By Morenike Taire

Rita Dominic’

Rita Dominic’s heavenly skin is even more famous than her luscious lips, get-lost eyes and sweet voice and acting ability. Once asked the secret, she replies:”Bright skin?. I’ve always been called silky skin and you even used to call me that. I thank my parents for my skin. I’ve been using the same cream for about five years now. Two years ago, I added a few things to my beauty regimen.
What Rita knows:

Exercise
According to dermatologists, we tend to focus on the cardiovascular benefits of physical activity, and those are important. But anything that promotes healthy circulation also helps keep your skin healthy and vibrant.

Going to the spa more frequently to detox, steam, get body scrubs and massages.
Links between massage and skin beauty has been controversial, at best; but at least it has worked for Rita, alongside body scrubs and other popular spa routines we are always to busy to get.

Drink about 13 glasses of water a day
Everyone has testified to this one. Water is skin’s best friend, dryness its worst enemy.

Stay away from the sun.
With all the location shoots and red carpets, can Rita really stay out of the sun? Well, she says she does by all means and you’d better believe her. Her skin says it’s true.

Rita, Kate and Ini

Kate Henshaw Nuttal
She has not been able to live down the girl-next-door mien. Yet, Kate Henshaw Nuttal is now best known as the sexiest member of the 40s club in Nollywood thanks to her eternally youthful long, lithe body. Lately, she appears to have just realized the value of her legs and is using them to advantage.

What Kate knows:

Use the stairs
Ever seen Kate in her elements? She’s flying all over the place like a teenager. Call it joie de vive, whatever. Run up the stairs if you  must.

Use lotion, not creams
If possible, find lotions specifically for legs but whatever the case, use lotions, not creams, on the legs. Slather one layer, wait for five minutes, then slather another.

Never, ever shave
If you look closely- really, really closely- you will find hairs on Kate’s legs too. They never get noticeable because she never shaves them.

Ini Edo
From the beginning of this year, Hottie Ini Edo revealed the new her, to coincide with her post wedding appearances and relocation to the United States. The curves and the proportional body are obviously God’s precious gift, but Ini has gone a step further, losing at least one dress size, tightening up the wobbly bits and showing fans that an already stunning bod can be made downright spectacular.

What Ini knows:

Mix Aerobics with weights
She has given a dozen interviews since her new bod, yet Ini aint spilling about the secret of the new bod. Personal trainers however attribute it to loads and loads of time at the gym doing a little aerobics as well as plenty of weights training. Caution: do not try this at home, weights training only works with expert supervision

Plenty of Water
Ini’s tight body is rippling with muscles, though you can’t see them under her glorious skin. Most people don’t know that training with weights is useless without loads and loads of water. Muscles cannot grow without it.

Diet rich in protein, calcium and iron.
Train from now till Timbuktoo, but without proper nourishment, it is impossible to get Ini’s level of tone without a diet rich in fish, chicken, seafood and moluscs. The carbs just have to go.

Beampeh’s Printsplosion:  The Gallery as Runway

As the Nigerian fashion industry continues to experience continual metamorphosis, Artist and designer Bimpe Adebambo may have touched on an important new way of exhibiting fashion.

In July at the Goethe Institut new premises in the revamped Lagos City Hall, 10 international visual artists from Nigeria, Germany and South Africa exhibited their photographs and videos based on the theme ‘Beyond Football-shifting interests and Identity.

It was an interesting mix of sorts as there was three different facets to the event.

Aside from the exhibition, Adebimpe Adebambo, artist and fashion designer of the Beampeh label showed her Printsplosion -a-la-Berlin Summer 2012 collection inspired mostly by the paintings and graffiti on the Berlin Wall in Germany.

Beampeh’s models

The collection was a fascinating mix of vibrant DaViva prints, gorgeous Austrian lace, some of her own signature printed textiles and some silk aso-oke for good measure.

The models worked her clothes amidst the guests and the artworks, which was a departure from the usual runway format which made it quite interesting as the girls interacted with the people at the event. Yetunde Baba-Eko, a renowned photographer who was one of the exhibiting artists, conducted a photography workshop with women interested in the art of photography and the photographs from the workshop were also on display. It was a pleasant evening.

Know your Gold

That bright, chunky necklace can be more than a thing of beauty. With markets down and the stock  exchange losing points everywhere, every little alternative investment is worth looking into. For women, collecting jewelry is a sport of sorts, but gold can come in useful as collateral for business loans, or plain investment whose value is sure to rise as surely as any.

Value
Gold is marked 18K, 14K, or 10K, with the K standing for karat, the system used to describe the percentage of pure gold an item contains. The higher the karat number, the higher the percentage of gold in your gold jewelry. 24K gold is pure gold while 18K gold contains 18 parts gold and 6 parts of one or more additional metals, making it 75% gold. And so forth.

Gold as Jewelry
Why Are Other Metals Mixed With Gold? You’ll find examples of pure gold jewelry, but pure gold is soft and isn’t practical for daily wear. Other metals are mixed with it to make it more durable (and to lower its cost).

Adding other metals to the mix also allows metallurgists to change the color of gold. Palladium or nickel can be added to create white gold.

Adding copper produces a rose or pink tint, while silver gives gold a greenish cast.

When metals are added to the gold the result is an alloy, a blended mixture of the metals that you can think of as a very expensive cake batter. Solid gold is a term that can be used to describe an item that’s at least 10K gold all the way through. Even though it’s a gold alloy—18K, 14K, or anything down to 10K—it can be called solid gold.

Gold Filled Jewelry
Newer gold filled items have markings that indicate how much and what type of gold was used for the layer. A marking that says 1/20 12K G.F. means that the jewelry is at least 1/20th 12K gold by weight.

Gold Plated Jewelry
The gold layer in gold plated jewelry is typically thinner than the gold in gold filled jewelry, so it usually wears away more quickly. Plating is done in different ways.

You might see terms such as gold washed used to describe a very thin layer of gold—one that won’t be very durable.

What you Should Buy?
Solid gold is durable, so it is a better choice for jewelry you’ll wear regularly. If you have allergies to nickel or other metals, choose items that have high gold content, such as 18K or 22K gold jewelry.

Gold filled or plated jewelry is suitable for jewelry that you wear occasionally. Everyday use would eventually diminish the gold layer, exposing the metal below, which might stain your skin or cause an allergic reaction.
For pieces that will last a lifetime and beyond, buy the highest quality gold your budget allows.
Karen’s father died of AIDS
For 91 days, the whole of Africa had its eyes  on the Big Brother Amplified TV reality show: the fights, the kisses, the shower scenes, the gossips which all tallied up to give a creative and power packed show made up of 26 contestants from around the continent.

Speaking at a press conference organized by MNET Nigeria at Planet One, Lagos, winner Karen Igho poured out her heart out in an interactive ‘Question and Answer’ session.

On her father, she says ‘I don’t really know my father. He married my mother at a very young age but now he is dead. He died of HIV AIDS. I am not ashamed to say it. I wish I saw him to ask him questions, to ask him why he blamed me for things I didn’t do. I didn’t get the chance to tell him I loved him.’

She will use some of her prize money to fight HIV/AIDS