11 Face Masks To Revive Your Skin For Summer
It's hard to believe all that we have endured the past year and a half. Between mask mandates and shutdowns, we have been cooped up in the house longer than we would have ever expected. And while our bodies have experienced change, so has our skin. "Quaranskin" is a whole thing – how our skin has been impacted during the quarantine. You may have been looking in the mirror wondering what's different and how can I get my old glow back? Two words: face mask.
We recently learned the magic behind face masks from Penn Medicine. "The mask traps the moisture or ingredient in the skin and creates film that helps to either hydrate, moisturize, dry or exfoliate the skin depending on the ingredients used and its purpose." Basically, face masks understand their assignment. We also understand our assignment to help you shine all summer. We have rounded up some amazing face masks that will not only revive your skin but feed your soul as a means of self-care.
LUSH Mask of Magnaminty
When LUSH says this is a cult classic, they are speaking facts! Its powerful ingredients intensely clean and exfoliate your skin in ways you can't even imagine. Kaolin, peppermint, aduki beans, and honey work together to discard the debris and promote hydration. Trust us when we say that this is the awakening your face needs.
Glossier Mask Duo greens + moon masks
The tagline: "Two masks to put skin in a good mood." And we love a good mood, honey. Packed with superfruit antioxidants, the mega greens mask detoxes while the moon mask brightens and hydrates. You can use them alone or you can give your skin a one-two punch by applying the moon mask and then the mega greens, in that order. Whether you struggle with hormonal acne, combination skin, or random breakouts, this duo is life-changing.
fresh Mini Rose Face Mask
It's basically self-care in a jar. The real rose petals make this face mask luxurious and we believe you and all your homegirls deserve luxury in all ways. Not only does it soothe and tone, but it also plumps your skin to keep that melanin glowing. 90 percent of reviewers said it nourished and visibly improved the appearance of their skin.
RéVive Masque de Radiance Brightening Moisture Mask
RéVive
The Vitamin C in this souffle-like mask boosts moisture for a radiance you've never experienced. The way the formula transforms from pearlescent white to a shimmering shade of gold is truly magical. If you're struggling with dull skin, you need to add this to your cart ASAP. Best of all, it now comes with a "dual-applicator to invigorate skin with a gentle massage."
Eminence Organic Skincare Clear Skin Probiotic Masque
Eminence Organic Skincare
Did you know that Tamron Hall said she's in love with Eminence's Clear Skin Probiotic Masque? "Sometimes I'll walk the dog with the mask and sunglasses on and scare my neighbors." That means it has to be worth it! Clear skin is much more achievable with this product in your beauty arsenal.
Youth to the People Superberry Hydrate + Glow Dream Mask
Lather this creamy mask on before bed for bright, even-toned skin. It's formulated with a proprietary Superberry Blend: Maqui, acai, prickly pear, goji berry, sunflower, moringa, squalane. Word on the street is that it's the most tolerable Vitamin C face mask. You'll look forward to your nighttime routine for this reason.
Kiehl’s Turmeric & Cranberry Seed Energizing Radiance Mask
Still nervous about getting a facial in a pandemic? Try this Kiehl's masque. It is an instant facial that will have you looking like a new woman. Turmeric is known for its antioxidant properties so it is ideal for brightening skin. Then, you have the effervescent cranberry made up of antioxidants and resveratrol. The seeds from the cranberries assist in delaminating the skin which equals smooth and radiant.
Versed DOCTOR'S VISIT INSTANT RESURFACING MASK
In just two minutes, this Versed mask begins tackling hyperpigmentation. From lactic to glycolic acids, you can count on Doctor's Visit to make dead skin and dark spots disappear. Your pores will never be happier than after drenching it with this vitamin C-rich pineapple and papaya enzymes mask.
Herbivore Botanicals Prism Exfoliating Glow Facial
Herbivore Botanicals
What's better than rose water and aloe vera? The answer is nothing. That's why this jelly-textured facial is what dreams are made of. It sits comfortably at the intersection of cleansing and exfoliating so you'll notice brighter and softer skin before you know it. It doesn't hurt that the packaging is super cute!
ORIGINS ORIGINAL SKIN™ Retexturizing Mask With Rose Clay
Keeping with the rose theme, we are obsessed with the way this mask makes our skin soft as a baby's bottom. With ease, the clay mask "gently draws out dirt and debris, exfoliates to refine skin's texture and visibly minimizes the look of pores in one simple step." The results? Skin like Beyonce.
Keys Soulcare HARMONY MASK
Manuka honey is known to improve your skin's appearance. Activated charcoal is infamous for being a super cleanser. When you put them together, you get long-lasting hydration and a balanced stillness that is unmatched. We also can't get over the affirmation that comes with this mask: "I walk in my own strength." What a vibe!
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Joce Blake is a womanist who loves fashion, Beyonce and Hot Cheetos. The sophistiratchet enthusiast is based in Brooklyn, NY but has southern belle roots as she was born and raised in Memphis, TN. Keep up with her on Instagram @joce_blake and on Twitter @SaraJessicaBee.
Beyond Burnout: Nicole Walters' Blueprint For Achieving Career Success On Your Own Terms
Nicole Walters has always been known for two things: her ambition and her ability to recognize when life’s challenges can also double as an inspiring, lucrative brand.
This was first evident more than a decade ago when she quit her job as the corporate executive of a Fortune 500 company during a Periscope livestream. “I’m not sure if there’s an alignment of [our] future trajectory. I’m going to work for myself. I'm promoting myself to work for myself,” she said at the time before flashing a smile at the viewing audience. As she resigned on camera, a constant stream of encouraging messages floated upwards on the screen.
By 2021, she’d fashioned her work as a corporate consultant and her personal life with her husband and three adopted daughters into a reality show, She’s The Boss, for USA Network. This year, she released the New York Times bestselling memoir Nothing Is Missing, written as she was in the process of getting a divorce and dealing with her eldest daughter’s struggles with substance use.
Convinced that there’s no way the 39-year-old has achieved all of this without intentional strategic planning, I asked her about it when we spoke less than a week before Christmas. I’d seen videos on social media of her working on 2024 planning for other brands, and I wanted to know what that looked like following her own year of success.
She listed a number of goals, including ensuring that the projects she takes on in the new year align with her identity “as a Black woman, as an African woman, as a mother, as someone who has lived a [rebuilding] season and is now trying to live boldly and entirely as themselves.” But, I was shocked by how much of her business planning also prioritized rest.
Despite the bestselling book, a self-titled podcast, and working with numerous corporations, Walters said she’s been taking Fridays off. This year, she doesn’t want to work on Mondays, either.
“A lot of us think we work hard until retirement hits. I want to progress towards retirement,” she said, noting that she’ll check in with herself around March to see how successful this plan has been. The goal, Walters said, is to only be working on Tuesdays and Thursdays by sometime in 2025. “It is intentionally building out what I know I would like to have happen and not waiting for exhaustion to be the trigger of change.”
"A lot of us think we work hard until retirement hits. I want to progress towards retirement... It is intentionally building out what I know I would like to happen and not waiting for exhaustion to be the trigger of change."
Walters said the decision to progressively work less was partially in response to her previously held notions about her career, especially as an entrepreneur. “When I first started, I thought burnout was a part of it,” she said. “What I didn’t realize is that even if you’re able to bounce out of burnout or get back to it, there’s a cumulative impact on your body. If you think of your body as a tree and every time you go through burnout, you are taking a hack out of your trunk, yes, that trunk will heal over, and the tree will continue to grow, but it doesn't mean that you don’t have a weakened stem.”
But, the desire for increased rest was also in response to the major shifts that occurred three years ago when she was experiencing major changes in her family and realized her metaphorical tree was “bending all the way over.”
Courtesy
“One of the things we have to recognize, especially as Black women, is that there is this engrained, societal, systemic notion that our worth is built around our productivity,” she added. “That is some language that I think is just now starting to really get unpacked.” In recent years, there’s been an increased awareness of achieving balance in life, with Tricia Hersey’s “The Nap Ministry” gaining attention based on the idea that rest, especially for Black women, is a form of resistance. Even online phrases such as “soft life” and “quiet quitting” have hinted at a cultural shift in prioritizing leisure over professional ambition.
"One of the things we have to recognize, especially as Black women, is that there is this engrained, societal, systemic notion that our worth is built around our productivity."
If companies are lining up to consult with Walters about their brands and products, then women have been looking to her for guidance on starting over since she invited them to livestream her resignation 12 years ago. As viewers continue to demand more from content creators in the form of intimate, personal details, Walters has navigated her personal brand with a sense of transparency without oversharing the vulnerable details about her life, especially when it comes to her family.
The entrepreneur said she’d been approached to write a book for several years and was initially convinced she was finally ready to write one about business. “I started to do that, and then I went through my divorce. When that happened, I said, why would I write a book telling people to get the life that I have when I’m not sure about the life that I have,” she said.
Instead, she decided to write Nothing Is Missing and provide a closer look at her life, starting with being born to immigrant Ghanaian parents (“You need to know my childhood to know why I’m passionate about entrepreneurship.”) through the adoption of her three daughters and eventual divorce. Despite her desire to share, however, she said she felt protective of the privacy of her family, including her ex-husband.
When discussing this with me, Walters said she was reminded of a lesson she learned from actress Kerry Washington, who released her own memoir, Thicker Than Water, just a week before Walters’ book release. Washington’s memoir grapples with family secrets, too, specifically the fact that she was conceived using a sperm donor and didn’t learn about it until she was already a successful TV star. While Washington reflects on how the decision and subsequent deception impacted her, she’s also careful to hold space for her parents’ experiences, too. “A lot of things she said was that she had to recognize where she was the supporting character and where she was the main character,” Walter said.
This is something Walter worked to do in Nothing Is Missing when discussing her daughter’s struggles with addiction. “I was very intentional about making sure that I did not reveal more than what was required,” she said. “If I say something about someone’s addiction, I don’t need to go into the list of the substances they used, how they used them, what I found. [I don’t need to] walk into a room and paint a picture of what it looked like for people to understand.”
Walters said some of the most vulnerable moments in the book barely made a ripple once it was released. She was extremely nervous to write about getting an abortion, she said. But no one has asked her about this in the months since the book was released. Instead, people have been more interested in quirkier revelations, such as the fact that she once appeared on Wheel of Fortune.
“I have bared my soul about this thing I went through in my youth that has changed me for people, and people are like, ‘So how heavy was the wheel when you spun it?’” she said, chuckling. “It just goes to show that people never worry about the thing that you worry about.”
With the success of Nothing Is Missing, Walters said she still isn’t planning to release a business book at the moment. But, as she navigates parenting a teenager and two adult children while also navigating a relationship with her new fiancé, Walters said she believes she has at least one or two more books to write about her personal journey. “There is sort of an arc of where my life has gone that I know I’ve got something more to say about this that I think is important, relevant and necessary,” she said.
In just three years, Walters’ life has undergone a major transformation. There’s no telling what the next three years will have in store for her, but it seems likely she’ll retain an inspired audience wherever life takes her.
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It's 2024, and you're ready to get back into the dating scene. Well, you're not alone. According to Jonathan Kirkland, Head of Brand and Marketing of BLK, a popular dating and lifestyle app for the Black community, the day after Christmas through Valentine's Day is considered "peak season" for dating apps. So, whether romance is on your vision board or you just want to date for fun, it's necessary to make your dating profile stand out. If you've used dating apps, then you've probably seen it all. The shady profiles with creepy photos, the lack of info or too much info in the About Me section, and much more. While we know that's not you, you could be making some mistakes that are keeping you from making a connection with a potential love interest.
In an exclusive interview, Jonathan lists 10 dating profile mistakes to avoid in 2024. Read below to kick off your dating journey in a positive way.
Blurry Pictures
Jonathan says blurry pictures are the ultimate no-no. "Pictures are your first representation of yourself on the dating app. So make sure that you have a clear picture, make sure that the picture represents you. If it's a blurry picture, people can't see you. They will see your picture before they read your profile."
Inappropriate Pictures
Next are inappropriate pictures. "Typically, they'll get flagged on dating apps by our moderators, but I mean a torso pic. I mean, even if you have a six-pack, people still want to see your face."
Morsa Images/ Getty Images
Incomplete Biographies
"Another profile mistake; I will say incomplete bios because after people see your pic, if they like it. They want to, you know, get to know a little bit about you," he says.
"If the app gives you as much information to fill out like if you want kids, education, are you a smoker or do you work out, you know, fill out as much as possible because that way that also helps, you know, get you to your match quicker and can alleviate some of that time back and forth. If you know, it's not going to be a match."
Misspellings and Grammar Mistakes
Jonathan recommends that dating app users use spellcheck when writing bios. Grammar mistakes and misspelled words may show that you don't "pay attention to detail, which people probably don't want."
Being Vague About Intentions
While you may be looking for a serious relationship, other people may just be looking for a good time so revealing what you're looking for in your profile will help weed out those who don't match your intentions. "So on BLK we now have, you can select your intention right on your profile. Are you looking for long-term relationship, friends with benefits, friends, you know, things like that?"
Pro-Stock Studios/ Getty Images
TMI
However, there is such a thing as too much information. "Because then that could be safety and privacy, like you don't want to put your phone number on there. I mean, you might not want to put your Snapchat or Instagram." He continues, "I will say like, keep your different social media separate and not give all your information out on your profile."
Negativity
If you're on dating apps, then you've probably seen a negative profile or two, but don't follow in those footsteps. "Even if you've had bad experiences in dating apps or relationships, you don't take it to the dating app because it's supposed to be a place of hope."
Not Updating Your Profile
Have you dyed your hair or lost weight since creating your dating profile? Then you might want to update it, sis. "I mean, you don't want to misrepresent yourself, like if you got a picture from when you were in high school, probably not the best thing because if you meet somebody in person, you're not going to look the same. People's weights, especially during COVID, have gone up, gone down. So you might want to keep that updated to be in accordance with what's real."
Overuse of Filters
While we love our filters, we want to make sure our pics on our dating profiles match how we look in real life. No catfishing here. "Overuse of filters is definitely a faux pas because, again, it's not representing who you truly are," he says. "We want to be all about authenticity. Like that's why BLK exists because it's like you can be your real self, so with BLK, you don't have to code switch. So, I would say, like the filters and edits, let's not lean into that so much.
Lack of Initiative
Lack of initiative applies to after matching with someone. "Bumble says make the first move. We're not gonna say that, but it's like, I mean, send a message if you already matched, so it's like okay, you both swiped right on each other. Don't wait for the other person to message you first. Just go for it. I mean, all you can lose is just somebody you don't know."
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