What I Think Wednesday:Nigerian Weddings and the Nigerian Economy: Can one save the other?

In 2005 I moved to DC to go to grad school for African studies at Howard University.  In the two years of course work, one of the things that I remember vividly are all of my professors, i repeat all of my professors who happened to each be from a country in Africa saying that all of Africa was waiting for Nigeria to step up to the call/challenge of being the African super power to help lead the continent out of colonialism and debt and into real political freedom, progress, and economic security.  It makes sense, Nigeria is the most populated country on the continent, its people are amongst the most educated in the world, and the country itself has tons of natural resources including oil, petroleum, natural gas, zinc, limestone, etc…

Fast forward to 2016, Nigeria’s economy is suffering immensely, and according to Dan Steinbock from Valuewalk.com, “without aggressive economic moves and harsh security measures, the economy could face a disastrous free fall.” One of my best friends, who happens to be Nigerian has shared stories with me of brick and mortar businesses being bulldozed by the government without warning to the business owners because of unpaid rent.  In some cases, the rent had been paid, but the landlords of the properties never gave the Nigerian government their cut, so innocent business owners are now taking the hit literally!  International investors are fleeing, the naira is about 315 to a US dollar, and people’s human security needs i.e. food, water, shelter are not being met.

Im sure that folks who are reading this are going, “Okay Michanna, what does this have to do with the beauty industry or makeup?”  My answer? Its bigger than makeup!!  Over the last year and a half, I have had the wonderful opportunity and privilege to work side by side a well respected Nigerian American make up artist and provide artistry services for some Nigerian weddings that make the wedding scenes in my favorite movie Coming to America seem like a little shot gun wedding with a $100 budget!  From the decor, to the locations and venues, designer dresses, suits, and shoes, etc… the money spent on these occasions is just mind blowing. According to bloomberg.com, $17 million US dollars have been spent on parties in Lagos, Nigeria over a five month period this year so far, and at least one fifth of them were weddings.  Forget about the parties,  I have heard of brides paying some Nigerian makeup artists $1,000-$1,500 just for doing their makeup alone!  Now before all of you start packing your kits and purchasing tickets to Nigeria, please note that the market over their is already over saturated, attorney’s and doctors have quit their full time jobs to open makeup studios, and it has become a survival of the fittest environment.

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While I have observed all of this with my own two eyes, I also have observed something else.  Every Nigerian bride and groom that I have met doing the makeup for these weddings are educated with great careers.  They are doctors, lawyers, engineers, bankers and economists, and have attended great schools either in the US or Europe.

Back to Nigeria being a super power.  When I put all of these things together a very glaring question always comes to mind.  What if Nigerians who were preparing to spend thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars on their wedding figured out how to somehow funnel the money back into their own economy with checks and balances for how the money is managed?  With all of the education, and money, and number of Nigerians having these opulent weddings, surely it could make a difference!  Lets look at this thing in more detail.

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When I am doing makeup for some of these wedding I notice that the whole wedding party has designer shoes, I mean there are “red bottoms” everywhere!  Lets say that on average, the bridal party is 16 people and at least 12 of the women in the bridal party have designer shoes.  If each pair of shoes equals roughly $500(i googled average cost of designer shoes in 2016) and you multiply that by 12, that equals $6,000 and 1,890,000 naira! If you add another $6,000 from the groomsmen which is another 1,890,000 naira, that is a nice sized chunk of money, and all that we have calculated were shoes!  Based on the stats of money spent on shoes alone, I think that my point has been made for how much money is spent on Nigerian weddings.

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Now no diss to Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Chanel, or any of the other European designers, but the last time I heard any of those companies discuss police brutality(Nigerians who live in the US no matter how educated can be pulled over because of the color of their skin too), inequalities in education for people of color, brain drain on the continent of Africa, or the failing Nigerian economy was … let me see… um never!!  Way back in 2005 when my professors said that Nigeria had the potential to be a super power in Africa, they got it wrong.  Nigeria has the potential to be a super power for the whole entire African diaspora!  Right now people of African descent are having to rethink many things, one of those being whether or not we want to continue to live in a country  where we risk being gunned down for trivial things like driving, selling loose cigarettes, and walking down the street no matter whether we are educated and can afford expensive weddings or not. In the large scheme of things, if Nigerians started to really plan and focus on channeling some of the money from these opulent weddings into the Nigerian economy where they could control how the money is managed once it gets there, that could very well be the start of an economic revolution!

Imagine if young couples getting married organized a way to do this by only supporting Nigerian vendors abroad and stateside for everything including dresses, shoes, fabric, photography, cakes, food, planners, rings, venues, airlines, hotels, travel agents, and  all entities involved agreed to invest a portion of the money made back into the economy in a controlled way weeding out mismanagement of funds.  International investors would come back, jobs would be created, and the young couples could essentially create a new infrastructure dismantling corruption, and the absence of checks and balances.  As it is related to those of African descent like me who may be looking for a new place to reside, Nigeria could be the place to be!

Now I know that I am being very opportunistic, but our countries have to be our priority.  It  saddens me to know that while we spend billions of dollars to celebrate one day, a potential super power of Africa and of the African diaspora suffers greatly.  It is time for us to be selfish and support our own!

 

 

What I Think Wednesday!! :Stick Foundations!!

Stick foundations have had a major comeback and I think every cosmetic brand should offer them!! They are portable, offer great coverage, and often allow you to skip concealer all together.  

Some brands have offered them for many years because they have always understood the major value that they bring, while other brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills are new to the party!! 

Cosmetic companies seem to be putting in overtime to make sure that they offer a wide range of shades that include deeper skin tones. Anastasia and Hourglass cosmetics are two to check out because they seem to be taking no prisoners with the amount of shades and formulas they offer!! 

Hourglass’s formula is mineral based, comes in 26 shades, offers full coverage, is long wearing, water proof, and finger friendly!! 

MAC cosmetics and Laura Mercier used to both offer stick foundations that were amazing, and came at decent price points. If their product development teams know what I know, they should relaunch those formulas asap!!!

What I Think Wednesday:Gifts With Purchase, Do Black Lives Matter?

Given everything that has happened in the last week, well past 300 years, my heart is pretty heavy.  The only way to be triumphant in anything is to keep pressing.  Since my blog is called “Make up in Black and White” and addresses gender, class, and race as those topics apply to the vast world of beauty, I thought it would only be right if I discussed race this week.  I  am going to be very specific, and discuss one uber frustrating thing.  Gift with purchases that major companies give out for earning points, birthdays, holidays or for spending a certain dollar amount never include products that women of color can use when it comes to color!

Every year when Christmas season pops up, I am always working in a retailer that provides amazing goody bags chock full of skincare, haircare, and makeup.  When ever I service a client that has a deeper skin tone who has earned one of those goody bags, they always ask if the bag is even worth them spending the extra money to earn.  Depending on what brand/retailer I am working for, the bag is 25-75% useful, and obviously if they can use only a small fraction of the products, they choose to pass on the gift or GWP as we call them in the retail world.

Out of sheer curiosity, I would love to know how much it costs a company to make lets say a tinted moisturizer sample?  I happen to freelance for a company that makes the best tinted moisturizer but when ever there are samples made it is always in the third to lightest shade that the company offers.  Realizing that the shade is the most popular, I can’t help but to wonder what would happen if that same company made a test run of a deeper shade, put it in magazines geared towards women of color i.e. Ebony and Essence to see what kind of return on the initial investment of making the samples in the first place.  I tell people all the time that just because you build it doesn’t mean “they” will come.  So for all of the cosmetic companies that offer make up for deeper skin tones, samples must be made in a broader range of shades, and marketed specifically to the demographics that speak to those women who have deeper skin.

To put it plainly, all lives matter so companies should do whatever they can to accommodate all people who do and could potentially become loyal supporters of their brands.  This for many of these companies would appeal to demographics that have tremendous spending power and have the ability to positively impact their bottom lines.

Bottom line?  Make the samples in a broader range of shades and market the hell out of them, its time!

What I Think Wednesday: Trish McEvoy and her Credit Card Palettes

I have spent a ton of time talking to my peers in the makeup world about cosmetic companies and what I think they can do better in terms of training, product development, hiring, social media, etc… Finally I realized that talking to my peers is pointless.  I also realize that talking to company executives can also be pointless especially if you meet them in a store or counter setting.

I have observed that most executives dismiss ideas that company members who work behind counters have which is a huge mistake!  Social media has much more weight, so I will be speaking directly to companies every Wednesday in the hopes that at some point my voice is heard! Now on to Trish!!

At this point, we all know that palettes reign supreme.  Eyeshadow palettes, blush palettes, lip palettes, foundation palettes, etc… Consumers would rather spend money on palettes because they give you variety and provide you with more “bang” for your buck.  Trish McEvoy, known for her planners sometimes will put these little credit card eyeshadow palettes in her limited edition planners, and I have started to collect them, because they are tiny ( I love tiny things), super pigmented, have an array of eyeshadows and powder eyeliners, and blend like a dream!

The problem is that these credit cards only come out every once in a while in a limited planner making it impossible to purchase them individually at the consumers convenience.  As a makeup artist I really feel like I need every credit card that Trish has ever created, and no that I will be impossible for me to obtain them all.  I have a few suggestions.

  • Relaunch the credit cards in their own special planner as a limited edition sort of thing to see how well consumers respond to the idea of being able to have all of the credit card palettes.
  • Offer the credit card palettes online to give consumers an opportunity to purchase them individually
  • Market the “credit card planner” using some cool wording maybe drawing associations from the Urban Decay “naked palette” the slogan “Plan to be Naked” would be risky but could work.
  • Market to a wider demographic including but not limited to millenials making a point to appeal to beauty bloggers, and youtube and instagram makeup artists!IMG_2662

These things are definitely kit worthy, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if Trish were to make these credit card eyeshadow palettes a focus, they would sell!

To Freelance or not to Freelance? That is the question!

I have noticed that whenever I work in a department store setting the full time employees always ask me a thousand questions about my life as a freelancer.  They then often go into a story that I have heard many times unfortunately.  They are mothers, wives, girlfriends, and have no work life balance.  They are tired of missing their children’s basketball games, dance recitals, and plays.  They are tired of missing the family reunions, birthdays, and Thanksgiving dinners.  They are tired of canceling weekend get a ways with their husbands because something happened at work forcing them to have to cancel.  They are also tired of old systems and old rules that only are concerned with money and not people which leads to high turn over and poor brand representation.  I totally understand their plight.

While I understand, I also know that the way I must make the freelance thing look must be way better and easier than it actually is! I jumped off the cliff of having a secure full time management position with great benefits for a retail store at the end of 2010, after having lost 20lbs because of stress from my job and my boss.  Luckily for me, I have not had to look back.  Included in me not having to look back there are a few things that folks wanting to jump off of that same cliff need to know.

  • I am a super grown adult with a roommate.  I live in what is now one of the most expensive places to live, and for most of us folks that do not have the luxury of our parents still financially supporting us or a significant other paying our bills, we have to live with other people to make it work!  I would love to have a cute little studio or one bedroom apartment, but I have chosen the life of an artist that wants work freedom.  One sacrifice that I have to make is not being able to live alone…yet!
  • I never say no to work which means I hardly have days off.  Yea so for all of you folks complaining about your full time retail jobs with your guaranteed two days off, please know that as a freelancer, you never know when your next job will come so you have to work every one!! You will realize that as a freelancer you may have less time to spend with family, friends, and loved ones because you will become a workaholic!  On the rare occassion when I just wake up and am not feeling it, I can call out with out worrying about my district manager threatening to kill my unborn son because of a $5,000 goal that I may or may not have been able to make anyway!
  • Benefits?  What benefits?!  As a freelancer, I have one word for you. Obamacare!  Listen, work out religiously, watch your diet, take your vitamins, and floss, brush, and use mouth wash daily because your doctor and dentist visits might become a figment of your imagination once you become a freelancer!
  • No hours!  When I first became a freelancer, I also taught dance.  If I didn’t teach dance, there is no way I would have made it. Companies typically have tons of freelance hours from September until January 1st.  After the holiday season, the hours are few and far in between.  You will not have 40 hours a week as a freelance make up artist unless you work for a zillion brands at one time(which I have done), have tenure with a company and have proven yourself(still nowhere near 40 hours), or have an amazing clientele.
  • You have to be agile like a cat!  In the freelance world, things can change at the drop of a hat! This week you can have 20 hours with a certain brand and a few weddings on the weekend, and next week crickets! Guess what? That is totally normal, and if you are used to getting a certain amount of money every two weeks so you can do what you need to do, keep your day job!!

All in all, I was born an artist to two parents that are artists.  I have an arts degree, and was trained in college to hustle!  I have always known that I would have to work for myself and make sacrifices that others may not be able to make.  I am ok with my choices, but I urge every person thinking that the freelance world is the answer to think critically before jumping off the full time job cliff!

From Cheap to Chic: How to turn a cheap body spray into a fancy perfume.

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It is gonna be a very hot summer, and now is the time to make your way to Bath and Body Works, Victorias Secret, and The Body Shop!  Their semi annual sales are going on and I cannot think of a better time to purchase inexpensive body mists!

Body mists are perfect for this hot sweaty weather because they are light, provide just the right amount of fragrance, and only last on the body for up to four hours tops.  Now the downside of wearing body mists is that they can smell artificial or full of alcohol.  There is an easy way to take your sprays to the next level!  Adding essential oils that complement the scents of the body mists can take your cheap sprays from cheap to chic!!

Imagine that you have bought every “Clean cotton” body spray from your local Bath and Body Works store.  If you wanted to make them more fragrant and extend their longevity on the body, you could try adding a clean essential oil like lavender to do the trick.  The more you add, the stronger the body mist becomes.  If the body mist has a substantial amount of essential oil, it easily morphs into an Eau De Toilette!  Happy mixing!!

So why can’t I wear my Angel in one hundred degree weather??

For the last month, it’s been hot as hell in DC, and occasionally I will smell a heavy perfume that lingers in the air for way too long, and almost makes me sick and gives me a headache!! Lol I have decided to help my “winter” perfume in the summer time wearers by explaining the difference in this post. 

Most winter perfumes are very warm and heavy. They tend to be comprised of musks, sandalwood, strong floral notes, amber, and the super popular oud. The reason these “winter” fragrances tend to be heavier in composition is because there is less humidity in the air when the cooler months arrive. In order to enjoy a personal fragrance, it has to be heavier to last. 

During the summer months there is a lot more humidity thus making fragrances last longer and linger on the skin and in the air. Instead of grabbing our Creed Santal or our Aqua Di Parma Oud, we should grab our Creed Love in White or Our Aqua Di Parma Fico Di Amalfi. If we love a fragrance like Narciso Rodriguez, we can just purchase Narciso, a much lighter more powdery version of the original. 

If we are still challenged go for fragrances that smell clean, aquatic, light, powdery, fruity, or floral! You can’t really go wrong with any of those notes during the summer. Last but not least, there are tons of fragrance houses that make amazing summer friendly scents here are a few!

Hyaluronic Acid: How important is this stuff really?

Hyaluronic AcidLately I have been obsessed with one ingredient, and that is hyaluronic acid! It seems this one ingredient extremely popular in the skin care world, is super important for hydration levels in our skin, cell reproduction, inflammation, and moisture retention.

Should we all want every skincare item we own to have this stuff in it? Absolutely!! Should it cost a ton of money? Absolutely not!! A few serums that seem pretty impressive mainly because of the amount of hyaluronic acid in them are; SkinCeuticals Hydrating B5 Gel, Darphin HYDRASKIN Intensive Skin-Hydrating Serum, Peter Thomas Roth VIZ-1000 75 percent Hyaluronic Acid Complex, and REN Keep Young and Beautiful Instant Firming Beauty Shot.

These are all great, and I love the ones that come in a bottle with a pump.  Whenever I purchase serums, I always look for serums that come in colored or non clear glass bottles with a pump applicator to extend shelf life, and to protect the product from oxidation.

My Natural Journey…or not!

This past couple days have made me aware of one major thing that I never really put much energy into.  I realize that because of the color of my skin, and the texture of what is on top of my head, my last statement is almost blasphemous!  If you haven’t figured out what “topic” I am speaking about, it is my hair!! I have avoided writing about this topic for a long while, because while I know it is a hot topic for so many women, I give it about five minutes a day!

A few days ago, a random guy came up to my friend and I while we were just walking down the street to congratulate us for being “natural”.  He gave us this long speech about how he loves and values “natural black women”, and how he “would only marry a black woman who was natural”, etc…

The very next day my same friend and I decided to grab a bite to eat for lunch at a popular restaurant and this sweet young black woman asked us in a whisper if we were on a “natural journey”, and wanted to know tons of details about this “journey”.

The last “naturalvention” happened while I was watching a show that I decided to watch mainly because of where the show was filmed.  Several of my friends and clients talk to me about The Housewives of Potomac, so with my two days off I decided to watch the show and see what all of the fuss was about.  As far as the topics of race, ethnicity, culture, and hair texture there were fireworks everywhere honey!! After each episode I found myself asking all types of questions.  Surprisingly, I ended up appreciating this show mainly because it pushed the participants and viewers to grapple with difficult topics like race, ethnicity, culture, and hair texture all based around western ideas. The unfortunate thing in the show which happens too often in real life is that when folks are forced to discuss touchy topics dealing with race, ethnicity, skin color, or hair texture, conversations are dropped and/or swept under the rug instead of hashed out completely.  I have been guilty of avoiding the “Black girl hair” conversation for many reasons, but feel compelled to say my piece.(or is it peace?)

I was super lucky to have been born into a family that never talked about being dark or light, pretty or ugly, or about having good or bad hair.  My grandmother was a hairstylist among many other professions, and always could make anyones hair look great.  As a result, my mom was also great with hair, and ultimately the “do hair gene” was passed down to me!  I honestly think that because we always knew how to “fix” our hair, our opinion on black hair was simple, we knew what to do to have the styles, length, and texture we wanted.  I didn’t learn until fourth or fifth grade that my hair texture was considered “good” because my fellow classmates told me.  I didn’t understand until I was a grown adult that my hair was considered “a good grade” because when I put gel, jam, water, or hair lotion it had an obvious wave/curl pattern depending on the hairstyle that I wore.

I remember the first time a class mate told me I had “good hair”. I was kinda nerdy, had natural hair which was unusual because most of my classmates had relaxers or “perms” as we used to call them, and this girl that I could not stand screamed across the room “Hey, you got some good hair.  I bet it would be real pretty if you had a perm.”  At the time I was just confused because the term was so foreign to me. I was raised by a mother who was/is a performing artist that put me in a West African dance company where everything African was celebrated.  It was super important to me to have natural hair because the styles that I wore for performances looked more authentic, and I fit in with my fellow dance peers.  Most of us had parents who embraced their African heritage and passed it down to us making West African food, music, languages, clothing, religion, and education the norm.  Because I valued dance and my dance community more than my peers in elementary school, I didn’t mind not fitting in.

Now as a grown adult I am learning from several other women that I am lucky to have had the unique childhood experiences which helped to establish my views on my own hair.  High school was another story, but we will discuss that in the next post!! Peace and a bottle of hair grease!! lol

 

SK II is about to get all of my money!!

Yesterday one of my friends asked me if I had come across an article about an SK II skincare commercial featuring young women from China.  I had not and became kinda curious about the article especially because it was in the Washington Post, and had to do with a very luxurious and pricey skin care brand which is rumored to be up for sale.

At 4:30 this morning I was awakened by the lovely squirrels that have found a temporary home in the walls of my house (hopefully we will have them out by next week before I turn into the incredible hulk and tear this house down), and just decided to check the commercial out. I had no idea that the whole thing was going to be in mandarin, ( i think that was the language) but about halfway in, I started crying like a baby!!  You see I didn’t need any subtitles because I knew all too well what was going on in this ad.  The commercial dealt with a very heavy topic which not surprisingly is not specific to China or Chinese culture.  The ad dealt with unmarried single women over 25  other wise referred to as “sheng nu” i.e. “leftover women”.

The ad allowed these unmarried women to discuss the guilt, embarrassment, and pain they suffered because of the pressure placed on them by their parents and society.  It literally gave the women a platform to create a “gallery” of sorts where they posted their pictures in an outdoor market with captions explaining to their parents their real feelings about marriage and why they felt they were still single. Some of the captions provided apologies to parents for not fulfilling their dreams of seeing their daughters get married, others declared their feelings of simply being happy alone, and independent.

The setting happened to be an outdoor market called a “marriage market” where parents posted resume ads, similar to ads that you would find in coffee shops for music lessons and nannies, for their unmarried daughters in the hopes to find these single ladies a husband.  At the end of the ad, the parents all find their daughters pictures with the captions and realize that their daughters are simply women trying to live life the best way they can, and it is obvious then to the parents that these women are not “leftover”.

Unfortunately, according to the age expectations of Chinese culture I would be considered beyond “left over”, as a matter of fact, I would be expired and on my way out of the fridge to be tossed in the garbage.  While I am not Chinese, and do not live in China, I would be lying if I said that I could not relate to this SK II ad.  My mother does not pressure me about dating or marriage (thank God), but there is certainly a societal pressure that I deal with more often than not.  I have weekly and sometimes daily conversations with my other single girlfriends about dating, marriage, and starting families and in each and every situation there is always this daunting pressure that lingers behind.  I think that most women on the planet have been raised to strive to be married.  In most cases no matter how many degrees, material possessions, or money we make, if we are not married by a certain age there is a major sense of failure that we feel.

Now in saying those things, there is a very important other side of the coin.  Society is slowly changing, Obama announced just yesterday that he was going to initiate plans for a monument to be created signifying the equality of women.  We have a serious female democratic presidential candidate, and more specific to my race, ethnicity, and culture; we have more black female entrepreneurs starting businesses than ever before out pacing any other demographic in the country.  We also have black women attending and graduating college at much higher rates than their/our black male counter parts.  To bring it all the way home, I live in the nations capitol, a place that is home to one of the highest populations of “educated people” in the country, and 112 females for every 100 males according to city-data.com.  So what does this mean?  It means that it may or may not be in the cards for all of us women folk to get married, and you know what? That reality is ok!

We are all a result of some super sperm that fertilized an egg and allowed for us all to be here for a reason, and some of the reasons for our individual existences are to be more than a wife or a mother. We are here to live our best lives which includes finding happiness and most importantly with ourselves first.  I would like to give a great big gigantic hug to the CEO of SK II for recognizing that and creating this wonderful and powerful ad celebrating women period!