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.
I can’t discuss my beauty journey without mentioning my best friend. I met Wendi Miyake two decades ago, when I was an insecure seventh grader. I worried about my acne-prone complexion, my curly Afro, and my inability to be seen as the girl I knew myself to be. With her green bob and liner-rimmed eyes, Wendi was unapologetic about her identity as a transgender girl. Her audacity to be herself inspired my fullest self-expression The morning after our first sleepover, Wendi pulled out her purple Kaboodle and sent me to homeroom with tweezed brows, shimmering eye shadow, and a silver barrette. The girls in class lauded my look, and I felt beautiful, a term that had seemed elusive—until Wendi. Now a makeup artist, Wendi and her kit have been present…
While most women spent their middle-school years doing things that girls do in middle school, Nikki Nelms was starting a business. “I’ve been doing hair since I was in the seventh grade,” says Nelms. At 12 years old, the industrious young woman was taking requests from her friends and family in her hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida. Twenty dollars per French roll (or braid). A move to Miami put her in the hotbed of music-video production. Next thing she knew, she was putting jewelry into hair for Timbaland and Magoo’s “Indian Flute” music video. In short order, her clientele came to include the A-list—our cover star Zoë Kravitz, Solange, and Björk. And through it all, Nelms has refused to be typecast. One day, a sculptural braided bun for Kravitz. Another…
M y mother just bought a donkey.” Safe to say that’s not a line we’ve heard before at an Allure cover shoot. But when the subject is Zoë Kravitz and her costars include a Bengal cat and a white dove, nothing is off limits. The star of this month’s Rough Night (and the daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet) cozied up with a veritable menagerie for photographer Patrick Demarchelier. “I love animals,” she said. Other loves: a pair of custom-made silk slippers from stylist Beth Fenton that she slipped on, a soy chai-spiced tea, and an eclectic mix of music. With the actress-singer’s iPhone hooked up to the speakers, the New York City studio was filled with Life of Pablo tracks, gospel, and songs by Childish Gambino, adding to the…
Hair The styling began several days before the shoot, when hairstylist Nikki Nelms began weaving Kravitz’s white-blonde hair into tiny braids that would serve as the backdrop for her artful creations. Once the braiding was complete, out came the crown that Nelms had created with rose-gold wire and hair and adorned with earrings and stones. Makeup “[Her bone structure] is perfection,” said makeup artist Tom Pecheux, who kept Kravitz’s contouring and highlighting to a minimum. He dusted pink shadow on her eyelids, blended a shimmering white shade around the inner corners, and drew blue points under the lower lash lines with liquid liner. He finished with a dab of clear lip balm.…
it’s really easy for me to get—and stay— comfortable. Camping? Not my thing. Ultraendurance mud races? Rather not. In fact, I’d feel very much at home in Scandinavia amidst its many hygge disciples on the hunt for all things cozy. That said, I’ve battled my natural leanings toward comfort for most of my life, understanding that growth (and sometimes silly fun) happens when you push yourself. My latest stretch into the abyss? A day at the massive 40,000-square-foot King Spa & Sauna in Palisades Park, New Jersey. Such supercenters, called jjimjilbang, are popular in Korea, and now more of these spa amusement parks are popping up in other corners of the world. This place is not for the faint of heart. Think of it as a bathhouse for maximalists. First,…
there are moments when you know you’ve made it—one of those moments sneaked up on Ilfenesh Hadera from behind a bush. “Dwayne [Johnson] is like, ‘There’s a camera there, there, and there,’ ” says Hadera. She was smack-dab in the middle of a paparazzi stakeout. “I’m flexing. I’m in a bathing suit. These guys are hanging out in the bushes. The next day, you’ve got 50 photos of yourself from every angle online.” She wasn’t caught in some steamy affair or snapped during a tropical getaway. But when those paparazzi lenses zoomed in on the 31-year-old, Hadera (who has an Ethiopian father and a European-American mother and was born in New York City) became a bona fide movie star. It was her first day playing Stephanie Holden on the set…
