So I have some big news! No, the Museum does not have a physical space, but this is almost as good. You might remember I've had a long-time love affair with Mexican brand Pai Pai, but was dismayed at the inability to obtain their lipsticks in the U.S. Well, the makeup gods smiled upon me, for Pai Pai has revamped their website and international shipping is now only 20 Mexican pesos (roughly $1.12 U.S. dollars). It was a veritable Christmas in July miracle! Naturally I bought plenty of goodies. Welcome to the Makeup Museum's collection, Pai Pai!
I thought I'd start with the most recent collab and work my way back. For those of you not familiar with Pai Pai, the company has the genius idea to work with a different Mexican artist each season to create limited edition lipstick packaging that celebrates the country's heritage. The newest partnership is with 24 year-old, Mexico City-based Jorge Serrano. I couldn't find anything about what inspired the prints for his collection, as the Pai Pai blog seems to have disappeared in the website redesign, and the cached version only provided a general description of his style. I've been following him on Instagram (he has such a great feed – lots of color and uplifting quotes rendered in his beautiful calligraphy) and was thinking about requesting an interview, but I'm not 100% sure he's fluent in English and my Spanish is so atrocious at this point I couldn't ask him anything. So while I don't have any real information, I must say that I am positively in love with the vibrant, tropical lusciousness of this collection. As I lamented in the notes for the summer 2017 exhibition, I was so sad not to be able to buy Serrano's designs since they would have been perfect for the fruity theme, but I'm glad they're in my hot little hands now. That's all that matters. 🙂
I love all the designs but these 2 are my favorites – pineapples galore and that bird is just too cute.
Serrano has dabbled in these motifs before. Some examples from 2015 and 2014:
Thematically speaking, his work reminds me a little bit of I Scream Colour's – pop culture icons and mermaids abound.
These two were for Nylon Espanol.
(images from @soyserrano)
Overall, Serrano is yet another artist whose work I have recently fallen in love with. 🙂
Next up, released a little further back in the spring was a collection by Poni Lab, a design company run by sisters Minerva and Denisse Mendoza. These illustrations are also a ton of fun! I love pineapple anything, as you know, but I think my favorite was the reverse mermaid…who's wearing lipstick. Not only is it adorable, it was also inspired by Rene Magritte's 1934 work The Collective Invention (and/or possibly this one.) So bonus points for a really cool art history reference!
I had no idea these were Dr. Who/Back to the Future motifs until I actually had them in my hands. Looking online I just thought they were cute little prints, but then when I took a closer look I realized they were very specific references (which I've linked for those of you not familiar). As I did with one of Paul & Joe's recent lipstick cases, I thought I'd show the details because they are simply too clever not to. Let's see, we have a Weeping Angel (these are one of the creepier monsters from Dr. Who), Nikes on a hoverboard and puffy red vest worn by Marty McFly, complete with Doc's "Great Scott!" exclamation (Back to the Future), and then the Tardis and a Dalek from Dr. Who. The car with "where we're going we don't need roads", which you can see in the pictures above, is from Back to the Future.
Alas, the other ones in this collection had already sold out, but they were overwhelmingly cute as well. A literal sweet tooth, some Warhol-esque bananas, a print full of friendly dinosaurs, rainbows and cookies all transported me to my happy place. I mean, you can't be sad when looking at these, right?
As with Serrano I couldn't find a ton of information on what inspired Poni Lab and wasn't sure about their English fluency, but looking at their Instagram feed, it seems most of the the Pai Pai collection consisted of previously created patterns – it looks like only one was made specifically for Pai Pai, and that was also based on a previous design.
Nevertheless, I'm smitten with their style. It's very nostalgic and playful, with lots of cartoony animals and cheerful anthropomorphic beings, and filled with some of my favorite motifs (pineapples and sweets). And tons of unicorns, but also a few mermaids here and there. 😉
I don't want kids but if I did, I'd buy this mer-kitty (or as Poni Lab calls them, "purr-maids"!) stuff in a heartbeat.
(images from @ponilab)
Finally, we have Talia Cu's amazing Frida Kahlo-inspired collection. I've already discussed it so I won't re-hash it, but I must mention that these were actually sent to me for free by Pai Pai! Talia spotted my blog post and contacted me on Instagram, saying she felt bad that I couldn't get my hands on them. So she reached out to one of Pai Pai's founders on my behalf and told them all about the Museum, and they ended up sending these to me completely free. It's the first time in 9 years of blogging that I've ever gotten anything for free from a makeup company!! So a huge thanks to Talia and Pai Pai for their kindness and generosity.
I'm thrilled I was able to get all of these for the Museum, as they're all quite worthy additions. I can't wait to see what the next collection is, as it's being teased on Instagram and the suspense is killing me…I think I might spy a pug design?!
What do you think? Any favorites?