This past year on Instagram was filled with structural hair, reminders to love the skin we’re in, and scroll-stoping makeup and nails.
The Best Beauty Instagrams of the Year: Janaya Future Khan, Megan Thee Stallion, Ashley Graham, and More
Beauty-wise, this past year on Instagram was filled with head-turning hair moments. Megan Thee Stallion stunned with a thick spiral braid that paired well with a cherry red lip and major “glow,” per her caption. Model Tsunaina got up close and personal with double-looped pigtails and swirls of blush that arched from her lids to her cheekbones. And speaking of pigtails, Cardi B rocked bubblegum pink heart-shaped buns of her own.
Makeup artist Ali continued to wow followers by sharing a bedazzled blue makeup look with a powerful message about protecting Black women. “Just because we are strong doesn’t mean you can’t be there for us,” she wrote. Then, Danielle Mareka got creative in quarantine with rhinestone-speckled lash lines and iridescent lids. Her beautiful Afro tied everything together. On the nail front Mei Kawajiri churned out an array of looks, but it was her mile-long, anime-inspired manicure that stopped the most scrollers in their tracks.
A plethora of reminders to love the skin you’re in blessed feeds as well. Elle Fanning “reclaimed” the eczema on her lids by embracing it as a beauty look. A glowing Lizzo leaned in with the message: “You can do life your way. Remember, despite anything anyone says or does, do what you want with your body.” Then, in a widely celebrate post, Keke Palmer opened up about her journey with acne and Polycystic ovary syndrome. “My platform has always been used for things greater than me,” she wrote. “To all the people struggling with this please know you’re not alone and that you are still so fine!” Finally, model-activist Gabrielle Richardson, a.k.a. Frida Cash Flow, shared her gua sha ritual and thoughts on “how to keep our healing from being performative.”
Black Lives Matter organizer Janaya Future Khan showed off their Afro and glistening skin while reflected on their journey to self-confidence. “I was called ugly for a long time,” they wrote. “Long enough that I believed it. So much of being an adult is unlearning how you were taught to see yourself… We must also unlearn the way we were taught to see others. Our assumptions about race, gender, class etc are informed by the teachings of a flawed people and a deeply flawed and astonishingly unequal society. If we are not doing the work of seeking each other out, we have accepted those conditions as our own.”
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Akili King
