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
Today marks the end of my two-month beauty no-buy. The terms of the arrangement were fairly lenient: I was allowed to replace skincare, haircare, and “boring” products like mascara and concealer, and I could accept (and request) gifts, but I couldn’t buy any new makeup or nail polish. I’m proud to say that I never… Read More No-Buy Reflections and 2016 Beauty Resolutions
When I first declared my no-buy three weeks ago, I predicted that my willpower would be tested severely. Instead, I immediately felt a sense of unaccustomed freedom. I’d grown used to thinking of my beauty purchases as stress relievers, but I hadn’t considered that they might actually be a source of stress. Every new purchase… Read More Thanksgiving Medley: No-Buy Update and 2016 Wishlist
I don’t wear much red lipstick. Is that a strange admission for a lipstick addict to make? Red is the iconic lip color, the color that we all think of when we hear the word “lipstick,” yet it’s rare that I reach for a true red: I prefer my reds sheer or burnt or plummy.… Read More Stress-Fueled Impulse Purchase #4: Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in 69
“Look, you stupid bastard, you’ve got no arms left!” If you frequent the company of middle-aged male professors who specialize in Renaissance history or literature, chances are good you’ll hear a lot of Monty Python references. A few years ago, after too much time spent laughing politely at allusions that went over my head, I… Read More Unholy Grails
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
Welcome to another installment of my not-actually-monthly compilation of monthly favorites! Some bloggers use favorites posts to spotlight new purchases, but I prefer to feature older favorites as well as non-makeup discoveries. Let’s begin with my main makeup fixation in June: 1. Purple Lipstick Purple has been my favorite lip color since I started wearing… Read More June Favorites (Beauty and Otherwise)
Now that exactly half of 2015 is behind us, I thought it might be interesting to revisit the beauty resolutions I made at the end of last year and see how many I managed to keep in the last six months. I can’t actually remember all of them off the top of my head, which… Read More So, How About Those New Year’s Resolutions?
Just call me Virgil. To save some money in the coming school year, I’m moving at the end of the summer into a two-bedroom duplex apartment. As moves go, this one will be almost comically easy, since my new building is next door to my current one. But I’ll be sharing the apartment with a… Read More A Journey Through Purge-atory, Part 1: Lipsticks and Glosses
I made my stage debut at the age of eight, in my elementary school’s production of The Phantom Tollbooth. I had two roles: the Spelling Bee (marred by a wardrobe malfunction: part of my headband fell off and I pouted for the rest of the scene) and the Senses Taker. For the second role, I… Read More Eight Beauty Products I Didn’t Buy in the Last Six Months
Auxiliary Beauty 