A Few Things About Concealer…

Posted by twilliams on Jul 12, 2012 in Beauty | 4 comments

Hola muchachitas! Okay, so almost every time I post a pic of myself, I get a handful of SYB Babes dying to know my concealer sitch. Since I can take a hint (but not a second more of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta…please boycott, please) I decided it was time to pass on the best concealer tips I’ve picked up from the pro’s over the years! Here you go!

1.) The whole thing about concealer is that you want it to look natural, right? So every step you take should be with this in mind. Look at yourself in the mirror. Does it look like you have two bright, obvs way-lighter-than-your-skin-tone swatches under your eyes? Does it look cakey?  Has it settled into your fine lines? If yes, then it’s time to rethink your technique.

2.) If you wear foundation or tinted moisturizer, apply your concealer AFTER, not before. Sometimes your foundation does half the work for you, so you may not even need so much, just a couple dabs.

3.) Your concealer should be one shade lighter than your skin tone. One shade. Any lighter and you’re just putting a spotlight on whatever you’re trying to conceal.. Yes, the current trend is that Kardashian/Knowlesian uber-brightness under the eyes, but they’re dealing with bright paparazzi lights, or working the red carpet. That’s “concealer as event,” not a natural look that translates for day. Also, stick with yellow undertoned concealers.

Legendary.

4.) Since our skin color changes so much over the year — and, let’s be honest, brown girls have like three different skin tones on their face at one time (usually the forehead and chin are darker) — I’m a fan of concealer palettes, with like three or more shades you can blend together to custom-blend your own hue. My all-time favoritos are Make Up Forever 5 Camouflage No. 4  and Philosophy The Supernatural Color Corrector in Dark (above).

5.) Always apply moisturizer or eye cream before applying concealer. If you put it on a dry face, it’ll just settle into fine lines and make you look mad old.

6.) And now, the most important insider secret of all: Skip the tiny concealer brushes — the bristles just spread it all around, and you end up not covering up what you need to cover up. The same goes for when you swipe it on with your fingers. Instead, dab dab dab it on with the pad of your 2nd finger (the longest one…does it have a name?). Use quick, kinda-firm dabs — this pats it in, ensuring that your concealer goes where it needs to go. And stays.

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit comes with it's own powder. Makes your life a zillion times easier.

7) After applying, make sure you set your coverup with a light dusting of translucent powder. This helps ensure that it won’t slide all over your face during the day (especially important for oily skin types). Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit comes with it’s own powder, which is super-convenient.

Happy concealing, tenderonis!

My Throwback ‘Fly Cuts’, Day 2

Posted by twilliams on Jul 11, 2012 in Hair | 1 comment

Ladies, The Fly Cut launches next Tuesday, woot! And to celebrate, my sisters are forcing me to reveal mortifying “fly cuts” from my hair history — every single day until the launch. I’m a team player, but I’m definitely grumbling about this on the inside. Anyway, here we are, on Day 2…and I give you these ultra-silly hair moments:

Goofy Spice, 1982

So this is me in my second grade class picture, toothless and be-ribboned, sporting what Mama Shake used to call “Boing-Boing Curls.” We wore BBC’s on special occasions only. I think this is because ti took forever — there was a lot of water-spritzing and VO5, and then she’d mold each curl by brushing it around two fingers. Vigorously. I used to fantasize about wearing BBC’s while belting out “Total Eclipse of the Heart” on Star Search (only a fantasy, I’m supremely untalented).

Nowhere near sober, 1995.

Ha! So this was sophomore year at UVA, and Lady of Rage’s silly song “Afro Puffs” was the thing. Bored one night, me and my girls got tanked and decided I needed to experience puffs, like, immediately. So we teased and teased and sprayed my hair until I had these two huge balls on either side of my head. I feel like I look more like Minnie Mouse that a butch rapper on Death Row’s roster, but it was good times.

Ladies, hit The Fly Cut’s FB page and upload your fave/funniest “fly cuts!” The three best will win a very, very special giveaway!

Eau de Everything!

Posted by twilliams on Jul 11, 2012 in Beauty | 1 comment

I’m moth-to-a-flame attracted to girly stuff right now. As you now know, my life is falling apart around my ears — and for some reason, surrounding myself with hyper-feminine luxury just feels sooo cathartic. Everything around me must smell pretty! In my quest for scent salvation, I’ve stumbled upon three totally unexpected, lusciously fragranced products that I now can’t exist without. Get into them:

Flowerbomb.com

Hair perfume! So necessary, and yet still sort of a rare beauty find — so when I come across a good one, I buy like three, because it’s most likely a limited edition item. Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb Bomblicious Hair Mist ($45) is so hot. Before I leave the house — even just to go on a tampon run — I flip my hair upside down and spritz this bergamot-freesia-orange-blossom-blended scent all up and through my strands. And then, for the rest of the day, I’m surrounded by a delicate cloud of yumminess. Also? The scent is super-subtle, so it won’t interfere with your perfume (I wear it instead of fragrance, actually…it’s sexier). You’ll love.

I wanna roll around naked in these.

Scented earrings? Yes, please.

Delicate, vintage-y, chicer-than-chic, Lisa Hoffman’s new Fragrance Earrings and Bracelets ($65, each; above and below) are so ingenious. Each piece of jewelry comes with a boho luxe charm filled with tiny scented beads (you get extras so you can refresh the scent whenever you want). So you’re, like, emitting this secret, fabulous scent — and no one knows wear it’s coming from! The beads come in sultry, exotic fragrances like Tunisian Neroli, Madagascar Orchid and French Clary Sage. So midnight-garden-party-in-Marrakesh.

Exotic arm party.

‘The Fly Cut’ Countdown Begins…

Posted by twilliams on Jul 10, 2012 in Hair | 1 comment

I meeaaan…FINALLY! The Fly Cut is finally, finally going to launch next Tuesday, July 17th! For those of you looking at me with a blank-faced expression, The Fly Cut is a website my sisters and I created — the first and only daily deal site exclusively offering discounts to black hair salon services! Exciting, right? Folks are calling it “Groupon for Black Hair Salons.” We were set to launch in March, but, well…you wouldn’t believe how many crazy technical issues arise when creating a site like this. But now it’s 100% perfection! *shimmy*

Le deets: Every week, The Fly Cut will feature a top black salon in your city, offering 50 – 80% off of their most popular services. And we have something for everyone — weavologists, maje natural hair salons, blowout meccas, you name it. We’re launching in NYC first, and then expanding to DC, L.A., Houston, Atlanta, Chicago…and on and on, till we hit all the major markets. Our first featured salon will be Miss Jessie’s in SoHo! Can you stand it?

Me, Devon/Brownie and Lauren are just SO excited. We feel like this idea is so necessary right now (sexy hair on the cheap? Don’t mind if I do)!! And to celebrate, my wicked sisters are making me humiliate myself by revealing “fly cuts” from my past — a new one every day leading up to the launch. Ready for today’s throwback?

So hot.

Me in 1990, age 15, sporting a meticulously hot-rollered Designing Women-esque ‘do punctuated by my sophomore year staple, the Croissant Bang. I achieved the Croissant Bang by setting it in two rollers overnight. The top one was rolled backwards, the bottom one was rolled underneath. In the morning, I’d tease and spray the whole situation to oblivion. This is actually a subtle version of TCB — if memory serves, my girlfriends and I decided to serve “demure” for our mall glamour shot portraits. Insane.

Ladies! I’m dying to see your favorite “fly cuts” of yesteryear! Hit The Fly Cut’s FB page and upload your pics…my top three favorites will get a very special giveaway!! Oh, and every day leading up to next Tuesday’s launch, we’re giving away The Fly Cut gift certificates — check out the deets on our FB page. Yay, it’s all happening!

xo, Tia

The Cat in the Tat, or Let’s Be Honest

Posted by twilliams on Jul 6, 2012 in Random | 43 comments

I like tattoos. I know, it’s seems weird, since I’m like the bougiest, prissiest person anyone’s ever met. But I do, I like them on boys (my friend Kibwe said, in reference to the Tyga/Big Seans of the world, that skinny and tatted-up is the new “black and ugly as ever”). And I like them on me. The pain, the art, the tackiness — it’s good girl naughty. Before last week, I had three  — one on my foot, a teeny one on my back, and an unfortunate-at-the-time-but-now-sorta-amusing one on my hip. I’d always wanted to get a fourth, but I was concerned. When one has four tattoos, does one officially become a tattooed lady?

Three days ago, I became a tattooed lady. Fuck it, I thought to myself. You need something.

My wrist. Purple ink! Prince stan to the fullest. Wait...the more I look at this pic, the more it appears to be a tattooed penis.

My life has been feeling fuzzy lately. Who I used to be and who I am now have not been aligning properly. I needed something to bring it all into focus, a “you’re hysterical, woman!” slap in the face. So I gave myself a little reminder. WRITE. Write. This is what you do, this is who you are. Stop whining, nobody cares. Write something. It’ll save you.

When you’re Type-A anal, first born overachiever — when you’re a successful black woman (never forget that one, it comes with extra agita…mustn’t fall, can’t, everyone’s watching) — and things don’t end up the way you’d planned, it’s shattering. By 30, I’d done everything. I had a fancy magazine career, a dream home, a husband, and four books published. Six years later, I’m jobless, selling the money pit apartment, divorced. In and out of the hospital. A broke single mother who hopes you like her bob. Really? I know, I know…the economy. Everyone’s suffering, why should I think I’m immune? And then you have that horrible, hyper-American thought…well, fuck everybody else. I don’t know them. I know me. And this wasn’t supposed to be my story, dammit!

I know how obnoxious and entitled I sound. I also know that when things go wrong, you quickly find out the kind of person you really are. As Rose Nyland once noted during an overwrought breakdown of Blanche’s, “Boy, when the mask falls it really makes a thud!” I’m sick of walking around in a disconnected haze, eating nothing, dry-swallowing pain pills and overdosing on Ancient Aliens marathons. And pretending to be la-di-da fine. No amount of concealer can erase self-hate.

So it’s time to remember myself. Feeling lost? Write a book. Write it out, bitch. WRITE.