Indholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2022 i Allure

IDRIS: Self-care quickly became “us-care” when we were in lockdown [during the pandemic]. We realized that only when you’re really good with yourself, are you good with someone else. We’re a partnership, and skin care is something we can share. We are both on the same page about feeling good externally and it helps us approach our day. SABRINA: It’s become such an educational process for me to talk about skin care with my partner who, you know, only used Vaseline until very recently [laughs]. When we created the S’able Labs [Editor’s note: That’s Elba’s spelled backwards!] products [launching on July 12], we wanted it to be something we could use together. IDRIS: It’s not man or woman. It’s just human. We are both humans. SABRINA: Idris will use the…

All my homies are tired. One is anxious to leave the company she’s diligently contributed five years of her life to, while another is exhausted from the forces that challenge their mental peace: fatphobia, housing instability, colorism. As for me? I am tired of lifting my family on my shoulders, of forcing myself to forgive aches that have spread from my heart to my body and spirit. There are two problems: Black women don’t get enough rest, and we don’t get all the types of rest that we need. “It’s become normalized for Black women to feel tired,” says La’Tish M. Thomas, LCSW, a New York City-based clinical social worker and psychotherapist. Her virtual private practice, Therapy in Healing Spaces, caters to Black, Indigenous, and women of color in their…

When I wake up in the morning, I ask myself a question: What am I feeling today? It is less about a physical location or where I’m going and more oriented to an emotional location. And, from there, I dress. I live in New York City—the place where my girl Loop the Loop, an early-1900s sex worker, would walk around in full glamor all the time. I like people-watching in my city. I love that I see people who are different every day and people don’t bat an eyelid. It gives me permission to wear what I want and not fear being seen as some sort of freak. Or, rather, in New York, we’re comfortable with freaks—and that’s a good thing. I was raised in Texas, home to countless amazing…

Master Sergeant Quintana Mitchell has been in the Army for nearly 23 years. She knew she wanted to serve ever since she saw her first Veterans Day parade, when she was nine years old. Almost a decade later, as an 18-year-old fresh out of high school in Boston, she traded her cap and gown for fatigues and combat boots and began basic training. Mitchell’s career in the Army has taken her far from home (Hawaii, Iraq, Turkey), but she’s currently at the Pentagon, serving on the G-1 Uniform Policy branch. She had planned to retire after 20 years of service, but her “life-changing” work in the policy branch inspired her to stick around. In 2021, Mitchell (seen on page 77) was a key player in helping to loosen the Army’s…

Our favorite summertime makeup look requires only three things: 1. The brightest shade of yellow shadow you can get your hands on. Here, makeup artist Tiziana Raimondo grabbed Make Up For Ever Flash Color Palette Multi-Use Cream Color in 13 Yellow. 2. More yellow. Raimondo doubled down on the brilliance, hand-painting each lash in MAC Pigment in Primary Yellow. 3. Another layer of yellow! Kidding. A dewy cream blush is your final step—but a soft rose is a better bet than daffodil. Raimondo dabbed Glossier Cloud Paint in Haze from cheeks to temples for skin that truly beams.…

ROCK THIS WAY When they’re nestled among black gemstones and worn as dramatic winged liner, pearls can be punk, proved makeup artist Thomas de Kluyver at Simone Rocha’s fall 2022 show (right). There’s no need to reach inside your jewelry box because the crafts store has all the supplies you need. Stick on rhinestones and pearls with a dot of eyelash glue and later gently remove the gems to wear again. EN POINTE A classic double strand of pearls is, well, classic. But when it’s broken apart as a form of nail art, it becomes significantly more fun. Gluing pearls on top of a ballerina-pink manicure gives nails an Old Hollywood vibe, says nail artist Gina Edwards, who adorned stiletto-shaped press-ons with a pile of pearls cascading from cuticles to…

This year, social media has become an unavoidable part of my life as the pandemic, a promotion, and a social movement all sent me to my phone, seeking connection and community. But what I found was a double-edged sword — the negative aspect of which is highlighted in AARP’s annual Mirror/Mirror: AARP Survey of Women’s Reflections on Beauty, Age, and MediaTM. The results revealed the chronic effects of social media on our self-image, especially in how it pressures us to wear our hair and clothes a certain way, to modify, airbrush, and erase any evidence of a life well lived. Some may take comfort in the fact that 81% of women over 18 feel that pressure, too. Fortunately, at Allure, we are striving to show more diverse folks — different…

“Growing up in Sweden, I was the only brown kid in school,” says Rivera, who recalls asking her Chilean father, a hairstylist, to tame her frizz and brush back the baby hairs that made her feel different from her classmates. As Rivera grew older, she still struggled with identity: “I would introduce myself as Swedish without realizing. It wasn’t a strategy, it was just this subconscious belief that being Hispanic was a disadvantage because I never saw any success stories of people like me. I never got to open a magazine and read about a Latina making big moves.” Today, she’s flipped the script by creating Ceremonia, a line of hair products that celebrates natural textures and traditional Latin American ingredients such as guava and aloe. “I feel like I’m…

Ah-Shi Beauty AHSAKI LAFRANCE-CHACHERE Growing up on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, LaFrance-Chachere never saw herself represented in beauty campaigns. Instead, she looked to the women of her family, who mixed available base shades to match their skin. This memory is the bedrock of her brand. Using her family’s rich brown skin tones as a starting point, LaFrance-Chachere created the shade range of Ah-Shi Beauty’s Hi Def Foundation. She gave her brand a name in Diné, the Navajo language. “Ah-Shi Beauty means ‘this is me, this is my beauty,’” she says. Prados Beauty CECE MEADOWS “I love pops of color,” says Meadows, whose ancestors are from New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and Mexico. “Culturally, we are vibrant and colorful people, shown in our art, jewelry, fashion, textiles, and makeup.” Watermelon blush,…

1 NARINA CHAN @narinanails Chan’s private Manhattan studio has no name and its owner likes it that way. “People just find me on Instagram for an appointment and I’m booked [three months] out,” she says. “It’s insane, but I’ve been in this industry for [10 years].” This no-frills business model is perfectly suited to the Hong Kong–born, New York–raised nail artist—and like her masterful work, it’s based in practicality. “I was a musician in college, so I started doing nails on the side for money. I played guitar, so I always needed short nails,” Chan recalls. Her designs, which she describes as “detailed without being extravagant,” are often inspired by food (like sushi and sunny-side up eggs) and ’90s anime (she’s even created a custom gel palette with hard-to-find skin-tone…

If you ask the Observatory of Economic Complexity, the United States’s top export is refined petroleum. We sent out $54.8 billion worth of the stuff in 2020. But contrary to statistics, some would say the greatest export of the U.S. is its culture. And the driving beat of that culture is music, a soundtrack that is easily transmitted across oceans and borders. Since the first jazz riffs rose up out of the New Orleans streets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and traveled across the sea in World War I, American culture has enchanted the world—Black American culture, specifically. Rock and roll, jazz, hip-hop, pop—each of these genres was forged and perfected within Black communities before being adopted by white Americans and then exported. Rock and roll is…

GET THE LOOK Makeup by Mario Master Mattes Eyeshadow Palette, Kylie Cosmetics Kyliner Brush Tip Liquid Eyeliner Pen in Black, Nars Bronzer Powder in Laguna, Make Up For Ever Artist Face Color in English Rose, Kevyn Aucoin Unforgettable Lip Definer in Pure and Divine. “I used to work at the MAC counter and in my free time I would create face charts. I still do it when I’m designing looks for music videos. [But] it takes a certain energy for me to be inspired. I did this face chart when I couldn’t sleep. I just started to paint and it became this look; the mood is confident and powerful. The cat eye gives fierce energy. I like to make all parts of the face look lifted—all the shapes [created by…

Growing up in New York in the ’80s and ’90s, the most beautiful girls—the flyest ones, that I wanted to be—were the girls who gave fresh face—caritas lindas. The ones from the block who looked like God and their mothers had just made them perfect. With nothing more than a white tee, cutoffs, fresh kicks, and a smile, they’d emerge for a session of stoop-sitting like goddesses. Hair pulled back with the part just so; baby hairs laid flawless; pretty, long nails; and soft, glowing skin warmed from summer trips to Coney Island or Orchard Beach. And the most perfect shine on their lips. By our local beauty standards, the supermodels in magazines had nothing on them. Because there was no smoky eye or high-fashion hairdo that amplified natural beauty…