Naturally Me: My Decision to go Natural

Hola chicas! I’m really hoping this blog post makes sense today cause I’m super tired! I was up until 2:30am this morning and I had to get up at 7am for work; I’m hoping this extra strong coffee I made does the trick. Anyway, today I wanted to do a blog post that’s a little more personal so this one won’t be about makeup or skin care tips. I really want my readers to get to know and understand me as a person, and not just a Makeup Artist. So from time to time I will be posting blogs just about me and my life in general—gotta put some excitement in here for you some kinda way, lol!

I titled this entry “Naturally Me: My Decision to Go Natural” because I get sooo many questions about why I cut my hair; sometimes it’s a little annoying but I do understand it was a drastic change for me and people have to adjust to that. I had long hair all my life and that’s how people were used to seeing me. When I cut it, I got jaw-dropping reactions from friends, family, and co-workers. No one could believe I had cut off my long, beautiful hair. And honestly I haven’t really missed it! Here’s a pic of how long it was before:














So, why did I do it? Well, I started thinking about going natural around May of last year. I was going to make a slow transition and let it be a gradual process, so I decided to not perm my hair for a while. I believe the last perm I had was around the start of June. I knew I had a pretty good hair texture so I was able to deal with a few inches of new growth. My plan was to let a few inches of new growth come in, then cut of a few inches on the ends, and so on and so forth (I read online about transitioning to natural hair before I made up my mind to actually do it, and it seemed this was the most recommended way if you’d had long hair all your life).

Well I was going through this whole process, and had actually just cut several inches of my hair off at the beginning/middle of August—I cut it just above my shoulders. I would just straighten the roots with a flat iron sometimes. Check the pic:
















(this pic is from 2007 but it had grown all the way back since that time, and I cut it this length again)

Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go according to planned. At the end of August, I found out my mom was terminally sick with breast cancer. I won’t go through all the details, but just three weeks later she passed away (September 12th). My life was turned upside down and inside out. It was then that I decided to chop my hair completely off; I did it four days after my mom’s death, September 16th. My stylist was afraid to cut it cause he thought I’d wake up the next morning hating the decision I made and hating him for cutting it, but I had my mind made up. Here I am after the "big chop".















I guess doing the “big chop” versus the transition to natural hair was an expression of what I was going through emotionally at the time. And I don’t regret it at all. I love my natural hair. I love the little spirally curls. I love the fact that I don’t have to be afraid to walk outside in the rain without ruining my hair. I love it that I no longer look like what our society tells us women should look like! So now you know why I chopped off all my hair. Hope this gives some clarity to some of you who were too afraid to ask me why I cut it, LOL. I’ll leave you with a recent pic to show you how it’s grown since I cut it in September:

So there you have it! That's the story behind me chopping off my hair. Sometimes its challenging because I'm having to learn my hair and what works for it all over again, but I love it! If anyone wants any tips or how to deal with the big chop decision you just made, email me or leave me comments and I'll be happy to share more. Take care & take charge ladies!

GIVEAWAY CONTEST EXTENDED!!!

Hey ladies!!! Just a quick blog post to update on the giveaway! I'm extending the contest until March 15! Check my blog post "Giveaway For a Lucky Follower" for all the details! Basically, you have a chance to win some FAB prizes and you all you have to do is become a follower of this blog! Yup, just that simple and easy! Let me just remind you of the prizes:

-Mac cosmetics kit (eyeshadow, lipstick or gloss, blush)
-Essence of Beauty travel size brush set
-FREE 30 minute beauty consultation with me, tailored to your individual needs & concerns

Just click "follow" to become a follower of my blog and leave me a comment saying why you want to win! It could be one sentence as long as it's a comment. So good luck to all of you! I'm looking forward to giving away these awesome prizes! Until next time chicas, take care & take charge.

Stay tuned for my next blog post where I'll be talking about my decision to go natural with my hair! :-)

Tone It Down: How to Determine Your Skin’s Undertone

 

Hey chicas! I hope all of you had a great Valentine’s Day. Mine was…awesome! I got a beautiful card, roses, dinner cooked for me (this was the day before Valentine’s Day), and surprise tickets to Tyler Perry’s play Madea’s Big Happy Family (with great seats—I would post pics but I wasn’t supposed to be taking any and I don’t want any trouble from TP Studios, lol)! I really enjoyed my entire weekend. I hardly had time to think about what I was going to post today. I finally decided on discussing skin undertones. This is a key factor is choosing the right foundation shade and eye shadows. If you find that a certain color looks better on someone else than on you, then that probably means that color doesn’t compliment the undertones to your skin (this applies to your wardrobe as well).   So, what exactly are undertones? Your undertone is the pigment under your skin that picks up and reflects light.

 

There are two basic types of undertones: warm and cool. An easy test to determine your undertone is the t-shirt and paper test. Put on a white t-shirt and hold a piece of peach paper next to your face (do this without makeup on); then hold a piece of blue paper next to your face. Which looks better? If the answer is peach, then you’re a warm tone. If it’s blue on the other hand, then you’re cool tone. If the t-shirt and paper test seems to be a bust for you, then just have fun experimenting and playing with different colors. That’s actually the way I learned what eye shadow colors compliment me the most—peaches, golds, yellows, pinks, purples/plums/violets all look fab on me. But blues, dark greens, silvers & grays don’t look as great and sometimes depending on the depth of the color is a no-go, period! I’m a warm tone for sure! I find that most women of color have warm undertones. This means that foundations that are yellow-based in color look best. You’ll need to figure out whether you’re warm or cool toned in order to choose the best makeup to compliment your skin.

 

A great way to test your foundation match is to apply a little bit of the color on one of your cheekbones. Some people say to apply it to the inside of your forearm, but I disagree with that because your forearm is typically a couple of shades lighter than your face (probably because its part of the body that’s not exposed to the sun). Try different shades and blend them into your skin with your fingertips until you find the one that seems to disappear. For those of you who never wear foundation and don’t even own a compact, this may be a pricey trial-and-error process.   With eye shadows, warm tones should stick with what I mentioned for myself…cool tones can go in the opposite direction, those silvers/grays and blues will look great on you. You may find that experimenting with colors may come in handy because colors vary in depth and pigmentation. For example, you may look good in light green, but dark green throws things off a bit. So a little trial & error will help you see where to draw the line, and that line is different for all of us.

 

Here’s a color wheel to help you out…find your undertone on the wheel, the colors that compliment you will be the opposite of that color (I’m warm toned, which means there is yellowish pigmentation under my skin, so that’s why the violet/plum colors work well for me).

 

 

 

 

Hopefully this helps you understand what undertones are and how to figure out on what side of the spectrum you fall. However, with makeup, experience is the best teacher so if at first you don’t succeed…try, try again. Leave comments & let me know how you fare with the process. I’d love your feedback! And don’t forget to follow my blog! Take care & take charge chicas! :-D

 

 

Pro Pix from Change Culture Clothing Photoshoot

Happy Friday, TGIF! :-) I wanted to give you guys an update on the photoshoot I did last week with Change Culture Clothing. The professional pictures are finally back and it took me forever to download them, really almost 2 hours!! I think they look awesome though. I'm happy with the way everyone turned out. This is a short blog entry; I just wanted to give you the real pictures from the photographer. Just click on the image to make it larger and see more details. Hope you enjoy! Oh yeah, you can check out the designer's website at www.changecultureclothing.com. And I wanna give a shout out to one of my fellow MUAs Juanita for assisting me with the shoot. Thanks chica! As always ladies, take care & take charge!

"Beautiful Butterfly", Valentine's Day Inspired Look

Hey chicas! The week is almost done and Valentine's Day is only a few days away! I'm excited! So excited that I was inspired to do a Valentine's Day look. My first attempt was a dud! But I tried it again and really liked the way it came out. It's kind of dramatic, especially for me because I never wear looks like this unless it's for photography or something. At first I said it was something I wouldn't wear out on a date, but taking a second look, I changed my mind. I'd definitely rock this on Valentine's Day with my dude! Check out the pics:

Here's what I used:

EYES:

-Gesso e/s all over the lid

-Passionate e/s on the outer v

-Fig 1 e/s to cut the crease

**then I blended the Fig 1 upwards using Passionate. Gesso on the browbone

-Wet n Wild white eyeliner (doesn't always have to be an expensive brand, lol)

-Revlon ColorStay Liquid Eyeliner

-Red Cherry lashes #523

FACE:

-MAC NW45 Studio Fix foundation

-Coastal Scents 10 blush palette

-MAC Shadester, Definitive, & Sculpt sculpting powders

LIPS:

-L'oreal Velvet Wines lipliner

-Malibu Girl Strawberry lipstick

-Avon Gleaming Berry brilliant shine lipgloss

Overall it was a pretty easy look to achieve. It's just a very "tight" technique and you have to have a steady hand. If any of you try to do duplicate it, email me the pix and I'll be glad to post them on my blog. Well it's getting late for me and I have to do the whole nine-to-five thing tomorrow so I best call it nite! Take care & take charge chicas (and gents)! :-)