Fenty Beauty, like Rituel de Fille, is a brand that I started following years ago but didn’t get around to trying until 2020. I always liked Fenty’s bold, exuberant aesthetic, but the releases never seemed to line up with my makeup habits. Fenty’s flagship products were an impressively inclusive range of foundation (I don’t wear… Read More Fenty Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Blush in Strawberry Drip
(Part 1 here.) Coral was the trendy lipstick color when I first got into makeup around 2012, and I must have imprinted on that cultural moment, because I’ve been searching for a flattering coral lipstick ever since. So far, I’ve had the most luck with muted, brownish corals like Maybelline Naked Coral, which I bought… Read More ColourPop Butterfly Collection, Part 2: Lux Lipstick in Dream Easy and Super Shock Shadow in Ladybird
You know that feeling when you blind-buy a lipstick, hoping that your instincts are right and the shade will flatter you and fill a hole in your collection, and it turns out to do both of those things? That’s a nice feeling. It’s not a particularly interesting or bloggable feeling, which is perhaps the reason… Read More Maybelline Inti-Matte Nude Lipstick in Naked Coral
It’s the vernal equinox! It’s also the coldest day in about three weeks, and it’s snowing as I type this, just as it snowed on last year’s vernal equinox. But I still think the first day of spring is a fine day to review a bright coral lipstick, so meet my newest beauty purchase: Marc… Read More Coral Conundrum: Marc Jacobs So Sofia
In addition to the Ultra Matte Lip in Trap, I bought three cream products from ColourPop last month. After a few weeks of playing with them, I’m excited to finally write a review! I’ll start with an overview of each item, then post a few looks I’ve put together. Clockwise from left: Super Shock Cheek… Read More Pre-Spring Brights: ColourPop Eye Candy, Rain, and Shop
I’m an ocean away from the product I’m about to describe, writing through a haze of jet lag. Let’s see how this post turns out. For the longest time, I avoided any hint of orange in my face makeup. My desire for knowledge of colors and undertones turned into a harmful strictness, and I assumed… Read More La Vie En Corail: Milani Rose Powder Blush in Coral Cove
Before starting this post, I spent a long time five minutes trying to come up with a good simile for the operation of material desire online. The Internet engenders small cravings, then quickly magnifies those cravings until you can’t imagine a time when you didn’t want X nail polish or Y lipstick, even if you… Read More So Vernal It Hurts: Butter London Fruit Machine and Trout Pout
Since all but one of the nail polishes I wore in August were new to me, I thought I’d write up a month’s worth of mini-reviews! My first polish of August was Zoya Normani, which I bought at the Birmingham Ulta in July. The darkest shade in Zoya’s nude-based Naturel collection, Normani is a brown-gray-purple… Read More August in Nail Polish
Names: Milani Color Statement Lipstick in Flamingo Pose and Sweet Nectar Date Purchased: Spring 2013 Grade: B Notes: I wish I liked Milani more than I do. It’s one of the only cruelty-free American drugstore brands left, and I mean entirely cruelty-free: it hasn’t expanded into China or sold out to a larger company that… Read More Lipstick Chronology #23: Milani Flamingo Pose and Sweet Nectar
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
Auxiliary Beauty 