FOTD: A Discourse of Auxiliary Beauty, or Artificial Handsomeness

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

Lipstick Chronology #27: Back to 1996 with Cindy Crawford’s Basic Face

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