I've obviously been very busy given the neglect of this poor little blog, but I was still collecting links over the past few weeks. Here's a massive catch-up.
– Here's a great piece at The Hairpin on the myth of white beauty and how actress Lupita Nyong'o is helping to "loosen the claws of colorism."
– NARS will be collaborating with designer Christopher Kane for a spring 2015 collection. I liked the Pierre Hardy collab so I'm excited to see what colors they'll come up with. Other news of note includes the Hourglass flagship opening in L.A. and an upcoming collaboration between Sephora and jewelry designer Alexis Bittar.
– A study by Lancôme shows that most women start to feel old at the age of 45 but feel 5 years younger up to that point. I guess I'm an anomaly – I've been feeling ancient since I was, oh, 18.
– Oh, take your stupid survey and shove it, St. Ives. I'm with this author over at the Beauty Plus – I don't give a flying fig what men think of my makeup.
– In beauty history, Beautiful With Brains shares some 19th century haircare recipes, while The Cut reports on the recent discovery of the remains of an ancient Egyptian woman sporting hair extensions. XOJane also shares yet more deadly or dangerous historical beauty practices.
– Sigh. Date rape drug-detecting nail polish, like so many anti-sexual assault strategies, puts the burden of prevention on the victim. See why it's a misguided idea here and here. How about focusing our energy on, you know, teaching people not to rape?
– Rouge Deluxe has the full scoop on the Shu Uemura Shupette holiday collection. I know where most of the Museum's budget is going this holiday season!
– Is my dream of an effective hands-free hair dryer finally coming to fruition?
– In beauty trends, faux freckles are making their way back to the spotlight, and Topshop's new freckle pencil is proof. Also check out XOVain's report on it, which includes a very nice shout-out to the Museum and a link to my post from last summer on fake freckles. Additionally, it looks like drawn-on spots are here to stay through spring 2015, as evidenced by several runway shows at New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week.
– Speaking of NYFW, let's take a quick look at the top trends, shall we? I hate to say it but I'm not crazy about the biggest one: the no-makeup look. Models were sent down the runway with literally no makeup at all at Marc Jacobs, while at some shows they were deliberately made to look as though they were sweating. Ugh. The only beauty look I really liked was Rodarte's slightly punk eyebrow rings, which sadly isn't even wearable for the average woman, i.e. me. I guess we'll see what the spring makeup collections have to say.
The random:
– So I'm not that bright. A new study suggests that children's drawings show how smart they are. Given my god-awful drawings (I couldn't really even do a proper stick figure) I fear my IQ may be lower than I originally thought.
– In other art news: Hershey Park, eat your heart out. A chocolate museum just opened in Brussels, Belgium. Must. Go. And you all know how much I love Morris Louis, so it's great news that images of over 1,000 of his works have been made available online. Of course, there is always some news that pisses me off, like this nonprofit getting serious funding for a museum devoted to the history of video games. Once again I wonder why no one wants to pony up for a beauty museum.
– Coming off the heels of my re-watching of Strangers with Candy, I'm especially looking forward to this new animated Netflix series voiced by Amy Sedaris and Will Arnett.
– Being the huge Sleater-Kinney fan that I am, I have pre-ordered this very special box set. October 21st can't get here fast enough.
– Finally, I am heading north for the Makeup in New York show this week and I can't wait! Last year you may recall I went to see the collection of lipsticks that were on display from the book Lips of Luxury. This year I'm going to see "Praise of Complexion" which features vintage compacts and powder boxes. I'll be back with a full report. Too bad I won't have time to pop over to Brooklyn to see the "Killer Heels" exhibition.
What's going on with you?