Funmi Olurinola

Funmilola Irantiola Olurinola is a Nigerian makeup artist, beautician, founder and chief executive officer of Abeke Makeover. She is the inventor of Auto-gele, a modernized version of gele, a traditional headdress worn by African women which is popular in Nigeria.

Autogele
Olurinola introduced the Auto-gele, also called Abekegele or Rose gele, in 2015. It is a modernized gele designed to be ready to wear, compared to the traditional gele which must be tied each time it is worn. The Auto-gele is designed like a hat or fascinator in different styles and sizes and can be worn on different dress types. Olurinola's inspiration for the auto-gele was to give younger African women “stylish, unique and beautiful” gele to differentiate them from the older generation of African women attuned to the traditional gele which has a common style.

The first auto-gele collection, titled Oriki, debuted in 2015, with each of the five pieces named after international reality TV and pop stars depicting their fashion style. The collection labels include The Beyonce – “Abike”, The Kim Kardashian-West – “Apinke”, The Rihanna – “Ariyike”, The Selena Gomez – “Asabi” and The Madonna – “Amoke”.

Awards
Olurinola was named the Hottest Makeup Artist in Nigeria (2010) by the City People Awards and was named the Best Makeup Artist (2015) by the Glam and Essence Awards.