Opening Night!

Hey loves!

How are ya'll!? I haven't posted in a few days. Things have been oh so incredibly busy a of late with my show and some additional performances that I've been doing here in the city. I'm super excited about this post because it's going to be picture heavy. Last week, my show celebrated its opening night with a grand party, open bar, a DJ, dancing, and a lot of fun. Getting dolled up and being girly is always fun. I hope you enjoy!

HAIR. Now, while I am not an advocate of heat, I did decide to use it for this occasion because of time. This is a style that I'd love to try with curl formers, but alas. So I did a co-wash (conditioner-only wash) by applying an olive oil-based conditioner on my dry hair and leaving it under a cap for a few hours while I did the dishes, shaved my legs, blah, blah, blah. I put a heat protectant on my head and blew it dry with a comb (I know, I know, natural-hair divas. Don't judge lol). Next, I used a curling iron to make small shirley temple curls all over my head. I never put the heat to the root of my hair and made sure to apply heat only for a few seconds. My goal wasn't to have bone-straight curls, but to have my natural texture intact with a little curly bump from the middle of the strand to the tip. This also keeps the volume to it's fullest. I don't like how stick-straight hair looks when it lays flat because of the volume loss. To finish it up, I sprayed a hair polisher on for shine and a shea-butter based light hold spritz to keep all that hard work in place.

Check the back.

Peep the side.

And the front (pre-face beat).

DESS AND ACCESSORIES. My theme was gold. Holiday, festive gold. I got my dress from Lord & Taylor. It is by Xscape for $179, but I was able to save about $45 by shopping with coupons and on a sale day. I unfortunately never got a full body pic of the entire ensemble, but here are a couple different views of the dress. Next, is a picture of my ring. I bought it for $3 at a little bodega in my hood last minute. I also got some big gold earrings which you'll see in the pictures below, but I think I ended up hating them by the end of the night. They just didn't look right. Whateves! They'll wirk with something else. In addition, I painted my nails bright diva-licious red and borrowed some gold bangles from my mother's closet which you can see faintly in the picture below. My shoes weren't supposed to happen, but one day I had a three hour break between shows and I found myself on 5th ave swiping my card. lol. They were also purchased at Bakers on the same day that I made my ignorant purchase feather headband post. The shoes were on sale for $85. I thought they were going to be $42.50 because they were on a 50% off table, but apparently, I was mislead. I almost didn't get them, but I am SO HAPPY that I did. The heel is platform and about 5-ish inches. Check them out!

FINAL PRODUCT. So on the way out, I had to wrap my head in a silk scarf because it started to rain and my natural hair was not having that. Here's the scarf and my full on face beat (I'll do a future post on my makeup process).

Here I am with some of my castmates. Below is Adrienne on the far left, another natural hair actress. Enjoy the party pics!

This girl didn't know what a twist-out was or that she had done one. Can you believe that!?! Craziness.

Such pretty decor!

Our dates! Mine is on the right, Adrienne's is on the left. No romantic connection between either pair. We both went with big/little brother types. I think my date even got someone else's number! I wasn't mad. I told him work it out! lol. Best dates ever!

SUCH A FUN NIGHT! Hope you liked the pics!