So I have some big news!  No, the Museum does not have a physical space, but this is almost as good.  You might remember I've had a long-time love affair with Mexican brand Pai Pai, but was dismayed at the inability to obtain their lipsticks in the U.S. Well, the makeup gods smiled upon me, for Pai Pai has revamped their website and international shipping is now only 20 Mexican pesos (roughly $1.12 U.S. dollars).  It was a veritable Christmas in July miracle!  Naturally I bought plenty of goodies. Welcome to the Makeup Museum's collection, Pai Pai!

I thought I'd start with the most recent collab and work my way back.  For those of you not familiar with Pai Pai, the company has the genius idea to work with a different Mexican artist each season to create limited edition lipstick packaging that celebrates the country's heritage.  The newest partnership is with 24 year-old, Mexico City-based Jorge Serrano.  I couldn't find anything about what inspired the prints for his collection, as the Pai Pai blog seems to have disappeared in the website redesign, and the cached version only provided a general description of his style.  I've been following him on Instagram (he has such a great feed – lots of color and uplifting quotes rendered in his beautiful calligraphy) and was thinking about requesting an interview, but I'm not 100% sure he's fluent in English and my Spanish is so atrocious at this point I couldn't ask him anything.  So while I don't have any real information, I must say that I am positively in love with the vibrant, tropical lusciousness of this collection. As I lamented in the notes for the summer 2017 exhibition, I was so sad not to be able to buy Serrano's designs since they would have been perfect for the fruity theme, but I'm glad they're in my hot little hands now.  That's all that matters.  🙂

Jorge Serrano for Pai Pai

Jorge Serrano for Pai Pai

I love all the designs but these 2 are my favorites – pineapples galore and that bird is just too cute.

Jorge Serrano for Pai Pai

Serrano has dabbled in these motifs before.  Some examples from 2015 and 2014:

Jorge Serrano - Alas Olas

Bird illustration by Jorge Serrano

Pineapple print by Jorge Serrano

Pineapple print by Jorge Serrano

Thematically speaking, his work reminds me a little bit of I Scream Colour's – pop culture icons and mermaids abound.

Lady Gaga illustration by Jorge Serrano

These two were for Nylon Espanol.

Jorge Serrano for Nylon - Britney

Jorge Serrano for Nylon(images from @soyserrano)

Overall, Serrano is yet another artist whose work I have recently fallen in love with.  🙂

Next up, released a little further back in the spring was a collection by Poni Lab, a design company run by sisters Minerva and Denisse Mendoza.  These illustrations are also a ton of fun!  I love pineapple anything, as you know, but I think my favorite was the reverse mermaid…who's wearing lipstick.  Not only is it adorable, it was also inspired by Rene Magritte's 1934 work The Collective Invention (and/or possibly this one.) So bonus points for a really cool art history reference!

Poni Lab for Pai Pai

Poni Lab for Pai Pai

I had no idea these were Dr. Who/Back to the Future motifs until I actually had them in my hands.  Looking online I just thought they were cute little prints, but then when I took a closer look I realized they were very specific references (which I've linked for those of you not familiar).  As I did with one of Paul & Joe's recent lipstick cases, I thought I'd show the details because they are simply too clever not to.  Let's see, we have a Weeping Angel (these are one of the creepier monsters from Dr. Who), Nikes on a hoverboard and puffy red vest worn by Marty McFly, complete with Doc's "Great Scott!" exclamation (Back to the Future), and then the Tardis and a Dalek from Dr. Who.  The car with "where we're going we don't need roads", which you can see in the pictures above, is from Back to the Future.

Pai Pai x Poni Lab

Alas, the other ones in this collection had already sold out, but they were overwhelmingly cute as well.  A literal sweet tooth, some Warhol-esque bananas, a print full of friendly dinosaurs, rainbows and cookies all transported me to my happy place. I mean, you can't be sad when looking at these, right?

Pai Pai x Poni Lab
 

As with Serrano I couldn't find a ton of information on what inspired Poni Lab and wasn't sure about their English fluency, but looking at their Instagram feed, it seems most of the the Pai Pai collection consisted of previously created patterns – it looks like only one was made specifically for Pai Pai, and that was also based on a previous design.

Poni Lab pouches

Poni Lab pineapple phone cases

Poni Lab dinosaur pouch

Poni Lab fish couple print

Nevertheless, I'm smitten with their style.  It's very nostalgic and playful, with lots of cartoony animals and cheerful anthropomorphic beings, and filled with some of my favorite motifs (pineapples and sweets).  And tons of unicorns, but also a few mermaids here and there. 😉

Poni Lab narwhal unicorn print

Poni Lab ice cream pouch

Poni Lab cherries print

Poni Lab it's pine-o-clock

Poni Lab unicorn plushes

Poni Lab pixelated unicorn pouch

Poni Lab mer-shiba pillow

I don't want kids but if I did, I'd buy this mer-kitty (or as Poni Lab calls them, "purr-maids"!) stuff in a heartbeat.

Poni Lab purrmaids

Poni Lab purrmaids t-shirt(images from @ponilab)

Finally, we have Talia Cu's amazing Frida Kahlo-inspired collection.  I've already discussed it so I won't re-hash it, but I must mention that these were actually sent to me for free by Pai Pai!  Talia spotted my blog post and contacted me on Instagram, saying she felt bad that I couldn't get my hands on them.  So she reached out to one of Pai Pai's founders on my behalf and told them all about the Museum, and they ended up sending these to me completely free.  It's the first time in 9 years of blogging that I've ever gotten anything for free from a makeup company!!  So a huge thanks to Talia and Pai Pai for their kindness and generosity.

Talia Cu for Pai Pai

I'm thrilled I was able to get all of these for the Museum, as they're all quite worthy additions.  I can't wait to see what the next collection is, as it's being teased on Instagram and the suspense is killing me…I think I might spy a pug design?!

What do you think?  Any favorites?

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Happy Cinco de Mayo!  In honor of this festive day I thought I'd do a quick follow-up to Republic Nail's Frida Kahlo-themed polishes.  Turns out, another beauty brand beat them to the punch in early 2016 with a line of lipsticks featuring packaging inspired by the artist.  You might remember how enamored I was of Mexican company Pai Pai back in 2015, when I was positively drooling over their concept of collaborating with a different Mexican artist each season to create limited edition packaging.  Anyway, I spotted their summer 2017 collection on Instagram and was once again smitten, so I decided to catch up and see what else they had been up to since I posted about them.  That's when I found these lipsticks.

Paipai - Talia Cu

The fashion illustrator/journalist behind these, Talia Cu (Castellanos)1 had a less literal interpretation of Kahlo's work than Republic Nail.  Cu was interested in expressing the essence of Kahlo herself rather than reproducing her work, wanting to explore Kahlo's personality and fashion sense more than her art.  To accomplish this, Cu looked to both Kahlo's general surroundings and the pictures of her personal belongings photographed by Ishiuchi Miyako.  As I noted in the Republic Nail post, Kahlo's clothing, accessories and other items weren't discovered in her home until 50 years after her death.  In 2011 Miyako embarked on a breathtaking series that captured Kahlo's spirit through her personal effects (over 300 were photographed!).  It was these photos, along with other meaningful items from Kahlo's day-to-day life, that Cu used as a jumping off point for her designs.  I tried translating Cu's explanation as best I could (my Spanish is incredibly rusty) from this Vogue Mexico article.2  "I wanted to give a unique perspective and not necessarily focus on her art.  Mainly, I took inspiration from the photographs Ishiuchi Miyako took of Frida Kahlo's things, and I also wanted to revisit certain iconic motifs in her art (watermelon, monkeys, the phrase 'viva la vida') to create this small universe that built her personality."  If any illustrator is suited to take on this task, it's Cu – one look at her Instagram, which is chock full of vibrant street fashion sketches and animations, told me she could breathe new life into Kahlo's style as expressed through various items.

Paipai - Talia Cu
(images from paipai.mx)

Ishiuchi Miyako, "Frida by Ishiuchi #2" and "#11"

Ishiuchi Miyako, "Frida by Ishiuchi #50"
(images from michaelhoppengallery.com and itsnicethat.com)

Cu imagined what Kahlo would look like wearing those cat-eye sunglasses, borrowing (I suspect, given the shape of the flowers atop her head) a portrait by Nickolas Muray.  The green and white polka dot print on the lipstick may also have been a nod to the green floral background from one of Kahlo's most famous photos.

Paipai - Talia Cu

Frida Kahlo
(image from nickolasmuray.com)

As noted previously, Kahlo kept several monkeys, along with a host of other animals, as surrogate children. (One thing I didn't know before was that monkeys were also a symbol of lust in traditional Mexican folklore.)  Cu created a charming monkey print to represent Kahlo's attachment to these animals.

Paipai - Talia Cu

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Monkeys, 1943(image from fridakahlo.org)

Frida Kahlo, 1943(image from nydailynews.com)

I thought a cactus print was kind of strange since I don't remember these plants appearing in any Kahlo paintings, until I did a little more digging – I spotted many cacti in the garden as well as a cactus wall surrounding Kahlo's beloved home, La Casa Azul (it's now a museum and I want to go!), so I'm assuming that's where it came from.

Paipai - Talia Cu

Frida Kahlo - Casa Azul(image from latinflyer.com)

Watermelons were a popular motif in Kahlo's still-life paintings.  Once again Cu gives them a fun, playful twist – they seem much less heavy than the fruits that appear in Kahlo's work.   Knowing that Kahlo added the inscription on Viva La Vida, Sandias just a few days before her death, for example, is rather bleak.  Cu's color choice of bright blue and peach, as well as the exuberant, lightweight lines of the fruit, transforms the phrase into an upbeat slogan of sorts.  (Oddly enough, you can actually buy a ceramic watermelon with the inscription from La Casa Azul's gift shop.)

Paipai - Talia Cu

Frida Kahlo, Viva La Vida, 1954

Frida Kahlo, Still Life with Watermelons, 1953

Frida Kahlo, The Bride Frightened at Seeing Life Opened, 1943

Frida Kahlo, Coconuts, 1951(images from fridakahlo.org)

By the way, if you're wondering why I'm using stock photos of the lipsticks instead of my own, there's a simple reason:  Pai Pai's shipping cost was completely prohibitive.  I was finally ready to pull the trigger on some items from this collection as well as the summer 2017 collection, but when I saw the shipping cost my heart dropped.  I thought the prices were mistakenly listed in Mexican pesos, but no, they were clearly U.S. dollars.  I was going to do a screenshot of the cost, but in prepping the photos for this post it seems PaiPai's check out isn't working (I keep getting an "internal server error" message) so I can't show you.  I do remember the cost though: I had 3 lipsticks in my cart for $66 and shipping was $184.  I have no idea why shipping to the U.S. from Mexico is so steep.  I order from sellers all over the world and have never seen anything like this!  But I simply can't justify more than double the price of the lipsticks themselves.  It's not the total amount that's an issue – I've spent $200-$300 in one go before – but it's a waste to pay that much for shipping alone.  It's very sad for me and a little for the company, as they could have gained quite a loyal customer.  If shipping wasn't ridiculous I'd probably snatch up every collection in full.  As a last-ditch effort, I repeatedly called the one salon in the U.S. that carries Pai Pai and never had anyone pick up, and also DM'ed them on Instagram with no reply.  Hmmph.  Unless Pai Pai comes to their senses and reduces their shipping to a reasonably affordable price, or starts carrying the line in more locations within the U.S., I'm afraid I won't be acquiring any for the Museum.  🙁

I don't want to leave on a negative note, as it's both Friday and Cinco de Mayo, so I will say that I think Cu's interpretation of Kahlo is both more inspired and uplifting than Republic Nails.  The illustrations are lighter and speak to the less tortured side of the artist – the objects chosen by Cu were ones that I imagine brought Kahlo happiness, fleeting though it was.  The idea of telling her story through her personal items and other things that had meaning for her, especially when combined with the emphasis on her fashion sense, is a unique way to represent Kahlo.  By consciously choosing not to focus solely on Kahlo's art, Cu gives us a fuller impression of her personality with these illustrations.

What do you think?  And are you doing anything for Cinco de Mayo?

 

1Normally with these sorts of collabs I'd show more of the artist's work but I think these lipsticks really encapsulate Cu's style…plus I had no idea how to work it in with all of the Kahlo stuff!

2The full quote is as follows: “Por mi antecedente en el campo de la moda, me interesé en Frida Kahlo no solo por su trabajo como artista, sino por la personalidad que lograba capturar en su vestuario, y su estilo icónico…Quería darle una perspectiva distinta y no necesariamente enfocarme en su arte. Principalmente, tomé inspiración de las fotografías que Ishiuchi Miyako tomó de los objetos de Frida Kahlo, y a la par retomé también ciertas figuras icónicas en su obra (la sandía, los monos, la frase "viva la vida") todo para crear este pequeño universo que la construye como personaje. Los colores por supuesto, tenían que representar esa alegría en su vestuario.”

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