Toiling in the knowledge mines, one occasionally comes upon some fascinating gems. Or, more prosaically: I typed the phrase “auxiliary beauty” into Early English Books Online to see what would pop up. For those of you who aren’t pursuing graduate degrees in early modern literature, EEBO is a database containing almost every work printed in… Read More FOTD: A Discourse of Auxiliary Beauty, or Artificial Handsomeness
I have dry lips. Like, really dry. No matter the weather, no matter the season, there’s always a possibility that I’ll wake up with my lower lip chapped or cracked or even bleeding. This has been the state of things for as long as I can remember, and I have yet to find a solution… Read More The Best Lipstick Formulas for Chronically Dry Lips
Names: Maybelline Color Sensational Vivid Lipstick in Fuchsia Flash, MAC Matte Lipstick in Candy Yum-Yum Dates Purchased: March 2013, August 2013 Grades: A, A Notes: You may wonder why, given my devotion to seasonal makeup colors, I’m reviewing two of the most stubbornly summery lipsticks in my stash. Let’s just say that I’m even more… Read More Lipstick Chronology #28: MAC Candy Yum-Yum, Maybelline Fuchsia Flash, and a Word about Dupes
We makeup fiends are a fickle bunch, hailing a product as a holy grail one week and forgetting about it the next. I slip in and out of lipstick infatuations as regularly as I once slipped in and out of professor crushes, but at least professor crushes are free. Lipstick is not, and right now,… Read More Project Make-a-Dent: Autumnal Lipstick Edition
Few things can induce me to brave midtown Manhattan on a Monday afternoon, but lavender blush is one of them. Tony Moly is a Korean drugstore brand that has recently made inroads into the American market, most notably through Urban Outfitters, which sells a surprising number of Tony Moly products online. Over the summer, the… Read More Spacegirl Incognito: Tony Moly Cristal Blusher #04 Milky Violet and Broccoli Sheet Mask
In the last year, my local supermarket has begun stocking the latest OPI and Essie releases, which is both an incentive to go grocery shopping and a severe test of my willpower. I’ve been disenchanted with Essie for a while now, but OPI has impressed me over and over with the quality of its formula… Read More OPI First Class Desires (Holiday 2014) and a Halloween FOTD
In the summer of last year, while browsing the venerable Bookshop in Chapel Hill, NC, I made a curious find. Published in 1996, long before “basic” became an insult, Cindy Crawford’s Basic Face is a “makeup workbook” co-authored by Crawford, the makeup artist Sonia Kashuk, and Kathleen Boyes. “What’s a basic face? A five-minute confidence… Read More Lipstick Chronology #27: Back to 1996 with Cindy Crawford’s Basic Face
I’m back! Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post: your kind words were much appreciated. I did what I needed to get done, and now I’m excited to return to blogging. I’ve missed it a lot! Missed it so much, in fact, that I kept a photographic record of all the makeup… Read More F(all)OTDs: An October Makeup Diary
It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to post these reviews. When Ulta had a 40%-off sale on NYX and Revlon two weeks ago, I seized the chance to order a few things I’d been wanting for a while. (I came in $.77 over the $25 free-shipping minimum, which made me inordinately proud.) My order… Read More Ulta Sale Haul: NYX and Revlon Swatches, Reviews, and FOTDs
Name: Revlon Super Lustrous Shine Lipstick in Plum Velour Date of Purchase: July 2013 Grade: A- Notes: I’m usually indifferent to sheer lipsticks. No, let me phrase that another way: I like to think of myself as indifferent to sheer lipsticks. I’ve been wearing bold lip colors for over three years now, so putting on… Read More Lipstick Chronology #26: Revlon Plum Velour
Auxiliary Beauty 