White on blue

Hello fashionistas, 

Just a quick update on my outfit of today. 

I recently mentioned my Michael Kors bag which I purchased in Orange, finally you get the chance to see it. 

I haven't previously shown you guys anything I'm wearing today so everything is new to you although the blazer is pretty old. 

I hope you like the outfit. Although if you live in the north west like I do, it's really cold, but we are getting on with life. It's not a reason to not dress up. 

Ps, I look moody on one of my pictures why? Because my mum likes to scream at me every time she's taking my pictures.. Can anyone else relate? So annoying.. So she captured whilst I was doing a weird face, however, it's one of the good pictures that she took. 

Blazer: New look 

Blouse: Primark 

Jeans: H&M 

Shoes: Ego shoes 

Bag: Michael Kors

I hope you have a wonderful week and as always, 

Thank you for reading xoxo 

DKNY Saffiano Tote Bag

Hello Fashionistas, 

It's been a hot minute. So recently, I've purchased too many stuff to show you guys, however, I am not finding the time to do it properly. 

Anyway, last week I purchased my new DKNY Saffiano tote bag in cream and i absolutely love it. It arrived on Saturday after purchasing it early on Friday morning. I had to wear it on Sunday as I was so excited, along with it, I also got a new michael Kors bag in Orange and will show you guys on separate post when I do a review on it. 

Anyway, so about the bag, 

As some of you may not be aware, DKNY is celebrating its anniversary this year, so they've included key chains on every single one of their bags as a present to their customers. Usually, you'll have to purchase them separately. 

The bag itself is very nice and medium sized, it looks a bit small, but fits a lot of things inside and is well organised into 2 compartments inside with pockets. What I love about it aswell, it's the fact that it has got a zip on top for protection. The leather aswell is water proof so it's good for people like me who live where rains likes to manifest itself always. The downside of this bag is obviously I picked it up in cream. That's the only one they had in the store that I bought it in. Cream gets dirty quite quick and it's worrying me. I'm still to find something to clean it with as my heart is not at peace. So any suggestions, drop below, I will appreciate it much. 

The bag itself retails at £199-£250 depending on the colour or the offer of the day, as places such as House of Fraser do a lot of offers. 

I paired it with a white and black wrap top, black jeans and yellow lace up heels. I also wore my New M.A.C lipstick in ravishing. 

I hope you're having a good start to your weekend. 

As always, 

Thank you for reading, 

Love Elle xoxo

Preparation for winter/Beauty Buys

Hello Fashionistas, 

I hope you're all well, it's been a while, I know. After my graduation, I have been travelling all over the place, that's why I haven't been around much. It's been fun and now I am much settled into one place although I'm still getting used to it. 

Today, I wanted to share my favourite beauty products for winter that I have been testing out. So far, it has been working great on my skin. Some of these products I have been using for a while and some are totally new. 

I too understand that winter is that time of the year where our skin gets dried and break outs. It's also difficult because you have to try and keep your face warm too. So it's a tricky one. If you haven't already noticed that I love my red lipsticks, this season, I will be doing a lot of nudes and darks. 

So here we are 

I have recently purchased a 120 eyeshadow pallet in nudes and dark colours. I own a couple more, but I wanted to do something different with my eyeshadow for winter. So I'm keeping it simple. I am also in love with the All fired up Retro Matte lipstick by M.A.C and the Sin Matte lipstick also by M.A.C, it keeps my lips warm as the cold weather has started and lasts long too. 

My favourite fragrances for this season are CK Shock for her by Calvin Klein and Lanvin Me. I'm not too big on fragrances and I love something that smells light, but good too. So I decided to go for these two and try something different. 

In the picture above I also have the M.U.A LUXE velvet lip lacquer in Kookie, Maybelline New York Master Khol eyeliner ( this is by far the best eyeliner I've tried), Fashionista Double Collection mascara, which comes in two parts, step 1, which is the ultra lengthening base coat and step 2, the intense colour coverage and volume, I am also using P.I.A waterproof Kohl eye pencil. 

I had to do this one separately because this is the best micellar water I have ever used. It's by B.Pure and available in Superdrug stores  across the UK ( currently on offer for £4.99 buy one get one free). It's like a cleanser that dissolves impurities and it works well for all skin types. This is also great as a make up remover as it leaves no make up whatsoever. 

I hope you've enjoyed the post. 

As always thank you for reading, 

Love Elle Xoxo 

Dashiki love

Hello Fashionistas, 

I hope you're well.. 

I just wanted to pass by and show you guys what I wore yesterday to church. 

I had previously mentioned that I bought two dashiki print shirts and a dress that I was going to blog. 

This is the first one and this is how I choose to style it. 

I've seen a lot people wearing the shirts with denim jeans, but the dashiki shirts have so many colours and prints on them meaning that one can actually colour block if they wish to. As I like looking different, I did not go for the simple blue denim rather I paired my red Dashiki shirt with cream jeans from River Island and wedges from Next. I also added my favourite Miu Miu bag purchased in 2008.

The dashiki shirt is the most comfortable shirt I have ever worn and the fact that it looks good on too is just a bonus. 

I hope you enjoy this look.

I'm wishing you all a wonderful start to the week. 

Thank you so much as always

I love you for reading 

Love Elle Xoxo

 

A Little Break Away

Hello fashionistas, 

I hope you're okay, 

So, after my graduation party I have been treated to a little break away without the family. I'm having so much fun and today I explored the beach for the first time. It was so exciting, I can't wait to go back. I loved splashing water and playing in it. 

It's so hot where I am, I packed a little bit of everything just in case as there are many adventures and activities to take part in such as; rock climbing, parades, all sorts of rides, sea world and many more. Today is my second day as yesterday I went on the rides so we did something different for the day. 

As it is so hot, I decided to wear my long orange dress. I bought this dress I believe two or three years ago, wore it onc and never touched it again, I couldn't find the use of it and actually considered throwing it away one time, but it was a great use  for today as I wanted to look calm, cool and relaxed. 

I've come to a point where I'm in total peace with myself and much happier that it is making me so adventurous. Before I wouldn't have had the courage to do half of the things which I am doing now and exploring places as this has always been the desire of my heart. 

The best thing about the whole adventure is being in total peace with my weight and the way I look because this was a big problem that I have always had to overcome in so many situations. Finding that inner peace is making life so much more exciting and fun. 

I hope you're all having a great holiday too. 

Love Elle Xoxo 

My graduation and the party

Hello fashionistas, 

I hope you're all well, 

The past week was one of the most cherished moment of my life as I graduated from The Manchester Metropolitan University with a 2:1 ( for those who know how the grading system works) in Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Drama ( BA (Hons) Drama). 

It's been a tough 3 years with tears along the way and thinking that I was not capable of completing my degree, but I have to thank the almighty God for allowing me to come this far. Family and friends were there too of course. 

Finally fashionistas this was the thing that was keeping me away from blogging as third year was extremely difficult. 

For the ceremony this is what I wore as I didn't want something over the top. I wanted something simple yet sophisticated. 

For my love of Blazers, I wore a blazer dress from Missguided, paired it with my snake print shoes from Nine West, a blue clutch bag from river island and wore tights underneath as the dress was a quite short. 

  With my pastor

Throwing the hat In the air, it felt like a relief

The clutch 

Make up was done by me and the lipstick I wore here was Ruby Woo by M.A.C 

So afterwards, 

I had an after party which was organised for me by the church that I attend. Here I wore a long purple dress, which I bought from tkmaxx and the same heels as I wore the day before. 

Although I don't have a full picture of the dress I have it, but you can get an idea of how it looked like. 

I also wore lipstick by M.A.C here in Heroine

With my brothers who played in the live band 

With my other brother who is our choir drummer 

With my big sister, her husband and 5 kids and my little brother in all black. 

Now that this step is over, I would like to relax for a while before going into my next adventure. 

As always thank you for passing by

I love you for reading

Love Elle XoXo 

Monochrome and the Cape

Hello fashionistas, 

I hope you're all well, 

So I just wanted to pass by to show you my outfit. 

As you would have figured by now, I am obsessed with black and white as they are both my favourite colour. 

I wear black skinny jeans a lot so I always make sure that I have at least 3 to 4 pairs of them in order to not keep repeating the same one, of course people will not notice this, but I feel it's important to own few. This goes for the amount of white and cream blouses that I own too, in fact, the one that I was wearing on Sunday had been sitting on my wardrobe for a long time and I finally decided to wear it. 

On Sunday, I decided to pair my black skinny jeans with a white blouse, a black waistcoat blazer and white shoes to create this monochrome look. My hair was wavy and added a purple tone lipstick with light eye make up to make the look. 

Black and white is a classic and I don't think you can ever go wrong with it. 

I wish you all a wonderful week 

As always, I love you for reading 

Love Elle xoxo 

Special Feature: Kevwe on Dashiki Prints

Hello fashionistas,

This month I wanted to do something different in featuring others on the blog in subjects that I have become passionate about.  Therefore, I  have started to interview others on their work and so on. Today I will be talking about Dashiki Prints.

Dashiki print has become the center of the Fashion world trending worldwide and popular with the celebrities. These lovely prints made from African fabrics are trending on social network like there is no tomorrow.

Today I have decided to feature  a special man on my blog who inspired me to wear Dashiki prints.i have recently purchased three for myself, 2 tops and 1 dress, which I will be featuring on the blog later on so I can show you guys how I have styled it.

Firstly, I wanted to go in more depth about the prints, therefore, interviewed Kevwe who is a Nigerian producer/actor/ host and a strong ambassador for African attire/ outfits. I wanted to know why he was so passionate about the dashiki prints.  Being African myself,  I have also come to love African prints, as before I was resentful towards wearing them purely on the basis of not wanting to look weird, but fashion is an expression of your soul on the outside. In all means, wear what you want when you feel like it. In my case I dress appropriately, of course and encourage others to do the same. so here is a mini interview  with the dashiki designer himself.

My name is Ongunje Kevwe A.K.A Prince, an MC, Actor,  Producer and a strong ambassador for African attire/outfit.

Can you please give a brief background on the dashiki prints?

Th prints I use come from Tanzania and it is processed by ‘All Things African’ who are responsible for exporting them into the UK for myself and other designers. It represents the hard work and labour of Africans; it is very authentic, still not machine washable, but the quality is getting there.

What made you wear dashiki prints?

My quest to look different and always remember my culture made me become a Dashiki Ambassador. 

What do you like most about dashiki prints?

The simple fact that it is purely African.

How do you associate it with African culture?

The prints come from Africa and it is designed and sewn by me and I am an African.

 Why are you a fan of dashiki prints?

It makes me stand out and people from other international communities keep asking me questions like ‘ where did you get it from

’

Do you see this becoming a big fashion statement?

It is already a fashion statement, mostly with the way I pull it out.

How can we uplift the African economy/fashion industry through clothing?

The economy can be uplifted if our outfits and designs are being respected and sold by reputable retailers in the bigger economies and more developed countries, one way to go and achieve this is through consistency in production and quality in the designs produced. 

       

There’s no doubt that this is a big fashion statement and a must have for the hot weather. In fact, it is very light and easy to wear, but stylish. As a lover of simplicity I love the fact that it is actually very simple and makes you stand out at the same time.

All designed by himself Kevwe 

photo credit: BFace Manchester 

Spotted on Zendaya Coleman 

Chris Brown was amongst the first to wear Dashiki Prints

If you would like to get hold of one of these amazing fabrics  contact me.

If you’re interested in featuring on Elle for this month only and have something interesting to show to the world, by all means contact me too.

Thank you so much and as always,

I love you for reading

Love Elle xoxo                                                        

Khaki jumpsuit

Hello Fashionistas, 

I know it's been a while, but I am okay, I hope you all are too. Recently I've been seeing people rocking the one piece soldier looking jumpsuits and to be honest i am in love with them. 

I also went and bought myself one about 2 months ago from H&M. This is so perfect for the summer because it's easy to wear and very comfortable. You can easily style it with wedges or sandals. I am aware that here in the UK this summer is going to be very hot. So, if you're looking for something that is light to wear, yet stylish then this is for you.

I am wishing you all a wonderful summer!! 

As I tried on this pretty number in the changing room. 

Jumpsuit H&M

Love you for reading, 

Elle xoxo