I'm so very excited to announce the Makeup Museum's special exhibition in honor of Stila's 25th anniversary! I was too overwhelmed to do a full history of the brand, so I decided to just focus on the famous Stila girl illustrations. If you've been following me for a while you know that the Stila girls were sort of the gateway drug for my interest in collecting makeup and seeing cosmetics packaging as art. For such a milestone anniversary I knew I wanted to pay tribute to them, even though the year is almost over (thankfully – it's been miserable for a number of reasons), especially given that I've been itching to put together a special exhibition for them since at least 2016. I also wanted to try something totally new for the Museum in terms of exhibitions. Technically all of them are online, but instead of putting things on shelves and taking photos, I wanted it to have a more "real" online exhibition feel. I've been doing a lot of thinking the past year or so about how to improve the exhibitions even though I'm so limited in what I can do, and I was really inspired by the Kanebo Compact Museum website, and once the husband showed me Squarespace I was sold. Well that, and the fact that he kindly offered to design the entire exhibition site for me. ;) So I set up a domain there which, if this exhibition is well-received, will serve as the space for the Museum's special exhibitions going forward. The seasonal ones will remain here if I decide to keep going with them. Looking ahead, I think I'd rather focus on more specific topics than general seasonal trends. Not that I can delve too deeply into particular themes given the never-ending lack of resources, but I still want to at least try to do slightly more in-depth exhibitions even though they won't be exactly how I want them. I'm looking at them as a starting point for bigger things.
Enough of my blabbing about the basic stuff, I want to give some more details about the exhibition itself. It came together nicely, or at least, it was the one I worked most on with the possible exception of Sweet Tooth (still want to revisit that one!) I really wanted to get interviews with the key people behind the illustrations, so I put my crippling fear of rejection aside and boldly contacted Jeffrey Fulvimari (Stila's original illustrator), Caitlin Dinkins (illustrator during Stila's early aughts heyday) and Naoko Matsunaga (who took over for Dinkins in 2009). While I was disappointed at not hearing back from two of the three, if only one responded, I was glad it was Jeffrey since I've been following him for a while on Instagram and I love his approach to art and his personality. He is quite the character! It ended up giving me so much confidence I reached out to the grand poobah herself and my curatorship namesake, Jeanine Lobell. Yes, I actually DM'ed the founder of Stila on Instagram and asked if she'd be up for an interview. And…and…are you sitting down?? You really need to. Okay, now that you're sitting and won't have far to fall in case you faint, I can tell you that she agreed to do it!!
Not only that, she actually answered all of my interview questions!! You have no idea how ecstatic I was to finally be heard by a major industry figure. Took over a decade but I finally made contact with a big name! So that was most exciting, easily one of the most exciting things to happen in the Museum's 11-year history. And her answers were really good too, I've incorporated them throughout the exhibition so make sure to read through.
As for the items, I didn't take photos of everything in my collection because again, too overwhelming. The Museum has over 130 Stila items, nearly all of which feature the girls. I mean…
The photos I did take have purposely plain backgrounds because I wanted the emphasis to be on the illustrations. I tried to have a good mix of memorabilia and the makeup itself. I even had to iron a few items.
I also included a couple photos of things that I don't actually own but are important in getting a full picture (haha) of the illustrations. I'm pleased with how the sections are arranged, and I must thank my husband for organizing them so perfectly in addition to designing the whole site. I'm thinking of adding a section called Soundbites, a repository of quotes from the both the beauty community and general public telling me why they like the Stila girls or really anything related to the brand, so be sure to email me or comment here. I really wish I could have an app that would "Stila girl-ize" the user, i.e. you upload a picture of yourself and it would automatically generate a Stila girl style illustration of you, just like this. And of course, if the Museum occupied a physical space I'd definitely hire an artist to do live drawings at the exhibition opening – how fun would that be?
So that about wraps it up! Please take a look and tell me what you think of the new exhibition format!
When I was re-organizing the Museum's collection storage I realized I had never featured these Stila Look of the Month palettes. Plus I figured it would be a good follow-up to my vintage zodiac compact post from last week.
In early 2004 Stila released the first of 12 adorable 3-pan palettes sold exclusively at Nordstrom. They sold for $8 each empty, and for every month Stila recommended specific eye shadows and blush pans from their line to go in the palettes along with other products that would complement the palette items. While mine are not in mint condition, they're in pretty good shape considering that 1. they're over 10 years old at this point; 2. they're made of laminated cardboard, which isn't the sturdiest material; and 3. I (stupidly) actually used them to house eye shadows for a period of time before moving them to metal palettes. I totally couldn't remember the suggested shades for each one, but fortunately a very helpful reviewer at MUA listed them all. Many things are long discontinued, which I've marked with an asterisk.
Here are January and February. January's suggested shades: Shore* and Pewter eye shadows, Bloom blush*. Other items to go with the colors in the palette: Grapefruit Lip Glaze, and All Over Shimmer #7 (All Over Shimmers were pressed highlighting powders.)
February's shades: Cassia*, Shell and Poise eye shadows. Other items: Lillium Convertible Color and Demi Pink Twinset* (the Twinsets were double-ended products with a matte lip shade on one end and a high-shine gloss on the other that could be layered together or worn separately.)
March's shades: Wheat, Sage* and Espresso eye shadows. Other items: Nude Flash*, Praline Lip Glaze
April: Charm* and Cassis eye shadows, Cozy blush*. Other items: Fig Lip Glaze*, All Over Shimmer #1*
May: Launey*, Sun and Twig eye shadows. Other items: Gerbera Convertible Color, Spangle Lip Polish*
June: Chinois and Jade eye shadows, Tint blush*. Other items: Twinkle Lip Polish*
July: Ray*, Sun and Twig eye shadows
August: Nude* and Puppy eye shadows, Soar* blush
September: Wheat, Golightly and Java eye shadows. Other items: Teak Convertible Eye Color*, Water Lily Rouge Pot*, Gleam Lip Polish*
October: Oasis, Jezebel* and Mood* eye shadows. Other items: Clove Convertible Eye Color*, Amaryllis Rouge Pot*, Praline Lip Glaze, Illuminating Powder Foundation
November: Heather*, Viola* and Pigalle* eye shadows. Other items: Berry Convertible Eye Color*, Rose Convertible Color, Fraise Lip Pot*, Illuminating Liquid Foundation
December: Twilight* and Storm* eye shadows, Cozy blush*. Other items: Pomegranate Lip Glaze*, Illuminating Liquid Foundation, All Over Shimmer #8*
I simply adore how each illustration perfectly corresponds to its respective month. The names of the months aren't listed but you can easily tell which is which, or at the very least, which of the four seasons it belongs to. I like to think of them as a modern, fun version of medieval Labors of the Months – but no work, only play for these stylish Stila ladies. I also love that the patterns continue on the inside of the palettes.
I would greatly enjoy telling you more about the artist responsible for these particular Stila girls, but that's a special exhibition story for another time. 😉
What do you think? I know I am seriously pining for Stila's glory days, when they were chock full of these incredibly cute illustrations. Also, if you're curious about any of the discontinued eye shadow shades, I can tell you about those as I own nearly all of them – they still apply flawlessly.
The second installment of Stila’s 2012 travel palette series features a brunette taking a stroll through downtown Seoul at dusk, as indicated by the soft purple-pink horizon dotted with stars.
For the life of me though, I can’t figure out what buildings are in the background. The two tallest ones on the left look vaguely like Jongno Tower. However, there aren’t two of those towers as far as I know, and the palette clearly shows two similar looking buildings.
Anyway, here’s the inside of the palette.
And the quote, which is actually a Korean proverb. Now that I think about it, it would have been kind of cool to have it written in Korean in addition to English (same goes for the Rio palette – they should have had the quote in Portuguese).
This isn’t my favorite Stila travel palette because I don’t know what the buildings are! Can anyone help me identify the architecture in the background?
Good Lord, yet ANOTHER travel-themed palette from Stila, this time in collaboration with Nordstrom. And like a good little Stila girl addict I bought it. The On the Road palette features a blonde girl with a '60s hippie/folk singer thing going on, complete with floppy hat and guitar.
The inside colors are in rectangle form rather than circles. (And once you take off the plastic on this section of the palette it can't be replaced, so as a collector I was loathe to remove it).
Not Stila's best effort – we have a location-less Stila girl, no quote on the inside of the palette and a subject (travel) that's been done by the company approximately 3,762,009 times already…but I bought it anyway because there may be a travel-themed exhibition on the horizon. 😉
In honor of my recent trip to Paree, I thought I'd post about Stila's 2nd travel palette in their 5-part series. I really loved the journal by Stila girl "Chelsea". She talks about the rose-flavored macarons at Ladur̩e (they seriously became like my crack in Paris РI came back to Ladur̩e twice to get more after my initial visit!) and the Cafe Marly at the Louvre, where we enjoyed a beautiful view of the glass pyramid on our last night in Paris.
Now on to the palette itself. Here's the outside (forgive the blurriness, for the life of me I couldn't get a good clear picture!) I love that she's wearing a striped top – they were everywhere in Paris. If she had a little neutral-colored scarf tied loosely around her neck she'd look just like all the chic Parisian women I saw!
The inside, with and without flash:
The quote:
In looking at this palette I remembered Stila did another travel series ages ago, in trio form. Here's Pretty in Paris next to Passage to Paris:
In terms of Paris represented or hinted at in makeup packaging, I think Nathalie Lété's work for Bourjois is still my favorite, but this palette is adorable too. Next destination for Stila: Tokyo!
The other day I was noticing how worn down my Stila Wheat eye shadow is and reminiscing about when I bought it. Then it dawned on me that it was the 10-year anniversary of my very Stila first eye shadow and Stila girl package! In October of 1999 I was a poor college student and my mother generously offered me to take me to the mall to buy me a treat. As I was perusing the makeup counters in Nordstrom (remember when Stila was still sold at Nordstrom?) this lovely little palette caught my eye:
I remember thinking that I had never seen a palette so adorable in my entire life! There she was, a brunette (like me!) putting on her makeup at her vanity. The palette is sold empty so I got 4 eye shadows to fill it: Wheat (still a staple for me to this day – its beigy-gold goodness goes with everything) Golightly (which, back then was known as Holly Golightly before copyright issues got in the way of Stila's eye shadow names) Chinois, which I was told to use as an eye shadow base (remember, this is 1999, long before real eye shadow primers had become mainstream essentials) and Espresso (Stila had yet to come out with real eye liners, so I was told to line my eyes with this deep brown shade using a thin, damp eye shadow brush.) As I started using and loving these shadows, I remember thinking that although the quality was superb, the best part about them was the palette they were housed in. And thus the obsession with the Stila girls started. No end in sight, of course. ;) I often wonder if I ever would have taken an interest in makeup packaging had it not been for the Stila girls.
So, happy birthday to my very first Stila palette! (Looking at the picture more closely, you can really tell how well-worn and therefore, well-loved, it truly is.)
I've been so excited to post these palettes but diligently waited till June. As I'm taking a stroll down the aisle myself next year, I'm especially happy to share these! These were a Japan-exclusive release in the summer of 2006.
I like that the bride is wearing pink instead of traditional white, and that the bridesmaid has a little flower in her hair:
The interiors of both:
I'm not sure if these were meant to be marketed to brides-to-be. I know I bought them well before I was even engaged, just because I have to have every palette with a Stila girl on it! But if so, I think the colors in the bride palette are a nice change from the usual neutral tones meant for brides (i.e., Bobbi Brown's bridal palette or the recently released Nars palette) – the blue eyeshadow could be the bride's "something blue". 🙂
Sephora, possibly my favorite store on Earth, turned ten years old this fall. To celebrate the company came out with several limited-edition items, including this lovely Stila can filled with goodies.
Some alternate views of the can:
I thought the paint can was a great way to celebrate Stila at Sephora. For those of you unfamiliar with Stila history, shortly after the brand was created, paint cans with Stila girls on them were placed at department store counters to hold Q-tips, brushes, cotton balls, etc. These cans proved to be cult items, as customers started walking off with them when the salespeople weren't looking – apparently they were too cute to resist! The company finally started understanding the popularity of these cans and began working them into their lineup as promotional, limited-edition items. While some may say it's predictable that Stila came out with another paint can to celebrate Sephora's 10-year anniversary, since Stila has been with Sephora almost since its inception, I think it's highly appropriate for them to create a special paint can for Sephora. Another can to add to my collection!
Stila Japan collaborated with CanCam magazine to create a limited-edition collection in honor of the magazine's 25th anniversary. It includes a lip glaze, makeup pouch and palette. The palette and bag feature a Stila girl holding a copy of CanCam magazine. I especially love the way the girl's gingham skirt becomes the print on the bag, as well as the adorable miniature red pom-poms on the zipper.
And here's the palette:
Since the palette is a rare item (at least in the U.S.) I've taken a shot of the shadows and blush:
I was curious about the publication itself and found this on Wikipedia: "Its name derives from 'I Can Campus', because girls who read it are expected to become 'campus leaders'. The magazine was created for these fashion-conscious consumers, and offers the latest information on fashion, makeup, bags, accessories, etc. The magazine is a popular fashion resource to 1st and 2nd year office ladies as well as university students." This is also Stila's main demographic (although I think the line is great for older women too!) so it makes sense that they teamed up with CanCam.
I like that Stila is still doing product tie-ins, even though they're in a country outside of the U.S…they need to do more here!
