BeautyXchange

Jenny from the Block has a new fragrance out called LOVE and GLAMOUR - just in time for the holidays.  It's described as a "showstopper", elegant, and extravagant just like Ms. Lopez herself.  


I'm really loving the design of the bottle.  It looks just like the silhouette of a woman.   The scent is supposed to be a mix of floral and musk - I must stop at the beauty counter to take a whiff.  In the meantime here is retail price: 

I recently came across a quote in an article that said, 

"Many people don’t know the difference between professional hair care and supermarket brands, particularly the damage that supermarket brands can cause to your hair in the long term,'' 

and

"Professional products may appear to cost more but they are actually more concentrated, so in reality they’re very cost-effective and much better for your hair"

    Do you agree with the statements? Does supermarket brand price equate to poor quality?

Handbags are definitely a girl's best friend, forget about those diamonds.  How many of us ever leave the home without our pocketbook, handbag, purse, or shoulder bag? I'd venture to say not many of us.  As much as I love a great-looking shoulder bag, I'm also fond of clutches. These little purses are more popular as an evening bag than a day bag and can be quite the statement piece.  I've fallen in love with this Etsy shop that sells handmade clutch purses.

This weekend I took advantage of the Spa Week deal and went for a mani and pedi at one of my favorite spas, La Therapie Salon.  I opted for their Mint Chocolate Mani & Pedi, which is describes as:







The color used for my mani is Pink A Doodle from the OPI Spring 2010 Softshades Collection.









The color I chose for my toes was more in line with the Fall season.  Its called FOXY from China Glaze.  I don't have a pic of my pedi because my toes and feet are a bit swollen ;-)  But, here's what the shade looks like below.  It's definitely a deep copperish burgundy color with shimmer.

Love her hair & the expression on her face :-)

It's official. Today marks my one year anniversary since my last relaxer. Honestly, I never thought I'd make it this far but the journey has been worth it.  I learned so much about patience and persistence during this transitioning stage.  Of course there were many times during the first few months where I wanted to throw in the towel but I continued to persevere.  In a way, I guess I wanted to challenge myself with how far I could go without perming my hair. There were times also where I contemplated doing the "big chop" but I was uneasy about having a very short hairdo.



During my transition, I relied on several styles, tools, and resources to help me through the journey.  Here are some of them:



Hairstyles

Rollersets - During the first couple of months I would continue to get my hair washed & rolled at the beauty salon.



Straightened - I would go to the Dominican salon wash, set, and blow dry my hair, then flat iron.  The major problem with this for me was the amount of tension and heat on the hair.  Needless to say I only did this a few times and they would last me a good two weeks.



Twists Outs - During the middle stages when I had achieved quite a bit of new growth, I would two strand twists my hair either on wet or dry hair & roll the ends.  Because the ends were straight they tended to untwists so I would have to secure them with a satin roller.





Braid Outs - I realized that with the braidouts I had more definition, however I started doing those very late in the game.  It was very difficult for me to do because the length of my hair was short in the back but nonetheless they would come out pretty well.



Kinky twists - I'm actually rocking these as of this month with extensions.  They are just easy for me especially during my maternity.  The drawback however is that I'm not able to wash my hair as frequently in this style in order to maintain & preserve the look. :-(



Resources 

Where do I begin? There's a ton of information on natural hair on the internet, its completely insane & at times very overwhelming.  But, here are some of the resources I seemed to always gravitate to no matter what.

Youtube: 

Kimmaytube

Nikkimae2003 

BeautifulBrwnBabyDol

Fleurtzy

Blogs:

Curly Nikki

The MoptopMaven

Tools:

Wide Tooth Comb

Variety of Deep Conditioning Treatments

Various Hair Oils (coconut, jojoba, rosemary, & sweet almond)

Leave in conditioners - there was a lot of trial and error, hits and misses with these, but ultimately I found Kinky Curly Knot Today 

Headbands

Before I embarked on my natural hair journey October of last year, I had already begun a "healthy hair" journey so to speak. For the past two years I've lurked on every hair website and forum that you could think of: Long Hair Care Forum, Nappturality, Motown Girl, Healthy Hair Textures...just to name a few. I've stalked fotkis also. I was obsessed with learning about how to grow my hair and understand what factors contribute to that process.

While on this journey both healthy hair & natural hair, I've learned a lot about paying attention to the ingredients in hair products. Unfortunately, many of the hair products that cater to "black" hair are often laden with synthetic matrials that do no justce to our hair. For example, many of the hair greases that our mothers and grandmothers sweared by are full of mineral oil and petroleum that do nothing but coat the hair and contribute to product build up. You'd be amazed at the number of products that have these two items as their main ingredients.


Another aspect of ingredients that I learned is that the the first five ingredients listed are crucial to understanding the role or benefit that the product will have on your hair. For example if the first ingredient is mineral oil, you better believe that the majority of that product consists of mineral oil which is bad for your hair. In contrast, if the first few ingredients are water, organic herbs and/oils, or natural ingredients chances are they are more suitable to aiding your hair instead of harming it.  So, to make a long story short the best ingredients should be listed way at the top of the product ingredient list.

Now, the question you may have is how to distinguish between the bad ingredients from the good ones. Honestly, it will take some research and then with practice you will be able to determine the good from the bad.  A good resource however is the Ingredients Dictionary on the following website: http://tightlycurly.com/ingredients/

Here are a few major "bad" ingredients to help you get started:

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate/Sodium Laureth Sulfate - This is a foaming agents found in many shampoos and can strip the hair of its moisture and lead to dry, brittle hair

Mineral Oil and/or Petroleum and/or Lanolin - This oil acts as a barrier to the hair and prevents moisture from penetrating into the hair shaft. It basically coats the hair like a plastic wrap covering. They are pretty cheap fillers and clog the scalp and hair which can lead to damage and or breakage.

Parabens (methyl, propyl, ethyl, or butyl) - These are preservatives that extend the shelf life of many hair products and cosmetics. There has been a lot of discussion linking parabens to various forms of cancer including breast cancer. The FDA claims they're not dangerous at low doses but definitley something to keep in mind.

Do you pay attention to the ingredients in your hair products? If so, what have you learned?

Yours truly is very preggers and though there is no doubt that pregnancy is beautiful, miraculous, and mysterious in its own unique way - it goes without saying that it can also make you feel so unbeautiful (is that a word? LOL).


With the multitude of aches, pains, nausea, swelling, buldging etc that a woman's body goes through for close to 40 weeks you might say that your body goes through a serious transformation. (I hope I'm not scaring some of you ladies, out there LOL - that is not my intention)


I'm not going to lie to you - I'm not one of those ladies that is rocking heels, liptstick, etc while pregnant. I know I know - just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you can't make the time to look your best. But, honestly, it's all about comfort for me during this stage.

It's hard to walk in heels when your center of gravity has shifted & try running after a 3yr old whilst being preggers - it's not easy yall. (Yep, if you didn't know I'm a mommy of a 3yr old little guy as well).

 Anywho, this post is a ramble more than anything. Yeah, pregnancy will do that to you! Ha. :-)

Every now and again, I like to share information which relates to Beauty & Finance.  After all, my background is Finance.  Not only can we invest in ourselves over the beauty counter but we should also try and do the same and make purchases over the trading counter or stock exchange as well.



After all, I'm sure most of us have so many products from a particular brand or retailer that we might as well have stock in that particular company.

As many of you know breast cancer is the most common cancer is women in the United States.

Unfortunately, I became familiar with the term breast cancer long before I even understood the disease itself.  It's very sad for me to even share or write this but my very own Mother was diagnosed with breast cancer more than 25 years ago and unfortuantely was not a survivor.

At the tender age of 27 breast cancer had taken the life of my beautiful Mother.  As shocking as it is, my Mother died very young and unfortunatley back then I believe the research, treatments, and information was not as prevalent as it is today.

There honestly is not a day that goes by that I don't think of my Mother especially since I was only blessed with her presence for only the first 4 years of my life.  In rememberance of her however, I choose to raise awareness by sharing some important facts about breast cancer:

1. Become familiar with the anatomy of your breast & perform monthly self breast exams in order to understand both normal & abnormal changes

2. Early detection is key - which means getting screened or getting a routine breast exam during your annual check ups or pap test or a mammogram

3. There is no one cause of breast cancer but there are many risks factors. Anyone - male or female can have it, it does not discriminate.

For more information regarding Breast Cancer Awareness Month check out www.nbcam.org

If you've never read the story of Susan G. Komen - it's definitely worthy of a read - click here.

If you ever wanted to look FLY without breaking the bank - check out our Friday's Fashionista! 





style I usually say my style is casual chic. I embrace comfort (skinny jeans and cardigans) but I also love a statement making stiletto. I'm more in to accessories than clothes because I feel like the right shoe, necklace or belt can make a boring outfit pop. I don't like dressing over the top but I try to always wear one statement piece.




Beauty means self confidence. It radiates from you whether you're dressed to the nines or wearing your laundry day clothes.

I finally got my hands on this product, a month ago after seeing, hearing, and reading tons of reviews for it online. I happened to be at a local Target that carried it and I automatically put it in my shopping cart.  I'm super glad I did because this thing right here is AMAZING!



The product is described as:

A creamy herbal conditioner and detangler designed to smooth the cuticle and remove knots, snarls and tangles from thick curly textured hair.

After washing hair, apply KNOT TODAY TM generously and work through troubled areas with a wide tooth comb.

Can be used as a regular rinse out conditioner for wavy hair or as a leave-in for thicker curlier hair types. An excellent product to use after removing braids and extensions.

Tip: When using this product as a leave-in, apply in the shower and rinse with a little water to evenly distribute the conditioner.



How I use Kinky Curly Knot Today

1. as a rinse out conditioner after shampooing


2. as a detangler 


3. as leave-in mixed with sweet almond oil

There's really not much more for me to say about it other than it works beautifully for me, the ingredients are great, and it has a nice scent.  It really gets the job done as far as removing the tangles and knots from my hair as well as keeping it moisturized. Yep, I think I'm in love!



Retail Locations:  Whole Foods, Target, Ricky's NYC, Kinky-Curly.com

Price: $11-$12

Hey Ladies! It's that time of the year again - Spa Week! During the week of October 11th - 17th you get to enjoy spa treatments for only $50.  We all know how expensive spa treatments can be so take advantage of this deal if and while you can.  To find a listing of participating spa in your area, check out http://www.spaweek.com/.  If the spa you're interested in is not featured on the list, don't hesitate to call that particular spa you're interested in to find out if they have any special deals.  Happy Pampering!



Shout out to my blogging buddy, TheFabChick for reminding me of this last week in this post!

Hey Ladies! It's that time of the year again - Spa Week! During the week of October 11th - 17th you get to enjoy spa treatments for only $50.  We all know how expensive spa treatments can be so take advantage of this deal if and while you can.  To find a listing of participating spa in your area, check out http://www.spaweek.com/.  If the spa you're interested in is not featured on the list, don't hesitate to call that particular spa you're interested in to find out if they have any special deals.  Happy Pampering!

Shout out to my blogging buddy, TheFabChick for reminding me of this last week in this post!