Post 23: Amsterdam OOTW

Welcome to my Amsterdam Outfit of the Weekend post

I hope this post gives you style ideas and future outfit ideas!

I really liked my outfit, a simple yet cute style. My hat is my new fave accessory that can be worn with hair combed back into a low bun. I just felt like a proper tourist when wearing it, I started calling it The Tourist Hat haha. I absolutely love high-wasted jeans and wish I had a wardrobe full of them. I like the simplicity of high-wasted jeans, the slit in the knees of these ones just add to the look.

This is Ese, my darling. One of the nicest, genuine people I've met and I'm really grateful to have met such a wonderful ray of Sunshine at university. In these past few months of knowing her, I've noticed that her style is the definition of simple. With a wardrobe full of black (can't go wrong there!), she manages to mix and match outfits and switch things up when she's ready. She looks super cute in this outfit, love it! Once again, this Fedora hat adds to the outfit to produce what we like to call.. "The Tourist Hat effect".

Post 22: Amsterdam Adventures #ACSDam2015

On Saturday night I travelled to Amsterdam for an 'Amsterdam Weekender'. It took 10 hours (coach from London then a rocky ferry ride to Calais). I stacked up on snacks so it actually wasn't that bad. We arrived Sunday morning and as soon as we got the chance, my friends and I enjoyed the city, went shopping & sight-seeing and ate a whole load of junk! In no time we realised that It's dangerous in them Amsterdam streets. Cars, trams, bikes, lorries, trucks, motorbikes, carts, you gotta watch out for the whole lot. They drive on the pavement without warning, it's not safe to walk around with headphones in.. you might not make it home alive to be honest.

H&M mannequins on a fashion runway:

Sunday 

- Explored and got used to the place,

- Went to The Ice Bar, a -10 degrees bar where everything is made of .. Well, ice! 

- Got lost a couple times before going back to the hotel to get ready for the Jungle Theme'd animal party where I became Cat woman for the night.

Amsterdam Ice Bar

Party time

Fi became cat woman, Ese became a safari keeper. Kirsty, Daniella & Shin wore different printed leopard outfits.

Outfit: I wore a body suit from Boohoo with high wasted jeans as an alternative to a full body catsuit. I used face paint and eye-liner to draw on cat details.

Ese wore khaki shorts with a cream blouse and wrapped a bandanna around her head as an alternative for a safari keeper hat. Once again, black face paint was used to create tribal marks.

Monday

- Visited Amsterdam Dungeon & Ice bakery (like the best Waffle/Crepes/Icecream place ) 

- Went to the talent show, hosted by Mikes Comedyy

- Went to Red Light District then got ready for a pyjama vs lingerie party 

Ice Bakery

Waffle with Rasberry white chocolate ice cream & nutella and a macaroon. Sugar overload..

Red Light District

Prostitution is legal in Holland and the Red Light District is a well-known Concentration full of prostitutes and sex businesses

The women were dressed in lingerie and standing inside shop windows, as if they were objects on display. It's illegal to take pictures of the district so I could only get a picture of the lane leading up to it. The women were all so casual, some were texting away on their phoones while waiting. One woman was even sitting down with a straight face, she looked so bored. It's best to visit the district at night, you can't miss it, it's obvious and full of red lights as you can see below

For more information: http://www.amsterdam.info/red-light-district/ 

Tuesday

Time to say bye to Dams, it was a nice little vacation. If I was there for a day or two longer I would definitely have more or less known the area well. The journey back was better and quicker than the journey there, we stopped at the Belgian Chocolate Factory in Belgium to get some goodies!

Ferry view

I had a good time in Amsterdam, my first little get-away of 2015 and I hope there is more to come. Sometimes small breaks away are needed to do your own thing and get back into the right frame of mind.

Have a successful, productive rest of the year everyone :) x

Post 21: New Yorker Reyna & her hair

As mentioned in my previous post, I met Reyna at Natural Hair Week. Reyna has been natural for many years now.

I asked her to write a lil summin'summin for you guys so have a read! :)

"My name is Reyna Lauren. I'm originally from New York but have lived in London for nearly 20 years. 

Growing up in the states in the 80's, 90's 00's, relaxed hair was the only way. You never wanted to be compared to little rascals only black cast member 'Buckwheat'. He was the archetypal 'nappy', 'bad hair' stereotype and kids would call you that if you rocked an afro. Afro's and natural afro hair was also considered out of fashion-

something our parents wore in the 60's and 70's. I got my first relaxer when I was about 11 years old. I loved it! My hair was straight and I could pretend I was like those white girls, or black girls with 'good hair'. The only problem was, my thick 4C hair would always revert back soo quickly. My edges never seemed straight/slick enough. My hair would never flatten down enough. 

I had been living in London for about 4/5 years when a friend showed me a beautiful hairstyle she had. I was so impressed that she was natural and that her hair was so versatile. It took me a month or so to finally have the courage to do it. 

I didn't big chop though- at the time there weren't oodles of youtube videos as there are now. So I chopped off little by little; keeping my hair in braids and scarves. 

I have been about 12 years natural now. There are still things I'm getting the hang of. When I first started my natural hair journey I thought about getting a Texturizer. Some days I thought about going back to relaxers. It became a labour of love and I wouldn't change a thing about it. 

From fear and loathing to love and understanding. I love my 4C hair!"

Reyna's natural hair, lovely! I absolutely love her curls

These photos were at NHW, Even when Reyna's hair had shrunken due to London's typical rainy weather in the morning, it still looked good!

Learn and Love your hair! xo

Post 20: Natural Hair Week 2014 hosted by NaturalHairDaily

I attended Natural hair week  hosted by @NaturalHairDaily (Instagram). This year it was at Thistle Hotel, Marble arch. Natural Hair Week is a tour of various cities by Elle and Niecey, they went to Birmingham, Manchester and even Leeds before coming back to London. It was such an informative event filled with so much energy, it was really nice being in the presence of so many people just embracing their hair. Desmond Murray, a top hairdresser, did very different styles on his hair models in a matter of minutes and we even witnessed a big chop on a member of the audience by the man himself!

 He did their hair right before the show, here it isss:

There's no way I could style my hair like that by myself, there would be some serious struggle and sweat in the process.. Desmond sure did a great job

NHW introduced something called the Product Swap where you bring your new/nearly new products and swap it.. I picked up all of these, I might just have to do a few product reviews too because the Shea butter conditioner (green tub) is reallly working out for me!

At NHW I had the pleasure of meeting Reyna (right), who moved from New York 20 years ago. I loved her bubbly character and passion for her hair in its natural form. Whilst growing up as a young woman in New York, it was not always seen as acceptable or the norm for black females to wear their hair natural or without a relaxer but she has now grown to love and embrace it throughout the growth process. I will do a separate post on her hair journey!

I also had the pleasure of meeting Andre, I was drawn in by his locs aha. I spoke to him about haircare (which he sure knew a lot about)