The Little things that matter

''FASHION CAN BE BOUGHT, STYLE ONE MUST POSSESS." -Enda Woolman Chase

I have such an infinite love for watches, hats and the little things (details) that matter and make an outfit pop. What drew me to this watch was it's rose gold colour and not to mention the addition of mint to even make it more appealing. Hats are my go to hair accessory, whenever I feel not to bothered about styling, let alone combing my hair, I mean they are stylish, versatile and can save one from a bad hair day or even week for me on end. 

Bought from;

Hat : Mr Price

Watch : Sterns 

Shoes : Legit 

Sweatshirt : Legit

Denim gives me life, classic, flared,skinny, dark, stone washed, distressed , just bring it on. below I am pictured or radther I pictured myself wearing distressed stone washed denim, a stripped linen shirt and of course it goes without saying ,my favourite kind of shoes, lace up brogues.

Bought from;

Distressed denim: Legit
Stripped linen shirt : City Market/Thrifted/Secondhand/Saluala
Shoes: Fashion Express

Below I show case the uncombed hair and one of my black hats, no time for a full face of makeup, so some powder, lipstick and I am not too sure if I have mascara on or not. A hat and some hoop earrings make such a great pairing.

#StayStylish
#StayBlessed

Allina rocks a white shirt with short hair

"Its just something 
 about short hair that screams     
 POWER..." Anonymous 

Allina, Alliiinnnna I called out to her, in a voice an African mother would use to get her child's attention. Only in this case it was me, with my voice filled with envy on how pretty she looked in her new short hair. 

She finally responds to my calling her, and says yes Shazz, as my friends so often refer to me. I say to her this hair looks so good on you. Clearly tempted to cut off my not long hair in the heat of the moment. 

Let us get back to the story. Allina here pairs a crisp white classic shirt with denim that puts to shame all the denim I own, a black classic hat, and of course when the hat is off, she is just so perfect in her short hair. As always stay blessed...

Who says a white shirt has to be boring?

The barely there shade in the hair, just gives me so much life...

Studs and some chunky silver bracelets added to complete this cute outfit...

The not so little black dress

 “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy — but mysterious. But above all black says this: I don’t bother you — don’t bother me.” —  Yohji Yamamoto

Own at least one not so little black dress, I often tell those interested to listen to my inner stylist. I am firm believer in the not so little black dress, for mostly these two simple reasons: 

1. Versatility - the dress itself maybe simple, but add a few pieces of statement jewelry, a clutch or maybe even a blazer while you are at it and you have yourself a pretty stylish outfit. 

2. Classic - it can be dressed up or dressed down, and classic simply means its chances of going out off style is zero to none. 

No matter your style, a not so little black dress is a staple piece that you need to own period! lets take a look on how Chiko, below styled her dress. 

Chiko, decided on this little number for the fact that its an easy piece to dress up, while keeping black her focal point colour, she still brought it to life with a good use of accessories. 

I honestly do not recall the last time i walked out of the house without a pair of sunglasses, they are one of my go to accessories and I just love how they bring life to an outfit. 

Whenever you are in doubt of what type of bag to pair with your not so little black dress, a clutch is definitely the way to go, now carrying a black one is optional, if you are one who loves color, I am pretty sure a fuchsia one would just be the right pop of colour, or maybe even a vibrant red would do the trick, depending on what really tickles your fancy.  for a metal fix, she added a gold wrist watch and a lovely little silver ring. 

For the shoes Chiko kept it black but with some metallic straps for some style and also some snake skin (not so clear in the picture), well the most important thing here is that she slayed, while keeping her hair short, clean and in a simple pixie cut. 

As always stay blessed. 

DHUKU FRIDAY

In dream land, I have the perfect set of hair on my head. getting up from bed and getting ready for work would be so easy, lemon squeezy ! You see the logic I have the previous night is that my hair will magically transform and be easy to deal with, what a joke, a real big joke at that.

Now do not get me wrong, I love the hair that grows out of this head of mine, never mind its shape whats important after all is the content of the head. Back to the story line, so its 6:30 am and my alarm is buzzing like its the end of the world, sleep has long left my eyes but questions as to whether I actually need this job or not keep buzzing in my head.

I drag myself out of bed, and start prepping for work. Now after all is said and done, I have bathed, I am clothed, then by the Grace of God i catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and realize my hair is not done, note that I am already running late and the idea of combing let alone styling this hair of mine is a non starter. So onto to the next great big idea, Dhuku/chitambala/turban/headwrap time.

The Dhuku not only saves time, but best believe if well done adds some actual pizzazz to ones outfit and personal style. In this look my choice of Dhuku was a dark blue thrifted scarf I got a few years from Soweto market. It has some good amount of stretch to it, which made it easier to work with.

Makeup was a toned down smokey eye, and nothing too loud deliberately as I wanted the Dhuku to be the main focal point of my face and outfit in general . Even though not in full view:

1. Turban : Thrifted/Second hand/Salaula
2. White Blouse : Thrifted/Second hand/Salaula
3. Blazer : Thrifted/Second hand/Salaula

MAKES FOR AN INTERESTING READ

During the period of enslavement, whites enacted codes that legally required black women to cover their heads with cloth wrappings, but these codes do not explain three other functions for the headwrap devised by the African Americans themselves. One purpose was purely practical: the cloth covered their hair when there was lack of time to prepare it for public view, the material absorbed perspiration and kept the hair free of grime during agricultural tasks, and the headwrap offered some protection against lice. Two additional functions-fashion and symbol-often overlapped. Within the African communities, the headwrap denoted sex, marital status, and the sexuality of the wearer. Source

MY GO TO EVERYDAY MAKEUP LOOK

"May your day be as flawless as your makeup."Bossbabe

First things first, Happy New Month everyone. Well let us jump right into it, today will share with you, my go to everyday work. The look below is one of my favourite go to looks, why? simply because it doesn't take up too much of my time in the morning.

The Routine
1. One of the most important rules for me, when it comes to makeup is starting out with a fresh face.
wash your face in the morning as per your routine, apply a decent sized amount of moisturizer, and let that sit for a minute or two.

2.  I then go in to fill in my eyebrows, that is just a personal preference of mine, which follows these steps, brush them in shape, fill in brow powder, or with a pencil depending on what look  I am aiming to achieve. I then follow through with shaping and outlining the filled in brows with concealer a few shades lighter than my skin tone, after that I then go back to the outlined brows with a foundation that matches my skin tone, so as to camouflage the concealer to make the eyebrows appear as natural as possibly can.

3.  I then go in with my foundation, lightly over areas I deem foundation worthy, lets face it Zambia is fairly of warmer weather throughout the year and so to avoid looking too cakey or getting an oily face as soon as my makeup is done, I believe less is more.

4. Powder follows right after I let the foundation breath a little, most days I just use an ordinary powder sponge, and powder away to my hearts desires.

5. When I am out of an eyelid primer, I go right ahead and use concealer as some sort of primer before applying any eye shadow to my eyelids. After that is done I go in with my normal face powder or a translucent powder just to set the concealer. The eyelids are now ready for eye shadow.

6. Eyebrow bone highlighter follows after the eye shadow, which then makes way for mascara yeah, almost done. I love a highlight under my eye, so right about now I generously apply some translucent powder under my under eye, let it sit and rest there for a while and then powder it away with a powder brush. On a not so lazy or too busy day I also go ahead and add a little highlighter over the bridge of my nose.

7. I love lipstick and feel almost undone when I am not wearing one.