite complex at first but once I got my head around my optical prescription and everything else needed, it was quite a breeze and I wouldn't begrudge ordering glasses online again. My aim is for this review to be insightful as well as an honest opinion so that it might help others who are looking to order prescription glasses online.

There literally are so many glasses to choose from in their online store. A virtual Supersavers isn't something that I ever really considered involving myself with because I always have problems finding a pair of glasses that are right for me. What made my selection easier was the ability to refine my search to select all of the narrow glasses, because I quite simply have a pea head! Once I could see all of the narrow glasses, I measured my current pair to compare the total width, making sure they would be a similar fit to those I already have. There is an option on the website to 'try it on' so to speak. This basically lets you upload a photograph and apply the glasses to the photo to get an idea of what you might look like. This for me, wasn't all together too successful. Who can really tell what a pair of glasses will look like without physically trying them on and looking in a mirror? I found this aspect a little bit unrealistic therefore avoided it after my first attempt. Not to say it won't work for you. 

I sort of had an idea of the style I wanted, so it didn't take me long to home in on two pairs that tickled my fancy. After cross checking the measurements and debating over it for what seemed like a lifetime, I finally selected the pair below.

Now if you're opting for fashion glasses and don't need to apply prescription details then lucky you, you get to skip the complex part. If you do need to add a prescription then you'd better hope you kept hold of your most recent optician prescription (took me a while to hunt mine down). This is the part that baffled me slightly. I was a bit gutted that I couldn't select the Computer Blue Light Blocking Lenses - which would have been amazing for all the time I spend blogging and indulging in social media - without an extra charge. Therefore I opted for General use and began inserting my prescription details. I'm not going to lie, I did ask google a few complex questions about reading optical prescriptions before finally inputting them, as I did not want to get it wrong. Turns out it's actually pretty simple. On your optical prescription there should be a line for your Right eye and Left eye that follow a selection of options with a plus or minus result underneath each one. Once you've input your Sphere, Cylinder and Axis details all thats left to do is add your Pupillary Distance. To measure your PD all you have to do is stand in front of a mirror with the 0cm mark of a ruler lined up with the centre of your pupil. Simply measure across to the centre of your opposite pupil and record the number. You might want to do this a few times and record an average to make sure it's as accurate as possible, or get someone else to help.

Once you're happy with you Prescription details, you can go on to choose the thickness of the lens you want (which in my case was the standard 1.5 lens as it was free) and then the tint of your glasses. You can choose to have your prescription as sunglasses, polaroids, tinted a specific colour, photochromic (transition), or standard with no colour which is what I chose. Last but not least you can choose any additional coatings you would like on your glasses for example anti-scratch, UV protection, Anti-smudge, waterproof etc. I opted for Anti-Scratch and went on to the checkout. Another thing that put me at ease about this website is that you can pay via PayPal. Paypal is obviously a trusted source and gives security to many buyers across different online shops so rest assured if anything happens with your purchase, PayPal can help you out.

I was pleasantly surprised that my order only took around a week to arrive, considering it was being shipped from America to the UK. I was so nervous when opening my package, thinking "what if I don't like them", "what if they don't fit", "what if they look completely different to how they looked on the website". Rest assured, this was not the case at all. I was so impressed at how true to their photo the glasses were. They were fantastically packaged in a world map themed glasses case, with an extra drawstring bag to keep them in. I love the look and feel of the glasses, particularly the bridge, as there are no annoying rubbery bits that leave unattractive marks!

Overall I am very pleased with my experience using Firmoo. Their customer service has been great, delivery was fast and the products are extremely cost friendly. Whether you are looking for fashion glasses, simple reading glasses, general use, use for computers and digital screen, or something more complex for instance transition lenses, Firmoo literally has it all.

Katie's top tips for ordering glasses from Firmoo.com 

1. Check the measurements of your current glasses so that you can compare sizes.

2. Get to grips with your prescription before trying to enter the details.

3. Use the refine options to narrow down your searches, making it easier to find what you want.

4. Have a look through the colour options to find a colour that most suits you.

I really hope this review has been helpful for anyone considering buying glasses online. It's something I would have been too scared to do before being contacted by Firmoo, but it turned out to be a relatively straight forward process and I will definitely consider buying online again in the future as it seems more cost effective.

*This product was sent to me for review purposes but all information in the post remains honest and true to my personal choice and opinion. I won't receive any compensation should you choose to order from Firmoo.