I’ll start by saying I’m no coffee snob. Like any American whose teen years were spent reconfiguring their MySpace Top 8 and hanging out in mall food courts, I made my foray into the world of coffee via a sugar-packed caramel Frappuccino. Five years later I moved to New York to go to Parsons School of Design, and quickly learned downtown art school kids were willing to shell out extra cash for a basic cup of joe—all for the aesthetic of boujee cafes where the motto is “Starbucks? We don’t know her.” All-nighters were all too familiar during freshman year, so caffeine soon became a necessity rather than a mere prop for my newly-launched Instagram account—but I couldn’t tell the difference between a Venti medium roast and the sweet nectar of luxe Ethiopian beans if you paid me.
As years went by, I leveled up and ditched the Starbucks mermaid for the cooler, more elevated La Colombe peace dove. Rather than an accessory, caffeine was more like lifeblood in the formative years of my career, mostly spent organizing fashion closets and, you guessed it: fetching trays of coffee for magazine execs. During a summer stint when I was writing style news from my Brooklyn apartment, cold brew was first on the agenda each morning, and lazy Sundays called for oat milk lattes delivered to my bed. I’d come a long way since my intro to the frozen caffeinated treat.
Like thousands of New Yorkers, my ideal weekend involves leisurely strolls to the local cafe, neighborhood pups, and boutique hopping—but that all came to a halt when social distancing put the city into hibernation-mode amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Iced lattes and vintage Levi’s are truly the least of our worries during a global health crisis, and staying home is a must—which is why Jot Ultra Coffee is a true gift. My new love interest, the ingenious beverage I told cold brew not to worry about, comes in an Insta-friendly Italian glass bottle and is 20x stronger than traditional coffee.
The first time I mixed one tablespoon of Jot with Oatly Barista Edition, I was catapulted into the blissful ether where my troubles momentarily drifted away. If you still ride for cow’s milk, Jot co-founder Palo Hawken recommends “stirring one tablespoon of Jot into 3 oz ice cold half-and-half for a sipping coffee that celebrates the intensity of the coffee flavor. The interplay between Ultra Coffee’s earthy, bright flavors against the creamy texture of half-and-half is like nothing else.”
Even women who have access to top tier stylists and salons say they’ve had similar experiences. Dana Oliver, beauty director at Yahoo Lifestyle, says she’s constantly searching for a salon that she can call “The One.” “There aren’t many stylists who are trained in caring for my thick, kinky coils, or even skilled at arming me with the knowledge and tools to maintain my unique strands at home or in-between salon visits,” she tells Glamour. “This has resulted in a never-ending and extremely costly journey. I don’t trust just anyone with my curly hair.”
Oliver says that, even when she goes to Black-owned salons, she sometimes receives “side-eyes” and “hard glances.” “Because my curls are tighter and require a bit more patience, I’ve been unfairly charged more for a simple wash and blow-dry styling,” she says. “It’s gone as far as salon owners calculating in their head right in front of me the ‘extra charges’ for having to style my curly hair.” It’s a situation that makes her feel disrespected and undervalued. “Wearing my natural hair makes me proud and no one should make me feel less than or question that.”
Khalea Underwood, beauty editor at The Zoe Report, feels the same. Her grandmother was a hairstylist, so she views time in the chair as her safe space, but as someone with “coily and fragile” hair, she frequently feels anything but. “Most stylists don’t know how to do my hair, and I feel like I’m a part of some weird science experiment or class demonstration in those instances,” she says. “I’ve had experiences where I’ve been told flat out that I’d be charged extra because my hair is ‘thick’—coded language for natural and unmanageable in their eyes. But more often than not, it’s the body language and inquisitive stares that makes me feel out of place.”
While many salons will charge additional fees for longer lengths, density is a somewhat murkier classification. Someone with fine hair could have what constitutes “a lot” of hair, but as Underwood’s concern raises, they might not be charged a fee like someone with kinky coils would because of the unfair perception that black hair is “unruly.” “We should be able to go to any salon and get quality treatment at fair price points without feeling ostracized for our textures,” says Underwood. “I shouldn’t be penalized for my natural hair texture. It’s not like I can help it.”
As is usually the case with viral tweets like Rae’s, Aveda reps reached out almost immediately to have a conversation and try to reconcile the situation. And Rae says she’s been happy with her interactions with the company so far. “They’ve gone above and beyond to make sure my local situation was handled, rectified, and refunded,” she says. Aveda also provided Glamour with the following statement: “At Aveda, we are committed to inclusively delivering the very best in service, embracing all hair types. We in no way condone or tolerate discriminatory behavior or profiling policies of any kind. We are deeply apologetic for this situation as it is not in line with our values. We value consumer feedback and are working with our independently owned salons to prevent this from happening again.”
Still, Rae’s aware the company’s responses, as good as they’ve been, are just that for the time being: responses. “I’m waiting to make sure they follow through with their promises—that it’s not just lip service,” she says.
In the meantime, she hopes a couple of things come out of her situation. First, a greater examination of the policies at all salons—Aveda or otherwise—regardless of who they cater to. “My hope is that salons pay more attention to ensuring customers feel seen, heard, known, and included in the conversation, and that they also feel respected,” she says.
Second, she hopes it’ll shed light on the fact that women who are born with naturally curly hair are not an inconvenience. “I want this to change the language around folks of color’s hair, period,” she says. Lastly, she’s hopeful it’ll push salons that style all hair types to engage in diversity training and educate stylists on cultural awareness and sensitivities. “If they’re trying to serve natural clients, then they really need to do the due diligence and train their front desk girls, their stylists, their managers, to really serve the client that they say they’re serving in the most excellent way,” says Rae. “Regardless of their nationality, anyone who steps in the salon should be treated fairly by all staff.”
Whether you’ve pre-coordinated outfits with your pals ahead of a girls’ night out photoshoot or staged a precise coffee/pastry/book shot just so, we’ve all gone the distance for the ‘gram at one time or another. But a look at Mariah Carey‘s recent tweets suggest that the singer may come in first place for Doing the Absolute Most for a photo.
On Friday (July 5), Mimi shared a photo from what looks like a Fourth of July celebration with a popcorn machine. Standard fare for a celebrity barbecue (we suppose) or a neighborhood street fair, until you get a look at how she posed with the object.
Instead of standing next to or in front of the popcorn maker, Carey’s squatting down next to it with her phone held high in the air (and in a bodycon dress and heels—which is something of an athletic feat, in my opinion). Apparently, said popcorn maker had optimal lighting for what looks like a FaceTime call: “Finding my light,” she captioned the picture.
It’s maybe the first time someone has used an old-timey snack machine to hit their best angles. I’m not sure I believe there was no other way for Carey to find her light, but her Lambs thought it was a revolutionary move.
Carey’s Fourth of July festivities weren’t all about MacGyver-ing the perfect light. After sharing her popcorn picture, Carey posted three photos in the same red dress—this time, with her children and only the sun to illuminate her photoshoot. “Dem kids agreed to get off the bouncy house for a minute to take a quick pic with mommy on Fourth of July,” she wrote.
Whether you already have a selfie light on your phone or not, you have to commend Carey for getting creative with her lighting options over the holiday weekend.
Halie LeSavage is a contributing writer at Glamour. Follow her @halielesavage.
When it comes to red carpets, Lady Gaga has a pretty consistent approach: go big or go home. From arriving to the 2013 American Music Awards on a fake horse to the orbit she brought to the 2010 Grammys and, of course, the egg, Mother Monster isn’t one to just hit the step-and-repeat with a smile. She brings her A-game—and, more often than not, loads of props.
But the type of red-carpet extravagance Gaga has been serving lately is different. It’s not so much bizarre or avant-garde as it is just…fabulous. That’s not a word I use often, but it perfectly describes her photos since last fall. Gaga has been full-on basking in herself lately, and I’m living for it.
Just look at any of the red carpet pics she took at the Oscars, Golden Globes, or, most recently, an event honoring her hairstylist, Frederic Aspiras. Their translation, in my opinion, is, “Yup, it’s me: Lady Gaga. Legends only!” Which is 100 percent accurate. I mean, if I were Lady Gaga, I’d literally take every opportunity to tell the world, “I’m Lady Gaga!” These recent red-carpet pics do that without words, and they’re national treasures.
Despite my well-documented love of frequent snacking, there was a time when I rarely bit into a croissant with bare lips when I could have done so wearing two coats of duochrome glitter atop a vibrant crimson red. This is a great litmus test for the staying power of any given product, but also, I just have a thing for color. At my old office my desk was littered with piles of lipstick in every formula imaginable. Instead of a drawer full of office supplies, I had a drawer full of rotating lip options (as well as a drawer full of snacks for testing out their wear time). I needed my mattes, my semimattes, my cream-finish hues, my high-shine lacquers, and a stain or two. My rules used to be simple: I had very little patience for any shade that was supposed to be undetectable. I preferred something you could spot from a mile away—bonus points if it was the deepest version possible of plum, oxblood, or navy blue.
It feels strange to say this, but I have now abandoned all of the above. Over the last few months, I’ve effectively replaced my once overflowing drawer with a single product. In an unexpected turn of events, it’s precisely the kind of undetectable color that I used to pick up, point at, and ask, “Why do you exist?”
It began with a nondescript black-and-white tube from Bobbi Brown that I mistook for a regular lip balm. My lips get chapped from swatching multiple formulas per day—occupational hazard—so I thought I would take a half-hour break and let them chill out with some moisturizer. Turns out, what I actually picked up was the brand’s cult favorite Extra Lip Tint, a featherweight formula that comes in seven shades. The one I use is called Bare Pink, and in the tube, it’s the La Croix of lipsticks, possessing only an echo of color from far away, the kind of pink so translucent you just assume it will go on colorless. This is not the case.
While Bobbi Brown doesn’t bill it as such, Bare Pink is the perfected version of those beloved nineties mood glosses. Naturally, I used to own several of those, each promising to work some pH-based sorcery to go from crystal-clear to your “perfect” shade. As my perfect shade is not a skin-clashing iteration of clown pink, that magic trick never really worked out for me. But Bobbi Brown’s version is different. Once it settles onto your lips, it transforms them with just the right amount of brightness and warmth. It’s not even pink so much as it is a suggestion of the shade, like you happen to have a bit more blood circulating below the delicate skin and suddenly your whole face looks better and more awake too. Because it’s subtle, I don’t even need a mirror to apply. One mindless swipe has me covered for the next few hours; it’s so faint that it doesn’t even leave a noticeable imprint on coffee cups.
I wear it with everything from a bare face to a full-on smoky eye. It’s not just the color that’s perfect; the balm also pulls double duty to provide instant relief when my lips are feeling dry (as it is currently winter, this means all the time). It contains a powerhouse combination of olive, avocado, and jojoba oils to nourish and soften—this makes for a finish that’s not waxy in the slightest and melts into skin instantly. Oh, and have I mentioned that this is the first plumping product I haven’t hated? Instead of using mild irritants to create an unpleasant reaction, the balm uses its oil-packed formula to great effect. It sort of seeps into my tiny lip lines, filling them in and smoothing them over. (Think of the visual effect of your favorite clear gloss, but imagine if you couldn’t even feel it on your lips.) My mouth looks instantly plumper, and I don’t feel like I’ve just experienced an allergic reaction, which is definitely the way I prefer things.
Courtney Conquers has been a Lady Gaga fan for 10 years—even before “Just Dance” was released—and like any dedicated Little Monster, she jumps at the chance to see her Mother in the flesh. “It’s been a decade of fangirling and networking and being crazy but not too crazy,” she tells Glamour.com. “So every once in a while, I get emails or links for opportunities.” Earlier this year, for example, she attended a taping of the Recording Academy’s Elton John tribute, at which Gaga performed “Your Song.”
Another opportunity arose in late April 2017, when Conquers and her friend Jamie (also a Gaga fan) got word that tickets to A Star Is Born filming event in L.A. were available. (Proceeds went to Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation.) In a matter of days, Conquers found herself witnessing the making of the movie’s most pivotal scene: when Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) pulls Ally (Gaga) onstage to sing “Shallow” for the first time. Here the 29-year-old Toronto native tells her story.
I run a blog called the Drag Coven with my best friend, Jamie, and we were on our way to L.A. for RuPaul’s Drag Con when a mutual friend sent us a link and was like, “Hey, I don’t know when you’re gonna be in L.A., but you guys should do it.” It was a sign-up link where, for $12 a day, you could go for two days and be in a scene of A Star Is Born.
We panicked because we were actually going to be in L.A. those days, but we had approximately T-minus 45 seconds to get the tickets for both of us—Gaga sells out like that, no matter what—and we were [on an airplane] about to take off. But we got them.
We didn’t know in what capacity we’d be involved, or where we’d stand, so we just went in the morning and got in line. We’re used to this—we’re those intense fans. The first thing they did when we walked in was make everybody put their cell phones in a locking pad. Then they filed us in, the appropriate number of people for each row. The people who got there first were closer to the front.
They [also] sectioned off a place at the front to put people who were there for fun but who kind of knew how this worked, who could hold their own. They wanted them to have followed the dress code. We were supposed to dress like we were going to a country-rock summer music festival. We were told specifically not to wear anything Lady Gaga–related, which I’d say at least a quarter of the people didn’t listen to and had to turn their shirts inside out.
“[After the filming] friends would be like, ‘I’m so excited. Can you hum the song for me?’ I’d say, ‘Actually, I can’t.'”
There was a warm-up host playing Lady Gaga trivia with the crowd [to compete for spots in the special section]. Jamie and I met up with a group of about seven [Gaga fans] we knew and got the questions right. So we ended up bumping [even closer] to the front. I doubt you’ll see us, but we were right there.
There were several hours where I definitely saw why they needed us there, but we weren’t active. Earlier in the day they had to do setups and practices with body doubles and stand-ins. They had to get the lights right.
We were there long enough that they made sure we had a meal. They gave us vouchers, which was good, because [the options were] very overpriced concert-venue foods. We all got hot dogs, a bag of chips, and a drink. But people got tired and squirrelly. There was one lady who was being particularly rude, shouting out of turn when set people were trying to concentrate. I ended up just taking her hot dog and eating it. She had it sitting under her seat, so I said, “You know what? She’s not eating that, and she’s really bugging me.” She didn’t even notice. It’s survival!
PHOTO: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Before Gaga came out, they were hyping us up by getting the crowd to sing Gaga songs. But then they were like, “OK, maybe getting you to sing Gaga songs was a mistake. What we really need from you is to pretend this is not Lady Gaga. You do not know this person. She is not the pop star you know and love. This is just some girl; you’re curious but not that enthused. Do not shout things. Do not go wild. Lady Gaga does not exist in this universe.”
We saw Gaga and Bradley do their scene probably about 18 times [over the course of both days]. They had internal mikes, but they turned the big amplifying mikes off; it wasn’t a full-on concert. People [outside the venue] were sending drones in trying to record the music—the crew caught them and explained, “We actually need you to be quite quiet, because we have to play the music so the people onstage can hear it, but soft enough that these drones won’t pick it up. You’re probably not going to hear anything.” [After the filming] friends would be like, “I’m so excited. Can you hum the song for me?” I’d say, “Actually, I can’t.”
“I slammed face-first into an absolute tree of a human being—it was Bradley Cooper!”
On the end of the first day, I went to the bathroom and whipped around the corner really fast; I slammed face-first into an absolute tree of a human being—it was Bradley Cooper! He almost knocked me on my butt. He was very tall, which I didn’t realize. (I was there for Gaga; I’m not an obsessive Bradley Cooper fan.) I was taken aback and was just like, “Oh, sorry.” And he went, “Oh, sorry.” And I said, “No, I’m sorry.” We kind of got in this sorry war, which was funny. He went, “Thank you for being there. How’s it going? Are you having fun?” And I said, “Yeah, it’s really good. I’m excited to be here.” He was like, “Oh, great, thank you.” And I went, “No, thank you.” And he went, “No, thank you.” He started laughing, and I got flustered and mumbled, “OK, I have to pee now.” I ran off, so embarrassed. He was very nice.
The second day they took us up into the higher stands to shoot again. (We’d only paid $12 for the first day, but they basically said, “Anyone who’s here today can come back tomorrow if they want to.”) You don’t end up seeing Jamie and me in the movie then, either, because there’s a flash of a spotlight [when Gaga walks past us in the scene]. It was cool because they did a couple takes and she walked by us over and over and over again. At one point she was standing, waiting for the take to start, and she kind of looked up and Jamie and I went, “Hey, girl.” She’s known Jamie longer, so she definitely recognized Jamie. I haven’t seen Gaga in a couple years, and I got a radical haircut since then, so she gave me this look. I saw both confusion and recognition. It was a very quick interaction, but very cute.
[Near the end of the second day] I remember them saying, “If you absolutely have to go, exit to the left and we’ll unlock your cell phones. If you can stay, please do.” They were checking that they got everything they needed and everybody was milling around waiting; there was downtime on set. So we stayed, and Gaga went to the piano and started tinkering around. Then she suddenly started singing her own music—she just did a mini concert out of nowhere. Jamie and I, being the adoring fans we are, immediately said, “Screw the seat I’m sitting in,” and hopped to the front of the stage. She did “You and I” and “Edge of Glory” and a little bit of “Born This Way.” Bradley Cooper came out and sat on one of the speakers and was smiling at all of us; he clearly enjoyed seeing her entertaining us. It was very sweet and the smallest little Gaga concert I’d ever been to.
Then they said, “All right, that’s a wrap.” We all cheered, and Gaga and Bradley each got on the mike and said, “Thank you so much for being here.” [The crew] unlocked our cell phones, and that was it.
When we saw the scene onscreen it was very weird. It was cool seeing it up there when we’d been there to see the inner workings. We were also seeing this woman, whose career has greatly influenced us, on the big screen in a new capacity. She was so good. She was even better than I thought she was going to be.
.jpg)