Welcome to my first makeup review of 2019! Unfortunately, it’s a review of a sold-out limited-edition product, but I just had to show you all the pretty photos I took of it. I mean, I ventured out after a blizzard for this one: In the past few years, Western beauty brands have begun catering to… Read More MAC Lotus Light (Lucky Red Collection)
For the past few years, I’ve been performing two beauty-related rites of spring. The first rite involves destashing a bunch of lipsticks (more on that soon). The second rite consists of searching for a pinky-red coral lipstick and a lavender blush. Those searches usually end in failure, though for different reasons. There are thousands of… Read More ColourPop Spring 2018 Butterfly Collection, Part 1: Face Duo in Winging It
(Settle in. This will be a long post.) First, some personal news: I defended my doctoral dissertation earlier this month and now have a Ph.D. in English! At my university, the dissertation defense (our official term, hilariously, is “Final Public Oral”) is a pretty lowkey affair. It consists of a 30-minute presentation and another 30… Read More Pat McGrath Labs LuxeTrance Lipstick in Madame Greige
Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling particularly celebratory or patriotic this Independence Day, but I also wasn’t going to miss the chance to wear blue highlighter and metallic red lipstick at the same time. I thought I’d use this FOTD post to write a quick review of a product I bought back in November: ColourPop… Read More Reverse Lipstick Chronology #4: ColourPop Lippie Stix in Let’s Play
Glossier keeps coming up with new marketing strategies to put me off and new products to tempt me back in. No sooner had I planned a post on Glossier’s MLM-esque rep program than they released a fucking birthday-cake-scented lip balm with sparkles and holographic packaging. I have a price, and Glossier knows it. So this… Read More Glossier Birthday Balm Dotcom (Plus Another Rant)
I was eight for most of 1996, but I remember that year quite well. In fact, I remember it as an especially good year in my young life. My parents and I had moved to San Francisco the year before, back when an assistant teacher and a busker at Ghirardelli Square could afford a nice… Read More Reverse Lipstick Chronology #3: Urban Decay Roach
Lipstick Queen is a brand that confuses the hell out of me. When I first heard of it, about five years ago, I got the sense that it specialized in high-quality, beautifully packaged, somewhat overpriced renditions of traditional lipstick shades. Despite reading favorable reviews online, I found the shade range uninspiring and the price point… Read More Lipstick Queen Black Lace Rabbit: Just Another Gimmick?
This is, what, the third purple lip color I’ve reviewed in the last month? Oh, well. I don’t think it’s possible to be a lipstick-loving k-pop fan without developing a curiosity about Korean lip tints. I’d had my eye out for a tint since last year, but most of the tints available in the US… Read More Too Cool for School Milk Tint in Milky Lavender
By ordering Eugenie, a matte plum lipstick from the six-piece MAC x Giambattista Valli collection, I broke four of my cardinal makeup-buying rules: No limited-edition makeup, and especially no limited-edition products from MAC No makeup that I haven’t seen in person first No makeup that isn’t certified cruelty-free No near-dupes of anything I already have… Read More I Have a Plum Problem: MAC x Giambattista Valli Eugenie
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
Auxiliary Beauty 