This was a nice little surprise for spring – a collaboration between high-end French shoe designer Pierre Hardy and NARS. In my shoe-buying fantasies I'm more of a Louboutin/Prada girl, but I do appreciate the architectural, geometric quality of Hardy's work (more on that later).
The collection consists of 6 nail polish duos and two blushes. I picked up the duo in Sharks because of the beautiful lemon yellow. I actually would not have bought it though if it hadn't been for the very clever packaging.
Once I saw that the nail polishes were arranged on opposite ends and that they came with their own tiny dust bag (just like shoes!), I was smitten.
I was too lazy to swatch these but you can find swatches here.
Here are the two blushes in Boys Don't Cry and Rotonde:
So what's up with the 3D cube pattern? Simply put, this cube motif has become Hardy's signature in both his fall 2012 and spring 2013 collections. From the landing page at his website…
I'm still on the fence about the blushes. On the one hand, I like that NARS didn't go too literal and just put the cube pattern on the blush rather than embossing one of Hardy's actual pieces, like a shoe or a bag on it. On the other hand, that might have been pretty cool! The cube pattern is great, but by itself on a blush there's nothing that denotes it as being distinctly Pierre Hardy.
In any case, I was extremely impressed by how the colors in NARS collection so closely aligned with those in Hardy's spring 2013 lineup. The blush colors are similar to these bags:
The lavender and lemon yellow from the Sharks duo is borrowed from several pairs of shoes, including the ones in the promo image:
All in all, a well-done capsule collection. Did you pick up anything from it?
I loved the old-timey quality of Paul & Joe's Carousel collection description. "Join Paul & Joe on 'Carousel' – a thrill ride of fashion that spins beauty, whimsy and enchantment into a revolution of style! You'll be dizzy with delight, when you discover the whirling, twirling assortment of textures and tones that beguile with childhood innocence – and tempt with grown-up sophistication! 'Carousel' spring 2013 – it's a ride you will remember!" The text definitely makes me think of my childhood vacations at the beach. The only place I've ever seen a carousel is a boardwalk, so the association between carousels and the shore is very strong for me – reading this text I can practically smell the caramel popcorn and salty ocean air.
Anyway, onto some pics of this delightfully nostalgic collection!
The collection features three eye color powders in predictably adorable prints.
Here's Calliope (082):
Montmartre (083):
La Belle Epoque (084):
There's also a pressed powder.
The elaborate puff and insert lend a cushy feel.
The powder itself consists of pink, green and gold swirls reminiscent of cotton candy.
Finally, three new lipstick cases were introduced for the collection.
I purchased two of the lipstick refills. Even the refill carton is extravagantly detailed.
Merry-Go-Round on the left, Manège on the right:
Merry-Go-Round:
Manège:
Now it's time to play one of the Curator's favorite games – seeing if the prints in the cosmetic collection appeared in Paul & Joe's seasonal fashions. And yes, we have a winner! The cat print from one of the eye shadows and the face powder is borrowed from several clothing items, including a dress and top.
Paul & Joe once again delivers a solid collection, hitting all their hallmarks – an extradordinary amount of detail in every piece of packaging, a design that perfectly expresses the collection's theme, and a variety of cute prints, including ones made just for the makeup collection but also one that ties into the seasonal fashion lineup.
Did you buy anything from Carousel?
In case you haven’t had your fill of desserts from the Sweet Tooth exhibition, I’m bringing you more sweet treats courtesy of MAC’s Baking Beauties collection. I picked up the two Pearlmatte face powders: In For A Treat and Pink Buttercream, which feature delicate, frosting-like floral designs. And for your viewing pleasure I put them on this positively adorable macaron wrapping paper from Paper Source.
Pink Buttercream:
I also love the promo image with its abundance of beautifully decorated cakes and a plate of macarons – the model is purely secondary to them! Incidentally, I think the green plate on the lower right is the same one I used to hold the Ladurée trio in the Sweet Tooth exhibition.
I can’t look at cake displays without immediately thinking of Wayne Thiebaud’s famous cake paintings, which he painted from memories of his work in restaurants rather than actual displays. Cakes (1963), Cake Window: Seven Cakes(ca. 1970-1976), and Cakes and Pies(1994-1995) are among my favorites.
In my opinion, his work is very appealing because it conveys nostalgia and is completely unpretentious. An article by Cathleen McGuigan for the Smithsonian hits the nail on the head in describing what is so enjoyable about Thiebaud’s cakes, and I think it could be applied to his other subjects as well (lipsticks, hot dogs, gumball machines, just to name a few.) “In a contemporary art world enthralled with such stunts as Damien
Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull, Thiebaud is wonderfully ungimmicky. He
belongs more to a classical tradition of painting than to the Pop
revolution that first propelled him to national attention in the 1960s.
Then, the sweet everydayness of his cake and pie pictures looked like
cousins of Andy Warhol’s soup cans. But where Warhol was cool and
ironic, Thiebaud was warm and gently comic, playing on a collective
nostalgia just this side of sentimentality. He pushed himself as a
painter—experimenting with brushstrokes, color, composition, light and
shadow. The cylindrical cakes and cones of ice cream owed more to such
masters of the still life as the 18th-century French painter Chardin, or
the 20th-century Italian Giorgio Morandi, as critics have pointed out,
than to the art trends of the time.” That’s all well and good, but was the man just obsessed with desserts and food in general? Of course not. As McGuigan explains, “Over the years Thiebaud has repeatedly tackled the same subjects—not
to perfect a formula but to keep exploring the formal possibilities of
painting. ‘What kinds of varying light can you have in one painting?’ he
asks. ‘Direct glaring light, then fugitive light, then green glow. It’s
a very difficult challenge.’…When Thiebaud paints an object or form, he famously surrounds it
with multiple colors, often stripes or lines, of equal intensity, to
create a halo effect—though you might not notice that unless you look
closely. ‘They’re fighting for position,’ he says of the colors. ‘That’s
what makes them vibrate when you put them next to each other.'” Though some see a loneliness or melancholy in his cake paintings, I choose to perceive them as taking on a “celebratory” tone, as one critic states. Thiebaud himself has denied any sense of sadness in these works. In a PBS interview from 2000, he shares why it was risky for him to make paintings of cakes and pies: “It’s fun and humorous and that’s dangerous in the art world, I think.
It’s a world that takes itself very seriously, and of course, it is a
serious enterprise, but I think also there’s room for wit and humor
because humor gives us, I think, a sense of perspective.”
I think the pretty designs on In For A Treat and Pink Buttercream would be right at home in a Thiebaud painting. 🙂 Did you pick up anything from Baking Beauties? And do you like Mr. Thiebaud’s work?
To brighten up this gray day I thought I'd share a little floral happiness from Clarins. The spring 2013 face palette features an embossed iris with stripes and pink and peach on either side.
I don't really have much to say about this, except that like Karen at Makeup and Beauty Blog, I thought this was a hibiscus. It doesn't look very iris-like to me either in color or shape. I also wish Clarins would fill us in on where they get their inspiration. They've been making some really gorgeous palettes in recent years but it seems they just slap something on with no explanation. It's a little frustrating for collectors like me, who like to know about the design behind each piece. Still, it's a worthy addition to a spring exhibition.
I spotted Les Tablettes de Bastet back in February at British Beauty Blogger and couldn't find it online anywhere. (As of this morning, however, it's available at the U.S. Dior website). Through my searching I came across Dior Beauty-Palazzo in Las Vegas, which advertised the palette on their Facebook page. Much as I hate Facebook, I was thrilled to see some mention of it at an actual boutique. My fingers couldn't dial the number fast enough!
Look how pretty they wrapped it for me.
The outer case is a sleek grey which beautifully compliments the heavy grey stone of the palette itself.
Insert:
Apparently only 1,450 were made. The edition number and Beaurin's signature are inscribed on the back.
The stone case is magnetized. I must say the two stone pieces clacking together made me nervous about the palette getting damaged.
Now that we've seen the pictures, I bet you're wondering what this palette is all about. Les Tablettes de Bastet was created by artist Vincent Beauin, who had previously taken part in Dior's "Lady Dior as seen by" project in which contemporary artists concocted their own interpretations of the iconic bag.
Dior Magazine (online) has a good summary of the inspiration for the palette. "Christian Dior loved artists; and when he himself was young, dreamt of
becoming an architect. From this childhood dream he would maintain an
overwhelming love for art and those who made it, becoming friends with
Jean Cocteau, Christian Bérard, Max Jacob and many more. The house of
Dior has continued to forge this direct link with the world of art,
regularly collaborating with numerous contemporary artists. Vincent
Beaurin, the French painter and sculptor, is the most recent to create
an original work for the house: 'Les Tablettes de Bastet', an eyeshadow
palette inspired by the Egyptian divinity Bastet, the goddess of music
and dance, of feasting and love, 'like a very ancient stone object that bears the traces of myth and ancestral practices,' according to the artist.
The palette is composed of two magnetized tablets in Trianon gray – one
of Christian Dior's favorite colors – of which one is punctuated with
three disks of natural pigments in shades of sapphire, saffron, and
silex. This artwork in the style of a devotional object expresses, for
Vincent Beaurin, the desire to place 'the practice of make-up in a much wider expanse of time than just a single season.' It's an ode to the color and sobriety, the purity and the
accessibility of art; a step into the core of the output of this French
artist's who, already in 2010, reinvented the Lady Dior as a green and red talisman made of polystyrene and quartz sand." Here is his take on the Lady Dior bag, if you're curious.
This palette is an extension of Beaurin's previous work. In 2011 and 2012 he made several sculptures based on the Egyptian goddess Bastet. Beaurin's take on this goddess: "In ancient Egypt, Bastet was the daughter of the sun-god Ra. In the form of a cat or a woman with a cat’s head, she’s the goddess of music, dancing and feasting. She has the magic power which stimulate love. Bastet is the guardian goddess of women. She has fearsome fits of anger, because something feline is always lurking in her. So she’s identified with the dreadful Sekhmet, sent to earth to punish men for their arrogance. Bastet is a multi-faceted goddess, incarnating gentleness and fierceness."
Beaurin is also known for his "Spots", series of colored circles made of polystyrene and quartz sand mounted to the gallery's walls. The color combinations lead to a soothing, almost hypnotic effect. We can see the influence of Triptyque Bleu (2011) in the Dior palette:
Now, how does all this relate to the Dior palette? While I couldn't find out exactly why Beaurin opted to reinterpret ancient statues of Bastet or any in-depth explanations of his fascination with the goddess, this four-page interview at Beaurin's website is chock full of details about the Dior piece. Some of the more notable quotes:
– Beaurin sees the house of Dior as aligning closely with Bastet. "Dior is also a hieroglyph, a very old story, and why not, a story about a goddess."
– Beaurin's choice of the word "tablet" stems from his perception of
the word, which he believes "establishes a link between writing, memory
and ancient objects, often made of schist, on which people crushed pigments to produce eye make-up."
– In addition to expanding on the "Spots" works, the round shape for the colors was chosen so that they would be better suited to use of the palette. "Each colour is a fullness in itself. In a way, each colour is a world, a planet. Similarly, our eyes are round. The circle is a full shape. It recurs often in my work, perhaps precisely because it involves abstraction, going beyond form. Something round also seems better adapted to the touch than something angular…A lot of people ask me if they can touch my pieces. This project is a way of answering them. You’ll notice that there’s no brush to take up the colour and apply it. Fingers are the sole tools, with the skin, here the eyelid, as the sole destination."
– The palette clearly expands on Beaurin's own work but also shows his
admiration for Jean Arp's biomorphic forms. "Through my project’s
simplicity, the weight of the tablets, the softness of the materials,
the warmth and intensity of the colours, by the involvement of a woman’s
body, her skin, mystery, the notion of space, and all the feelings
resulting from that, it has biomorphic echoes…eyelids are to female faces what wings are to butterflies."
– The most interesting part of the interview for me was the artist's explanation of the colors he chose. On making the palette consist of just three colors, he says, "Three colours are enough to create the interplay of a chromatic infinity, a whole complexity. Three monochrome disks on a grey ground make an abstract landscape." Indeed, this overview of Beaurin's work states that he creates abstract landscapes using the spots. The colors chosen by Beaurin – Saffron, Sapphire and Silex – are part of
his fascination with the shape of the letter S. And while Beaurin has
never been to Egypt, the colors function as a sort of "prism" – his
personal conception of Egypt is expressed through these particular hues. "The repetition of the S, the initial letter of the name of each colour, gives pace to the way the words are uttered, Saffron Sapphire Silex. This pace is part of the dynamics, of the relations occurring between the elements making up the landscape. I also like S for its design, two inverted spirals, an unfinished 8, and for its phonetics, the phonetics of silence…this object is also a vehicle, an instrument of sight and projection and–why not?—a sort of Egyptian prism." Additionally, the colors have "an atmospheric character" that show up best against the dark grey of the stone. Beaurin integrated the grey that Dior was so fond of, but also says he was influenced by Cezanne's love of working under grey skies as well as "the Ardennes sky, unchangingly grey, like slate roofs in the rain, turning ink-like or silver." He adds, [U]nder a grey sky or against a grey backdrop, colours come out unreservedly, without any tension. Grey helps to optimize the way we observe colours, their radiance, and their persistence when they disappear and their reactions when you put them together." Finally, Beaurin notes that while "Spots" typically combine two colors within each circle, the circles in the Dior palette are monochromatic. "The spots are part of a purely meditative and contemplative relationship…two colours are articulated. They meet each other and are mixed together in a zone of intense vibrations. The Bastet tablets are a sort of arrangement, where three disks of monochrome colour are in a way in orbit with each other. They are as if in mid-air and their encounter is waiting for desire and the intervention of the person whose eyelids will be the ideal surface for mixing them."
So there you have it. You can also check out this strange (and, like his Spots, quite hypnotic) video on the palette directed by Beaurin.
While I do love this piece, I think its appeal lies more with the art collector than the makeup fan. I honestly don't think a lot of beauty fiends would actually use it. Beaurin's color theories are intriguing and are implemented quite well in his artistic endeavors, but they don't necessarily translate to makeup – it's difficult to say how one would apply these colors, as they don't seem to be in harmony from a cosmetic standpoint. And while the magnetic closure is a sophisticated, artsy touch, I can tell you that without some sort of hinge to hold the two pieces of stone together, the palette would be a bit cumbersome to handle. Thus, unlike Dior's Anselm Reyle collaboration, this doesn't have a lot of mass appeal (but maybe it's not supposed to). Nevertheless I adore Les Tablettes de Bastet because it incorporates not only the two motifs ("Spots" and Bastet) that Beaurin is best known for, but also his entire artistic outlook.
What do you think?
Click to enlarge.
Top row, left to right: 066, 003, case L, 079, 075
The Oscars are over, but that's not going to stop me from taking another look at movie tie-in beauty products. I first covered these in 2010 so it's high time for a refresher.
Which is your fave? I'm always partial to Stila, but I do love the envelope design on the Lancôme palette – very simple and elegant.
If you're not too tired from viewing the exhibition, here are some behind-the-scenes shots I took as I was setting up. I still can't believe how expensive it was to put together…cake plates don't grow on trees! Still, I was determined to have some pretty things on which to put the objects.
I got the green cake plate from Sweet and Saucy, the white one from Williams-Sonoma, and all the silver pieces (cupcake stand, sugar bowl and candy dish) were from Etsy.
The husband gathered macarons from two bakeries: Bonjour Bakery and Patisserie Poupon. I swore I'd never go back to the latter after they messed up our wedding cake, but they do have the best macarons in town so I didn't have much of a choice.
In between figuring out what should go where I made the cupcakes. I got the liners and silver ball decorations from Fancy Flours.
They were pink champagne flavored and yes, I drank the champagne that was left after making them! There wasn't much though, I needed a lot for the recipe and the bottle I had was fairly small. It's a good thing…otherwise I would have been too tipsy to take pictures. 😉
Getting there…
As you can see, the truffles that appeared on the bottom tier of the cupcake stand and on the plate with Shu palettes in the exhibition were Godiva. I had bought them a week before and it was sooo hard to resist eating them before the exhibition went up.
I finished setting up everything and took pictures. Then the sun went down and that's when the exhibition opening started! Makeup Museum staff was very eager to start dismantling everything so they could eat some of the props.
Here's Cookie Chef Babo warning Seasick Babo not to puke on the cookies.
The party's in full swing…
…and petered out after Exhibition Designer Power Babo collapsed from exhaustion. Poor little guy. I guess I worked him too hard.
Still, I think a good time was had by all!
Whew! It was a lot of work, but I’m finally ready to share the Museum’s latest special exhibition!
“Sweet Tooth: Confections in Cosmetics and Beauty” examines makeup and other beauty products that are inspired by sweet edibles. From candy to chocolates to pastries, these objects convey the charm of beautifully made desserts as well as the sheer bliss a sugar rush can bring.
The idea of using sweets and dessert fare to sell cosmetics is nothing new, dating back to at least the mid-20th century. In 1940 Elizabeth Arden released a candy-cane decorated collection that was “as gay as the circus!”
Twenty years later, Revlon introduced Berry Bon Bon, a shade that “lifts red to a new boiling point [and] dips it in sugar.” In 1972 Yardley expanded on their line of flavored lipsticks, this time including dessert flavors like Snappy Cinnamon Stick and Pink Fluffy Marshmallow.
A year later, drugstore brand Bonne Bell rolled out their “Lip Smackers” lip balms in a variety of dessert-based flavors, which are still best-sellers today. More contemporary examples include Prada’s Candy fragrance, Estée Lauder’s 2008 Chocolate Decadence collection, MAC’s Sweetie Cake and Sugarsweet collections (from 2006 and 2009, respectively) and Bobbi Brown’s 2006 Chocolate collection, for which the company collaborated with gourmet chocolate brand Vosges to create a limited-edition chocolate bar. And let’s not forget high-end-turned-Walmart brand Hard Candy.
The trend doesn’t seem to be fading any time soon. Philosophy continues to produce sweet scents in their bath and body products, their latest concoctions being Pink Jelly Bean and Raspberry Passionfruit Dreamsicle. MAC will be releasing another sweets-themed collection, Baking Beauties, in April, and Catrice is coming out with a collection called Candy Shock this summer.
In addition to celebrating delectable packaging, the Sweet Tooth exhibition seeks to provide a cursory analysis of the popularity of dessert-like beauty products. Why are beauty items reminiscent of sweets, either in scent or packaging (or both) have such longevity in beauty culture?
There are several reasons. First, cosmetic companies acquiesce to basic gender stereotypes. Baking and decorating are traditionally women’s domains. In addition, there’s the common (but not necessarily factual) presumption that all women have a raging sweet tooth. It’s widely believed that women crave sweets much more than men; they have voracious appetites for all types of sugar-filled treats, especially chocolate. Cosmetic companies employ these stereotypes as marketing tactics, as women are the primary buyers of makeup.
Secondly, dessert-like makeup serves as a substitute for a real, edible dessert, but still retains the sense of indulgence and luxury that comes from nibbling on sweets. Encouraging consumers to give in to temptation is a key theme. Estée Lauder challenges one to “tempt your color palette”: “From Berry Chocolate Truffles and Caramel
Pralines to swirls of marbled fondant dusted with golden spun sugar,
Estée Lauder has captured the essence of a luxurious chocolate boutique
filled with rich chocolate works of art.” LORAC’s Eye Candy Full Face collection claims to “satisfy your beauty cravings” with their “deluxe
assortment of sweet, tempting treats contains a luxurious selection of
fresh colors for eyes, cheeks, and lips that you simply can’t resist”. (Sometimes the idea of indulging in makeup instead of sweets isn’t so innocuous, as some ads present the dessert-like items as weight loss aids – always a bad strategy. “Indulge your taste for sweets
with Berry Bon Bon…you won’t gain a thing but admirers!” says the commercial for Revlon’s Berry Bon Bon. The commercial aired in 1960, and while cosmetic marketing has greatly shifted since then, this line of thinking unfortunately persists today. A 2012 Marie Claire blog post on Mor Lip Macarons states that with these scented lip balms, one doesn’t “have to book a flight or consume a single
calorie to get the same aesthetic satisfaction” as downing real
macarons.)
At times, the advertising for sweets-based collections goes a step further, literally transforming desserts into makeup. “Ice the eyes in almond, top your nails with sprinkles,” says the copy for MAC’s Sweetie Cake collection. Korean brand Etude House’s recent Sweet Recipe collection depicts women turning the treats they’ve just made into blush and lipsticks.
The idea of luscious, freshly-made desserts as bases for an alchemical process that results in makeup further blurs the line between cosmetics and comestibles – they become interchangeable treats. This dual nature is alluring for consumers because they feel as though they’re receiving twice the gratification. Purchasing only regular makeup or sweets is enjoyable, but buying makeup that also resembles dessert creates the impression that you’re getting two for the price of one.
Finally, the last reason dessert-like makeup prevails is simple: color. As we saw with fruit-themed cosmetics, sweets are an excellent
source of color inspiration – seemingly all shades, from deep chocolate
hues to macaron pastels, can be expressed well in a sweets-themed makeup
collection.
Now for the exhibition! Grab your sweet of choice and enjoy. 🙂
I believe this is the first time in the Museum’s history that I have incorrectly labeled an object. The palette in the back that’s closed (fortunately) is actually the Raspberry Mocha palette, not Mint and Vanilla.
The
bottom tier contains Majolica Majorca Puff de Cheek blushes in
Raspberry Macaron and Apricot Macaron, along with Etude House Cupcake
Eyes and All Over Colors.
Etude House Ice Cream nail polishes:
The collage consists of the following ads: Jo Malone Sugar and Spice collection, Shiseido Candy Tone lipsticks, Jill Stuart Patisserie collection, Clinique Chubby Sticks (one for lips and one for eyes), Shu Chocolate Donna, MAC Sugarsweet, Bobbi Brown Chocolate, Bourjois Paris Sucré, and Estée Lauder Chocolate Decadence collections.
Exhibition Notes
1. Inspiration
As a huge dessert fan myself (I guess I fit the stereotype!), I’m immediately drawn to any makeup or beauty item that looks or smells like I could eat it. But while the objects themselves were definitely inspiring, a French influence was strong as well. As MAC’s Sugarsweet ad says, “Temptation is everywhere – luscious, whipped-cream decadent, deliciously decorative frosting colours and sugared almond combinations. Like peering through the window of a Parisian patisserie, you’ll want to become one of each!” It’s true – when I went to Paris a few years back I was dumbfounded at the abundance and quality of the desserts. There were patisseries on literally every street, and when I had my first Laduree macaron on that trip, I realized the French really knew what they were doing when it comes to sweets. Sure, I had heard of pain au chocolat and macarons before I visited, but didn’t know just how amazing they were until I got there. So I wanted the exhibition to have a slightly French mood as an homage to their desserts. Also, the “I Want Candy” scene from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette has stayed fresh in my mind all these years, and I wanted to highlight the luxury and extravagance of both gourmet desserts and high-end makeup. In terms of styling the actual table,well, I blame Pinterest. I never really paid too much attention to party planning and design until I started planning my wedding a few years ago, and I just fell in love with all of the little details. My aforementioned affinity for sweets, combined with my more recent interest in party planning, led to an obsession with dessert tables. And once I got on Pinterest there was no turning back. Given the theme, this exhibition was a great opportunity to depart from the Museum’s usual shelves and play with dessert table styling.
Marie Antoinette-era stylings also were the inspiration for the colors I wanted to emphasize (mint green and pale pink), but this time, it was Marie Antoinette by way of contemporary Chanel. While researching Chanel’s 2013 Cruise collection for the Mouche de Beaute Highlighting Powder, I was struck by the candy-colored wigs the models were sporting for the runway show.I also thought touches of silver (as seen in the cupcake stand, sugar bowl and candy dish) would give it a fancy, gourmet feel.
2. Time frame
I had the idea to do a dessert/makeup exhibition since last summer. Once I saw Shu’s Chocolate Donna collection and the LORAC Eye Candy and Too-Faced Love Sweet Love sets late last fall, I knew I had plenty of fodder to pull together a good exhibition. I did want to have it posted right before Valentine’s Day, but then I stumbled across the Etude House Sweet Recipe collection and decided to postpone it, as I considered those to be essential pieces for the exhibition and it would take a few weeks for them to arrive from Korea.
3. Things I would have done differently.
I’ll start with the details. First, it would have been great if I had access to really fancy cupcakes and pastries. But no bakeries around here do anything like that and I lack the necessary decorating skill, so homemade cupcakes it was. For the labels, I would have printed them out on white paper instead of pink so that it didn’t clash with the tablecloth. I forgot to specify to the designer (a.k.a. the husband) that I wanted white paper before he printed them out on pink. With not much time left to photograph everything before what little daylight we had faded away, there was no time to reprint them on white paper. And the tablecloth…I wasn’t expecting how wrinkled it was going to be when I unfolded it, so I didn’t unfold it until right before I started installing the exhibition. Only too late did I realize that it was totally rumpled and had no time to iron it.
On a bigger scale, space is always an issue. Not necessarily a lack of space, but since the exhibitions are taking place in my home I am somewhat limited by the layout. The collage hanging in the back was really just a way to cover up the TV. The credenza that the exhibition was set up on is way too heavy to be moved conveniently, and there was also no place to move it without some of the artwork on the walls getting in the way anyway. So we had to leave that there. Same issue with the TV – too cumbersome to take off the wall, and too time-consuming to Photoshop out all the holes in the wall where the wires go in behind the TV. Overall, it was much more convenient and less expensive to make a collage out of ads rather than moving the TV or having a big poster designed and printed. However, I can assure you that if the Museum did occupy a real, public space and had unlimited funds, the backdrop for the table would be magnificent.
Speaking of funding, I would dearly love to re-stage the exhibition, possibly in a different space (don’t know where) and hire a professional photographer. While the pictures are slightly improved from previous exhibitions due to my purchase of a new camera, they are nowhere near professional and thus do not capture the beauty of the objects and table setup.
I would have done more research and written a more thoughtful and polished essay about sweets-themed makeup and the relationship between women, dessert and cosmetics (would love to work in Janine Antoni’s 1992 work Gnaw somehow). For a temporary exhibition I just couldn’t put in the time, but maybe for the coffee table book I could do this, especially if I re-do the exhibition and have it professionally photographed.
In terms of curation, I was pleased with all of the objects. The only things I would have added would be the Creme Caramel Shimmer Powder and Caramel Swirl lip gloss from the Estée Lauder Chocolate Decadence collection, Steamcream’s “Lola” tin, which is adorned with a cupcake illustration, and these gorgeous cupcake-shaped “bath bakes” from Miss Patisserie. I was going to order all of this and put the exhibition off even further, but then I decided it was probably going to be too much to fit on the table. Plus having too many objects negates the whole idea of curating – each piece in an exhibition is selected for a good reason.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you! And if you want to see more on the exhibition, check out my post on what went on behind the scenes and pictures from the exhibition opening. 😉
– 'Tis Girl Scout cookie season, and this year they've started taking credit cards. God help me – as someone who rarely carries cash, the only thing prohibiting me previously from buying dozens of boxes of cookies was the lack of credit card capability.
– Vote for the ugliest shoes of all time at Shoewawa. Warning: it's going to be harder than you think!
– Finally, posts have been short here at the Museum and things might be quiet for the next week as I make the final preparations for the special exhibition. Here's a peek of the mock-up of the displays I'm working on.
Can you guess what the theme is now? I gave a little hint a few weeks ago, but I think now it's clear! 😉
(images from barneys.com and fashandfurn.com) 
