Any beauty aficionado literally will get chills when there's a new makeup launch. And seeing Fenty Beauty literally take over the beauty market last year has been nothing less than #magical to watch.
For the first time (for many of us), it felt like a brand was really listening to our needs and ensuring that color ranges were available for the fairest of the fair to the most chocolate of them all.
Recently, Fenty Beauty came out with 14 Mattemoiselle lipsticks, ranging from purples to blues to nudes and staple reds. Needless to say, the line has a ton of range and personality. Of course, the first thing I had to wonder was if these lipsticks, which claim to be, "long-wearing, petal-soft matte finish, created in a rainbow of weightless, color-intense shades designed to flatter all skin tones," are worth my COINT. Retailing at $18 a pop, they aren't the most expensive, but certainly are not the cheapest.
So I had to try them out for myself. Here are all 14 shades on my skin tone with no lip liner, some enviable dupes you can try if you're working on a budget (these are ones I already had in my makeup collection, but leave a comment below if you have more!), and ultimately, my verdict on the line:
Shade: “Freckle Fiesta”
Freckle Fiesta was by far one of my favorite colors in the collection, mostly because I love a great terracotta shade.
Shade: “Saw-C”
Dupe: "Orange Dream", ELF.
Shade: “Up 2 No Good”
Shade: “Ya Dig?!”
Shade: “PMS”
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A Goddard College graduate, who earned an MFA from Pratt Institute and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College, Mahogany offers unapologetic realness with a side of grace and empowerment. "I started touring locally. I started creating chat books so that those poems will go in the hands of the people who were sitting in the rooms," she shared.
"And then I started facilitating poetry workshops, so I used my chat books as curriculum. And that, in turn, allowed me to further invest in my art and show the community and people who were hiring me that it wasn't just a one-off, that it's not just, you know, a fly by night—that I am invested in this art as much as I am invested in your community, in your children's learning, in our growth."
Mahogany has a special way of moving audiences, and her superpower sparks shifts in perspective, post-performance introspection, and strengthening of community bonds, especially among Black women. (One can undeniably recognize her gift for arousal of the spirit and mind merely from her listening to her insights from the other side of a Google Hangout call. I can only imagine the soul-stirring, top-tier sensory encounter when watching her perform in person.)
In this chat with xoNecole, Mahogany reflects on sustaining a creative career, the aftermath of writing a banned book, and using poetry for both healing, community-building, and activism.
Anthony Artis
xoNecole: What are three key things that have laid the foundation for a sustainable creative career for you?
Mahogany L Browne: What has helped me is that I'm willing to go in being an expert at knowing poetry and knowing the way in which art can change the landscape of our lives, not just as a poet, but also as a poetry facilitator. How you move through classes, those things are mastered, right? So when I go into another space that's maybe tech-heavy, I don't mind learning and being, you know, a student of the wonder of how we can make this magic, work together.
Two, you’ve got to know how to pivot. Sometimes we say, ‘Alright, this is what my life is going to be. I'm going to be a New York Times best-selling author. I'm going to, you know, have an album that's Grammy-nominated. And then, say you get dropped from your record label. That doesn't mean you can't make an album anymore. You can also still create an album that can be submitted to the Grammys. So, what does a pivot look like as an artist who doesn't have an institution behind them? Pivot being a student of the wonder.
Relationships also really help. How do I serve the community? And in turn, that tells me how the community can show up. For me, I have long-standing ties with a community that will outlast my one life. So, what does it mean to create space where these relationships can develop, can be nurtured, can be rooted, can be cultivated? Creating space—it happens through relationships.
xoN: With today’s economic challenges, what does your current creative process look like, and what are you working on?
MB: I’m always thinking five years ahead. I just reviewed the pages for two children’s books and recently released a YA novel. I’m drafting an adult fiction manuscript now.
Anything I create is founded with the root of poetry, but it can exist in captions. It can exist in commercials. It can exist as a musical. So that's where I’m at now.
xoN: You started performing "Black Girl Magic" in 2013, had an acclaimed performance of it via PBS and the work went on to viral success shortly after. Talk more about the inspiration. And what do you think about the continued relevance more than a decade later?
MB: I wrote it as a rally cry for the mothers who had been keeping themselves truly in harm's way by, you know, being a part of the community right after the death of their child or their loved one. They are usually mothers of victims of police brutality—and just seeing how they showed up in these community spaces, they are devout to the cause but obviously still grieving.
"I wanted this poem to be just a space of reclamation, of joy and of you, of your light, of your shine, of your brilliance, in any which way in which you fashion. Every room you enter is the room you deserve to be in. What does it mean to have a poem like that that exists?"
And the first time I did the poem, the Weeping that occurred, right? It was like this blood-letting of sorts. The next time I performed it, I'm moved to tears because I'm seeing how it's affecting other women who have just been waiting to hear, ‘You belong. You deserve. You are good. We see you. Thank you, despite everything that they said to make you regret being born in this beautiful brown, dark-skinned, light-skinned, but Black body.’
Black women are the backbone—period. Point blank. And so, that that poem became a necessity, not just to the fortitude of Black women in the community, but like you know, in service of healing the Black women.
xoN: One of your books was banned at a school in Boston, and it was later reinstated due to parental and activist support. What was that experience like?
MB: Well, I think it happened because they were racist. That's it. Point blank. The reversal of it was empowering, right? I realized, oh, I thought we just had to sit here and be on a banned book list. But no, parents are actually the leaders of this charge.
So to see that, the parents said, ‘Nah, we're not gonna let you take this book out of my baby’s school just because it's a Black kid on the front saying, ‘Woke’ and they're talking about being a global citizen. They're talking about accountability. They're talking about accessibility. They're talking about allyship, and you don't want them to have compassion or empathy or have even an understanding, right? So no, we rebuke that, and we want this book here anyway.’ To see that happen in that way. I was, like, reaffirmed. Absolutely.
xoN: You recently organized the Black Girl Magic Ball at the Lincoln Center in New York. Honorees included author and entrepreneur Rachel Cargle and National Black Theater CEO Sade Lythcott. What impact did it have and what expanded legacy do you hope to leave with your creative works?
MB: I was really interested in not celebrating just the book, but celebrating the community that made the book possible. And so I gave out five awards to women doing that thing, like, what does it mean to be a Black girl in this world?
I just thought it was gonna be an amazing time. Everybody's gonna dress up—we're gonna celebrate each other. And boom, I then realized that it responded to like a gaping hole. There was a missing thing for Black girls of all walks of life, all ages, right?
"It's very intergenerational. That was intentional to come together and celebrate just being us."
You have all these instances where just being you is either the butt of a joke or it's diminished and not worthy of a specific title in these larger institutions. So what does it mean to just to be loved up on and celebrated?
It felt like a self-care project at first. You know, for the first couple of years, folks were coming and they were getting that sisterhood. They were getting that tribe work that they were missing in their everyday lives.
I love the Black Girl Magic Ball because we got us. If I go out with a bang, they'll remember that Mahogany worked her a** off to make sure all the Black girls everywhere knew that she was the light. We are the blueprint.
For more information on Mahogany L. Browne, her work, and her future projects, visit her website or follow her on IG @mobrowne.
Featured image by Anthony Artis
After a colleague suggested that she might benefit from taking some time off and using her free time for activities, she realized one problem: she didn’t have any hobbies. This lack of a work-life balance showed Jerome that she not only needed to create a space that prioritized hobbies in her life but also for other individuals in LA experiencing the same challenge.
For Jerome, the Off Worque lifestyle is all about setting healthy boundaries around the time for work and when it’s time to have fun. It aims to “create opportunities through events, workshops, and more for people to relieve burnout, unplug, and connect.”
Today, Off Worque gauges its community interest to curate activities like hikes, sketching in the park, co-working happy hours, paint and sips, and more to meet the needs of its members. “One of the prompts for the Slack group is to tell us your hobbies and the things that you want to try, she says. “It's all coming from the members and what they want to do because they're the heart of this group.”
For xoNecole, Jerome shares her tips on how to cultivate a “worque”/life balance, prevent burnout, and decenter our job titles from our identity.
On how to decenter yourself from your job title and find fulfillment in other areas of life:
“For me, I removed my work from my [social media] bio. That was step number one.
Instagram is kind of a portfolio now, where people go there to see who we are professionally and personally, so I removed it from my bio and put 'very well marketing resume, but I'd rather be off work.' My pinned posts [on Instagram] used to be my projects, but I started to remove my outward [online] appearance from my professional to my personal.”
“I also stopped introducing myself as ‘I’m Cristina and I do XYZ.’ Instead, I say, ‘I’m Cristina and I’m from Virginia.’ That’s been a much better talking point than what I do for work. If someone asks, I'll tell them, but usually people don't ask unless you're really getting into the thick of the conversation.”
Courtesy
On how to create systems that help prevent burnout:
“I practice the 80/20 mindset and incorporated that into Off Worque. It’s spending 20% of your brain power towards the things that you have to do and spending 80% of your energy doing the things that you want to do. This could be a hiking trip, a hot girl walk, or just going outside to breathe fresh air. For me, my non-negotiables are going outside, getting a coffee, and catching up with friends, and my pottery classes.”
“When it comes to setting boundaries, I would get a lot of anxiety having to email people back, but now, it’s I say, ‘Hey, I got your message. I'll get back to you when I can' and I make my list for when I'm able to get back to people. Nothing is a fire drill, we’re not saving lives.”
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On how to explore hobbies and creativity while maintaining financial stability:
“I'm going to be honest with you — this is not the best advice for everyone, but I quit jobs. I will say, I do have a savings account, and I know a lot of people may not be able to afford to have a savings account, but I've put myself in a position to be able to do that because I know that about myself.”
“To your point, we can not afford to not always have some sort of income coming in and to pay our bills, I just don't give it enough of my brain power. I used to hyperventilate a lot and be like, ‘Oh my God, I have to finish this’ and ‘Oh my God, these people are depending on me,’ but you're gonna get the work done, and you’re going to have something to look forward to after.
"Overall, stability is not a real thing. I've never really gained anything from chasing a bag; I've always gained more from chasing my creativity and being creative, and money always followed. It always works out; you always land on your feet.”
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Originally published on June 17, 2024