Wednesday 27 May 2015

The road to lilac - pastel coloured hair

 I've decided to write this post because there is not a lot of info out there on what to do to get platinum blonde hair or lilac hair (especially with products coming from the UK). 

So far, it has been a long road from very dark brown hair to what I was looking for,  it took a very long time, around 8 months to be fair. I recommend people to not try bleaching at home, I've done it, but my hair is very strong and I have some experience. Also, be patient, it takes a very long time, especially if you have dark hair like myself and if you have used dark hair dye. Use plenty of conditioner and let your hair rest, especially after bleaching. 

Initially, I had very dark dyed brown hair (my hair now has a lot of grey hair, so I have to dye it), which had been dyed over and over for ages. 


To remove the brown, I had to bleach it a couple of times and I got the hideous orange hair (NOTE: I have very strong hair, I don't recommend people to bleach at home without previous knowledge or to do it twice in a row, let your hair rest). I had a wedding coming up, so I decided to turn my hideous orange bleached hair into a nicer ginger colour. 


After that brief ginger month (which I loved) I went back to my search of the allusive platinum blonde / lilac hair. The bleaching process was horrific and it damaged my hair quite a bit.  It was still very very orange (even after 2 bleachings and a colour B4), so I decided to use Schwarzkopf Live Color XXL in purple pink to let my hair rest a little, and I got a very interesting pinkish-purple that lasted 1 month (as I continued my bleaching process very soon after that). I wasn't super happy with the colour, and to be fair, I should have used Directions instead (as they are very good for the hair).


Removing that purple took a colour B4 and some bleach, but I still wasn't blonde enough.


I continued bleaching every month (from september till november), without using a toner (only directions silver, which did nothing, and silver shampoo, which didn't do much either), until I decided to try using Directions Lilac, mixed with conditioner 50:50, and I got my hair toned, without knowing it.



I finally achieved platinum blonde! But my search didn't stop there! In december I mixed a little bit of Directions Violet with a lot of conditioner, and I finally got my lilac!



Since then, that's what I've been doing, mixing Violet hair dye (either Directions or stargazer, I prefer Directions) with loads of cheap white conditioner until I get the colour I would like my hair to look, I then apply it on very bleached hair (it has to be yellowish, no orange in it, or it wont work!) and leave it on for at least 1 hour and then wash the excess out. The conditioner will improve the appearance of your hair, so you get the colour and the texture you want! 

My advice to have lilac hair is:

1- Bleach until you get a very light yellow hair (go to a salon for this)

2- Use Violet hair dye mixed with conditioner (leave on for at least 1 hour), I recommend Directions.

3- Don't wash your hair every day, I wash once every other day and my colour fades after 1 or 2 weeks. 

4- Use silver shampoo and or/ add some dye to your daily conditioner. 

Also, Directions in silver does NOTHING to me, not even a slight silver tint, it just acts like a toner, and not a great one. 

Other recommendations that were very helpful to me can be found here. the Daintysquid has wonderful coloured hair and you should at least have a look at her blog. 

Hope this post helped! If you have questions or comments, don't hesitate to ask! Also, if you have other tips or brands you like, let me know!





Tuesday 10 March 2015

50 shades of Grey: kinky sex or abusive relationship?

I want to start this post by saying that I respect everyone that enjoyed this books/film. I think it's great that more women are open to explore their sexuality and experiment new things. Personally, I tried reading the first book and stopped half way through, the writing was awful and it felt like what it is, a book written by an old woman that was fantasizing about twilight, it didn't feel like something a 23 year old girl would do or say (without going into details and spoilers). 

I went to see the film last week to have ammunition, I'm not sure I can sit through the book again. To be fair, I found the film very tame (compared to what I read on the book, which wasn't much) and I agree on the fact that the actors had no chemistry (apparently, they hate each other). One thing I found alarming is the fact that this book/movie shows a classic "he'll change for me" relationship, where a woman goes out with an emotionally unavailable man but thinks and believes that he'll change just for her, because she is special. I'm not sure if they talk more in the book, in the film they have very few real conversations, a lot of adventures and some kinky sex, and by the last few minutes of the film (SPOILER ALERT!) Anna tells Christian she has fallen in love with him. 

I am from Latin America, and I grew up watching telenovelas, the epitome of unhealthy and unrealistic relationships. I've seen a lot of girls (and women) pursuing terrible relationships because "I love him", or "he loves me", or "he'll change for me". The reality is, they wont change. This book is an Anglo-Saxon version of a telenovela, the young middle class girl meets a rich and emotionally damaged man, completely emotionally unavailable, and falls for him, without even getting to know him. It's fine to have an adventure, but I can't understand how you can fall for someone who clearly doesn't want to have a healthy relationship. 

I was reading about BDSM the other day, this is a community I've never been involved with but that I respect a lot. What a lot of people said in different articles and videos was that the BDSM community has an emphasis on communication, which is clearly missing from the Anna/Grey relationship. 

I think the books are OK as mom-porn. My biggest issue is that they could inspire women in abusive relationships to stay, or even make them think it's OK to be treated badly (as long as they have money and are crazy good looking, and of course, if they say they feel different with you). BDSM doesn't always mean pain and consent doesn't mean you can do anything you want and hurt someone. 


The best thing about this books is the following: Fifty shades of Takei, a parody by George Takei (who is brilliant).


This actually made me happy, the thing I hated the most about the book was all the "oh my"'s in there (which was the main reason stop reading it). I got from this blog that:

"James uses "jeez" 69 times, "oh" 424 times. We are told Grey has long fingers 24 times. Steele cries 38 times. Steele and Grey never just say anything. They whisper mostly, 197 times in total. They also frown 123 times. The reader is reminded 20 times that Grey is rich."

To me, it felt like "oh my" was said on every page, and perhaps it was! 

Monday 2 March 2015

Adopting a pet - saving two lives at once

I've had pets all my life, since I was 4 years old and we had our first cat. Since then I've had cats, dogs, turtles, tortoises, ducks, hamsters, chickens and fish. I didn't live in a farm, but was lucky enough to live in a big house with animal lovers as parents. At age 25 I moved an ocean away from home and left my two cats with my mom and my siblings (both have past since then, they were very old), I missed them every day and always felt I was missing something. 

Two years ago I moved to Barcelona, Spain, with my boyfriend, it had been 8 years since I had a pet of my own, we thought we would stay there for a long time - which didn't happen, but that's a story that has been told in another post - so we decided to adopt a cat, an animal we both love. The adoption story itself is quite long, and I don't think it's worth telling, the important part is that after seeing him on facebook I fell in love with Tiny - pronounced Teeny - who was called Simba back then.
Top picture: Tiny, the day he arrived, already very comfy and at home with us. Bottom picture: Summer 2014, a very happy Tiny. 

Since the moment he came into my life he has never left my side. Both me and my boyfriend have a different relationship with him, with my boyfriend is more of a play/ love relationship, and with me it's a more cuddle / love relationship. We both adore him and we don't see ourselves without him. He has a very strong personality, very opinionated, cuddly and sweet but he'll let you know what he wants and how he wants it, he is very curious and wants to know what we are doing at all times and where we are. We watch shows together and kitties on youtube. He has stolen the heart of a lot of non-cat people and cat people alike. He is both a playful cat (which is what my boyfriend wanted) and a lap cat (which is what I wanted). He gives us kisses all day, which makes up for the fact that he never purrs. 

The super handsome Tiny at his best.

We are not sure how Tiny's life was before he came into our lives, he was already 1 year old and had been in a foster home after being found on the street and in another home where they didn't want him, all we know is that we saved each other. He is my faithful companion, always there, always loving, I wouldn't change him for anything. 

Why Adopt and not Buy? 

Honestly, I have ZERO interest in breeding, I find it unfair to a lot of animals out there with no homes. 

The biggest issues for me are two things, 1) a lot of pure breed and mixed-breed pets are in shelters or abandoned because irresponsible pet owners purchase a pet and are not prepared for the responsibility. Cats are fairly easy as pets, but they still need a certain amount of responsibility, they will scratch the furniture (in most cases), they could pee to mark territory, they can scratch children, etc etc... every time you get a pet do your homework, and if you want no responsibility and all the cuddliness then get a stuffed animal. 
2) Puppy and kitten mills. Every time you buy a pet in a pet store and sometimes online you have no idea where this animal has come from... In a lot of cases, they come from pet-mills. For more info click here and here

Please, adopt a pet and bring happiness into your lives. They will love you unconditionally. If you can, adopt an older animal or one with special needs, those that are deemed "not cute" or "not adoptable", especially if you had previous experience with animals. 

Thursday 5 September 2013

Randomly Nomadic

As some may know I've been living in Barcelona, Spain, with my boyfriend and my cat for the past year. It was a big decision, to leave the UK, where I could have started working almost right away, to bet on a project that could have been (and wasn't). 

The fact is that I came back to the UK, after a year of getting by, teaching English (and not enjoying it), doing translations (and being jealous of the work other people were doing in science) and even working at a restaurant (where I had the worst working experience of my life). I had almost no money and wasn't able to enjoy the city properly.

I felt very defeated, to be honest, I really thought my qualifications would allow me to find a job in science in Barcelona, even though they are going through a very intense economy crisis and science is paying the price. I was idealistic and naive, I always wanted to live in Barcelona, I wanted to follow my love for the city and my boyfriend and give it a try. The fact is, my relationship worked very well but Spain gave me a big blow. 

I found a job in the UK after 1 month of searching. It had been a year since I had left and I couldn't let more time pass by. I was lucky, I know. But even though I'm back in a lab, with a salary, doing research, there was something that made me feel bad. Then I read Nomadic Matt's blog and it changed the way I saw this past year. The fact is, it wasn't I waste of time. I did odd jobs I had never done before, and I know teaching full time is not for me. I also tried living in Barcelona, which was a dream of mine, and even though it didn't work out the way I planned at least I tried, and I wont be thinking "what if..." . I met amazing people I would be friends with for a long time. My relationship with my boyfriend got better and stronger, we realized that no matter what life will bring we can deal with it together. 

All in all, I don't regret it, I had hard times, but I also had good times. Now I can say that I tried, and even though I failed, at least I wont wonder what would have been to live in a gorgeous city like Barcelona. 

Wish me luck in my new life! 

Sunday 30 June 2013

Top 10 things nanotechnology has made smaller and better

I've talked about nanotechnology before. Here, I'll talk about different products and technologies that are currently using nanoparticles or nanomaterials, and that have been improved by this area of science.

10- Fuel additives


Fuel price is the most important reason why fuel efficiency needs to be improved. Fuel additives goes in place number 10, because new green energy sources are being researched at the moment using nanomaterials, which is much better for the environment in the long run and will be much cheaper. 

At the moment, it has been shown that adding cerium oxide nanoparticles to fuel reduces the amount of fuel used, it also helps decomposition of unburnt hydrocarbons and soot, and reduces the amount of pollutants emitted in the exhaust. This technology is currently used in the UK, for buses.

One disadvantage to the use of nanoparticles in this matter is the emission of particles to the environment. These particles are likely to accumulate in the environment, in particular in roadside areas, which will result in pollution.


9 –  Construction


Nanomaterials can be very interesting to the construction industry, the provide very durable, long-lived and lightweight construction materials. Very good novel insulation nano-materials are already available on the market, and they seem to improve energy efficiency. Surface coatings are also available and being used currently, these coatings promise to conserve resources, for example water, energy and cleaning agents. Because of their high prices, the reality is that nano- products are still not very widely used in the conservative construction industry, which for the time being prefers to rely on proven, conventional products.

They are mostly used in four sectors, cement-bound construction materials, noise reduction and thermal insulation or temperature regulation, surface coatings to improve the functionality of various materials, and fire protection.


8- Cosmetics – from sunscreen to anti-aging cream


One very important use of nanomaterials in cosmetics is sunscreens. Titanium dioxide and zinc dioxide nanoparticles are currently being used in sunscreens (especially in Australia) to block UVA and UVB light very efficiently, as well as to make sunscreens less oily and spread better on the skin without leaving residues.  

Another important use is to deliver active ingredients in anti-aging screens more easily. Vitamin C, for example, is an antioxidant used to fight skin damage due to age, which works best below the top layer of skin. In bulk form, vitamin C is not very stable and is difficult to penetrate the skin, and the nano form will improve this. Nano emulsions, which means mixing two unblendable liquids – like vinegar and oil, are being used as anti-aging sprays to transport beneficial compounds deep into the skin and in high concentrations. Nano gold is used in one moisturiser available in the UK, they allege that it has healing and anti-oxidant properties.


7- Wound treatment/ antibacterial activity


It is well known that silver has antibacterial properties and is used for wound healing and burn treatment. Reducing the size of materials by using nanoparticles increases the efficiency and improves their properties. So, incorporating silver nanoparticles into the wound bandages will improve their healing properties. 

Because of these antibacterial properties, silver nanoparticles are also being used in many products, like refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioning, toys, pacifiers, clothing, food storage, etc.

6- Sports

Because of their strength and lightweight, nanoparticles are being added to sporting goods. Nanomaterials are being used in tennis rackets, which contain carbon nanotubes to make them extremely strong as well as light, also in golf clubs and shoes. Some shin-pads for footballers are made with nano-structured plastics. Floyd Landis won the Tour de France on a bicycle which had a nano-based plastic frame, and now mountain bikes with these frames are available in the market. Footballs and tennis balls are being improved by using nano-clays, which are barrier materials and retain pressure.

Clothing and fabrics are also being enhanced by nanomaterials, from antibacterial socks, using silver nanoparticles, to waterproof jackets (and sails for boats) and wind resistant clothing that is breathable – for higher temperatures.


5- Sensors and electronics

One thing that nanotechnology has been making better is transparent electronics. Highly flexible and transparent electronic devices will rely on essentially invisible electronic and optoelectronic circuits.  Nanopaper has started to replace plastic substrates because is lightweight and also low-cost and versatile.This nanopaper, made from cellulose like normal paper, has a surface that is less rough and has a much higher transparency than traditional paper. Nanopaper transistors have been made, by Liangbing Hu, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Maryland.

Silicon nanomembranes are also being researched to make systems that match the mechanics of the epidermis, and take the full three dimensional shapes of the fingertip as well as other appendages or even internal organs, like the heart. This technology is known as fingertip electronics.


Top: Turning the tube inside out relocates the array on the inner surface of the finger-tube, shown here at the midway point of this flipping process. Bottom: Multiplexed array of electrotactile stimulators in a stretchable, mesh geometry on the inner surface of an elastomeric finger-tube. (Images: Rogers Group, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Quantum dots and silicon are being used to make LEDS, and a wide range of products, including lamps, displays and photovoltaics.


4- Environmental clean up

Clean water is a big concern in many countries in the world, where water sources are scarce and contaminated. Nanotechnology has proven already to be an inexpensive and efficient source of water treatment.

It has been found that magnetic rust nanoparticles bind to arsenic; the rust and arsenic can then be lifted out of the water by using only a handheld magnet. Also, iron based nano-filters have been developed as a low cost alternative to carbon-based filters. Iron filters can remove large volumes or chlorine and mercury, amongst other contaminants.

3- Technology – microchips

Some of you might not remember bulky and heavy cell phones and big and slow computers, but some of us do. Nanotechnology has been the key in making machines smaller with a larger memory. Silicon-based chips have improved speed and capacity of different devices for the last five decades.  The switches are becoming smaller and smaller, achieving dimensions with widths of just a few atoms.

Home computer in the 50's
First cellphone

Cellphone evolution

 Currently, I.B.M. physicists and chemists are working with carbon nanotubes, which are single sheets of carbon rolled into tubes, to improve conductivity and reduce size even further. A paper was published in October 2012 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, where the researchers created patterned arrays of nanotubes on a surface, they would stick nanotubes in some areas and left other areas untouched.

2- Clean energy

To avoid further contamination and reduce energy prizes it is very important to find new and clean sources of energy. Nanotechnology has been a big part of finding more efficient and smaller new energy sources. With very small nanoparticles we can harvest very large amounts of energy.

In 2013 Nano Letters published "Toward Large-Scale Energy Harvesting by a Nanoparticle-Enhanced Triboelectric Nanogenerator", the researchers found a mechanical energy-harvesting technique – a triboelectric nanogenerator – which effectively converts ambient mechanical energy into electrical energy.


Above, the schematic and (b) photograph of a fabricated triboelectric nanogenerator. (c) SEM image of gold nanoparticles coated on gold surface. (d) Process flow for fabricating the nanogenerator. (Reprinted with permission from American Chemical Society)

Solar cells are also an important source of clean energy, many researchers are investigating the development of flexible solar cells to improve efficiency and lower manufacturing costs. The biggest problem is that inorganic solar cells have an efficiency of more than 10%, while flexible polymer solar cells still show a low efficiency (6 – 7%), this needs to be improved. A review paper in ACS NANO (
"Nanoimprinted Polymer Solar Cell") talks about imprinted solar cells, which is a method that could improve the efficiency of both organic and inorganic solar cells.

Graphene has also shown great potential in the area of solar cells, which would be inexpensive, lightweight and flexible. Graphene would also improve supercapacitors, lithium-ion batteries, and catalysis for fuel cells.

1.- Medicine  - drug delivery

This has been an area in which nanotechnology has been very important since the beginning. It is clear that most of the active ingredient of drugs is lost in the process of the delivery, through pills, injection, etc., with nanotechnology there has been a constant search to improve the targeting of organs and improve efficiency.

In March 2013 Researchers at the School of Medicine of the University of Washington found that nanoparticles could carry a toxin found in bee venom and were able to destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and didn’t harm the surrounding cells. They plan to develop a vaginal gel that can be used as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection.



Nanoparticles (purple) carrying melittin (green) fuse with HIV (small circles with spiked outer ring), destroying the virus’s protective envelope. Molecular bumpers (small red ovals) prevent the nanoparticles from harming the body’s normal cells, which are much larger in size. 

Targeted drug delivery can also be achieved by using magnetic nanoparticles are coated with certain biocompatible polymers, coupled with anticancer drugs and later guided by an external magnet to the desired organ.

Monday 4 March 2013

Rare metals

These are some gorgeous pictures I found on tumblr. These are naturally occurring crystal formations. 


Bismuth

Flourite

Azurite/ Malachite

Pietrisite


Hafnium


Friday 1 March 2013

Molecular gastronomy - where food and lab meet


Chemistry is a big part of our lives, even if we don’t realize it. Mixing ingredients, putting them in the oven and getting a completely new thing is actually a very complex reaction. But beyond just the science of food there’s the search of many chefs to be ahead of times when it comes to cooking, and molecular gastronomy is a very controversial and different type of cooking.  

Fruit caviar 

Hervé This and Nicholas Kurti felt the need to investigate cooking in a different way. Both had scientific background but a love of food and cooking, and most important, curiosity about what happens when you cook. They are the fathers of molecular gastronomy as a research area, which is different from food science, it takes advantage of many scientific principles used there but on a smaller scale, such as the use of emulsifiers. Molecular gastronomy could be considered a branch of food science, but food science is concerned with analysing the chemical makeup of food and developing methods to process food on a large scale.  

The term has now been adopted to describe a style of cuisine. Many have incorporated unconventional ingredients to their cooking to bring different textures and flavours to their creations. Pictured above is a ‘fruit caviar’ which was first developed by Ferran Adrià, the chef of El Bulli Restaurant in Catalonia, Spain. The technique is known as spherification, which involves making liquid-filled beads that explode in the mouth. Spherification relies on a simple gelling reaction between calcium chloride and alginate, a gum like substance extracted from brown seaweed.  Chef Adrià is one of the most important names in molecular gastronomy, as well as Chef Heston Blumenthal from London’s ‘TheFat Duck’, pictured bellow.


Chef Heston Blumenthal

Using liquid nitrogen to achieve fluid-filled fare is another popular technique. When food is exposed to extremely low temperatures it will be frozen on the surface, liquid in the centre. The technique is typically used to develop semi frozen desserts. It is also common for molecular gastronomists to play with food flavours, making very strange flavour combinations, such as strawberry and coriander, pineapple and blue cheese, and cauliflower (caramelized) and cocoa. They have learned that foods sharing similar volatile molecules -- those that leave food as a vapour in a similar way -- taste good when eaten together.

Many other techniques are used in this style of cuisine, such as making foams by using hydrocolloids or carbon dioxide, thermal immersion circulator for sous-vide (low temperature cooking), food dehydration, using syringes to inject fillings, amongst others.

Even though this style of cooking is popular to date, there has been plenty of controversy around it. Some people think the additives are unhealthy and some ingredients have been banned in countries like Italy. There has also been controversy when it comes to the name, some chefs don’t want to be associated with the name “Molecular gastronomy” and some do. And also, very important representatives of this type of cuisine have distanced themselves lately from this style of cuisine; chef Ferran Adrià announced that he will close his restaurant.  If you are against or in favour of this type of cooking, one thing can be agreed, molecular gastronomy shows how science and cooking can go hand in hand to create new things. It brings the lab to our tables and can satisfy the curiosity of a lot of people. Is the movement dead? It’s too early to tell, this young style of cooking might only be evolving. 


Personally, I am very curious about it, being a chemist and all, I really want to go to a molecular gastronomy restaurant, which I haven't been able to do, plus, I would love to get my hands on some of the equipment to make my own little master pieces at home, the kits can be found on Amazon.