Believe it or not, I don’t just acquire new lipsticks; I also use up old ones. However, finishing a lipstick is a rare enough occurrence for me that when it does happen, I feel the need to brag about it on at least one online platform. And when I finish three in a short period… Read More Three Recent Lipstick Empties
In my search for maskproof lipstick last fall, I neglected an entire product category: lip tints from Asian brands. It’s not that I was unaware they existed, or that I didn’t like them—I enjoyed the Too Cool for School tint I bought five and a half years ago. It’s just that I generally feel about… Read More In Search of Maskproof Lipstick, Part 4: Etude House Dear Darling Tints in PK004 (Red Bean Red) and RD306 (Shark Red)
Throughout my life, I’ve found that odd-numbered years bring me more change than even-numbered ones, and 2021 was no exception to that rule, for both better and worse. However, one aspect of my life remained the same: I bought a lot of new beauty items, especially makeup. In fact, I bought more new items in… Read More My 12 Favorite Beauty Purchases of 2021
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
Greetings from San Francisco! My last apartment lease ended on June 20 and my new one doesn’t start until August 1, so I’m bouncing around the country until then, which means limited time for photographing and writing about beauty products. My boyfriend and I took a road trip to his parents’ house in Alabama and… Read More My New Moisturizing Duo
Welcome to my annual roundup of my 15 favorite new-to-me beauty products of the past year! (Here are my lists for 2016, 2015, and 2014.) My 2017 can be summed up in this viral tumblr post: Because I had so little time for blogging in the second half of 2017, this post will double as… Read More My 15 Favorite Beauty Products of 2017
As you probably know by now, I am k-pop girl-group trash. I watch a lot of k-pop videos, which means that I encounter a lot of k-beauty. Sometimes I resolve to devote an entire post to the makeup in one music video, only to find an even better look in another video three days later.… Read More K-Pop Beauty Inspiration, Spring 2017
Well, we somehow got through January, even if we spent the last third of the month refreshing various news sites in growing horror. And now it’s time for my first low-buy progress report of 2017! A reminder of the low-buy goals I’ve set myself this year: No more than two makeup products per month, excluding… Read More Low-Buy 2017 Progress Report: January
My archives tell me that I haven’t written a comprehensive skincare post since February 2015 (!), and a lot has changed since then. When better to post my updated routine than on the coldest day of fall so far? Though I don’t really alter my skincare regimen from season to season, perhaps you’ll find something… Read More Skincare Routine, Fall 2016
I’ve spent the past two weeks in dissertation jail, bouncing between several of San Francisco’s fine coffee shops while completing an extensive rewrite of my chapter on Thomas Hobbes. With the help of massive doses of caffeine, sugar, and k-pop (I’m good, I’m hot, I’m fresh, I’m fly!), I wrapped up the damned thing yesterday… Read More Beauty Shopping in San Francisco’s Japantown
Auxiliary Beauty 