With some exhibitions I get a certain word or phrase caught in the old noggin. This summer all I kept hearing in my head was “tropical fruit and sea creature EXPLOSION!” As you may know, the husband designs all the exhibition posters and I literally asked him for that exact phrase. How he came up with the poster from my sad little sketch is beyond me – it shows how truly talented he is, as he was able transform my awful drawing into the “explosion” I was after. (I put “make it pop” on there purely as a joke. If you’ve ever worked with a designer you know they loathe this useless cliché.)
Anyway, fruit and sea creatures aren’t unexpected choices for summer, but I feel as though this year was particularly, well, fruity and sea creature-centric. As we’ll see, it seems the recent fashion trend of putting pineapples, watermelon and the like on everything from jackets and dresses to a variety of accessories has carried over to the beauty world. Sadly, I was not able to get my hands on the ultimate fruity items – the patterns on PaiPai’s two most recent collections are positively bursting with tropical fruits – but what I do have is a decent mix. Meanwhile, as I predicted, the mermaid beauty trend is going strong in 2017 as well so naturally I had to include a bunch of items to represent it. While I’ve been including mermaid-themed and sea creature-adorned pieces for the past few summer exhibitions, this year I wanted to tie the two more closely together – it’s a sort of celebration of the friendship between mermaids and the animals that share the ocean with them. Mermaids aren’t real, of course, but I love pretending they are, so part of the exhibition’s purpose is to express the bonds they would have with seahorses, octopuses, etc. When I was envisioning the exhibition I was putting myself in a mermaid’s shoes (er, tail), so showing the animals I’d be hanging out with was my way of imagining a mermaid’s perspective. Overall, while the exhibition is very literal in that it displays items with fruit, mermaids and their assorted underwater pals on the packaging, it’s nevertheless an admirable portrayal of the top trends this season…and also what exists in my mermaid-obsessed brain.
Top shelves, left to right.
I agonized for days over whether to display this palette by Saucebox open or closed. Ultimately closed won out so you could see the mermaid, but you can see it open on my Instagram here.
Oh, MAC Fruity Juicy – one of the most fun collections they’ve done in a while. I purchased two more of the coconut setting spray so that I’d have some to actually use. I don’t think it does much, but between the vibrant packaging and yummy coconut scent it definitely perks me up in the mornings, as misting my face with setting spray is the last thing I do before dashing out the door to work. It’s the little things, right?
I’ve been waiting with bated breath for Unicorn Lashes’ mermaid brush set, but found out it won’t be released till much later this summer so I had to settle for these. I do like the company I ordered from as it offered a terrific variety of mermaid tail brushes, including this oh-so-evil/goth black set. The larger brush is not the one I ordered – I’m still waiting for it to arrive (it’s got glitter!), so I had to substitute the one that came free with the Saucebox palette. Hopefully the one I wanted on display will get here soon.
I forget how I stumbled across this…I think I was searching for vintage mermaid compacts. I wasn’t able to find any of the ones that appear in this ad, but at least I found the ad itself. Still, these are compacts I’d pay a pretty penny for, as they’re simply adorable.
The vaguely threatening nature of the copy cracks me up: “There won’t be any more EVER“. I guess it’s the predecessor of limited-edition scare tactics. You know that if I were alive in 1965 I would have bought all 3 compacts right away so I didn’t miss out – that line definitely would make me buy them immediately.
While I was disappointed at not being able to track down any of the Revlon compacts, this vintage Stratton more than made up for it! How awesome is this?! I’m so happy to add a vintage mermaid compact to the Museum’s collection.
Second row, left to right.
The lovely Anna Sui summer collection:
These Chantecaille compacts remain among my favorites of the over 1,000 items in the Museum’s collection. I really should update my sad photos of them.
Tarte released more Lip Rescues this year. I think I like the prints even more than last year’s batch!
I was overjoyed to see my favorite fruit embossed onto an eye shadow palette. I don’t know much about the Tanya Burr line, but this was too cute to pass up.
Third row, left to right.
It wouldn’t be a proper Makeup Museum exhibition without some preciousness from Paul & Joe, would it?
I found this brand on Instagram. I adore all the illustrations on the packaging, which is recyclable and printed with soy ink, but was mildly disappointed in their customer service. While my order arrived without incident, I’m bummed that I never received a reply to my email asking if they work with a particular illustrator and what their inspiration might be. The designs are just so cute, I figured there must be an artist behind them. In any case, these Lip Parfaits in Summer Cone and Exotic Fruits perfectly fit the summer exhibition theme. (I’m eyeing the rest of the Lip Parfaits – I NEED Guilty Pug!)
This starfish-embossed powder from Estée Lauder is so pretty, I wish they’d release more like it.
Tokyo Milk’s Neptune and the Mermaid collection technically consists of fragrance and bath and body products instead of makeup, but I couldn’t NOT put it in the exhibition.
I love how the mermaid is gazing at her nails, perhaps wondering if she needs a manicure (mer-icure?)
Bottom row, left to right.
This shelf is looking a little sparse because I’m missing yet another item. I ordered several of Etude House’s Glass Tinting Lips Talk cases (I want all of them!), including one with a hilarious cartoonish pineapple face, but every time I click on the tracking number it says it’s not found. So I suspect my package is lost. Sigh. Anyway, I did manage to find this delightful Tony Moly gloss and you might remember my joy at scoring the Paul & Joe eye shadow on Ebay. It’s one of my most treasured finds since I wasn’t collecting at the time it was released (2004) and I’m forever trying to track down Paul & Joe items that were released prior to 2006 – they pop up so rarely.
I wasn’t going to buy Lancôme’s summer 2016 bronzer initially and then caved after the summer exhibition went up so I figured I’d include it this year, especially since the design goes so nicely with Clarins summer 2017 bronzer. The latter was another difficult call to make as to whether to display it open or closed. Once again closed won out since the print on the outer case is just as pretty as what’s inside, plus the Lancôme one is open so I thought a combination of closed and open worked best.
Another mermaid palette from another indie beauty retailer. While I was really hoping Bitter Lace Beauty’s mermaid palette would be released in time for the exhibition, obviously I’m pleased to display this one and the Saucebox palette. 🙂
Another perennial favorite: MAC’s To the Beach collection from 2010. As with the Chantecaille palettes I should probably update the original photos.
So that’s it! I hope the exhibition put you in a summery mood. I for one am craving pineapple and a visit to the aquarium. 🙂