Garcelle Beauvais’ Blue Maxi Dress at Kyle Richards’ House

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 10 Episode 8 Fashion

I think I say this almost every time I write a post on Garcelle Beauvais, but her blue maxi dress with silver metallic stripes is my new favorite outfit of hers. As we now all know the “Beverly Hills casual” style has different interpretations, but I think Garcelle was right on the money with what she chose to wear to Kyle Richards’ house.

To me a metallic maxi dress is a little more than casual and it wasn’t even the most dressy of all the looks the women wore, but that’s only because my kind of casual is more like Denise Richards’ t-shirt and jeans, but still LOVE this dress nonetheless. It’s fun and breezy and perfect to wear to any outside day outing. And the best part about this dress is that it’s not just meant for Beverly Hills casual it’s meant for everywhere.

Sincerely Stylish,

Jess

Click Here To See Her Sold Out Blue Saylor Avril Dress

Originally posted at: Garcelle Beauvais’ Blue Maxi Dress

According to Essie, June 1 is National Nail Polish Day, but to us, it’s always a good time for a manicure. But we aren’t currently living in a time we can just hop on over to the salon. That inspired us to round up our favorite Black-owned nail polish brands to support minority brand founders in an industry that’s tough to break into. According to a report by Crunchbase, just one percent of venture-backed founders were Black in the last five years. It’s time to change that.

In the meantime, we’ll shop these vibrant nail polish shades to give our manis an upgrade while at home. These seven brand founders created polish that flatter all skin tones and are inspired by each of their lives, whether it’s the city they live in or their love of color. Looking for 10-free, non-toxic shades? What about vegan ones? Don’t worry—they’re all here and ready to be purchased.

Whether you’re looking for glitter shades, sunny hues of yellow and orange or dramatic wines and eggplant colors, you’ll find the perfect polish that will take you into summer and beyond. Pick up some of their nail care accessories while you’re at it.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Image: D.I.D.

D.I.D. Nail Paint

Created by Adrienne Blanks, a licensed nail technician and esthetician, this eco-friendly polish brand hawks both bright and neutral shades that will pop on all skin tones.

Image: OOO Polish.

OOO Polish

Founder Symantha Wechie-Onyechi created a nail polish brand after not finding the right nudes and vibrant colors for her skin tone. Now you can shop all her neutral and bold shades, including glitter and gel polish.

Image: Breukelen Polished.

Breukelen Polished

Ariel Terry is a Brooklyn-based high school algebra teacher who created this 11-free, non-toxic line inspired by her vibrant city. This soft pink is so pretty.

Image: Polish and Co.

Polish & Co.

Cosmetologist Theresa Williamson created this 5-free nail polish brand with “the aesthetics of a Southern belle.” We love all the metallics.

Image: 25th & June.

25th & June

Nexus came up with this nail polish brand inspired by her love of nail polish and color (this yellow hue!). It’s cruelty-free, vegan-friendly and 10-Free.

Image: Mischa Beauty.

Mischa Beauty

This vegan, gluten-free and and 10-free line was started by Kitiya Mischo King. Her bold shades as just as gorgeous as the bottles themselves.

Image: AudaB.

AudaB

Samara Walker is a Boston-based entrepreneur who launched this vegan nail brand alongside a “beauty marketplace” connecting customers with on-demand beauty services.

Do you have some days when you feel hungry all day, no matter what you eat? That might be because you didn’t get enough sleep the night before. 

What does the amount of sleep have to do with your weight? According to Harvard Medical School, the lack of sleep along with lack of exercise and overeating is now being identified as one of the most common risk factors for obesity.

No doubt you’ve noticed that it’s harder to lose weight post-menopause. Not sleeping enough can hinder your weight loss efforts even more.

Several studies have linked insufficient sleep to weight gain, with people who normally sleep fewer than six hours per night being much more likely to be overweight. A lot of this has to do with how much of certain hormones your body makes.

Inadequate sleep can make weight loss after 50 even harder in 5 important ways.

You’re Hungrier

Not getting enough sleep – or sleeping poorly – affects the hormones that regulate your hunger levels. If you don’t get enough sleep, your body makes more of the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger, so you’re hungrier.

The hormone leptin, which tells you you’re full, decreases, so you eat more. The combination of too much ghrelin and cortisol, the stress hormone, shuts down the areas of your brain that make you feel satisfied after a meal, so you may feel hungry all the time.

If you have those “hungry all day” days, notice whether they’re related to the amount of sleep you’ve been getting.

Your Metabolism Suffers

If you are sleeping badly, your body is more inclined to store fat. When you’re sleep deprived, your body suffers from “metabolic grogginess,” according to researchers at the University of Chicago. That means that your body can’t use the hormone insulin properly.

When insulin functions well, your fat cells remove lipids and fatty acids from your blood and prevent them from being stored in your liver and on your body. But when you become more insulin resistant, those fat cells circulate in your blood and your body makes even more insulin.

That’s not a good thing because to lose weight, your body must burn stored fat for energy, but when there is insulin in your blood, your body doesn’t use that fat.

You Crave Junk Food

Poor sleep leads to an increase in the hormone cortisol, which is your stress hormone. This affects both your appetite and your mood. To counter the extra cortisol, your body produces more serotonin, which is a feel-good hormone.

This may be what makes you crave fat and carbs in the first place, because they lead to the release of serotonin. When you eat because you’re upset and feel better briefly afterwards, it is partly due to that serotonin spike.

Harder to Make Healthy Food Choices

Sleep deprivation causes changes to the parts of your brain that govern eating. In one study, after a single night of sleep deprivation, participants wanted more unhealthy foods than when they got enough sleep.

Also, sleep-deprived people were less able to make intelligent, reasoned decisions to overcome their urge to eat junk food or overeat. Sleep deprivation also makes you choose bigger portions. I’m sure you can figure out what happens when you eat more and bigger portions of unhealthy food!

Your Workouts Are Undermined

Not enough sleep interferes with your body’s ability to make muscle, which causes muscle loss and maybe even injuries. It also makes it harder for your muscles to recover after exercising by slowing down the production of the growth hormone, which is produced during deep sleep.

Plus, you may be too tired to get to the gym in the first place.

I know I’ve been talking about a lot of studies, but here’s one more, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

This one concluded that women who are sleep-deprived are a third more likely to gain 33 pounds over the next 16 years than women who get seven hours of sleep per night. 33 more pounds! And that’s based on the amount of sleep alone.

But here’s one tip: Don’t eat after dinner. There are two good reasons for this: First, you’ll sleep more soundly when your body isn’t busy digesting food.

Second, eating will cause your body to produce more insulin, which will prevent you from burning fat during your natural fast between dinner and breakfast. So it goes without saying that midnight snacks are a really bad idea.

If you make getting enough sleep a health priority, you will likely find that managing your weight will become a little easier.

Do you think you get enough sleep? Will knowing how sleep affects your weight change your sleep habits? What are some thing you do to make sure you get enough sleep? What do you think are the keys to weight loss after 50? Please join the conversation below!

According to a report by Crunchbase, just one percent of venture-backed founders were Black in the last five years. One percent. A whopping 77.1 percent of founders were white regardless of gender and education. For about a million reasons, it’s always important to support minority-owned brands but now more than ever, we’re putting the focus on Black-owned founders. That’s why we rounded up some of our favorite Black-owned beauty brands at Target that you should add to your cart, like, now.

Trust us—these brands did the work to bring you quality products at reasonable prices. We’ve tried them all. The best part? You can grab them on your next Target run. Shop ultra-pigmented makeup from Coloured Raine and The Lip Bar, hydrating haircare for textured hair from The Doux, Alikay Naturals and Mielle Organics, grooming products from Scotch Porter and wellness ones from The Honey Pot.

Of course, this isn’t an extensive list of all the Black-owned brands from Target nor is it a list of all the products great for Black hair and skin. There are many more brands at the retailer who cater to textured hair but are owned by huge companies such as Procter and Gamble and Unilever. That doesn’t make them bad products, of course. Some of them, such as Shea Moisture, are our favorites. But here, we’re focusing on Black founders to boost their success in the industry. And with these stellar options, it’s a win-win for us, too.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Image: Target.

The Doux

Stylists Maya and Brian Smith own a salon in Macon, GA, of the same name. Their “real results without the hype” approach to haircare means you get professional quality haircare without the price tag. The Doux products were created for textured hair when it’s worn straight, curly or somewhere in between.

Image: The Lip Bar.

The Lip Bar

Founder Melissa Butler might have gotten rejected from Shark Tank but who’s laughing now? The vegan and cruelty-free lipstick brand hit Target and fans are going crazy for its vibrant shades for all skin tones.

Image: Target.

Alikay Naturals

CEO and founder Rochelle Alikay Graham-Campbell launched her haircare brand right in her kitchen when she was just 22 years old. Now, we all scoop up her natural, organic haircare free from petroleum, mineral oil, alcohol, parabens, sulfates or silicones.

Image: Target.

Coloured Raine

Founder Loraine R. Dowdy left her job in the financial industry to launch a makeup line dedicated to self-expression and diversity. Pick up lipstick, eyeshadow and highlighter in ulta-pigmented tones now at Target.

Image: Target.

Scotch Porter

Calvin Quallis, founder and CEO, started with a small barbershop in his neighborhood and moved on to develop grooming products for textured hair made without common toxins.

Image: Target.

Mielle Organics

Registered nurse Monique Rodriguez used her science background to create products for women to finally achieve hair and scalp health.

Image: The Honey Pot.

The Honey Pot

This wellness brand was started by Bea Dixon after she suffered for months from bacterial vaginosis. Her period and vaginal health products are made from certified organic ingreidents.

The master plan called for selling the family home once the last kid was out of high school and off to college. We’d both be over 60 and ready for the next chapter.

You know the drill: buy a smaller place with fewer rooms to clean, less yard to keep, fewer things to go wrong. And think of all that extra money we’d have for traveling, a new car, simply enjoying life!

The more we planned the more our excitement grew. Netflix binges were soon abandoned for hours spent on Zillow and Redfin, searching for the perfect “forever home.”

Then my husband got cancer. Not just any cancer, mind you. The worst of the worst: pancreatic. I will save the awful details of that journey for a later time, but needless to say, the “master plan” required an overhaul by the time my daughter threw her mortarboard in the air that warm night in June.

Stuck

That was almost a year ago. I should have been getting the place ready to sell for at least six months before I finally buckled down and had it painted and refreshed, called the junk haulers (twice), and made what seemed like my 100^th trip to the veterans’ center to donate the beautiful suits and crisp white shirts my husband loved so dearly. (I kept the second-hand tuxedo he wore when we were married, though; moth holes and all.)

Finally, it was ready. Gleaming, in fact. Ready to be photographed and showcased like a supermodel. And yet, I couldn’t do it. I called the financial planner endlessly, just to be sure I couldn’t stay a little longer. He said I could, but did I really want to keep spending so much on a house that no longer fit?

He had a point. I will never go a day without missing my husband, but I was grateful to have gotten to a stage where I could look forward to the future again, and laugh, and yes, enjoy life. So, what was I waiting for?

New Chapter

I sold it. As it turns out, escrow closed in the nick of time. I moved out four days before the state of California (where I live) was put on lockdown, and my offer on a new, much smaller house had been accepted.

The first few weeks were rough. I missed my “real” home, the neighbors, the proximity to old friends. It didn’t help that I was spending virtually every minute in this unfamiliar prison because of a global health crisis.

I resolved to stay the minimum amount of time necessary to recoup my moving expenses and sell the joint.

My daughter’s world tightened, too. She was forced to move back home – all her college classes taught online for the foreseeable future, no friends to see, no parties to attend.

Miserable and unmotivated, we moved boxes stuffed with non-essential dishes and assorted housewares to the side rather than unpack them. At a certain point they became invisible, more like an art installation than a nuisance we simply walked around.

Unexpected

Little by little, it got better. I can’t pinpoint how or when it happened, but I can now say without reservation that I like, maybe even love, my new home.

It’s far from perfect, of course. I sit in my home office overlooking a raggedy “garden” literally dying for care. There has been no landscaper to the rescue, no handyman over to fix the jiggly door handles and the cranky stove.

No steady stream of friends dropping by to offer decorating tips and potted plants. Turns out impromptu barbecues thrown to meet the neighbors are frowned upon during a pandemic.

The funny thing is, my daughter and I are getting along better than ever. She’s a pretty cool kid, not to mention a great unpacker and organizer, two in-demand skills here at the new place.

Needless to say, the dogs are over the moon to have two humans around constantly. They never bicker or complain about toast crumbs on the counter or laundry left in the dryer – they’re the only ones praying the lockdown lasts forever.

As for me, I’ve attended a few virtual cocktail parties with my old friends and gotten to know my new neighbors through socially distanced chats. I’m writing again and staring at that raggedy garden, breaking from this post now and again to Google “Gardening for Dummies” or search for YouTube University videos on DIY plumbing. It actually looks kind of fun.

Maybe the dogs are onto something.

Have you downsized your home or life lately? What are you doing to keep your spirits up during the lockdown? Please join the conversation!