TIME – Rihanna’s make-up line, Fenty Beauty, has garnered rave reviews since its launch in September, both for its quality-to-affordability ratio and its emphasis on inclusivity. (It launched with 40 shades of foundation and an ad campaign featuring a diverse array of models.) Now that Fenty Beauty has been named one of TIME‘s 25 Best Inventions of 2017, we caught up with its superstar creator to talk about how and why she’s building a beauty empire, and what’s in store for the future.
TIME: What’s your earliest memory of beauty?
Rihanna: My lifelong obsession with makeup started with watching my mom put her makeup on. I always loved to watch her, and all the funny faces she was making in the mirror. I never understood it until I got older and fell in love with makeup myself and really started becoming obsessed. The first time I remember having my makeup done was for this beauty pageant that I did in school. I was 15, about to be 16, just before I got signed. I had my full face done for this pageant — my mom actually did my makeup. And ever since then, ever since I saw foundation on my skin, I could never look at my skin without foundation again. Makeup, it spoiled me.
Why do you wear makeup now? What role does it play in your daily routine?
Makeup is like a secret weapon. Depending on my mood, my look, or the occasion, makeup can go from very subtle to a complete transformation, and that’s the fun in makeup: being able to play and create in endless ways.
You’ve said that you created this line so that all users could have a product that looked good on them, no matter the shade. Did you have difficulty in the past finding products that worked for you? And if so, how did you use that experience while creating your own line?
I’ve had my makeup done thousands of time, and when it comes to foundation, you just never know how it’s going to turn out. I think foundation should look like great skin, so it was important to me that the Pro Filt’r foundation had a soft matte finish because you want a dewy look, but never shiny! It was also important that every woman felt included in this brand. We are all so different, with our own unique skin tones, so we started with the 40 foundation shades out the gate.
continue reading
MILAN — The Italian, but Paris-based, fashion photographer Paolo Roversi is gearing up to debut an exhibition at Milan’s Palazzo Reale on Nov. 16.
The inauguration of the “Storie” [“Stories” in English] exhibit is organized in conjunction with the opening of the second edition of the Photo Vogue Festival 2017, running in Milan until Nov. 19.
“Due to the particular venue, which doesn’t feature a unique exhibition space, we decided to organize the exhibit in nine groups of pictures located in nine different rooms,” said Roversi reached by phone in Paris. “They are like nine different stories, nine themes that we picked with Alessia Glaviano [Vogue Italian senior photo editor,] who curated the exhibition, not following any specific logics but mostly guided by a certain freedom and by an emotional attitude.”
“Storie,” which will be open to the public until Dec. 17, retraces the professional path of Roversi, who stood out from the crowd with the use of the 8×10 Polaroid films and his incredible attention to light effects delivering intense images combining realism and illusion at the same time.
The exhibition will include pictures of his most private, personal experimentations, such as portraits and nudes, as well as more glamorous works focused on fashion subjects. An entire room will be dedicated to unpublished pictures of Rihanna.
If you thought Fenty Beauty were done for this year, you were wrong. As Rihanna mentioned in previous interviews about her beauty brand, there’s a lot more in store. During this Thanksgiving Fenty Beauty’s very first lip paint will be released in red with its own shady name STUNNA.
Look out for STUNNA in stores and online on November 23!
VOGUE: Just as important as the Met Gala theme reveal—next year’s show is titled “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” — is the announcement of Anna Wintour’s cohosts. Taking over the duties carried out last time around by Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, Gisele Bündchen, and Tom Brady are three women who are as talented as they are glamorous: Amal Clooney, Rihanna, and Donatella Versace.
Rihanna
Met Gala Debut: 2007
Galas Attended: 7
Gala Performances: 2
Rihanna is a Met Gala all-star: No one gets more into the spirit of things than @badgalriri. Consider the yolk-color Guo Pei gown she wore to the 2015 event that not only put the Chinese designer on the map, but also blew up the memosphere. For anyone other than Rihanna, that look would have been a tough one to top, but she managed, arriving at this year’s Comme des Garçons exhibition in a fresh-off-the-runway look by the woman of the hour, Rei Kawakubo. By now, we know to expect the unexpected from Rihanna—even an impromptu performance, like the one she gave with Kanye West in 2009.
By request we’ve made HD screen captures of Rihanna’s “Kiss It Better” performance at the 2016 Made In America Festival. We’ve also thrown in a few gifs, check it all out in our gallery and after the jump!
continue reading
Listen AND watch to N.E.R.D featuring Rihanna – “Lemon”! Stream and purchase on smarturl.it/lemonsingle.
