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Back in October I purchased the entire Pattern Beauty collection that was developed by the great Tracee Ellis Ross. I was thrilled to try this product because my hair at the time was in dire need of some much needed TLC. I was still straightening my hair my hair at the time, so my first couple of washes with Pattern Beauty weren’t showing me any major results. In fact, the only results I was seeing at the time were heat damage. I continued to rehab my hair for the next five months with a few other products, that I’ll mention in later posts, and have been heat-free since January. In May, I once again picked up my Pattern Beauty products to determine if they could really give me the wash and go results I was dying to see and was pleasantly surprised.  My wash and go turned out phenomenal just from using the Hydration Shampoo, the Heavy Conditioner, and the Leave-In Conditioner. My hair was soft, well moisturizered and easy to detangle. Swipe through the photos to see my results. My hair still has a good amount of heat damage in the front, although my hair has always been a looser curl at the front even before I got my first relaxer, so that may not ever change. However, the curls at the back of my head were luscious, juicy and springy, a sign that the Pattern Beauty hair care line did just what it was meant to do.
The Pattern Beauty collection has three different conditioners, designed to best fit your curl pattern. The Medium conditioner is designed for both curly and coily hair textures. My hair is 3B/3C, so I initially used this conditioner, but I quickly realized I would need the next conditioner in the line to achieve the results I desired. My favorite conditioner is the Heavy conditioner, that is designed for coily and tighter textures. If you’re a 3C texture, this is likely the shampoo that will provide you with the best results. It’s formulated to provide serious hydration to your hair, and allows for easy detangling and great curl clumping. The Intensive conditioner is perfect for those with tighter textures, and was formulated for those with Type 4 hair. It’s also perfect for low porosity hair that often struggles to retain moisture. There are a few different hair serums offered by Patten Beauty, but I haven’t tried those quite yet! I give Pattern Beauty four out of five lightening bolts. I love the way my hair feels after using the products, and I love how easy it is to detangle my hair as I’m washing it, and even post-wash. However, at this time there aren’t any styling products available from Pattern Beauty. When I use a product, for the first time at least, I prefer for all of the products that I am using to be from the same line. I’m hearing that styling products are in the works and will hopefully be available soon from Pattern Beauty. When they are available, you can be sure that I’ll be purchasing them to try and review! - Chelsea Nicole, The Mod Little Melanin
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It’s XOMandySue Monday on The Mod Little Melanin! Each Monday for the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing looks from XOMandySue. Be sure to use my code “CHELSEANICOLE” at check out for a 30% discount off your purchase! Today’s post features the Tori Dress! The Tori Dress is the perfect casual and comfy dress when you’re looking for a quick outfit for running much needed errands or for spending a day at the park. It is made out of a fabric similar to a sweatshirt-like material and is perfect to keep you cool on even the hottest summer day. The ruffle sleeves and smocked shoulder detail, along with lace trim add a feminine touch to this dress. The Tori Dress is also available for purchase in the color blue.  I chose to style this dress with minimal accessories, as I felt that the bold sleeves with ruffle detail provided enough of a frame to my neckline that a necklace was not required for this look. Instead I opted to only wear a pair of rhinestone heart shaped earrings. This pair of earrings will be available for purchase soon in my store.
If you’re wanting a way to style this same dress in the cooler months, here is one way! Add a denim jean jacket, a light wash distressed jacket will look great with the Tori Dress. The Carpe Diem Jacket available for purchase on XOMandySue.com is the perfect denim jacket to pair with the Tori Dress during cooler months. Next, add a pair of sneakers, such as white Converses to complete the look. Now you’ve got the perfect look to transition the Tori Dress into Early Spring and Early Autumn months! Check back next Monday for another edition of XOMandySue Monday! - Chelsea Nicole, The Mod Little Melanin Today is my 27th Birthday. I’ve accomplished so much in my 27 years of life. I’ve earned my bachelors and masters degree. I was accepted into multiple medical schools last year, before ultimately deciding to attend TUSPM. I serve as a mentor to numerous Black and Native American students who are looking to pursue a career in the medical field. I run a successful blog, The Mod Little Melanin, and later this summer I’ll be launching my online boutique under the same name. Breonna Taylor should have turned 27 today too. We had so much in common. We both born on Saturday, June 5th, 1993. We both were born in the Midwest. I was born in Chicago, and she was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We both attended college at the same time; with myself attending The University of Kansas, and Breonna attending The University of Kentucky. During our freshman year of college, our schools played each other in the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship. We both aspired to have careers in the medical field. Breonna was an EMT for the City of Louisville, and also worked as a ER Technician. I’m pursuing a career in podiatry. Breonna had so much potential. She could have accomplished so much in her life. She could have become a nurse, a doctor, a scientist, maybe even the President of the United States. But we’ll never know all she could have done for this world, because her life was cut short when the Louisville Police Department used a battering ram to enter her home at 1 in the morning on March 13th in an attempt to serve a “no-knock warrant”, at the WRONG home, and shot and killed Breonna as she laid in her bed. Breonna was shot eight times in her bed. To make matters worse, the suspects the LPD were looking for were already in police custody at the time of her death. I could have been Breonna Taylor. Anyone of your Black friends could have been Breonna Taylor. It has been nearly three months since Breonna’s death, and her murderers have still not been arrested. This is why we fight. This is why we protest. Police join me in honoring Breonna, by signing the petition linked in my bio demanding the arrest of the police officers that murdered Breonna. https://www.change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor In lieu of birthday gifts, I ask that you join me in honoring Breonna Taylor by matching my $10.00 donation to the GoFundMe set up by Breonna’s family on her behalf. Together we can help to fight for justice for Breonna. https://www.gofundme.com/f/9v4q2-justice-for-breonna-taylor Happy Birthday, Breonna. You will always be in my heart ❤️  Prior to the lockdown one of my favorite things to do was scout out the best locations around Kansas City and Philadelphia, depending where I was, to take photos for my blog at a later date. When I started The Mod Little Melanin four years ago (crazy right!) I frequently took photos inside of my house. But once I started comparing my blogging to other bloggers (and I’ll share in another post why you should never do that), I realized exactly what my blog was missing, scenic shots!  Most bloggers take photos in a variety of locations around their city, some even go as far as hiring photographers. But for me, a broke med student with no extra money to spend on photogs, or even good editing apps, I’ve learned to do everything on my own for the last few years. I’ve learned that blogging is trial and error until you learn what works for you. So eventually, I learned that I didn’t like shooting for my blog in my home, or even outside of my home. I learned the importance of lighting, and “golden hour” to get the best shots when shooting outside. And most importantly I learned that the backdrop of your photo can make or break your blog post.
Some bloggers take time to coordinate their outfits to their backdrops, or focus on having a particular color in all of their photos, and while that may work for them it has never worked for me. When I tried that method of blogging, or focused heavily on preserving my color theory in each photo, blogging no longer was enjoyable for me. My entire reason for starting The Mod Little Melanin was to share my joy for fashion and styling with my bloggers, and I felt I couldn’t do that when I worried about how my Instagram feed looked. Instead, my joy comes from finding vivid, colorful or scenic backgrounds to photograph my looks in front of. Philadelphia is home to hundreds of murals and my goal is to take photos in front of as many as possible. Sometimes I’ll purposely go to a specific location if I feel my outfit best coordinates with a particular mural but usually my shoots for a blog post are unplanned. Here are a five tips to get great photos for your blog at any location! 1. Find a location that isn’t crowded. Crowds make it difficult to get a good shot, and it results in a lot of photoshopping later to remove extra people. 2. Make sure your photos are taken in locations where the sunlight isn’t too harsh. If lighting is too harsh, find a wall to provide a bit of shade to cut down on harsh light. 3. Find your triangles when you pose. Posing in triangles helps to elongate your body and extremities, while providing flattering photos that you will love! Not sure what this means? Don’t worry I have a blog post coming soon to explain posing in triangles! For now, check out my Pinterest board linked in this sentence to learn how to pose in triangle! 4. Take a few candid shots. I always direct my photographer (aka whichever friend is with me that day) to continuously snap photos so that I have a few candid shots to post on Instagram later. Photos directly facing the camera are not my favorite, and I rarely smile in photos or even show my eyes without sunglasses. It’s become sort of my signature look with my blogs. 5. Shot the same outfit in a variety of locations throughout the day. Don’t just stick with one location, explore the city and snap as many as possible at a variety of locations! This helps you to create content that can be posted on your blog or Instagram weeks or even months later. Most importantly, have fun with your shots while you’re on location! I’ve found a ton of examples of unique poses to do in photos from Pinterest alone. Remember those triangles, and snap away! - Chelsea Nicole, The Mod Little Melanin I’ve been wearing quite a bit of loungewear during the coronavirus lockdown. Honestly, I’ve been wearing nothing but loungewear for the last two months, because if you’ve taken the time to sit around in your jeans while we’re in lockdown, you’re probably in the minority. Since we’ve likely all been wearing sweatpants, I thought today was the perfect time to show you have to dress up a pair of sweatpants from loungewear to athlesiure wear! So what exactly is athleisure wear? I personally define athleisure wear as couture-like pieces that are added to traditional athletic pieces such as sweatpants or a hoodie. However, Good Housekeeping defines athleisure wear as a hybrid of workout clothes and loungewear, which makes for versitile pieces that can go from the gym to the couch or even to the office. However you choose to define athleisure wear is up to you, but the key is to make sure your pieces look comfy while being stylish. The Queen of Athleisure Wear, Kim Kardashian-West makes athleisure wear look effortless. She frequently rocks her husband’s Yeezy clothing line of sweatpants and sweatshirts that are often in neutral color patterns such as tan, cream, khaki and black. So how exactly does Kim pull off this look? By choosing one color to create a monochrome look throughout her entire outfit, and adding a few layers on top to create a cohesive, and sleek look. She often completes her look by adding a pair of heels, or a tennis shoe, and bold accessories such as gold hoop earrings or a chunky gold necklace.  For this look, I choose to keep my styling simple by pairing coordinating athletic pieces that I purchased from Jordyn Woods’ clothing line called Secndnture , a size-inclusive, street-style inspired athletic wear line that puts fashion at the forefront of the design process. About a month ago, Secndnture had a sale when everything was 80% off, which meant it was the perfect time to snatch up athletic wear for an affordable price. I was able to score this pair of silver windbreaker sweatpants and coordinating mesh bodysuit for under $25.00.
The key to successfully styling this look was to style a monochrome, aka one color, outfit. Since these are coordinating pieces, there wasn’t much additional effort needed to finish styling this look. To finish the look, I added a pair of white chunky dad sneakers, and a pair of silver hoop earrings. With athleisure wear, you want to keep accessories to a minimum as to not overpower the look. After all, you goal is to look like you could go from the gym to the mall in one outfit. Want to see more athleisure looks? Be sure to follow me on Instagram, @themodlittlemelanin! - Chelsea Nicole. The Mod Little Melanin |
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The Mod Little Melanin
The Mod Little Melanin
A Fashion Blog by Chelsea Nicole.
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