MY CURLY HAIR ROUTINE: PREP, WASH, STYLE AND TRIM

I always get questions on how I do my hair, how is it so soft and etc. Well here is what I do! 

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By: Mary Bradley 

Night Before (prep):

Because my hair is so thick, it gets tangled very easily. So what I like to do is take some coconut oil and a spray bottle full of water and finger detangle my hair. I grab small sections, wet the section with water, take some coconut oil, run it through my ends (mainly focusing on my roots and ends) and using my fingers I finger detangle it. I start at the ends then work my way up just so I'm not pulling on my hair too much. Once that section is finished I twist it and go onto the next. By the time my hair is finished it looks like this:

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Then I put a satin scarf on my head and go to sleep!

Next Morning (Wash):
So now the next morning, I take my twists down and begin to take my shower. I wash my hair with the As I Am Coconut Cowash. I absolutely LOVE this stuff. 1st: It smells amazing, 2nd: a little goes a long way, 3rd: it has castor oil in it so that helps with your hair growth and 4th: it smells amazing!! I just take a scoop of the cowash and put it on my hair and then I take another scoop and start to massage my scalp with it. (It's important to massage your scalp with it to pick up any past product build up). Once I finished massaging my scalp, I proceed with my shower and once I'm finished I rinse it out. So now my hair is detangled and clean.

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Styling:
Now that my hair is already detangled and clean, I start my styling process. I start my sectioning my hair in 4 sections ( I do it that way so that the products get throughout my hair). So I take my Suave Coconut Conditioner and run that through the 1st section. Then I take Taliah Waajid Curl Sealer and run that through my hair. When I feel like that section has enough product in it I go onto the next section. When I'm finished, I take my blow dryer and dry my hair on a medium setting. Once I finished blow drying my hair, I just fluff it out and I'm done.

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Trim:
Now I will straighten my hair twice a year. I do that because every time I straighten my hair I like to get a trim. I try to get my hair trimmed every 6 months just to keep up with the dead hair. It's always good to get your hair professionally trimmed because you want to make sure your hair stays bouncy and perfectly curled. Trust me it makes a HUGE difference. 

And that's it! I do my detangle, wash and style maybe once a week just to make sure my hair is being taken care of. It's always good to take care of your curls because you want to make sure your hair is taken care of instead of dry and gross.

Before and After taking care of my hair!

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Products mentioned:

-Coconut Oil ($6)  

-As I Am Coconut Cowash ($7)

-Suave Coconut Conditioner ($2)

-Taliah Waajid Curl Sealer ($8)

Depotting and Melting

By: Mary Bradley

Ladies I hate having to carry around a bunch of lipstick tubes whenever I do clients makeup. Lately I've seen a lot of people start depotting and melting their makeup (foundations, lipsticks and concealer). So I wanted to try it out myself with my lipsticks!

First I took all my lipsticks, took them out of the tubes (some lipsticks were harder to get out so I scrapped them out with a knife) and put them all in each little slot. Next I put the tray in the microwave for 30 second intervals until the lipsticks were completely melted down. Don't forget to let the lipsticks cool down between each 30 seconds.

There you have it! A easier way to access your lipsticks and a fun little project for you to do:)

*Inserts from Mac Cosmetics: Pro Palette Customize x12  $2
*Tray from Mac Cosmetics:
*Pro Palette Large / Duo  $8 
 

Night Time Routine

By: Mary Bradley

If you follow me on Instagram then you have been with me living my hair struggle after I took out of my box braids. Well the struggle is over! I got my hair back to the way it was before. All I did was sleep with conditioner in my hair. The next morning my hair was back to normal. So that night, I put my hair in a pineapple. A pineapple is pulling all you hair to the top of your head and tying it with a stretchy headband. I had my hair like that for 2 days! Then this morning, all i did was take my hair down, separate it and spray it with water to reactivate the products that were already in my hair. I let it dry, fluffed it out a bit and I was done! :)

let me know if y'all want a pictorial of everything I said in the comment section! 

Juice Your Way to your perfect body!

By: Mary Bradley

So my manager, my sister and I New Years resolution was to start eating better. I won't lie I am a junk food lover! But I never energy, I'm sluggish all the time and all the junk food is going in the wrong places. So I decided to try some juicing because I've been hearing a lot of raves over it and it's not too harsh for me starting out my cleanse. The first one I made (see picture above) was a mixture of beets, kale, strawberries, pineapples, bananas, unsweetened almond milk and flax seeds. I absolutely loved it! It made me so full and it was delicious! Plus it's pink and you can't go wrong with a pink drink ;). I like to drink my juices in the morning for breakfast, with my salad at lunch and with my dinner. Of course I do different ingredients each time. Also with eating better I'm cutting out all my red meats, fats and sugars and anything else not good for the body. I am so excited to finally get my eating on the right track. Oh and don't forget to drink your water! 

To see more of my eating right journey, go check out my Instagram to be updated on everything I'm doing!

Thanksgiving MakeUp

By: Mary Bradley 

For thanksgiving I didn't want to be too dramatic with my eye makeup so I kept it very neutral. I used my Neutral and Day & Night pallet from BHCosmetics! I used like a very light brown for my transition color, a medium brown for my crease and black on my outter v. I blended the black out with a very dark brown. I used a vanilla color on my lid! For my eyeliner I used NYC's black liquid liner and for my lashes I used Maybelline's Telescopic Mascara and toped it off with some natural Ardell lashes

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Twist Out

By: Mary Bradley 

Today I wanted to try a twist out on my hair because as it gets colder I don't want to have to wet my hair a lot. So this is what I did:
1) Deep conditioned my hair with a coconut oil, egg and honey mixture (let is sit on my hair for 30 min)
2) Wash my hair with Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner for natural hair
3) Sectioned my hair into 4 sections and combed it out
4) Took Motions hydrate my curls pudding and started to twist my hair
5) Let it air dry. Once dry, take apart the twists and run argon oil through hair

I absolutely loved my hair. The deep conditioner and hair pudding made my hair so soft and smell so good! It came out exactly how I wanted! 
I will be posting more natural hair reviews and styles so keep your eyes open ;) 

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Fall Into Mac!

By: Mary Bradley  

Two of the latest editions to the MAC family! On the top is the newest lip stick collection called MAC Retro Matte! I am obsessed with all these colors!! They're all so perfect for fall/winter and they have lip liners to go with them! The bottom picture is new RiRi Hearts MAC Collection! This collection was made by the oh so fabulous Rihanna. Everything in her collection is pure perfection and you can wear all these colors year long! Go out and go get the new edition to MAC. I promise you won't be disappointed!

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Match Perfection!

By: Mary Bradley  

So I've been looking for another concealer lately just so I can have the knowledge of different brands. So I went to Walmart and I ran across this cute pen like concealer and highlight! I went home, tried it and immediately fell in love! Not only does it have great coverage for pimples and scars, it's amazing for when you want to highlight and contour! I recommend this to everybody so go out and get yours now! :)

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Brush alert!

By: Mary Bradley  

We all watch YouTube makeup videos and you always hear them talking about Sigma brushes! Then you go and see how much they are and realize you can't afford them. Well I did a little research and found Royal Care Cosmetics. They have the exact same brushes as Sigma. So instead of paying $98 on Sigma brushes, spend $16 at Royal Care Cosmetics! (In the picture: RCC on top and Sigma on bottom)

Talia Joy

By: Mary Bradley  

As you know, Talia Joy was a very well known young lady in the makeup industry for her spunky personality and her talent. She has been battling cancer and she lost that battle a couple of days. She was a great inspiration to a lot of people. So in honor of her, I used one of her makeup looks to create this look. She was an amazing person and her spirit will live on forever!

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Eyebrow Pictorial!

By: Mary Bradley  

I get asked all the time how I fill in my eyebrows so I thought I'd do a pictorial! Ok so the first thing I do is take a eye brow brush to brush my eyebrow hair all in the same direction. Then I take a medium brown pencil to outline my eyebrows. Next I fill them in with a medium brown eyeshadow on a small flat brush to make my eyebrows fuller. Then I take the same eyebrow brush from earlier and brush my eyebrows one more time to make them appear more natural. Last but not least I clean them up with concealer on a small angled brush and there you go! 

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MAC DUPE

By: Mary Bradley  

When MAC's heroine lipstick came out everybody went crazy for it! You can't even find it on eBay without it being $60! So I decided to look for a dupe of it and I found one! It's "By Starlight" from Melt Cosmetics! It has the perfect matte look and it's only $19! 

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Go get yours now at:

Melt Cosmetics

LIPSTICK FOREVER

By:  Mary Bradley

A great way to get a long lasting lip color!

Apply a small amount of your concealer to your lips, let it dry, apply your favorite lipstick and there you go! A long lasting lip color and you get the true color of the lipstick! Now you don't have to constantly apply your lipstick!

 

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Naturally Grown

By: Mary Bradley

Want a healthy way to make your hair grow thick and long?

Try Biotin and Coconut Oil! Biotin is just a vitamin you take daily and you will see a difference in your hair and nails in just a couple weeks. Coconut oil is an oil that you put in your hair after washing it and not only does it give you shine and length, it gives your hair a great scent.

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