Editor’s Letter: All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go

It has been a month since my final at-home pedicure and practically a 12 months since I set foot in a nail salon. Prepandemic, I might have cringed to be seen in public with what I am witnessing now — the cracked stays of a pale-pink Paintbox polish barely hanging on. However I have been dwelling. Exterior of my household, essentially the most that anybody has seen me has been from the rib cage up on a 13-by-16-inch display screen. (I joke that my go-to quarantine workwear is a trend “mullet”: enterprise on prime, sweatpants on the underside.)

So, I am left questioning whether or not it issues if my toenails are painted prettily if nobody sees them. If a bottle of OPI Huge Apple Crimson falls within the forest and nobody’s round to listen to it, does it make a sound? It seems the reply for me is sure.

Spending extra time at dwelling has made me assume quite a bit in regards to the magnificence rituals I carry out for the approval of others versus these I do for myself. As an illustration, I am nonetheless dedicated to doing hair masks two or 3 times every week, however I’ve dramatically simplified styling to a 15-second half-topknot. My skin-care routine, in the meantime, has remained a strong self-care observe. And I’ve found — fortunately! — that I really like the act and artwork of placing on a full eye make-up look, even when there’s nowhere to go. Our lives might have modified throughout the pandemic, however that hasn’t diminished our love and enthusiasm for magnificence.

On the identical time, the best way we store and have interaction with magnificence has actually shifted. The enjoyable, interactive, in-person a part of magnificence buying — swatching, smearing, and spritzing in shops — has been placed on maintain indefinitely. So we set out on a mission whereas growing the November challenge of the print journal: How might we carry the expertise of the wonder retailer into your property?

You may discover this particular version challenge of Attract seems to be completely different. We have damaged down the journal into sections: make-up, skincare, hair, and perfume. And we partnered with the YouCam Make-up app to allow digital try-ons for lots of the seems to be, together with in our lovely cowl story spotlighting rising star Kesewa Aboah and 4 different fashions, utilizing merchandise from a few of our favourite Black-owned magnificence manufacturers. I hope you’ll discover plenty of new ideas and merchandise to carry into your property.

As for me, I lastly ended that monthlong hiatus and gave myself a much-needed pedicure. I am unable to say I’ve the talent of an expert simply but, however I’m getting higher. Name it a toehold.  

Learn extra tales about at-home magnificence:

Now watch YouTuber Shalom Blac share her 10-minute routine:

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