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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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 –

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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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19 Apr

Op-Ed: Renaming Black Hairstyles Promotes Erasure – essence.com

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Makeup, Featured

Op-Ed: Renaming Black Hairstyles Promotes Erasure – essence.com

Manny Carabel/Getty Images Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… Boxer braids? Buddha knots? Cloud bob? What now? In a since-removed image of Tracee Ellis Ross in a Vogue article about flattering haircuts for thicker hair types, her bouffant afro, beautifully captured framing her face, was instead called something else: a “cloud bob.” While bobs are undoubtedly trending and Ross’s fluffy ‘fro meets the style’s length requirement, the article quickly triggered a unified sentiment: “It’s 2026 and we’re gonna stop Christopher Columbus-ing Black people’s hairstyles,” said creator RaeShanda Lias in a TikTok video with over 70,000 likes (and counting). According to another creator known as certifiedreadergirl on the same platform, “they are trying to erase the afro so white people, particularly the Kardashians and the...

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