The Bridge to Bliss

What comes to mind when you hear the term "the perfect date" ? With the right partner, I imagine that anything could happen. For me? I imagine an evening with unforgettable and laughter. I'd love to ride coasters, eat fried food and win stuffed animals at an amusement park before settling in to a good cuddle. Or, sitting in the back of a hayride, picking apples and walking among pumpkins...before settling in to a good cuddle (peep the common denominator here). Good dates make us happy! Well they make me happy, at the least! They give us tea to tell our besties and something to look forward to in the future. And not to mention, they give us excuses to piece together the perfect outfit! "Oh, but what am I going to wear ?!" -- I was asked this question by Adore Me , the cutesy chic intimates line, and came up with some dope outfit ideas for that perfect date. Check out some possible OOTDs inspired by some pieces from Adore Me below! Inspiration #1: Link to ...

Happy Saturday! A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to win an Instagram giveaway sponsored by COCOTIQUE , a deluxe beauty box subscription service for women of color and diverse ethnicities. It's a monthly box that costs $20, including sample and full sizes of various products!  My box, the June 2016 edition , just came in the mail and I am very satisfied and excited to try everything out! Check out what came in the box and how I plan to use everything!!! This is how the box came assembled! The excitement builds... Hallelu!!! This brand of edge control is literally one of the TWO brands in the world that actually work for my hair! This comes just in time for the NABJ convention next week! Necessary. I'm big on lipstick, but not always so big on lip care. I'm also prone to bite my lips when I'm nervous, so this seems like just the thing I need to give my lips a nice healing. I have never heard of this stuff before! Apparently it's a smarter a...

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO --- When July gracefully arrives on a Friday, that calls for celebration! You got through the week AND the month in one piece - let's hear it! For me, celebration means dropping a new YouTube video! I hope it will help some of you like it helps me. In the natural hair community, it's common for looser curls to take position as representative of what natural hair "looks like." But hair isn't a monolith! There's a multitude of beautifully different textures that all deserve to be celebrated. I have thick, kinky, type 4 hair. What does that even mean? My "curls" are coils; tight and glorious. As a type 4 chica, it's often depicted that certain styles aren't for "my kind of hair," as if they just won't work. One of those styles? Rod sets. Whether perm rods, flexi rods, curlformers, or anything in the family, type 4 hair folks looking to achieve spirally curls are often disappointed in lack of represen...

Hi everyone! SO much has happened since the last blog post, so much that I have no clue where to begin! So, I'll go with what's most recent on my camera, an OOTD! After getting my hair dyed and cut ( YouTube video to come soooooooooon), I wanted to play around with different color and style combinations. What better way to bring in a new look? So, I took a stab at the "denim on denim" trend, after much inner-debate regarding if I could even pull it off. I paired cropped boyfriend jeans with a chambray button-up top, threw on my white Chuck Taylors, and hit the streets. Oh! Not before donning MAC's Ruby Woo, courtesy of my wonderful mom! To be honest, half of the reason this look came to fruition was because I needed an excuse to wear Ruby Woo...but details! Anywho, check out my look from Wednesday: simple but I loved it! Details in caption(s). I love my lil' neighborhood. No one looked at me weird when I brought a camera and tripod outside to sta...

Hey there! Cheers to the freakin' weekend! Even though I can't legally drink to that, I'm still extremely excited for another weekend of fun in the Big Apple! Coming to New York means that I've witnessed some intense style from different cultures and backgrounds - all so easy to love! Check out some of my looks from this week as I bring some D-Town flair to the Northeast. There are photos below with details! --- 6/13 Outfits of the Week by Slidely Photo Gallery --- Look 1: For this look: I paired a Chambray button-up top from American Eagle with a white crop top from Rue 21, army green capri pants from Old Navy, and a pair of all white Nike Air Max.  Look 2: This look, a little more dressed up, combined: A maroon blouse from Forever 21, a beige blazer from Avon, dark wash denim pants from H&M (curvy chicks, they were only $20!), and stacked sandals from Deb Shops. Not seen: my watch that I received as a gift. Look 3: I went out into the cit...

On assignment, I attended a film screening of a documentary by BOBSA, the Black Owned Beauty Supply Assciation, which spoke on the majority Korean-owned hold onto the Black beauty realm - specifically within the sector of Beauty Supply Stores. It is true that in the Black community, our beauty is often monopolized by folks who contribute to our marginalization. Ingrained anti-Blackness often leads to being followed and profiled by the Beauty Supply Store right in most of our "urban" Black neighborhoods. The event was hosted by BUFU: By Us For Us - a traveling multimedia documentary installation project seeking to host community conversations about the Black-Asian cultural & political relationships. The topic of solidarity between communities of color is one that rings very true to my heart - one cannot fight oppression without acknowledging that all oppressions are ultimately linked. So, the CRWN team and I ventured into a gentrified neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY t...

What a week, what a week it has been! Thanks to my wonderful family (shout out to my mom, sisters, aunt, grandma, and little cousin for bringing me here ALL THE WAY FROM DETROIT and helping me move in) and friends (shout out to Jesse and my team at CRWN), I have successfully completed my very first week in the Big Apple. So, how's it been, you ask? Well... My First Week in the NYSi! by Slidely Photo Gallery Where do I even begin? I'll be honest: I came expecting a LOT from NYC. Everyone is always hyping it up, and a D-town girl was ready for the Big Apple to show me just what it had in store for me After moving in to my Brooklyn apartment and bidding my family goodbye, it was official: I was a resident of New York for the first time ever ready to take it on. New York; the city where I feel so many great things will happen to me. The city where I will turn 21. The city where I spend the farthest summer away from home, school and everything I know. The city where m...