So much yes! Cardi B’s makeup artist Erika La’ Pearl shared a step-by-step tutorial for the most glam look for Pride Month exclusively with Life & Style. Erika’s look is part of a collab with NYX’s Proud Allies for All campaign, and the bright hues will have you feeling super festive.
This year’s celebration feels different than most amid protests following George Floyd’s death and social distancing precautions due to the coronavirus pandemic, but LGBTQIA+ leaders have been encouraging people to show solidarity and support for their community and the Black Lives Matter movement — whether in person or online.
“Everybody should be really clear about [Pride’s] origins in resistance and rebellion. Pride has more to do with what people are calling protests than [it does] with the parades that ignore all of these realities,” David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition — an organization that serves the needs of LGBTQIA+ African Americans — told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month.
Although Christopher Street West, a non-profit organization that produces the L.A. Pride Parade every year, originally announced in May that they were postponing events during June because COVID-19, they later put on a virtual celebration.
“I think it is our imperative to continue to fight the injustice and the oppression that we are currently witnessing. It’s our moral imperative,” Estevan Montemayor, president of Christopher Street West, said. “Our organization’s mission is to create safe and inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ+ community and our allies. If we did not do this, we would not be in compliance with our own mission.”
Pride Month holds a special meaning to many people around the world. Model Cara Delevingne, a longtime activist of the LGBTQIA+ community, talked about what celebrating each year means to her.
“Pride to me is a sense of something that I never really had as a kid. A sense of pride is like a sense of belonging, a family outside your family, a place where you don’t have to apologize or feel ashamed,” she explained in Variety’s Pride Issue. “I guess I never felt like I belonged anywhere as a kid. Or I always felt like I didn’t belong in my own body. I felt so lost.”
She added, “Once I could talk about my sexuality freely, I wasn’t hiding anything anymore. And, the person I hid it from the most was myself.”
So, whether your Pride Month includes marching in the streets or feeling good in your own skin by getting glammed up (or both) — this look will help you stay loud and proud. Keep scrolling for Erika’s step-by-step Pride makeup tutorial!