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Micro Blading

Honestly ladies I can be your guinea pig for almost any beauty concern. So after I got my eye lash extensions which I loved, I started thinking about micro blading, which is a service that my salon also offers.
 I may have lost some people right now, so let me explain. Micro blading is a technique like waxing or threading for eyebrows only it is semi permanent, giving defined brows and tint for up to 18 months.

In case you haven’t heard of said procedure, manual micro blading is a form of semi-permanent tattoo that involves using tiny needles (instead of a tattoo gun) that make up a small blade to help deposit pigment under your skin
You may be wondering what would make anyone consider this sort of procedure but trust me when you have to decide between brow fillers, eye brow pencil, brow powder and the rest, a sort of permanent well done eyebrow is very desirable. I mean you get to wake up with your eyebrows on fleek every day. If you get this done and your eye lashes and skin look good, you practically do not need any make up. Think of how fast it would take to get ready in the mornings and for any occasion.

After I decided to get micro blading for my eyebrows, I made a few discoveries;
• It is not ideal for oily skin
If you have really oily skin, it may be better to get shading which is another semi permanent procedure. This is because most times a tint is used in the micro blading process and oil will blur the thin hair like strands and cause the tint to fade. It will not last as long. Hence a possible waste of resources
• It is not cheap
That being said; you can compare prices at different stylists but it will cost you a quite a bit to get it done properly.
• The process can take time
I am talking like two hours. If you have to rush somewhere I don’t suggest booking the appointment then.
• Pick a shape first
Really discuss with your stylist, you don’t want to come out with a brow shape you hate for months.
• It is really helpful if you have no hair or scant hair on your eyebrows
It really is a life saver.
• There are after care instructions
Your stylist will talk you through the Dos and Don’ts right after. So you may not get to skip off into the sunset immediately. You will need to be careful the first few days after to prevent an infection.
Did I mention it looks really natural?
I highly recommend it!

CategoriesFood by

Pineapple Mint Frappe

I woke up realising that Christmas is upon us. This is a good thing. Christmas is a really big deal for me. It has been right from my childhood. I woke up thinking of the menu for Christmas, the spicy jollof rice, pounded yam and afia efere, goat meat pepper soup and all the good things of life. Well, I started thinking of the drinks and how to do things a little different and I decided on having exotic cocktails. 
I have the recipe here for a pineapple mint frappe. You can comfortably serve this to your pastor and your parents. It is also delicious enough for your friends.
Why not wow your guests this Christmas with this healthy mocktail?
Ingredients
1 cup diced pineapple
½ cup chopped mint
1 cup pineapple juice
½ cup ice
Sugar and lime wedge to garnish
Method

Add the diced pineapple, mint, pineapple juice and ice in a blender and blend.
Wet the outside rim of the glass with a wedge of lime and place upside down on a plate of sugar to coat the rim of the glass (aesthetic purpose).
Pour the blended pineapple into the glass
Garnish with a pineapple plant leaf or wedge of pineapple.

Oh yeah, if you are still not convinced, there are a number of health benefits. Pineapple juice is packed with vitamins and enzymes and has many other health benefits like; being anti-inflammatory, a natural antioxidant, an energy booster and aiding digestion.
Also the smell of fresh juiced pineapple is so intense, it will fill your kitchen with the sweetness of this yellow fruit. The juice itself is out of this world
.
Oh alright! You can also add vodka to this mocktail and turn it to a cocktail.
Enjoy!

CategoriesLifestyle by

Steps to improving your self esteem

Boost your self-esteem with these tips:

1.Talk and Think Positively
The way you think about yourself has a positive influence on your self-esteem. Start thinking positively, this will help build your confidence and eventually, your self esteem.
2.Stop Comparing
You need to stop comparing yourself to others. You are unique the way you are. Instead find your strengths and focus on them.
 
3.Exercise
Exercise has been known to boost the mood, so exercising could help you boost your self esteem
 
4.Don’t strive for Perfection
Nobody is perfect! I am not saying you shouldn’t try to be the best or try to do your best, just don’t stress over being overly perfect.
 
5.Surround yourself with supportive people
Don’t spend time with people who pull you down rather spend time with people who make you feel good about yourself.
 
6.Appreciate and Celebrate yourself
Appreciating yourself will reload you with a lot of positive energy and build your self-esteem in the long run.
 
7.Don’t beat yourself up over a mistake
Everyone makes mistakes so why stress over it? If you make a mistake, learn from it and move on.
 
8.Do things you enjoy
What do you enjoy doing? If you are doing things you enjoy, you are more likely to think positively.

CategoriesHealth by

Understanding The Ultimate Keto Diet

Hmmmmm…keto keto keto!
A few weeks ago, a friend added me to a group on Facebook – a group based on ketogenic living. Being in this group has been a great eye opener for me, I must say. Being on a diet isn’t easy and at first I wasn’t so interested but the awe-inspiring pictures and testimonies from members of the group got me curious, and of course interested. Consequently, I began searching for answers. Yes, search I did!
If you’re reading this right now and wondering what ketogenic is (just as I did weeks ago) –- here are the results of my search…
The concept of ketogenic dieting is not new – it’s been in existence for over 90 years. A dietary regimen designed by physicians in the early 1920s as a therapy for epilepsy. However, it has existed in many forms and in many variations over the years. And has many similarities to the popular Atkin’s Diet.
Ketogenic diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet and beyond its epilepsy treating benefits, there’s so much more to gain from going ‘the keto way’. Weight loss ranking quite high on keto benefits, this therapy is also effective against diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, autism and a number of other diseases.

The concept of ketogenic diet for weight loss is simple – eat fat to burn fat. How it works? A drastic reduction of your carbohydrate intake while upping your consumption of fats plus adequate amounts of proteins. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis – a state whereby the liver converts fats into ketones which is used as energy rather than relying on carbohydrates as fuel. Keto diet directs the body’s metabolism away from carbs but towards fat and ketones. This significantly burns off more fats while lowering blood sugar level and insulin spikes.
Do you know that by reducing insulin levels, weight loss is effected? Wondering how? The Insulin hormone encourages the body to store fats, and by keeping your insulin levels low, your body limits fat storage – consequently promoting fat lipolysis (a process of melting and removing unwanted fats).
Things to avoid on a keto diet include: bread, pasta, potatoes, cereals, beans, legumes, fruit, and of course sweets and unhealthy fats plus fried foods. Indulge more in meats (beef, chicken, fish, pork, goat meat, seafood, eggs, etc.), mushrooms, greens and leafy vegetables, and healthy fats/oils (olive, coconut, macadamia, grass-fed butter, etc.), cheese, protein shakes, green tea, nuts and their butters (almond, cashew, peanut).
While on a keto diet you’re not starving your body but simply limiting its consumption of carbohydrates. By replacing carbs with dietary fats and proteins, you’re training your system to be less dependent on carbs.
Worthy of note – as your body enters the ketogenic state, decrease in glucose (low carb deficiency) may lead to a lack of energy, and sometimes “flu-like” symptoms – nausea, lethargic feeling, dizziness, headaches and irritability. These feelings doesn’t affect everyone and often last for not more than a week and to combat them, exercise more and increase your intake of water and sodium. Consuming loads of green leafy vegetables for antioxidant and vitamin protection is highly essential. 
Looking easy right? You could try it. I’m on a 21 day challenge and looking forward to sharing my personal weight loss story with you soon!
 
***If you have any medical condition, it’s advisable to check with your doctor prior to starting.

CategoriesFood by

Astonishing Values And Benefits Of Cinnamon

Hello Ladies!
Let’s talk some spice. Yes, spice – those aromatic substances that bestow loads of zest and flavour to tantalizing recipes!  Ancient cinnamon it is this week!!!
With its origin traced back to Sri Lanka but also largely present in other parts of Southeast Asia, South America and the Caribbean, cinnamon is gotten from the inner bark of a group of wild trees called Cinnamomum. Known for its warm soothing fragrance, cinnamon isn’t just a spice but a highly esteemed medicinal substance as well.  History has it that in ancient times, cinnamon was rare and more valuable than gold. Little wonder it was regarded fit for kings only.

Today, though easily found on shelves in almost every grocery store you step into, ground cinnamon is readily available and mainly used as food flavouring but not so highly regarded. Reason? Many don’t know the enormous health benefits contained in cinnamon.
Loaded with large amounts of highly potent antioxidants which protect your body from oxidative damage caused by free radicals and gives it a huge anti-cancer value, cinnamon is rated number one protective spice. Shown to inhibit the growth of tumours, cinnamon also has the ability to combat fungal, bacterial, and viral elements in foods. A proven preservative; not only to the body but to food substances too!
Regularly ingesting cinnamon helps to lessen the effects of fatty meals by slowing the increase in blood sugar post-meal. It’ll also increase HDL (good) cholesterol levels, thus removing LDL (bad) cholesterol from your body. Importantly, cinnamon can reduce blood pressure effectively while also reducing insulin resistance to significantly lower blood sugar levels.  Are you on a weight management regimen? Cinnamon shouldn’t be absent on your spice rack.
Notably high in calcium, iron and fiber, just a teaspoon of cinnamon provides about a whopping 68% of the daily recommended manganese value. How important is manganese? This super trace mineral aids the formation of strong bones and connective tissues in your body. It’s also essentially needed for the optimal functioning of your brain and nervous system. Adequate blood coagulation, blood sugar regulation, fat metabolism (burning off fat) and calcium absorption are some other effects of manganese.
Still on manganese, having the appropriate levels of this mineral in your system has been proved to help prevent diabetes, arthritis, epilepsy, and even the dreaded popular pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS).
All of these definitely aren’t all there is to this extraordinary culinary spice. Worthy of note is cinnamon’s effectiveness in balancing feminine hormones and reducing infertility. Diarrhea, muscle spasms, vomiting, common cold and infections and even erectile dysfunction are other ailments that sure get kicked out with your intake of cinnamon.
I really could go on and on with all that cinnamon’s got to offer. But with all you just read about cinnamon, wouldn’t you rather make it a constant part of your staple? You really should!
 
 
 

CategoriesHealth by

The Tea On Slim Tea

If you have an Instagram account then you know how the teas that Draya Michele, Khloe Kardashian, Angela Simmons and the likes use. The question is- are they worth your coins?
These teas promise you heaven and earth. It does not help that all the adverts show how curvy you are supposed to become after drinking it. According to most of these teas; they help reduce bloating, get rid of water weight and increase your metabolism. I can tell you for free that most of these teas are laxatives and diuretics. Laxatives promote bowel movements while diuretic increase urine production. I am not going to lie; I actually possess one or two “slim teas”. The purpose of this article is to basically lower your expectations about them. They do help in the odd cases where you have over indulged but they are not a sustainable weight loss option.

Diuretics and Laxatives in Slim Teas
If you do not mind the longer or incessant toilet times, I say go for it but please avoid slim teas when you have a presentation or you have to be out in public. Natural diuretics and laxatives you might find in herbal teas include dandelion and aloe vera. Herbs with laxative properties include Senna. You have to be careful though with the teas with these properties because they may affect the way your bowels function. It may lead to diarrhoea or constipation, if your body becomes too accustomed to them.
You may also need to stock up on vitamin supplements as you may lose electrolytes and vitamins with consistent bowel movement.Metabolism-Boosters
Some herbal teas contain ingredients said to boost your metabolism. Green tea, caffeine and capsaicin from hot peppers have metabolism-boosting properties, but the net effect on your daily calorie burn rate is negligible.  Guarana is also present in certain weight loss concoctions which provide the body with energy. It does the same function as caffeine and is an ingredient present in some energy drinks. This is useful if you actually decide to exercise alongside taking these teas.Chitosan, white willow bark and green tea are ingredients manufacturers may claim can help you turn on fat-burning mechanisms in your body.
Appetite Suppressants
Certain ingredients in herbal slimming teas, such as caffeine, garcinicia cambogia, do help suppress the appetite slightly, so you might eat less and lose some weight. Sometimes though, it is actually just in your mind. It has the reverse effect on me as I tend to eat more.Eating 500 to 1,000 calories fewer than you burn daily will help you lose 0.5 to 1 kilogram a week.  I know this sounds really small but slow and steady wins the race. If you eat right, exercise and use the magic weapon teas, I bet you will achieve great results.
 

CategoriesLifestyle by

Movie Review: Disney Moana

The child in mind is very much alive, can you tell? Well, today I watched Moana, and I enjoyed it tremendously. Moana is a great family movie; I love the direction Disney is going these days, skipping Prince Charming altogether.

This story is about Moana, the chief’s daughter who has been chosen by the sea to go on a voyage that would save her people from danger though the disaster is not imminent at the time. Moana has the dilemma that most of us go through to either tread a path that had been laid out for her by her father to be content to stay on the island and lead her people or to sail across the sea to find her way.  She learns the traditions of her people to become a great chief but continually receives inspiration from her grandmother the village crazy lady. Tragedy pushes her to take the plunge; she must sail to find Maui the Demigod and command him to sail with her and return that which he took.
Maui, on the other hand, has a lot of subliminal lessons for us to learn from, abandoned to the gods by his parents, he becomes a demigod and performs deed after deed to receive love and worship from the humans which are never enough. Thor has his hammer; Maui has his hook which he lost in battle. Moana, the human, helps Maui see that he is valuable with or without his hook or the love of humans.
It is beautiful to see that the main villain was once the source of all things beautiful, almost like Maleficient showing us that most villains are mostly understood or simply hurt. Moana sees this in the end as is able to make it right. She returns home a hero and leads her people to sea as their ancestors before them went on as voyagers.
 

CategoriesLifestyle by

Side Hustle: MMM

To say the MMM train is huge in Nigeria is an understatement, I even dreamt about it last night. I am not even joking; I had a friend call me before bed time asking my thoughts on the scheme. She is currently serving as a corps member in one of the local government offices in Lagos.
After hearing from her colleagues that salary would not be regular, she was trying to prepare herself and invest. The economic situation in Nigeria took a turn for the worse, and this is not news for any Nigerian. Everyone I know has started looking for a plan B, looking for investment opportunities, cutting down costs and all that. Out of the blue came MMM, MMM is a platform which in summary claims to operate a mutual aid programme requesting participants to provide money to others and promising returns of 30% of such monies after 30 days. This sounds like a great idea but why are people calling it a Ponzi scheme? What is a Ponzi scheme?
A Ponzi scheme (also a Ponzi game or a Ponzi) is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual or organisation, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned through legitimate sources. Operators of Ponzi schemes usually entice new investors by offering higher returns than other investments, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent.
Initially the promoter will pay out high returns to attract more investors and to lure current investors into putting in additional money. Other investors begin to participate, leading to a cascade effect. The “return” to the initial investors is paid out of the investments of new entrants, and not out of profits. Often the high returns encourage investors to leave their money in the scheme, with the result that the promoter does not have to pay out very much to investors; he simply has to send them statements showing how much they have earned. This maintains the deception that the scheme is an investment with high returns.
Many people have tried to get me started on this MMM business, and I know people who are benefiting from it right now but honestly it is not something I can put my money in. I remember in the late nineties there was something very similar that my mother got involved in, it had a tree or ladder or something that showed how high you were rising and how much you were entitled to before you would exit the cycle. I remember my mother never getting that money, and that has stayed with me. I applaud the brave people who got in on this early and those who are reaping the rewards, but the truth is that this would crash one day.

However, business is always a risk, and I hope now with our economic situation more people would be financially savvy and allocate their resources wisely. If you are still looking to join MMM, ask your neighbour or someone sitting next to you in Church. I can assure you that you would be signed up in fifteen minutes.
 

CategoriesLifestyle by

How to Deal With a Break Up

This time last year I was single, this time this year I am single, well technically. What happened in between was an amazing journey. In December I met an old high school sweetheart and started the year on a promising note. There is no standard way to deal with a breakup, but I am going to share what worked for me.

1.Have a support systemI say this a lot because it is really important. I was one of those girls who did not mind cutting off my friends. I became so wrapped up in being in a relationship. The lesson here is that you need friends outside your relationship. It helps you keep a social life when your love interest is gone
2.Be AdventurousThere are many things you may have thought of doing that maybe your lover was not interested in, I say Do it! Do everything! Try things even if it means doing them alone
3.Enjoy your CompanyIt should not be so painful to be by yourself, use this time to think about the relationship what your faults were, warning signs you ignored and real plans for the other aspects of your life. This is the time to create new relationship goals, new spiritual goals and career goals
4.Forgive HimThere is nothing more that can hurt you than holding on to the past. There is no need to send angry texts and emails to relationship gurus. It will hurt, but you need to have faith that better things are around the corner. This is of course if you cannot change the situation. Please don’t resort to curses as well
5.Forgive YourselfYes, he was perfect, but maybe that is not the way your story would end.
Let me know what has worked for you.

CategoriesLifestyle by

7 Most Exciting Places To Spend Your Christmas In Nigeria

With only a few days remaining to Christmas, you must have been thinking of an amazing place to spend the Christmas with your loved ones aside from the traditional act of travelling to your hometown.
Here, we present you with a list of the seven most amazing places to spend Christmas vacation in Nigeria.
Silverbird Galleria-Lagos

The Silverbird Galleria is a modern Galleria with entertainment packages where you can see the latest movies, live concert and shows, stage plays to mention a few.
It is a perfect spot for pre or post movie dinner. It also features exquisite shopping outlets and a night club called Cubes which is one of the best club hangouts presently in Lagos.
Tarkwa Bay- Lagos

If you want a fun-filled place to spend Christmas with the family or your significant other, Tarkwa Bay is a perfect choice.
Located about 20 minutes from Lagos CMS Boat Jetty, Tarkwa Bay surrounded with crystal clear water, sandy beach and warm atmosphere. It is the best place to experience exciting activities such as water skiing, jet skiing, boat cruising or having a picnic on the beach.
Lekki Leisure Lake-Lagos

Lekki Leisure is a lakeside resort overlooking the Atlantic in the Lekki peninsula area.
It is operated and managed by Optima Leisure, a leisure asset development and operating company. Catch a view of the Atlantic and feel the excitement.
Muson Centre-Lagos

The Muson Centre is known to be the best place to watch the best stage plays and performances that will fascinate you in Lagos.
It offers best traditional and contemporary performances that you can’t afford to miss. 
Obudu Ranch Resort-Calabar

Situated in Cross Rivers State, Obudu Ranch Resort is one of the wonders of Nigeria and arguably the best vacation spot for anyone seeking to enjoy his or her holiday in an environment that gives you a perfect blend of nature and modernity.
The Obudu Ranch Resort features a water park, a golf course and horse riding, night club as well as bonfires.
A walk through the Obudu forest brings one closer to nature as you listen to beautiful birds singing melodiously to your delight.
If you want a vacation spot where you can establish a lasting bond between you and your spouse or family, then Obudu is another perfect choice.
Wonderland Amusement Park-Abuja

This park is unarguably the biggest and most equipped park in Nigeria.
It offers leisure gardens for visitors recreation and rides as well as an amazing arcade.
It has a Fulani Ranch that offers a variety of tasty local and intercontinental cuisines.
A host of other restaurants and shops are also on ground at the park to cater for your needs while at the park.
The park also boasts of a clinic for treatment of minor injuries.
If you are planning a family picnic, a group get together or wants to spend quality time bonding with your family.
Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort

Named after the town where this mysterious spring is located; Ikogosi in Ekiti state.
Flowing abreast the warm spring is another cold spring which meets the warm spring at a confluence, each maintaining its thermal properties.
These attributes make the spring a tourist attraction in Nigeria.
The resort equally offers recreational facilities as well as accommodation for visitors who wish to spend the night in the serene environment that the resort offers.