Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

As you probably know by now, I am k-pop girl-group trash. I watch a lot of k-pop videos, which means that I encounter a lot of k-beauty. Sometimes I resolve to devote an entire post to the makeup in one music video, only to find an even better look in another video three days later. If I go on like this much longer, I'll have a yearlong backlog, so let this post be my official trend report for spring 2017. I've isolated three trends from a range of videos, and since they're all more or less wearable, I hope you get some spring inspiration from this post! Trend #1: Hazy Peachy Eyes This is a much softer version of the warm smoky eye that still dominates Western Insta-beauty. In most iterations of this look, one or two light peachy shades are blown out all over the lid and the lower lashline, with a thin brown or black liner on the upper lashline. Sometimes the peach or orange accents are concentrated on the outer corners of the eyes, with a more neutral shadow on the rest o...

You know that feeling when you blind-buy a lipstick, hoping that your instincts are right and the shade will flatter you and fill a hole in your collection, and it turns out to do both of those things? That's a nice feeling. It's not a particularly interesting or bloggable feeling, which is perhaps the reason I keep putting off this post. But it's the feeling I get from Naked Coral, one of the ten shades in Maybelline's new Inti-Matte Nudes line. Coral! My sin, my soul, my most problematic lipstick shade. To the best of my knowledge, I have  dark winter  coloring with a slight olive undertone that leans gray instead of green. This means that I can wear almost any cool, saturated color, but corals and oranges will always present a challenge. The problem is, I love  corals and oranges, whether in vintage illustrations... Earl Christy for American m agazine, May 1923 ( source ). ...or modern editorials featuring k-pop stars (same color scheme, oddly): Hani of EXID for 1st...

Happy Easter! Full disclosure: I'm one of those secular assholes who welcome the Easter season not for its religious significance but for the positively pagan abundance of egg-shaped chocolate. Growing up half-Jewish, I couldn't help noticing the difference in quality between Easter candy and kosher-for-Passover candy, which consisted (and still consists) primarily of coconut-covered marshmallows and those sinister  jelly fruit slices . The marshmallows weren't bad, but they couldn't hold a candle to malted-milk eggs and Cadbury's Creme Eggs and Reese's Eggs. Come to think of it, have I ever encountered an egg-shaped candy I didn't like? There must be some deep primal significance to ovoid treats. All this is to say that I really enjoy the symbolism of Easter, to say nothing of its color scheme. Most pastels pull out the gray undertones in my skin and make me look slightly zombified, but I still give them an ill-deserved chance every March and April. This p...

I'm back with some makeup and some thoughts! New Makeup: L-R: Whirl, Metal Head, Men Love Mystery, Puff, Otherworldly. Swatches, same order. Glossier Cloud Paint in Puff : $14.40 (20% off) MAC Matte Lipstick in Men Love Mystery: $15 (15% off, plus tax) MAC Metallic Lipstick in Metal Head: purchased with Nordstrom store credit (usually $18) MAC Matte Lipstick in Whirl (mini): gift from Renee Topshop Glow Stick in Otherworldly: gift from my boyfriend Total: $29.40 I acquired five new pieces of makeup last month. Technically, I bought  only two of those, but I'm not letting myself off so easy. I could have spent that store credit on something else, and I didn't have to ask my boyfriend to bring me a highlighter from the UK. A product for which I don't exchange real money takes up just as much space in my collection as a product for which I actually swipe my card or hand over cash. I'm pretty pleased with all of my new playthings, at least. Reviews to come! Here I am w...

Earlier today, while scrolling through Facebook and minding my own business (well, other people's business, if we're getting technical), I came upon this Ulta ad: Okay. Okay . LET'S UNPACK THIS, as we say in the lit-crit biz. In one sense, this is your typical "#yolo buy all the things" message. I received a similar message from a Sinful Colors polish I saw today at Wegmans (aka heaven on earth if you like awesome deals on booze and lipstick): https://www.reddit.com/r/FellowKids/ But there's something a bit more sinister about the Ulta ad. "Life is short." Meaning what? "We want to keep you alive only until you buy this NYX loose pigment"? I picture someone pacing the Ulta aisles, grappling with a problem that has preoccupied philosophers for millennia: the inevitability of death and the concomitant difficulty of living a fulfilled and virtuous life in the shadow of mortality. Who knows when our end will come? Should we seek momentary plea...