Plus links from…oh, the past 6 months. It's been a while.
– Signing up for this online makeup history course at the Victoria and Albert Museum as soon as it's open to the general public! Also hoping they hire me to teach a session should they provide another course. 😉
– Here's the latest on ugly makeup and "unsexy" beauty trends. Speaking of which, where does aging fit in the context of beauty? Spoiler: it doesn't.
– Saddened to hear of the death of the print edition of my favorite magazine. Along with the Stila girls, Allure magazine led to my obsession with makeup.
– Instagram trends are also dead, replaced by Tiktok ones. Recent popular looks include cold girl makeup and crying makeup.
– Amid speculation that the beauty influencer bubble has burst, could mascaragate be the final nail in the coffin?
– In case you were wondering, here's what it looks like to be covered in 30,000 crystals. (Courtesy of Dame Pat McGrath.)
– The Museum's Creative Director (a.k.a. the husband) gifted the Museum some proper archival storage. In their new container, I think these powder boxes look almost as pretty as they do out on display.
The random:
– The Digital Museum of Dress Accessories (DMDA) has given me so many ideas for the Makeup Museum. Plus, their gallery on beauty patches is fabulous, and I can't wait to see the one for compacts (on which I hope to partner with them!)
– In other museum news, I am not a fan of the recent trend of activists throwing food on works of art and no, it doesn't matter if they're behind glass. All it accomplishes is making things miserable for security, housekeeping and conservation staff. Perhaps a more productive method would be protesting the for-profit companies that are largely responsible for climate change rather than museums, i.e. organizations that are actually trying to do some good.
– '90s/Y2K nostalgia: finally got around to watching the second season of Vice's Dark Side of the '90s, along with documentaries on Woodstock '99 and Von Dutch. It was also the 25th anniversary of Lilith Fair.
– It happened a while ago, but I'm still heartbroken that my favorite duo split up. One half twisted the knife further by moving to L.A.
– But I guess maybe that's balanced out by one of my favorite bands reuniting and stopping in Baltimore on their tour! I honestly thought I'd never see them again.
What's new with you? Catch me up in the comments!