One of such women is popular makeup artist, Teniola Aisha Kashaam, known popularly as Tenny Coco. 

In a recent Instagram post, she revealed how her obsession with skin lightening began at the age of 19, and how finally at the age of 25, while reflecting on her life during her birthday period, she had an epiphany, and resolved to stop lightening her skin.

She said:

“My Road to Melanin:At the age of 19, I started lightening my skin….. By the time I was 20, I had become a heavy Skin bleacher… at the time it felt almost normal, I felt like I looked more attractive….. it became an addiction, I just couldn’t stop. I craved so much to be lighter.. I felt being black wasn’t beautiful enough. What a stupid way to have thought… I guess the society we live in played a little role in my decision to bleach my skin… coupled with being very Naive at that age. It’s widely perceived that the lighter you are, the more beautiful you look. To be honest I always knew it was a bad thing… I mean, I had seen loads of people with ridiculously damaged skin courtesy the effects of bleaching but I was just so deep into it… like I said it’s actually an addiction. 

As my 25th birthday started approaching I started to do a lot of Soul searching, a lot of self evaluation… concerning every area of my life and I finally started to see the light… to see how crazy I had been all these years… how crazy it was for me to have believed that my black skin wasn’t beautiful, to have allowed myself to feel inadequate or to try and tell God ‘ how you created me isn’t good enough’ what a silly, crazy way to have lived. Today I’m more than grateful that I finally saw the light. Black is beautiful! So beautiful! Never have I ever felt as beautiful and as at peace with my skin tone as I do now… Please Love your skin/Yourself the way God has made you…. you are beautiful, you are enough.

Time will always tell… imagine how I would look 10-15 years from now if I had continued to bleach my skin. Please don’t do it… I did it and I Had/ have so much Regret… it’s not worth it. You are beautiful just as you are.  I get a lot of messages asking me, how I was able to transition my skin back… I will be sharing all the tips soon enough.  Thank you to everyone who helped me get through this…… the Amount of support.” 

We are definitely loving the glow up! We appreciate the fact that she has been so open about her journey, and we’re sure lots of women who lighten their skin will be inspired by her story.

Embrace your skin tone ladies, whatever complexion you may be. Xx

Photo Credit: Tenny Coco

With the increasing number of women in Africa, especially middle class women spending more on personal beauty products and services, the beauty industry has fast become a promising sector that has boosted the economy in Africa. Entrepreneurs and companies now invest majorly in the booming beauty industry, and we can see evidence of all this around us –  from the rise of beauty influencers, to international beauty brands launching new products in the country regularly – it is safe to see that these trends are here to stay.

According to Borgen Magazine, with the vast investments into Africa in the beauty industry, the personal care and beauty markets of Nigeria and South Africa have reached $1.2 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively.

One key player in the Nigerian beauty market that is making a great impact is millennial queen boss, Ezinne Alfa of Beauty In Lagos.

Ezinne Alfa is an award winning beauty blogger, influencer and  entrepreneur. She is the founder of www.beautyinlagos.com – an online destination for all things beauty, in Nigeria. It comprises of a blog, a beauty directory (BeautyDirectoryNG) and a subscription-only discount service (BeautyClubNG). The website was launched in January 2012 as a blog positioned to share all that the city of Lagos had to offer in terms of beauty but now,  Beauty In Lagos has evolved into being the number 1 online destination for beauty in Nigeria.

When she first returned to Nigeria from the UK, Ezinne said it took her a while to know where to get beauty products and services that she needed. As she made inquiries and researched, she decided to share her information with others through her blog. In her words, “Beauty blogging is vast, it is about sharing knowledge about beauty in any form the person finds comfortable”.

Over the years, Beauty In Lagos has worked on collaborations and partnerships with a host of distinguished international and local brands such as: Carolina Herrera, M.A.C, INGLOT, Shea Moisture, Orly, Le Chat, Beauty Africa Exhibition, Maybelline New York , House of Tara, Zaron and Montaigne Place, etc. In March 2017, Beauty In Lagos was listed by Invicta Africa & SME100 Nigeria as one of the “100 Most Innovative Female-Owned Businesses in Nigeria”.

Ezinne Alfa is totally millennial queen boss goals. Slay on mama!

So perhaps you’ve been hoping to get in on the trend and currently own a bronzer which was invented before word got out that the more pigmented, the better; I’ve got great news for you. You too can participate in this glow up and take ‘gram-worthy’ photos with your skin shining in the glare of the sun.

Coconut oil has quickly become everyone’s favorite thing in the world, thanks to the naturalistas who first discovered its amazing benefits. For the natural-hair fiends, it not only adds moisture and sheen to hair but has been credited with softening and growing it too.

While looking everywhere for a product that would get me glowing on a budget, I found out about this trick featuring, you guessed it… coconut oil. Seems like this is the miracle oil after all. Basically, it doesn’t matter what powder bronzer or highlighter you make use of, you can make it look more pronounced by simply adding a drop of oil. I had purchased a £2 highlighter from Primark which was surprise, surprise, no good. I know, I know, what was I thinking with that price right?

Anyway, I thought to try out this handy trick and boy did it work!

I used these three products:

• Extra Virgin Coconut oil (my skin is pretty sensitive so the more organic, the better for everyone involved)
• A brush, I used a really random one I found somewhere in my makeup purse but a fan brush might be more ideal
• £2 Primark Highlighter

The brush was used to mix the highlighter and the oil on the lid of the coconut oil jar before putting it on to the high point of my cheekbones for that added glow which I later blended with a simple powder brush.

This was the result of the look. I should have taken a better photo but this snap chat doggie would have to do for now.

The swatches of what the highlighter looked like before and after are on the photo below with the before swatch above the after.

You’re welcome! Now, you have no excuse to not glow up.

Vogue Magazine has released a new episode of ‘Beauty Secrets‘, an intimate series that takes fans into the bathroom with famous beauty, fashion, and pop culture icons. Beauty Secrets shows the routines, products, and grooming secrets of top celebrities.

In this edition, which is a video makeup tutorial tagged “Rihanna’s Epic 10-Minute Guide to ‘Going Out’ Makeup,” Rihanna shows us her favourite “more-is-more beauty” makeup tips and tricks.

RihRih’s delivery is effortless, as she gets real about everything from how she started to realize contouring was essential to make her face look more defined when she gained weight, to minimizing the “forehead gang” situation using makeup, and much more.

But hey, let’s not give the whole thing away right? Watch the tutorial below:

Video/Photo Credit: VOGUE