Nails of the Month: Essie Chinchilly

 

A polish I have been absolutely loving lately is Essie's Chinchilly, a beautiful creamy grey. Chinchilly is the ultimate neutral that goes with just about anything. Two to three coats is necessary for it to be completely opaque. Essie's nailpolishes are my go to for great colors and quality. Although grey isn't exactly a "summer" color, I just haven't been feeling bright polishes these past few weeks.

What shades have been gracing your nails this month? Are you a fan of Essie? If so, what are your favorite colors?

xoebc

Finding the Right Brush According to Your Hair Type

 

There are an infinite amount of combs, brushes, and styling tools to choose from when walking through a beauty supply store. There's wide tooth, and fine tooth, ceramic, tortoise shell, vented, thermal, cushioned, round, flat, paddle, and the list goes on. An overwhelming amount of questions leaves a girl wondering whats necessary and whats not, a question I asked myself before I bought my Bass Premiere Boar/Nylon Brush and began doing a little research on.

1. Every girl should own a wide tooth comb and a boar bristle brush (as these are most essential). 

  - After getting out of the shower, your hair is at it's weakest state. Why? Because it's wet. When hair is wet its hydrogen bonds (what binds your hair together to form a strand) begin to breakdown. Because of this, tugging at your hair with a regular brush after a long shower can cause breakage and excess loss of hair. Gently grooming your hair when wet with a wide tooth comb removes any tangles, but is much less damaging then your everyday brush

  - A good quality boar bristle brush also is a necessary brush that should be in any girls hair arsenal. Boar bristle brushes are very dense (helps quite a bit to manage African American hair) and are usually a combination of a synthetic fiber and boar bristles. Boar bristles evenly distributes natural oils in the hair, which in turn creates, healthy, shinier hair, and seals the hair cuticle to improve the appearance of dry or split ends. Massaging the scalp with the boar bristles increases blood flow, in turn promoting hair growth

2. Purchase your styling brush..by how you style your hair! Do you like a lot of volume? Or prefer sleek and straight? 

  - For women in search of lift at the roots, turn to a round brush. Do you want a little oomph? Or a lot? Round brushes have a huge selection of widths, meaning the bigger the circumference, the bigger the hair

  - If you prefer a straight and chic look, opt for a paddle brush. Paddle brushes can have plastic bristles or boar. Ceramic paddle brushes are also known to make hair shinier when used while blow drying

What type of brush(s) or combs do you use? Do you have a favorite? Do you use different brushes according to how you plan on styling your hair?


xoebc

Quick Update

Hey Girls!

This week I have several posts planned including some recent clothing items I purchased, my favorite cream blush, a contouring how to, and a couple others. Check back soon!

xoebc

How To: Deep Clean Your Brushes

(this brush was wet, that's why it looks so grimy fyi !)

 

1. When cleaning your brushes always have your water at room temperature, water that is too hot can damage the fibers of the brush

- if your water is "hard" meaning you have a well system, opt for bottled water instead. Hard water is high in minerals and just like how it can be detrimental to your hair, it can be to your brushes

2. There are many brush shampoos that you can purchase, however using a light shampoo such as Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo or Dial soap is completely fine

- purchasing a shampoo created specifically for brushes is perfectly ok, I just find I save quite a bit more money by sticking to baby shampoo or just regular Dial handsoap

3. When washing your brushes, make sure you treat them with care. Avoid getting water anywhere besides the bristles. Water can loosen the glue that binds the handle of the brush.

- Use back and forth motions like you are actually using the brush, this prevents damaging the brush bristles and keeping them properly shaped

4. After thoroughly rinsing the brushes to ensure no soap is left over, place them on a paper towel to air dry

- some brushes come with brush guards, such as Sigma brushes. If your brushes do, have them dry with the guards on. Although it will take them ten times longer to dry, they will maintain their shape and stay in perfect condition

Things to avoid:

- drying your brushes with a blow dryer, no matter how low the setting is, or how careful you are being, it is very easy to ruin the shape of a brush. Just don't risk it

- never use a clarifying shampoo to wash your brushes, this can cause the dye in the bristles to seep out

How often do you do a deep clean of your brushes? Every week, every few weeks? Do you buy a brush shampoo, or make use of products you have at home? Let me know

 xoebc

In & Out of the Week

 

http://fashion.elle.com/fashion/insider/2010/02/22/fashion-week-fall-2010-runway-visions-isaac-mizrahi/

In

Enjoying a weekend with friends, Saturday a friend and I enjoyed sushi together at a local restaurant

A new hairstyle I discovered with my short(er) hair..I will attempt to make a tutorial post on it

Newly discovered eyeshadow combinations, I love my Urban Decay Naked palette

 Babies! I was able to spend time with my best friends god son and my cousins son (fat babies are the best)

Being a confident woman

The temperature yesterday

New beginnings

Out

The week long bout of rain we recently had..blah

Headaches (I have one right now)

My eyesight getting worse..my contacts are definitely no longer doing their job

xoebc

 

Stacks on Stacks on Stacks: Layering Your Jewelry

Layering jewelry can often times be difficult if you are just starting to experiment with your pieces. There are steps you can take in order to make the process a whole lot easier, and to get a feel for what looks good together.

1. Pick a single piece that you want to begin with. I chose my navy leather chain bracelet that I recently purchased from Target. You want your piece that you work around to be the focal point and to make a statement

2. Based on your statement piece, find other bracelets that correspond by color, material, or texture. Although I find this to make the process of picking and choosing easier, there are no rules to layering jewelry. Your look can be as coordinated or crazy as you like

3. I chose to pair my chain bracelet with three tortoise shell bangles from Jcrew, and an Alex and Ani bracelet that I received as a gift from a friend

4. The Alex and Ani "Path of Life" bangle was gold in color which matched the gold links on the leather bracelet, and added a delicate feel that contrasted with the harder edge of the other two bracelets

5. And lastly the three tortoise shell bracelets introduced an unexpected dimension to the stack, making it unique

xoebc

Beauty Essential: Lip Scrub

Nothing looks worse then dried, flaking lips. There are many products such as chapsticks and Vaseline that can heal chapped lips, but what both products fail to do is exfoliate. There are a wide array of lip exfoliators on the market such as Smashbox's Emulsion Lip Exfoliant, Korres Lemon Lip Scrub, and Fresh's Brown Sugar Lip Polish (all of these can be found at Sephora). I recently purchased C.O. Bigelow's Mentha Lip Buffer from Bath and Body Works. Bigelow is a 168 year old company based in NYC and prides itself on it's high quality ingredients they use in their products, many of which are celebrity favorites (plus they do not test on animals). The Mentha Lip Buffer is made of 100% natural mint, peppermint oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, sugar crystals, avacado oil, jojoba oil, and many other fabulous ingredients. By squeezing out a pea sized amount of the Lip Buffer, and rubbing it with your index finger along your lips, you are guaranteed a totally sexy, and completely kissable pout.

xoebc