If you’ve watched as many geisha documentaries as I have (she said, too casually), you’ll be familiar with the clichéd close-up shot of a geisha or maiko (apprentice geisha) painting her white-powdered lips with a brush dipped in rouge. The inevitability of this shot, in both Japanese and foreign documentaries, makes me roll my eyes… Read More Goldilocks and the Three Lip Brushes
Long time no blog! We reached Los Angeles yesterday evening, after a two-day drive down the Pacific Coast Highway. On the first (and more scenic) day, we covered the PCH from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo. The drive included lots of opportunities to pose for windswept photos on sand dunes: And a breathtaking “historic”… Read More The Pacific Coast Highway and an Antidote to SoCal Dryness: Sephora Rose Mask!
Damn it, Milani! You’ve done it again. Lured me in with the promise of a revolutionary makeup formula at an implausibly low price point, only to deliver mediocrity. Will I ever learn? (These containers remind me of portholes on a ship.) Look, Milani’s new Bella eyeshadow singles are perfectly decent. I’d give them a B… Read More La Vita è (Not Exactly) Bella: New Milani Eyeshadows in Bella Taupe and Bella Rouge
For a long time now, I’ve thought of myself as someone who takes risks with beauty. I know relatively few people who wear color makeup regularly, and even fewer who wear unconventional colors regularly. When you’re the only one in your group of friends who owns multiple purple lip colors, you start to feel smug… Read More Good Taste, Bad Taste, and the Fear of “Too Much”
Being a True and Compleat Account of a Recent Affair of Honour. Pistols at dawn, or swords, or concealer wands… I’ve had reddish-purple undereye circles since early childhood. Most of the time, I don’t even think about them. They’re not caused by diet choices or sleep habits, which means they’re not going anywhere; they’re as… Read More Pistols at Dawn: NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla vs. My Dark Circles
It’s Christmas in August! By which I mean, it’s been so gray and gloomy in San Francisco that wearing gold eyeliner and brick-red matte lipstick–together, even–seems perfectly appropriate in early August. These are both recent purchases: I bought the eyeliner at a CVS in New York and the lipstick at an Ulta in Birmingham. I… Read More NYX for Eyes and Lips: Slide On Pencil in Glitzy Gold and Matte Lipstick in Alabama
Names: Maybelline Color Sensational Vivid Lipstick in Vivid Rose (875) and Brazen Berry (905) Dates Purchased: May and June 2013 Grades: A, A- Notes: Since I don’t have all my lipsticks with me in San Francisco, I’m writing my Vivids reviews slightly out of chronological order. I bought one of my five Vivids, Fuchsia Flash,… Read More Lipstick Chronology #25: Maybelline Vivids, Pt. 1 (Vivid Rose and Brazen Berry)
Hello from South Florida! I took this photo yesterday evening, toward the end of a thunderstorm. It’s hard to adhere to a regular blogging schedule when your location changes every few days, but I couldn’t resist doing this meme from Liz at Beauty Reductionista. 1. Summer lipstick you’re loving? I’ve been enjoying sheer and semi-sheer… Read More The Summer Lovin’ Tag
Greetings from Birmingham, Alabama! I’ve been here for a few days to see my boyfriend, who is visiting his parents. This means, of course, that I’ve also been to Ulta. The company has no outposts near where I live, and I have yet to see one in San Francisco, where my parents live, so what… Read More AB Goes to Birmingham (and Ulta)
I got a haircut yesterday! My hair hasn’t touched my shoulders since 2007. In the past seven years, I’ve had long bobs, short bobs, longer-in-front bobs, pixie cuts, and whatever was happening on my head during senior year of college, when I couldn’t afford professional haircuts and had to take matters–and scissors–into my own hands.… Read More New Hair, and Some Notes on Growing Out a Pixie Cut
Auxiliary Beauty 