I will never forget the feeling of watching Black Panther for the first time. Now, here we are gearing up for Black Panther: Wakanda Foreverfour years later. To think about the film without Chadwick Boseman is challenging to process. However, we know all who worked on the film will honor his legacy while delivering a movie we'll discuss long after we leave the theaters.
This time around, Marvel Studios is partnering with brands—many of which are Black-owned—to get us all ready for opening weekend, November 11th. From nail care to hair care to coffee, there are several Black-owned businesses to support. And there's even a collab with a makeup brand that always brings it when working on creative projects.
Keep reading for all the deets on each collab!
Marvel Studios' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Layovers
Pear Nova
If you're unfamiliar with Pear Nova, the Chicago-based nail salon founded by Rachel James in 2012 is Black-owned and offers a range of polishes you can order online and use for your at-home mani. However, this collaboration with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is all about Layovers (think press-ons, but better).
The limited-edition layover nail collection features custom nail art inspired by Black Panther that is both long-lasting and reusable. The collection includes three designs: Vibranium Claws Layovers, Wakandan Tech 101 Layovers, and Rituals + Royals Layovers. And each set includes 24 almond-shaped luxury faux nails, a nail file/buffer, a cuticle stick, and nail glue.
Limited Edition Bevel x Marvel Studios Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Safety Razor Gift Set
Bevel
For the Marvel fanatics in your life, shaving just became more fun. Bevel collaborated with Black Panther to design their best-selling double-edged safety razor in a limited-edition all-black. In addition, because the razor is specially designed for coarse and curly hair types to reduce bumps and irritation, shavers will get a close shave with a one-of-a-kind Wakanda style.
Young King X Black Panther Wakanda Forever Collab
Young King Hair Care
Young King Hair Care is a plant-based, natural hair care line founded by wife-and-husband team Cora and Stefan Miller to redefine male grooming for young boys of color. Young King offers products from co-washing to stylers, and their collaboration with Black Panther is no different—just much cooler for wash day. The Wakanda Forever limited edition line includes a co-wash treatment meant to condition and detangle, styling balm, custard curl enhancer, and refreshing spray, all adorned with Black Panther packaging we're sure your kiddos will enjoy.
MAC x Black Panther Marvel Collection
MAC
One thing MAC does well is collaboration. Am I the only one still using their MAC x Aaliyah Makeup Collection lipstick? From what we can tell, this 18-piece collection adorned with specially curated Wakanda details and colors, including an eight-shade eyeshadow palette decorated with T'Challa's Claw necklace and a blingy highlighter designed with the Black Panther emblem, is going to be equally as amazing. Prices for the limited-edition collection range from $23 to $39.
Bonus: BLK & Bold x Marvel Studios' Black Panther Wakanda Forever
BLK & Bold
I wake up and drink a cup of BLK & Bold coffee every morning. I love starting my mornings with a Black-owned business. Plus, knowing that five percent of all BLK & Bold profits are used for good makes my morning cup of joe even sweeter. So I was excited to see their latest collaboration with Black Panther. This limited edition drop has three offerings: dark roast, medium roast, and Keurig k-cups, with packaging featuring Shuri, Okoye, Nakia, and M'Baku.
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Featured image via MAC Cosmetics
Those rumors were more than laid to rest when Jodie and Joshua went to the 2023 Oscars together earlier this year, and even more recently, when they celebrated her birthday together last month during the September unveiling of the Lotus Emeya.
Jodie Turner-Smith celebrates her birthday with husband Joshua Jackson at the unveiling of the new fully-electric Lotus Emeya on September 07, 2023 in New York City.
Brian Ach/Getty Images for Lotus
Despite seeming particularly happy and in love, perhaps the writing was already written on the wall even then. In the past, Jodie has been very celebratory publicly about her love for her estranged husband, even boldly recounting their love story for the books in a 2021 interview with Seth Meyers.
When Jodie and Joshua met, it was while at his birthday party in 2018. Their relationship was hot and heavy from the start, with Jodie openly noting that they began as a "one-night stand." During her 2021 interview with Seth Meyers, she jokingly referred to their love story as a "three-year one-night stand." She shared:
"First of all, I saw him before he saw me and when I saw him, I was like, 'I want that.' And then when he saw me, I just pretended like I didn't see him. He had to yell across the room to me, and I was wearing this T-shirt from a movie called Sorry to Bother You and [actress] Tessa Thompson plays a character called Detroit, and she has this T-shirt that says, 'The Future Is Female Ejaculation.'
"And so, he shouts across the room, 'Detroit!' He comes over and… does this really cute, charming thing that he does and just all night -- he just basically followed me around the party."
The couple were together from that moment forth, and even made things "Instagram official" less than two weeks later while on a dinner date. Joshua would later clarify to Insider that the night they met in 2018 was not a 'one-night stand' or a 'three-year one-night stand' like his then-wife joked but instead, it was "technically a three-night stand."
"It was sealed with a kiss that night and then we didn't leave each other's sides for, well, three years now," Joshua continued at the time.
In a July 2021 interview with Jimmy Fallon, Joshua dropped more details about the why behind getting married. He revealed that he didn't know he wanted to get married to Jodie until "the moment she asked me."
"She asked me on New Year's Eve. We were in Nicaragua. It was very beautiful, incredibly romantic, we were walking down the beach and she asked me to marry her."
He added, "I did not know [she would propose], but she was quite adamant and she was right. This is the best choice I ever made."
Joshua Jackson Reveals Jodie Turner-Smith Proposed To Him
Jodie received quite a bit of flack for proposing to Joshua because it goes against tradition and what society sees as acceptable for a woman to do to a man, and proposing isn't one of them. No matter how much time has passed, the viewpoints around who should do the proposing and who should be proposed to are still very traditional.
After being on the receiving end of such backlash, Joshua would later clarify to the media in a separate interview that it wasn't just Jodie's proposal to him that sealed the deal of them getting married, he proposed to her too. She might have initiated it, but Joshua followed through.
"I accidentally threw my wife under the bus because that story was told quickly and it didn't give the full context and holy Jesus, the internet is racist and misogynist," he explained to Refinery29 that same year. "We were in Nicaragua on a beautiful moonlit night, it could not possibly have been more romantic."
David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images
He continued, "And yes, my wife did propose to me and yes, I did say yes, but what I didn't say in that interview was there was a caveat, which is that I'm still old school enough that I said, 'This is a yes, but you have to give me the opportunity [to do it too].'"
"She has a biological father and a stepdad, who's the man who raised her. [I said], 'You have to give me the opportunity to ask both of those men for your hand in marriage.' And then, 'I would like the opportunity to re-propose to you and do it the old-fashioned way down on bended knee.' So, that's actually how the story ended up."
Joshua and Jodie would eventually marry in December 2019. Shortly thereafter, Jodie gave birth to the couple's first child, Janie, in 2020.
In a recent interview with Elle UK, Jodie shared the ways becoming a mother to Juno helped to heal her of her wounds from colorism she experienced in the past. "It's interesting because I had a lot of resistance to becoming a mother and, throughout my life, I always said if I were to have children, I wanted to have Black, Black babies so that I could affirm them as children with the love that I felt I needed to have been affirmed with by the outside world," Jodie shared with the outlet.
She continued, "Then I fell in love with my husband and we talked about having kids. I did have this mini pause, where I was like, 'She's going to be walking through the world not only having an experience that I did not have, but looking like people that, in a way, I'd always felt a little bit tormented by.' Now that I've got this little, tiny, light-skinned boss, I feel like it’s the universe teaching me lessons. I've been given a daughter who looks this way to heal my own conversations around colorism."
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Featured image by Amy Sussman/Getty Images
