READ Black beauty
From brand founders to facialists, we tapped up our favourite beauty experts to share their top picks. No gatekeeping here
When I was younger, before the days of TikTok and saving inspo to your Pinterest board, the internet and traditional media were bleak places for Black girl beauty recommendations. Like, really non-existent. I yearned to one day work for a glossy magazine, but I never saw models who looked like me in their shoots or found products that stretched to my rich skin tone on their pages. Coming into my beauty era when I was in my late teens and early twenties, we had to rely on localised beauty recommendations from friends and family, sharing the hits and the misses – and there were many, many misses. It was my community who saw me through my ‘What’s the best weave hair?’ questions, skin texture issues and ‘WTF to do about hyperpigmentation?’ woes.
Then I began working at a magazine that was specifically aimed at Black women and answered all the questions that catered to our beauty needs. It was heaven. At the same time, the natural hair movement on YouTube was on the rise, born out of the need to create a space to help demystify caring for our coils. These were such amazing resources, but they were only created due to the lack of inclusion elsewhere in the mainstream. We needed to make our own spaces because we were typically left out in the cold. I’m prouder than ever to see how far the beauty world has come with inclusion and diversity, but I also recognise that we still have a way to go.
Yes, although the Black beauty community is brimming with content to feed all our makeup, skincare and haircare needs, when it comes to traditional media, it’s only ever dotted here and there for us to digest when we discover it. That’s why I’m so proud to be a Cosmo girl and be part of a magazine that has given me the space to write for Black women, recognising where it can be more inclusive, from my first-ever article for the website (‘Seven of the best foundations for darker skin tones’) to this all-encompassing little Black book of all things beauty, with advice and recommendations from myself and industry insiders who don’t gatekeep.
Yours truly, Keeks Reid, Cosmopolitan UK’s contributing beauty director
My little speed dials (or DMs) for hair
You know I love you because now they won’t have space to squeeze me in, SMH
HAIR: LORRAINE DUBLIN, MY HAIR BAR, FITZROVIA, LONDON
I have known Lorraine for nearly 10 years and she has been my go-to hairdresser for at least five. While I often visit other salons as part of my work as a beauty journalist, it’s been integral for my hair’s health to have one stylist who knows my coils inside out (and who forces me to have a trim). Having a trusting relationship with one hairdresser is really
