LEMONADE LOOKS BEAUTY EDITION
September 07 2016 – Delikate Rayne
Needless to say, Beyonce has had one hell of a year! From a world tour to the debut of her second 12-track visual album, Lemonade, Beyonce is slaying 2016 and the year isn’t even over. As has been proven time and time again, Beyonce is an incomparable shape-shifter, an entertainer who, over the course of her career has moved seemlessly from one persona to the next through the transformative power of costumes and makeup. From her signature cat-eyed Sasha Fierce look to the turn-of-the-century all natural Southern belle, makeup and hair are a conduit for her provocative messages and allow her to embody a range of characters. With the premiere of her visual album last April the performer is in rare form. Throughout the hour-long feature that debuted on HBO, we find Bey picking up the roles of new and wildly stylish women who trace her matrillineal roots from New Orleans to Texas. Mitigating the woes of a broken family, heartbreak, and perhaps even marital issues of her own, Beyoncé’s identity is fractured. As a woman scorned, the buxom beauty slips into a canary yellow ruffled gown and wields a baseball bat as she tears through a car-lined street. Smashing windows of vintage El Dorados as passersby look on with awe, she recalls a modern-day Carmen Jones, finding joy in wreaking havoc.
She later sings the tale of a shrewd harlot who “cries Monday through Friday” and works the pole “Friday through Sunday,” looking every bit the part in a white high-neck lace frilled bodysuit. As a Voodoo high priestess surrounded by a circle of fire however, Beyoncé appears steely and chic in a corseted gown that is literally red-hot; even her gilded headpiece reflects flames as if she’s channeling spirits who are not yet visible. In that same breath, she switches up her look again with a cone-shaped bra and an ornate and towering headdress, what is clearly Bey’s homage to the ethereal Egyptian queen Nefertiti. And as the movie closes, we see her emerge from the shadows dressed in a slinky silver slip and conjuring the spirit of yet another mythical creature: the beguiling siren. While her personas change throughout the visual album, one thing is clear-from her braids, to her kinky natural hair, to tribal face paint and barely there makeup looks, Beyonce honors her heritage and defies conventional beauty standards.
However you choose to interpret the complex siren song of Beyoncé’s Lemonade, her ever-evolving beauty is more alluring and surreal than ever before. Keep scrolling to check out Beyoncé's must-see beauty moments from the visual masterpiece.
Imagery via Tumblr, Beyonce Lemonade Film, Odyssey Online, Google Images
Words written by Mallory Maupin