This Week in Beauty: "Rumors"
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The thread (and reporting) you need to read on OnlyFans in lieu of the company’s decision to ban sexually explicit content.
“80 hours, 400 packs of Kanekalon, 17 of LA’s finest braiders.” Led by hairstylist Shelby Swain, Lizzo wore 43 1/2 feet of braids for her ‘Rumors’ video featuring Cardi B.
As if the ‘Rumors’ video wasn’t enough, August has been a great month for Cardi. ‘WAP’ was nominated for not one, but four VMA’s, including Video of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Collaboration, and Best Hip Hop. ‘WAP’’s cover art gave us an iconic hair moment I talked about last summer, and ‘Rumor’s surely did the same with nails by Eri Ishizu.
YSL Beauty launched a new makeup-skin care hybrid collection called The Nu Collection, and using influencers like Rickey Thompson to do so. Thompson rose to fame on Vine before its closing, and is now practically a household name (at least for Gen-Zers). Other young ambassadors for the launch include Youtuber Chella Man, and model Sirena Warren.
Also, Rickey cut his hair. “It’s game time bitches”. Definitely a moment, as Thompson rose to fame in his signature braided bob. He recently spoke about it on his podcast with Denzel Dion, We Said What We Said with Rickey and Denzel: “I really wanted to rebrand myself, and I felt the only thing holding me back was my braids. I’ve had my braids… for the most important times. I shaved it. I want to be taken seriously.”
Pinterest has created a hair pattern search tool that will enable users to refine hair searches by six different hair patterns: protective, coily, curly, wavy, straight, and shaved/bald. Pinterest worked with Editorial Hair Stylist and Global Artistic Director of Amika, Naeemah LaFond and BIPOC creators to help build and design the product. A reminder that in 2018, Pinterest rolled out its skin tone range feature.
As a part of its Dove Self-Esteem Project, Dove has announced the release of a new tool, ‘My Hair, MY CROWN’, in an attempt to educate on the experiences of Black communities, with an emphasis on hair pride. It’s free and designed for group and classroom settings. The tool includes a 90-minute workshop aimed to help participants recognize their own hair biases. Dove partnered with the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem and Lizzo for the launch. A couple of weeks ago I watched as Lizzo virtually surprised young Black kids in a classroom, donned with an amazing ‘fro:
WOW Tech Group and LoveHoney have merged to form the Lovehoney Group, making it the world’s largest sexual wellness company. The Group will also include Amorana, a Swiss sexual well-being retailer acquired by Lovehoney in September 2020.
The UK has named 191 businesses for breaking their national minimum wage law, The Body Shop and other small beauty businesses are among them. The ways that workers were underpaid were various, whether that be not receiving overtime or reduction of wages. In a statement to Cosmetic Business, The Body Shop said, “We fully cooperated with HMRC during a routine audit in 2018, which identified that we needed to reimburse a number of store-based employees for uniform costs.” Read the rest here.
Quick celebrity and collaboration hits:
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley launched her along-awaited beauty brand, Rose Inc., which is the name of the content platform she’s run since 2018.
Addison Rae’s brand Item Beauty is set to launch in Sephora this month. She’s also starring in Netflix’s “He's All That” at the end of this month.
Former Birch Box exec and current beauty influencer Deepica Mutyala's brand Live Tinted, launched on QVC this month.
Co-founder of Hype House Chase Hudson, a.k.a @lilhuddy, dropped a nail sticker collaboration with Glamnetic.
Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown is expanding the skincare line he co-founded, Mantl, to the UK.
As Bama Rush Tok comes to a close, I thought it was important to include some parting thoughts. Because of this addictive subculture, the internet felt united during this period of time in a way that it hadn’t in a while, placing bets on freshman women’s sorority bids like a fantasy football lineup. Although there are glaring issues with Greek life (racism, classism, etc.), as a member of Greek life myself, specifically as a Black woman in a white sorority, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t thoroughly enjoy not only #rushtok, but my own rush experience. Southern Greek life is surely in a problematic realm of its own, but I feel like I can acknowledge a system’s issues, while still sitting back and being entertained by an experience different than my own. — Isabel Bekele, Beauty IRL intern
MEDIA DROPS
#NoMoreLyes: The Campaign That Wants To Put an End To Toxic Hair Products Marketed Towards Black Women — Niellah Arboine
Rebundle Reimagines Black Hair Care for Our Current Climate Crisis — Arimeta Diop
Nail Art Is More Than a Style Statement It’s Black History and Culture. — Words by Asia Milia Ware, directed by Courtney Sofiah Yates
Esports and Twitch Deepen Ties to Beauty — Liza Flora
A Beauty Lover’s Guide to Oakland - Michella Oré
‘Pretty Boys’ Author David Yi on Male Beauty and 7 Cultural Offerings That Redefine Masculinity - Jacqui Palumbo
U.K. Salon Industry Long Underserved Black Clients. It’s Vowing to Change That. - Aiana J. Khan and Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff
Correction, August 22nd 3:57 pm PT: I incorrectly spelled Deepica Mutyala's last name “Mutalya,” and it has been corrected.