

Boss Babes Link Up! xoNecole's ElevateHER Is Coming To ATL This August
For decades, Atlanta has been hailed as one of the most centralized meccas of Black culture, entertainment, and business. For the first time ever, on Saturday, August 3rd, xoNecole is bringing a one of a kind retail and entrepreneurship utopia to the city that will take your magic to the next level.
Join our tribe along with hundreds of other boss women just like you for xoNecole's ElevateHER Crawl, which will feature a number of your favorite influencers, surprise guest speakers, and a whole gang of local vendors for a special shopping experience that is uniquely curated by the xo Team.
When Necole Kane, founder and CEO of xoNecole, moved back to Atlanta last year, she had one mission: to create a hub for women of color to flourish and thrive and we just linked up with Toyota Corolla to do exactly that in a celebration of women in business that you won't forget.
This multi-experience event will allow you to interact with more than 30 local female-owned vendors, participate in creative DIY workshops, develop business connections and network with bomb boss babes from all over the country. And let's not forget, xoNecole always comes through with the goodie bags jam-packed with products you'll love from other black-owned businesses!
What You Can Expect
Shop
The real shop till you drop experience. Over 30 local ATL businesses as well as a few of our brand favs like The Lip Bar, Posh Candle Co, and The Honey Pot are joining us for our first ever interactive shopping experience. Enjoy the beautifully curated selection of all your favorite online brands, boutiques, artists, beauticians, and much more.
Create
Get ready to bring your inner creative out to play. We'll be hosting some exciting DIY workshops throughout the day presented by some of our special brand partners. Get your cameras out and come ready to capture some envy worthy social content at our social stage and step into our IG moments around the venue.
Elevate
When we fill a room with black girl magic – anything is possible. Expect to make new friends run into old friends, find your new favorite brands, and potentially make that next business connection that manifests into a billion dollar idea. Hear from our speakers who have launched brands and sold out shelves of their products while overcoming some lifespan's most challenging obstacles.
We hope to make our first ever ElevateHER Market a day to remember. Black women are leading the way in entrepreneurship and starting new businesses daily. This will be a day of celebration, toasting to our own hustles and making space to network and take our next ideas even further than we've ever imagined.
Early bird general admission tickets are available for purchase now! Click here to grab your ticket and secure your spot for the big day.
If you want to elevate your experience with VIP early access, grab a VIP ticket for you and your homegirls and get all the perks. You'll have an hour of exclusive shopping, a gift bag of goodies from our brand partners and more!
If you're dying to know how you, too, can get in on bringing this vision of Black Girl Magic to life by showcasing your own products and services, no worries, sis. We got you.
Here's how you can get involved with this year's ElevateHER market right now:
Join Us As A Vendor
Push your product to hundreds of live customers and get feedback in real time by applying to be a vendor at this year's market! Approved vendors will receive exclusive promotion on our social media pages.
Get ready to sip & shop til' you drop on the first Saturday in August with our tribe of business-owning boss babes and stay tuned for more information on how you can get in on the action first!
Let's elevate together, sis! Cop your early bird tickets here.
Featured image by Getty Images.
Taylor "Pretty" Honore is a spiritually centered and equally provocative rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a love for people and storytelling. You can probably find me planting herbs in your local community garden, blasting "Back That Thang Up" from my mini speaker. Let's get to know each other: @prettyhonore.
Smile, Sis! These Five Improvements Can Upgrade Your Oral Hygiene Instantly
This article is in partnership with Sensodyne.
Our teeth are connected to so many things - our nutrition, our confidence, and our overall mood. We often take for granted how important healthy teeth are, until issues like tooth sensitivity or gum recession come to remind us. Like most things related to our bodies, prevention is the best medicine. Here are five things you can do immediately to improve your oral hygiene, prevent tooth sensitivity, and avoid dental issues down the road.
1) Go Easy On the Rough Brushing: Brushing your teeth is and always will be priority number one in the oral hygiene department. No surprises there! However, there is such a thing as applying too much pressure when brushing…and that can lead to problems over time. Use a toothbrush with soft bristles and brush in smooth, circular motions. It may seem counterintuitive, but a gentle approach to brushing is the most effective way to clean those pearly whites without wearing away enamel and exposing sensitive areas of the teeth.
2) Use A Desensitizing Toothpaste: As everyone knows, mouth pain can be highly uncomfortable; but tooth sensitivity is a whole different beast. Hot weather favorites like ice cream and popsicles have the ability to trigger tooth sensitivity, which might make you want to stay away from icy foods altogether. But as always, prevention is the best medicine here. Switching to a toothpaste like Sensodyne’s Sensitivity & Gum toothpaste specifically designed for sensitive teeth will help build a protective layer over sensitive areas of the tooth. Over time, those sharp sensations that occur with extremely cold foods will subside, and you’ll be back to treating yourself to your icy faves like this one!
3) Floss, Rinse, Brush. (And In That Order!): Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not what you do, but how you do it”? Well, the same thing applies to taking care of your teeth. Even if you are flossing and brushing religiously, you could be missing out on some of the benefits simply because you aren’t doing so in the right order. Flossing is best to do before brushing because it removes food particles and plaque from places your toothbrush can’t reach. After a proper flossing sesh, it is important to rinse out your mouth with water after. Finally, you can whip out your toothbrush and get to brushing. Though many of us commonly rinse with water after brushing to remove excess toothpaste, it may not be the best thing for our teeth. That’s because fluoride, the active ingredient in toothpaste that protects your enamel, works best when it gets to sit on the teeth and continue working its magic. Rinsing with water after brushing doesn’t let the toothpaste go to work like it really can. Changing up your order may take some getting used to, but over time, you’ll see the difference.
4) Stay Hydrated: Upping your water supply is a no-fail way to level up your health overall, and your teeth are no exception to this rule. Drinking water not only helps maintain a healthy pH balance in your mouth, but it also washes away residue and acids that can cause enamel erosion. It also helps you steer clear of dry mouth, which is a gateway to bad breath. And who needs that?
5) Show Your Gums Some Love: When it comes to improving your smile, you may be laser-focused on getting your teeth whiter, straighter, and overall healthier. Rightfully so, as these are all attributes of a megawatt smile; but you certainly don’t want to leave gum health out of the equation. If you neglect your gums, you’ll start to notice the effects of plaque buildup, which can irritate the gums and cause gingivitis, the earliest stage of gum disease. Seeing blood while brushing and flossing is a tell-tale sign that your gums are suffering. You may also experience gum recession — a condition where the gum tissue surrounding your teeth pulls back, exposing more of your tooth. Brushing at least twice a day with a gum-protecting toothpaste like Sensodyne Sensitivity and Gum, coupled with regular dentist visits, will keep your gums shining as bright as those pearly whites.
Russell and Nina Westbrook Dish On The Key Ways To Avoid Resentment In Relationships
Russell and Nina Westbrook are one of those low-key, unproblematic couples we don’t talk about enough. They met in college and got married in 2015. They also have a beautiful family with three kids. While Russell is an NBA star, Nina is a licensed family and marriage therapist and a mental health advocate.
She recently launched the podcast The Relationship Chronicles with Nina Westbrook, and in the latest episode, she had none other than her husband on as a guest. The college sweethearts dived into important topics from marriage to children and how they navigate it all.
One of the topics they touched on was dealing with resentment in your relationship. The former MVP highlighted the sacrifices his wife has had to make in order for him to pursue a career in the NBA, and that’s why it’s also important for him to support his wife whenever he can.
“For me is respecting and understanding what your partner do and the time it takes,” Russell said. “Not kind of downplaying what they do, understanding the time and energy and effort they're doing to make sure whether it’s their job or making sure home is taken care of, and understanding that, I think that is the challenge of not being resentful.”
Nina agreed and also shared her thoughts on resentment. According to her, one of the best things couples should do is have their own identity and passions outside of the relationship in an effort to be fulfilled.
“I also think that when you’re in a relationship, that’s why it’s so important that each individual kinda pursue their own passions and follow their own dreams as I feel like it only becomes or leads to resentment when one person is not feeling fulfilled in what they're doing in their lives,” she explained.
“And so, they will start to look at the other partner who’s happy or excelling or promoting or moving along in their journey, then they’re left feeling stuck like they sacrificed themselves, their happiness, their career, their future and have not pursued it in the name of the relationship or their partner. So, it’s so much easier to avoid those feelings of resentment when you’re each equally pursuing your passions.”
The couple has many passions that they work on together and separately. Outside of basketball and his family, Russell has become known for his eclectic style and started the fashion brand Honor The Gift. Nina has her podcast, and she also started the mental health website Bene. Together, they run the Why Not? Foundation, which works with kids in underserved communities.
“I’m a firm believer that one person can’t be everything to you, so you have to sort of seek out those different friendships or groups or hobbies or activities that help to fulfill you,” Nina concluded.
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Feature image by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Religion of Sports