Solange Knowles is a curatorial historian. The Saint Heron founder is the curator of this year’s most culturally significant performance series, Eldorado Ballroom Houston, a six-night program using music, movement, and storytelling to channel the collective memories shared in the historic Third Ward music hall. But, the beauty in her curations exists in more than just the sound.
“When I’m on the curatorial side of my practice with Saint Heron and The Eldorado Ballroom, it’s truly about finding a balance of being rooted in the work, the research, and the expression of these performances,” Knowles tells ESSENCE. Additionally, as she continues, “showing up with the ease of feeling grounded in looking and feeling myself, and my best,” is important, too. On stage, she stands before the classical symphony in an intimate curation of ILIA Beauty worn like a second skin—honoring, not erasing, her beauty. Thus, “The Eldorado Ballroom Edit” was born.
In partnership with the beauty brand, her intentional selection of makeup products to wear to her upcoming Eldorado performances feels like home. From her deep, neutral-undertoned complexion marrying the Super Serum Skin Tint shade “Dominica ST14” to her voluptuous brows laminated with the In Frame Brow Gel, Knowles’s limited-edition makeup capsule mirrors her skin-centric approach to beauty, while defining the ancestral features tying her to Houston’s Third Ward.
“As a longtime ILIA fan, I’m grateful to them for allowing me to create the ‘Eldorado Ballroom Edit,’ one that is rooted in our shared philosophies of natural skin and luminosity, so that I really represent my most radiant, joyous, and present self for these nights that I hold so close to my heart,” she says about her on-stage makeup. “ILIA’s and Saint Heron’s brand DNA in art, architecture, and design made it a natural choice to partner on bringing the ‘Eldorado Ballroom Edit’ to life.”
Want Solange’s full Eldorado Ballroom Edit? See what’s in her makeup bag below.
