Tag: Beauty

Plastic

Since the start of the year, I’ve put zero effort into my physical appearance. Make-Up routines have become a distant memory, my heels have accumulated dust of varying degrees and my hair has been somewhat neglected, neatly hidden between braids or Senegalese twists.

Between my Mum, Wura and Gbonju, I experienced an unsequenced, well articulated ‘intervention’. I didn’t make any promises, but I did resolve to ‘do better’ more consistently.

Heels would ordinarily have been my first step towards my ‘come back’ but given that I walk up four flights of stairs every morning, I passed on that struggle (thank you very much)! The other option was Make-Up.

My Make-Up is pretty basic, so this shouldn’t be much of a problem, right? Wrong! My biggest issue has been an oil defying, sweat resistant (I’m actually not kidding) PRIMER. At the end of every day, I find that a considerable amount of my oily skin disintegrates my LA Girl HD, boils through my MAC NW45 and my Make-Up in general starts to slip right off my face. Once or twice, I’ve tried to psyche myself into thinking it’s a ‘dewy look’ but it’s not. Ladies, I need your help!

I’ve read bareMinerals is pretty decent (it’s made with natural ingredients)…

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Source: bareMinerals.co.uk

But I had a conversation with Wura last night and she pretty much swore by Becca Ever-Matte Primer…

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Source: Sephora Australia

Any suggestions? Maybe I should take this to the Insta-polls…?

Meanwhile, I think this has been one of my best Make-Up looks all YEAR…. AND it’s a picture of myself that I actually like, so I’m just going to drop. this. right. here.

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xXx

Ps: Can I be Victoria Beckham for a day? LOVE that lady! Need to get my hands on a copy of October’s Vogue (my birthday month, whoop!)

Pps: A holiday is much needed. I’m still keen on seeing the world

Pps: What do you think of the heading ‘Plastic’? I kinda like it.

Sweet Almond

Found this post laying fallow and ralised I never actually published it.

If anyone’s interested, it was drafted on December 2, 2015. Hope you like.

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Everybody knows I’m a huge fan of all things Nigerian so there’s no point re-emphasizing (then again, I just did ). For the past month or so, I’ve put aside my Coconut oil, Castor oil and Olive oil. The focus has been on Natural Nigerian’s Sweet Almond Oil. I’ve used it for pretty much everything- my hair, my body and my face and I’ve totally fallen for it. “Why?” I hear you ask! Quite frankly, because it “does what it says on the tin”:

  1. It’s not greasy (at all)!
  2. It’s light
  3. It’s easily absorbed

A few benefits of Almond Oil include:

  1. It controls hair loss
  2. It is an amazing makeup remover
  3. It is an anti-dandruff oil
  4. It delays ageing

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Is it my new “Holy Grail”? Maybe…. potentially…. clearly, I haven’t decided.

Have you tried Almond Oil? What are your thoughts?

xXx

Ps: OLAITAN IS IN TOWN!!!!!!!!!!!! AND I’m off this week. It’s a blessed week.

Perfectly Manicured

“Never say never” is a phrase I have increasingly found myself saying.

There are a dozen or so beauty trends I swore I’d never try, yet lo and behold, I have gone against my very own words and found myself neck deep in my bottomless pit of “Never Evers”.

At the top of my list of endless Don’ts was acrylic nails (right after false eyelashes of course) yet, for the first time, I found myself being convinced to get them done at B Natural, VI. After (not so much) convincing, I gave in for the following reasons:

  1. The nail polish lasts a lot longer… no chipping…. (somebody shout Hellelujah)!
  2. They are good for brittle nails which is fantastic given that I’ve always thought my nails were weak!

After a fortnight and a bit with my perfectly manicured acrylic nails, I started getting irritable. My nails weren’t breathing, I couldn’t slip anything between my nail bed and my skin like I usually do when washing my hands and worst of all, I could feel the nails coming loose around my cuticles. Eventually, like some of the best written love stories, our short lived love affair came to a dramatic end (yes, where I could, I ripped some off myself).

Below are pictures of my September fling…

Day One: Love at first sight. Like Aunty Solape (from Church) said to me, “short nails are sexy”
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Two Weeks In: Garance Dore iPhone case arrives. It was a 7 month late birthday gift to Solape (colleague and friend). EVERYONE knows I constantly slack with birthday gifts, but they do come… eventually. Notice how the nails match the case? I had to take pictures. By the way, that phone case is the depiction of Solape and I at work. I’m the one with the red lips (of course).
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What is your take on acrylic nails? Love them? Hate them? Do tell.

xXx

Ps: I LOVE Garance Dore. I could read her blog all day everyday.

PPs: Perfectly Manicured……. LOL

“You Can’t Eat Beauty”

I’m a little behind, I know, but I just spotted this post on Beautifully Nappy. For technical (or/and regional) reasons, I was unable to reblog the video, so I embedded it in my post instead.

If you aren’t already in love with Miss Nyong’o, this is guaranteed to make you fall head over heels.

Please watch…….

xXx

Ps: If you haven’t already, visit Beautifully Nappy for natural hair tips and healthy living *smooches*

Shellac Homes (Get it….? Lol)

My love for shellac died about as quickly as my manicure lasted- 8 days! My nails grew out quicker than I’d ever realised leaving an unattractive gap between my cuticle and my manicure. Like that wasn’t bad enough, I got the highly unattractive bubbles that occur if a shellac manicure isn’t done properly (thank you Apples & Oranges!).

Everyone knows how much I detest the unkempt look and seeing as I could never make it to the salon during the week (I work crazy hours), I got to googling shellac removal at home! Here’s how it’s done:

Tools:

1. Nail buffer
2. Orange/cuticle stick
3. Nail polish remover (or as much acetone as you can possible get in a bottle)
4. Cotton pads/wool
5. Foil paper
6. Hand lotion and Tea Tree Oil

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Step 1: Using the nail buffer, file down the gel layer of your shellac manicure until you achieve a matte finish (was so tempted to keep the matte look)

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Step 2: Soak cotton cotton pads in nail polish remover and wrap around each nail using the foil as a seal (be careful, the nail polish starts to drip everywhere)

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Step 3: Set your timer for 10 mins. I’d suggest keeping one hand free to better manage a messy situation

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Step 4: Remove the foil paper. At this stage, the shellac should be cracking/peeling off. Otherwise, slip your nails back in the foil for another 5mins

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Step 5: using an orange stick (or cuticle remover in my case) peel off the shellac polish and buffer down nails for a smooth finish

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Step 6: wash your hands and apply hand lotion and tea tree oil. Acetone drys out the nails and skin

I was still in the mood for pampering and so decided to use my new OPI texture effect duo (colour: My Current Crush). It’s a liquid sand and so dries with a matte/glitter/sandy finish. The application only requires one base coat and two coats of the liquid sand. No top coat. Amazing!

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xXx

Ps: Thank you Ilobe for my new nail polish! Thank you Solape for my Orogold nail kit!

PPs: I did mention, I love nail polish right? and I love pampering! Perfect combination.

Vanity Oils

I’m not even going to lie, I’m still very much excited about the whole natural hair phase that I’m going through. I love the spring/elasticity, I’m obsessed with the spongy/fluffy texture and I’m a sucker for the constant attention that natural hair demands. My hair is constantly in protective braids (my Dad + my Job wouldn’t have it any other way), so it’s fairly easy to neglect my hair and forget about how much TLC needs to go into maintaining it.

It’s no secret that natural hair is a struggle (to say the least) and so having limp/dry/dead natural hair cannot afford to be an option! To avoid such dilemmas, I got in touch with Ekua of Vanity Oils (courtesy of Solape, my colleague) and she had the following delivered to me:

1. Argan Oil;

2. Coconut Oil; and

3. Shea Butter.

I’m so excited about all three products (the 4th, being Tea tree oil, is on its way) and so thought I’d share with you. You’ll remember from previous posts that I’m in love with Coconut Oil aka The Holy Grail and Shea Butter aka Women’s Gold. My latest obsession is Argan Oil, but I’ll save that post for another day and perhaps insert the link once it’s done.

In the mean time, I’m off to read up some more on Carrier Oils and Essential Oils and thought I’d leave you with pictures of my Vanity Oils purchases.

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Until next time Bonita’s…….

xXx

PS: I decided to leave my natural hair out this week. I’ve got it in some funky twists. I’ve received a mixture of comments on it (more good than bad thankfully). When I’m more comfortable with it, perhaps I’ll upload pictures. Until then……..