My passion for beauty has deep US roots even though I’ve lived in the UK most of my adult life. However I was born and bred in Nigeria, a country in West Africa.

Africa is a massive continent and I’m really amazed at how little is known about it beauty wise and otherwise. I was once asked in college if I lived in a tree Let it be known that my first view of a zebra was at the London zoo and not in the middle of a street in the country of Africa.

My parents are from both extremes of Nigeria, my dad from a place called Kalgo, Kebbi state (1) in the West and my mum from Askira, Borno state (2) in the east. I’m amazed they even met, but then my mum was so adamant about not having an arranged marriage and what better way to ensure that than to go the opposite end of the country!

I was born in Lagos state (3), the then capital of the country. My dad had got a job there and my parents moved from Kebbi state. When I was about 10 I went to a military boarding high school in Plateau state (4) and as soon as I graduated from high school at 16, I moved to UK.

I really didn’t know much about beauty then, but the thing is I had always worn make-up from when I was a child because that was the norm in Northern Nigeria. My mother has about 150 make-up items, another 200 or so in cosmetics and almost 350 perfumes (this is no joke!). I suppose you can say there is a genetic element to it.

Anyway, while I was traversing Nigeria over the Xmas period, I decided to see what kind of beauty stuff was available there. I was terribly disappointed when I walked into boutiques and found LA girl, M.A.C and Sleek Make-up. Sleek Make-up is really huge in Nigeria and I bought a the storm palette over there, cost me the hefty sum of N2,000 (£7.69). Now there is no such thing as beauty PR in Nigeria. You pay for the stuff or you disappear or you get beat up!

There are two main Nigerian owned brands, House of Tara and BMPro. BMPro is pretty impossible to get hold of, all avenues I explored were futile. Apparently you can only get it in Lagos and I wasn’t. House of Tara is only sold in one store in the whole of where I live. I plan to get my hands on some of those soon.

Of course what I really wanted was some traditional make-up. Unimported, unadulterated pure Nigerian, African substance. I got on the phone with my gradma who still lives in the village and I told her the dire situation I was in. She managed to find me some ancient sand-looking things but by the time they arrived I had already left for UK.

I deserved consolation surely.

This is my mother’s eye-liner from 1986!

I bet you’ve never seen one of these before. It’s not made in Nigeria but it’s as traditional as I could find. This is a basically a pot of coal and ash powder I believe and something extra. There is of course no ingredient list, the packaging is absolutely fascinating- quite heavy, some kind of metal though I’m not sure what.

This must be the equivalent of modern day eye shadow/liner. I don’t know how it has lasted all these years. My mum has two shades- black and grey and this is the grey one.

Just look at how pigmented this thing is. I can’t help but ponder the formulation…

If only modern day beauty can be this unique. The last time I saw something that made me go ooo was…I can’t even remember. I wonder what my grandma has in store for me…

Stay beautiful…