BEAUTY & STYLE

DIY Hair Masks That Are Good Enough to Eat (Literally)

Moose
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2 Mins read
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(LITERALLY… YOU CAN EAT THEM… DID I MAKE THAT CLEAR?)

For my hair there’s absolutely no way around regular deep conditioners. Even when I’m not in the mood, I know that without some sort of deep conditioner my wash-n-go will be dry and frizzy, my roller sets will look like hay, and I’ll be compromising my precious, precious, ends. Here are a few of the DIY hair masks I use that you can actually eat. These are super easy, you don’t even need a recipe, you can totally eyeball it. Just mix, apply, and use your idle time to snack.

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First up, banana and coconut milk. Coconut milk is a natural conditioner with proteins and good fats. You can use it on it’s own or dilute it with water and make a daily mist spray. Bananas have potassium that strengthens hair, plus they have plenty of natural oils (and water) that dry hair will just eat up. I like to overdo it and use two (or more!) bananas for my thick hair and mash them with about a cup or two of the coconut milk. Whatever’s left of my mixture gets warmed up and served over rice. You can even sprinkle a little cinnamon on top if you’ve got it.

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Avocados have tons of Vitamin B that help with hair growth, Vitamin E which is good for a healthy scalp, and good fats that help with elasticity. Honey is a natural humectant and attracts moisture— you know what that means— more shine! I like to add a bit of water to this mix, since the honey can be hard to work with. For the snack version, spread avocado on toast, drizzle a little honey, and add sea salt.

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BEAUTY & STYLE

Brown Girl Glow Up: 3 DIY Skincare Essentials For Fall

1 Min read
November 2, 2016

Summer has come to an end. Goodbye sun dresses and short shorts. Time to unpack your chunky scarves and knee high boots.  As the weather changes, so do your skin’s needs.  Here are some skin care must haves to keep your glow up strong during the upcoming season change.  Sea Salt scrubs. This is a year round must have for exfoliation but it’s especially helpful when the air gets cold. It gently gets rid of dead skin so that your moisturizer works better.  It also works as a detox when used as a bath soak in warm water.  Jojoba Face moisturizer. Cold air can make your skin dry, cracked, and dehydrated. A jojoba and vitamin E oil blend is an amazing protective layer for your skin. Jojoba oil is a light moisturizer that matches your skin’s natural oil production. The vitamin E oil gives it just a bit more healing moisture to keep you glowing when the temperature drops.  Whipped Shea Butter. You can use this on your lips or hair ends to seal in moisture. It’ll prevent chapped lips and split ends from becoming a problem.  It also works great as a cuticle night cream. Join us on November 13, 2016 at 7PM on Facebook.com/Mybrownbox for a free webinar on how to create your own natural self care products.

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BEAUTY & STYLE

8 Black-Owned Cosmetic Brands You Should Know About

8 Mins read
June 20, 2016

As a brown beauty, sometimes it\’s quite difficult to find a cosmetic company that caters to our skin tone in all aspects of makeup, whether it be face, lip, eyes or all of the above. Alongside foundation matching being as hard as the SAT\’s when we go shopping for makeup online or in person, finding makeup that compliments our complexion in general has always been quite the task as well. As a makeup enthusiast, I\’ve come across these problems, but I discovered over time that there are much more cosmetic companies outside of the household name businesses we\’ve known all of our lives. These discovered companies provide products that are reasonably priced, have better or the same quality as big name companies and guess what…they\’re black owned and operated, keeping us brown girls in mind when they create their products! Look no more makeup lovers, I\’ve got the hidden gems: 9 Cosmetic Companies For Brown Beauties, By Brown Beauties! 1. Sacha Cosmetics Sacha Cosmetics is a family operated business that was founded 30 years ago in the beautiful island we know as Trinidad! SACHA COSMETICS was the official Cosmetics of the Miss Universe (1999-2001),  Miss Bahamas (2010) and Miss Jamaica (2005) pageants, and many other special events worldwide. YouTube is my obsession, so of course I discovered this brand when I watched my favorite beauty gurus, Irishcel507 and Jackie Aina, do a foundation routine, using Sacha Cosmetic\’s buttercup setting powder. After seeing how flash ready and brown girl friendly the setting powder was for these ladies\’ makeup, I knew I had to try some for myself, because finding a good setting powder that doesn\’t make us look ghostly in pictures is stressful. I was set out to try Ben Nye\’s banana powder before discovering Sacha, due to the fact that many other beauty gurus of color on YouTube swore by it. But as soon as I dabbed some of Sacha Cosmetic\’s setting powder on my T-zone, I was SOLD. Plus their $20.00 price point had already blown Ben Nye out of the ring for me. When you got something good, keep it! Sacha Cosmetics also has a wide variety of great products for the eyes, lips and face at a reasonable price. I have yet to see this company housed at Sephora, Ulta, or anywhere that sells cosmetics, but the internet is our friend, so you can purchase their products online. Learn more: http://www.sachacosmetics.com 2. Coloured Raine This one is a personal favorite of mine. Coloured Raine is a modern, fresh and unique cosmetic company for the everyday beauty that SLAYS! \”Founded in 2013 by Loraine, who longed for a cosmetic line that encouraged self-expression and diversity, these stand-out cosmetics break all beauty barriers. With long-lasting lip formulas in an array of unparalleled hues, Coloured Raine is renowned as the most beautiful and exotic makeup in the world.\”-Coloured Raine My Sephora friend once again was the one who introduced me to this brand. As we all have noticed, liquid lipsticks are the new wave and the regular, bullet lipsticks have taken a back seat in our makeup boxes. I had tried to hold on to my regular lippies for as long as I could, but always having lipstick on my teeth was becoming highly problematic for me. After finally caving in and purchasing liquid lippies from other cosmetic companies, my friend told me about Coloured Raine. There wasn\’t a lot of reviews or swatch videos when I took to YouTube to research this brand, but there was just enough for me to head over to their website and snag some colors. Fun Tip: Try the shades \”Roulette\” and \”Truffle Raine\”, they\’re to die for! Coloured Raine\’s shades are bold, dynamic and compliment every brown beauty, no matter how fair or deep her complexion is. Pair that with their awesome formula and you\’ve got a hit. Whether you\’re more of a neutral baby or risk-taking goddess, Coloured Raine offers many colors to fit your makeup persona. Coloured Raine also carries nail polishes, vibrant eyeshadow pots, lashes, and lip lacquers. Products can be purchases online but select Ricky\’s locations in New York carry this gorgeous brand as well. Locations can be found on the website under the Retailers tab. Learn  More: http://www.colouredraine.com 3. Juvia\’s Place Don\’t you dare sleep on Juvia\’s Place girl! This brand is a indie cosmetic company, where all products are made and packaged by hand. I stumbled upon this brand when I saw the popular twitter account, @BeautyByWOC, tweet pics of the very pigmented eyeshadows from The Nubian palette that Juvia\’s Place is receiving recognition for. I instantly fell in love with the gorgeous, neutral colors that The Nubian palette has. To my dismay, the palette was sold out at the moment I had tried to purchase it, but less than two weeks later, I got an email notifying me that it was back in stock…#delayedW! The Nubian palette consists of warm, neutral colors similar to the warm tones in the popular 35o palette by Morphe Brushes. The packaging is gorgeous and is currently on sale for a discounted price of $23.50. About a month following my purchase of The Nubian palette, Juvia\’s Place introduced the larger sized and more colorful palette, The Nubian 2. Being satisfied with the quality and pigmentation of The Nubian, I snagged The Nubian 2 for $28.99 online. Get into those shimmery shades though! Juvia\’s Place also carries makeup organizers, brushes, and lashes. Maybe in the future, we\’ll see some amazing lippies that match the Egyptian theme this company is rocking\’ with! Learn More: http://www.juviasplace.com/ Check out my YouTube review for both of these gorgeous palettes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki0MYtdGSFw 4. Black Opal I never thought I\’d come across a cosmetic company that carries so many different shades of brown in liquid foundations, until I discovered Black Opal cosmetics. \”In 1994, three creative forces combined their passion for beauty and their joint knowledge of issues specific to skin of color to develop the groundbreaking brand known as Black Opal. The Muse, a professional woman of Jamaican descent, who …

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BEAUTY & STYLE

5 Natural Hair Myths to Stop Perpetuating

4 Mins read
March 8, 2016

MYTH #1 Natural Women Spend Less Money on Their Hair “Don’t you just use coconut oil, and mayo and boom! Natural hair greatness!” False: Just because our money doesn’t go towards relaxers doesn’t mean that we spend less! Do you know how much pure, vegan, gluten-free, raw, virgin, un-refined, shea butter costs to ship internationally? Can you guess how much we spend on the multitude of essential oils, creams, non-alcoholic gels and unicorn tears that keep our curls popping? Wait, I’ve said too much already, forget everything you’ve read! This “movement” is trendy (oh, you’re such a trendsetter letting your hair grow out of your scalp, you go girl!) and as a result, there will always be someone waiting to capitalize and over-charge for services and products. To be honest, another reason natural hair can be just as expensive as having relaxed hair is because there’s a lot of trial and error involved. We’re literally getting to know our hair all over again, and that means trying new products, modifying our routine when the seasons change and realizing that what worked last year, or even last month, may no longer have the same effect on our hair. MYTH #2 Natural Hair is a Political Statement “You must be a revolutionary / incense-burning, Hotep-reading, Angela Davis and Lorraine Hansberry-quoting, anti-everything, freedom fighter! I know the type” False: Perhaps women with natural hair simply prefer avoiding harsh chemicals that are hazardous to their health? It is in fact possible to use your personal style to reflect certain political and personal beliefs; however, true revolutionaries know that it’s so much more than skin deep. A hairstyle alone is not a political statement. Black women are dynamic and as diverse as you can imagine: we don’t all share the same agenda or reason for going natural. Contrary to what some may assume, we’re not all members of a secret organization seeking to overthrow the male-dominated capitalistic machine that plays Black women against themselves, and each other, by teaching them that the “only” and “correct” way to measure their beauty and self-worth is against an unfair, unrealistic and biased antiquated White European beauty standards. (What a mouthful!) Oh, which reminds me: the meeting this month is cancelled ladies; see you at the next one! MYTH #3 We don’t all know each other “Have you met my friend Ashley? Her hair looks just like yours, and I think she lives in the same state as you!” False: We may or may not have a separate album of screenshots and hair photo inspiration that happens include a photo of your friend @XOXOAshley’s luscious locs, BUT we don’t actually know her… We have however spent more time than we care to admit musing over her possible hair-care routine and Holy Grail products. Listen! Leave that judgment at the door! Natural hair is far from an exact science, and Instagram and Tumblr are great teachers for eager students looking to learn. Tell Ashley that I hope she enjoyed her trip to Essence Fest last year; her outfit was dope! But no, we don’t know know her. That would be weird. MYTH #4 Natural Girls Love the Rain “It’s okay to get your hair wet because you’re natural now.”  We don’t spend days walking around in plaits reminiscent of 18th century plantation fashion for nothing! Braids, cornrows, twists, puffs; just keep it safe! Why do we do start prepping our hair on Tuesday, you ask? Because we’ve got somewhere to be on Saturday, of course! So, although wash’n’go’s are a thing, and some women’s jam we don’t all jump in puddles and dance in the rain simply because we’re natural. We may not cower, shriek and duck for cover; however, a genuine sigh of disappoint after spending hours replicating (and perfecting) a style you saw on a YouTube tutorial is a reasonable reaction to unexpected rain or humidity. MYTH #5 All Natural Hair Is Curly “Oh! I definitely thought it’d look more like Tracee Ellis Ross. That’s cute for you, though!” Our hair zigs, zags, shoots, booms, bams, curls, dips, dives, dabs and hits the Quan. The textures of Black natural hair are a cornucopia of awesome. Our hair looks at gravity and says, ‘Bish, where?” Unfortunately, not all textures of natural hair are treated the same! A certain amount of prejudice still exists, and even self-hate within the natural hair community that needs to be addressed. Many women claim that if their hair isn’t bouncy, big, and loose (see. Tracee Ellis Ross) that it simply isn’t worth it to go natural. Or, on the other hand, women who’ve never seen their natural hair texture assume (oh so incorrectly) that even though their parents and siblings have the same texture that their hair will somehow be in the shape of perfectly spiraled Shirley Temple curls with no shrinkage ever and no frizz in sight. If that’s your main concern, you’re doing it wrong: it’s about self-love, acceptance, and encouraging—not emulating and envying—our sisters and brothers. There’s not right or wrong way to be natural. These are a few myths that we as natural men and women need to stop perpetuating and feeding! Can you think of any others you’d add to the list?
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