Greetings from San Francisco, where I’ve spent the past few days recovering from jetlag and dissertating at neighborhood coffee shops. With three days of the old year remaining, it’s time to post a list I’ve been compiling for the past month or so: my 14 favorite beauty purchases of 2014! A few notes before we… Read More 2014 in Review, Part 2: My 14 Favorite Beauty Purchases
Name: NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Mysterious Red Date Purchased: November 2013 Grade: A Notes: How excited am I to write this post? So excited that I broke my (never very strict, let’s be honest) Lipstick Chronology rule in order to review Mysterious Red out of order. It’s the holiday season, after all: what… Read More Lipstick Chronology #31: NARS Mysterious Red
Well, I guess that was an eight-day hiatus! It crept up on me, as such things do. First the weather was gloomy for days on end, so I couldn’t take decent photos. Then I took an overnight trip to visit a friend in another city. Then I spent a couple of days in DC for… Read More 2014 in Review, Part 1: My 14 Most Disappointing Beauty Purchases
Name: Milani Color Statement Lipstick in Sangria Date Purchased: August 2013 Grade: C+ Notes: In my experience, sangria is almost always a mistake. I can’t stomach the taste unless I’m tipsy to begin with, which means that when I find myself drinking it, it’s already too late to escape a hangover. The first time I… Read More Lipstick Chronology #30: Milani Sangria
Yes, I know it’s Tuesday (Wednesday, in some time zones), but I wore this makeup yesterday. Deal with it. Last week, Pantone revealed its color of the year for 2015: Marsala, a soft plummy brown. Pantone’s color of the year is supposed to predict trends in fashion, makeup, and interior design, though these days it… Read More FOTD: Marsala Monday
I’ve used up quite a few products, mostly skincare, in the last month or two, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to write my first empties post. I’ve been wondering why so many people (myself included) love such posts. Maybe because it’s the closest the law-abiding among us will ever come to the thrill… Read More Empties, Fall 2014
I was planning to wait until spring to buy these two bright pinks, but I had a $7-off-$17 coupon for Revlon burning a hole in my wallet, and there were no other Revlon products I really wanted. So here we are: my first Moisture Stain, Barcelona Nights, and my sixth Lip Butter, Lollipop. (Seventh, if… Read More Pinks for Winter: Revlon Moisture Stain in Barcelona Nights and Lip Butter in Lollipop
In the last year, I’ve become obsessed with an aesthetic that I like to call “Edwardian cyborg”: futuristic sleekness coupled with windswept Gibson-girl glamour. This is the image that started it all: You’ve already seen this photo in an earlier post, wherein I experimented with theBalm’s Nude ‘Tude palette. “Edwardian cyborg” was the name… Read More FOTD: Toward an Ethnography of the Edwardian Cyborg
I’ve been particularly short on funds this month, hence the plethora of tl;dr meditative posts and the absence of product reviews. Luckily, I just received my latest stipend check, so I’m planning to do a bit of damage during the High Holy Days of consumerism. (Only online: I can’t stand the crush of people at… Read More Before Black Friday, There’s Wishlist Tuesday
Name: NYX Round Lipstick in Perfect Date Purchased: August 2013 Grade: B Notes: The blunt self-congratulation of the name “Perfect” makes me want to start a line of self-deprecating lipsticks: “Good Enough.” “Decent Pigmentation for the Price.” “Let’s Be Real, This Is a Half-Assed Knockoff of a MAC Limited Edition Lipstick.” A name like “Perfect”… Read More Lipstick Chronology #29: NYX Perfect
Auxiliary Beauty 