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From YourTango

Our culture promotes sex everywhere from magazine covers to product advertisements. When sex sells, it sets us up to objectify ourselves and others. When we objectify someone, we really don’t see the other person. We lose out on the most intimate loving parts of a relationship and we look to magazines, books and blogs to help us get the relationship we’ve always wanted. What we fail to realize is that the best person to consult about our beauty is ourselves.

When a person owns her innermost self — and is happy with who she is — she projects a beauty radiating with confidence. People naturally are drawn to those who make them feel good. Healthy sexuality and intimacy is about having the courage to love and be loved in return. Here are some ways in which people benefit from sex:

Having a healthy attitude about your sexuality promotes beauty from within. Experts say, “a sexually healthy person is someone who feels comfortable with his or her sexuality.” This means, a person doesn’t view s*x as something naughty, bad, improper or sinful and can engage in it without feeling guilty or anxious. When you’re comfortable with who you are on the inside, your attractiveness is infectious on the outside. Others want to be around you and have what you have.

Read more at YourTango.com

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Our black is beautiful – hair, skin, and all. We shower our girls with praise by complimenting the richness of their cocoa, caramel, or vanilla colored skin. We massage their scalp and nurture their baby curls – from kinky to super wavy. We want our girls to respect and love themselves. We constantly fight the barrage of  criticisms our girls may be exposed to, including negative attention swarming around their hair and skin tone. Our girls need their self-esteem lifted. What better way to celebrate the love of our culture  and promote self love with our girls than through a book that our girls can relate to. Whether your little girl has a growing bookshelf or e-reader, she will want to add these must-reads to her collection.

From StyleBlazer.com

From StyleBlazer

By now, you’re probably very aware that StyleBlazer is celebrating its 2nd birthday this week! But don’t think we were going to fete your favorite fashion site without inviting all of the editors to the party. The theme is throwback to 2011.

“I was a huge fan of this Chico’s pearl and turquoise super-statement necklace that was given to me as a gift in 2011, and I still cherish this necklace although I haven’t worn it in a while. I absolutely love statement jewelry, which probably explains why.”

Read more and see more favorite pieces at StyleBlazer.com

From StyleBlazer

He may not be an household name yet, but celebrity make-up artist, AJ Crimson is coming to homes everywhere with his new cosmetic line.

With the help of Adrienne Bailon, Letoya Luckett and British singer, Alexandra Burke the seasoned artist is promoting his new line.

Read more at StyleBlazer.com

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From BlackVoices

We’ve all heard and seen shining examples of the age-old adage, “black don’t crack.”

Thanks to good genes, lots of ultraviolet ray-shielding melanin, natural oils and some say the grace of God — many black folk enjoy a youthful appearance way past the age others start to experience winkles, age spots and sagging skin.

Well, that notion was part of Allure’s first-ever anti-aging survey in the April 2013 issue, and the results show that most African Americans do indeed celebrate their age-defying looks.

The monthly publication polled 2,000 women and men on the modern perception of aging attitudes and behaviors. The survey yielded interesting insights about sex (it gets better as you get older), the ideal age (everyone wants to be 31) and going gray (we’re not fans), to name a few. And when it comes to which ethnicity thinks they age the best? African Americans have that in the bag.

Get the exact results and more on BlackVoices.com.

Facebook

Maybe African-Americans in Hollywood are slowly learning that if no one will give us the “green light” for programming we’d like to see, we have to start doing it for ourselves.

Enter Alchemy Networks. The new channel which joined forces with YouTube in December, was founded by media veteran Peter Griffith and will center around urban lifestyle and celebrity entertainment. It will also feature original programming.

Griffith told Lee Bailey of EURweb that they’re not interested in being the biggest channel but instead, they want to be the best within every market they target. In fact, they didn’t just “sign on” with YouTube when they came to the table with their ideas. Griffith, along with his partners Alvin Williams, Anthony Maddox ad Xothil Arkin, came up with their own plan, took it back to YouTube and hoped they were still on board:

“What we told them was ‘We’re not the same.’ Let us come back to them and tell what we thought was the best way to approach this community,” he recalled. “And we came to them and said ‘Look. What we’d like to do is develop not just one channel, but several channels that target different demographics of the African-American community.”

Luckily, YouTube jumped aboard. So far, they have two premium channels: Kaleidoscope, which targets 18-34 year olds with a focus on music, gossip and entertainment as well as FWD, launching this month, which targets 25-54 year olds with a focus on the same but also including beauty and fashion.

Kandi Burruss is the first celebrity to sign on with the network. Her new show, Kandi & Friends, will debut later this month. There’s been no word if it’ll be similar to her own show Kandi Koated Nights but it will feature some of her celebrity friends.

Alchemy, to date, boasts one million views per week and has 900,000 subscribers.

Hopefully, with the formation of Alchemy Networks and other independent online shows, we will see more programming that we’ve longed for. Over time, who knows? It might even filter onto actual television stations.

Will you check out Alchemy channels on YouTube?

Source: Eco Friendly Logo courtesy of Shutterstock

From StyleBlazer

From adopting healthier eating habits to starting transitioning hair journeys, a natural wave has swept the nation and it seems to be letting up no time soon. It’s no surprise if you’ve gone green in some capacity, but have you given thought to what lies in your makeup arsenal? Many cosmetics are full of parabens, pore-clogging silicones and synthetic dyes that can lead to skin irritation and allergic reactions. Since makeup shouldn’t be so complicated, StyleBlazer is letting you in on 15 natural and eco-friendly brands to discover (and perhaps fall in love with).

See the collections on StyleBlazer.com.

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Has anyone else noticed that your eyebrows have the ability to make or break your look? I know the Bible says a woman’s hair is her crowning glory; but if you gave me a choice, I’d take my eyebrows being properly coiffed over my hair being “done” any day. In all fairness though, since I have locks my hair is never “not done.”

Anyway, I come from a long line of expert brow shapers. My maternal grandmother who completely devoted her life to raising her children and later grandchildren, still always made time to make sure her brows were right. For decades, she was the go-to woman when it came to shaping and sculpting. And she shared that vital information with her sisters and passed it down to her nieces and eventually her daughter, my mother.

I’ll never forget the day my mother looked at me and decided it was time for my first plucking session. I was a freshman in high school and had just come home from the summer school gym class I was taking. Needles too say I looked a bit rough and my thick, unruly eyebrows weren’t helping the situation. I showered and my mom had me lie down on her bed as she sat over me, plucking away.

In retrospect I should have been more afraid of this process. The whole thing was pretty agonizing. My stomach was knotting and unknotting as I felt her rip each individual hair from my face with precision. I felt trapped, like a form of torture.

But once I was released and I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized what wonders the plucking had done for my face. My eyes looked brighter. My face looked softer and more feminine. I looked less like a little girl and more like the woman I would become. For the next couple of days, I couldn’t walk past a mirror without doubling back to take a peak at my new eyebrows. You couldn’t tell me nothin’. I had arrived.

From that moment on, if my eyebrows weren’t done, I just didn’t feel right. I could have on the flyest outfit, my hair could be styled to perfection and my face could be beat for the gods; but if my eyebrows were bushy or too overgrown, it was all for nothing. Try as I might to hide the stubbly hairs growing in, eye shadow and even foundation did little to hide the coarse black spikes that were coming in. It was time to shape again. The look of having my eyebrows properly shaped is virtually magical. There have been times where my face looked like I’d applied some makeup, simply because my eyebrows were right. It’s important that they be done promptly and properly.

As the years progressed, I would put the tweezers down in favor of waxing. And just a few months ago, I stepped into the threading world for the first time. (I’m still not convinced that it’s the better option.)

Ayo Ogun-McCants, Founder of Soultanicals

As a teenager, Ayo Ogun-McCants spent a lot of time dabbling in natural DIY beauty treatments. Through that experience she learned how to take care of herself and discovered that having a personalized self-care regimen was “one of the best things one can do for their spirit.”

Over time, Ogun-McCants found that the reality of maintaining a full-time job while taking care of her husband and four children meant that sometimes, her pampering rituals would have to take a back seat.

It was this challenge of “never having enough time,” that formed the seeds of Soultanicals, the toxin-free, vegan hair and body product company she launched this past November.

Now, at 34, Ogun-McCants has finally gone back to her roots and prides herself on embracing her passion for taking high-quality botanical ingredients and turning them into a business that produces products that are good for the mind, body, and spirit.

Here, she talks about the inspiration behind the line, how it’s different from other products currently on the market and where she hopes to take the company over the next five years.

Madame Noire: How would you describe your Soultanicals line to someone who is hearing about it for the first time?

Ayo Ogun-McCants: Soultanicals is an Afro-vegan, hair, body, soul lovin’ brand. Our goodies are not just another body lotion or hair cream in the marketplace; we’re all about producing handmade [products] that awaken the spirit.

MN: What made you want to create a hair and skincare line?

AOM: I’ve always been a DIY beauty girl. [Since I was a teen], I’ve dabbled in at-home facial scrubs, hair care preparations and played with natural and organic herbs and ingredients. Self-love in the form of pampering myself became a ritual that I didn’t even know I was creating! The result was beautiful skin, healthy hair and an unintentional sensation of confidence that people seemed to notice about me growing up. After years of allowing the rigors of life to overwhelm me, I got back to [the basics] aligned my childhood passions with creating a brand that complemented what I love, which is celebrating my me-time!

MN: What makes Soultanicals different from all of the other hair and skincare lines that already exist?

AOM: Soultanicals is truly a new generation of products that speak to the beauty conscious, self-loving  and playful spirits who like to stand out with timeless, soul-centric originality. And because we believe that beauty is skin deep, we honor everyone’s inner beauty with a “Soulffirmation”: positive declarations that awaken the beauty within your body, mind & soul, which are included with each order!

Asmau Ahmed, Founder of Plum Perfect

An age-old problem for consumers and the beauty industry is the lack of products being created that match the variety and depth of skin tones and complexions that exist.

In 2012, after years of research and testing, Asmau Ahmed, a trained engineer, launched Plum Perfect, a mobile and web-based application that operates as the ultimate personal shopper, picking out beauty products that are a perfect match for you every single time.

Ahmed wasn’t the only one that noticed this void. A few months after she launched Plum Perfect, Pantone launched their 110-shade SkinTone guide and partnered with Sephora on a foundation matching system, further underscoring the need for this type of technology on the market.

I recently caught up with Ahmed to get the inside scoop on Plum Perfect and to learn more about the company’s expansion beyond beauty products into the fashion and home categories.

Madame Noire: How would you describe Plum Perfect to someone who has never heard of it before?

Asmau Ahmed: Ultimately, Plum Perfect is designed to increase the excitement and customization of [shopping for beauty products]. We personalize the shopping experience online and in-store, by guaranteeing the right color match for every unique woman.  Our application allows for any user to customize her matched colors by price, product type, color, brand or look (ie. natural, glam, wear to work).

You can take a photo of your face and Plum Perfect will instantly determine your unique color signature and search across products and retailers to present you with the perfect makeup finds.

[We will also] launch our fashion application that will use the same technology to read the color of a dress and recommend the perfect purse to accessorize.  The launch of fashion will be essential to both men and women – no more guessing which tie will work with that shirt!

MN: When did you launch Plum Perfect?

AA: May 2012. But, I’ve spent many years building the technology, filing patents etc.  Since our launch, we’ve experienced 350 percent growth in new users and 150 percent growth in returning visitors.

MN: How many retailers/brands have signed up for this platform?

AA: Over 20 top brands and retailers are part of the Plum Perfect network. We expect this technology to be an online game changer for our preferred retail partners, with reach into beauty, fashion, and home décor.

MN: How long did it take you to convince your first retail/brand partner to sign up? Was it an easy or hard sell?

AA: Once I figured out the key was to show a demo of what we’ve built and its capabilities, it was an easy sell.  We have a number of different ways that we can partner with brands and retailers. One exciting new initiative is Beauty Sampling 2.0. where we use technology and each person’s unique color signature to recommend colors and products that she will love AND use.  [Madame Noire readers] can register at PlumPerfect.com to be notified when this program goes live!