Quest for beauty: When you treat yourself to good skincare

Quest for beauty: For the love of self!

Happy new month!

I made it to the exact first day of a month to put up a post, how cool is that! Uh-la la

I’m excited! My body is about to get some crazy loving up (this month and beyond) and the process is already starting to kick in. After months and months of rolling my eyes at every blog post and YouTube video preaching the message of Skin care/ Hair care 101, I decided it was about time I put my nose to the grindstone and quit the hating, which really is envy, but instead invest in myself on a self-hosted beauty challenge. Maybe real mans would appear when a sister starts to slay and I’m willing to give that a chance.

But you know, as always, to get good results from any investment, you must be willing to take some tear dropping gamble. Ergo, stepping up my skin/ hair care game would not only challenge me financially, but infuse procedural manipulations/trials that have been discomforting in the past. Plus, accepting to be my own guinea pig.

One of the first steps, I believe, to consciously moving successfully from a point A to a point B is understanding and embracing the why. Point B need not be rosier or greener than point A, it’s only a “successful” move because it might relatively be the position of your joy. Having registered the reason you may choose to change positions, moving forward becomes determined by your will, and luckily if you’re psychologically inclined to believe in Mind over Matter, as it was said in the Alchemist book, “When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it”. I’m motivated to prove myself right that my skin (hair too) can pop with just about the right care and attention.Quest for beauty: For the love of self!

But since I was getting tired of waiting for the universe to aid in my all round glow, I chose to go all in with the researches, videos, read ups, no holds barred. Now I’m confident to say I’m set to jet, and I’m putting my savings where my mouth is. I placed orders for some products and they’ve been arriving in degrees. Five last week, two came in yesterday and a couple more should before this week ends. There are argan oils different for hair and skin, gel products, from cleansers to moisturizers, body scrubs, apple cider vinegar as toner equivalent, then facial tea tree mask/ sea weed clay mask, and purification masque for hair, aphogee and leave-in repair creams, even more. I’m just excited at the thought of this mainstream movement. It’s as though someone hijacked my brain and is doing my thinking for me.

Of course I’m not going to use these products ignorantly, just as Stephen Covey said, “If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster”. Again, wrong product usage begets zero change, so wisdom is needed in the choice of product type as well.

When I decided to be open-minded and less of a silent judge of the ludicrousness of these YouTube vloggers/bloggers on their 50 products daily application list, I realized that the product counts aren’t really so ridiculous. I got some thoughts from this YouTube video I stumbled on, the lady related her morning-night skincare routine. Compoundly, she listed almost 13 products she applies to keep her skin clear, acne free and glowy. It’s a little over the top but her skin glows so well I could feel the heat from the radiation all the way at my screen.

It’s quite possible she has a naturally clear skin, and it’s also possible she doesn’t use all the products (maybe she was being paid to review them), still, it’s also possible she uses them all. Whereas, on the other side we think if we’ve achieved a good skin, we don’t need to manage it anymore with products. Most of the videos i see have these ladies with good skin already with nothing to do with lighting (from my view). It made me think.Quest for beauty: For the love of self!See this, if you have to patiently cover the necessary steps to achieving a healthy skin, that’s about 10products cancelled out already because you’d have to cleanse, exfoliate, tone, moisturize, and if you have an oily skin you may need to use a face mask every now and again to tighten your pores. Not to mention the little extras that add that extra pop – eye cream, sunscreen… Then some products are managed better at nights as distinct from morning. Typically, it’s really about whether you are interested in a pretty skin, a healthy one or you like it just so.

In another news, as the pictures reveal, my hair is a total poor news altogether. I installed weaves back to back, because I thought I didn’t have enough time for the care. Huge mistake. Now I’m forcing out that time and money even. The edges are all gone, the appearance is lacking of luster and the hair is devoid of that volume and bounce that’s peculiar to 4C type hair. Quest for beauty: For the love of self!

After 2months, I’ll give a general body honest update on the progress/lack of. Let’s see how it goes.

Read: Part 2 – How The Products Worked

Do tell, what are your holy grail products for skin or natural hair?

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31 Comments

    1. Thanks Sugar, I’m only trying to be king. I do hope I see fantastic results too. It’ll be such a booster. This hair journey can be tough and depressing sometimes when the outcome isn’t proportional to the effort

  1. I’m also on that body care journey although I’m kinda easing into it “slowly slowly”.

    I’m more into processes than actual products but coconut oil is a must have for me, both for hair and skin.

    Also drink tons of water and eat (relatively) healthy. Those two things have been making a visible difference for me.

    Cheers to the glow up season! Lol

    1. Drinking tons of water is so uncomfortable when you can’t have bathroom breaks frequently where you are. So I try to only do that when I’m home, which is too little of the time. I wish I can find another way with that.

      Yasss. Cheers to the glow up season!🍷

        1. Yea. I try to manage it, like take water melons regularly when I can. It’s not really advisable to take lots of water before bed though, for obvious reasons. I wish I could manage my bowels like you do

  2. Sorry to hear about your edges, maybe they were installed too tightly, i don’t necessarily have a holy grail product at the moment but Aunt jackie’s line is good for detangling, and for deep conditioning a moisturizing product like the shea mositure might be good i heard a lot of people rant about it but i personally HATE them lol You can check out Gro ganics i think it’s called, it’s a DHT blocker and is suppose to help shedding. Can’t one hundred percent say that it might work for you but you can give it a try 🙂 This is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrshWPQUFUw, she also has live streams from i think it’s 4pm central time where she has live streams and you can ask any type of natural hair questions 🙂

    1. That sounds amazing. And I’d even get to learn how others treat their hair problems at the spot too. Thanks. This shedding and breakage, I’m coming for them!

      And yea. I’ve gotten in on the Shea moisture train. Their preachings got me on board. Currently trying out their hair masque, a D.C. treatment that incorporates tea tree oil in their mixture. I’ll try it every 2weeks after shampooing, (used it 2days ago and I wasn’t really impressed to be honest, but I’ll keep at it) and then keratin 2min reconstructor once a month. Will use JBCO daily on my edges too. The staples for moisturizing and sealing will still be regular (coconut oil/cantu shea butter).
      If this hair don’t improve, I’ll have to take it to the Lord in prayer lastly

      1. hmmm if it doesnt improve you might want to check your doctor cause you never know if something could be going on internally other than that keep it going 🙂 let me know how your routine is going okay 🙂

  3. Sorry about your edges!! Fortunately(lol) I’m not a natural hair gang member so can’t advice you on that lol. Hope you’re able to figure it out and get them edges back in no time! Consider wearing wigs while taking care of your hair 🙂

    toyinwithfashion.com

  4. It’s been a long time I came here.
    Lovely post as usual. I like your writing voice. It’s very honest.
    You have really plunged into the body and hair care system. Good for you. My natural hair sheds so much though I’m currently using JBCO and Cantu shea butter. I’ll love to give it more attention and treatment though.
    As regards my body treatment, I don’t have much going on really.
    Well I’ll wait for your review of what worked for you just to be aware.

    1. You’ve been missed around here too! You’re right, I have gone all in! And sure, I’ll try to give a honest opinion about the progress and what not

  5. Wow, I really feel sorry for your edges! Fingers crossed it all works out in the end! Yasss honestly looking good takes some serious financial investment. It’s shocking how many products some of us need just to achieve our skin and hair goals *sigh* honestly good luck, and I PRAY you remain consistent! Slacking off on a routine is just painful

  6. I love how you are so frank with your writing. It’s like we’re chatting. I love this and I feel like I’m at that stage where I wanna try beauty products because I’m concerned about my skin and hair but I don’t wanna be extreme (trying out everything). In the past month, I explored using a face mask that was supposed to be natural and my face broke out. Now I’m just sticking to sugar-honey scrub and Shea butter. Thank you for this, I would have to put myself out there…

    1. Thanks sweets. I’m feeling like I really don’t want to be complacent with my body anymore. Like I should aim at improving whatever “good” I feel I’m at, to a “better”. Like if I can be “healthier” or “prettier” or “stronger” or “smarter”, why not be! You get? I’m just learning now to be disciplined. After how many years on this earth😔

  7. I love your honesty, I’d have been too shy to post the rat nest I’m carrying on my head. In all honesty, I’ve really cared less for my body cos too much tomboy-i-don’t-care-behavior.
    I use Shea butter and sometimes coconut oil, dazzal. I love to pour water over the hair while bathing, see my life and I’m wishing for long hair…in my dreams.

    1. I’m sincerely thinking of cutting me hair infact. I’m real tired of trying, or maybe I’be gotten really bored of my length now. I wish I can have an i-don’t-care-behavior and just do nothing

      1. Coming from the north, I’ve tied scarves for the most part of my life. I cut my hair at random and I hardly can go a week with weav-ons so at the moment, I took off the one I fixed for birthday groove and I’m rocking the natural braids…maybe that’s why I’m single 😟

        1. We need to have a single ladies club and sort all these problems out. How to turn this my hair and skin thing to boo magnet

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