Gogo embraces the fullness of the different kinds of Black beauty that make up her look today. When she’s spinning, you’ll rarely find her without a designer bag slung across her body. She favors a “natural” beat, uplifted by lush lashes and ’90s-style lipstick and liner. If she’s not swinging mile-long braids to pulsating grooves, … Read more
The Black women of Gen Z are also using their words to liberate. Consider Sage, a community-centered trans artist and activist. Her father is first-gen Afro-Cuban and her mother is white. I recently had breakfast with her in a little coffee spot in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where we talked liberation, and the protective nature of lashes. … Read more
As a teen star and half of a sister act, Chlöe Bailey charmed audiences for years. Now she’s launched a solo music career and is lending her distinctive voice to an essential story about sex, race, and Black women’s bodies. BY: Joan Morgan PHOTOGRAPHED BY: Micaiah Carter On the day of our interview, Chlöe is … Read more
Chlöe Bailey is arguably most well-known for being one-half of the Beyoncé-approved musical duo Chlöe x Halle. The sisters have been in the spotlight since their early days on YouTube covering popular songs, including “Pretty Hurts,” which got Queen B’s attention and earned them a deal with her label Parkwood Entertainment. Last summer, Chlöe embarked … Read more
DAVIS: It’s rituals. TAYLOR: It’s tradition. DAVIS: Mikki, you were often the only [Black beauty editor]. What did you walk in there with? Who was with you? TAYLOR: At the time, the 14.2 million Black women that Essence served. I knew that when I walked through those doors, that every one of those queens walked … Read more
So, I have to be comfortable with myself and I have to create an environment where I’m comfortable because I can’t rely on everybody else in this world to make sure that I’m comfortable. You get so used to being uncomfortable, especially as a Black woman. You swallow it and don’t say anything about it. … Read more
Clara Bow’s cupid’s bow. Marlene Dietrich’s overlined lips. Marilyn Monroe’s contoured pout. All three of these now-iconic makeup looks could not have been done without lip liner. The simple, slim colored pencil is one of the tools the world’s best-known makeup artists have been using since the 1920s to literally etch out the American Beauty … Read more
Paco Rabanne top and skirt. Chloé earrings. 3555 Gwinnett Place Dr. NW, Duluth The Atlanta area’s premier 24-hour jjimjilbang, or Korean bathhouse, features nine different mineral-encrusted saunas of varying temperatures — at just $35 to enter. It’s an example of how Atlanta’s Korean population (the biggest of all metropolitan areas in the South) is a … Read more
Seeing success in the beauty industry as more collaborative than competitive is also the blueprint for Luna Magic’s in-the-works one-day symposium in New York and Los Angeles called Mentor Magic. After having fielded questions on a weekly basis about what it takes to launch a brand from various walks of life, the sisters are gathering … Read more