Last year I made a pilgrimage up to Manhattan to catch the exhibition of vintage lipsticks at the Makeup in New York show.  This year I realized I had to go back for the 2014 show since it featured an exhibition of vintage compacts and powder boxes. 

Awning

The banner was cool but I'm laughing at the date typo at the top.  Those June dates were for the 2014 Makeup in Paris show.  Whoops.

Banner-outside

Inside there was a directory, which in hindsight I should have looked at before blindly wandering upstairs. I walked around the 2nd and 3rd floors before realizing the exhibition was on the 4th floor.  I was just so eager and there weren't any maps being given out like last year.

Directory-banner

I made it!  I think there might have been an issue with this banner too, although this time I think it's a translation issue rather than a typo.  In the directory banner and online the exhibition is referred to as "Praise of Complexion" while on the exhibition banner it says "An Ode to the Complexion".  Oh well.  I think perhaps they were just re-using the name of the 2012 Guerlain-sponsored exhibition, which featured many of the same items.

Exhibition-banner

Exhibition view:

Exhibition2

The tall handsome man on the far right holding a coffee cup and politely pretending to be interested is the husband.  Isn't he sweet to come with me to the exhibition?

Praise-of-complexion-exhibition-view

So let's get started.  I didn't take pictures of every object but I did get a nice selection.  These two ladies greeted me by the front door.  They're papier maché powder boxes from 1920.

Papier-mache-lady-powder-box

Papier-machier-powder-box-1920

By the windows there was a great lineup, starting with some oddly surrealist powder boxes.

Dressing-Table and Piano-compacts

Piano-compact-label

There were some lovely French 18th-century-inspired compacts and boxes from the 1920s.  So even in the '20s companies were doing the retro packaging thing.

1920s-compacts

This display of Bourjois boxes was pretty cool.

Bourjois

Bourjois label

I was thinking that if I ever did a bird-themed exhibition I'd definitely have to have a peacock display.  Looks like Praise of Complexion beat me to it!  The top box from Nylotis is from 1920 while the other box and compact are from 1930.

Peacocks

These two 1962 Heaven Sent compacts by Helena Rubinstein are so cute.  The one on the left would be perfect for a holiday exhibition.

HR-Heaven-Sent-1962

Here's the famous "Golden Gesture" compact by Volupté from 1945.  (Why yes, that IS a Babo iPhone case.  Come on, did you really expect me to have something else?)

Volupte-compact-1945

Here's a bakelite bangle containing powder flanked by two lipsticks (1928).

Bracelet-compact-1928

As we know, celebrity collabs are nothing new.  Check out these compacts featuring the A-list performers of their time.

Sarah-Bernhardt-box

SB-Mary-Garden-label

SB-and-Mary-Garden-label

There were also some quite fancy compacts on display that seem to be closer to the objects at the Ultra Vanities exhibition.  On the left is a 1945 gold and silver compact encrusted with rubies by Boucheron and on the right is Hermès (1960).

Fancy-compacts

I think what I enjoyed most though were the really old boxes, like these French ones from the 18th century.

18th-century-powder-box

18th-century-boxes

The small one at the top has a picture of Marie Antoinette on the outer side of the case.

18th-century-box-marie-antoinette

18thcentury-boxes-label

I was curious to know whether these selections were from a book, and indeed they were.  This book is from 2012 but doesn't seem to be available for sale anywhere, which is a shame as it also was the impetus for the aforementioned Guerlain exhibition.  🙁

Exhibition-book

I didn't dare touch the book in the display, but I tried picking up the copy laying on the table to flip through it, only to find that the back cover was adhered to the table with putty.  Respectful exhibition goer that I am, I took it as a sign that no one wanted it to be moved so I just perused it carefully while it was still laying flat.  Not 10 minutes later I glanced back and it was gone.  And NO, I didn't steal it!  I'd be pissed if it were my exhibition and someone walked off with a copy of a book that was deliberately not supposed to be moved.  I couldn't believe someone just snatched it.  It's not like it could be mistaken for a free catalogue – there was only 1 besides the one standing upright in the display.  Plus someone took the time to adhere it to the table with putty, indicating that you should only flip through it at the table.

Anyway, I thought display-wise it was a big improvement over last year.  The labels were more informative and better designed, and there were pretty floral patterns on the backgrounds of the cases holding the compacts.

After I was done drooling over the exhibition we wandered around and a couple of other things caught my eye.  Right behind the exhibition there was a booth from a company called Qualipac, which, apparently, was responsible for the spiky Louboutin nail polish bottle along with many other objects I recognized.

Qualipac-display

I asked the woman working there about the bottle and she said the Louboutin people were "very picky".  I thought that was pretty funny.  Then again, if they want people to shell out $50 for their nail polish they can't afford to put it in just any old packaging, right?  Plus I imagine beauty companies would have the upper hand in terms of choosing a packaging vendor, given the sheer volume of them I witnessed at this show, so I bet they can be as picky as they want.

I can't remember which company this was but I loved the little lipstick tree they had set up.

Lipstick-display

This is a terrible picture but you can sort of make out the really cool floral print nail polish bottle caps in the lower right.  I spied an array of wooden caps above too, so I'm speculating that this company (Pinkpac) may do the packaging for Sheswai.

Pink-Pac-nail polishes

I spotted something very interesting at this company's display.  If you look towards the middle-left you'll see two Tom Ford lipsticks (one burgundy, the other ivory) covered in a croc-patterned leather case.  I'm assuming this is just an example of what they would look like with leather casing and weren't actually put into production.  Still, I wonder if we'll see them at a later time?

TF-leather-croc-lipsticks

I couldn't resist picking up a t-shirt – something that wasn't available last year.

MU-in-NY-shirt

MU-in-NY-shirtback

There was also a bag like last year with bits of swag.  It had the same Pantone-esque collection of vendors and a pencil, but this year the pencil had glitter (ooh!) and there were also lipstick and nail polish samples.

MU-in-NY-swag

So that's my tale from the 2014 Makeup in New York show.  I hope there's an equally cool exhibition next year. 

What are your thoughts?

MU-NY-badge

I was so pleased I was able to trek up to NYC last Thursday to see Makeup in New York's show and vintage lipstick exhibition!  It was fun to walk around and see all the packaging companies, but the main draw for me, of course, was seeing some highlights from Lips of Luxury up close and in person. 

The show was held at Center 548 in Chelsea, which is an area of NYC I'm not too familiar with – we normally stick to Soho and Union Square, with occasional jaunts to where all the department stores are (uptown? downtown?):

Center-548

Makeup-new-york-sign

Nice little brochures were provided when you checked in.

MU-NY-brochure

I eagerly searched to find where the lipstick exhibition was.

Makeup-ny-brochure

Fortunately it was on the 2nd floor so I didn't have to climb too many steps to get there!

Lipstick-exhibition-sign

Right up front were the Revlon Couturines!!

Revlon-couturines

Revlon-couturine-sphinx

Behind those was that crazy Lenox lipstick holder:

Lenox-lipstick-holder

Some other treasures:

Sleek-cases

African-figures

Chanel-ivoire

Lipstick-shoe

Princess-pat-max-factor

Animal-figures

Why yes, that IS a mermaid-shaped lipstick case!! 

Mermaid-lipstick2

Kitsch-lipstick

Mu-ny-show

Huge dork that I am, I had brought my copy of Lips of Luxury with me in the hopes of getting either Jean-Marie Martin-Hattenberg (the author) or Anne Camilli (Editorial Director) to sign it, if they happened to be at the exhibition.  And I thought maybe I could give them my card.  I did in fact meet Anne, but ultimately I was too chicken to actually ask for an autograph or start plugging the Makeup Museum.  My husband pointed out that it may not have been as weird as I thought to ask her to sign the book, as she was the one who, you know, helped write it.  But I thought I might come off as annoying or worse, some kind of creepy stalker, so I just said I was a big fan of the book and left her alone.

Overall, I thought it was a well-curated exhibition.  The selections were definitely what I would have chosen from the book.  I did think, however, that the presentation could use a little work.  The glass jars with the pink tops were cute, but the acrylic stands that some of the lipsticks were sitting on within them looked pretty cheap.  And the jar wasn't the best choice of display vessel for the Alberto Guardiani lipstick shoe – it looked squashed in there!  I also would have made the label text  nicer and with thicker paper.  Good typography and quality paper goes a long way.  Of course, I have little room to talk since I tend to cram items onto the shelves I use for my exhibitions and the shelves themselves aren't tremendously well-made.  Still, I think for a formal exhibition in a "real" public space I'd go the extra mile to make sure everything looks amazing.

After I was done drooling over the exhibition, we explored the other booths and saw what conference sessions were taking place.

Mu-in-ny-sessions

On the way out I helped myself to a goodie bag.

MU-NY-bag

I thought this was cool – it's all the packaging companies that attended the expo in Pantone swatchbook form.

MU-NY-packaging-brands

A bag of samples of the latest and greatest in packaging:

Makeup-ny-sample-bag

Copy of Beauty Packaging magazine and a pencil.

Beauty-packaging-mag-pencil

Mu-ny-pencil

Then after that we hit up Soho for some shopping.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, for my credit card balance) I didn't see anything I wanted, but as we were walking to catch a cab back to Penn Station I caught a glimpse of something very exciting – the space where a new outpost of Ladurée will be!!  It's supposed to open in mid-November and will be the biggest in the world!!  It will definitely make staying in Soho all the sweeter once it opens, literally. 

You can see more photos from the Makeup In New York show here.  🙂