Saturday, 20 December 2014 1 Note Purple and Nude

For me the color purple is everything! I am so in love with purple sometimes I have to make a conscious effort not apply purple eyeshadow. So I decided to create a look combining different shades of purple eyeshadow, pairing it with my favourite lip color. Products I used will be listed below.

Products Used

Eyes

Milani runway eyes- Aubergine

BH take me to brazil-light purple(crease)

wet and wild vanity palette- champagne

Revlon fantasy lashes

Marykay liquid liner

Maybelline colossal kajal

Face

LA girl pro concealer- fawn, expresso and Beautiful bronze

Marykay foundation- 507

Mac powder- NC45

Nars blush cocoa

sleek blush- crochet and guipure

Lips

Nyx lipliner - nude beige
Milani lipstick- naturally chic

Bh lip gloss- plain jane

-Stella.

Monday, 15 December 2014 6 Notes Chichi's Wedding

Hey Ladies!
Hope your weekend has been as lovely and as stressful as mine:)  
Last week Debbie called on me to help her out with the lovely Chichi on her big day! Chichi is one of the calmest brides I have ever met I must say, even without having a trial before her big day, she still trusted my judgement, thanks to Debbie! As I type this post, I am still in awe of her calmness! Chichi wanted a very clean, modern and simple look with the nude lips of course, which we achieved.

Her Chief bridesmaid Miranda

LOL!

-Stella.

Monday, 8 December 2014 3 Notes My wash and go regime

Hey Ladies!
I decided to write a post on my "wash and go" regime, if you have any questions you can drop a comment below.
To be honest, I am not a very patient person, so spending alot of time washing my hair is not something I am most likely to do. If you are like me, then you can relate to this post quite easily.
The entire process for me takes about 45 minutes, because natural hair is really fragile so you have to take your time and be gentle with it.
The first thing I do is detangle my hair. Initially, when I was new to being natural, I tried the method of using my fingers to detangle my hair, by spraying a mixture of conditioner and water into my hair to make it wet and soft and then run my fingers through my hair to detangle, but it didn't really work for me, my hair always got messy and tangled. So I started using a wide tooth comb to gently comb out my hair section by section, it turned out to be alot faster and I didn't have as much hair loss as I did when I used my fingers to detangle.

Hair loss after detangling

I have come to realise that shedding hair is needed for hair growth, so I don't really mind the amount of hair that comes off after i detangle my hair.
After the detangling process I shampoo and condition my hair.
I have read a number of posts where natural hair bloggers tell you to stay away from shampoos with sulphur, so far all my shampoos contain sulphur, I have used them, and I am yet to notice any breakage or defect in my hair, so its safe to say am not really bothered about sulphur being in my shampoo, as long as the shampoo cleanses my hair of dirt, I am just fine with it.
After washing and conditioning, I dry my hair with a towel by rapping (rubbing your hair with a towel may just tangle your hair, so you may want to avoid rubbing), then I moisturise with dark and lovely moisture plus and sometimes virgin olive oil, seal in the moisture with coconut oil and then I twist out my hair with eco styler. At this point my hair is still a little bit wet, so I allow my hair to air dry. I dont use any form of heat (hair drier or a hair straightener) on my hair.

Twist out

two days after unravelling the twist out.

The reason I put my hair in twists is to give my curls definition and to protect my ends, also I try not to use too many products on my hair. I hope this post is helpful. If and when I make any changes to this regime, I will keep everyone updated, but for now this is all there is to my wash and go.

- Stella.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014 0 Notes MAC and Inglot inspired makeup look

Hey Ladies!

This look was entirely inspired by one of my favourite Inglot eye shadows and

MAC's Russian red lipstick (Am really loving the shade of this lipstick, its not as matte as ruby woo and it stays right on!)
I hope you guys like this look. The products I used will be listed below.

Products used

Eyes

Sleek storm palette- brown(crease,outerlid)

Inglot pearl 399- light pink(upper lid)

Bh party girl palette- white(lower lid)

NYX jumbo pencil- milk

Bh liquid liner- black 

Maybelline colossal 

Revlon fantasy lashes

Face

La girl pro concealer- Toffee, expresso

Mary kay foundation- 507

Milani powder- honey amber

Sleek blush by 3- lace 

Mars blush cocoa- contour

Ben nye banana powder- highlight

Lips

Bh lip pencil- Retro

Mac lipstick- Russian red

-Stella.

Saturday, 22 November 2014 0 Notes BENNY'S MAKEOVER

A while back, the lovely Benny wanted a makeover for her prewedding shoot and so she called on yours truly :) to give her a pretry look. The highlighting and contouring where as subtle as possible.
Below are the list of products I used.

Taken with flash.

Products Used

Eyes

Bh party girl eye shadow- gold(lid)
Maybelline desert sunrise(crease)
Revlon fantasy lashes

Avon blackest black eyeliner(upper lid)

Marykay liquid liner(lower lid)

Face

LA girl pro concealer- expresso and toffee

Mary kay foundation- 600

L'Oréal foundation cocoa c8

Ben nye powder- topaz

Sleek blush- flushed and guipure

Mars blush- cocoa

Lips

Bh lipliner- rogue

Milani lipstick- uptown mauve

sleek lip gloss- high shine

-Stella.

Monday, 17 November 2014 0 Notes MAC MINI HAUL

Am not really a big fan of red lipsticks, I know it's like an essential lipstick color to own, but ill rather go nude with my lip color any day any time or explore many other lip colors. Ruby woo isn't really my ideal red lipstick, misplace mine a couple of months ago and I haven't really bothered about replacing it. So I decided to make a concious effort to purchase another high end red lipstick rather than stick with the Milani "Best Red" lipstick I currently use.
So went to the MAC store at Lekki mall and purchased the MAC "Russian red" lipstick.

without flash

               
As soon as I get myself to try on the lipstick, ill put a review about it.

Review: I must say I really love this lipstick! After using it a couple of times. Check it out in the look I had on in my next post.

XO,
Stella.

Saturday, 8 November 2014 4 Notes Contouring and Highlighting

I always feel like my makeup is incomplete whenever I have makeup on without highlighting or contouring. Most ladies just assume highlighting and contouring is rocket science, but its actually rather easy. I prefer using a concealer or a foundation to highlight and then a powder to contour, except am going for a really defined look, then I use a concealer or foundation to contour. You can choose to do either of the two, depending on what you are comfortable with.

L-R LA girl pro concealer Fawn and Beautiful bronze

The secret to a defined look, is to go two or three shades lighter than your skin tone to highlight and two or three shades darker than your skin tone to contour.

Highlights on the T-zone, under my eyes my temple and cupids bow and contouring the sides of my nose and just below my cheeks. 

Set the concealer with a powder, I use the Ben nye banana powder to set my hightlights and the Mars blush in cocoa or any brow eyeshadow I can get my hands on! Lol! Dont dont forget to blend the concealers into your skin properly with which ever powder you choose.

Finished look.

A more defined contour.

Products I use

LA girl pro concealer 

Fawn- highlight

Beautiful bronze- contour

Ben nye powder banana- highlight

Mars blush cocoa- contour

Sleek oh so special eye shadow palette (brown)- contour

-Stella.

Sunday, 2 November 2014 0 Notes INGLOT HAUL

Hi Ladies!

I am writing this post with so much excitement because finally I found the Inglot store at the palms! WOOPY :)!  I must tell you guys, I actually searched google for the location, but I still could not find the exact location of the store, but finally I ran into it. I have wanted an Inglot eye shadow since I first saw Jennie Jenkins of Beautybyjj create a look with an Inglot palette, I fell in love with them instantly, but I never really got around to place an order online, and the stress of shipment down to Nigeria never really encouraged me. You can imagine how excited I was to find out an Inglot store was now in Lagos. 
I purchased four freedom system eye shadows and an freedom system palette. The eye shadows come in little square pans, covered in foil to protect them. I would advice to also purchase a palette along with the eye shadow to protect them.

Freedom system palette (top) and the four eyeshadow cases.

L-R AMC 61, AMC Shine 32, Double Sparkle 613 and Pearl 399.

AMC 61 is sort of dark blue with shades of black and blue glitter dust in it, AMC Shine 32 is a really georgeous sea green color with shine to it as the name implies, Double sparkle 613 is my second favour color, its a color in between dark pink and strawberry, Pearl 399 is my favorite color it caught my eyes the moment I saw it, its a light pink shade.

Swatches

Freedom system quad palette

The palette is magnetic so the eye shadow trays stick right on it, the cover also has magnets on all four corners so the cover is held in place.

Hopefully in my next post i will be creating a look with one or more of the eye shadows.

Products:

Inglot freedom system eye shadow: N950 for each

Freedom quad palette: N3050

-Stella

Wednesday, 29 October 2014 0 Notes BISAYO'S MAKEOVER

Hi Everyone!

Some few weeks ago Bisayo came to me for a little "dolling up" for a fashion show she was attending. She was really specific about what she wanted;  minimal eye shadow, no blush, and a nude lip. After much convincing she agreed for us to use as little blush as possible, it was really hard convincing this young lady, but in the end I had my way :) 

PRODUCTS USED

EYES

NYX jumbo pencil- milk

Wet and wild vanity palette limited edition -bronze (lid)

 BH party girl palette- brown (crease)

Jordana lid liner- black(lower lid)

Marykay eyeliner- black(upper lid)

FACE

Loreal H.I.P foundation- honey 806

LA girl pro concealer -beautiful bronze

Ben nye -banana powder

Sleek blush- flushed

LIPS

NYX lip pencil- nude beige

Milani lipstick- naturally chic

 BH lip gloss- plain jane

-Stella

Sunday, 26 October 2014 3 Notes MY NATURAL HAIR CARE PRODUCTS

Hi Ladies!

There is really no secret product or special technique to having great and healthy hair, all that matters is finding the right products that works for your hair. I am still very much in the experimental stages in my own natural hair journey. I have been able to dig up some products I feel are the essentials.

I try as much as possible not to use too many products on my hair because of  my past experiences with loads of different products and the damage it caused my hair. I currently use a moisturizer and a sealant, and deep condition twice a month.

Moisturizing keeps the hair hydrated, healthy and minimalizes breakage. I try to do this as often as possible, sealing helps lock the butter or the oil used in moisturizing within the hair fibers, this keeps the hair hydrated for a longer period.

Currently, these are the products I use for my hair, I intend to add a few more oils and butters as time goes by.

L-R Dark and lovely moisture plus, eco styler, organics cholesterol, Aita's virgin coconut oil, profectiv stimulating shampoo, Dove hair therapy intensive repair conditioner. 

In my next post, I will give more details on my personal hair do's and don'ts and my hair regimes.

 

Here's a quick list of the products. Because I love you guys I have added the average price of each of the products. You can find them in your local stores. P:S Thank Me Later! :)

 

Dark and lovely moisture plus: N1250

Eco styler: N1250

Organics cholesterol: N980

Aita virgin coconut oil: N1500

Profectiv stimulating shampoo: N1120

Dove hair therapy Intensive repair conditioner: N1000

(The prices of the products may vary depending on where the purchase is made.)

-Stella.

Tuesday, 21 October 2014 2 Notes NATURAL HAIR JOURNEY

Hi Ladies!

Am writing this post for the sake of clarity, and also I promised a lot of people I would so here it is. First of all, I want to say that my hair is 100% natural, and I do not use curling butters or an activator for my hair. With that out of the way I will begin.

I decided to go natural because my hair was damaged and breaking out of control. I went from shoulder length hair to jaw length in a space of 3years, partly because I never really stuck to a particular brand of relaxer, different people kept recommending different things and I kept on using different products as recommended. I made the choice to transition after talking about it for so long. My choice of transitioning was to cut away half of my hair, and then grow out my natural hair.

my "transitioning" stage (4 months without applying relaxer): my

roots were growing out natural but my ends were relaxed

After about a month into transitioning, I must confess I could not keep up with the products and long processes of detangling and washing, until transition stage was complete, so I went for the big chop! It was kind of difficult for me having my hair so low, but I embraced it anyway.

A day after my big chop May 2014

July 2014 (2 month after big chop)

Its been 5months since my big chop and I have had about an average growth rate of one inch per month, even though I still lose hair in the process, which is normal.


October 2014 (5months after big chop)

In my next few "natural hair journey" post, ill write on my daily regime, my wash and go, products I use and my protective styling.

My hair got featured on some Instagram handles check them out for more inspiration. @happilynaturallit26 @myhaircrush @curls_aunaturel @unconditionedroots.


-Stella

 

Friday, 17 October 2014 0 Notes A SHADE OF ORANGE

Hi everyone!

I happen to have this love for a certain orange lipstick I got from tint makeup store, it’s my next favorite after every nude lipstick there is, LOL!  This look was entirely inspired by the lipstick, I hope you like the look as much as I do. The products I used are listed below.

                                                             

Products Used:

Brows Jordana brow pencil expresso

 La Girl PRO concealer- toffee and beautiful bronze

Eyes 

Nyx jumbo pencil-milk

   Maybelline desert sunrise (crease)

BH party girl - green (outer lid)

Maybelline desert sunrise (inner lid)

       Marykay liquid liner-black (upper lashline)

Black radiance eyeshadow quartet forest sand- (brow bone)

                     Avon glimmerstick eyeliner (lower lashline)

Revlon fantasy lengths lashes 99509

Face

L'Oreal true match foundation - sabel 

La Girl pro concealer toffee - highlight

Mars blush cocoa - contour

 Milani powder-honey amber 

Ben Nye banana powder - highlight

Sleek blush - Chantilly and Guipure

Lips

Nyx lip pencil - tangerine

 Milani lipstick- sweet nectar 

- Stella