Bellas, as you may know, I go back with the MAC Cosmetics folks for quite some time now. So when they hit me up to let me know a special collection was soon to be released, and asked me if I’d be interested in checking it out early — of course I said YES. Especially…
Beauty
10 Years of Afrobella! Reflections on My Decade of Beauty and Natural Hair Blogging
I can remember exactly what I was doing 10 years ago this week. The memories are so vivid. 10 years ago this week, we were living in a townhouse in Kendall, Florida. I worked as assistant calendar editor for the local alt-weekly. I was bursting with ideas of my own, but always on assignments…
Hero Products – Check Out Clinique’s Best Sellers
Every brand has them – the best sellers, the tried-and-true items, the products they’ve been making for the longest because the people keep coming back for more. In the biz they’re known as hero products, and beauty brands strive to cultivate and maintain them. What makes a product a hero product? Consistency. Quality. It has…
Predict Your Pretty – Let The Cast Beauty App Guide Your Look
Summer weather can throw unexpected curveballs. Here in Chicago, I can expect balmy breezes only to be faced by humid, hot air. Surprise thunderstorms can blow our way at any time – ask anyone who attended Lollapalooza in 2012 and/or 2015. The sky will be perfectly clear and then all of a sudden clouds roll…
Charcoal for Natural Hair? Here’s How to Deep Clean Your Hair and Scalp!
If you read my previous Beauty Ingredient Breakdown post on charcoal, then you know you can use it for your skin and you can also ingest it for detoxification purposes. But did you know you can also use it to deep clean your hair and scalp? Image source: Shutterstock Apparently so, according to amazing celebrity…
Beauty Ingredient Breakdown – Charcoal. Tips, Product Picks & More!
Sometimes a certain beauty ingredient will start getting a ton of buzz. All of a sudden, every product will be infused with this much-heralded extract, oil or essence. Existing products will start advertising that they include this magical ingredient, and new versions of products will pop up to capitalize on all of that ingredient attention….
5 Of My Tried and Tested Favorite Beauty Gadgets
We live in an age where technology influences and innovates everything around us. It’s a rapidly shifting landscape where everything around is being tweaked and updated to user-friendly perfection. Model 1 of a product is bound to be way more clunky and basic than future iterations. I’ve been trying, testing and reviewing a variety of…
Try This DIY Valentine’s Day Chocolate Coconut Sugar Body Scrub
Ah, Valentine’s Day. The day where the world celebrates love, with hearts and candy and chocolate and jewelry and fancy dinners and everything’s pink and red. Some of us love it and celebrate wholeheartedly. Many others have really strong anti-Valentine’s day feelings and I can’t say that I blame them. If you’re single, it’s a…
Afrobella’s Hair Trend Forecast 2016 – Predictions, Product Picks and A Big Announcement!
Bellas, I’m happy to kick off 2016 (and my 10th year of Afrobella) with some big, awesome news. I’m going to New York for Fashion Week, to emcee TextureMedia’s Texture On the Runway event! I’m so super excited for so many reasons. I attended Texture on the Runway in 2012 (click here to see the…
Beauty Business — Strength of Nature Acquires Motions, TCB and More!
My hair was relaxed religiously from age six until age 23, and in that time I was brought up using certain brands of hair products. Now that my hair is natural, I realize that I don’t usually use hair products that still have that relaxer footprint — even if I loved and regularly used…