Supporting our Friends in Wine, Print & Beauty this Black History Month
This Black History Month we’re exploring ways we can support our friends in the Black community through some of our shared loves: wine, books and beauty. Explore the experts in our lists below and leave a comment letting us know the women you would add!
To Sip With
While our wine tasting tours have stayed close to home (ok, 100% at home) lately, it hasn’t stopped us from exploring new and exciting wines. We look to these Black women in wine for recommendations on new wines to watch out for and news from the industry:
Julia Coney (@juliaconey) – She’s the founder of Black Wine Professionals (@blackwineprofessionals), speaker, wine journalist and contributing editor for VinePair (@vinepair). She was the Wine Enthusiast Social Visionary Award Winner in 2020.
Shayla Varnado (@shaylavarnado) – Founder & CEO of Black Girls Wine (@blackgirlswine), created for “women who desire luxury in every day living” (we know a few who fit this bill), and Black Girls Wine Society (@blackgirlswinesociety), a community in more than 50 cities, hosting exclusive monthly wine-centric experiences.
Tahiirah Habibi (@sippingsocialite) – She’s been listed as one of Wine Enthusiasts 40 under 40; featured in Imbibe, Vogue and BET; and is founder of The Hue Society (@thehuesociety), an organization “cultivating the intersection of diversity, wine & culture” with chapters in cities across the US where women can connect.
Whitney Pope (@_whitandwine) – She’s the certified sommelier to follow if you are interested in the world of organic and biodynamic wine. You can find her sharing her passion for wine on Instagram and her blog, whitandwine.com.
Nadine Brown (@nadinewinebrown) – She was the wine director for Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington D.C., helping prime ministers and state senators discover the best wines to accompany their meals from the restaurant’s list of 4,000 bottles. We love this article sharing her story that began in Falmouth, Jamaica, and later brought her to D.C.
To Read
Monthly park meetups or Zoom calls with our book clubs have been something keeping us sane during the past year. We want to thank all the Black women authors for continuing to fill our reading lists with beautiful books like these:
Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson
“A fully immersive, intricately crafted story inspired by the pages of history. In Pheby, Sadeqa Johnson has created a woman whose struggle to survive and to protect the ones she loves will have readers turning the pages as fast as their fingers can fly. Simply enthralling.” –Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours
The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson
“The Kindest Lie is a deep dive into how we define family, what it means to be a mother, what secrets we owe to those we love, and what it means to grow up Black. This beautifully crafted debut will keep you asking these questions and more.” –JODI PICOULT
What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster
As love is built and lost, and the past never too far behind, What’s Mine and Yours is an expansive, vibrant tapestry that moves between the years, from the foothills of North Carolina, to Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Paris. It explores the unique organism that is every family: what breaks them apart and how they come back together.
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
“Pure brilliance. So much will be written about Kaitlyn Greenidge’s Libertie–how it blends history and magic into a new kind of telling, how it spins the past to draw deft circles around our present–but none of it will measure up to the singular joy of reading this book.” –Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
“A thrilling, edgier Devil Wears Prada that explores privilege and racism.” –The Washington Post. Urgent, propulsive, and sharp as a knife, The Other Black Girl is an electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.
Take the extra step and consider purchasing your book from a Black-owned bookstore. We also love Bookshop for ordering online and Libro.fm for audiobooks that support small stores.
To Treat Yourself
Our beauty routines have become another daily grounding ritual we’ve come to rely on lately. We consider products and tips from these Black-owned beauty companies a requirement in our self-care regiments:
Ilera Apothecary – Company founder and CEO, Chinonye Akunne studied Public Health and Environmental Health Science and what she learned inspired her to start a company that makes products that protect people, without harmful chemicals. The company is committed to clean beauty and honest ingredients.
The Lip Bar – The Lip Bar now TLB is a vegan and cruelty-free beauty brand that exists to help change the way we think about beauty. Melissa Butler founded the company in her kitchen while working on Wall Street because she was tired of the beauty industry’s lack of diversity, lack of inclusion and excessive amounts of unnecessary chemicals.
Glory Skincare – Let someone else do all the work picking out products for you with this beauty subscription box. Alisia Ford, Founder & CEO, created this skincare brand powered by women of color and on a mission to help women of every hue make better choices about their skin health.
Dehiya – Dr. Mia Chae Reddy founded Dehiya Beauty, a plant-based, all-natural, vegan skincare line influence by Moroccan folk beauty and modern women. Through the combination of modern skin care practices and time-honored beauty rituals, their goal is to uncomplicate skin care routines for women everywhere.
Beauty Bakerie – Cashmere Nicole founded Beauty Bakerie with the mission to sweeten the lives of others. After a successful fight with breast cancer, Cashmere became extremely health conscious and research-driven about beauty products. Her brand reflects Cashmere’s perseverance and passion for high quality, healthy ingredients that enhance the beauty in everyone, every day.
While you’re scrolling through the ‘gram, relaxing with a book or applying that fabulous new face mask, remember to add an equally fantastic bottle of wine. Stop by our newly renovated online Wine Shop for a curated collection of our favorite wines to sip right now. Insider tip: register in the upper right corner of the homepage and for a limited time you’ll receive a code to take 25% off your first order of six or more bottles. Happy shopping!
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