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lets meet up there *Mlungu.

DIY Spa day

DAZAAANG its Friday! Well here is your first installation of DIY beauty trick that you can perform on thou selves this weekend to have beautiful skin. You can mix and match that which you feel most comfortable with according to your skin type.

1. Exfoliate / Steam / Cleanse.

 1. Baking Soda

Baking Soda is acclaimed to help significantly with acne; the grains are perfect as a gentle exfoliant so you need not worry about it drying your skin out too much. you can mix about a teaspoon of baking soda to your usual cleanser to make it an exfoliating cleanser, or make a paste of just baking soda and water, gently rub it onto your face and leave on for about 5-10 minutes then rinse off.

2.  sugar scrub

Mix it with honey, and a little lemon for clarifying purposes, and you have a wonderfully nourishing and effective face scrub. Combine 1 teaspoon sugar with 1/2 teaspoon honey and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and mix well. If the mixture is a little wet, add a bit more sugar.

3. Coffee scrub

Coffee has anti-inflammatory effects and can boost collagen production (aha…natural plastic surgery after this 1). To make the scrub, combine 1 tablespoon of coffee with 1 tablespoon of water or olive oil.. If you use olive oil, skip applying a moisturizer afterward, as olive oil will leave your skin super-moisturized.

4. The famous oatmeal scrub

Ground oatmeal not only serves as a wonderful exfoliant, but it also absorbs and removes surface dirt and impurities while leaving your skin nourished and hydrated. It has been known to soothe and heal everything from acne to sunburn to dry, flaky skin. Given its gentle nature, it is also ideal for those with sensitive skin. Combine 1 tablespoon of ground oatmeal with 1/4 teaspoon of salt, which boosts the face treatment's exfoliating properties, and 1 teaspoon of water or olive oil to make it into a paste. Gently rub it onto your skin in circular motions, let sit for five to 10 minutes and rinse.

Steam: Good old boiling water, a blanket and get yourself up under there! Sweat it out. First let's consider the effects of steam on the skin.  Steam - just very hot water - acts as any heat would in that it helps to open the skin pores.  Acne often begins with oils, dirt and bacteria becoming trapped in skin pores leading to infection or inflammation.

Steam can open pores and allow them to "breath".  Additionally, the heat itself (be careful to avoid burning your skin) helps to destroy bacteria while the latent humidity re-hydrates and soothes skin that may be inflamed or irritated. 

Cleanse: Pure honey, just wipe your face with some honey and you are all set.

DIY Face masks

 Egg: This one is a personal favorite of mine, be prepared not to move your face for an extended period, (PS Have a camera ready) just whisk an egg and use a teabag to lather it onto your face, skin will come out smooth and baby soft and that glow!

Avodaco: once again just crush avocado into a paste and apply to your skin.

Choose your combination and have yourself a spa day, ladies you can get busy with your nails while you have a face mask, gents likewise trim your nails, trim your beard, shave your legs etc, just pamper yourself.

Have a fabulous weekend see you all again on Monday *Mlungu. 

(image from Google search) 

Lead by example.

Crisp White on White

Hello Mlungus friends, Hope you all had an awesome weekend, Today We are featuring the oh so plush white on white trend. We have seen it appear on numerous runways and designers, do not shy away from looking crisp clean and fresh this spring/summer. you can do it in a more relaxed loose fitting way, for an ultra lux resort feel or more tailored and structured for a more elegant edgy and powerful feel. go ahead get em white ankle grazing skinny jeans out. 

David Tlale Shows the guys how to do this look at the Mercedes Benz Capetown Fashion Week. 

Enjoy your Monday *Mlungu

Mastery - A fantastic read if you want to accomplish anything in life.

Hello friends for the past three weeks I had been reading and trying to finish the 50^th law of power by Robert Greene and just struggled with it so much. With an extra push I finally finished and now I am at THEE book I have been so anxious to start: MASTERY by Robert Greene, here is what the book is about and what I think of it so far.

Mastery (2012) is the fifth book by American author Robert Greene The book examines the lives of great historical figures - such as Charles Darwin, Mozart, and Henry Ford -and contemporary leaders, such as Paul Graham and Freddie Roach - and distills the traits and universal ingredients that made them masters

Synopsis: Mastery explains how to become a leader in any given field by examining the lives and pathways to success of historical masters such as Mozart, Einstein and Darwin, as well as "living masters" which Greene interviewed—including Paul Graham, Freddie Roach, Santiago Calatrava, Temple Grandin, Yoky Matsuoka,V.S. Ramachandran, Teresita Fernandez, Cesar Rodriguez, and Daniel Everett

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastery_(book) for full info.

My view: I am loving this book so much I am almost done with it and can already say what a change I am seeing in myself, my way of thinking and evaluating my goals has changed significantly so much that originally I was the kind of person who set dreams and had trouble setting a clear map out of goals, (mind you this book is not about goal setting) yet having read a few chapters of the book reality dawned upon me in a beautiful way. The book is written in an effortlessly flowing manner you can always pick up from where you left of easily, the stories of the great masters are not only inspiring but are used to illustrate points in a way that is simple yet powerful and not over glamorized. I rate this book 10/10

I recommend this book to everyone who wants to accomplish anything in life, anyone who struggles with failure, confidence and finding their purpose in life. - *Mlungu

SPRING BUZZ

Finally spring is upon  us is SA besides the sneezing an snuffling there a lot happening in the fashion world, lets dig into what is is you can get excited about this spring. All things fashion and fun. This is my top 5 things to look out for this spring. I can’t wait to do these, we hit 26 degrees and I start.

#1 – Did someone say sports luxe!!!!!!!!

  

 

This is a fashion trend I have been watching and eagerly waiting to try since our spring in Durban is quite rainy and a bit chilly at times, think comfort of sportswear paired with the chic luxurious female aspect, this is a look that consists of sweat pants, high heels, nifty bags and depending on you can do a variety of tops. The aim is to do a bit more on the luxe side but have a sporty pazzaz. This is a look you can pull off with skater dresses as well, those basket ball like shirts worn as a dress (make sure its long enough) keep makeup clean and dewy and hair in the wet look….nah who’s to say do what works best for you.

#2 – Colour wheel

 

         (Image fabsugar.com – check out their post on the trend)

And by that I don’t mean thee colour wheel I mean bright clothing, winter clothing is just generally dark, I can’t wait to wear my colours again (whew!) and I am not a person who wears colour a lot, I’m a monochrome kind of girl but this time I am finally excited, if you are like me and are scared to go all colour in your clothes id suggest doing a monochrome/neutral look with a colourful blazer and match a few colourful accessories but keep your face neutral as well. (My go to tip when I’m doing colour is simplify the hair, I need my resting point hha!)

#3 The wet look - Dewy look

 

Images from Google search

By that I mean hair and makeup ladies. Being of black African descent I don’t know if I will be able to bull this wet look hair thing off but from past experience I will try it with my silicone serum and roughly combing it through to create the lines/texture to it and sprits lightly with my silicone holding spray. (works in theory for now so I’ll try) as for makeup definitely going to do this one but ladies do be careful you don’t want to look oily, go mild and then build up if you want more but keep it light, the aim of makeup is to accentuate and bring out what you have not to paint on what you don’t have.

#4 African Prints…..

 

Now ladies if you’re looking to wow but have a flair of your own, do it in a quirky way, my absolute favourite is in headscarf’s and skirts and belts and bags lol and shoes ok in everything but paired in a quirky way. Go for it, be bold make a statement and be damn proud!  This is a great way to say “this is who I am’’ I do it in Zulu print head scarf’s, imbadada (shoes made from tyres) and the old round Zulu earrings. Choose your local print, or take inspiration from others.  

#5 Transparent bright nails……. (Revlon colour stay orange)

This one I stumbled across by mistake….so here is what happened, I was shopping for black nail polish with my boyfriend, (I wanted to do the matte, glossy French tip thing) and I was looking for another bright colour and I made him pick…..and much to my surprise……it glows in the sun! and in the light, I mean when I type on my phone it glows! Whoooop whoooop. The nail polish is by Revlon, it is very light, I had to put 3 coats for it to be as bright as I wanted. Go look for it at your nearest Revlon counter

Ladies go forth and paint the town spring! - Mlungu. 

Heart

There was a time in my life where I was young, so reserved and generally could not socialize even with the people I called friends. During that time of my life I came to realize that there is a strong relationship I had with God. For some reason it was personal, I wasn't a majorly religious person then, but I knew and was sure of my relationship with God.

I would walk at the school corridors and be in what others may call prayer but to me it was simple conversation with God. I knew that this was just a basic relationship and was honored to be able to be so close to my god in the bearing in mind the short comings of my religion.

I prayed to God and asked him to teach me how to love him. This has proved to be the best prayer I have ever prayed in my whole entire life. Now this is what was given to me as a lesson in love:

He said I am spirit, take me and put me in your soul, and that is where you should love me from, when comes time where it seems as though I am not doing that which you wish for, love me still, be patient. Seek me, seek to understand me and there you shall find yourself, for your soul is in my spirit.

From then on I loved God purely. The answer to me was simply put me in your soul. So I did. From this prayer I not only learnt how to love God but I saw that this is also how to love people. With people though it is a bit more difficult as it is not so easy to trust them, humans are flawed and so am I. how then do you completely put a person in your soul.

It is difficult and will really tug at the strings of your heart most of the time but loving someone with your soul is the best and purest form of love I have ever experienced and am honored to give. To me it means even in times of wrong, when I am deeply hurt, I express my hurt to my loved one as I cannot hide it if they truly have become a part of who u are. When you are happy you express your happy as that too cannot be hidden, take them with you through all your experiences and emotions your fears and triumphs. Love them like you would God. And then, you would have achieved love, you would have realized the beauty of the human soul.

Umlungu

The hand that forced us

Our generation still faces slavery as much as those passed did. Nowerdays we are enslaved in terms of who we are, who we are allowed to be. You will find many of our youth me included being afraid to face who they realy are, what their inner goals are because of fear that society will not accept the abnormalities we host, yes we have become slaves to the norm. Shackled by expectations of others.

I recently just took it apon myself to do every morning that which makes me happy, I started of with watching a bit of fashion tv in the morning laugh out loud on few occasion, from then I went to driving school and when I got to work I made myself a cup of tea. Now I compare how I feel in the morning with how I feel by the end of the day when I spend it pleasing the needs of the company. The morning far super exceeds my days.

What I am trying to illustrate here is that most of us young people spend our time fulfilling the dreams of 45 -what ever age year old men and women. When we know very well that what we are doing is not inline with what we truly want to be doing. We spend our lives fulfilling societies norm because well that's just what society is used to.

In some cases society will continually puts down YOUR dreams and disguise it as good advise. They will compare you and weigh you and ridicule your dreaming. This is unfortunately the truth about who we are, we are society ourselves.

William lynch a well known slavery pioneer during 1712 said "in my bag I have a fool proof method of controlling black slaves" he went on to say "keep the body, take the mind! In other words break the will to resist"

This to me sounds exactly like the same workings of today, we are still kept slaves by fear, distrust and envy. Just as there were different types of slaves and the levels differed so it is today.

When Willie Lynch spoke he put a life span of at least 300 years to his plan, at least.

In my mind it is not so much about the color of slave but so much about an enslaved soul, today churches enslave us, education institutions groom enslaved minds, our places of work enslave us. We are a generation that grows up dependent on others views (our masters)

Today I decided to go to the mirror and faced my master, her exterior was grim and full of anger yet inside so vulnerable and afraid that actually I could break free that actually I can make it. Today I take my freedom, I let the voice of society go. In doing so I bear the price of responsibility for my own self.

It is with a shame that this youth enslaves it self with the choice of freedom dripping of of their fingers, while we stare at our masters as they smile and hang us of willow trees with the promise of security and shade.

Bush Baby Favs

My Bush Baby Favorites - Uniquely stylish !

1- Black studded bag (Woolworths)
2- izimbadada (shoes) (Durban beach front)
3- Double buckle belt (Legit)
4- Red headscarf (Ushaka Marine)
5- Maybelline New York lipstick ( Coral Pearl )
6- Yardley Lipgloss (Carlifonia Kiss)
7- Me! lol

Love, Art, Freedom

A Perfect world, a perfect me.

Love- Art - Freedom ( Me in 3 Words)

Many times I find myself reflecting a lot on who I am, what I am here for and what is it that I really would like out of life. All the time I’m proud to say the answer is always the same. I want love, freedom and art in my life.  

Briefly about myself, I am one of those seemingly shy people, not out of shyness per say but it takes a while for me to warm up to people, I like to analyse people first before I let them into my life. It gives me a sense of control. I love music more especially hip hop and the tranquil and distant sounds of jazz. 

Growing up I wanted to be a range of things, from fashion designer to vet, to choreographer to a business woman mainly focusing in tourism industry to a jewellery designer a fashion photographer as well as a magazine editor. (Whew!) Funny enough, I still want to achieve all this. (Except being a vet)

Right now I work in a quiet office my job dwindling between admin and office manager (and whatever else I can handle) I would love to wake up one day, stretch my arm and greet the warmth of the sun, kiss my lover good morning, put my slippers on, and go make breakfast for I and my lover and head on over to the study/ office downstairs and turn on the Mac and review the pics I shot at an editorial yesterday. I want to wake up to my love, my freedom and art. If each day could promise me that, that will be my perfect world.

The biggest stumbling block to mankind is themselves, the perceptions we form, the expectations we impose on ourselves, and the perceived expectations of others from us when they have not said anything at all. What does it take for one to grasp fully to whom they are and what they stand for?

As I am in pursuit of my freedom, with the help of my love whom has been with me at low times I hope to find a greater love and find the missing art in my life.

*Umlungu