Eleven and a half years have passed since I bought my first purple blush, Tony Moly Cristal Blusher in Milky Violet, at a Korean beauty store in Manhattan. From the vantage point of 2026, late 2014 might seem like a long-lost paradise, but was it really? Sure, I’d never heard the phrases “President Trump,” “novel… Read More Paragon of Purple: Fenty Cheeks Suede Powder Blush in Drama Cla$$
Last year, I bought 32 new pieces of makeup and nail polish, making 2025 my most abstemious (“abstemious”) year since I started keeping track of my beauty purchases in 2015. I generally aim for no more than 40 new items a year and exceed that mark by a few, but 2025 was different. I was… Read More My 12 Favorite Beauty Purchases of 2025
When I first got into makeup, in the early 2010s, blush was an afterthought in the Western beauty community. Everyone had a couple of blushes, generally a warm pink and a cool pink, but beauty bloggers often fretted about the prospect of looking tacky or clownish or old-ladyish (never mind the ageism and internalized misogyny… Read More The Great Blush Inventory of 2021
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
Auxiliary Beauty 