Beauty and Culture
Category
Beauty and Culture
Beauty Archetypes: Witches
What is it about Witches? We can't get enough of them. For women they speak to our fantasies of glamour and power, even as...
Beauty and Culture
Mirrors – A Short History
"Man wishes to see himself because he is vain, and he's afraid to see himself since, being vain, he cannot tolerate the sight of...
Beauty and Culture
Makeup as Ritual: Man as Art
We in the beauty business like to think of ourselves as modern - we try the newest products, seek the latest tricks, and read...
Beauty and Culture
Could Wearing Makeup Make You Better at Everything?
When I tell a "serious-minded" person about my business, there's an automatic assumption - often stated - that my job involves making stupid people...
Beauty and Culture
Is Photoshop an Enemy of Feminism?
There's been a lot of press coverage of Seventeen Magazine's "body peace treaty" lately, and I've been getting questions about it myself. What do...
Beautiful People
Makeup as Performance: Cindy Sherman
Do we create our own identities, or are they created for us? In the age of seemingly infinite aesthetic choices (including surgery), are our...
Beauty and Culture
Who’s Afraid of Wrinkles?
Recently I met a Celebrity Dermatologist who gave me quite a lecture on exfoliation, and how I should do more of it. This isn't...
Beauty and Culture
Inside Beauty: 7 Reasons Why Models are so Skinny
As a makeup artist, I get a lot of questions about models from my non-industry friends. And most of these have to do with...
Beautiful People
Makeup as Ritual: The Sadhus of Nepal
Living in the Western world, it's easy to take our participation with cosmetics for granted. Whether we use makeup to smooth and conceal, or...
Beauty and Culture
Medieval Mean Girls: Vanity as Morality (or Lack Thereof)
Vanity gets a bad rap in popular folklore: from Cinderella to The Devil Wears Prada, the bad girls are usually the vain, superficial, and...
My Writing
Beauty Archetypes: Tattooed Ladies, Part Two
When we look at Tattooed Ladies, we often think of them in the context of individuality, self-expression, and self-ownership. And in the United States,...
Vanities: Art of the Dressing Table
Let's face it: we humans love to dress up. Long before we were using metal tools, we were painting our faces and bodies, combing...
Is Your Makeup Killing You? Decoding Cosmetic Scare Stories
You've seen the stories: There's Lead in Your Lipstick! Pthalates in Your Shampoo! Parabens in Everything! Our cosmetics are awash in toxic chemicals, or so...