The scoop for this week.
– Art Info lists lots of good museum exhibits coming this year, although the one I want to see most isn't in this list. For shame!
– Some great new-to-me art blogs – Alberti's Window and the funny gif-based Art Handlin'.
– The Beauty Shortlist gives us their predictions for 2013's beauty trends.
– Currently trending in Asia? Fake braces, apparently. Unlike BB creams, that's one trend that I guarantee will NOT be making its way to the Western world.
– Estée Lauder is collaborating with Lilly Pulitzer to create eight (!) limited-edition makeup bags available as gifts-with-purchase. All will have a beachy theme to them, so I sense at least a few of them will be making their way into the Museum's collection – good stuff for summer exhibitions.
– The New York Times published an online discussion debating whether wearing makeup is bad for self-esteem. Sigh. I'd write a counterpoint to it but many bloggers already have posted excellent responses to it, the one I agree with most being from Wild Beauty.
– Season 3 of Portlandia premiered last night. While I've been a fan since the show started (and even titled a blog post after one of their skits), I have to say I was disappointed by last night's episode. First, they managed to ruin The Wire for me. I had finally started watching the series on Netflix and had just started the third season, and I really didn't need to know that my favorite character eventually gets killed. Um, thanks. More disturbingly, they made a fat joke, which I thought was pretty low and completely weird. What I like about Portlandia is the gentle fun it pokes at kooky Portland stereotypes – it's never offensive or upsetting. And Carrie has been my idol for well over a decade so for her to allow something crappy like making fun of a heavyset woman in her show was really surprising and such a bummer! Of course, I can't find a clip online but it was the pedicab bit. Not cool.
– Don't want to end on a bad note, so I'll leave you with this: remember how earlier this week I was lamenting the fact that I couldn't buy the supposedly Japan-exclusive Tsuyoshi Hirano for Shu Uemura cleansing oils? Guess what, they're available for sale at the Shu website! Well, the Seoul one isn't being offered, but the other two (Tokyo and Shanghai) are, along with the palettes. I will post pics as soon as they get here.