Located on the back of her neck, Demi got a new piece by renowned tattoo artist Alessandro Capozzi. The piece is a stunning micro realist rendition (meaning a tiny yet super detailed portrait) of the “Divine Feminine.” The duo decided to represent the concept with a winged female figure clad in loosely draped clothing and she’s being carried up by three white doves.
“We created this piece together to represent a rebirth of the spirit,” Alessandro explained of Demi’s new ink in his post. “The dark wings represent the bad times, their fading away is how she moved forward. The light from within represents the inner strength necessary for the change and the doves, pulling her up, symbolize the reach of [a] higher state of consciousness. Congratulations on your inspiring journey Demi, honored to have represented this for you.”
Apart from the super-detailed finished result, Alessandro also shared a behind-the-scenes look at Demi actually getting tattooed in his L.A. studio — which was no small feat. According to TMZ, Demi got tatted on Monday, Dec. 23, from noon until 8 P.M.—meaning the singer spent a total of eight hours at the parlor. Sure, we need to take breaks into account and all that, but Demi looks unbothered in Alessandro’s snap. We all know the singer is no stranger to tattoos so it’s no wonder she sat through it like a total champ.
Pain aside, Demi seems to be over the moon with her new ink. “Thank you so much ?? it’s incredible and you are so extremely talented ??,” she commented on Alessandro’s post. Apart from the thank you message, Demi herself has not weighed in on the meaning behind any of her latest tattoos and it’s unlikely she will. Per her latest Instagram post (dated Dec. 5), the next time we hear from her, she’ll be singing.
Yesterday, March 4, Ariana Grande posted a mysterious tweet directed at Starbucks that featured a string of seemingly random emojis. But it turns out, she wasn’t just craving caffeine. The singer just unveiled that she’s actually teamed up with the coffee company to release her very own drink: the Cloud Macchiato.
Starbucks then revealed in a tweet that the new drink comes in caramel and cinnamon, and it’s so “light and fluffy they’re basically a cloud in a cup.” No, there is no Grande-branded sweetener involved, but the concoction does contain a vanilla-flavored foam made with egg white powder, which causes it to appear cloud-like. That frothy quality also explains why the company had been non-stop tweeting about clouds in the last 24 hours.
“We’ve long been fans of Ariana Grande’s (and we’re both fans of Clouds), so we’re excited to work with her to celebrate the debut of Cloud Macchiato,” Starbucks said in a statement, according to USA Today.
Ariana, meanwhile, tweeted a few photos in a Starbucks apron and hash-tagged them #starbucksambassador. Within just a few minutes, fans had already swarmed their local baristas and started posting pictures of the drink. One fan, whom Ariana retweeted, let the world know that they could “officially confirm that the caramel cloud macchiato does indeed slap.”
However, others had some very legitimate questions. The egg white powder doesn’t appear to be safe for vegans who still want a side of cloud in their beverage. And others took issue with Ariana partnering up with a big corporation so close to International Women’s Day, calling it a version of “branded female empowerment.” (Starbucks has shared that for International Women’s Day, they’re also planning to release two playlists, one which will include Grande.)
“You cannot write better parody of woke capitalism than the actual thing,” one Twitter user wrote, adding, “Happy International Women’s Day from Ariana Grande and Starbucks. You’re doing feminism with the coffee.” Ariana only responded to say International Women’s Day is on March 8, but didn’t address the criticism further.
She later tweeted about her upcoming tour, which is going to keep her busy the next few months—we’re guessing she’s going to be drinking a lot of her own coffee when she needs a boost.
In January of last year, CVS unveiled a campaign to create new standards for beauty ads in their stores—namely, phasing out airbrushing and other digital alterations. Part of that included the debut of the CVS Beauty Mark, a watermark placed on advertisements confirming to customers that the images weren’t digitally altered or retouched (which CVS defined as “changing or enhancing a person’s shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color, wrinkles or any other individual characteristics”). Additionally, the retailer also asked beauty brands sold there to adhere to these new standards by 2020. They doubled-down on this effort a few months later with their new ad campaign, “Beauty in Real Life,” for which the company cast a diverse group of real women from all over the U.S. for un-retouched print and video imagery.
While 2020 is still months away, brands have responded to CVS’s call—so much so that starting in February, 70 percent of the retailer’s beauty ads will now be unretouched. CVS announced this morning that brands including CoverGirl, Neutrogena, and Revlon will be updating their imagery to replace previous ads with those depicting their spokesmodels in all their un-retouched glory. We’re talking big names, too, like Neutrogena spokesperson Kerry Washington and Revlon spokespeople Ashley Graham and Gal Gadot.
The message is long overdue, according to CVS Chief Marketing Officer Norman de Greve, since Photoshopping is like “saying these beautiful women aren’t beautiful enough.” Plus, it fits seamlessly into CVS’ mission of prioritizing their customers’ health, because flawless, Photoshopped advertisements really do impact women’s health. “Being exposed to media images moves someone to internalize that as ideal,” says psychologist Rachel Rodgers, Ph.D. who studies the influence of media on body image. “Images are created with certain intent. The dangerous thing is that people process images automatically, and comparison is a part of that.” Conversely, realistic images of women, dark circles and freckles included, don’t have that effect on body image, and in fact make women feel more comfortable with themselves.
Still, it’s a tall order to ask the women in question to go in front of the camera without the insurance of Photoshop. “It’s just something I had to dive into and hope I liked the outcome,” chef and CoverGirl spokesperson Ayesha Curry tells Glamour. To complicate matters, she was just four months postpartum after the birth of her third child with husband Steph Curry. “I’m a new mom again,” says Curry, who had their son on set with her. “Having the pregnancy weight on, and my nursing schedule…getting through that was honestly a moment of strength for me.”
But she didn’t get worked too up about it, go on some draconian workout regimen, or cut sugar, dairy, gluten, legumes, meat, and alcohol from her diet. Instead, the night before the shoot, she did what we can probably all identify with: She went out for drinks. “The next morning, I was like ooh, was that the right decision? Can you see the whiskey sours in my eyes?” she recalls. But it’s her ability to do just that that fuels her enthusiasm for CoverGirl. “They don’t expect or need me to be ‘that girl’,” Curry says.
Eschewing digital alterations gives customers an advantage, too, since they can better tell just how much coverage a foundation offers or, say, how sheer a lip stain is. “The campaign mimics everyday life, since they make sure that the way the product looks [in the ad] is what you’re getting,” she says. “In this case, I’m wearing the exact product I have on now. It’s the Outlast All-Day Lip Color.” The color played a big role in the feeling of empowerment on-set for Curry, who’s close with her mom. “I always try to channel her look and style,” she says. “She’s always loved a bold lip and now, as a mom myself, I always reach for that.”
Seeing the advertisements now, Curry’s proud to be a part of CVS’ initiative. “It’s been an honor to pave the way,” Curry says. “You don’t know how powerful something’s going to be until you make the first leap.” And while the company is leading the way for brands, it’s also up to the brands themselves to follow through in the rest of their messaging beyond the beauty ads in the aisle of your local CVS to, say, TV spots and other advertising. (We’ve reached out to brands to confirm if they’ll continue rolling out these spots and will update accordingly. CoverGirl, for one, will only say that “Part of CoverGirl’s DNA is authenticity.”)
Melania Trump took her new blond hair and not-so-new complaints about the media to Fox News this week, submitting to a sit-down interview with host Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
In their conversation, Trump told Hannity that the greatest hardship she’s faced since she’s been in the White House is the “opportunists” who’ve used her name and the Trump brand to “advance themselves.” Perhaps in an effort to channel her own #BeBest initiative, which aims to curb bullies online and seems to have had no effect on her own husband, she did not name names but she did call out journalists, comedians, celebrities, and authors for their supposed behavior.
Now it’s news to no one that FLOTUS takes issue with how she and her husband are treated in the press. But what did make waves on the internet? Trump’s new look. The erstwhile brunette trotted out a fresh set of highlights, and Twitter took notice.
Of course a woman is free to switch up her hair (or wear a Zara jacket that seems to suggest a certain disregard for a national crisis on the border) whenever she pleases, but if that woman is Melania Trump and her new shade now falls between Donald Trump Russet Potato and Ivanka Trump Daffodil on the color wheel, people will have opinions.
And some shut out all the noise and did just as Trump requested in another portion of the interview. The media, she said, “likes to focus on gossip and I would like them to focus on the substance and what we do, not just about the nonsense.”
For at least one journalist the point was well-taken! Never mind the hair! Or the comparisons to other women in the administration or on Fox News. Let’s concentrate on what matters:
