Your outfit may not define you but whether you like it or not people judge you by how you look. That's why our appearance is also an important part of our levelling up.

Every now and then, we need to level up our wardrobe to have better outfits and combinations to wear.

Your wardrobe could be full but you still struggle daily to find something to wear. So today I'm sharing tips to help you avoid that.

Here are the points that you should take into consideration when improving your wardrobe.

Your Style

Except you are trying to make a switch, it's important to stick to your style when improving your wardrobe. If you buy things which are not your style you may end up never wearing them no matter how much you admire the clothes.

Some people know their style while others don't and if you don't know your style yet, it's not a problem. You can take a test to find out or read a blog post about finding your fashion style. If you still can't figure it out (which is ok), then focus on using the tips that follow to improve your wardrobe.

The Fit

Watch out for the fit of your clothes when shopping. Pay attention to sizes when shopping online and try on clothes before purchasing when you go to stores.

Try on accessories too and ask yourself if they will match anything in your wardrobe before buying it.

If you like loose clothes, then make sure that they actually suit you before buying them. Buying clothes that fit you well will prevent you from wasting money on clothes you won't wear and this helps your finances a lot.

The Trend

Take note of the trends when shopping to improve your wardrobe. Ask yourself if what you want to buy is trendy or timeless. Trendy clothes quickly go out of style but timeless pieces stay with you forever. However, check that your timeless pieces are of very good quality if you are buying from a thrift store.

If you love to follow trends you will discover that you'll be shopping almost all the time. So if you love new trends, then my advice to you is to avoid shopping a lot when a new trend is out.

It's better to buy just one or two items from each trend so that you don't fill up your wardrobe with items that will soon go out of style. You may not have enough time to wear them all if you buy so many items of the same trend because a new trend you like may come out soon.

Basic and Statement Pieces

Ask yourself if the item you want to buy is a basic or a statement piece for your wardrobe?

It's important to categorize your wardrobe items into basics and statement items. Both of them are necessary for your wardrobe. Basics are the foundation of your outfits and can be upgraded with statement pieces.

Assess your existing wardrobe to know if you have more basics or statement pieces before you make purchases. Also, you need to judge if what you are buying is adding to your basics or statement pieces in order to create a balance in your wardrobe. You can't come out on statement pieces all the time or wear only statement pieces from head to toe. You'll need basics to tone things down from time to time.

The Colours

Colours are very important when improving your wardrobe. It's necessary to have universal colours (like black, white, brown) that match anything in your wardrobe before buying other colours that are more difficult to match (blue, green, orange).

The Fabric

Ask yourself if the fabric of good or high quality?

You need a mixture of different types of fabric in your wardrobe. Prioritize the ones that fit your personality and dressing style.

Some fabrics may look cheap and others can look expensive though they are cheap. If you love to look classy and rich all the time then go for fabrics that look expensive or that are of very good quality.

Fabrics like velvet, satin (some of them, not all), silk and lace look classy.
Cotton and jean fabrics are mostly for casual looks.

Most of us have moments where we want to dress classy and other times when we want to look casual. We, therefore, need to create a balance between outfits with expensive and the simple fabric in our wardrobe.

*Note that a simple fabric may not make an outfit glamorous no matter the design. Some outfits are very pretty and glam just because a good quality fabric was used to make them. So if you are looking forward to adding clothes that you can wear out for parties and really great occasions then think of buying clothes made of fabric that reflects a good quality.

Home or outing outfits

For those who stay a lot at home creating a balance between home clothes and outing clothes isn't easy because you probably don't go out much. And when you do go out it's just to the shop nearby.

During my uni days, I went out a lot and outing clothes were my priority. But now I work from home and since I stay at home a lot, I buy fewer outing clothes and more comfortable home clothes. Right now it has become a challenge to dress up when I'm going out because I just can't find anything to wear for my outings.

So I'm consciously making the effort to purchase more clothes that I can go out with.

These are my timeless tips to consider when improving your wardrobe ladies. I hope you enjoyed this post.

It's been more than two weeks since I started using The Dove Gentle Exfoliating Soap and in this post, I'm going to be sharing my opinion about it.

Before using this soap, I was using the Rogé Cavaillès Soap and then I felt like changing my bathing soap. I have used Dove products in the past (while in secondary school) including this soap and I felt like using a Dove product again. So I visited my favourite local store in my neighbourhood (where I get most of my skincare products) and bought this beauty cream bar.

Is The Dove Gentle Exfoliating Cream Bar Really A Good Exfoliating Soap?

At the store, I had the choice between the Gentle exfoliating soap and the Morrocan oil soap and obviously, I chose the Gentle exfoliating soap for one major reason. I'll tell you why soon. After using it, here are my thoughts about the product.

The Product

The main action of The Dove Gentle Exfoliating Soap is to exfoliate dead skin cells to reveal softer and radiant skin. According to the Dove website, this soap is recommended by dermatologists and it doesn't dry skin but rather retains the skin's moisture.

It is used as a daily regular soap for the body and face. The main exfoliating ingredient used for this soap is silica derived from natural mineral sources such as quartz or sand.

That's what I got from Dove's site about the product. And now I'm ready to tell my own side of the story.

My thoughts

The things I like about the soap:

I love the creamy texture of the soap

It's milky and creamy as it foams on the skin and I love that texture. It gives me a feeling of bathing with milk. I really do love the creamy texture of the soap when rubbing it on my skin.

The soap smells so good.

The one thing that got me to take this soap was the smell. Did you take a guess? Yes, the nice and fresh smell is the major thing that made me take it.

And the smell stays on my body for a while after bathing. It also fills my bathroom which I absolutely love.

It really retains skin moisture

The soap moisturizes my skin. It's the dry season right now in Cameroon and the air is very dry (Harmattan). It's very easy to look ashy and dry. Sometimes it gets so hot that I don't oil my skin for days. But my skin doesn't feel dry. Apart from the other ways I use to avoid looking ashy, the Dove Gentle Exfoliating Soap retains skin moisture.

It's a good exfoliating soap

The hype about its ability to exfoliate the skin is true. It removes dead skin and softens the skin as well. It's a very gentle exfoliator indeed.

It brought out my new skin all over my body especially in areas like my neck where I have an uneven skin tone because of so much sweating.

My last thoughts about this product

If you are looking for an exfoliating soap to use, The Dove Gentle Exfoliating Soap is a good choice. I recommend it for gentle exfoliation and to soften your skin.

On a bad nail day, use nail polish. That sounds so simple. Lol.

Today I'm reviewing the Yves Rocher Laque Gel nail polish.

Let's talk about the product.

The Yves Rocher Laque Effet Gel Nail Polish is a gel effect nail polish. Gel-effect nail polish is a nail polish that is semi-permanent. Meaning that it stays for long on your nails (for at least two weeks according to this article from The Cosmopolitan) without flaking. The nail polish stays impeccable till your nails begin to grow then you can change the polish. The nail polish is shiny and is less harmful to your nails.

Gel manicures are done in beauty institutes by professionals under UV light. But the Yves Rocher Laque Effet Gel Nail Polish enables you to do your gel manicure at home by yourself. And you know it's cheaper to do your nails by yourself at home.

Things I love while applying this nail polish

I love the colour. This is the softest pink or beige I have seen.

Another thing is that the smell of the nail polish isn't strong and indeed it is a good thing.

The nail polish is quite light so I could apply it once or twice if I wanted it very light or many more times if I wanted it thicker. I applied it three times to obtain these results seen in the pictures.

How long does the Yves Rocher Laque Effet Gel Nail Polish stay on your nails?

To tell you the truth, on the sixth day after applying it, the nail polish on my fingernails started to crack and flake off. But those on my toenails were still perfect and shiny as they were on the first day of application for up to two weeks.

In my opinion, the nail polish on my fingernails started going off as a result of daily house chores which required me to dip my hands into water often. I cooked, cleaned, scrubbed and hand washed clothes as usual. I tried to be careful but I couldn't be that careful while doing the dishes or cooking or just doing my daily stuff with my hands.

So yes the Yves Rocher Effet Gel nail polish can stay on perfectly for as long as two weeks. But it will require that you stay away from serious house chores that will damage your nail polish.

If you can't stay away from house chores like me, it will stay impeccable for six days or let's say a week.

I also think that the nail polish cracked off because I applied the polish thicker on my fingernails than on my toenails.

It's almost two weeks and my toenail polish is still as good as new. They are still shiny and nice to look at. I haven't worn any cover-toe shoes with them though.

My last thoughts about this nail polish...

I love this nail polish. I must say it's the best nail polish I've used for far. Most of the things I read about it are true. It stays shiny and stays on intact for a long.

I love the colour of the one I used. It's a nude colour. It's visible yet very cool. And that makes a whole difference on the nails.

My tips on using this nail polish

I advise that you apply it lightly - just one or two times so that it stays longer on your nails. It also looks better in the long run when applied lightly.

That's it for the Yves Rocher Laque Effer Gel nail polish review. I hope this was quite informative and useful to you.

I love stewed beans for their flavour and spiciness. In Cameroon, we love spicy food and we add a variety of ingredients to beans not only to make them smell good but also to taste good.

Today, I'm sharing with you one of the methods we use to stew beans in Cameroon (trust me there are many others). But this recipe won't only make your beans come out tasting so good, it will also have a very good flavour.

Honestly, I was amazed by the aroma from these beans when I cooked it and everyone kept commenting on the flavour the minute I open the pot to serve the beans. So how do we cook this kind of fine-smelling beans? Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

You'll need:

- Beans

- Tomatoes

- Onions

- Pepper (optional)

- Garlic

- Ginger

Leeks

- African nutmeg (or Deux cotés as called in Cameroon or Ehuru as called in Nigeria)

- Cutmanjo (I used dry cutmanjo leaves. You can use the fresh ones as well.)

- Seasoning cubes

- Salt

Cooking

- Wash and soak dry beans until it's well soaked and ready for cooking. Put the beans in a pot with enough water and cook.

- Start preparing ingredients when the beans are almost done. Slice tomatoes, onions and leeks. Grind garlic, ginger, pepper, African nutmeg and cutmanjo leaves. Do not mix ingredients while grinding. Grind each ingredient separately.

- When beans are well cooked and soft, drain them and rinse well with much water.

- Put some oil in a clean dry pot and heat. Add some salt to the oil. Fry the onions, and leeks till it's a little bit brown before adding the tomatoes. Fry the mixture well, add the seasoning cubes and then the beans to the fried mixture.

- Add some water and let it boil before adding the rest of the ingredients to the beans. Let it boil for a few more minutes before you switch off the fire.

- Serve your beans with rice or any tuber of your choice. I had mine with rice and it was superb.

Please leave your thoughts in a comment below or tell me if you would try this recipe or if you love spicy food.

Don't forget to share the recipe with your friends to help them try something new and nice.