MSA's ANKARA INSPIRED MAKEUP LOOK

I am very excited to share with you guys my first Ankara inspired makeup look – YAY!!! For those of you wondering what Ankara is, it’s a 100% cotton fabric commonly worn by West Africans. And yes, Ankara is also the capital city of Turkey so it can get a bit confusing. Looking at the vivid colours and patterns of Ankara fabric is a great way to create a makeup look – one is literally spoilt for choice because the colour combinations are endless. I have a deep love for Ankara fabric, it’s part of my Nigerian heritage and I will find any excuse to use it creatively.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard of a makeup guru called Dimma Umeh? She did an amazing 9 part series on YouTube called ‘Ankara Inspired Makeup Tutorials‘. These tutorials are epic and I continue to return to them when I’m in need of inspiration. I highly recommend that you check out Dimma’s tutorials and consider creating your own Ankara inspired makeup looks; it’s a great way to develop your makeup skills because it pushes you to combine a variety of colours.

My chosen Ankara fabric has a mix of black, grey, yellow, white and bronze colours so I used this colour palette to create a grey smokey eye with a pop of bronze on my inner eyelids. I initially created a dark grey lipstick but it looked too gothic; then I briefly considered wearing white lipstick ………yeah, that thought was VERY brief!! LOL! In the end, I decided to create a custom bronze lip colour by layering a gold baked eyeshadow and MAC’s clear Lipglass on top of a nude coloured lipstick (MAC’s Peachstock).

Incorporating a bright yellow colour into my makeup look was a challenge because I didn’t want to end up looking like a minion. So I created a winged liner on the outer corner of my eyes using a glitter eyeliner that I picked up from Poundland (Make Up Gallery Chick Flick Eyeliner, Gold Glitz). By the way, Poundland makeup is actually not bad! My only regret with this look is that I could have been bolder with the glitter eyeliner. Ankara fabric screams boldness, so next time I will push myself and take a few more makeup risks. Check out all the products and shopping links below and stay tuned for more Ankara inspired makeup looks. Do let me know what looks you want to see!

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P.S. For more makeup looks check out my Facebook page & Instagram, and for makeup bookings click here.

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