Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

I just finished The Scar , the second book in China Miéville's Bas-Lag trilogy, which takes place in and around the diverse, sprawling, corrupt city of New Crobuzon. I love fiction about cities —not just set in them, but about them —and Miéville clearly shares my passion. The Scar centers on the linguist Bellis Coldwine, ex-girlfriend of the protagonist of the first Bas-Lag novel, Perdido Street Station . Fearing that New Crobuzon's militia will arrest her for knowing too much about the catastrophic events of Perdido Street Station (though in fact she knows nothing), Bellis flees the city for one of its far-flung colonies. But her ship is captured and taken to Armada, a floating pirate city built entirely on boats and ruled by a vampire, a pair of sadomasochistic lovers, a council of women with scarabs for heads, et al. So much is contained in that "et al": Miéville has an astonishingly fertile imagination, and while that occasionally works against him in Perdido ...

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...