Queen Latifah breezed onto the floor of the CoverGirl plant in Hunt Valley yesterday, tall and impressive, aglow in pinks and browns.
She was there to take a look at CoverGirl's newest product, a line of cosmetics made especially for women of color - the Queen Collection - inspired by the rapper-turned-movie actress/jazz singer/makeup model herself.
But her presence there had a greater impact. From the cheering and preening going on among the plant's employees, it was clear Queen Latifah's visit was a morale booster and an inspiration.
"A living legend!" one employee called out, as Queen Latifah toured the busy floor, checking out "raisinberry" lipsticks and matching nail polishes. "God bless you!"
Latifah is used to such admiration. She's having that kind of effect lately - not just at the CoverGirl plant, but everywhere she shows up.
Beauty and pop culture experts say her presence on the cover of fashion and beauty magazines, in Hollywood films, on stage at the Grammy Awards, and as one of the most famous names to hold the title "CoverGirl," is inspiring not only for women of color, but for older women, plus-size women and the beauty industry in general.
And Latifah is glad of it.
"I'm not a typical Hollywood beauty," she says in an interview after yesterday's tour. "So every time we do something like this with me, we break ground. We make it a little easier for someone who is heavier, who's a different complexion, who's taller, who has a different kind of hair."
When she started out in the late 1980s as an Afrocentric, crown-wearing rapper, Latifah's message was all about female and black empowerment. With tracks like "Ladies First" and "U.N.I.T.Y," Latifah's lyrics blasted back at the misogyny that was so prevalent in popular hip-hop, and she implored those in the African-American community to take pride and see themselves as royalty.
Still, Latifah never imagined she'd also one day come to represent a new beauty ideal.
"I didn't necessarily walk around feeling that I was beautiful," Latifah says, remembering how she and her brother idolized their "gorgeous" parents and wondered, "When is ours going to kick in?"
But then, Latifah says, one day she took a look at her photograph on the cover of Essence magazine and said to herself, "That's what I'm supposed to look like."
