Because there’s a difference between survival, self-preservation, and self-care.
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Black Hair at Home: Mandela Cocores
The pandemic hasn’t been easy on anyone or their routines, especially Black women and their hair. Since lockdown, we’ve faced an aesthetic and philosophical reckoning. We’ve had to ask ourselves: What happens when we suddenly decide to let colleagues see our natural hair? How does learning — or relearning — how to nurture and style our…
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Black Hair at Home: Kim Mupangilaï
In part two of “Black Hair at Home,” we consider how the pandemic has forced black women to have an aesthetic and philosophical reckoning. Since lockdown, we’ve had to ask ourselves: What happens when we suddenly decide to let colleagues see our natural hair? How does learning — or relearning — how to nurture and…
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Black Hair at Home: Kristy Lyons
There’s no doubt that the pandemic has upended our lives. Since March, it’s disrupted the way we work, shop, socialize, and, of course, do our hair. For Black women, this change has forced an aesthetic and philosophical reckoning. We’ve had to ask ourselves: What happens when we suddenly decide to let colleagues see our natural…
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The Beauty of “In-Between” Skin Tones
If my skin were a cup of coffee, it would be Bustelo with a dash of cream. Add a pinch of brown sugar, and there you have it. A perfectly in-between blend of light cocoa and cinnamon tones. This is the skin with which I was born, an olive-caramel hue that exists between worlds — and…
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5 Women Who Empower Black Beauty and Confidence
It took me a long time to find representatives in beauty and art who reflected my own lived experiences as a queer Black woman. This journey has necessitated an intentional relearning of what beauty looks like, which I’ve written about it in more detail here, and a rediscovery of icons who could help me cultivate…
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My Grandma’s Lessons in Luxury Beauty
“Beauty is an investment, honey,” she’d utter. While I was far too young to comprehend what an “investment” meant, her words stuck with me. Even before I became a beauty editor, I retained her lessons on the importance of splurging on beauty products.
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I’m Persian — and I Know Nothing About Persian Beauty
I wish I had a cool story to tell you about how Persian women beautify themselves. Something with rose water or almond eyeliner. Maybe a Cleopatra reference that would sound exotic and make you go, “Oooh, chic.”
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Radical Black Women Inspired My Beauty Routine
In an act of needed self-preservation, I started changing the images surrounding me. On my small and earnest Tumblr account, I began reblogging and saving the selfies of Black women.
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The Enduring Appeal of Activist Yuri Kochiyama
It was when Yuri joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), at age 39, in 1960, that she met her dear friend, Malcom X. In an interview with Democracy Now, she recounts seeing him for the first time, mobbed by all the other activists, and how she geared herself up to ask him if she…
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