I Want You

I wanted to share some videos of one of the coolest read HOTTEST men in music. Common has had a long career and I absolutely adore his music. Each album just blows me away. I love that he really speaks to his fans in the sense that you actually hear what he is saying and he raps about things that are so real. Plus he aint bad to look at!!

The come close video brings tears to my eyes each time I watch it and if my future husband is out there hint hint!!

Enjoy the videos.

"Put down your bags love
I know in the past love
Has been sort of hard in you
But I see the God in you
I just want to nurture it
Though this love may hurt a bit
We dealing wit this water love
You even give my daughter love
I want to build a tribe wit you
Protect and provide for you
Truth is I can't hide from you
The pimp in me
May have to die with you"

Hey guys,

I know the posts have been slow in coming but please bear with us, I have a few skin and hair posts coming up. This morning I decided to share what I was wearing to work. Please forgive the dodgy picture taking. I hate photos and taking them is a pain. My hair is in a flat twist out.

Have a great day guys

X

Colour Colour Glorious Colour Series 1

Hola mamis and papis,

Todays post is going to be about colouring natural hair. Unfortunately us Africans are born with one hair colour i.e. Black in varying shades. I have to take that up with the man upstairs because I have always longed to be a redhead.

I have always loved hair colour and had my first full head of colour when I was eighteen years old. I went for a golden red with blonde highlights. It was gorgeous but my hair was oh so dry! I then got locs and the dying bug hit again. I dyed my locs a brilliant red and used to touch up the colour on my own in the bathroom sink. When I cut my dreads I also dabbled in hair colour. This time I went for a shocking red and went to aveda to get it done.

First hair colour in high school/IB

Dyed locs in First year University

After my Big Chop

That colour was FIERY!!!! Since then I only colour my hair with henna and as you see from photos of my hair...my roots are very red/burgundy while the rest of my hair is black with a red tint

Colouring natural hair can be very risky.The process of colouring hair is very harsh on the hair because the hair cuticle is opened and then colour is deposited on the hair. This can make hair very dry. Here are a few tips for those who would love to experiment with hair colour,

1. Always do a strand and skin test before you use any colour due to allergies and bad reactions to the chemicals
2. If you do a home dye job try and stick 2 shades lighter or darker than your natural hair colour. Don't try to bleach your hair at home.....thats a no-no
3. For Drastic hair colour changes visit your hairdresser.
4. Deep condition immediately after colouring your hair. This puts back the moisture that your hair could have lost during the dyeing process.
5. When your a coloured natural regular deep conditioning has to be done maybe even twice a week. Cons of having coloured natural hair
6. Make sure your hair is healthy before you take on the task of colouring hair

Can I have your hair and dress please. This would need bleaching and then dyeing green

Jill Scott and Tanika Ray rock some beautiful hair colour

Beautiful Brown Skin

Hey guys,

I have not done a music post in a long time. I have been playing this song over and over again. Richie spice is so talented, I really admire his work. Can he also give me the contacts of the ladies in the video because their skin looks amazing and I have to find out the tricks involved.

Enjoy the video!!!

P.S Ladies can we also make our own video with some tall glasses of chocolate eye candy i.e some brown skin brothas.

Lil Miss Kinky

Good day all,

I have finally taken pics of my kinky braids.. et voila!

please pardon the naked face, I took these right before bed time!

It has been a week and two days. The first week was strictly NO STYLING and NO MANIPULATION. You know how sensitive your scalp feels the first few days after braiding, well its a nasty phase where we are capable of loosing lots of hair if we rush in to styling and stuff, so please note: No manipulation until hair and braids settle.

Recall my original plan to do cornrows at the front? Yeah... Wasn't gonna happen. They looked awful!!! Dude! So what I did was I started the entire first row in three strand twists that turned into two strand twists.. this helps lock in more natural hair chunks that protect my edges. It is with great joy that I proclaim success! A week into it and I have only noticed two root bulbs! Usually I have my front braids hanging on a life line week 1; but this time, I'm quite confident!

profile pic!

Oh my goodness braiding was just awful!! I didn't straighten my natural hair enough before braiding, all I did was a couple of twists that kinda stretched it out.. bad move!! I'm not encouraging heat use, just for the LOVE OF ALL THATS HOLY stretch it out with three strand twists or cornrows a week before you decide to braid. I did it the night before. My braider had a hell of a time plucking out tightly knit strands... oh God the pain!

My braid regimen:

1. I will co-wash twice a week (starting this week, my braids are now settled)

2. I will LITERALLY drench my hair in leave-in liquid conditioners twice a week (infusium23 is my weapon of choice)

3. Spritz (glycerin + water+ additives) everyday, twice a day!

4. Moisturize and seal (sparingly) with Organics shea butter lotion after a spritz

5. Mild shampoo after two weeks (or ACV rinse or baking soda rinse)

Thanks for reading! Any tips or ideas for styling?? I'm constantly in a loose half pony tail, its getting really old really fast... so ideas are more than welcome!!

Much love!

Mary

Green Smoothie Challenge Week 2

I just realised that I have not been sharing with you guys how my green smoothie challenge is going. Today I made a yummy smoothie which blew my taste buds away, recipe below

1 medium sized banana
1 mango
1/5th of a large pineapple
A handful of rocket
2 handfuls of spinach
A piece of ginger the size of your thumb.

This smoothie was fantastic and very zingy. You could add some lemon to make it zingier hehe.

Update
The smoothie challenge has been difficult but its definitely do-able. The first few days were hell but now I don't feel as hungry and if I do get too hungry I have a small piece of fruit.
I do feel like I have lost weight especially around my thighs and tummy, I feel so much healthier on the inside. Warning these smoothies make you go to the toilet often haha. My Skin is so much clearer..another post on that coming soon. My stomach has definitely shrunk and I cant have big meals anymore otherwise I feel too full.

Leopard Print and Hair of the Day

Hey girlies
Its been ages.....sorry just caught up at work. I have loads of posts to come so just hang in there. Today I just wanted to share the nails I did last night plus my hair for the week. I did some cornrows a few days ago and dint like how they came out so I just removed the cornrows and had a braid out that I pulled in a bun. Pictures below

For the nails I used two different nail colours and some black liquid eyeliner to make the leopard spots hehe...got a tip from another blogger.It does not look perfect but I shall work on it during the weekend and maybe even do a tutorial. The skin on my fingers looks crinkled...a hand scrub will be done soon.

Yummy Pharrell, Eye Candy for the ladies..been obsessing over him this weekend.

Lip colour explosion, cam whoring and therapy!

Totally rocking this dark, goth inspired lip.

Purple lips....love it

Nude lips...couldnt find a better picture lol

My favourite lips...neon pink. Nuff said

Bubblegum coloured lips..what say you?

I hope this goes to show that dark skin women of all shades can rock colour and rock it well.

In my younger years I was totally traumatised because of the bullying I received in school because I had this huge lips. I remember even once someone asking me what had happened to my lips. I think she thought that I had a cleft upper lip. This made me self conscious and started making me talk with my hand over my mouth or trying to cover my mouth. I do this even now and I am not sure I will ever stop. However I am in love with my lips now and love playing with lipstick and gloss.

Be inspired and rock coloured lips with your fros.

X

50s Rockabilly/ Beyonce Tutorial

Some of you may understand my distaste for Beyonce and her image, I do however appreciate her makeup artist lol. The looks in the video "Why dont you love me are fantastic". I decided to use the pictures above and recreate the look with a tutorial. The pictures are below,

I started off with a clean and moisturised face, concealed any blemishes and applied my foundation and powder. From the pics of Beyonce this look has to have flawless skin.

I then used MAC Eyeshadow in Soba which is a light brown with gold flecks on my entire eyelid. This look has strong eyes and lips so a nude eyeshadow is important.

The key to this look is the strong cats eye. This requires a steady hand. I lined my eye with kohl pencil eyeliner first then used liquid eyeliner over the top. I also lined my waterline with a gold eye pencil and went over it with white eyeshadow. This makes the eyes brighter.

You also have to make sure that your brows are flawless and filled in. I then used MAC Bronzer on my cheeks and forehead to give me that Beyonce glow.

I adore the classic red lip and I love wearing it as well. I used two lipsticks to get my shade of red. With a red lip you have to make sure you apply lipbalm or good ol vaseline before. Its also advisable to give your lips a scrubbing with a plain toohtbrush or with what I use...an olive oil and sugar scrub.

This seems to be my signature pose lol

In the next post, I shall do some cam whoring and show you the different lips you can have with a classic cats eye.

Products Used

Foundation- Covergirl

Concealer- Mac Studio Fix NW40

Powder- MAC Studio Fix NW45

Bronzer- MAC Bronzer in Refined Golden

Eyeshadow- MAC Soba

Eyeliner- Rimmel Kohl Black Pencil Eyeliner and Rimmel Exaggerate Liquid Eyeliner in Black

Lipstick- Maybelline Colorsensational in Hollywood Red and Some cheap Ibrahims lipstick

Hair. This is a day old twist out. I just tied a bandana over my head and pulled my hair forward to make a fringe.

Music to my ears

This song is MAD, total music heaven Junior Gong and Nas, a girl couldnt ask for more.



Enjoy