Dear MsTanish1,

Your hair is awesome and so is your YouTube channel!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPF5bzAcCf8]

#thatisall

Later Beauties,
Ugochi

As much as I heart cosmetics, I’ve always been kind of afraid of wearing a bold red lip!

I LOVE  jazzing up my eye makeup with every color, mascara and eyeliner under the sun, but a bold lip…GULP. And, obvs I’d never do a bold eye and lip together, but just the idea of a bold lip always felt like too much for me. But, as you may have noticed to your right , I have gotten over that little snafu quite nicely.

I recently popped into a MAC store and asked to try the two classic red shades Ruby Woo and Russian Red that I’d heard oh-so-much about. I walked out with Ruby Woo (Russian Red was a bit too orange-y on me) and a lip pencil in Beet received compliments all the staff and on the walk home!

Ruby Woo is a super duper matte blue-based red lipstick. The color is amazing, but it does get to feeling dry especially after a bit of time passes. I’d love to try a juicier, creamier red next.

My Red Inspirations:

I’d recently seen this picture of Claire from The Fashion Bomb and *loved* the bold lip. Felicia of This That Beauty also wears a red lip oh-so-well. And…the super fab Erin @ Scandalous Beauty (whose videos I adore, btw) posted a vid on 6 lovely red lippies to try out.

Check it out below, there’s a red in this here vid for every one of you Beauties!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qUvkttWELU]

How did your entry into the world of the red lip go? What’s your fav red lip color?

xo,
Ugochi

Whilst attempting to troubleshoot my WordPress blog template this weekend and oscillating between anger and despair, I did not follow my own advice – ahem – discovered this fantastic video on YouTube!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBejDUFOBxw]

This clip is by the Curly Girl Collective and it’s a video montage of the Collective Expressions Launch Event that was held not too long ago in NYC. Here’s the official blurb from CGC:

“The official video recap from Collective Expressions – A Celebration of Textured Beauty, held at Brian Farrell’s Art Studio at Chelsea Modern in NYC. The event was sponsored by hair care icon Miss Jessie’s, in partnership with HEART & SOUL MAGAZINE and Hypnotiq Harmonie, with 100% of the event proceeds going to our charity partner, Petals-N-Belles.“

This looks to have been a very chic (and fun!) event celebrating the beauty of our hair in it’s natural state. Did any of you Beauties get a chance to attend? If so, let us know in the comments!

Stay Beautiful

You’ve only got a few more hours to enter our latest contest — the prize is a Luminess Airbrush System (yay!) so get to it!

In the meanwhile, check out this fab tutorial by Ren at Makeup by Ren Ren on how to use this snazzy little contraption…

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WKlCed6z5g]

Enjoy!

xo,
Ugochi

Stay Beautiful

Trolling around on YouTube has unearthed some hair inspiration courtesy of GiaMoOnX.

I was fiddling around with my hair today and might give this look a try in the AM since I am in between appointments. So cute and so quick!

The clip is in high speed, too — sweet!

Check it out!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8ibev2iqk8]

What do you guys think?

xoxo,
Ugochi

Stay Beautiful

In an effort to up my exploration of this big bad city, one of my summer goals is to check out what the non-Manhattan boroughs have to offer.

It’s slow going, but…I did end up in Brooklyn this weekend with my favorite Ethiopian for delightfully fun and random summer night. We started with an outdoor concert in Fort Greene Park, which I was late for since I was busy running around my apartment cheering for Ghana in their World Cup match  vs. USA (Go Black Stars and their super-fine Midfielder KP Boateng!)

Anyhoo, Common performed at the concert (such a cutie and so talented!) then we headed to 67 Burger (double yum!), Habana Outpost and a random house party.

I won’t mention when we finally got home , but as expected, there were lots of jokes, a few cuties and plenty of interesting characters along the way . But, one thing I noticed throughout this adventure were all the lovely natural hairstyles parading around in the park and all through the night. There were so many beautiful sets of locs, I was really considering maybe sort of giving them a shot…

We’ll see how that goes, but for now check out this video from YouTube darling, Fauryn78, on her loc journey, in pictures.

Tres inspirational and informative! Here goes…

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2zZQlNCqm4]

Any of you guys considering locs?

xo,
Ugochi

Stay Beautiful

I’ve been in a “hair mood” these days, so I’ve taken a particular interest in checking out the hair videos on YT. This segment from an episode of The View came up in my search results and I must confess that it made me kinda sad. So many struggles and labels and stigmas are attached to this stuff that grows out of our heads.

Why can’t hair just be hair?

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQFvtd61ew8]

Anyhoo, let me know what you guys think about the clip!

xo,
Ugochi
Stay Beautiful

I recently bought my first legit bronzer (by CoverGirl Queen…review coming soon!) and then realized I had no idea how to use it! So, naturally, I head to YouTube and see if the fab and talented Erin of Scandalous Beauty had a video about bronzer application and — yipee — she did!

I went to a Potluck Dinner Party last weekend and the bronzer action came out quite nicely. Sadly, no pictures of my masterpiece came out both clear and non-incriminating BUT… I decided to post one anyway — since I think I look pretty hot in it

So, here goes the video after the jump…

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUmFps1fJRE]

Check out her oodles of other videos here!

Stay Beautiful & Bronze-y!

I’m trying my best to not read anything that spoils the plot in any way. In fact, I have no idea what it’s supposed to be about and I prefer it that way!

Check out the pleasantly ambiguous preview below…

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vPSR1RlXX8]

Stay Beautiful

***Enter our latest contest! Ends 4/8***

So random, yet so funny.

Have any of you ever been in the movies or on the couch while your date fumbled away trying to inch closer for some snuggle time? Well, I have! First date hilarity…

Anyhoo, this video pokes fun of that part of the “dating dance” and had me laughing out loud.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXuUxgiYHUM]

Happy dating!

Stay Beautiful

***Enter our latest contest! Ends 3/29***