(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
Packing makeup for a month away isn’t an exercise in minimalism unless you choose to make it one, which (surprise) I didn’t. But I did have to limit myself somewhat in what I brought to the UK, so perhaps my not-quite-capsule collection will be of interest to others. I’m proud to report that my entire… Read More What I Brought for a Month in England
Hello from the UK! I’ve spent the last two days recovering from jet lag, with the help of some delicious scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and herbs (imagine me pronouncing the H): Overview: This roundup is going to be brief, because I bought almost no new makeup in May. After several months on this low-buy,… Read More Low-Buy Progress Report #5: May
I went to Boston for a Renaissance-studies conference on Wednesday and just got home last night, so my monthly roundup post is a bit late. I was born in Boston and lived there until I was almost eight, and I’ve returned periodically since then, but the city still feels foreign—the more foreign for being slightly… Read More Low-Buy Progress Report #3: March
I’m back, bitches! I have to submit a few more job and postdoc applications later this month, but most were due either Oct. 15 or Nov. 1, so I’ll be able to resume a regular blogging schedule in the weeks to come. I can’t properly articulate how good it feels to be done! (Well, sort… Read More Birthday Frolics, the Cloisters, and NYC Beauty Shopping
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)
Greetings from a cramped hotel room on Manhattan’s Upper West Side! This endearingly unhip neighborhood is special to me because of the time I spent in a history program at Columbia in the summer before my junior year of college. It was my first experience of New York as an adult (if nineteen counts), and… Read More A Journey Through Purge-atory, Part 2: Eyeshadows and One More Lipstick
I like buying makeup to commemorate happy occasions. Lipsticks and nail polishes and eyeshadows function as little pins that secure my memories to the material world. That’s why I started my Lipstick Chronology (which reminds me, I haven’t added to the chronology since March). And that’s why, when I learned two weeks ago that my… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 16: Topshop Rio Rio and London Beauty Shopping
Many thanks to everyone who gave me Canadian beauty advice! As it turned out, I bought three beauty items in Toronto, none of them from a Canadian company: an American Apparel nail polish, a Face Shop sheet mask, and an Inglot custom eyeshadow duo. I almost never wear glitter topcoats, but I made a (possibly… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 14: Notes from Toronto
I have a very specific packaging fetish: I like things in small round tins. But really, could you resist this particular tin? Vaseline Lip Therapy in Rosy Lips is only the latest in a series of Tins I Have Loved. My first makeup products, when I was a young teenager, were Perfumeria Gal redcurrant and… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 10: Vaseline Lip Therapy in Rosy Lips
Auxiliary Beauty 