SPRING BREAK WOOOO …oh, right. The weather may suggest otherwise, but I’m now on spring break. That doesn’t mean very much in ABD world, since I should technically spend every waking hour chipping away at my dissertation, but I’m still planning to use my extra free time (or the illusion thereof) to write some reviews… Read More Reverse Lipstick Chronology #1: MAC Whirl
Because it’s year-end-roundup season until January 31, damn it. I’m back online, so it’s time to present my favorite new-to-me beauty products of 2016! As always, I’ve listed these items in the order in which I bought them. I listed 14 favorites in 2014 and 15 in 2015, but 16 seemed excessive somehow, so I… Read More My 15 Favorite Beauty Products of 2016
I don’t know about you, but I find it much easier to destash makeup when I’m in a foul mood. The angrier I feel at the world, the more readily I can accept that a certain lipstick will never work for me and doesn’t deserve a place on my shelf. In that spirit, I’m removing… Read More First Lipstick Inventory and Destash of 2017
(Not a panning project focused on minis: that would be a “mini-panning project.” But now I want to do a “mini mini-panning project”…) Despite my enjoyment of other bloggers’ empties posts, I have a strange aversion to finishing my own lipsticks. I’ll use a lipstick until there are just a few millimeters of product left,… Read More Mini Panning Project
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
Now that a new semester is in full swing, I thought it would be fun to do a roundup of my favorite lipsticks to wear while teaching. Here are the basic criteria I have for a Teaching Lipstick: not too bright—no fuchsias, flaming reds, or white-based candy pinks not too dark—no blackened browns or gothtastic… Read More My Favorite Teaching Lipsticks
Yesterday looked like this… (yes, I wore Cherries in the Snow in the snow) …so I think it’s a good time for another winter story: Like many girls, I grew up reading Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series. One of the most memorable chapters in the first book, “Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves,”… Read More AB Insists on Antique Velvet
We’re almost a week into August, but do you really care? I don’t. 1. MAC Candy Yum-Yum I’ve had this lipstick for two years and I’m still not sure if it flatters me. How is that possible? I don’t even know. I can never predict how I’ll feel about it when I put it on:… Read More July Favorites (Beauty and Otherwise)
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
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)
Auxiliary Beauty 