Category: Steph’s Lounge

My Kanekalon experience! As black women, we have many options when it comes to our hair. Some of the most gorgeous and affordable styles you can achieve will be with hair products made from Kanekalon fibre.

Soon, I’ll be giving out lots of fabulous Kanekalon products and accessories on this blog. So get ready! It’s a Saturday, what are you up to?!

Re: A Date with Stephanie!

Hello Dearies! Wooooh! What a crazy fun season it is! With 590 comments by 11am this morning, we have officially closed the competition. Below is a list of 25. Please send your numbers through the comment box (it will not be posted) and we shall place a call, which will determine the top 10 people for the date. Congratulations on making it through the first round, the final Top 10 will be revealed next week!

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Tomi Adesina

Ranty

Sola

Adebo Yetunde

Tonia

Ogebe Adadiu

Jennifer Egbuonu

Francess

Kolawole Adewale

Ebuka Ezeji

Olashile Ojuroye

Oluchi Iwuala

Tinuola Aransiola

Tolulope

Maria

Peace Ogbonnaya Onyinye

Jessica Oluchi Victor

Glory Ekpeyong

Abimbola Akin-Taylor Onabanjo

Peggy Place

Happiland Fubara

Uchechi Iwugwu

Okungbowa Esosa

Chioma

Akpa Chinyere

Hello lovely people! We are having so much fun here, we decided to lace it up some more – all for your benefit!

Would you like to go out on a date with me?

I would like to host 10 people on a dinner date, where we can share our dreams, ambitions, life goals and valuable life lessons.

If you are interested then tell me, in not more than 20 words…

“What is your life ambition?”

Do send in your responses/comments, and my team will pick 10 from the pack. YAY!!!

*Please note: The first season of a-date-with-Stephanie will hold in Lagos this September.*

It was on one of the Crime stations – a beautiful face of a three year old boy flashed on my TV screen. He was mixed-race with almost half his face dis-coloured. It was his own birth mark, but from the pictures that came on the screen, he seemed content and too young to worry about how the world would treat him for his uniqueness.

He didn’t need to wait for the world to judge him!

Right there in his house, living with his mother and siblings was his step-father who constantly bullied the child, punched him, mocked him and treated him like dirt just because he was shades darker than the other children and had a birthmark! His step-father would make faces at this three year-old boy…and all the while, his mother who was fully aware of what her child suffered in the hands of her husband did nothing to rescue her son.

So one night, the young boy slept and didn’t wake up! He was discovered with vomit by the side of his mouth and on the bed the next morning.

Later, he was pronounced dead in the hospital.

Thankfully, a doctor was able to determine the cause of death after various tests, and it was discovered that the boy received severe punches to his stomach that erupted some of his internal organs and caused the child to die!

No one deserves to be discriminated upon; especially by the people that should love and protect you.

The step-father is serving a 20-year jail term; and his mother is serving her own short term in jail for neglect. In summary, I think we need to love people more. But love starts from truly loving yourself.

Do you love yourself?

–          Stephanie

The Help! When I walked out of the Cinema many months back after stealing a few hours out of my crazy schedule to watch the movie, I felt light; mostly because of the emotional story told so articulately through powerful characters. When it isn’t hitting hard blows on a society that should be ashamed of its past discriminations, The Help is cheeky and humorous. Of course, Octavia Spencer stands out with her impressive performance; the height of which was feeding her former boss with pie spiced with poop (Good Heavens! LOL!). She was favoured as the best in the category of best supporting role, and took home the Oscar this year. The Help is the story of African-American maids and the hardship they went through serving their white Madams. In all of this, an aspiring young author decides to write their story. It is an easy picture with a lot of brilliant scenes and accurate dialogue.

And if you can, read the book too! *wink!

It’s an old one, the winner has emerged but the lessons are still fresh in my mind especially since I stole a look at a re-run of the show last week. I stood for a minute to soak in a few words said by Tyra and her judges – It’s America’s Next Top Model Cycle 16! A very passionate episode filled with insecurities, squabbles, drama and raw jealousy! That’s the spice of any reality show – we like to see people in their real elements. One that stood out for me was the war between two contestants – Alexandria Everett and Brittani Kline. Alexandria came out tops in one of the photo-shoots and got a car as the prize for that effort. With that win came the fangs of sour losers. All the other girls were upset, so upset was Brittani Kline that she couldn’t hide her disgust, anger, jealousy and displeasure to see this “untalented girl” drive away with this huge prize, and so in front of the team and sponsors of the show and their clients, Brittani went on a full glare attack on Alexandria’s person, saying: “you do not deserve to win that car, I don’t care what anyone thinks!” Alexandria was torn to shreds by this attack.

And when it was time to eliminate, Tyra was adamant of getting rid of Brittani for her tart and unprofessional behaviour.

“You have to learn to show and give respect – to your clients, to your co-workers, and to yourself…or else you will not go very far with your pursuits, no matter how good you think you are…left to me, you’ll be eliminated this week for this behaviour,” Tyra said to the now distraught Brittani who was crying and apologising profusely.

Fortunately, Brittani was saved by the other judges who believed she deserved a second chance. She picked up what was left of her common sense and mended things out professionally with Alexandria. With jealousy and anger out of the way, Brittani concentrated on the only thing that truly mattered – winning the competition.

And yes, Brittani Kline won that competition! This was the same person who almost allowed her pettiness and unecessary envy get in the way of her own success!

There’s just so much to learn from that scenario: if you spend most of your time judging, hating, bickering, and noting the flaws of others, when would you have the time to live your own life? You automatically make yourself the bystander with no ambition when you are busy scrutinizing other people’s business. But the minute you focus on YOU and let others be, you begin to groom the best YOU for the biggest prize of life.

For the rest of the year, I dare you to focus on being the best YOU!

Scarf shoes are simply ingenious! I love the twirl touch to these brands. It’s so feminine and chic – a great summer must have! Since it’s vivid and vibrant, it’ll be cool to have every other accessory as stylishly minimal as possible.

It’s a new week. Happy Sunday!

Today is my husband’s birthday!

Here’s wishing my dearest, Dr. Linus Idahosa, a wonderful day perfected with God’s grace, favour and love.

My Hero. My Love. You Rock!

Justin Bieber has become a pop culture and I am loving his latest effort; a song that gives us a glimpse into his growing maturity! As long as you love me is a beautiful song – free of profanity and very mature and impressive. The song is serious and light-hearted at the same time, and we see how the 18-year-old demonstrates strong vocals as he sings:

As long as you love me/we could be starving/we could be homeless/we could be broke…

And in another breath proclaims…

As long as you love me/I’ll be your platinum/I’ll be your silver/I’ll be your gold…

With those beautiful lyrics I welcome you to another new day – it’s a Friday!

So tell me, do you have this kind of love in your life?

The news of Cynthia Akuzogwu Udoka’s death has left a wave of shock, distrust, pain and cry for justice. I cannot begin to imagine what her family will be going through at this time. It is every parent’s nightmare! The 25 year-old was killed by two university students who lured her to Lagos, paid her flight, lodged her in a hotel, then drugged her drink and proceeded to rid her of all her possession and eventually killed her. As the news affirmed, these were young men she met on Facebook whom she had hinted about her plan to run a clothing business and they had told her she could get good prices from them…as far as we know, that was what encouraged the relationship with these men who turned out to be murderers!

A sad end to a promising life! The virtual world is as real as we want it to be!

What can we learn from this sad incident? *RIP Cynthia*