A Look Back At Mary J. Blige’s Most Iconic Beauty Moments

Mary J. Blige is a household name. From marrying R&B and Hip-Hop in her debut album What’s the 411?, to releasing 14 ground-breaking albums throughout her career (including four Billboard 200 number-ones), the star’s 25-year career drops jaws. Her floor-shaking dance moves have went viral, with a personality that has landed her on television and movie screens– including an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for her role in Mudbound. And in more recent news, she’s on par to receive the Entertainment Icon Award later this month. 

To complement her heavy-hitting impact on the entertainment industry, Blige is the definition of beauty. Her ‘90s hair and makeup looks are part of the reason that skinny brows, spiked haircuts, lined lips, and gold teeth still have a chokehold on the culture to this day. At times, Blige deviated from her wide range of golden blonde hairstyles (see her 38th Grammy Awards look in 1996)– which have been curled, cut, spiked and straightened– for mahogany tones. Take her look at Luca Luca’s Fall/Winter 2001 fashion show, for example, ridden with arched reddish eyebrows and lined metallic-flecked lips (similar to her gold 1st Annual Lady Of Soul Awards lipstick).

As time went on, her supermodel-esque 2000s hairstyles grew into shaggy bowl cuts– like at the 1st BET Awards. Then there were her flipped ends at the 14th Annual Soul Train Awards. Into the 2010s, her brows grew back in, replacing pigmented 2004 Pre-Grammy shadows with 2017 Vanity Oscar Party smokey eyes, retiring gelled spikes for precise blowouts, and heavy foundation for soft beats. Her 2021 MET Gala look saw a middle part brushed into a bun with a blend of smokey and copper-toned eyeshadow and tightly-lined lips. The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul is the queen of beauty, too, being the innovator for looks the industry compulsively recreates today. 

In honor of Mary J. Blige’s 53rd birthday, ESSENCE takes a look back at her most iconic beauty moments of all time.