(Apologies to a show I’ve never actually watched. I’m told that I should!) I’ve noted before that the average British woman seems to get more excited about makeup than the average American woman does. I stand by my original conclusion: “In my experience, Americans pay more attention to the overall effect of their makeup, while… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 17: The Great British Swatch-Off
Back in November, I decided to participate in Project Make-a-Dent, the creation of Helen at Lola’s Secret Beauty Blog. Quite a few people on my blogroll have joined in this project, which aims to curb excessive consumption by forcing us to pay attention to the products we already own. The idea is to choose a… Read More Why I Failed to Make a Dent
Well, I guess that was an eight-day hiatus! It crept up on me, as such things do. First the weather was gloomy for days on end, so I couldn’t take decent photos. Then I took an overnight trip to visit a friend in another city. Then I spent a couple of days in DC for… Read More 2014 in Review, Part 1: My 14 Most Disappointing Beauty Purchases
We makeup fiends are a fickle bunch, hailing a product as a holy grail one week and forgetting about it the next. I slip in and out of lipstick infatuations as regularly as I once slipped in and out of professor crushes, but at least professor crushes are free. Lipstick is not, and right now,… Read More Project Make-a-Dent: Autumnal Lipstick Edition
I’m back in the land of decent coffee and 97% humidity! No, that figure isn’t an exaggeration. The summer humidity in this part of the Mid-Atlantic is out of control. Early June isn’t all that hot, but I can’t spend five minutes outside without feeling moisture pool in my scalp and eyebrows and the space… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 7: Rimmel ScandalEyes Eyeshadow Stick in Blamed Blue
I can’t believe how quickly these five weeks have passed, but today was my last full day in the UK. Though I still have several new products to review on the blog for my Beauty Abroad series, I thought I’d use this post for a brief roundup of all the makeup I’ve bought here. First,… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 6: The Reckoning
As a result of moving to San Francisco at the age of seven and feeling deprived of “real seasons” for the next decade, I’m very faithful to the idea of seasonal colors. So long as there’s snow on the ground, I’m going to cling to my burgundy lipsticks and plum nail polishes. And when I… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 4: Back to Burgundy with Sleek and Rimmel
Two weeks after I arrived in England, I finally set foot in the huge mall near my boyfriend’s apartment. It’s a ten-minute walk away, so I’m not sure what was holding me back except my congenital fear of spending money. I needn’t have worried, because I wandered for three and a half hours and still… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 3: Guerrilla Swatches from Topshop, Rimmel, and Illamasqua
Auxiliary Beauty 