There are so, so many reasons to love, respect and admire Lupita Nyong’o, but from a beauty perspective she truly makes my heart flutter. Just by being, by wearing her hair the way she wants to and rocking every color in the rainbow, she debunks so many foolish and old school beauty perceptions that still…
Black Beauty
Defining Moments in Black Beauty History – The TV Edition
In 2013 I got ambitious for Black History Month, and decided to kick off a month-long series on black beauty history. I titled it 28 Moments in Black Beauty History, intending there to be a new post every day. Things were going great at the beginning. I wrote informative, research-heavy posts about Josephine Baker and…
You Deserve – the We Are Onyx Box
Bellas, I’ll be honest. Not all subscription beauty boxes are made equal. You sign up and hope for the best, and sometimes you find yourself disappointed by the tiny samples, the overabundance of drugstore products you could’ve bought yourself, or the look and packaging of the box itself. Sometimes you just want more than a…
Fashion Fair’s 40th Anniversary Collection — All Pink Everything
For 40 years, women of color have known and loved Fashion Fair Cosmetics. The venerable beauty brand based in Chicago was a staple in my formative years and I know I’m not the only one who remembers that familiar pink marbleized compact being on their mother’s dresser. The brand has been through so many…
30 Essential Lipsticks For Women of Color – Drugstore Edition!
Bellas, you LOVED my last collaboration with my favorite Los Angeles makeup artist Nicole Evans. – you guys shared, pinned and tweeted our 25 Best MAC Lipsticks For Women of Color post to the gods! Thank you so much. Via Twitter and in the comments, we kept getting requests for MORE posts like that. More…
The 25 Best MAC Lipsticks for Women of Color
Because of my history as one of the chosen ones for the 2011 Bloggers Obsession collection, I’m asked about MAC Cosmetics often. Mainly it’s two questions. This post will aim to answer both of them, with a little help from an expert! Question #1 – will they EVER bring back All Of…
Hooray for Quvenzhané! All About Oscar’s Youngest Nominee
The Academy Awards will take place on February 24th, and yours truly won’t be on the red carpet this year, but I sure will be glued to my TV screen! I’m a longtime Oscar junkie. I love seeing the stars walk the red carpet – what they wear, who they’re with, the hair, the nails,…
Thank You, Miu Miu and Ava DuVernay
The need for more diversity in fashion is so frequently glaring and so very frequently written about. Sometimes it seems like things are deliberately destined to never change. And every now and then there’s a shining breakthrough, that you hope heralds a new day in fashion and beauty and fills your heart with optimism…
Whitney Houston, Beauty Icon
Do you remember where you were, when you found out? I do. I was standing backstage at Texture On The Runway, such a fabulous New York Fashion Week event. I was waiting to be interviewed by Corynne Corbett for Essence, when Dickey of Hair Rules came backstage and said five words I won’t ever…
What’s It Like Being a Fashion Week Makeup Veteran? MAC Senior Artist Fatima Thomas Tells All
Fashion Week kicks off today in New York, and I’ll be happily watching via the internet, on my couch. Most of my blogger friends will be in New York, looking fabulous while working hard, attending glamorous events, crowding into backstage spaces to see the hottest looks first, and sharing that information ASAP. Many of my…