Throwback Thursday - When I Get Robin Thicke Alone

I just saw on one of my favorite gossip sites — that’d be Oh No They Didn’t — that Robin Thicke’s about to drop a new album, and here’s his latest song. I’m feeling it! Very old school, drenched with horns, and it’s got a beat that gets my head nodding and my foot tapping. It’s a song you can step to, and I can definitely see it being a hit on the dance floor at a wedding or something. According to my number one favorite music blog, Soulbounce, the preview of his newest album, Something Else has been well received. Soulbounce also added this — “remember when he was just “Thicke”? When his music was edgier and he looked like Jesus?”

Um, YES! Yes, I indeedy do. Confession time — I had a big ol’ crush on Robin Thicke when he was riding his bike through the streets of New York City. Y’all remember what I’m talking about? If you don’t, here’s his first hit — When I Get You Alone.

I distinctly remember the first time I saw this video — it was on during the day on BET, you know, when they stray from the 106th and Park playlist and occasionally throw on something progressive? The video was such a breath of fresh air. Like, what’s this white Jesus looking dude doing, riding a bike and jumping over cars on BET? So different and fun and high energy. It was his overall delivery — dynamic, in your face but not obnoxious about it, and riding over that disco A Fifth of Beethoven sample. I loved it, but Thicke didn’t blow up big time until he dropped Lost Without You, but by then he’d cut the hair and gone all Jon B. style. He’s still a cutie — infinitely more attractive than Justin Timberlake if you ask me… which you didn’t, LOL. But I do miss the edgier, hairier Robin Thicke.

If you haven’t given Robin Thicke a listen just yet, I’ll tell ya — A Beautiful World is a great album. And I do like Evolution, but it’s a slicker package altogether.

What say you, bellas? New Robin Thicke? Old Thicke? Or none at all?

b.l.a.c is beautiful

I have so much admiration for sistas who are out there doing it for themselves, entrepreneurs making a name in the cosmetics biz by specializing in makeup made for bellas like you and me.

The ethnic market has become big business, and many of the leading cosmetics lines are offering makeup for a deeper and wider range of skin tones. Everyone already knows how wonderful MAC, Prescriptives, and Bobbi Brown products are, which is exactly why I love to shine a light on the new, niche businesses on the rise. You all remember Valana, Shea Radiance and Ohm Body? Great! Here are some more products by bellas for bellas that have come across my radar.

For any woman of color who’s been seeking simple, pure beauty solutions for her skin tone, b.l.a.c minerals is the bomb. This is truly natural makeup that doesn’t rely on the use of fillers and fragrances. Owner and Creator Merced Manning truly is dedicated to making a range of products that bring out black beauty — their items come in shades that exist compliment deep, warm skin tones to a tee. Take for example, the toasty blush. I was skeptical when I first saw it in the package — too burnt orange, I thought. But when sparingly applied to the apples of my cheeks, it gave me a subtle, gorgeous glow that didn’t scream “I’m wearing blush!”, which is exactly what I’m always looking for. Subtlety is key when it comes to cheek color.

The lip glazes are made with shea butter, and are as smooth and soft as you’d imagine them to be. Plus the colors are true to description — the Spice shimmer gloss really shimmers. If you’re a mahogany-skinned bella who prefers a shimmery, nude gloss, I’d advise you try the Cocoa shade. It just gave my lips that slick of sophistication that finishes off a well-done un-made up look. It would look effortlessly beautiful with bronze eye makeup. Speaking of which…

b.l.a.c’s Carnival eyeshadow is the perfect shade of gold for my complexion, and it’s flecked through and through with sparkles. Just a little stripe with a wet brush along my upper eyelid is stunning for day, and the full lid in gold at night is a bold, bright look. Royal is the kind of blue that really brings out the brown in my eyes — try it, I bet you’ll love the power of blue eyemakeup to amplify your baby browns.

b.l.a.c specializes in mineral foundation, and they offer a dazzling array of shades. From butternut tan to mocha deep, there’s a whole lot to choose from. The coverage is light and really flattering, but would be most ideal for a bella with unblemished skin.

b.l.a.c minerals is sold online (the company is based in Atlanta), and the prices aren’t scary — $22.50 for mineral foundation, $11 for blush, and $6.50 for a pot of lip gloss. Good deal, great little company. Click here to read Urban World Online’s interview with Merced Manning, creator of b.l.a.c.

I had the honor of meeting Kiley Russell, the gorgeous, creative bella behind Big Girl Cosmetics in person, at the Makeup Show Miami. She is stunning in person, and wears her locks like a true queen. And her makeup was to DIE for!

I admired Big Girl’s big display of items — that Mosaic Bronzer looks kind of amazing, right? And their eyeliners and eye shadows come in a great range — $10 a pop for the shadows. Their Diva Gloss is smooth and slick like a regular lip balm, but gives great shine and glimmer. I was very skeptical about the sheer peach, but it just gives such a beautiful natural glow to my mouth, I’ve been completely won over. Even prettier over a lip stain. Love it.

Continue reading »

Giveaway Glitch

Heavy sigh. OK, here goes. I love doing Afrobella giveaways, and I try to host them as often as I can. Most of the time, they go extremely well — I review a product I like and I think is worth your attention, end my post with an offer for you lovely bellas to win one of your own, comments flow in, I choose some at random, contact you, send info to the PR, you get a lovely free package in your mailbox shortly thereafter. It’s all good. But there have been some occasional disruptions in the giveaway procedure.

Sometimes I’ll hear from a winner months after the prizes have been sent out, who then says she never recieved her prize. Then I have to contact the PR to ask why, and it gets tricky from there on out. I’ve had some people up and disappear on me, or just shrug their shoulders and say they sent it and don’t know what happened. At that point, there’s nothing I can do except feel bad.

Being a beauty blogger who hosts regular giveaways involves a relationship of trust between myself and the product people, and also myself and you, the reader and giveaway contest enterer. If I don’t hear from you after you’ve gotten your item, I won’t know if you liked it, hated it, or never got it. Or got something you really, really weren’t supposed to. Let me tell you a funny, frustrating story with a super happy ending.

For my birthday, I hosted a Creme of Nature giveaway. Got lots of awesome birthday wishes, came back, chose winners, everyone’s happy, right? Then a month later, I heard from one of the winners. Roshanne. Thank you so much for writing, Roshanne!

She says in part:

“I am emailing to ask you about the contents of the giveaway… Ive gone completely natural and just yesterday i was fed up with my hair and thought about getting a relaxer and saying forget it…..

So today when i opened my box there was a relaxer kit in the box along with a bottle of shampoo..and conditioner….lol…I was like wow is this a sign….but seriously after this long and drawn out email were we suppose to get a relaxer in the giveaway i dont remember..”

OK. Imagine your reaction, if you were me — a beauty blogger with a website called AFRObella, entirely dedicated to preserving and loving natural hair. And a package containing a complimentary box of creamy crack is being sent out on your behalf. OMFG, as the Gossip Girl fans say. I was aghast. Horrified. I immediately wrote back to tell her, NO — this is SO NOT a sign, and I would never ever have asked the company to do that. “Stay strong, girl,” I told her. Sell that stuff on Ebay, or give it to a friend who uses relaxer, whatever you need to do.

Then I e mailed the PR, the lovely Angela, and asked her — did all TEN winners get this additional item in their giveaway package? It took her about a week to get back to me with the answer. Yes. OMFG.

And to think, I would never have known unless one of the winners actually wrote back to thank me and to ask — why the relaxer, Afrobella? Oh jeez.

I am pleased to report, after lots and lots of e mails back and forth, Angela set up a conference call for me, her, and Shawn Tollerson, the VP of Marketing for Creme of Nature. Shawn explained that it was just an oversight, they were trying to just give the readers even more of the products the company has to offer. As it turns out, some are afrobella-friendly, others aren’t. And they just wrapped up a big ol’ package and sent it out without catering to natural hair needs. Shawn was hilarious. She said, “I give you my humblest and most sincere apology. I myself am a natural woman, and my children are natural. When I found out what happened, I was like aaaaaaah! Patrice is gonna kill me!!” She made me laugh out loud. So we talked and talked, and figured out how we’re all going to make this giveaway glitch right.

First things first, the original winners are being sent a brand new Creme of Nature gift pack, which includes the products I like the most — soothing shampoo for dry hair and flaky scalp. the lemongrass and rosemary leave in creme conditioner, and my favorite of all, the red clover and aloe daily breakage relief.

And secondly, for 25 more of you lucky Afrobella readers, we’re offering another chance at a Creme of Nature giveaway. All you need to do is write a comment below that begins by saying, “Pick me, Bella!” And tell me what Afrobella giveaway you’d like to see in the future! As you can tell, I’m trying my best behind the scenes to get you all some of my favorite beauty products out there.

** edited at 6:37 p.m. — I’ll close these comments on Tuesday and pick winners next week!

Happy Friday!

** edited again Tuesday morning, at 8:05 — 155 comments! Whew. I’ve now officially closed entries for this giveaway. You’ve given me a whole lot to read, bellas! Thank you! My goal is to post winners by Friday.

Ask Afrobella — Growing Up Afrobella

I got a question last month that made me smile. Here tis —

Hi Afrobella,

L

Hey L — love your question. Obviously there’s no way I could ever recommend straightening your little bella’s hair, ESPECIALLY not now — she’s only four years old!!! That’s old enough to be own-way and finicky about how her hair is combed, but waaaaay too early to consider using creamy crack on her tender scalp. The same chemicals that remove the kink from natural afro-textured hair, are used in harsh household products like Drano, which you use to de-clog your sink. Would you slather that on your little one’s head? Or your own, for that matter? Millions of women of color do just that, in order to alter the texture of their hair as it naturally grows. And we pass these messages along to our kids, thereby reinforcing a message that their natural hair is unkempt, unattractive, and unfit for public eyes. It’s kind of insane, if you really stop to consider it. OK, I’ll get off the soap box and answer your question!

I’ve been seeing more and more little afrobellas wearing their hair wild and free. On that note, allow me to introduce you to my favorite new model on the Trinidadian scene — my niece, little afrobella Dominique! Here she is, posing off on the beach for an advertisement for Trinidad clothing company Westport. My favorite little afrobella is such a big girl now! She’s going to pre-school, and the other day she sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” for her aunty Afrobella over the phone. YAY! (Click here here and here to see earlier photos of little miss gorgeous). Little afrobella Dominique is going to be three soon, and she’s got such a big bright personality. It goes with her big, beautiful hair!

I had to ask her mom — my sister-in-law, Lindsay, what they were using at home to keep her hair combed and presentable.

Continue reading »

Ask Afrobella — Curly, Coily, Kinky, or Coarse

I had a really interesting experience recently. Picture this. It’s a Wednesday afternoon, I’d just finished my deadline for work. About to have a window of downtime before the cycle picks up again… Then my editor-in-chief calls and asks me to represent our newspaper on a panel at a meeting of the South Florida Black Journalists Association. I immediately said no problem, got myself together, and headed over to the venue. I had absolutely no idea what I was heading into, and I’m so glad I went. The evening turned out to be really interesting and I met a lot of cool people — fellow journalists, members of the audience, business owners.

At the end of the question and answer session, I was swarmed by people who wanted to introduce themselves, and to exchange business cards and stuff. A few people told me they’d heard of Afrobella, but had no idea I was local. Some people just wanted to ask me about my site, some people wanted to ask me about that novel I’m writing… good grief. Every time I think of my novel, I hear the voice of Stewie Griffin in my head.

So anyway, at the end of the business card bonanza, I stepped out of the crowd and wound up chatting with some media peeps. Then a tall, striking, beautiful black woman approached me to talk about hair. And the fact that she wanted to go natural, but couldn’t. Why? “My hair isn’t like yours. It wouldn’t look good natural.” She wore her hair short and relaxed, but in that stage where my old hairdresser would advise me to “touch up my roots.” “Are you kidding me? What does that mean?” I asked her. I tried to tell her that I disagreed with her sentiment. I told her a little about my own transitioning period, and that it took my hair a long time to recover from years of chemicals. I had to teach myself how to style, shampoo, and care for my natural hair. I told her that I was sure if she gave it a shot and stuck it out, she’d grow to love her hair in its natural state. “That’s easy for you to say,” she said.

She kept asking me how I got my hair to “do that.” I explained that I really didn’t do anything to it, it’s really just how it naturally grows out of my head. Some parts spiral perfectly, other parts are more kinky and own-way, some curl down, some stick up. Some of it feels soft to the touch, others feel as tough as rope, depending on when I’ve last conditioned it. That day, I didn’t even comb through in the shower — all I’d done was conditioner washed it, added some Elasta QP Mango butter moisturizer, and sped over to the venue as fast as I could. I even air-dried it with my windows down. She said she liked the natural style and the look, but she was adamant that it didn’t look good on her. Once again she reiterated, her hair wouldn’t be attractive in it’s natural state. Here’s where it got kind of vague.

She was asking me how best she should style her hair so it could “look like mine,” because her hair didn’t curl up when she did briefly try to go natural. She told me she didn’t like her natural hair when she just washed it and used a styling product. But she didn’t want to do twists to achieve the curly style she described, and it annoyed her that every quite-unquote natural stylist she went to insisted that she do twists to get what they thought she wanted. OK. So… your hair doesn’t grow naturally in spirals, but you want it to, but you don’t want to twist it? She looked at me, expectantly. But I honestly had no idea how to answer her question… or even what her question really was. I explained that even though I call myself Afrobella and I write about hair issues and do product reviews, I am SO not a hair dresser, or a hair care professional. I haven’t tried a range of natural styles, and I’m not intimately familiar with a wide range of natural hair textures. I just do what works for me, and I let people know what’s working and what’s not.

I chatted with her for quite a while and tried to explain that her hair is beautiful in its natural state, all she needed to do was to give natural another try. Stick with it, don’t give up, and take the time to make sure your hair is healthy — that’s the most important thing. I even recommended some products she should try. She didn’t seem moved. Then I realized that I couldn’t convince her of anything. I was basically trying to talk someone into loving their hair, and it felt like preaching, so I stopped. I didn’t know how to make her believe that her her hair was beautiful, or to make her understand that everyone’s natural is different, and her hair could be unique, beautiful, healthy, and strong — if only she let go of her preconceived notions of what natural hair “should” look like. It felt so strange having someone act like my own hair was their gold standard, after the comments and criticism I’ve faced in my own natural journey. I absolutely horrified my family when I decided to stop using the creamy crack completely. People have called me Brillo-pad head. To this day, I still get the occasional “what are you going to do with that bird’s nest” comment from people who have known me for a long time. And even now when I am a proud and self-described Afrobella, sometimes I still have fleeting moments of doubt. Sometimes I wake up in the morning, comb through it, add product, look at myself in the mirror, and feel a quavering in my self-confidence meter. Is my hair too big? Too puffy? Too crazy for work? That’s when I put on more lip gloss, add some jewelry, and convince myself I’m the flyest chick on the scene before I leave the house. I wanted to tell this lady that she had to believe in her own beauty and learn how to own her fro on her own terms, but I didn’t have the presence of mind, the energy, the time, or the knowledge to say what I think she needed to hear. So, I went to an expert.

Bellas, I’d like to introduce erin shell anthony, author of Nappturosity — How to Create Fabulous Natural Hair and Locs. Erin has conducted over 200 presentations on health, natural lifestyles and related empowering topics around the country in the last 3 years, and is the creator and founder of the adaru natural hair salon in Indianapolis. She has seen it all, and produced an e book that is chock full of photos and guidance to keeping your hair naturally beautiful.

I asked her my Ask Afrobella non-question — what would she say to a woman who is convinced that she can’t go natural? She said this.

“To the women who don’t think they can go natural because their hair isn’t __(fill in the blank)_, or those who are having a hard time loving their natural hair, I say - FIND the beauty! Countless women who successfully transitioned to natural hair had to go through the process of discovering the beauty in their own kinks and curls. The very essence of the word “transition” is movement and change from one state to another. For many, it’s going to feel very un-natural to be natural in the beginning! It doesn’t matter how many supportive women, books, or magazines you have, the experience will still be solely yours.”

AMEN, Erin!!! She said it so much better than I could.

Continue reading »

Do You Pre-Poo?

For years, I did hot oil and deep conditioning treatments after shampooing and conditioning my hair. That was just the way my hairdressers always did it — wash, condition, THEN slather on oil, stick me under a dryer or bonnet or weird spaceman hot lamp until I’m done, then rinse and repeat. I never questioned it, but it always seemed like a pain to me. You mean I gotta wash it out AGAIN?

I honestly hadn’t even heard of pre-pooing until late last year, when I discovered Healthy Textures, a blog dedicated to the well being and growth of relaxed and natural hair. Although primarily the information and styles are for relaxed textures, the healthy hair tips are great for bellas of all hair types. Not only does the author, Macherie, have an excellent post on the topic — The Benefits of Pre-pooing, but she’s also got a video tutorial! She advises that it’s a great way to use up hot oils, protein conditioners, and old conditioners you haven’t used yet. I came late to the pre-poo party, but now that I’m here, I’m staying! And telling everyone I know about how great pre-shampoo treatments can be.

When I first heard the term pre-poo, I giggled like a five year old for a second, but the concept grabbed me right away. Doing a pre-shampoo treatment saves me so much time. I slather on some hot oil or deep conditioner, cover my curls with a plastic cap, then put on my little hair steaming bonnet. Or I do a pre-poo just as Macherie did in the video, with a wet towel and a plastic cap, and leave it on for as long as an hour while I kick back and watch Best Week Ever or The Soup or Clean House or… you get the picture. It’s marvelous “me” time. Sometimes I double up the beautification and give myself a pedi, or wear a clay mask on my face while I pre-poo, too. Every couple of weeks I make that my Sunday beauty ritual.

I’ve never done an overnight pre-poo, Macherie advises against it… but quite a few bellas on Nappturality, Long Hair Care Forums, and such all seem to have tried that and I haven’t read any complaints on their forums.

So what do I use to pre-poo? My curls love an oil treatment, and lately I’ve been using Lippia Tea Hair Oil from Zosimos Botanicals, a cosmetics, skin care, and hair care company so green that they formulate their products in a wind-powered workshop. $11 for a sizable bottle that’s lasted me through quite a few pre-poos. In West African countries, Lippia tea is traditionally served as a relaxation tonic at the end of the work day. And according to the peeps at Aveda, it’s also popular in Brazilian folk medicine, and has been used “for centuries for its soothing properties to remedy irritation and discomfort.” Zosimos Botanicals blends it with olive oil and perilla seed oil. This stuff smells more like something you’d cook with, but it makes my curls divinely soft when used as a pre-poo.

Of course, you can use any oil you’d like, including the VO5 stuff, Queen Helene, any of the brands you get at Sally’s, or you can turn to your kitchen for regular olive oil, sweet almond oil, or jojoba. Many bellas create their own pre-poo mix, including other known-to-be-nourishing ingredients like honey, rosemary essential oil, castor oil, neem oil, or Indian amla oil — psst, you can get a interesting mix of oils from From Nature With Love.

What has pre-pooing done for me? It’s helped to make my hair softer to the touch and more manageable for comb-throughs. I’ve been noticing less shedding, and my ends aren’t as brittle and prone to knotting up. That’s IF, and only if I keep up my beauty regimen regularly.

So, bellas — do you pre-poo? And if you do, what do you use?

** I found the beautiful afro photo at Nature’s Parlour, a UK natural hair website.

Ask Afrobella Part Deux — On Brows

There were soooooo many comments and questions about eyebrow maintenance in the previous post on hair removal, I’m just gonna go ahead and answer a few questions right here right now. Otherwise it’ll be ANOTHER thing I was supposed to do three months ago.

I’ve done it all. Waxed, plucked, and lately — threaded. I’m a big fan of the threading. I am almost ashamed to admit the inspiration for my heading to the threader…. ok, I’ll admit it. Kim Kardashian. She’s got bangin’ brows! I can’t even hate. On the brows. That is all.

I also noticed that Bollywood stars, like Aishwarya Rai, have gorgeously manicured, thick, real, sexy brows. The kind that women in Indian and Middle Eastern cultures have — cultures where threading is an ancient art. I wanted strong, defined brows like that. Like the ones that gain admiration on Blu’s Eyebrow Blog (there’s a little nudity on that site, beware workplace readers). Eyebrows truly do frame your face, they are the windowsills to your soul. Keeping them neat, arched, and not over plucked has made a huge difference to my look. It’s a damn shame that I am terrible at maintaining my own brows. I really admire the ladies who do.

So basically, I got caught in a bad-eyebrow pattern — let ‘em grow out to the point of ridiculousness, then go to some two-bit strip mall wax joint, you know, the kind where the manicure chairs look like hands with red fingernails? I’d get me an $8 eyebrow wax. Half the time it would turn out alright, but ever so slightly jacked up. One side uneven. Once I wound up with the Vanilla Ice. I got burned. I had enough of the bad-eyebrow pattern, and I decided to give threading a try.

Here’s the thing. Threading is way too expensive in Miami, because there aren’t many people who do it here. At Peter of London, it cost me $35 for Luby, a very sweet, loving, attentive eyebrow expert, to whip my arches into shape. That was my first experience. It’s weird, because honestly you can’t SEE what they’re doing, or how they do it. It’s definitely an art I couldn’t master — I am no good with thread, or knots. I even tie my shoes sloppy.

Every so often, I’d see Luby out of the corner of my eye with thread stretched between her teeth and her finger. Then whizzz, I’d feel a row of tiny hairs disappear from my forehead. Almost any kind of hair removal involves a little pain, except shaving (unless you cut yourself, obvs), and depilatorys (unless you’re allergic or leave them on way too long which really sucks). And both of those methods aren’t recommended for eyebrows. To rank the experience in order of pain, with 1 being the most painful, I’d say:

1. waxing

2. threading

3. plucking

Although, jeez - plucking can really hurt sometimes too.

Over time, I’ve become more immune to the pain of threading. Luby was great, but I decided to give up Peter of London — it’s really a hair salon and it’s insanely busy. I wanted someplace intimate and professional. My eyebrow mission continued until quite recently, when I struck gold and found The Brow Shoppe. The name says it all. I recently reviewed it for Pretty In the City, and I interviewed one of the eyebrow experts, Taina. $35 for 15 minutes, and worth every penny. I don’t think I’ll go anywhere else. She whipped my brows into perfect shape by threading my forehead, and plucking the area just above my eye. I noticed she had a super fly leopard print pair of Tweezerman tweezers, too.

I’ve been meaning to get myself a pair of those, and I like these adorable, smaller sized Go Green tweezers (a new tree is planted for every one you buy, plus $1.00 from every sale goes to the National Arbor foundation. AND the packaging is made from 100% recyclable paper and printed in natural soy ink, for you environmentally friendly bellas out there).

Continue reading »

Ask Afrobella — That Furry Feeling

I am ashamed at how long it’s taken me to slog through these Ask Afrobellas. I need an intern! I am literally drowning in e mail. Mea maxima culpa, bellas who have asked questions in 2008. I will make it up to you! Here’s one I’ve been meaning to get to from a regular reader.

Bella-

I am happy to actually feel comfortable enough to send you a question. Sometimes while reading the posts on your site, I hear “i know that’s right” in the background of my mind. I truly value your opinion as someone who has devoted quite a bit of time to help strangers with their beauty predicaments. I recently became engaged and am completely overwhelmed with happiness. But now the emotions of planning the wedding have rushed in so quickly that I sometimes forget that it is supposed to be a joyous occasion.

Lauren

Lauren, girl - I hope I made this answer in time for the wedding! The weeks have become months and just flown by. I am so sorry for taking so long to write back. BUT in that time, I’ve been doing quite a bit of personal research on the topic of hair removal, so I’ve got answers for you!

Before I dive headfirst into answering, I gotta say… the topic of body hair removal has been surprisingly touchy on this blog in the past. The decision of whether or not to shave your legs, or to wax the hair off your body, goes directly against some natural women’s definition of “natural.” I respect that completely. I won’t let a chemical straightener touch the hair on my head, but I’ll willingly slather on Nair anywhere else? It’s an inconsistency that I think about often. Also, it goes against the sensibilities of most feminists — why should we conform to male standards of beauty? Why is looking like a prepubescent girl the standard for women in Western society? The Europeans don’t do it, so why should we? All good, valid questions that are worth considering before you make a decision.

So why do I choose to inflict pain on myself and remove my body hair? Because I love feeling clean. I love feeling smooth and pretty and feminine, and for me, hair removal adds to that. My husband loves it, and he does things to make me happy, and I know this makes him happy. If I’m going to the beach, I don’t want to be worried about having a hairline if you know what I mean. If I’m wearing a skirt, I want to know my legs go well with the general appearance of manicured beauty I try to present from head to toe. I’ve got quite a few reasons why I choose to wax, thread, and shave away unwanted body hair. You should consider yours before you take any kind of plunge. OK — having said all of that, let me tell you what works!

Continue reading »

Worth A Click

Here’s a random assortment of the Afrobella-related issues I’ve been meaning to address…

One Door Opens Where Another Door Closes —

Today at 1 p.m., New York Governor Designate David Paterson will be sworn in before the State Legislator, effectively ending Eliot Spitzer’s in-office shame spiral. Thus far, the result of this whole incident has been history-making — Paterson will be the first African-American governor of New York, and only the fourth African-American governor of a U.S. state in history. He is legally blind, and is also an unwavering Clinton supporter. In the whirlwind of scandal, life is about to change dramatically for him and his family, and the burdens of responsibility will be placed squarely on his capable, well-respected shoulders. Congratulations to Governor Paterson! Here’s hoping he’s steeled himself for a strong dose of overnight political celebrity, and the scrutiny that’s bound to come with that. He certainly seems to be the best man for the job right now.

Spring Shopping Spree

Having just turned one-year-closer-to-the-big-three-o, I’m having all kinds of swirling emotions about this new age I’ve found myself at. It’s all expressing itself as a deep burning need for a fabulous new wardrobe. Will all of my age crises manifest themselves this way? Lane Bryant hopes so!

I have such a love/hate relationship with the LB. One one hand, I completely agree with Too Fat For Fashion (love that blog!), LB seems to specialize in loud prints, muumuu shaped tent tops, and generally uninspiring dresses and shirts — the kind of thing I’ve sworn not to wear. But on the other hand, their wide leg pants (like these) are incredibly flattering, and make for a great, effortless day-to-evening wardrobe staple. (Has anyone tried the Secret Slimmer pants? Are they worth the money?) Lane Bryant does basics pretty decently, and these days, I’m all about the basics. Oh, and BTW, LB’s currently hosting the “Closet of Your Dreams” sweepstakes, and if you enter you could win a closet makeover by ClosetMaid (valued at $2,500), a Lane Bryant wardrobe (valued at $2,500), and help from a personal shopper. Click here for details.

Continue reading »

You Get the Presents!

I’m about to take a little vacation from everything including Afrobella — I’ll be back early next week with a fresh stack of beauty reviews. But this weekend’s my birthday, and I’m celebrating in an unconventional way. I’m going to hippie spring break, AKA the Langerado Music Festival! In years past I’ve seen Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and Robert Randolph and the Family Band (who dropped out of this year’s lineup, I’m disappointed to say). This year there are a whole lotta bands I don’t know much about, but the entire reason I’m going is to see The Wailers, the Beastie Boys, the Roots, and the Funky Meters.

So while I’m off at the three-day jamboree, I wanted to leave with a big giveaway
I’ve been meaning to do since February. But first, the product review!

I know Creme of Nature is old hat to most of you all, but growing up in Trinidad, I honestly had never heard of the stuff until a once-regular commenter (where you at, coffy?) mentioned that it might make my curls happy. She was so right! Creme of Nature has been a staple in African American hair care for thirty years now, with good reason. When I first tried Creme of Nature, I discovered a supremely moisturizing shampoo that left my curls feeling deliriously soft. But the old formuation left a bit of buildup if I used it too often. Now Creme of Nature has undergone a complete makeover. Their shampoos and leave in conditioners now feature Certified Organic Ingredients (but for bellas who are truly obsessed with healthy hair ingredients, I am sad to report that there is petrolatum, alcohol, and ‘cones up in their mix).

So far, so great! The new formulation hasn’t given me any reason to complain just yet — I’ve been using the shampoo and conditioner for a month with no problems beyond occasional scalp buildup (which happens to me a lot because I try so many different products). When that crops up, I do an apple cider vinegar rinse to clarify my curls, and presto, no problemo. I love that the new Chamomile and Comfrey Healing Conditioner for Dehydrated Hair has a weight to it — it’s a great two-minute deep conditioner for weekly use.

Continue reading »