THE FTLLP EDIT | #4 SHOES AND BAGS

Diamonds are a girls best friend? Nah. That should have been shoes and bags are a girl's best friend! I own a disproportionately high number of shoes and bags when compared to items in the rest of my wardrobe. And why not?! I'm telling you, shoes and bags have TRANSFORMATIVE powers! A simple LBD can be dressed up, dressed down, toughened up and reworked just with a shift of these key accessories. Wanna see my current faves on the high street right now? Step this way.... (see what I did there?)

LIPS | PURPLE PASSION

If I was a make up item, I would definitely be a bold lip. I don't know what it is, I just can't stay away from a bright lip colour on a shelf. My eyes spot brightly coloured things a mile off, and before my mind has had time to register, my hands have swatched the item and thrown it into my shopping basket!

THE FTLLP EDIT | #3 MIXING IT UP

Happy Sunday loves, hope you're having a lovely day. Loving the warm weather this weekend - let's hope it holds out for the week too! This week's Edit is a little eclectic, a little bit of PVC, a little bit of texture. Check it all out below:

TOOLS | REAL TECHNIQUES BLUSH BRUSH

Meet the new addition to my make up brush collection, the Real Techniques Blush brush. As many a make up lover will tell you, you can't beat RT for their great quality and affordable make up brushes. The Core set, and more specifically the Buffing brush, really transformed my make up game and I've had my eye on this bad boy for a little while now.

LIPS | NOUBA MILLEBACI #45

As predicted, I went out and added another baby to my Nouba Millebaci collection. I mean when #46 turned out to be such a dream (check out that review here), it would have been rude not to!  This time I picked up #45, a gorgeous deep purple shade with the tiniest magenta iridescent sparkles and some even tinier gold flecks thrown in for good measure.

BASE | REVLON COLORSTAY IN SPICE

 

As a make up lover, I'm always on the hunt for the perfect base for my face. If my face would decide to stay the same colour for a while, that might help...! I've been a MAC girl for the longest time (Studio Fixers stand up!), but as my latest bottle was coming to an end I decided to branch out and sample what else was on offer.

THE FTLLP EDIT | #2 HIGH END

Happy Monday all! This post was supposed to go out to you yesterday, but after a fulfilling, but exhausting weekend I just flopped on my bed when I got home. So here it is, ever so fashionably late, the FTLLP Edit #2. This week's Edit is completely high-end and features no high street, because a girl can dream, right?

So without further ado.....

THE FTLLP EDIT | #1 SPRING FLING

Hi lovelies, hope you're having a lovely Sunday. I'm certainly not enjoying this undecided weather in Nairobi at the minute, makes it so hard to decide what to wear! I'll be spending my day indoors, catching up on my favourite blogs and some work later in the afternoon.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd introduce a new series onto the blog, called The FTLLP Edit. It will be a weekly roundup of my favourite picks from sites around on the web, so keep a look out to see what's out there. This week's Edit is packed full of clean, fresh spring shades.

TRENDS | STRAIGHT TO THE POINT

Oscar de la Renta, Honor, Tanya Taylor

Honor, Dolce & Gabanna, Narcisco Rodrigues

One trend that I will totally, yet surprisingly, buy into this season is the pointy flat. Approximately 90% of my shoe-drobe is exclusively heel, about 8% sandal and 2% flat. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with flats, as I can almost never get them to fit right on my feet. A quick peek at the catwalks and you'll see that the pointy flat is back with a remix!

LIPS | NOUBA MILLEBACI #46

I am in LOVE. There's no other way to say it. You know when you bag a new beauty buy that just makes you wanna scream? That's me right now. I spotted this bad boy over on fellow blogger Sharon's instagram (@this_is_ess) the day before yesterday and set out determined to get myself a tube before they all ran out. 

NAILS | Like A Virgin: 2014 Spring Summer Nail Trends

Spring is fast approaching in the Northern hemisphere and with it an inevitable change in colour palettes that will be dictating the season's trends. (On a side note, I always feel a little strange being in the tropics and following seasonal global trends, when generally, it's summer here all year round!) The Spring/Summer 2014 catwalks were predictably awash with soft, subtle hues. And the colours on the fingertips were no exception: fresh whites, pale pinks, soft browns.

Fellow nail art lovers, don't despair. You can still get away with some pizazz, but keep it grown up and demure. A thin stripe here, a half moon mani there. I'll definitely be working in a nude/glitter combo onto my tips in the next couple of weeks.

MUSE | LUPITA. LUPITA. LUPITA

Ralph Lauren

Unless you've been hidden under a rock, you cannot have missed Lupita Nyong'o's dominance of the world film stage. It's award season and everyone is slating her for a big scoop across the board for her role in Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave. The movie just bagged the Best Picture Drama prize at the Golden Globes and is lined up for more accolades in the coming weeks.

And unless you're been blind, our Kenyan born beauty is doing noting less than SLAYING on those red carpets. I mean just take a look below - hit after hit after hit! And I am here for it.

SCENT | YSL MANFIESTO

I LOVE PERFUME! And thanks to my mum's efforts from the age of around ten, I have never touched a body spray again. I've got around 5 classic perfumes that stay in heavy rotation and I usually take a little convincing to step out beyond this. The bad boy above is such a move and boy am I glad! This is Yves Saint Laurent's Manifesto - 90ml of yummy perfection. Don't you just love the bottle? I think I might start a bottle collection.

EYES | MAYBELLINE VOLUM' EXPRESS MASCARAS

Hi all! Back with some make up talk for you today, and in the spotlight is make up brand Maybelline. Maybelline launched in Kenya earlier this year (along with power house brand Revlon). It's great to see international make up companies embracing the Kenyan market as the HUNGER is out there. I have got to admit though, I'm only a recent convert to Maybelline. I actually used to walk past their counter in make up shops for a long while, not quite seduced by their products, until around a year and half ago or so. I don't know what persuaded me to do it - maybe it's a rebranding and clever new marketing -  but since trying out their products, I am a huge fan and there is no going back!

So you've wandered down to your nearest stockist, and you're confronted with a shelf full of product. Where to start? Look no further than the Volum' Express mascara range.

SKINCARE | SIMPLE EYE MAKE UP REMOVER

There is probably nothing more annoying than trying to shift that stubborn eye make up from your eyes after a big night out. If you've ever made the mistake of trying to get rid of your eyeshadow/mascara/eyeliner/glitter with a baby wipe (like me), you'll know how bad of an idea that is. You only manage to move about 1/2 the product off your face, and the rest kind of gets ingrained in your skin and you wake up in the morning looking like a panda.

TRENDS | IT'S ALL GONE A BIT DOTTY

I'm baaaaack...! So sorry for being gone so long. Between completing my Masters dissertation (#thevalleyoftheshadowofDEATH), job hunting, and starting work again, I have literally had NO time :( But the important thing is that FTTLP is back. I've got some great posts already lined up for you in the next couple of weeks, so let's get straight to it!!

If you'd been keeping your eye on the catwalks this past Fashion Month, you'd practically have to have been blind not to notice polkas EVERYWHERE. Different colours, different sizes, overlays... Let's not call it a revival, cause let's be honest, polkas can never go out of fashion. But I am so here for the re-celebration of this oh so fabulous trend. I am a true sucker for a dot-adorned garment and own several tops and dresses covered with spots. There's something that's so feminine and demure, yet playful about polkas. And, paired with the right cut and length, you can even make a dot super sexy.

HAUL | RECENT BEAUTY BUYS

Hi lovelies! I’ve had chance to pick up a few beauty bits since I’ve been back and I'm here with a review. Most of my beauty purchases in Kenya tend to be on impulse. I occasionally pop into a Super Cosmetics or into Our Price next to Jamia Mall (speaking of which, can somebody tell me what’s happened to Our Price, it’s closed!!) to have a proper browse, but that’s maybe once or twice a month.

The first two goodies I picked up were from Suzie Beauty. I’ve been monitoring the Suzie Beauty line while I’ve been away and I’ve been dying to get my hands on this Kenyan brand! I made a dedicated stop at my nearest stockist (find your local stockist HERE) to check out the products. I tested out the foundations (although I couldn’t find a colour match, SB do promise to release two more shades in September, so fingers crossed I come up lucky), lipsticks, eye shadows and make up brushes.

After a lot of uhm-ing and ah-ing over the eyes shadow shades, I opted for the colour ‘Usi’. Usi is a highly pigmented blue-black matte shadow, with tiny multi-coloured shimmers running through it. But as you can see from the picture, it’s really not a shimmer/metallic shadow per se – the shimmery flecks are so tiny, they act as almost to deepen the colour and give some depth to the solid matte look. You only really see the shimmer quite close up and when moving in the light.  

WELCOME

Without much further ado, welcome to FTLLP! One year in the making (in my mind at least), I’m finally ready to dominate a little slice of the internet and infuse a little bit of magic.

Who am I, anyway?

In a nutshell: Olivia, 24, Kenyan born, Mancunian bred (#thecityisRED), humanitarian lawyer by training, and creative by calling. Stuff junkie (read: shoe, bag, jewellery, clothes, makeup…basically, anything-that-looks-nice junkie), notorious over-packer (I am the woman at the airport with seven pieces of luggage in tow), involuntary-eyebrow shade giver, lewd-lyric lover and full of life!