Happy new year, really. I gave a deep-dive into what my 2023 was in this YouTube video, so I won't repeat the details here but last year was kind of ghetto. It was so ghetto, I never want to go back there, which is why I'm happy to report that 2024 is off to a brisk start on my end. I rested and now I'm awake and back at living, literally and figuratively [see my success strategy for 2024 here].
Anyway, part of my 'nEw YeAR reSEt' was to change up my look a little bit, among other self care routines including nail care, skincare & home care [SUBSCRIBE to my channel so you don't miss the video].
I'm currently in that funny place in my hair journey where I feel bored and have no feelings towards my hair. One minute I want to cut it into a pixie again [remember this look?], the next week I'm fascinated with Sister Locks and think of transitioning to that, and then the next hour I'm enjoying the low-fuss of relaxed hair.
The truth is that I simply don't have the bandwidth for anything more drastic, so I went with my go-to hairstyle; braids. The shade of red I chose is bold yet understated, particularly against my complexion, while the I saw the actual style somewhere on Instagram many months ago so I saved it in my hair folder [if you're not using folders on IG, you're missing out on a very dope feature].
[Maybe I should be a red-head for the whole year? Is that even possible? I'm not dyeing my own hair though...]
I know I needed the change to revive my appearance and set me off on a year of beauty, and as of this moment, I'm happy.
I want to go on a nice honeymoon, Thailand or cape-town would be amazing, but any nice place will do. A place where we can relax and play and be sexy and fall deeper in love and in sync. Also like a celebration of us, for a job well-done so far, because I think it’d be worth celebrating.
The
kind of relationship where we’ll grow every day, as individuals and as a unit.
We’ll
be responsible with our well-being and finances as a family, pursue our
respective and common goals, helping each other achieve them, mapping out
our own path to success, being honest and accountable to each other, raising
two children (or so ?), just being cool forever.
The children will be beautiful and well-adjusted and charismatic and smart and conscientious and curious and talented.
Our home will be beautiful, minimalist (I would simply die if I ever married a hoarding maximalist), lots of natural brightness, expensive art and lots of warmth. As soft a life as we can manage together, hopefully spanning more than one geographies, God willing.
We’d
have friends, I might become obsessed with aesthetics and maybe even cosmetic
surgery (not likely to happen, I’m just saying), our lives could look very
different from what we imagine, but we’ll laugh a lot and have God with us. It'll be good and we'll be good people.
It’s going to be glorious.
Anyway,
I just felt pushed to write today. Obviously, I’m not trained or
anything so pardon my bad form, I just hope that you get what I try to say with these
ramblings, and that it makes you feel something.
Anything.
I have
a lot of these thoughts ever so often, you know? Thoughts about what my future would look like, what I'm feeling, many thoughts. Sometimes I make a short entry in my
notepad or tweet a condensed version on my Twitter, maybe talk to a friend if I can
manage, and that’d be it, but there's nothing like a fully-written, long-form, straight
from the heart blog post, right?
I’ve
digressed, but these are my musings from this morning, sappy like a puppy but I hope
you liked reading it, if you did read to this point.
Now, about gemstones and rings, my thoughts and taste have galloped down a long road over the years. I started from not knowing or wearing any jewelry at all through childhood, then getting hooked into fashion magazines and style content in my late teens and early adulthood, stumbling across the jewelry business and eventually starting my own (follow and shop my brand here), all alongside growing into my own person, understanding my minimalism and deciphering what I like.
For example, in engagement/wedding rings, I know I'd like one if I make into such a committed relationship. I know I like gold. Silver is not preferred. Stainless steel is ok on the more affordable end. Tinted metals like rose-gold are a no. Colored stones over ‘clear’ ones (except yellow diamonds which are just stunning), oval shape, brushed yellow-gold band of reasonable width and so forth.
Anyway, my romantic musings continue, I’ll keep visualizing and working for all that I want, because why not?
So thanks to the DMX challenge on/from TikTok last year, it became clear to me that my hairstyle range is non-existent and that I have to do more than the basic bare minimum that I usually do with my hair (and my whole image if we’re being honest).
And it’s sad because I actually love hair styling, beauty, fashion all of it, apart from the fact that I’m actually trained and have quite decent abilities in these areas. I’ve just somehow become lazy with everything!
Braids are generally my go-to hairstyle but I've been wanting something different but still very flattering and very importantly, safe for my relaxed hair that I’ve decided to grow out (for now 😊). So I decided to 'take it back' to good ole' weaving.
This style is most popular for high school teenagers, or used to keep hair tucked in under wigs for those who wear them, but I had mine done super neat and in this particular technique, so it looks cooler since I intend to wear it out as is.
It was quick to do, not tight or painful per my strict instructions, cost way less than ‘bigger’ hairstyles, great for our hot weather here, easy to maintain and suits me so well, if I do say so myself.
I love the style so much it totally inspired this entire self-portrait shoot. Bold makeup featuring dark-lined red lipstick, full feathered brows and winged defined eyes were my choice to add some high-fashion/editorial vibe to the hair. The black suit, sunglasses and minimal jewelry too.
Fingers crossed that this means that I’m making my way back to dressing up my hair and outfits again!
Follow me on
Instagram @skynotfancy to see more!
I recently tried waxing for the first time, sugar waxing or Halawa waxing specifically but other than that, I've been a shaving person all my life. I have in fact more or less perfected a way to shave and get consistently great results every time, so I made a detailed video on my YouTube channel showing how I shave and care for my underarms, keeping them smooth, even and relatively clear. See it here.
More details are in the video but a few main tips to bear in mind are -
1. The razor/shaving stick you use matters. In my experience, single-blade razors are friendlier on the skin that the double-blade ones.
2. Prep your armpit/underarm hair with some conditioner, to help soften the hair for shaving, and also give your skin some slip and protection. You don't want to 'injure' and scratch your skin skin. That causes darkening and bumps.
3. Shave gently.
4. Exfoliate with a mild scrub. I use a simple DIY honey-sugar scrub.
5. Use a mild deodorant. The Nivea Pearl & Beauty roll-on deo is my preferred choice.
Go watch the video, leave me a comment and subscribe too!.
Are you team shaving, waxing and laser?
Monochromatic meets minimalism meets comfort meets my style, that what this outfit is.
They pair nicely with almost anything, and make for the best minimal compliment to the relaxed all-black outfit.
Dressing in monochromatic colors have been a favorite style hack of mine for the longest time and it’s never failed. Not only is it easy to put together, it does wonders to the lines of the body, and looks stylish and put together.
With monochromatic dressing, practically any color works. You can wear the same shade all through, or pair different shades of the same color. Black and white like I’ve done here is probably the easiest as they’re both neutral albeit opposite shades. Easy and stylish.
Sneakers – Jumia
My official 2020 birthday photo.
I’m not sure what to do with those feelings, so I’m just letting them be, like I do all uncomfortable things, such as wearing wigs and looking decent in them like EVERY OTHER WOMAN apparently can.
Ah, money. After many many years of tears, dreams and hardwork, it still eludes me. This is not about to be a pity-party (though you will feel my pain) but guys, I’ve truly hit rock-bottom and I cannot see a way out from here, le me be honest. But I have to keep faith, right? When will it be over? Will it ever be over?
It was my birthday last Thursday (34th! omgwheredidthetimegoooo) and like a perfectly-socially-conditioned weakling, I fell into the trap of regret and harsh introspection, where the blows of my many failures punched me repeatedly in the gut all day long. And boy are the failures many.
My saving grace was my predetermination to kill myself with obscene amounts of ice-cream cake from ColdStone on said birthday. So I got my cake, enjoyed it along with some delicious Ajoke rice &chicken plus fish from Tastee Fried Chicken with my friends and even got some gifts too, which was quite lovely and I'm thankful.
I’m not an optimistic person at all so this ‘manifesting’ thing will be a struggle but I want and need to save my whole life quickly. Expeditiously.
As for changes, I sincerely just want to do better going forward. Career wise, I have more or less consolidated on the paths I want to settle in asap; media production, particularly photography and film editing, and fashion/beauty business. I have started these journeys already but I just need to start seeing results already, because I’m getting tired!
I'd also like to get a new hobby. I'm yet to decide what it'll be but I know I want it to be fun, easy, mentally stimulating but soothing, and potentially life-changing.
Tall order right? Hobby >>> therapy.
Also, I’ve been having a strong urge to take content for my own blog here more seriously. Instagram and other social media has not worked out for me, except for my YouTube which is looking up. I’ve even gotten 5k views on one particular video! It’s my 1st hair relaxer video and was quite fun to film (watch it here and SUBSCRIBE while you're there please).
I just feel like there are probably going to be problems with some of our more popular social media platforms, any day now. The ever crazy algorithms and programing are killing these platforms. New additions like TikTok, Clubhouse, Fleet on Twitter, etc, will also most likely stir some chaos in the coming future.
My goodness I sound like some Tech Crunch/Tech-bro hybrid right now so I’m stopping, sorry.
Oddly, I’ve been thinking of also posting some of my photography and film work here, integrating that part of my work with this one.
I had opened a wordpress site for my photography/film work but just never posted anything there, and I have the option of just maintaining my portfolio on a page of this blog.
Or should I keep it separate and just keep the content here to minimalist style and beauty?
Re: love and relationship, hmn watch this space..😜
That’s it from me guys. I hate that I’ve neglected writing here but I have had the best time writing and reading this not-so-short ‘check-in’ note.
Next we’ll be back to regular programing for style, beauty and minimalism!
The last review I did of The Ordinary products here (Read the review here) was about two years ago but this brand has since gone on to become my oily skin's best friend, because not only are their products very effective for me, they're relatively affordable and quite accessible as a lot of skincare retailers here carry it (I don't care for brands/products that i can't easily get when i need them).
In this post, I will be sharing my experience with the Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% formula, so please keep reading!
A little skin profile:
My face is oily/combination, acne-prone, with large pores, lots of texture and hyperpigmentation, quite the sandpaper..
Pure Niacinamide and 1% Zinc \ A High-strength vitamin and mineral blemish formula that visibly regulates sebum (oil) production, minimizes the appearance of pores and congestion of the skin.
Review -
So I first used this product earlier this year after having seen lots of positive review on its benefits for oily skin and pores. It worked well but unfortunately i couldn't repurchase it as all the skincare stores here were out of stock and not restocking due to covid.
Fast forward to last month and i was able to get my hands on it, albeit at a higher cost than the N6,000 vicinity that it normally is (for the 30ml size).
It comes in their signature frosted glass bottle with a droplet for easy extraction of the product. The serum itself is clear and light, applies and absorbs easily and has a very mild, almost undetectable smell. If you have any tearing or open scars on your skin though, then you can expect some short sharp stinging that goes away after a few seconds.
This product does exactly as it says and immediately too! Excess oil production is stopped, pores look instantly smaller and way decongested!
I apply it everyday, morning and night as recommended, which leaves my face smoother and more impressively, brighter.
It's literally the most effective product for my skin type and issues (even more than the AHA/BHA peeling solution).
Pros -
- Lightweight, alcohol, gluten and silicon free.
- Instantly minimizes the appearance of pores, congestion & blemishes.
- Controls excess sebum (oil) production.
- Affordable compared to other similar brands.
- Non-irritating and non-drying.
Cons -
- Apart from the brightening, results are not permanent, so this is to be a regular product in your skincare routine. My pores and congestion return after a couple of days of not using the product.
That's about it. My experience with this Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% has been positive and it's definitely earned a permanent place in my heart and skin care regimen, so if you have similar skin type or issues as i do, consider trying it out.
If you have tried this product, what was your experience with it? let's chat in the comments!
Jeans are in the top 2 of favorite type of clothing that I love to wear (only second to a white button-down shirt) but it’s usually quite the challenge getting a pair that fits my curvy body properly, while being of a great quality.
Apart from Levi's and J Brand, who i think make the most awesome jeans, the better quality jeans are usually found in Vintage/thrift shops and markets, based on my experience.
New jeans from our open/mass markets here (Lagos) just have too much elastin, bad color washes and weird cuts, which might fit okay at first but those jeans are often not durable and begin to slacken and lose form after a few washes.
'Cheap' but neither classy nor sustainable.
As a curvy person, you want jeans that are flexible but with structure.
[In a subsequent post, I’ll be going in-depth about jeans and what qualities to look out for when buying them, such as fabric mixes, cut & style, etc.].
Anyway, I wanted & needed a new pair of jeans, one that is high-waisted, classic blue wash, a little loose-fitting, straight cut and almost floor-length. I used to be a skinny jeans gal but recently I’ve become more into the vintage-y, straight cut fit.
I knew I wouldn’t easily get that cut and fit in the open markets here in Lagos and buying from abroad like on Asos or Fashionova was not also a viable option, so I thrifted a pair.
The color, fabric and sizing/measurements of the jeans I got were close to perfect, except for some gaping and the too-long length.
I went ahead to do a little D.I.Y to take-in the gaping at the waist and also take up the hem a little bit.
To see the whole process of how I did this, watch the video on my YouTube channel here (please SUBSCRIBE too).
Now, I’ve styled it here for a simple casual classic look, with a plain white long-sleeve top, clear heels to add even more height and some minimal gold accessories.
This is such a classic outfit that works every time and for a reason! Simple enough for anyone to wear, flattering on almost every body type, especially curvy bodies.
