BY: KIZZY COURTNEY
The beauty supply store is more than a place to get a nice wig, braids, or your natural hair products. Did you know that the beauty supply store also sells some nice makeup as well? Not only can you buy lesser known brands like Kiss New York, Beauty Treats, or Nicka K New York, at some Beauty Supply Stores you can even find big name brands such as IMAN Cosmetics, Black Opal Beauty or LA Girl Cosmetics. These are brands you won’t typically find in your local drugstores, unless you’re visiting the US that is. Finding products that work well for our chocolate skin tones at the drugstore or the makeup counters is as easy as finding a four-leaf clover or at best a needle in a haystack. So, you will understand my appreciation for the beauty supply store and the brands you can find that caters specifically to women of color.
If you’re a woman of color then you know the struggle of finding products that work for our beautiful melanin skins. Walking into the drugstore and getting frustrated because the darkest shade of foundation they carry only works for a light skin beauty with a tan. Well, I can tell you that if you check the cosmetics section at your local beauty supply store I’m sure you will be surprised to see the vast selection of brands that cater to our deeper skin tones. Black Opal Beauty carries an array of different foundations that caters specifically to women of color. Their foundations come in a liquid, cream as well as a sick. IMAN Cosmetics is another amazing brand that is geared towards women of color if only a little more on the expensive side. If you’re looking for a great concealer comparable to the MAC Pro Longwear concealers, then the LA Girl Pro Concealers are amazing and comes in many highlighter shades with different undertones as well as contour shades. With our deeper skin tones, finding affordable quality products can be simple, we just need to know where to look.
Affordable quality makeup does exist, paying more for high-end makeup does not equate to quality or mean that it is somehow better. As a makeup artist investing great products in your makeup kit can get very expensive very fast. You want to put quality high-end products in your kit, however, high-end products come with high-end money. Considering quality products at affordable prices is a great way to start building your kit. There is nothing wrong with using drugstore products in your kit. After all the talent comes from you and not in the products you use. Some of my personal favorite makeup products can be found at the beauty supply store. I personally use an eyebrow pencil from Kiss New York that I purchased from the beauty supply store that is a great alternative to the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz, a high-end brand that is known for amazing brow products. Many of the disposable products I use in my makeup kit such as mascara wands, lipstick applicators, makeup sponges etc. are all from the beauty supply store. I can avoid cross contamination and stay sanitary without spending a lot of money.
Whenever I visit my local beauty supply store I know the first place I check out is their cosmetics section just to see if any new products came out from my favorite brands, but then again, I am a little bias. Many great products can be found at the beauty supply store. So next time you go in to buy your natural hair products or what have you, take look around their cosmetics section to see if you can’t find something that you may fall in love with. Could be a new lipstick, a new foundation or in my case an eyebrow pencil. It would also be a nice way for you to be introduced to brands you may not have heard of before.
