Well, it’s been an eventful two months since I last posted. My partner and I took a wonderful trip to LA over spring break; then I returned to school, enjoyed a week and a half of maskless teaching, noticed that COVID cases were rising in the area, and decided to start masking again. I managed to dodge the virus for a month and a half, but finally tested positive last week, for the first time ever. I’m feeling much better now and will return to classes in person on Thursday (knock wood), but what a pain.
Basically, my lipsticks have had fewer outings this spring than I thought they would. However, in the brief, hopeful interval between the end of the school mask mandate and the advent of Omicron B.12.69.420.666 or whatever sub-variant we’re currently on, I bought a few lipsticks, because I guess I’ll just never learn. So, as a placeholder while I work on longer posts, here are a few glamour shots of my new purchases. The book in the second and third images is Color by Quant (1985), which I bought for $2 at a library book sale last year.
Below, front to back: Covergirl Clean Fresh Tinted Lip Balm in Bliss You Berry and I Cherry-ish You; NARS Sheer Lipstick in Falbala; Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Smoky Rose and Pink Promise. The lip liner in the photo above is NYX Nutmeg, which I like so much that I might devote an entire post to it.
I’ve been having various deep thoughts about the role of longform blogs in 2022. Because I think, perhaps delusionally, that they do still have a role in our culture; it’s just that we call them newsletters now (which makes me wonder if I should hop on the bandwagon two years late and turn this blog into a newsletter…). Anyway, I’m not going anywhere—and neither is my lipstick addiction.
I’ll be back before too long.
Auxiliary Beauty 
I’ve always loved reading. I very much prefer
long-form blogs; instagram and vlogs don’t do it for me. If you decide to switch to a newsletter I will definitely subscribe.
PS: I’ve been reading your blog since 2018
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Good to know, thanks! (And thank you for being such a faithful reader!!) I enjoy Instagram (vlogs, less so), but my heart will always belong to longform.
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Glad you are on the mend! And whenever you are up to/get around to posting, I always love to read it. Maybe all the newsletters will rebrand as blogs – and then you’d be ahead of the curve, by being behind it 🙂
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Haha, that’s what I’m hoping! I mean, you can subscribe to this blog by email, which essentially makes it a newsletter…
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I still love blogs – might be my age but I much prefer them over videos. I’ve subscribed to a few newsletters and they’re good too. If you move to being a newsletter I’ll still subscribe.
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I think our generation (assuming you’re around my age) will always have a fondness for blogs. I remember how exciting it was to discover the world of blogging c. 2006 and read about the lives of total strangers! For some reason, I was particularly addicted to a blog by a community college professor who hated all of her colleagues…
I don’t subscribe to many newsletters, which is one of the reasons I’m hesitating to change the format of my blog. if I don’t read newsletters myself, why should I inflict another one on the world?
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I still enjoy longform blogs. I think Instagram and TikTok has completely destroyed our attention spans and I now find it difficult to focus on reading a blog post, even if I really do want to read it and I’m interested in the subject.
I wrote a blog post yesterday and I was struck by how much time and effort it takes versus an Instagram post. But, I enjoy the creative control of where content goes, organising thoughts with pictures, and the distinct display of personality that is missing from Instagram.
I don’t really know what the future holds for blogs but I still see people updating, so as long as there are posts, I’ll keep reading.
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I haven’t even bothered joining TikTok–I really don’t like watching videos, especially one video after another. It’s just not the best way for me to absorb information. It’s annoying that Instagram has hopped on that train with its reels.
I loved reading your recent blog post! I seem to always come back to blogging, too. I have more to say than an Instagram caption will allow, and there aren’t many (any?) outlets for thoughtful beauty writing out there, so whatever–I’ll continue to blog and to read blog posts.
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ME TOO. I get overwhelmed with TikTok videos; everything goes by so fast and I hate that you can’t pause and rewind. I only see TikToks when they’re crossposted to IG; I refuse to download the app itself lol. It’s all surface level information; I need the deep-dives that only blog posts can give. I even have this hesitation with YouTube. I need to be able to read things at my own pace, scroll back up to scrutinize the picture, etc.
The past few days I’ve gone looking for blogs that are still active and while they’re few and far between, I’m always happy to come across someone else who still takes the time to write posts.
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Love your blog, I prefer actuall blog to newsletter, but I like to get an email notification when you post 🙂 P. S. I watched TikTok for a while (not beauty content though), deleted later :))
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