Just Smile

Everything about this smile is just infectious!

{Photo: via}

Oh Napptural!

Somewhere along the way, I've decided to grow my hair out. It's been at least seven or eight years since I last had my natural hair grow out and back then, I was doing a whole lot of fussing with it - attempts at keeping it 'tame.' This time around, I'm thinking of just letting it do it's own thing and I'm very curious as to what it will look like.

{Photos: Curly Nikki, Thirsty Roots, Mane and Chic, Juco Photos, + Sutherland Models}

A Frangipani Tale

When it comes to beauty products, I'm a "keep it very simple" kinda woman. As long as I have some nice lip balm on standby, I'm pretty much good to go. I'm usually bias to Kiehl's or C.O.Bigelow and generally have a least 2-3 tubes in various coat pockets and/or purses A few days ago, I somehow found myself at work sans lip balm, a situation that obviously required a quick remedy which is how I found myself in a L'Occitane store nearby. I walked in with one simple goal: "get lip balm and get out" as my tolerance for stores with overly powerful scents is really low. As it was the middle of the workday and with no other customers in the store, the saleswoman was on me like white on rice before I could even think straight. After buttering me up by showing me various lip balm options (meaning the back of my hand had streaks of lip balm all over it), she quickly transitioned to hand creams and "the great value" deal before I could even get my defenses up. Knowing that she had me in the palm of her hand, she opened this innocent tube of shea butter hand cream and announced that it had extract of the frangipani plant directly from Madagascar. My mind was immediately split between "frangi-who?" and "Madagascar, must be exotic!" Even though the scent felt so familiar, I couldn't place it but it had shea butter in it and I already knew that most of the companies' shea comes from Burkina Faso so I left the store, olive tree lip balm, frangipani shea hand cream and 100% shea butter hand cream (remember I told you about the "great value") all tucked alway in a pretty bag. It wasn't until one google search later that I realized that frangipani was really another name for plumeria (which isn't something I just have chilling in my memory bank) and more specifically, that white flower I've seen in parts of Africa that smells ohh so good especially when in full bloom.

Of course me being me, I immediately had questions about how the companies treats the women doing the day-to-day labor and a whole host of other questions, but a bit of digging around and I found that L'Occitane has pretty sound practices throughout Africa, making sure women earn an income year-round (rather than only during harvest) and also provides opportunities for further education.

On a final note...how cute is this vintage Malagasy stamp with the frangipani flower?!?!

{Photos: L'Occitane, Hourou Kan, Omnia}

Lulu Works

While I would rather leave all things beauty to the experts, I have to comment on my life long commitment to cocoa butter and my new found love of shea butter. I'm positive that I came out of the womb and the first thing my mother must have done was slap some cocoa butter on my skin. I honestly can't remember a single day of my life without a jar of cocoa butter by my side. Whenever my mother sees me or my sister, she always has at least two jars to hand out and when I received my only package from the states a few years ago when I was living in Sudan, it of course contained a few jars of the good stuff.
Now while I'll never turn my back on cocoa butter, I am making room on my skin for shea butter in the form of Lulu Life. Yes people, hard to believe but South Sudan is actually exporting a beauty product! A cooperative of women are making soaps and moisturizers from shea butter. The shea nut tree is known in Arabic as Lulu...hence the name of the brand. Someone I know (sorry I can't remember who to give you credit) told me about the brand and handed me a bar of their soap that I still haven't used but when I was in Nairobi (health store in the Junction right before you go into the Nakumatt) I got a little jar of their moisturizer and I have to say that it is bringing serious competition to my trusted cocoa butter. A little spread of this stuff and my skin glows for the WHOLE DAY! Unlike all the other stuff out there....I can pretty much assure you that with Lulu Life (and of course cocoa butter) your skin won't look dry at any point in the day! Plus if you get the stuff you get the little side benefit of knowing that you are helping women in Southern Sudan gain an income! For those living in the States, hopefully it will one day find it's way to a Sephora near you!