I’m not really sure what to say this week. After staying silent for about a week and a half in order to amplify the voices of those who are much better-equipped than I to talk about Black Lives Matter, I’m coming back to posting original blog content again and it feels… odd.

What do you say during a pandemic? What do you say during protests; police violence?

I’m uncomfortable returning to posting without even acknowledging how completely fucked up things are in North American policing, legislation, and the media, so today’s featured brand is intentionally Black-owned. I am more than ready to admit that my motives are selfish: going immediately back to writing about beauty products feels wrong, and dirty, like the past two weeks of social content and movements are being erased. But after the heavy recognition of a centuries-long struggle that still continues, I want to sit for a moment in the joy of creation; in beautiful objects; in the Minneapolis City Council voting to begin dismantling their police force.

Blue Reign Luxury Lingerie

Blue Reign does everything right that most lingerie brands get wrong. Their products are intricate, beautiful, and unique; their model is Black, and gorgeous, and believable. She has flat hips, just like the ones I see in the mirror, and I love them. (Where does the curve come from on Photoshopped lingerie models?? Does anyone actually have muscle there?)

I’ve never purchased anything from Blue Reign (they’re out of my price range), but their pieces have sat on my wish list for what feels like forever. They really are badass pieces, as they aim to be: made from vegan faux leather, they fit sizes 28B through 38J. If you’re larger or smaller than that, the brand will custom-make a size for you.

(That’s size-inclusiveness. Not featuring one “plus size” white model wearing a 36DDD bra… who even came up with that style of size format? Why is it that once you eclipse a D, your size just becomes a character glitch? Tons of people, not to mention many lingerie models, wear larger than a D cup!)

Blue Reign founder and owner Alyx also features extremely comprehensive fit videos on the Blue Reign lingerie website, with model measurements and sizing in each product description. Each piece is machine washable, making Blue Reign possibly the best lingerie company.

One day. It’s not in my budget right now to drop $260 CAD on a bra, but one day!!!

Brand diversity in blogging

Lifting up Black and Indigenous companies can be tough as a small blogger. It’s no excuse, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m avid about making sure there’s diversity in my following list, my friendships, and my RTs, but… it’s tough. I buy very little product, as I’m always inundated with plenty: I was very lucky to start blogging early with a lot of growth at the beginning, which means that I’ve always been able to review most of what I wanted to from what I already have on hand.

(A rough estimate would be about 10-40-95: I respond to 10% of PR requests and cover 40% of the products sent in, to a total of 95% of my review content. The other 5% tends to be repurchases.)

But where I’m going with this is that the beauty industry is already stratified. Most brands are owned by mega-corporations, whose leaders are frequently boards of underwhelming white men, or white ladies who think an NW40 is a “very dark” skin tone. It’s a struggle for new brands to ever get big enough to have the budget for sending out product samples, and that applies tenfold to Black and Indigenous-owned beauty brands, whose foundation ranges and hair products get categorized as “niche” even though Black women spend nine times as much on “ethnic” hair and beauty products.

So, while I’m brainstorming workarounds (maybe allocating a seasonal budget for minority-owned beauty purchasing with the intent to review?), I’ll leave you with this last thought: F*ck Trump.

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Disclaimer: Blue Reign and Lipslut assets pulled from their websites.