Allure, the first and only magazine devoted to beauty, is an insider's guide to a woman's total image. Allure investigates and celebrates beauty and fashion with objectivity and candor, and places appearance in a larger cultural context.
London-born artist and model Kesewa Aboah’s career would be completely different if she had followed her childhood dream. “I wanted to be a lawyer because I watched Legally Blonde every weekend. I thought Elle Woods was the coolest girl in the world,” Aboah says. “That was the one [goal] I stuck with for a long time. I quite like arguing with people, so I thought I’d be really good at it.” There is no argument that today the 26-year-old is generating buzz in the modeling world. She has walked the runway for Michael Kors and Coach and was a muse for recent Miu Miu and Alexander McQueen campaigns. It’s not surprising that Aboah ended up in this line of work. Her older sister, Adwoa, is already a supermodel, and her…
DANESSA MYRICKS OF DANESSA MYRICKS BEAUTY “I was showing [women] how to layer and mix, because there wasn’t always a lot available for Black women,” says the self-taught makeup artist. She decided to create her own products with powerful pigments, like the best-selling Colorfix, a multiuse formula in pretty much any color you can dream of. CHERYL MAYBERRY McKISSACK AND DESIRÉE ROGERS OF BLACK OPAL The duo acquired Black Opal in 2019, making it Black-owned for the first time in its 26-year history. “As a Black owner, I’m looking to hire Black [70 percent of their employees identify as African American], to work with other Black businesses, and to invest in nonprofits in my community,” says Rogers. NIYE ANIEKAN-ATTANG OF ACE BEAUTÈ After years working in finance and being the…
It’s been a month since my last at-home pedicure, and nearly a year since I set foot in a nail salon. Prepan-demic, I would have cringed to be seen in public with what I’m witnessing now—the cracked remains of a pale-pink Paintbox polish barely hanging on. But I’ve been home. Outside of my family, the most that anyone has seen me has been from the rib cage up on a 13-by-16-inch screen. (I joke that my go-to quarantine work-wear is a fashion “mullet”: business on top, sweatpants on the bottom.) So, I’m left wondering whether it matters if my toenails are painted prettily if no one sees them. If a bottle of OPI Big Apple Red falls in the forest and no one’s around to hear it, does it make…
Mai Quynh “I don’t really wear a lot of makeup on my own face, but I have been lately. Because of the pandemic, a lot of people have been asking me, ‘What’s a good way of playing up your eyes [with a face mask]?’ So I’ve been working on eyes a lot, and having fun with that. When Allure asked me to do this chart, at first I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll do natural, pretty makeup,’ but it’s so much fun to try on something bold and bright just to see how it would look. This blue color stuck out.” Sir John “I’m known for two things: One is spotlight makeup; makeup that works for stadium lighting. [Editor’s note: Sir John is Beyoncé’s makeup artist.] The other is my love…
MONO Y MONO Look closer: What you see here isn’t a single shade, but a symphony of colors. Left, three hues from Juvia’s Place The Sweet Pinks Eyeshadow Palette are layered into a hazy dawn. Right, see how the color (from The Crayon Case’s The Matte Book) heats up as it draws away from the corner of the eye? BEAM UP Each eye is a universe of its own, a pink, glitter-dusted nebula stretching out to galactic infinity. Makeup artist Bea Sweet used Black Opal’s eye pencil in After Hours, then Pat McGrath Labs’ VR Sextraterrestrial (from the Mothership VIII: Divine Rose II Eyeshadow Palette) on the inner corners and Ace Beautè’s Night Sky (from the Paradise Fallen palette) everywhere else. PAINTED LADY Your eye makeup canvas starts at the…
GO TO ANOTHER DIMENSION. Take your nails to the next level with a 3D design, like rhinestones on one or two nails on each hand. “Crystals are a big statement; a soft base color balances them out,” says manicurist Naomi Yasuda, who likes using icy turquoise blue (try Essie In the Cab-ana), with stones in different sizes. (“You can find glass stone sets between $10 and $20 on Amazon,” she says.) Yasuda’s method: “Start with big stones in the center of the nail, then surround them with smaller ones.” For less glitz, “try a small crystal near the cuticle.” Adhere the crystals using a nail glue, like IBD Brush-On Nail Glue. Or try a bubble effect to make nails pop without all the shine. Use a dotting tool to create…
