Afro hair + Beauty + Fashion + Fitness

Jul 31, 2012

♥ Natural Goodies From Camden Market

If you are from London I am sure that you are familiar with Camden Market and if your not, I'm going to give you a not so great explanation- It's a market that sells clothes, a whole lot of jewellery but most: in-your-face Chinese Food sellers. The last bit might be hard to understand if you haven't been there.

I was so happy when I discovered a stall selling hand made natural soaps, shampoo bars and conditioners. But the best part was the soft raw Shea Butter. After discovering that I had a long conversation with the man who sold the products about Shea Butter and why some of it is Yellow (that's not real Shea Butter btw).

Anyway, I went back a few weeks later and got a great deal on some Shea Butter and a lovely Peppermint soap. I ended up getting 5x100g Raw Shea Butter and the soap which is of similar size.


The only Shea Butter I'd tried before was the mysteriously yellow one, which is either coloured or not real Shea Butter. This one is super soft and has the usual Shea Butter nutty smell.


I love this soap! It's Peppermint but there could have been slightly more Peppermint Oil in this to give more of that cooling sensation. It does give a creamy lather and the soap doesn't feel harsh at all.



The Shea Butters are £5 and so are the soaps. And if you are there, check out their lovely hand salve. It smells like the LUSH lemony flutter- but better!

Where do you get Shea Butter from & have you been to Camden Market?


x


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Jul 28, 2012

♥ Extreme Liner Makeup

I decided to try this extreme Cat liner look after I saw the inspiration pic down below, which my Granny posted on Facebook :)

I've never done a look like this before so I thought it would be fun to try..


Some people commenting on the inspo pic were saying " How does it look with her eyes opened though?".. Well here you go.. nothing I would wear out!


I only used 4 different products for this look:

-MUA black intense eyeliner for my brows
-Neal's Yard & Remedies bronzer in the corner of my eye
-Maybelline Gel Liner
-ELF palette (the white eyeshadow)


To the left: LOL my boyfriend has a habit of saying everything I attempt to do or do (or anything in general) is super easy and he could do it better. So he wanted to give this look a go. To be honest.. I think he did surprisingly good!!
The liner close to my eye and the flick are okey.

To the right: The inspo pic, I saw this on facebook so I don't know the source.





What do you think, which look is better? Mine or my boyfriends? ;)
Have you done something similar?

x



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Jul 25, 2012

♥ Hair Sun Protectants REVLON VS. REDKEN

REVLON SUN CARE HYDRA SCREEN VS. REDKEN COLOUR EXTEND SUN SPARKLING SHIELD

I have finally found an affordable hair sun protectant. I think since hair products with spf are not too common yet, they are not readily available- especially not affordable ones. The first one I used was the Redken UV protection spray which has now been discontinued. It looks like the Redken product down below, but with a different name and ingredient list.

I went to the hair shop today and discovered that the Redken Colour Extent range has been updated again. There is now a third version (I don't know if there's been more before) called Redken Sun Extend Solar Screen SPF 12. With that comes a mousse called Redken Color Extend Sun Take Cover Mousse SPF 25. An actual SPF factor on the bottle and one as high as 25 sounds great,
but they are soo pricey- around £16.

So here is what I found, REVLON Professional Sun Care Hydra Screen (Sun hydro protective hair spray). This is a tiny bottle of 50 ml, which I really love. Partly because it was only £3 and partly because it's so handy to bring with you in your hand bag :) The full size bottle, I think it's 150-200 ml was only £7 which is still a great price!





They both contain silicones which I normally wont use in my hair, (or my skin), but if it can protect my hair from the sun, so be it. Plus there are no natural alternatives :( One big disadvantage to the Revlon one is that it contains parabens.


I like both of these, I wont post a conclusion or rating, I think what I've written speaks for itself.
I really think that spf for your hair is just as important as it is for your skin- so don't forget it ladies.

Do you use SPF in your hair?
x


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Jul 22, 2012

♥ Braid Out & Red Lips

Hi Everyone! This is a scheduled post so when you read this I will be working a 12-21.00 shift which I hate. It's such a random shift and it takes up my whole day.

And I haven't mentioned it yet but I work at Zara in central London since I finished college! :) 


For this look I've used Maybelline Gel Liner (Review Here), Natural Collection red lipstick, BodyShop Bronzer, and my hair is curly/wavy from a braid out. 



Hair update: So as I mentioned in THIS post I am growing out my naturally curly/afro hair. To prevent breakage and be able to see how long my new growth is, I've stopped blog drying my hair. I now airdry my hair, and in the even I do a dry or damp braid out (which just means you plait your hair in 6-8 plaits over night). My hair is too thin in the ends and slightly to short to wear this style out, it looks okey in the last pic, but it doesn't really work yet. So I usually wear my wavy hair in a ponytail or in a bun.

It's funny how no matter how much I plait and curl my hair now, my relaxed hair (which is almost my whole hair ends up straight anyway. And to think I thought I needed to use heat before when I wanted it to be straight. How ironic.


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Jul 20, 2012

♥ Forgotten Sparkly NOTD :)

I've had these pics in my laptop for a while, but I never got around to posting it. This look is similar to one I posted a while ago using a purple glitter polish from BF and OPI purple polish. You can see the purple version here :) 

I used two layers of MUA bright blue polish Shade 9 and one layer of BF glitter polish.


I get this polish from my local hair shop for £1


As you know, the MUA polish is also £1. I tried to find it on the website but it looks like shade 9 is nowhere to be found on there.



Here is a little close up :)


What do you think of this? Have you posted something similar :D 

x


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Jul 14, 2012

♥ HAIR JOURNEY+ Transitioning? Transitioning Diaries Pt.1

Today I am writing an unusual post, warning for a huge mix of text, baby pics and reviews :)
I have decided to transition- those who haven't got afro hair or haven't heard of relaxers are probably thinking.. okey?! Transitioning means growing out your naturally curly hair and stop relaxing (straightening) your hair.

Warning for long text explaining basically my whole hair journey lol:

Well relaxing afro hair means chemically treating it so that your hair strands goes straight- permanently. It can cause a lot of breakage if you don't care about your relaxed hair properly, or even if you do. My hair has been relaxed on and off since I was about 8-10 (ill change this afterwards when Im sure what age I was).

How it all startedAt that time I was really shy and insecure, I lived in a tiny town (more like village) in Sweden which was not the most multi cultural place. It's fair to say I was the only none white person, which to them automatically made me black, even though I'm half white half black. Anyway, all I wanted at that time was straight hair and light skin. My mum is white and none of my Swedish family have or had dealt with afro hair, so my English family sent the relaxer. Since me or my mum didn't really know how it worked, I just thought it was this miracle product that would automatically make my hair looks like the  young girls on the package (lol you all know what pic im talking about, otherwise click here).
If you know how relaxer works you can probably guess it didn't quite turn out like that. The relaxer is applied similar to how you apply hair dye to your head, only that you have to constantly press and smooth it to help the hairs go straight. It would not dry bone straight and to achieve super straight hair you will still need to style it with a straightener or hair dryer. We (my mum and I) did not do any of these so my hair was straighter, but not at all straight.

This is my natural hair by the way, sorry about the baby pic.


After that I don't really remember, but shortly after that I started to visit my English family yearly so I  think I had my hair relaxed at the salon when I was there. That might have been a few year after when I was a bit older. At this time I was only wearing my hair up in a pony tail, yes always! And it was super long. I had it straightened a few times at the salon in England and my hair was super long! Almost down to my breast (I dont know how else to describe it)
When I was around 13 or 12 my hair I still only wore my hair in a pony tail, I was to self conscious about my hair. I discovered hair straighteners and started to straighten it almost every day- but still wore it up! When I was 14, I moved to a new city and for the first time in about 5 years, I wore my hair out. This was a big deal to me lol. 

My hair was now it's shortest in a long time! A couple of years before this, my hair was twice the length.


During my next visit to England a hair dresser cut (in my opinion) way too much of my hair off. To be honest, that's when my hair stopped retaining length ( I say this because it was obviously growing, but it was breaking more- hence it did not look longer). I was now wearing my hair out every day and straightening it. 
When I was 15 I started to visit my child hood friend (more like family) more often when I was in England, and she had started to wear weave (sew in hair extensions). Her hair was long and straight and it looked really natural. I had it done during my next visit and I was hooked! 
Now I was wearing tracks (which is not a full weave, the rest of your hair is still left out) and straightening my hair. Since I had never felt happy with my own hair I was now hooked on wearing weave. I would leave it in for way too long, up to 5 months, then get it done when I was back in London. 

I now committed every single relaxed hair crime lol. I took it out myself (cut the threads of the weave myself), then without any treatments or leaving my hair, I headed back to the salon to get my hair relaxed (only like a day after taking out my weave) and had them sew in new weave! This is really really bad. You should leave your hair at least 1-2 weeks on it's own after having weave sewn in. I knew this, but didn't care because I now felt I couldn't wear my hair without weave, same was as before I felt I couldn't wear my natural hair out without putting it in a ponytail.I don't regret it at all, the only thing to regret is how insecure I was at that time.

In the first pic I am wearing tracks. In the second GLUED in hair extensions.

Around 15 years old.



Here I am wearing weave, AND glued in hair extension (mainly used by white people, because imagine how that tangles in the afro growing out?!). That was crazy. Oh and I had dyed my hair black here.

Around 16 years old.


I wore weaves until I was like 17 or 18, and then decided to leave my hair alone and try to grow it out, but still relaxing it. Since I started this blog I've just been leaving my hair alone, hence all the pony tail looks! 

Except when I was really young I've always loved curly hair, and every time I see my hair growing out I've been thinking about transitioning. The last time I relaxed my hair was 3 months ago, and before that I was already thinking about transitioning. I found that it was too much of a hassle and my regrowth was too tangly. 

But then again, I wasn't detangling my hair at all so it makes sense it would be knotty. 
I decided to transition about 3 days ago, and I won't change my mind. Sometimes I'm really spontaneous, but not in a way that I change my mind. I just make my mind up really sudden lol.

My hair regime will kind of be the same, except I'll stop blow drying my hair completely, to prevent breakage and to be able to see my new growth. I had a sample of this product before I decided to transition and I still really liked it. It's meant to detangle your new growth and moisturise it. 

I really like it and it makes detangling a lot easier.


I haven't tried this brand before but I've now checked out their other products, they all contain mineral oil and other bad stuff! The ingredient list in this is fine, but not amazing.. it contains quite a lot of Shea Butter which is the second ingredient.


It smells of mango and lime, the smell is amazing! This is what it looks like.


Any transitioning tips for me?
Any hair journey stories, link it :D?

x

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Jul 10, 2012

♥ OOTD Plain Black Dress

 This was my ootd a couple of days ago :)




|| Plain Black Dress- New Look || Spiked Golden Collar Necklace- Miss Selfridge || Nude Pink Blazer- H&M || Leopard Print Slippers- Dorothy Perkins || Golden Thick Bracelet- Portobello Market ||

What do you think?

x


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Jul 7, 2012

♥ Organic FOTD using NYR!

In this casual look I am wearing only organic make up from Neal's Yard & Remedies. I have reviewed their eyeliner, lip gloss and eyeshadow here and I really love all of their make up.

However, this post is to review their loose organic bronzer which I've been wanting to buy for soo long, since I first heard their coming out with a make up range. So when I recently got it as a present from my Aunty I was so happy :)


NYR Golden Bronze Mineral Bronzer, you can get it from HERE and it's £16.5


I had never used any powder foundation/blush or bronzer before and my worry was that the product would just create a lot of fall out and be very hard to work into the skin. Well I was wrong- I applied it with my Real Techniques blush brush and the bronzer applied super smoothly and stayed on for long!


As with all NYR make up the ingredients are amazing. Shea Butter and Almond Oil are far up in the ingredient list :) The rest you can read down below.


For this look I also used the lip gloss and an eyeshadow as a highlighter, I've linked the review at the beginning of this post.


Have you tried organic make up?
If your've reviewed NYR's make up, send me the link :)

x



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Jul 6, 2012

♥ FOTD- Only Make Up Academy

Well this was my face of yesterday, when I went to work. A bit heavy for retail work lol but oh well. I had an extra 10 mins before I had to leave and for some reason I just felt like using this blue shadow.

I primed my lid with MUA eye lid primer and I only used MUA Glitterbomb Palette- and I used three different shades, blue, black and brown.

To make the blue colour stand out more I sprayed my brush with a face mist and it worked really well!
I started work at 1 pm and finished at 10 pm. So after 9 hours make up was still on and as bright as it was from the start!


As I said, I had 10 mins extra in the morning, hence the quick look, didn't do my eyebrows or eyeliner and I also didn't have time to take any "proper" pictures".

I took these pics using photobooth but I think photobooth always catches make up looks really well, only thing is that the make up looks a bit more "glittery".


What do you think of this look? 

x

What's your favourite MUA eyeshadow palette?

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Jul 3, 2012

♥ NOTD: Instagram Inspired Leopard Nail Art

I wore this look a couple of days ago, I was inspired by a picture on Instagram when I was looking through nail polish tags.

The reason I love it because I do like wearing leopard print pattern on my nails, but I'm a bit to impatient to do my whole hands, so two nails seemed like the perfect solution!

My leopard print nail video tutorial
Another leopard print nail art post


The lighting is a bit misleading since my nails are orange, not bright red. I used N7 orange polish and for the dots I used my only black polish which is by the Body Shop and has glitter in it.




I've blogged about all these polishes before, click to view.

NOTD Using Body Shop Nail Polish
NOTD Using Barry M Gold Polish
NOTD Using N7 Orange Polish

What do you think of this? :D

x

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