This Dominican-Owned Beauty Brand Is Manifesting a Cardi B and Hennessy Collab

Image Source: Getty / Taylor Hill

The Dominican sisters and founders behind cosmetics brand Luna Magic aren’t afraid to shoot their shot. They recently shared a series of Instagram posts tagging Cardi B and her sister, Hennessy, for a potential makeup collaboration, and the community has been all about it!

Founders Mabel and Shaira Frías were inspired to launch their brand after years of not being able to find high-quality makeup products that complemented their brown complexions. Creating a line that really helped all women of colour – Black Latinas in particular – feel beautiful and seen was a major brand mission. The vibrant colour palettes and packaging are also very much inspired by their Dominican heritage, which is why they believe a collaboration with Cardi and Hennessy, who are Dominican sisters who grew up in NYC themselves, would be such a good fit, and we couldn’t agree more.

“When we started vision boarding Luna Magic, Cardi and Hennessy were one of the women that we were inspired by. To us, the sisters are beautiful, bold, super authentic and obvious makeup lovers,” Mabel told POPSUGAR over email. “We love how they support one another, and it is apparent with their bond that they would do anything for each other. The way they are reminds me a lot of my relationship with my sister, so for us it was natural to dream of a makeup collaboration in which we celebrate Afro-Latina beauty, female empowerment and sisterhood.”

The Frías sisters are determined to manifest this into existence. They are even prepared with ideas if Cardi and Hennessy were to take them up on their offer.

“We envision the makeup collaboration of Cardi/Hennessy x LUNA MAGIC as a creative take to celebrate what makes each sister unique, and what brings them together. We know that Hennessy has an interest in fashion design, so maybe it can be a theme of an artist (Hennessy) and her muse (Cardi B), which could be super powerful since I know from my experience that little sisters have great ideas,” Mabel says. “We would also see a collaboration where we celebrate Caribbean influence through a vibrant island-life colour palette (turquoise, blues, reds, greens, gold, etc.), rich pigments and packaging textures. We could even see a makeup collaboration that celebrates and adds spotlight to NYC urban beauty. We all know that beauty in our communities looks different and is not often celebrated in mainstream media campaigns, so it would be amazing to uplift beauty lovers from our communities. Representation matters. For us, what is important is for the sisters to be able to display their creativity and ideas. My sister and I love to collaborate so we would be excited to hear how they wish to showcase their creativity through makeup. Skies the limit.”

The Frías sisters envision the collection comprising of makeup palettes, diverse lash styles, lipsticks and eyeliners in bold and vibrant colors. They want this collection to tell a story and they want to even offer accessories to really make it stand out as much as Cardi and Hennessy naturally do. But they believe that if this partnership were to actually happen, it would be so much more than the collection itself. It would mean a lot to the Latinx community, to Afro-Latinas, and to Dominicans especially.

“This collaboration to our Afro-Latinx and Dominican community would be bigger than the makeup. It would be a win for the culture,” she says. “It would show people in our communities that it is not where you started but where you are going. Cardi B and Hennessy have been transparent on social media about the hard work they had to do to get to where they are. It would be powerful to show our community that if you put in the work, you can achieve your dreams and entrepreneurship can look like whatever makes sense for you and your vision.”

Considering how beauty-obsessed Cardi and Hennessy are, it’s surprising they haven’t already partnered with a major brand on a beauty campaign or makeup collaboration. They might just still be shopping around for the best fit.

“We know firsthand that the business of beauty is more complex than most people think. And because it often requires working with suppliers at an international-level and different creative teams, a makeup collaboration could take up to a year to come to life,” Mabel adds. “But we are hopeful that Cardi and Hennessy find inspiration in our story and the customers we are serving. We know that the sisters can collaborate with any large beauty company and do well, but what we have that the big guys don’t is magic. We are our customers. We understand them because we more often have similar life experiences, and wouldn’t it be amazing to show that Afro-Latinas and brown women can make it happen and poppin?”

The smartest thing the Frías sisters did was bravely propose a collaboration with Cardi and Hennessy through Instagram, because there’s a big chance it could actually happen. More and more celebrities and major companies are recognising the value of partnering with brown and Black-owned indie beauty brands. Last year, Disney collaborated with Latina-owned beauty brand Alamar Cosmetics for an Encanto makeup collection that was so amazingly on brand. Iconic Mexican superstar Thalía partnered with the founder of Rizos Curls Julissa Prado, for their Amor a Los Rizos Collaboration after months of using the Rizos Curls products to repair her naturally curly hair. In other words, anything is possible!

“We want folks to visually see that anything is possible. Work on yourself and shoot your shot,” Frias concludes. “You owe it to no one but yourself to carry out your vision and know no matter your current situation, life is like a movie and there will always be people willing to help you and that our beauty is worthy of celebration.”

We’re rooting for the Frías sisters and crossing our fingers this manifests into fruition.