Curator's corner Archives - Page 8 of 28 - Makeup Museum: Where Cosmetics & Art Intersect

Having been in survival mode due to work for the past month, I'm hoping to return to some sort of normalcy in terms of this little museum. In the meantime, here are lots of delightful links to catch up on. 🙂

– I mentioned this pumpkin spice latte-inspired highlighter and pumpkin spice scented cuticle oil to the husband, who quipped, "What's next? Pumpkin spice highlights?" Turns out he was right on the money.

– Collecting Vintage Compacts had some thorough (as usual) posts on Jonteel and Vivaudou, while Another Magazine had a great history of Max Factor and a lovely profile of legendary makeup artist Way Bandy. And speaking of legendary makeup artists, Kevyn Aucoin is getting the documentary treatment.

– The latest and craziest fads trending on social media include helix eyeliner, shoulder and ear makeup, bun-dropping, and body marbling. Additionally, the 100-layers frenzy rages on, as do contouring parody videos.

– NYFW makeup trends I liked: cocoa glitter lips and '80s pink. Dreadlocks on white folks (without even acknowledging the culture they came from) and porn-inspired makeup, not so much.

The random:

– If I had money to burn, you better believe I'd buy this set in a heartbeat. Interestingly, Lagerfeld is famous for using Shu Uemura makeup to sketch, so collaborating with a traditional colored pencil brand was a little unexpected.

– In '90s nostalgia, Oasis is also getting a documentary, while Broadly had a good history of The Blair Witch Project. And sadly, we lost the actor/actress who had small but significant roles in Pulp Fiction and The Wedding Singer, two of my favorite '90s movies.

– Just added this to my book wishlist.

How have you been? Are you excited for fall?

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Oof, can't believe I haven't gotten to Curator's Corner in a month! I wish I could say it's because I'm so busy writing some awesome upcoming posts but sadly that is not the case. I'm just feeling super tired/lazy. Nevertheless I still feel the need to round up some links.

– Some follow-ups to my post on active beauty include Autumn's excellent analysis of gymnasts and makeup and Shiseido's beauty tips for runners.

– One step forward, 2 steps back.

– Vice investigates the 100-layer craze, which is still going strong, while Racked explores geek-themed makeup.

– Trends for nails include cheese and duck feet. Once again I must assure you that I'm not making these up. Slightly less strange is the holographic nail. Meanwhile, some more product novelties have popped up, including this rose-shaped cleanser dispenser, KFC-scented sunscreen (it's selling out, for some inexplicable reason – this is even grosser than the nail polish, in my opinion) and, um, these highlighters.

– Speaking of which, Nylon tackles the tough question of whether one should sheet mask one's nether regions.

– Given Nars' past transgressions I'm wary of his new book.

– LOL. This is also hilarious.

The random:

– Having just re-watched Pee-Wee's Big Adventure I greatly enjoyed this interview with Elizabeth Daily (a.k.a. Dottie).

– I also loved the A.V. Club's 1996 week. Other '90s nostalgia includes an exhibition on the Spice Girls and a genius remix/supercut of the Offspring's "Pretty Fly for a White Guy". My bucket hat goes off to whoever came up with this.

– Yas, queen!

– These Barbie and toy dinosaur collections put my little museum to shame.

– Finally, today marks 6 years since the husband and I were married (and 16 years together in all!) In honor of the occasion he made me this adorable card. So clever!!

I didn't get the poor guy anything! Meh. But I do intend on doing something great for his birthday next year so hopefully I'll make up for it then. 😉

What have you been up to?

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Your bi-weekly link roundup.

– Arabelle wrote an excellent piece on beauty product names for Racked. I had been playing around with a post on names for about 2 years and never did anything with it – this article is everything I wanted to say but much more eloquent than I could be.

– Fashionista has a decent history of tanning. It's good but once again I prefer Autumn's thoughts on the subject.

– Looks like we've hit full saturation on the 100 layers of makeup craze. Previously we've seen nail polish and liquid lipstick, and now beauty vloggers have covered foundation, brow products, highlighter and face masks, along with the whole shebang.

– I've always maintained that eyelash curlers were totally harmless. I guess this proves me wrong.

– I don't think we've ever seen beauty products this close up before. So cool!

The random:

– So much '90s stuff my head is about to explode. In a good way, of course. :) Milestones include the 20-year anniversary of Sublime's self-titled album and Fiona Apple's Tidal (and check out this remake of the video for "Criminal"), along with Tickle Me Elmo. Also, South Park will debut its 20th (!) season, Third-Eye Blind came out of retirement, The Blair Witch Project is finally getting the sequel it deserves, MTV is launching a "classics" channel that will run '90s favorites Beavis & Butthead, Daria, etc., there will be a '90s-themed concert with the likes of Biz Markie and Lisa Loeb to celebrate the return of Crystal Pepsi, and I couldn't stop laughing at this footage of politicians doing the macarena at the 1996 DNC. Finally, it's hard to believe that just 21 years ago the thought of a woman being president was considered "offensive".

– On the more current pop culture front, I'm not sure how I feel about one of my favorite TV shows getting Americanized. But I am super excited for the new seasons of American Horror Story and Documentary Now. Also, there might be a show about mermaids. Eeee-vil mermaids!

– Speaking of mermaids, I clearly require one of these crowns.

How are you doing?

Before we get to links, a quick blog note: I have made the decision to slow down a bit in terms of posting. Previously my goal was to do 3 posts a week, plus Curator's Corner. Instead I'll be posting 1-2 times a week and Curator's Corner will go up every other week. I was having so much trouble keeping up and I realized there was no sense in making myself crazy trying to maintain some arbitrary posting schedule, so I'm switching to something more manageable.

Now for some links!

– As an old person, I am greatly confused by Pokemon Go. However, I do know that it's enough of a phenomenon that there are special beauty tie-ins to the game.

– Not gonna lie, I totally downloaded these new beauty emojis.

– The latest wacky trends include ear makeup, galaxy freckles, graffiti hair and mirror nails. All of these are exactly what you think they are. Plus, did you know your manicure can double as a metro card?

– Speaking of trends, John Oliver hilariously tackles contouring and brows.

– Can I get something off my chest? You might remember I wrote about the Smithsonian's collection of beauty and hygiene products back in May. I'm a little frustrated that nearly 2 months later Racked covered it (and snagged an interview with the curators, no less) whose article in turn was picked up by Jezebel and Byrdie. I just get annoyed since it's not new information – I'm almost certain I was the first blogger to write about the collection, but no one pays attention when I do it.

– Once more, with feeling: you can be a feminist and wear makeup.

– In addition to it being National Ice Cream Day, it's also National Tattoo Day. Allure has a nice little history of tattoos.

– Remember the 100 layers of nail polish challenge? For whatever reason someone saw it necessary to follow that up by applying 100 layers of lipstick.

– Happy 25th to Bobbi Brown! May you continue putting out delicious shimmer bricks and gel liners and other products I can't get enough of.

The random:

– As I mentioned last week, I joined Instagram. Little did I know there was actually a scientific reason behind my yearning to join.

– The Julie Ruin's latest album, Hit Reset, dropped last week. Needless to say I love it. Check out interviews with the fabulous Kathleen Hanna here and here. Meanwhile, my other idols Sleater-Kinney will be inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame later this year.

– "I try to avoid sticking clamshells on my boobs." Broadly covers the real-life hustle of professional mermaids. (Also mentioned in this article is a professor in Alabama who is studying the history of mermaids. That would be my 2nd dream job behind makeup museum curator.)

– In '90s nostalgia, Spice Girls' "Wannabe" turned 20 (I feel even older now) and I loved Lebowski Week over at Uproxx. I'm also ordering Seinfeldia to read when I'm at the beach in a few weeks. While not '90s, another cultural milestone was reached with the 15th anniversary of Legally Blonde.

– Loving this new-to-me art history blog. And as a final anniversary listed in this installment of Curator's Corner, I'm wishing a very happy (and weird) 100th birthday to Dada.

What have you been up to?

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Hope those of you in the U.S. are having a relaxing and peaceful 4th of July. So much to catch up on.

– Lots of trends over the past two weeks: lip "tattoos", emoji hair tapestries, snowglobe nails and a technique known as draping. Also, possibly for the first time, zits made a fashion statement. (I liked this rejoinder explaining why it wasn't appropriate to glorify acne on the runway).

– In beauty history, Jonathan Walford of the Fashion History Museum in Toronto discusses lip stencils, and Fashionista offers a succinct history of red lipstick.

– These parents get a big thumbs up from me. This vlogger, not so much.

– On the social media front, Instagram may pose a threat to our individuality, Snapchat stole some makeup artists' looks to use as filters, and Urban Decay introduced a Tinder-like app for lipstick. You can also try on lipsticks via Facebook Messenger now, or choose your new lip color by virtual kisses (although I really don't like the idea of kissing my smartphone…they're apparently filthy.)

– Other beauty breakthroughs included magnetic eye lashes and a new foundation finder that actually works. Meli from Wild Beauty helped pioneer it, so while I haven't tried it yet I bet it's way more effective than anything we have currently (looking at you, Sephora Color IQ.) Very exciting!

–Olympic medal or highlighter?

The random:

– Not sure how you can "accidentally" discover a previously unknown color, but a new shade of blue has been unearthed. I'm eager to see it appear in makeup form.

– Jezebel had a lovely history of mermaids and our collective fascination with them.

– In '90s nostalgia, Crystal Pepsi is coming back to the U.S. in August (yes! loved this stuff), Uproxx brings us the history of Seinfeld's "urban sombrero", '90s Fest will expand to several venues (alas, none close enough to me), Blink-182 releases a new album, and a Refinery29 staffer attempts taking care of a tamagotchi.

– As proof you're never too old to get tattoos, Dame Judi Dench received her first at the age of 81. Which brings me to…my first tattoos! This was a very long time in coming – I swear it's not part of a midlife crisis. I had been wanting a Phi Beta Kappa tattoo on my arm since I got inducted into the society 16 years ago during my final semester of college. But everyone kept saying tattoos were a bad idea, blah blah blah. Plus I'm petrified of needles. So I kept putting it off. Then last November around my birthday I realized it had been 15 years that I first got the idea and still hadn't followed through despite never wavering on my desire to get the tattoo, so I started researching artists. I visited several shops in Baltimore and was quite unimpressed, and right around the time I was searching Keith "Bang Bang" McCurdy's book was released and I decided to check him out. After perusing the portfolios of the other artists working at his shop I knew I was in the right hands. So I made an appointment and did the deed! Joice was seriously amazing – incredibly warm and sweet and made me feel instantly at ease. And I was so pleased to see she was left-handed. :) I have no idea why I was so afraid of the needle, as it didn't resemble anything remotely needle like. It just looked like a regular pen.

The second one I've been wanting for probably about 5 years. It's based on this necklace pendant, which is the first piece of jewelry my dad gave my mom (her name is Concetta but she goes by Chet or Chettie), and they'll be celebrating their 50th anniversary next year! I'm really close to both my parents and I've always loved the design of this necklace, so I knew it would make a great tattoo. I feel like my mom is with me in spirit so this is a perfect physical manifestation of that closeness.

Blur-tacular photo but I'm too lazy to take a clearer picture. Trust me, it looks great.

Neither of mine hurt, although that could be because I got them in pretty low-pain spots. Just felt like some slight pinching. As for the husband, he showed his solidarity in getting a finger tattoo inspired by our beloved plushies. Specifically, it was based on Yoyamart Babo.

He also got this really cool overlapping circles tattoo on his wrist. Joice is amazing with color so I may have to get a colorful mermaid from her eventually. 😉

So that wraps up Curator's Corner. How have you been? And do you have a tattoo or are you thinking about getting one? Please feel free to email me with any questions. I'm by no means an expert but I did a ton of research before taking the plunge, so I can probably help with general stuff, like finding an artist, aftercare, etc. 🙂

This week's links.

– I've always been fascinated by makeup product names, and this name generator is easily one of the funniest makeup-related things I've seen, like, ever. (Also, Autumn's book officially releases Tuesday! I'm patiently waiting for my pre-order to show up.)

– What possessed this woman to apply 100 coats of polish to her nails is beyond me, but it was an interesting result nonetheless. In other nail news, these beautifully detailed cityscapes give new meaning to the term "nail art".

– You knew it was just a matter of time before the rainbow trend extended from brows and lashes to eye liner.

– Refinery29 brings us a really cool photography exhibition on braids.

– In beauty history, the Glamourologist features a truly stunning early 2oth-century patch box that I'd kill to have in the Museum's collection, while Glamour Daze has a great little read on traditional geisha lip color (and did you know that there's a small museum run by the manufacturers of one of these lip colors in Tokyo?! You can actually learn to apply it and buy it too. Must make a pilgrimage.)

– Hey, jealousy: a new study seems to indicate that women are jealous of other women who wear makeup. Meanwhile, Influenster polled over 5,000 millennial women to get their thoughts on the beauty industry and their own beauty practices. The results were largely unsurprising; however, I did find it odd that pink won as the most popular color for nail polish – I thought millennials would be geared to a more non-traditional color.

The random:

– Art Daily rounds up some cool shows I want to see, including one devoted to cats in ancient Egypt and a retrospective of shoes that spans over 2,000 years.

– In '90s nostalgia, Beck's Odelay turns 20, and an artist created an entire series of mixed-media works based on the 1993 film True Romance.

– My favorite old crank and spirit animal will be returning for another season.

– Finally, even though my dad refuses to get online despite my best efforts, he's still the greatest dad so I'm wishing him a very happy Father's Day!

How was your week? And what was your lipstick's name? Mine was Jungian Bosom. 😀

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This week's links.

– I am mesmerized by this gemstone-inspired lip art.

– Broadly had a nice history of junk food-themed beauty items…too bad it didn't mention my take on the subject. Speaking of food-related makeup, check out this pizza highlighter. Amazing!

– Cool off with some refreshing watermelon hair. Or if you're already looking forward to fall, try forest hair. Whatever you do though, don't use a drone for a trim.

– A lot of little girls dabble in their mother's makeup, but this Australian 6 year-old takes it to the next level.

– Meli at Wild Beauty presents a genius hack for Clarisonic brush storage.

The random:

– Duh.

– In '90s nostalgia, Nylon explores the trends from the decade that have yet to make a comeback, and Belle & Sebastian's Tigermilk turns 20.

– Summer's here and so is mermaid mania! This is a workout class I'd actually be excited to take, and I could dry off afterwards with this towel. But I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of a Splash remake. That was the movie that made me obsessed with mermaids and I don't think anyone should mess with the original.

What's new with you?

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I can't believe I didn't get any posts up this week. I won't explain why but suffice it to say I've been very overwhelmed lately. Hopefully I'll keep up this week! Now for some links.

– Loved this piece on aging by Autumn. (Also, have you ordered her new book yet?!)

– As with magnifying mirrors, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with this next level wifi enabled mirror.

– In somewhat depressing but not unsurprising news, women who wear makeup tend to have higher salaries than their non-made-up counterparts.

– Move over, rainbow highlighter – thermal is where it's at. Also, if you're in the mood for an alien effect, try using highlighter as your only makeup.

– More crazy/fun stuff includes using honey as a face wash (somewhat legit), famous paintings rendered in hair, and from the man who brought us snack-food inspired makeup, another contouring parody, this time involving a burrito (yes, you read that correctly.)

– If you need a dose of makeup history, check out the Glamourologist's posts on lipstick pads and stencils, along with this Reddit user's middle school makeup collection from the '90s. I'd love to get my hands on it!

The random:

– Always happy to see an interview with one of my heroes.

– Behold, the world's ugliest color.

– People, please stop touching the art and watch your kids instead of filming them. But at least there was some good/funny news in the art world.

What's new with you? Are you excited for summer?

So much to catch up on…I'm still wiped out from my niece's Star Wars b-day party yesterday but I think a good time was had by all. 🙂

– Look out, it's attack of the bubble masks!

– So glad someone else knows that contouring has officially jumped the shark and made an appropriate parody tutorial.

– Hair trends over the past few weeks include stencilling and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde hair. As for facial hair, brows and lashes go full color.

– Questionable beauty advice: putting one's face in a bowl of ice upon waking (no), applying foundation with a sock (no) and using limes as deodorant (definite NO).

– Racked has an interesting piece on the "new" lip gloss and how glossy lip texture is becoming trendy again. (I never thought it was out to begin with…)

– I think this artist-run beauty salon is more my speed, but a spa inside a Burger King doesn't sound bad either.

– Now this is a 100-years-of-beauty video I can get behind.

– Some more science-y articles I've come across are the chemistry behind makeup and this "second skin".

– OMG.

The random:

– I don't feel quite as bad about being so attached to my material possessions, thanks to this new study.

– In '90s nostalgia, it was weird '90s week at Stereogum! Loved the whole series, but my favorite posts were on the Spice Girls, the story behind Len's "Steal My Sunshine" and of course, the bizarre swing revival that took place in the later part of the decade. Meanwhile, the Huffington Post shares an oral history of The Craft.

– For you sneaker pimps, check out this upcoming exhibition.

– How come this 15-year-old 's Apple Museum that he started in his basement turned into a legitimate institution in just 5 years, while my poor museum still continues to struggle? It's an interesting collection but also annoying that it occupies a public space with less effort and time than I've put into my project.

– Oops.

– Loved this piece on the world of professional mermen. Along those lines, check out these biodegradable can rings – so much better than plastic for mermaids' sea creature buddies.

What's new with you?

Links for the week.

– This 80-year-old proves you're never too old to wear lots of makeup.

– Allure rounds up the best beauty looks from the Met Gala, while Teen Vogue analyzes Gigi Hadid's $2,000 manicure she wore for the event.

– In hair news, gems are back and furry-chested men can rejoice. If you still need more '90s beauty trends, you're in luck: Bath and Body Works will be bringing back its most popular scents from the decade.

– Despite nasty allergic reactions and salon treatment mishaps, "natural" products really aren't any better for you.

– Tastes like chicken.

The random:

– One of my favorite aspects of the '90s was its sketch comedy, so naturally I liked this article on The State.

– My brain is hyper-sensitive to all things Star Wars-related due to planning an epic Star Wars themed birthday party for my niece, so I appreciated this history of Star Wars Day.

– A tip for climbing up to a priceless statue and taking a selfie with it: DON'T.

Happy Mother's Day!