Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

In the last year, my local supermarket has begun stocking the latest OPI and Essie releases, which is both an incentive to go grocery shopping and a severe test of my willpower. I've been disenchanted with Essie for a while now, but OPI has impressed me over and over with the quality of its formula and the creativity of its shades. First Class Desires, whose bougie name cracks me up, is part of the 16-piece Holiday 2014 collection. The theme of this collection is rather mysterious. OPI reports that it's inspired by Gwen Stefani, but the shade names and colors are typically "holiday," and Stefani already lent her name to last year's holiday collection. Not that it really matters to me: I know almost nothing about Gwen Stefani except for that awkward Harajuku Girls phase in 2004. More important, from my magpie point of view, is that this polish is complex and sparkly and pretty much flawless. First Class Desires is a deep plum packed with gold microglitter. This p...

In the summer of last year, while browsing the venerable Bookshop in Chapel Hill, NC, I made a curious find. Published in 1996, long before "basic" became an insult, Cindy Crawford's Basic Face is a "makeup workbook" co-authored by Crawford, makeup artist Sonia Kashuk, and Kathleen Boyes. "What's a basic face? A five-minute confidence builder," the introduction explains. "It's how we all wish we looked when we woke up. Simple, finished--but not looking as though you tried too hard. The basic face appears natural. Other women may know you're wearing makeup, but guys probably won't. A basic face is like a white shirt or a black turtleneck. It's the best possible base you can have." I came to pop-cultural awareness circa 1999, a few years after the all-natural look had given way to futuristic iridescence. I have a theory that our greatest fear, makeup- and fashion-wise, is the era that immediately preceded our own preteen ye...

Or so I call it in my head, because I've been unable to find a clinical name for an extra fold in each eyelid. I'm talking about this: Internet research has yielded almost no information. The closest I've come is a forum devoted to botched eyelid surgery: apparently, people who get plastic surgery to turn their monolids into creased eyelids can end up with multiple folds. But I have yet to find a discussion of the extra fold as a congenital issue. Essentially, I have too much lid per eye, so the skin folds over on itself when my eyes are open. This creates deep creases that are especially visible when I'm wearing powder eyeshadow: Doing my eye makeup always means taking my extra lid folds into account. I have to wiggle my eyeshadow brush just so, or the powder won't make it into the creases. Any look involving a sharp, graphic shape is off the table. It's hard for me to experiment with new shapes and placements of shadow and liner, and I'm rarely satisfie...

I'm back! Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post: your kind words were much appreciated. I did what I needed to get done, and now I'm excited to return to blogging. I've missed it a lot! Missed it so much, in fact, that I kept a photographic record of all the makeup I wore during my hiatus. I had nowhere to be on a daily basis except the coffee shop closest to the library, where I chipped away at an application for a fellowship that I have a laughably small chance of winning. Somehow this made me treasure the ritual of putting on my makeup even more than I already had. I like these little reminders that I have an identity beyond my dissertation. In the last few weeks, I've entered a nesting phase with my makeup. My urge to haul waxes and wanes, and right now it's at a very low point. At the risk of sounding deranged, I want to get to know the products I have. I want to use them to their full potential. My wishlist is as long as ever, but far less urgen...