19 Beauty Products To Pack For Essence Festival 2026

28 May

PictureNet Corporation / Getty Images Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… In just over one month, your flight will touch down in New Orleans for the 2026 Essence Festival of Culture. In the meantime, when it comes to festival prep, remembering what to pack may not be as fun as the Evening Concert Series. As you’re spending time rounding up your half-empty travel-sized skincare and deciding which makeup products can survive the Southern heat, knowing what’s worth your bag’s limited real estate is just half the work. Essence Festival is all about Black culture, which means your beauty bag should be the same. At the top of our list are Black-founded products: EADEM’s new sunscreen, The Hair Diagram’s Bold Hold Active, and, of...

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19 May

This New Beauty Series Makes Black Makeup Artists More

by Beauty Tips

Makeup, Featured

This New Beauty Series Makes Black Makeup Artists More

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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15 May

The Black Women-Owned Beauty Brands ESSENCE Editors Can’t Get

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Makeup, Featured

The Black Women-Owned Beauty Brands ESSENCE Editors Can’t Get

Harry Langdon/Getty Image Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… Women’s History Month comes directly after Black History Month, offering a two-month long opportunity to uplift and highlight the experience and accomplishments of Black women. In the beauty field, this means celebrating the far-reaching areas we continue to occupy across skin, body, hair care, makeup, and wellness. Black women-owned beauty brands are making strides in both representation and innovation. As a result, they have earned permanent spots in our bathroom cabinets and deserve one in yours as well. According to the Harvard Kennedy School, only 2.4% of all venture capital funding is invested into women-owned businesses. In a 2021 study focusing on Black women specifically, the percentage was a dismal 0.34%.The stark support gap...

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7 May

Olandria’s Best Red Carpet Beauty & Style Moments –

by Beauty Tips

Makeup, Featured

Olandria’s Best Red Carpet Beauty & Style Moments –

Chad Salvador/WWD via Getty Images Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… Last night, the Met Gala missed out on one star we’ve all been swooning over: Olandria! The morning of the carpet, her makeup artist Ngozi “Esther” Edeme—who did Tyla’s makeup look for the ball and was supposed to do Ola’s—responded to a fan on X about her absence. “They played with our girl y’all. Next time,” she wrote. “I obviously can’t get into what’s happened behind the scenes but it’s not happening this year.” Regardless, it was a missed opportunity as she’s one of the most talked about celebrities—who was trending on X leading up to the Gala—since she left the Love Island villa as the season’s favorite. And, naturally, her red...

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