Since the spring semester is almost over, I thought I’d publish a quick update to the post I made six months ago. I still take about five minutes to do my makeup before classes, but as the weather has warmed up, I’ve gravitated toward different colors and textures while remaining in my cool-toned comfort zone.… Read More My Five-Minute Teaching Face, Spring 2023
I’m now two months into the fall semester, which has been an especially busy one. My mantra for this year is “the perfect is the enemy of the good,” and that extends to makeup. (Ironically, it doesn’t extend to this post, which I’ve been tweaking for over a month now.) I’ve had to perfect a… Read More My Five-Minute Teaching Face, Fall 2022
(You have to read “faked” with two syllables, as if this is a Donne poem, or the title won’t make sense.) In the past two days, swatches and reviews of Urban Decay’s new Naked Heat palette have been making the social-media rounds. (Here’s a sneak peek from Temptalia and a review from Makeup and Beauty… Read More FOTD: Faked Heat
Happy Easter! Full disclosure: I’m one of those secular assholes who welcome the Easter season not for its religious significance but for the positively pagan abundance of egg-shaped chocolate. Growing up half-Jewish, I couldn’t help noticing the difference in quality between Easter candy and kosher-for-Passover candy, which consisted (and still consists) primarily of coconut-covered marshmallows… Read More FOTD: Cyborg Easter Bunny ft. NYX Twilight Tint
The annual Academic Job Conference of Doom fast approaches (this is my second year preparing for it), and yesterday I had a dress-rehearsal practice interview with my advisor and another professor. This gave me an opportunity to test my interview makeup as well as my answers to questions like “But Machiavelli and Polydore Vergil are… Read More FOTD: Game Face
My tastes in makeup have shifted recently. I’ve noticed myself gravitating toward different colors, textures, and undertones, and caring less about “seasonal” makeup. Spring was so cold and dreary this year that I didn’t feel like making my usual switch to coral and pink tones. But even now, with the hot, swampy Mid-Atlantic summer in… Read More FOTD: #SummerGoth
UM, HI. A lot has happened since I last posted. I’m still stunned and depressed at Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. It was surreal to watch the whole thing unfold around me, and painful to have no way of affecting the outcome. It’s not my nation or my fight, but I’m still heartbroken… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 18: Ancient and Modern Beauty in London
You know those products that never quite make it onto your wishlist but inspire a low-key lust for several months? So it is with me and NARS Hammamet, a limited-edition eyeshadow duo for Spring 2016. Hammamet, named after a Tunisian resort town, comprises a light matte peachy beige and the prettiest metallic rosy copper. That’s… Read More FOTD: Who Needs Hammamet?
October has always been my favorite month. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, my love of seasonal makeup has a lot to do with my upbringing. My parents and I lived in Cambridge, MA, until I was seven, when we moved to San Francisco. I spent the next ten years pining for “real seasons,” especially… Read More FOTD: Autumn Leaves
In the last month or so, I’ve been pondering the future of this blog. I started Auxiliary Beauty halfway through my fourth year of my PhD program, at a moment when I felt like I might actually be in graduate school forever. I had written one chapter of my dissertation, but the end was nowhere… Read More FOTD: Professionalesque
Auxiliary Beauty 