We’re only 22 days away from the New Orleans takeover that will commence for ESSENCE Festival 2016. From June 30-July 3, the annual festival will bring over 500,000 people to the city for concerts, parties and empowerment expos. ESSENCE Festival is the epitome of partying with a purpose. Phaedra Parks of Real Housewives of Atlanta is excited to party with a purpose as a speaker on the ESSENCE Empowerment Experience stage this year. Since she always serves a beat face with a side of shade we asked her to share her beauty secrets that help her slay both on and off camera.
1. I love the Kate Somerville line. “My favorite thing out of their line is probably the hydrating firming mask. It’s a great mask you can wear under your makeup while traveling and it keeps your skin really hydrated. It’s very luxurious and really creamy. It makes your skin truly glow. She’s got something else on the line that I cannot live without. It’s her DermalQuench liquid lip. You can put it on any lines you think you have and it plumps up and hydrates your face and gives you that very natural glow.”
2. Water. “I’m really big on healthy skin under makeup. Healthy skin starts within so I really try to maintain a great diet. I drink no less than a gallon and a half of water every day. I like to mix fresh lemons and ginger in my water, sometimes a little cucumber. But I love ginger because obviously it’s great medicinal properties to it as well. That’s my inside secret, just drinking a lot of water.”
3. Black Up foundation. “Obviously being on television we get the opportunity to wear our fair share of makeup. For women of color, and for myself in particular, I love foundation and palettes from Black Up. It’s a great company from Europe and the skin tone range is amazing. It’s African American owned. The product lasts wonderfully, it blends well. It’s just perfection in itself. There used to be a time where we couldn’t find a lot of colors, but Black Up has, hands down, the best range of colors from olive undertones to red undertones for women of color. So that’s my favorite foundation.”
4. As far as eyes, I love Inglot. “I love Inglot’s liners. Some of their eyeshadows are really heavily pigmented and the best thing about it is — because I travel quite a bit— their palette system travels well. It never breaks in transit. When you’re packing stuff and traveling a lot, a lot of times eyeshadows will crack. It has never cracked on me at all. That’s why I love it. But the pigment is excellent as well.”
5. My beauty blenders. “It blends your makeup flawlessly and it touches up your makeup as well. It seamlessly corrects anything on your face. So you can use it from application to touch up. I love the black beauty blender so it’s not so obvious that you’re touching up. There’s a company [called] Blender Bullet, which is an African-American woman who made that. And you can stick that on your finger and blend your makeup with that and that gets very close in to the small creases of your eyes.”
Don’t miss Phaedra Parks on the ESSENCE Empowerment Experience stage in NOLA. Buy your tickets now!