When I was sixteen, I went through a phase where I wasn’t into makeup or looking pretty. I felt unattractive compared to all of my friends, I was desperately insecure. My way of dealing with it was to rebel against my mother’s wishes; go out all night, dress in jeans and teeshirts like a dude, and not wear makeup much at all. I remember stumbling home late one night, drunk and unhappy with myself. I wound up zoning out to BET on Jazz, and I became mesmerized by Josephine Baker.
Wow. The high trill of her voice, the flickering film quality, and her absolute luminescence fascinated me. I still remember it so clearly. She was on a boat, singing a song called ‘Zou Zou’ and her smile was utterly captivating. I printed a picture of her and pinned it up next to my bedroom mirror. She inspired me to start getting my eyebrows done, and I started playing with eye shadow. Every now and then I like to have a Josephine Baker day. I appropriate her look by rocking some big chandelier earrings, rimming my eyes with Physician’s Formula Eye Definer Felt-Tip Eye Marker and combining the look with my new favorite dark lip gloss, Milani’s Sugar Sugar. Both of these products are available at Walgreens and CVS, and cost less than $10. The Physician’s Formula was my first foray into the exciting world of felt-tip eyeliners, and I have to admit, I’m disappointed. While it certainly does draw a thick, liquid liner looking line, the felt tip itself is terribly hard on my sensitive lids. I tend to avoid using the tip, and instead I swipe the side of it along my eyes kind of like a calligraphy pen. What I really need to do is seize control of my notoriously shaky hands and finally master the fine art of liquid liner. I always envy that perfect cat’s eye look.
As for Milani, I have so many of their eye and lip products, that you can expect a much longer post on them in the near future.
Sadly, the only available video I could find of La Baker was one of her last.
Note that she had a blinged-out microphone decades before Mariah did. Even in Josephine Baker’s twilight years, she still had it. She burned bright to the end. I want to grow old like that, still making myself look fabulous well into my eighties.
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August 21st, 2006 at 12:32 am
Hey there — love the new blog! Great to see more sistahs out in the blogosphere blogging on great style and fashion! I added you to my blogroll and I will definitely be visting often!
August 22nd, 2006 at 2:22 pm
I AM Josephine..reincarnated:-)
September 8th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Love LaBaker! You share such wonderful tidbits about your life..this helps me relate to my teenaged daughter a bit better and also remember how I felt as a gawky, awkward teenager. xoxo
September 22nd, 2006 at 10:25 am
[...] Her favorite artist to pay homage to was the incomparable La Baker. You already know how I feel about her! “Josephine Baker all the way. Because I’m a dancer at heart, and I see her story, the time that she did these things in as so challenging. Being a black woman dancing nude, being not accepted in your own country, having to go to Europe and break barriers, she’s amazing.†Yes indeed. Although K. Foxx is topless and wearing a skirt of plastic bananas, she still strikes a balance between sexy and elegant. [...]
October 25th, 2006 at 11:08 am
[...] expressed my adoration for Milani in a much earlier Josephine Baker post, but let me go ahead and get my gush on. If you’re a frugal shopper, shunt all of thosehigh-end glosses off to the side. Milani lip gloss is absolutely all you need. I own Glossy Tubes in Pink Punch, and Hot Kiss, a gold-flecked bronze that smells like cupcakes. They deliver sheer, subtle color that I wear to work all the time. I love ‘em! [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 5:19 am
You cant imagine how much money they spend trying to silence good people who will put their lives on the line to fight for change.
http://www.faction3.us
July 17th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Was she so loved because her eyes were so beautiful or were her eyes so beautiful because she was loved?
March 25th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
josephine in a very good rowmodel
March 25th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
i love her……..
March 25th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
this web can do better on josephine is very
inspiering to me and my sisters cant wate till june
3 so we can sela brate some more of her b-day.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:37 am
[...] trying to learn how to embed a video on my brand new blog. I figured, what were the odds of anyone feeling like I do about Josephine Baker? I came to find out, they were much better than I ever dreamed. When I first started Afrobella, it [...]
September 18th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Josephine Baker is a deity;-) I worship her too…