Sorry for the infrequent posting recently! No sooner had I recovered from jet lag and returned from my conference in York than I was felled by a bad cold. It’s now been six days; the fever is long gone, but the hacking cough and general malaise remain. We went to Oxford yesterday, my first time… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 2: Barry M Nail Paints in Sugar Apple and Shocking Pink
(Yes, I’ve been rewatching Arrested Development.) I bought theBalm’s Nude ‘Tude eyeshadow palette, a mostly cool-toned mix of neutrals, back in August 2012. It was my first eyeshadow palette, and still the only one I own. I’d spent all summer vacillating between Nude ‘Tude and Urban Decay’s recently released Naked 2, and I might never… Read More Not Quite Never-Nude: Experiments with theBalm’s Nude ‘Tude Palette (Part 1: Review and Swatches)
(Fewer words than usual because ugh, the jetlag, and because I need to finish my conference paper.) It turns out that my boyfriend lives half a block away from a Superdrug and a Boots. This will be bad, I thought, before discovering that this particular Boots has a limited beauty selection, while the Superdrug has… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 1: Sleek Blush in Life’s a Peach
The 18th-century novelist Samuel Richardson once described himself as a “poor pruner.” It amazes me that the author of a 1500-page novel could also be the king of understatement, but so it goes. (By the way, if you enjoy totally immersive, psychologically harrowing reading experiences, Clarissa is well worth your time.) I too am a… Read More What I Brought to England
I rely on drugstore beauty brands for colors I feel ambivalent about, which means that I’ve amassed quite a few orange and warm red lipsticks from Revlon, Milani, and Maybelline. And, surprise, I’m still ambivalent about oranges and warm reds on my complexion. Is this because they really don’t suit me, or because I never… Read More Mandarin Lips and Mannequin Hands
I came early to my calling (pedantry). In that spirit, I’m joining with another doctoral student, Sylirael of The Painted Rogue, for a collaboration post on makeup in graduate school! (Or, I suppose, a pair of collaboration posts: this is mine, and you can find hers here.) Despite our disciplinary divide–I’m in the humanities, she’s… Read More The Character of a Painted Woman: Makeup in Graduate School
Name: Maybelline Color Statement Lipstick in Ruby Star Date Purchased: February 2013 Grade: B Notes: Ruby Star was a gift from my mom, who included it in her annual Valentine’s package (aww). She thought she was sending me an unremarkable berry-red lipstick, not a berry-red lipstick with a raging case of disco fever. How wrong… Read More Lipstick Chronology #21: Maybelline Ruby Star
Yeah, you try coming up with a synonym for “nail polish” that begins with “S.” Also, please note that this post contains way too many photos. After an especially brutal winter, spring toyed with us for weeks and weeks before settling in. Throughout March and early April, we suffered through alternating two-day periods of “hmm,… Read More Seven Splendid Spring Shellacs (Plus a Topcoat)
(Three questions of balance, actually.) In my review of NARS Lhasa, I mentioned that I have several under-the-radar beauty staples, products I use so often I’ve stopped thinking about them. I thought I’d follow up on that post with a review of another product I use almost every day: NARS blush in Mata Hari, a… Read More A Question of Balance: NARS Mata Hari
Name: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Fire and Ice Date Purchased: December 2012 Grade: A Notes: I’d like to believe that Fire and Ice, released in 1953, was a tribute to Robert Frost’s 1920 poem of the same name: Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted… Read More Lipstick Chronology #20: Revlon Fire and Ice, a Red for the Apocalypse
Auxiliary Beauty 