Again and again

December 31st... Time to make decisions on what you want the upcoming year to bring and reflect back on this past year.

What I wanted was to become the next big natural hair guru with this blog. I dunno what I was thinking. What I needed was an outlet, a way to express my interests and personality. If anyone asks what this site is about its a mix of things: pop culture, music, beauty, fashion, hair... It's me.

It's been more than 8 months since I've posted anything and I've missed this side project of mine so I'm planning a return to blogging through a giveaway. To reintroduce myself I decided to give some lucky follower a pair of gold cap toe leopard print shoes (sz 9) similar to Sam Edelman's Jordie.

To enter:
Simply leave a comment under this post with your email address.
Write it as _______(at)______(dot)com in order to avoid any spam being sent your way.

For additional entries: follow the blog through Google Connect and/or follow me on Instagram (@marcysuburbs) and use the hashtag #marcysuburbsshoes under the image that way I know you wanna be entered.

I'll be running the giveaway til January 31st and choosing a winner through Rafflecopter.

Good luck! Welcome! And here's to an amazing New Year!

Challenge Accepted

Every hair blog I turn to mentions a healthy hair challenge every so often.  And while I strive for healthy hair I just don't have it in me to participate.  But then I turn to YouTube and get super jealous of the girls on there.  Sometimes I feel like my hair is at a standstill.  It's been 2 and a half years since I chopped my hair off and (yes it is probably due to shrinkage) it just feels like it stopped.  Ugh.  Now I admit I have my moments when I'm just not in the mood.  When I put braids or twists in I almost never moisturize.  Actually protective styling for anymore than a month tends to do more harm than good for me.  Since I clearly know that I'm the culprit why am I complaining right?  One of my goals this year is to take better care of my hair.  So I've armed myself with a monthly subscription to curlBox (just an excuse for my inner project junkie) and am devoted to taking care of her because she deserves it.

Here's my own personal informal hair challenge.

Rockin Robyn

Gotta admit I've had Rihanna's album Loud for a while now but I just got put on to "Where Have You Been" about a month or so ago. And in anticipation of her release of the video she released a behind the scenes video on YouTube. Now I'm sure this is also doubling as some sort of product placement for the Reebok on her feet. (could they be any more obvious with those shots?) I'm really curious to see how this video turns turns because when I think choreography in a video Rihanna is not who comes to mind. But this looks like she's really trying to come correct.

What do you think?

March Curlbox

I'm a lil late with it but that's partially because I've only tried two of the products I've been sent. This month's box consisted of:

• Curl Care by Dr. Miracle (shampoo, conditioner, and leave-in)
• Beautiful Textures Curl Control Defining Pudding
• Brown Butter Beauty Sweet Milk Leave In Conditioner
• Ultra Sheen Supreme Supreme Super Smooth & Hold Flat Iron Protection Spray
• Ouidad Moisture Lock Leave-In Conditioner
• Lustrasilk Curl Max Curl Activator Moisturizer 
• Lustrasilk Curl Max Curl Pudding
• Curls Curl Gel-les’c
• Mahogany Roots Olive & Avocado Hair Butter
• Shea Moisture Organic Lavender & Wild Orchid Shea Butter Soap

  
  

Out of all those I've tried the Mahogany Roots Olive and Avocado Butter and the Brown Butter Beauty Sweet Milk Leave-In.  Both of which I am pleased with.

Let's talk Olive and Avocado Butter first.  I had been looking for a product like this for the longest.  The name is a little misleading though.  When I think butter I think oils and shea butter kinda like my Karen's Body Beautiful Butter Love.  It is not that.  It's creamy and thick, more like a creme moisturizer.  I used it while twisting my hair and it led to an amazing twistout with a flexible hold, all without weighing my hair down.  It's made of all natural products which I'm not a stickler for, although it is nice to know.  Even after using the product consistently to retwist on dry hair, my hair didn't feel buildup-y (best word i could use to explain it, sorry)  A lil seems to go a long way because i still have enough to last me maybe another 2 wks with the sample I was sent.  My biggest issues are the scent and the price.  It's not the most pleasant but it doesn't linger so I can't hate on it too much.  Now the price... $22.50 for 8oz. Seriously?! Seriously?!  Everytime I head to the site to online window shop (Can't but anything beauty/hair related til after Easter) I debate whether I'm gonna spend the money on it.  I try to justify it because I'm sure it will last me a long time but 8 oz! If it were 16, I would be good and I would have it in my shopping cart immeditely. I'll let you know if I make the purchase.

My thoughts on the Sweet Milk leave-in are a lot simpler. It's cool. I like it.  It's not a must have.  It's equal to my Kinky-Curly Knot Today.  Since I can find my KCKT in a variety of stores versus the Sweet Milk which is only online, I'll probably stick with the Knot Today.  The price is around $12 for a full size bottle which makes it comparable in price.  Once my sample is done, that's it. No great loss.

Now this was my first experience with Curlbox and I'm gonna be honest; I expected more.  Maybe April's box will be better.  If I'm not impressed with next month's I'll be cancelling my monthly subscription.
Next review, I'll tackle the Birchbox.

New Music: Kimbra

 

"Settle Down"

Kimbra

"Cameo Lover"

Kimbra

I can't stop playing her songs.  I saw her for the first time on MTV Hits one morning before work and haven't stopped listening since.

Imagine!

I guess this pic of a natural Michelle Obama has been circulating on Twitter. ( I wouldn't know I still have a couple weeks til Easter comes and I can revisit my addiction) But CurlyNikki made mention of the picture today.

While I think it's a good look, she asked if America was ready for it.  The way I see it, that curly coif is something the people could handle but if she had a full blown fro... insert ignorant comments here.  It's a shame honestly, but that's just the world we live in.

What say you?

Just stopping by

Every once in a while I feel like I owe it to myself to put a lil something up on the site.  During my twitter hiatus, I've kept myself busy with wedding planning so I've done a lot less blogging than I thought.  Right now I am trying to piece together what I'm going to blog about next.  Probably my boxes. I finally received both my CurlBox and my Birchbox.  More on those later.  Let's just say that I don't think I'll be a monthly subscriber to either.  But both have one more month to impress me before I make my final decision.

Oh before I forget, I managed to get my hair into a low side bun and while that may not be a big deal to some, I almost shed some tears today.  I'm gonna try to recreate a more polished version for work tomm and if all goes well it'll be up for someone to see.  

I really need to get on my blogging game b/c the ladies at work are telling me I need to. (Little do they know I kinda already do)

Pre-Lent Haul

Something tells me you're gonna be seeing a lot more of me on this site especially since I've given up Twitter for Lent.  I know what's the big deal giving up Twitter right?  Even though I don't tweet all the time, I have to get my daily dose of Twitter so I'm making the decision to give it up entirely for 40 days!  I've also decided to give up buying anything beauty and hair related.  Especially since it was starting to become a problem.  I need to keep that money in my account since these wedding expenses are NOT cheap.

Now that I'm on a Lenten time out, I wanna share some of the last things I picked up.  

 

I picked up the two Nothing But products from my local BSS since I was interested in SofnFree's new all natural line.  I use their their milk protein and olive oil products religiously so I wanna see what these are like.

Then I went to Walgreens and got lured in by some yellow tags and picked up the nude Wet N Wild & yellow Sally Hansen.  And as I started to walk to the register there it was.  Now I'll  let you know I'm not big on lip color but when I saw that coral lip gloss (sorry it doesn't come across in the pictures, I'll take better ones when I have it on)  I had to have it.  And since all Revlon products were buy 1 get 1 50% off, I picked up the Bordeaux gloss just for fun.

I've already used two of them today, the nude/blush nail polish & the Nothing But Curl Sealer.  While I won't know how I feel about my hair until tomm, I am in love with the nail color.  So much so that I'm pretty sure that it's gonna be THE color for my wedding day.

So that is all I can buy until after Easter.

Oh I do have a Birchbox & a Curlbox that will be coming some time during the 40 days but I ordered those way before.  

Til next time.

Stuck on Repeat

This song and Rihanna's "Birthday Cake (remix)" have been on repeat in my car as of late.  Finally got the visuals for this now just to wait on the "Cake" video because I'm sure that's coming since Rihanna loves her some controversy.

It's be nice if I mentioned the artist and song title right?

  "Another Lovr" from Teedra Moses & (boo in my head) Wale.

Hair Hell

As I mentioned before I've spent this past week visiting my fiancé in Charlotte (my soon to be new home.)  My hair was twisted from Monday of last week until Thursday (the day I flew out.) My plan was to keep the twists I had in until that weekend but by Thursday I just wanted my hair out.  So I had an amazing twist out that I wore from then til Superbowl Sunday.  But then Monday came and I knew I had to wash my hair.  Since I've been visiting Charlotte (2 yrs) I've had maybe 3 successful hair days.  It's not the weather but something about the blazing heat that he leaves on in the house and the lack of products I have over here makes it hard to have a good hair day.  My hair had been twisted from Monday til yesterday and the twist out I attempted to do was an utter #FAIL. Which brings me today... Right now I decided to do braids on dry hair then rub some smooth on some KCKT (Kinky Curly Knot Today) and baggy them for a lil bit.  Hopefully it'll turn my mess into something great for date nite tomm and the get together we're hosting on Saturday.

All I know is I gotta figure out how to turn these bad hair days around quick because I'll be living down here before I know it.

Mini-twists/Twist out

Don't judge but towards the end of a very long Wednesday work day I started twisting the back of my hair (very common for me to do when I'm bored) but because time was dragging I was able to twist a quarter of my hair without interruption. 

I had a scarf that covered the twists in the back, I'm not crazy enough to walk around my job with a half fro/half twists.

When I got back home I managed to twist the rest of my hair up and pin it into an updo to last me the rest of the week, which gave my a couple extra minutes of sleep. Yay!

Except I forgot my employee appreciation party was on Saturday and I wanted something a little more fun. So what did that mean... TWIST OUT!

I think I'm hooked on these twists as my everyday work hair (for the winter at least) but once the weekend comes, I was my hair big, free and a little obnoxious. 

Here's a look at the before

 

And the after: 

 (Had to block my face out... It was a long night, trust me you'll thank me)

I also managed to get a pretty good trim from the smaller twists than I do from the ones I typically do.

I'm under the dryer right now with my DC in (today it's Miss Jessie's SST) getting to finish up my wash routine and twist my hair up for the week.  

I'm headed to Charlotte on Thursday to spend some time with the Mister for a week and a half so doing my hair will be an challenge since I don't have my staples out there.  

Good or bad, I'll make sure I document the outcome.

My Regimen

It's Sunday aka Wash Day.

When I'm at work I get approached by plenty of people asking what I use in my hair and although I preface with , "This may not work for you but..." I catch them making mental notes of everything I say to them.  

Now I've been natural for about 20 months now (although it kinda feel longer) so I have a handle on what works and doesn't for my hair.  

For those of you who are curious, here's a summary:

- Prepoo with Vatika Oil & JBCO

-Co-wash or shampoo (depending on my mood) with a conditioner of choice or Bee Mine's Ayurvedic Shampoo Bar

-Finger Detangle

-Try to Deep Condition weekly under a dryer with either Miss Jessie's Super Sweetback Treatment or ORS Hair Mayo (my cheaper alternative to the SST) While I have the DC in detangle my hair again with my Ouidad Double Detangler and twist each section.

-Rinse and wrap with a t-shirt til hair is damp.  

- Add Kinky-Curly Knot Today, SofnFree Strengthening Creme, Roots of Nature Butter Whip Coil Cream to each section and retwist or braid, sealing the ends with Karen's Body Beautiful Butter Love

And here are the products:

That's about it.

Not too complicated.  

I've tried a lot of different methods out and I find this is one that seems to work best for me.  But of course that doesn't stop me from buying and trying different products.

What's your Wash Day procedure look like?

"Believe deep down in your heart that you're destined to do great things" Joe Paterno

Now this has nothing to do with hair or clothes or music but it is something near and dear to my heart.  As a kid I grew up dreaming about going to Penn State simply based on a cheerleader Barbie my mother has bought me. I knew nothing about the school but I knew that's where I needed to be.  

When it came time to go to college, Penn State was the only place on my list and making the decision to go there was the best decision of my life (although my parents may claim otherwise.)  The life experience and the friendships I had made have carried through and for that I am thankful.  This school is a family.  And the pride Penn Staters have is like nothing I have ever seen before.  

With that being said, today Penn State University, hell college football, has lost its patriarch. Joseph Vincent Paterno better known as Joe Pa, lost his battle with lung cancer today.  I can't say that I knew him as well as say a football player but just being in his presence at a Pep Rally, seeing him run across that football field, or trick or treating at his house made a lot of Penn Staters feel like we did.  

By now I'm sure everyone knows about the scandal that's been in the news for the past few months, and regardless of your opinions of right and wrong, I think this literally tore Joe Pa apart.  Not only did he bear the burden of guilt but he also had one of the greatest things in his life taken away from him in such an undignified manner.  

I just wanted to pay my respects to a man who helped me learn a few things through his words and actions; on and off the field.  

We Are... Forever Grateful.

We Are... Penn State.

 

(source)

Tuck Tuck and Away

Lately I've been challenging myself to wear my hair up more often.  Winter is finally here and the weather isn't showing the ends of my hair any mercy.  Of course I had to turn to YouTube for inspiration and the lovely CharyJay is the go-to for a cute updo in my book.  Last week I kept my hair up all week (mainly because I was going on 3 weeks of not washing and she wouldn't cooperate any other way)  Stay tuned to see what I do to my hair and how successful (cross your fingers) it turns out.

Sidenote: This does/doesn't have to do with updos but while watching my fair share of YouTube videos today I got kinda discouraged about my hair.  I dunno what it is about them but whenever I watch them I feel like my hair just isn't making any progress, which I know isn't true.  I know some of the videos are old and some of the ladies have been at this natural hair thing for a long time but I can't help but make comparisons.  Is it me? Or are there other ladies out there that feel this way too?

New Music: Lana Del Rey

Check out her first single, "Video Games"

I really don't know too much about her but I happened to catch this video on MTV Hits and was MESMERIZED... like glued to YouTube trying to get my hands on any and everything she has released. 

Sometimes there's nothing like a good slow song to relax to and this is right up my alley musically (then again with my taste in music being all over the place why wouldn't it be?)

Can't wait to hear more.  

Pinterest

I know why it's so hard to me to update this blog. I'm so back and forth and all over the place that I lose focus of what I should be doing very quickly.  That makes for a bad blogger.  What is the solution to that? A place where all my random thoughts can come together; therefore I bring you my pinterest board:

MARCYSUBURBS

Here I can be as random as I want and keep track off all the misc things I love on the internet.  So when you can't find anything new over there, your best bet is to check out my page over there.

Oh and Happy 2012 to you all!