Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

Sorry for the infrequent posting recently! No sooner had I recovered from jet lag and returned from my conference in York than I was felled by a bad cold. It's now been six days; the fever is long gone, but the hacking cough and general malaise remain. We went to Oxford yesterday, my first time back since I finished my study-abroad year in 2008, and though it was a glorious sunny day of cathedral-climbing and ice cream and Pimm's, I exerted myself more than I should have. And now I have to write another conference paper by next Saturday, which is plenty of time but would feel less daunting if I were less sick. Excuses, excuses. Let's talk about nail polish. I mentioned that I'd bought two Barry M nail polishes: Sugar Apple, a bright pastel aqua, and Shocking Pink, a fuchsia that always photographs too warm, despite my best efforts. I trust I don't have to tell you which is which: The first one I tested was Sugar Apple, new this spring. I'm 99% sure that Sugar ...

This month I took an important step toward beauty-blogging legitimacy and bought my first NARS eyeshadow duo: Habanera, an unexpected pairing of mint and plum. I wouldn't mind that pairing in a cocktail, either; I'm sure I could find artisanal plum bitters somewhere in Brooklyn. Habanera is part of the NARS permanent collection. Its name is the female demonym for a person from Havana, and has nothing to do with hot peppers. Despite my intensive Googling, I'm not sure when Habanera was released, though the earliest review I could find was from 2008. Of course, that doesn't tell us much, as there weren't many makeup blogs before 2008! Suffice to say that this duo has been around for a while, though it is very new and exciting to me. Cue Le Tigre: My infatuation with Habanera is proof that no matter how many swatches you view online, there's no substitute for walking into Sephora with an open mind. I mentioned in my recent wishlist post that when I first started...