I have a tea drawer at home that's chock full of various types of tea I've amassed along the way.  Yesterday, as I reviewed the contents of the drawer, I realized that, aside from bamboo tea, none of the other options on hand could produce external benefits.  Sure, green tea is excellent for overall health, but I'd also like to incorporate other varieties that promote a noticeable glow.

Less than 24 hours after stating my intention to expand my beauty tea collection, I stumbled on a screenshot that I took months ago and completely forgotten about.  The image featured a story shared by Sheneka Adams.  Sheneka is a business owner and "Level Up" coach.  She often shares glimpses into her beauty favorites.  In previous posts, I've featured Shaneka's favorite hand cream and the collagen chews that she loves.

When she first shared her story on how much she loved barley tea, I thought..."that's interesting" but didn't look into it any further.  After checking out what others have to say about barley tea, I was sold.

For many years, I've crept on the Insta feed of countless women in hopes that they'll one day reveal the products and routines that create their admirable results.  This year, I've decided to step out of the shadows and actually reach out to them directly to find out more first hand.  I'm excited to bring you guys in-depth interviews of these beautiful muses in the year ahead.

Let's meet Evie from Sknperfct.  I happened to stumble on her IG feed completely by accident (or was it fate?).  The moment I laid my eyes on her skin, I immediately jumped into her dm's and requested an interview so he could divulge her greatest skin secrets.

Thankfully, she happily obliged. Keep reading you want to learn more about what makes Evie's skin so perfect.

I went to high school in the '90s.  Back then long lashes weren't really a thing.  No one wore false lashes and lash extensions weren't even invented yet.  But, there was this one girl who had these super long barbie lashes that I was obsessed with.  Based on a visual inspection, her lashes were absolutely real.  They were long and spidery and made her eyes look large and doe-like.  She was very much a tom-boy in how she dressed. Everything was baggy and oversized.  But she balanced the boyish style by always keeping her hair in neat box braids and framing her eyes with her extraordinary lashes.

Here's the thing, about mid-way through a school year, an Afro-Brazilian girl transferred to our school. She had a heavy accent and it was obvious that she wasn't yet indoctrinated into American culture.  Within a short time, she and the girl the amazing lashes became great friends.  Then something interesting happened.  The new girl started looking more and more like my friend with each passing day.  She too wore box braids and baggy gear.  It wasn't long before her lashes began to look amazing.  I ever ran into my friend from high-school again, the first thing I would ask her is to divulge her eyelash regimen.  Because after seeing the new girl completely replicate the look, I knew there was a method to her results.

Sadly, I've never been able to recreate the look from mascara alone.  But, thanks to modern technology, I may have another option that may work just as well.

Ever since I wrote the article not long ago about body serums, I've had intentions to try a few of the options available on the market.  Unfortunately, I have some other wish list purchases that take priority so I had to improvise.

Winters are torture for my skin. As soon as the humidity drops, everything goes south.  Each year I'm plagued with dry, itchy legs and thighs.  The itchiness is so intense that I sometimes end up actually creating surface-level scars on the skin.

I've tried to address the itchiness with lotion but it's a losing battle.  But last night a tried a combination that turned out to be absolutely amazing.

One of my resolutions for 2020 is to get better at creating a written plan for my day.  It never fails, anytime I consistently use my trusty planner, I'm guaranteed to accomplish more than when I wing it from the top of my head.  Here's my problem.  Planning works so well that I start to believe that I'm a naturally productive person.  Then I enter this slippery slope of thinking that my productivity will stay the same even without a written plan for the day.

The truth is, if I want to have an uber-productive day, week, or month, using a planner a sure-fire way to achieve that.  Since I'm on a mission to reimplement the habit of daily planning, I thought I'd reach out to someone who embodies this habit. Shara Simmons is a card-carrying member of the budding planner community.  I've followed Shara on IG for years.  From afar, I've seen her launch her nursing career, buy her dream car and acquire a beautiful home.  If I had to guess, I'd theorize that her dedication to jotting down action items has influenced the direction of her life.

 I follow an entrepreneur who launched her own clothing line several years ago.  Over the years, her company has flourished.   One secret she revealed in a vlog was how she always keeps her planner nearby to document everything she needs to accomplish. 

Let's take a peek inside the mind of a person who's dedicated to the art of planning and see if we can gain a few takeaways to apply in our own lives.

A while ago, I attended a women's empowerment seminar.  The person leading the event dedicated an entire segment to the power of journaling for manifestation.  To further convince us of the effectiveness of this practice, she invited several of her students up to share testimonies of how journaling produced amazing outcomes in their lives.

Hearing their incredible stories inspired me to start keeping my own manifestation journal.  Because I didn't purchase her journalling course with step by step instructions on how to journal for success, I kinda winged it.

My idea was to practice journaling current manifestations as they happen in real-time.  Along with that, I planned writing out future manifestations in the present tense to help generate feelings of already achieving what I want.

It was a great plan....but I wasn't consistent.  Eventually, I stopped journaling altogether.

But here's the good news, this year I developed a modified journaling routine to one that I could actually maintain.  So far, it's working beautifully and I can't wait to share the process with you.

I can't believe that we're months into winter and I haven't written the sheet mask post yet.  Don't worry ladies, I won't let you down, because I'm here to share one of my best sheet mask tips yet.  I can't even begin to tell you how many sheet masks I have in piled up in my drawer.    I'm always making silent promises to use up my masks, but fitting in that extra step into my already elaborate skin routine isn't always convenient.

Deep down, I know that if I were to mask more often, my skin would be immaculate.  But who has the time?

I do! Especially now that I've discovered a secret sheet masking tip that a Korean beauty enthusiasts swears by.

I haven't used direct heat in my hair for a long time.  The plan is to stay consistent with my wash day routine, feed my hair from within, then enjoy the fruits of my labor this summer.  Ideally, I hope to have retained a few more inches that I can flaunt this summer.

When it comes to using heat, I've shunned traditional heat protectants for natural oils.  Using oils as a heat protectant isn't recommended.  Instead of protecting the hair, some oils could heat up on the strands potentially causing damage.  Even though I was aware of the risk, I still took the chance because of how well my hair responds oils.

This morning I learned of the existence of a new styling oil that protects against heat while also repairing the hair at the structural level.

It never fails, whenever I put on a few extra pounds, it always goes directly to my midsection.  Of all the times in the year, I seem to pack on belly fat during the winter.  Most of us will dismiss this phenomenon as a result of the extra indulgences that occur during the holidays... and that may be so, but I've recently learned of another trigger that could be causing us to have more belly fat than we should.

A few years ago, I participated in a serious of wellness experiences as a means of elevating my vibration.  Basically, I signed up for a bunch of services including massage treatments, infrared sauna sessions, float tanks, cryotherapy, etc.  All of those experiences were amazing.  The best part is that I was able to manifest growth in my business by working less.  Abundance just seemed to flow.

One other experience that I really wanted to try was a salt room.  I've written multiple articles on the benefits of pink salt.  Not only is it nutritionally superior to plain ole table salt, it also has potential beauty benefits as well.

This past Christmas, I was blessed with a gift card to a local salt room.  This gift was given by a family member who lives across the country and had no idea this was something I wanted.  The gift card was an incredible manifestation.  This past weekend was my first of many salt room visits.  The experience was so incredible that I immediately wanted to book a second session. 

For those who've always been curious about visiting a salt cave, I hope this post helps to convince you to take the plunge.

At the end of last year, I made a fairly significant purchase from Sephora in order to secure membership to their VIP program.  Once the purchase was made, I felt pretty confident knowing that I wouldn't be purchasing or coveting another beauty related item for a very long while.

*laughs nervously* I guess I was mistaken. 

It looks like I won't even make it through January before making yet another beauty buy.  But this time I can justify my transgression by saying that this might just be the most loved beauty product of 2019.

Do you have some lofty goals set for 2020?  I know I do.  Right now I'm full of optimism 'cause the new year just started and there's plenty of possibilities ahead.   Even with a ripe new year before me, I still know that unless I make some changes from last year, I run the risk of not achieving my desires.

This morning, I asked myself a simple question.  "If there's one thing I need to change in order to reach all of my goals, what would that be."

The answer came back quickly.

As soon as I "heard" it, I knew that this was the single most important key to my success.

To put it bluntly, the only way to achieve most of my goals is to manage or eliminate that which distracts me from achieving them.

In 2019, I discovered my new favorite body care product thanks to an Instagram Beauty Secret reveal.  Any long-time readers know that I'm obsessed with body exfoliation.  I attribute my long-standing habit of scrubbing in the shower daily as a key to helping to minimize discoloration on the body.

Until recently, I mainly relied on the help of sugar crystals to help slough off dead skin.  While sugar scrubs are great, they just didn't compare with the amazing microdermabrasion bar from CrystalPeel.  This exfoliation soap has my entire heart.  I didn't think I could find anything better.

Until now...

My phone has become both a blessing and a curse.  On the one hand, it's a tool that I use for my business and to keep in touch with family.  On the other hand, my cell phone is a huge distraction.  My amount of daily screen time is more than I'm comfortable with.  What's worse is that a bulk of that time is spent mindlessly on social media.

Obviously, this is a habit that I'd like correct in 2020.  But instead of promising to spend less time on the phone, I have a better idea...

If this works, my phone can actually become a powerful tool that'll help me manifest all of my immediate goals. 

Here's how.