Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

(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, then set it aside for months and eventually forget I own it. Perhaps my real aversion is to repurchasing makeup. Finishing a lipstick forces me to choose between the satisfaction of having a slightly smaller collection and the satisfaction of owning that particular shade. I can take pleasure in having reduced my lipstick count by one or I can repurchase the lipstick, but not both. I've discussed why I don't often set panning challenges for myself, but this is one situation in which such a challenge makes sense for me. There's no reason why I shouldn't be using up lipsticks I like: I have dozens of others, and removing a co...

In general, I don't trust beauty brands, religious sects, or political movements with extremely charismatic figureheads. The kind of person who attracts fanatical devotees tends to be the kind of person who wants fanatical devotees, who lives for adulation and drama , who needs to be the center of attention at all times — a narcissist, in other words. Once you've known one narcissist you've known them all, and you become wary of anyone who displays the symptoms of narcissism, whether it's Donald Trump, Jeffree Star, or that professor who gave a talk in my department last week and unbuttoned his shirt a few inches too far. Kat Von D is another charismatic figurehead who has always set off my narcissist detector. I've been hearing great things about her makeup for years, but I've also been hearing terrible things about her for years. (I don't feel like rehashing all her controversies here, though they're easy enough to find if you're interested.) Wha...

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 in here that will help you winter-proof your own face. Before we start, a few words about my skin type and current routine. My skin is on the dry side of normal, and it's not particularly sensitive: I don't get hives or rashes from products, though some sunscreens and masks have been known to break me out. My skin is also quite thin, especially around my eyes. I've had a few fine lines there for several years, though regular moisturizing seems to have diminished them, at least for now. I used to have semi-regular eczema flare-ups around my eyes and ears, but that hasn't happened for a few years. I reliably get a couple of small pimples every ...

Well, the impossible has happened. A racist, misogynist sociopath with nothing but contempt for the democratic process has been elevated by it to the most powerful office in the world. Hillary Clinton was not my ideal Democratic candidate, but I came to find her deeply inspiring over the course of this year's vicious, depressing campaign. And now millions of Americans have rejected her knowledge, experience, and tremendous ability for the whims of a con artist loyal only to himself. As a queer woman and someone who has endured sexual harassment from men in positions of power, I can't help but feel that Tuesday's election was a referendum on my humanity. And I'm not even one of the people threatened most by a Trump presidency; it's a sign of my privilege that I can still cling to optimism. I can only hope that this disaster will shake the Democratic Party out of its complacency and force it to listen to the progressive voices in its ranks. I can only hope tha...

After my disappointing experience with Lipstick Queen Black Lace Rabbit , I probably should have given up on finding my ideal sheer black lipstick. But I'm nothing if not perverse, so while I was in New York last month, I popped into the Upper West Side Sephora to do some fieldwork. The first sheer black I swatched was Turn Down ($22), one of the two "Lip Flip Shade Transformers" in Estée Lauder's new Estée Edit (for The Youth). The other "transformer" is a more unusual shade: Turn Up, a sheer yellow. Turn Down was much more pigmented than Black Lace Rabbit; it was also the only sheer black I found that wasn't extremely shiny. I wish I'd thought to swatch it over another lipstick, because I have a hard time imagining how it would "transform" a color without blotting it out or making it muddy. I also wish I'd taken a photo of the lovely metallic blue tube. My next quarry was Urban Decay Oil Slick, part of the Vintage Vice collection rel...

It turns out that I have time for one more post before I head to New York tomorrow! A lot of new products entered my life in October, and though some of them were gifts, some were...definitely not. It's not exactly shocking that I bought more stuff than usual last month. October tends to be hard for me mental-health-wise, and I was applying for jobs for the second year in a row, and I couldn't help but keep up with upsetting election bullshit . And my neighbors' cat, whom I'd known for three years, died two weeks ago. Mr. B was the sweetest, friendliest cat I've ever met, and he used to come over so often that I almost thought of him as my cat . So October was a stressful month, and I'm not going to beat myself up for going a little over budget, though I will make some new resolutions at the end of this post. After all, I have more stressful months ahead of me, and the whole point of this low-buy is to learn how to manage stress without spending impulsively or ...