– I'm developing a serious girl crush on Amy Schumer, as I've been greatly enjoying her show, but this video takes the cake.
– Makeup artist Lisa Eldridge will be releasing a book on beauty history in the fall. *mutters something about not having enough time/connections to write and publish my various beauty books*
– Check out this Kickstarter to bring back a lipstick from the 1940s.
– The New York Times published a must-read article on the horrendous working conditions in nail salons.
– This perfume company will bottle the scent of your deceased loved ones. As someone who worries constantly about losing family members, I actually find this extremely comforting and not creepy at all – I know I'd be clinging to their clothes otherwise.
– A new drug has been approved to "treat" your double chin. Not sure how I feel about this as side effects may include "trouble swallowing, uneven smile and nerve injury in the jaw." Yikes. On the other hand, I wonder if it's really any more dangerous than Botox, which is scary since you're essentially injecting a form of botulism into your face.
– Here's an article on a series of workshops focused on how curators and conservationists deal with objects that are tricky to preserve, including things like soap and toothpaste. I'd love to get their opinion on how to preserve makeup, an issue I've explored before.
– You know, it's really not that shocking that men aren't good at applying makeup on women. I wear it nearly every day and I still can't do someone else's makeup for squat. I mean why would you be skilled at something you've never done before? I'm just not getting the point of that exercise.
– In other '90s news, Kids in the Hall made an appearance in Baltimore. I was a little wary of seeing them as I was afraid they were going to be washed up and sad, but they brought it! They're still just as goofy and funny as ever. We tried taking a pic of Buddy Cole (my favorite KITH bit) but for the life of us we couldn't get a good picture, despite having good seats. He opened with, "So, Baltimore, I hear your curfew's been lifted…so has mine!" Oh, that naughty Buddy! There was more topical Baltimore humor too which the crowd thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed, as we welcomed a laugh after all that's happened in the past couple weeks. As a side note, the husband and I ate at Lost City Diner before the show and brought Sailor Babo with us, so you can see his tasty adventure here.
– Finally, happy Mother's Day to all the moms, especially mine! She is the bestest. š
How have you been?
This week's links.
– Where are they now? Late '90s/early 2000s beauty trends, that is. The Hairpin finds out.
– New cosmetics legislation has been introduced with the intent of giving the FDA to have some authority over the industry.
– The makeup-applying robot was kind of a bust but this new shampoo robot might have some promise.
– Ylang ylang, a key ingredient in Chanel's No. 5 perfume is quickly becoming scarce. Don't fret though! While it doesn't contain ylang ylang, Chanel's new Misia fragrance has something even better: what they're calling a "lipstick accord". Perfume that smells like makeup? I'm in.
– Ramen or sake? No, I'm not offering you Japanese cuisine, but rather the latest spa treatments there: A ramen noodle bath and a sake soak.
The random:
– This post reminded me that the Makeup Museum site could use a refresh. And by "could use" I mean "desperately needs" a makeover. But I have no idea even where to start.
– I am not running at the moment (still, ugh!!) but I was still mentally cheering on those who ran the Boston marathon earlier this week. Here's the history behind the first woman to force her way in.
– Awful confession time: on a whim the husband and I decided to give Mike Tyson Mysteries on Adult Swim a go and…it's hilarious. I KNOW. The man is a convicted rapist. I shouldn't be watching the show in the first place, let alone find it funny. *turns in feminist card* Just needed to get that off my chest, not endorsing the show in any way.
– I have to say that beauty advertising has been getting on my nerves lately. While this French commercial for Garnier warning women that they can look older in a matter of hours and Dove's latest campaign encouraging women to walk through entryways marked "beautiful" and "average" seem to have little in common on the surface, they're both equally obnoxious. Plus, a beauty writer resigned over a (spot-on) critique of the Dove ad. Let's just go back to ads that feature pretty products artfully arranged, shall we? (As a side note, I really wish I had been one of the women in the Dove ad – just to f*ck with them I would have asked where the "ugly" entrance was.)
– Who's never had their mascara smudge or lipstick smear after a long night? Disney princesses, that's who. But if you want to know what they'd look like with slightly disheveled makeup, this illustrator's latest project is right up your alley.
– "'That lipstick started to give them back their humanity.'" In honor of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp this week, Autumn at The Beheld writes a moving piece based on an excerpt from one soldier's account of the evacuation.
– The Cut interviews the founders of Fantastic Man magazine, who explored the idea of men wearing makeup in their latest issue. Yes, it actually includes spreads of made-up dudes sporting blue eye shadow and full-on lipstick skillfully applied by Dior's Peter Phillips.
– Not impressed with these "odd" beauty jobs (lice-picker, anyone?) – how about a consultant who works with makeup companies to select artists for collaborations? I'd be so good at that. š
– Very informative article on makeup trends in the early 20th century. I'm kinda bummed though as I feel I should have been the author (and the author of all the other subsequent articles as well – apparently this is the first post in a series.) Hey Jezebel, I'm more than qualified to write some beauty history posts for you, and I'd do it for free.
– My parents, as usual, have bestowed way too much Easter candy on the husband and I so I'm looking forward to using up some of the Cadbury eggs they gave us in these recipes.
And finally, if you're interested, here's a recap of our vacation in sunny Roma! While Paris and Amsterdam ultimately won out for our honeymoon we decided to take on the Eternal City for our five-year wedding anniversary. Technically that's not till August but we didn't want to wait until then since we heard it gets quite hot and crowded in the summer months. As a former art history major I've been wanting to go to Rome for years, plus Italian is my favorite cuisine – can never get enough pizza and pasta (I eat pizza literally once a week and go a little nuts if I don't have my weekly pie.)
Our hotel was situated near the Spanish Steps, which are lovely, although unfortunately teeming with street vendors aggressively trying to sell you selfie sticks and other crap. Towards the end of the trip I was about ready to forcibly take a selfie stick from one of them and beat them senseless with it.
I was obliged to have a picture in front of the Sephora at the base of the steps, because, duh, that's what beauty junkies do when visiting other countries.
And look at this! Further up on the Via del Corso is another Sephora, then a Kiko, then a MAC. I didn't go into the Sephora or MAC since we have those in the States, but I did spend a bit of time playing in the Kiko store and brought back a few goodies.
Also, this is genius – a tape dispenser so you can swatch nail polishes! Why don't all stores have this?
But on to the really important cultural stuff. We covered the Colosseum and assorted sites nearby:
Trevi Fountain, which unfortunately was undergoing cleaning or restoration or something. Not gonna lie, was a little disappointed.
Vatican Museums (plus the Sistine Chapel – no pics of that since they don't allow photography in the chapel):
St. Peter's:
Pantheon:
Villa Borghese park and museum:
And a bunch of fountains, which I loved since so many of them featured mermen!
Here's some of the food. Oh, the food. Pizza and pasta and gelato galore!! I was in my glory. I feared I may have to be rolled home, despite all the walking we did. Fortunately I still managed to squeeze myself onto the plane.
This restaurant was so cool – it was originally a sculpture studio for one of Canova's pupils.
The gelato was so tasty…I did have tiramisu one night but I think gelato was my favorite sweet in Rome.
We were quite enamored of this gelato place. They had liquid chocolate on tap!
And the last part – reuniting with my beloved Museum staff. We took a couple of plushies with us (including Sailor Babo – you can see his adventures here) but obviously we can't take all of them. Giving them a good squeeze was literally the first thing I did as soon as I set foot in our place. I worry so much about them when I'm not home and was so relieved to see them safe and sound.
Overall, Rome is a gorgeous city and I hope to go back to see even more things – we covered so much but certainly not everything, not by a long shot. It is truly an art historian's dream, and the food can't be beat. I will say that it was an exhilarating but exhausting trip…I think for our next one we're going to a resort of some kind to really relax. Don't get me wrong, we had a fabulous time and I'm so grateful I got to go (and to the husband for organizing it all – he seriously planned everything), but sitting on the beach all day would be a nice change of pace compared to our usual travels.
What have you been up to? Have you been to Rome or do you plan on going? Please feel free to email me with any questions…I'm not a Rome expert by any means but I can tell you some more details about getting around, finding places to eat, things I wish I knew before I went, etc.
Links from the past few weeks, plus a personal update.
– Speaking of Japan, the latest beauty craze there is, in my opinion, even more unappealing than the "no makeup" look. Then again, every time I attempt a more natural look I appear ill, so this new trend wouldn't be too much of a stretch for some of us.
– For you perfume junkies, Harrod's is launching a "fragrance garden" at the Royal Horticultural Chelsea Society Flower Show.
– Reviews: A while ago I vowed to include links to reviews of new products in every Curator's Corner, since that's what brings in the most blog traffic (sadly, not a lot of people come here to read the actual museum-y content). I've come to the realization that this is an exercise in futility. I will still attempt to include reviews, but certainly not on a regular basis.
– In things that make me feel old/'90s nostalgia, both Elastica's self-titled first album and Radiohead's The Bendsboth turned 20 on March 16th.
– Um, really? Another Kickstarter project that began as a joke earned over $2,000 worth of financial support. At least though they're putting the "museum" in their home, which is what I do – proof that I'm not completely insane. And I have to admit it's a great topic, '90s nut that I am.
– And finally, a personal update: As you can tell from the sporadic posting I'm still not feeling great. The complete lack of any cardio activity has taken a severe toll on both my physical and mental well-being. Physical therapy has been a nightmare in that I can't seem to find a practice that both takes my insurance and is a good fit for me, so I'm making no headway in getting this injury healed for good, and I'm bound to miss the same races I did last year. The eye inflammation also refuses to budge despite 4 rounds of various prescription drops, and it looks like I'm going to have to stop using my precious Latisse since the doctor seems to think that's the cause of the reaction rather than my contacts. In the meantime I still can't wear my contacts regularly due to the chronic irritation which is also driving me insane. And I'm not looking forward to having to deal with wearing mascara every day now, which is what's going to happen upon ceasing usage of Latisse. As I said before, I'm grateful none of these things are fatal but I've been dealing with them for the better part of a year, and I'm SICK of it. I'm just so defeated and fed up with everything I'm not even excited for spring, or the trip to Rome the husband and I have coming up in a few days. š
Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you. I'm off to get some cheese to go with my whine.
This week's links.
– Did you know there's an entire museum dedicated to miniature perfume bottles? I had no idea until the Mini Museum contacted me on Twitter. Now to find out how they made the leap from a virtual museum to a brick-and-mortar one.
– In bizarre beauty news, Pizza Hut launched a line of pizza-inspired polishes. I love pizza and I love nail polish but this is just weird. (Sidenote: I misread the headline and thought the word "scented" was in there, so I was like, pizza-scented nail polishes? So. Gross. Fortunately there was no attempt to make them smell like pizza.)
– The new hair trend for fall 2015 is apparently "naked hair", i.e. the equivalent of no-makeup makeup. I really wish this silly idea would die already – so boring. Who wants to look like they just woke up?
– I saved the best for last. As a Bob's Burgers fan and the biggest Sleater-Kinney fan ever I greatly enjoyed this video. (Oh, and…I'M SEEING S-K WEDNESDAY NIGHT OMG OMG OMG!!!!!)
What have you been up to this week?
Sigh. As you might have guessed I'm not still not feeling great. I'm hoping come spring both of the health issues I've been dealing with since last summer will be solved and I'll be posting more regularly, but for now I'm still just trying to keep my head above water. Anyway, here are some links.
– Some very big and sad beauty news: Bonne Bell is closing its doors. It has been bought by another company so it's not completely disappearing, but I'd guess that their legendary Lip Smackers formula will never be the same.
– The no-makeup look started as a charity campaign, so I'm wondering if a new trend of smeared lipstick will be taking over as a result of this "smear for smear" effort.
– No reviews this week – on top of everything else I'm dealing with I came down with a cold yesterday and have zero interest in trying to write coherent reviews while on cold medicine. Meh.
– This invention sounds like an even more nightmarish version of a magnifying mirror, which is certainly not kind to your reflection. Thank goodness it's still years away from actually being put into production. I'll take a skinny mirror any day of the week over that – I'd much rather have a mirror lie to me than point out every little thing that's wrong with my appearance.
– Meet the latest in skincare technology: the Oku smart tool (sort of like a FitBit for your face). I'll be curious to see reviews of this, as I'm obviously not shelling out $250 for it unless I know it's useful.
– In other excellent news, Broad City is back and has been receiving so much love. Some odes to Abbi and Ilana can be found here and here. Not only that, but it's already been renewed for a 3rd season, and there are even Broad City emojis on the way. And as if all the current awesomeness wasn't enough, this happened. As you can imagine, my head nearly exploded.
– Things I cannot wait to eat include these 3 new flavors from Ben and Jerry. I'm especially curious to see how the Speculoos one compares to Trader Joe's cookie butter ice cream.
Welcome to the Makeup Museum's first Curator's Corner of 2015! Actually it's my very first post of the year! I wish I could say that 2015 is off to a great start, but I can't. I'm dealing with two chronic, very lengthy and difficult to treat health issues. They're nothing life-threatening and of course I'm extremely grateful for that, but they're definitely impacting my quality of life, i.e., I just found out the injury I've been struggling with for 7 months is worse than previously thought and my running future is very uncertain. :( I'm really at the end of my rope. Plus I hate the post-holiday winter season – nothing much to look forward to, just a long, dark, cold wait till spring. So posting might be a little spotty until things improve.
Now that I've got that update out of the way here are some links.
As for product reviews, I got through some Tom Ford lipsticks. The rest will be posted next week. At some point I'll get a review up for the Nude Dip quad as well.
Links from the past 2 weeks. Sigh. I wish I could blog more consistently!
