Éclat d'Arpège with a Touch of Snoopy

I love unwrapping presents and finding such delights in them! 


Eclat D'arpege Perfume by Lanvin is such a soft floral fragrance created in 2003.

A sophisticated fruity scent is a blend of sicilian lemon leaves, lilac green, wisteria flowers, green tea flowers, peach flowers, red peony,white cedar of lebanon, musk, and amber.

I really love the perfumed lotion because you can definitely dab a bit on as a replacement for the actual perfume for a lighter fragrance.

This certainly a cute surprise!

(Especially the Snoopy touch ♥)

Check out the Lanvin Paris website for some of their other goodies :)

M7JZARXJA4EM

21 Reasons Why I Love Shea Butter

Some of us black girls need to constantly stay moisturized don't we? I have always used lotions that contain a shea butter in them like Keri Lotions but had never tried using these ingredients in their raw form. I didn't grow up seeing shea butter and so had always walked past raw butters at the market - until now. I started using raw shea butter over  the summer and have been loving it oh so much! I use it for everything - body, hair and all and so far, so wonder-ous!!


Shea Butter also known as Karite, comes from the fruit kernels of the shea nut tree. This sweet, pulpy fruit grows wild throughout the dry arid regions of Central Africa. The pits are collected to sun dry and then roasted to get it ready for the difficult work of extracting the creamy, rich solid oil by hand. This butter has an amazing amount of healing properties and softening capability.

Shea Butter is for all skin types and is reputed to work wonders on the following:

1. Dry skin
2. Skin rash
3. Skin peeling, after tanning
4. Blemishes and wrinkles
5. Itching skin
6. Sunburn
7. Shaving cream for a smooth silky shave.
8. Small skin wounds
9. Skin cracks
10. Tough or rough skin (on feet.)
11. Cold weather,
12. Frost bites
13. Stretch mark prevention during pregnancy
14. Insect bites
15. Healthy skin
16. Anti-Aging
17. For before and after strenuous exercise
18. Skin allergies such as poison ivy or poison oak
19. Eczema
20. Dermatitis
21. Skin damage from heat (hot grease while cooking, from radiation treatment etc.)

Whether or not these reasons are scientifically proven, you have nothing to lose by trying it out. Granted my skin has always been soft (because of the regular moisturizing of black girls :), since I started using shea butter it's ten times softer and smoother! The caution though is I wouldn't recommend it for your face unless you have super dry skin because it will clog your pores which can cause breakouts. Other than that, I say make it your new bestie- you won't regret it!

Threading vs Waxing

I usually wax my eyebrows but today I thought it might be a good idea to try threading.

"It is popular in many Arabic countries, as well as Indian and Persian culture where it is called Bande Abru ("Abru" means eyebrow, and "Band" is the thread).

Practitioners use a pure, thin, twisted cotton thread which is rolled over untidy hairlines, moustaches and so on, plucking the hair at the follicle level. Unlike tweezing where a single hair is pulled out each time, threading can remove an entire row of hair, resulting in a straighter line. However, due to a larger area of hair being removed at once, it can be quite painful for some." [Wikipedia]

Unlike waxing, I had to participate in the process. She'd tell me to hold down my eyelid and pull up my upper brow skin- difficult given the pain. If I may be honest, I found this ridiculously painful. I would not do it again and will instead stick to waxing!

Pixie Cut!

Woke up this morning feeling really daring so I went to the hair salon to get my relaxer. It was again at my new favorite hair dresser up in Eglington West where all the black hair spots are.

When I got to Nadine's Hair Studio, it was packed! Boy does it show just how women looovvveeee their hair. I had to wait for a while. Even when they started working on my hair, it was being done in turns with like 3 other people. LOL.

Anyway, since I was sitting there for a while I decided then, that chopping my hair off was a good idea, an important symbolic idea, a metamorphosis - today i got a pixie cut!

Freeing.

Balea Wax Strips

Until today, I had never shaved or waxed my legs. While making my rounds at Shopper's Drug Mart this evening, I picked up a box of Balea's Legs and Body ready-to-use wax strips.

I barely have any hair on my legs but really wanted to see what it felt like to wax myself.

I found the instructions and process to be super easy and actually painless (maybe because there wasn't much I had to remove). I recommend these strips for easy hair removal at home because they actually left my legs feeling silky and smooth!

I'll let you know if I try to use them on any other part of my body :)

New Hair + Dresser

I got a weave today and it looks pretty amazing.

A high school friend referred me to Nadine's Hair Studio on Eglinton West. I was nervous at first, felt like I was waiting to see the dentist. When I was asked what hairstyle I'd like, I had no clue  how to answer and hesitantly whispered to the lady that I was new at this and had no idea what she was asking exactly.

About 2 hours later I looked amazing! I look pretty good in long straight hair ;).

A future note for weave virgins, apparently perm yaki human hair is the best for standard hair textures because the texture isn't too far from black hair.

Hair Relaxers

I retouched my hair today and feel kinda nice about it. But I have to say I didn't let it cook for too long because my scalp is sensitive from the un-braiding. This means I actually have to do it again in two weeks!

It probably qualifies me to be such a cheapo that I do my hair by myself but still i save so much money. I use either Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Relaxer (Normal) or TCB's Olive Oil Relaxer (Regular). 

Both work exceptionally well and leave my hair shiny and healthy. I find that the Root stimulator is gentler on my hair and doesn't over straighten as other relaxers tend to do. What I like about TCB's Olive Oil Relaxer is that it leaves my hair shiny and moisturized rather than dry and frizzy like other relaxers tend to do.