This New Beauty Series Makes Black Makeup Artists More

19 May

Courtesy of Alexandra Toy Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… In an industry full of insiders, this new cultural beauty series is unlocking the gate-kept door. The Beauty Breakdown, a live series spotlighting emerging artists and industry transparency, found its home in the creative sanctuary HEVN Studios over the weekend in an intimate space led exclusively by Black women. The series is the brainchild of HEVN Studios founder Imary Mezquita, Mind Candy Beauty founder Lyric Christian, and Nyala “Lala” Chamberlain, the makeup artist behind celebrities like Lala Anthony, Aweng Chuol, and Simone Biles. But, it wasn’t an idea that took much thought at all. “This idea actually started organically,” Christian tells ESSENCE. When Chamberlain and Mezquita first approached her about hosting a masterclass,...

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25 Apr

5 more body art and SFX artists you need

by Beauty Tips

Beauty, Featured

5 more body art and SFX artists you need

As our identities become increasingly enmeshed with digital worlds, it’s easy to feel split between who we are online and who we are IRL. It’s a reckoning that’s led us to view our real-life selves as avatars we can upgrade, customise and deck out into new forms. One medium that has been expressing those ideas is the world of SFX and body art. Once more firmly rooted in film and TV, we’re now seeing SFX mutate its way onto runway shows, fashion campaigns and music videos, where distorted, contorting and varied takes on the human form are becoming increasingly popular. Some of this work channels anxiety: a fear of technology infiltrating the body, of the human form itself becoming obsolete. iPhones...

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5 Feb

Teeth blackening: How Asian artists are reviving an ancient

by Beauty Tips

Beauty, Featured

Teeth blackening: How Asian artists are reviving an ancient

When Timbaland posted a clip of Sailorr performing her viral single “Pookie’s Requiem” on Instagram last year, the majority of the comments had nothing to do with the music. Instead, everyone was discussing what was in Sailorr’s mouth. The Vietnamese-American R&B artist chooses to wear black grills to honour the Vietnamese tradition of nhuộm răng đen – the practice of teeth blackening. In a world where teeth are increasingly expected to be straight, white and uniform, the sight of Sailorr’s black grills came as a shock to many and the post was filled with comments calling her teeth rotten, saying she was guilty of cultural appropriation, and asking ‘what’s up with her mouth?’ Teeth blackening has been practiced for centuries across...

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10 Aug

How Black Women Can Achieve Olandria’s Bright ‘Love Island’

by Beauty Tips

Makeup, Featured

How Black Women Can Achieve Olandria’s Bright ‘Love Island’

Kim Nunneley/Peacock Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… Bright under eyes and Black women are officially coupled up. And, for Love Island islander (and half of Nicolandria) Olandria Carthen, the look was her signature in Fiji. “Her bright under eye really lifts the entire face and it’s giving that snatched and wide-awake look that translates beautifully on camera and in real-life,” Fenty Beauty global artistry ambassador Naïma Bremer tells ESSENCE. Sitting on and above her modelesque cheekbone structure, Olandria’s undereyes added sunkissed dimension to her sculpted features and deep skin tone. “It enhances the high points of the face bringing them forward and creating a lifted, highlighted effect,” adds MAC Senior Artist Deney Adam. “[It was] flawlessly finished but never overdone.” Read on for more on...

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