Go Inside The Hip Hop Beauty Bar At Culture Creators

Two-time Emmy nominated makeup artist and CEO Ashunta Sheriff and author and hip-hop trailblazer Thembisa Mshaka are on a mission to center Black beauty history as fine art. The Hip-Hop Beauty Bar showcased at The Beverly Hilton during the 10th Annual Culture Creators Innovators & Leaders Awards in the lead up to the 2026 BET Awards. The lobby walls of the swanky hotel were adorned with high-gloss photography covering decades of hip-hop beauty innovation. Guests and awardees of Culture Creators’ annual ceremony (which honored icons like Missy Elliot, Bethann Hardison, and Jermaine Dupri), were welcomed into an immersive experience celebrating the artists who helped shape what beauty means through the lens of hip-hop. Sheriff and Mshaka told HelloBeautiful on the orange Culture Creators’ carpet that Missy Elliot’s pioneering spirit not only defined their careers, but also inspired the creative expression of an entire generation. 

Sheriff told HelloBeautiful Missy’s “Supa-Dupa Fly” debut studio album era in the late 90’s was one of her favorites. “I worked with Missy actually. I didn’t do any of those videos, shout out to her makeup artist; I know her makeup-artist that did that stuff. But that’s my favorite, favorite era,” she said. Sheriff recalls being “shocked” when the visuals for “I Can’t Stand The Rain” premiered with Missy decked out in finger waves, a black blow-up jumpsuit and alien-esque shades. Missy’s approach to beauty was so avant-garde, the whole industry was forced to stand up and notice. “She had on black lip liner with a red centerpiece, and then she had like this matte look with heavy contour. It was different. It was unique. She didn’t use her body. She just used something different: which was all creative-ness,” Sheriff said. 

Mshaka told HB that Missy “has a special place” in her heart, as she recalled the days working as an editor and sliding Missy rapper Lady of Rage’s cassette mixtape on the low during one of her visits to her office. “There is a particular piece of editorial by her when she’s got the dark, black lip, and there’s like a little bit of a glow inside it. I don’t know if it’s metallic or gold, or what,” Mshaka said. “But the way that she flexes lip game is unmatched. She has the most beautiful, full lips, they’re perfect,” she said. Cultural pioneers and visual moments that pushed the narrow scope of beauty (like Missy veiling her body in I Can’t Stand The Rain in an age of hour-glass “video vixens”), are just one of many highlighted at The Hip Hop Beauty Bar. The mission of the exhibition is simple: where Black culture is invisible, let’s put it on display. “For too long, aspects of our contributions to Black and American history have been subject to erasure. Our exhibition sets the record straight,” Mshaka said in an official press release. 

Exhibition attendees can peruse decades of hip-hop photography on display or retreat to Suite 543 of The Beverly Hilton for a special pop-up bar with champagne, gift bags, and beauty products from Thebo Hair all weekend long June 25-June 27 in Hollywood, with Sunday culminating in a luxury braiding education and business session with Thebo Hair founder, Stacy Gray. 

The Hip Hop Beauty Bar Brings Cultural History To The Heart Of Hollywood was originally published on hellobeautiful.com