Hair Health and Growth with Phyto Specific

I have always had tiny, baby type curls along my front hairline, but looking at my hairline recently I noticed that it definitely looked a lot finer than I remembered.

Cue panic and much staring into the mirror whilst interrogating Mr LPM on if he had noticed it, and if so why he hadn’t said anything! In typical male fashion his response was a calm no you look great! Admittedly any other response was liable to get him into trouble…  however it did manage to calm me down.

I realised that no I am not suddenly turning into a middle aged balding man, and on much reflection I remembered that it started when I was going through the stressful period I mentioned I had a few months ago. This meant I didn’t have as much time to take care of my hair, so had worn it in a few too many tightly scraped buns and had also generally neglected my hair in regards to treatments and deep conditioning. (Always a bad idea with fragile Afro hair)

Anyhu, I’m now armed with a good hair trim and two new products that I’m testing out in the hope that they will provide my hairline with a bit of a boost.

I’m also working on a new hair regime, but I’m currently in the early phases, so once I’m sure that it works I will post it up.

The two products I’m about to trial are from the new Phyto Specific Range for Curly Coiled Relaxed Hair.

You all know that I’m a big believer of the phrase beauty starts from within, so the first is Cap’Energy, a dietary supplement for the hair and nails.

The key ingredients are the B Vitamins, which have a well-known track record of being beneficial for hair health and growth.  They are said to provide essential nutrients to increase vitality and to strengthen your hair. Vitamin B6 helps to synthesise cysteine, the natural amino constituent of keratin. While Vitamin B8, also known as biotin is essential for hair and nail growth and for preventing hair loss and premature gray hairs.

The second is Phytotraxil – an anti thinning treatment for traction alopecia. Its meant to boost hair growth in traumatised areas caused by pulling and is said to be perfect for post weaving, braiding and relaxing.

I’ve literally only just started using the products and will come back with an update in the next couple of months on how effective they have been on my hair.

Have you tried any of these products? Or have you experienced similar hair problems before? What did you do? Would love to know in the comments below

A Hair Treatment with Errol Douglas

Ever since I decided to go back to my natural hair, I think I’ve only been to the hairdressers once. Mind you, it wasn’t out of choice, but simply because when I tried, most hairdressers would stare at my natural afro hair, and you would see literal expressions of panic fly across their faces as they tried to figure out how they would handle it. It was either that or they would try to convince me to relax my hair.

Fed up with the whole process, I have mainly managed and treated my hair myself for the last couple of years.

However, I recently attended an event with Phytospecific at Errol Douglas, and was invited to try out a complimentary hair treatment at the salon. When I quizzed them and was informed that yes they do offer treatments for natural afro hair, I was intrigued.

Now Errol Douglas as a salon is not new to me, I have heard many people rave their professional service and treatments for a mixture of hair types, and some of my friends go there to get their hair both relaxed and treated. But I just assumed it was restricted to relaxed hair. I love it when I stand corrected!

I arrived for my appointment a couple of weeks ago and hidden behind the hustle and bustle of Knightsbridge, is Errol Douglas. A beautiful salon, located on Motcomb Street. With a chic and spacious space, the décor is stylish and warm, inviting you to settle into one of their comfy chairs and get your hair done.

Errol Douglas himself is a legend in the industry and has won an MBE for his services to the hair industry.

On arrival I was offered a drink and a food menu, which has a selection of actual meals and juices to choose from.  Do note that there is a charge for these as they work with a private chef.

I was then led downstairs to the dedicated afro hair area. Enter in Eve, the miracle worker who is the Artistic Director and Head of the Afro hair team at Errol Douglas.

Eve is extremely experienced and knowledgeable about all things hair, having worked as a hair stylist for the last 20 years, with 11 years specifically at Errol Douglas. Sporting a very stylish natural fro hawk style herself, I knew I was in safe hands.

Review: Joliette Caribbean Radiance Range

Brands that have a story and heart behind them always tug at my heart and Afrodeity is one of those brands.

Afrodeity was founded by mother and daughter team Alicia and Joliette around the knowledge of healing herbs, oils and butters passed down through the generations.

It’s an online store that retails natural Caribbean Inspired hair and skin products. Their ultimate goal is to help small farmers in the Caribbean reinvigorate the declining agricultural industry and to stop a dependence on importation of essential foodstuff.”

I love supporting small business owners who are doing fantastic things and have met Alicia the founder a number of times and each time have been inspired by her story and journey.

So when Alicia asked if I would like to try their newly launched skincare line named Joliette – the Caribbean Radiance range, I couldn’t wait.

In Alicia’s words "I created Joliette in honour of my mother, for whom the brand is named and for my daughter and her growing head of gorgeous curls"

The whole range is a natural based line that incorporates natural fruit extracts such as papaya, strawberry, lemon and cranberry, alongside a number of oils and butters. Namely olive, coconut, apricot, sunflower, shea and vitamin e. The line is designed to help to even out your skin tone and promote a radiant complexion.

If you are not a fan of scented products though, then you might struggle with these as they are heavily scented. However it’s a gorgeous coconut scent. Think real natural coconuts and the face moisturizer also has a strong scent of the different fruit extracts. I’m usually wary of anything that is heavily scented, particularly for my face but I haven’t had any sort of reaction, which I think is largely due to Alicia’s background as a chemist.

Joliette Caribbean Radiance Facial Cream Wash

Described as a “unique 2-in-1 blend of a cream cleanser and a foaming face wash. It nourishes and protects the skin whilst actively illuminating the skin with natural fruit extracts”.

I am really enjoying using this cleanser either in the morning or as the second part of my double cleanse in the evening. It is smooth and creamy and feels more like a moisturiser than a face wash, and it doesn’t leave my face with a squeaky overly clean feeling, instead its soft and lightly moisturised.

Ingredients include: liquorice extract, papaya, cranberry, strawberry, lemon and mango fruit extracts.

£14.00 for 150ml

Joliette Caribbean Radiance Facial Scrub  

Described as a “2-in-1 blend of cream cleanser and moisturising face wash with exfoliating volcanic pumice to leave skin feeling clean, clear and ready for action.”

For regular readers you will know that I am not a fan of grainy face scrubs, I instead prefer chemical exfoliators or if I’m going to use a grainy scrub, I much prefer finely milled textures such as crystals, powders or rounded jojoba beads. That’s because I find these are much gentler and effective on my skin. I find that the grainy ones tend to scratch and aggravate my sometimes-sensitive skin.

So unfortunately the grains in these were way too harsh for my skin. I do however enjoy using it on my body.

Ingredients include: Apricot kernel oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, papaya fruit extract, cranberry extract, strawberry extract, lemon extract, mango fruit extract.

£12.00 for 150ml

Joliette Caribbean Radiance Facial Moisturiser

The Caribbean Radiance Moisturiser has been designed to” illuminate and tone skin whilst creating a smoothed out, even skin tone.”

One of the beautiful things about this moisturiser is that it has an SPF 25, a great sun protection with the addition of zinc oxide, which thankfully dries to a completely sheer finish that will not look ashy or white on darker skin tones.

It does have quite a number of oils in it, which I initially thought would make my face look shiny, however although the oils do come through after some time, my face just looked the same as it normally does with no extra shine. I found it be lightweight but with the perfect amount of moisturising properties.

I can’t attest to it’s evening out of my skin tone, I think I would need to use it for longer to really asses that. You are meant to be able to use it both during the day and at night, but I personally would only use it during the day due to the SPF properties.

Ingredients include: liquorice extract, papaya, cranberry, strawberry, lemon and mango fruit extracts.

£14.99 for 60ml

You can find out more about the brand and purchase the Joliette products on their site here 

Have you tried anything from either the Joliette range? What did you think?

New from Crabtree & Evelyn: Black Absinthe Perfume

Crabtree & Evelyn is a new brand for me, now don't get me wrong I know all about the brand and it's long standing beauty botanical heritage

But to be honest whenever I've thought about them, my thoughts always leaned towards the idea of scents from a vintage English garden, which is not my general scent of choice

That is until I was recently introduced to the brand at a recent press launch, and was blown away by how beautiful, modern and complex a lot of their scents are.

Case in point, their newly launched Black Absinthe Eau de Cologne, described as:

"Absinthe began as a herbal tincture before transforming into the muse of the French bohemian crowd in what became known as the green hour. It was drunk as a way to relax and thought by some to increase creativity. Paying homage to absinthes rich history, this contemporary cologne underscores the herbaceous notes of absinthe, artemisia and fennel flower and blends it with the smooth tones of black liquorice, peppery vetiver and a creamy tonka base for lasting sensuality."

3 Marsala Beauty Picks: Cheeks, Lips and Nails

Pantone has named Marsala as the colour of the year for 2015, and this is a colour I’m loving. I would describe it as a reddish brown shade with hints of mauve and rose, that’s very reminiscent of the makeup looks from the 90’s and looks absolutely gorgeous on most skin tones.

Leatrice Eiseman the Executive Director at the Pantone Colour Institute gave this description of Marsala: “Marsala enriches our mind, body and soul, eluding confidence and stability. Marsala is a subtly seductive shade, one that draws us into its embracing warmth”.

It has already started cropping up in the new fashion and beauty collections and to help you on your beauty Marsala way, here are my top 3 product picks for lips, cheeks and nails on how I wear Marsala.

EX1 Blush - Love Story £9.50

I discovered this blush in Beauty Mart and it is absolutely beautiful. Developed by Farah Naz, EX1 Cosmetics was created to cater to Asian, Middle/Far-Eastern or Mediterranean and Exotic complexions. Their shades go up to Mac NC45 as a comparison chart. Because it has been developed for olive and yellow type skin tones and the centre of my face is a lot lighter with a yellow undertone, I found that this just worked and it sat beautifully on my skin tone

It’s a lovely red brown shade and is extremely pigmented so a little goes a long way. It goes on really softly and wears incredibly well, the longest I have had it on for is 9 hours and I found it didn’t budge throughout the day.

3 Lip balms to Weather Proof Your Lips

Don’t you just hate it when you pop your lipstick or gloss on and it just emphasises how dry your lips are?

I’m a bit of a lip balm obsessive, particularly in winter when the heating and frosty air just seems to draw all the moisture away from your lips.

Here are my 3 current favourite industrial style hydrating lip balms to give cracked, painful and chapped lips the heave ho.

Yu-Be Moisturising Skin Cream £13.50

Developed in 1957, this lovely moisturising skin cream is one of Japan's best selling vitamin-enriched skincare creams. With a rich glycerine formula, it goes on like a cream but immediately sinks in as you rub it in. It’s the lightest of the 3 and has a nice matt finish so is great for applying your lipstick afterwards.

It does have a bit of a camphor fragrance when you apply it, but this fades away quite quickly afterwards. It’s also multipurpose, so can be used anywhere else that feels a little dry.

Lanolips 101 Ointment - £10.99

I had heard so much about this, but had resisted until recently when I was out and had forgotten my makeup bag at home. Don’t ask! Anyway the freezing cold air was seriously drying out my lips and I could feel those little painful cracks starting to appear! So what was a girl to do? I leapt into my closest Boots and picked one up. All I can say is I finally understand what the fuss is all about.

This little tube completely soothed my dry and somewhat painful lip and applying another layer before bed, I woke up with soft, smooth lips.

It’s made out of 100% Ultra Medical Grade Lanolin and its extremely thick so you might need to build some arm muscles to get it out of the tube if you leave it out in the cold, but once on it melts into a smooth un-fragranced and nourishing balm.

Motivational Monday: You Are Responsible For your Own Happiness

One of my absolute favourite genre of films to watch is a good romcom. I’m a serious romantic and love it when there is a happy ending and the girl gets the guy and they ride off together on a white horse into the sunset.

But over the last week I’ve been mulling over this quote “ You are responsible for your own happiness” and looking at the whole fairytale plot line with fresh eyes.

Why is the girl sitting there waiting for her prince charming to (a) come and save her and (b) do things to make her happy?

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still a soppy romantic but I just think that if you need a hero in your life then you need to become one.

Stop waiting for something else, someone else to bring joy into your life. It’s too much of a responsibility to put onto anyone, be it your friend, boyfriend, husband, family etc.

If you are unhappy or simply need or want certain things in life then you need to go out and get them yourself. By waiting for others to do things for your happiness, you are transferring all the power and responsibility for how you live your life over to them.

Understand that if you really want your life to be different, you can’t sit there and complain or wait for someone else, you need to realise that are the only person that can really make the change to your life.

So chase your happiness, get rid of things that are making you unhappy and take back the power over your life.

Have a fantastic week ahead.

Segun. x

Let's talk about skin: What is Skin of Colour

Image Credits - Iman

One the things I love about beauty is that it isn’t a one size fits all type of world and what works for one woman, isn’t necessarily going to work for another.

Having your most amazing skin is about truly understanding your skin and what works and doesn’t work for it, be from your skin type to skin condition (more of this to come in the series) to your skin colour.

Whilst having lunch with a good friend the other day, who is on the complete opposite end of the diverse beauty spectrum to myself, with pale Caucasian skin and the straightest of hair ,we got talking on the differences in our skin tones and our beauty concerns.

This prompted her to ask me a question she said she had pondered about a couple of times having seen the term “woman of colour/ skin of colour”.

Her question was in two parts

1.         Does woman of colour only refer to black women?
2.      Does skin of colour really differ to Caucasian skin aside from the actual tone?

In the last census in 2011, 13% of the UK population identified themselves as either Asian, Black or Mixed Heritage and it’s a demographic that is experiencing the fastest growth here in the UK.

So I thought this was the perfect opportunity for a blog post to look at the definition and characteristics of skin of colour, if it differs and how this could affect your skin care routine.

First up:

What is skin of colour?

People with skin of colour are generally classified as those with non-white heritage. This includes people of Asian, Black, Mixed Heritage and Indian descent.

Does it differ from Caucasian skin?

Skin is skin so doesn’t really differ too much on an anatomical level, however there are a number of differences in the characteristics between skin of colour and Caucasian skin which can affect how your care for your skin. The most notable are: