You’ve seen my makeover, fashion show, and product pictures and videos from the Afro Hair and Beauty Live 2016 show so here’s what I picked up. You didn’t think I would leave empty handed did you?

Remember my mission to find shea oil for my baby’s thick, curly dry hair?  My brief was to find a product which had as few ingredients as possible. My first stop, because it was one of the first stands, was Mixed Roots. The products were free from parabens and sulphates but still had too many ingredients, especially some unrecognisable.  It use it on my hair but not on a baby.  I was given a couple of Curl Control Leave-In Lotion sachets to try so I’ll keep them for myself.  It was a similar story for Mazuri Shea Butter Naturals which was next door. The products were shea butter based but there were still too many ingredients so it didn’t fit the brief either! I’ve got a couple of Oil Moisturiser samples to try out. Both brands cater for curly hair but as I have a sensitive scalp, I want to be careful with my baby.

Following my seminar with Dr Clare Aniyam-Osigwe, I popped down to the Premae stand and picked up Pharma100 Conditioning Crème which is aimed at treating psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis and uticaria.  Luckily I don’t suffer from any of those – this was a gift for someone else! Premae is cruelty-free and vegan and the ingredients were recognisable. With my purchase I received a mini pack of dried mango by Urban Fruit (yum!) and a scrub sample.

Black Beauty & Hair magazine were one of the sponsors so you could subscribe there (new subscribers received a Sleek gift) or pick up discounted back issues.  I forgot I had received but not read all of the past year’s editions so bought them again. Oops!

I bought a couple of back issues of  New African Woman too although I was sure I didn’t have them already! The best part about getting NAW at Afro Hair & Beauty Live is that you can choose your cover.  There are different covers for UK, South Africa, Nigeria and international editions so if you’re not bowled over with the UK edition, or you just like to collect NAW, you can get the alternatives. I love it!  I chose the UK cover of issue 36 (pink dress) and the South African cover of issue 35 simply because the cover models and dresses were gorgeous.

I wanted to try out a new make-up product and I was due to get my summer powder (I also needed a summer foundation but I had decided on one by Iman).  I went to Kitoko which means “beautiful”.  The brand is influenced by the brand owners’ British, French and Congo DRC roots. I got a foundation colour match and ended up buying the Mineral Foundation in Just Hue.  It was tempting to pick up the yellow and green eyeshadow palette but I was good. While I was at the stand I noticed that the concealer looked popular. Am I missing out?  There are only a few of the products on the website so I’m not sure how to get hold of more powder foundation or to try the concealer.

On my travels I stopped by Hansib Publications which specialises in publishing fiction and non-fiction books of Black British, black-Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean interest.  I’ve not seen the books in shops and I’m a paper book person (although I do have a Kindle) so it was nice to flick though a couple of books. I barely have time to read so I picked up a cook book – – Classic Caribbean Cooking by Sharon Atkin which I have already used so money well spent.

I found the shea oil I was looking for at Monshea.  It had as few ingredients as possible: shea oil! Monshea also has a range of other products including black soap so check out my previous blog post or Instagram to see more.

I stopped at Aviela for a good long while because they did liquid black soap, went away and came back to buy a few goodies. The Liquid Shea Butter Black Soap is as the name suggests, based on shea butter.  It is a traditional soap that is used in Ghana.  Lots of people say it is good for skin conditions such as eczema, probably because there are so few ingredients and they are all natural.  Should I do a mini blog post on it? Black soap is usually solid (albeit crumbly) so to make it liquid a couple of extra (natural) ingredients need to be added.  I bought the Liquid to wash my baby’s hair (do you see a theme here?) but I might use it myself also!

I decided that my baby needn’t be the only one to benefit from shea butter products. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to I picked up little tins of the Aviela Shea Hand Butter because my hands are battered, the Shea Lip Butter which has a hint of mint and the Pure Shea Butter just because! I also received a few samples including Body Butter & Hair Butter. Shea can do everything!

I forgot to mention in my previous post that at Pauline Briscoe‘s stand, every person who booked  a service received a free gift.  I thought that was a lovely touch.

Natures Heart creates thick, luxurious, whipped, shea butters scented with essential oils.  A little goes a long way. I had to pick one up – I went for rose and geranium.

*Palmer’s always have a huge stand where you can try out the products and have chat about what would be best for you.  The products didn’t meet my minimal ingredients rule (well how can you beat a single ingredient) but it’s still a brand I like to use for myself.  Just when I was about to leave, I spotted some interesting little flower balls.

They were Flip Balms, the new lip balms by Palmer’s. They flip open to reveal a ball-shaped balm.  I had a quick play live on Periscope and Facebook Live so take a look!

I also received a coconut oil shampoo and leave-in conditioner (a must-have for me) ans sachets of coconut oil body lotion, and manuka flower honey shampoo and conditioner.

I think I was quite restrained this year.  Let’s see what happens if I go to the next Afro Hair and Beauty Live!

*This post contains press samples. Click here for more details.

 

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