Afrobella® is also known as Patrice Grell Yursik, a reformed tomboy from Trinidad who now lives in downtown Chicago.
When she was eight years old, she helped out behind the counter at a busy perfume and cosmetics store during the Christmas season. That magical experience sparked a lifelong obsession with beauty products and the women who buy them.
She finally made the decision to lay down the chemicals and let her hair embrace its natural kink in 2002, and ever since then she’s been on a quest to find the perfect product with which to style her curly tresses. She is willing to try almost anything, from the cheapest foil-packaged conditioner packs to the most laughably luxurious organic anti-frizz pomades.
Her hobbies include at-home beauty treatments, finding online makeup inspiration, and writing. At night, she dreams of someday having her own syndicated magazine column and having a closet big enough to live in.
Afrobella.com was created in August 2006 to fill a void that existed in print and in the blogosphere – a continual celebration of natural hair and women all shades of beautiful. Afrobella readers are enlightening and entertaining, intelligent and glamorous, friendly, fabulous and fun. If you love the skin that you’re in and the beautiful natural texture of your hair, if you enjoy learning about different cultures and listening to eclectic music, if you have an obsession with makeup and fashion and all things fabulous — then this is the blog for you.
Afrobella has been featured in Essence, Ebony, Glamour, the Trinidad Guardian, Trinidad Newsday and Fast Company.
Patrice Yursik has contributed writing to Essence, Newsweek.com, xoJane.com and Ebony.com, and was one of the initial contributors to Italian Vogue’s Vogue Black.
She has been featured in full page print advertising campaigns for haircare brand Creme of Nature – these ads have run in every major African American magazine from Essence and Ebony to Sister to Sister and Hype Hair. She has participated in online advertising campaigns for cosmetics brands Urban Decay and Lancome, and hosted events for brands including Huetiful, Design Essentials and Carol’s Daughter.
Afrobella recently partnered with MAC Cosmetics to create her own custom lipglass called “All Of My Purple Life,” part of the Bloggers’ Obsession collection (which debuted on June 21,2011). Her lipglass sold out in a week, was re-released, and then sold out again in another week. To promote the lipglass, she created a Tumblr blog where fans of All Of My Purple Life could submit their photos.
Afrobella is currently on Ebony Magazine’s Power 100 list, alongside the likes of Jay-Z, Oprah and the Obamas.
Afrobella is on For Harriet’s list of 45 must follow Tumblr blogs, and on Mike Street’s list of top 10 African Americans to follow on Pinterest. Afrobella is on the Signature 99 list of top beauty and fashion bloggers in the world.
Afrobella is dedicated to product reviews, ruminations about culture, music and style, and interviews with women all shades of beautiful. Please send reader input, press releases, and advertising pitches to bella@afrobella.com.