hey, y’all!
so this is blogging, huh? truth be told, I’ve always wanted to be a blogger. i juuuuuussst missed the myspace days of programming your page and being a baby coder so unfortunately it’s taken me more than a few years to make this realization. 26 to be exact. that’s how old I am as I write this post. and now that you know my age and a deep childhood desire, I guess I should tell you my name and who I am.
my name is ebony charleste elder and I run the social medial accounts under the usernames @ebony_hd, @lookgoodsmellbetter, @lookgoodnailbetter and@sleevedebony_vsgjourney. from the time i was a little girl growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan (the hair capital and the motor city) until now, I’ve always been drawn to any and everything beauty related. as I got older, makeup became my creative outlet and safe haven. in the summer of 2014 right before I was to become a baby bison at the Illustrious Howard University, I created my YouTube channel that I just knew was going to get me and mine up out the hood a-la-Jackie Aina style! makeup tutorials and wash-and-go’s galore were the vibes over at HairFlipsandLipstick. well… you know how the story goes–college was definitely a full-time job and I hadn’t mastered the skills to stay consistent. the next thing I knew, it was years later and I felt myself really wanting to express that side of me more to random people on the internet.
imposter syndrome be damned.
In 2022, after years of what I like to call being a “fake content creator”, I got really serious about what I wanted and said “what if” instead of “why not”. I’ve been growing an online community on Instagram and TikTok and while I love sharing pictures and videos to get a message across, there’s always been something enchanting about reading another person’s thoughts. I thought why not make a landing page for my personal brand. one that encompasses as much of me and my brain as i’d like to on the internets. that day, the idea of look good|smell better was born. now it would only take another 10 months for me to muster up the energy to start a wordpress blog and another few years to release it.
my hopes for lookgoodsmellbetter.com
I want to create a space where I can expand upon my thoughts and create deeper community around all aspects of the beauty, fashion and lifestyle space. look for lots of how-to’s, guides and candid blog posts and life-updates as I navigate the world as a late 20’s black woman. I want you to leave this blog taking away something as small as a product suggestion or as big as a new perspective. join me on my journey.
penned: april 2023
edited: july 2026
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