What's going on in beauty this week, from head to toe and everything in between.
From Head...
For all you who found The Beheld through my no-shampoo experiment: Have you thought about conditioner-only washing? This gorgeous head of hair might convince you to give it a try.
...To Toe...
Father Christmas at your fingertips: Desperately tried to find a Santa pedicure and failed. But how's this?
...And Everything In Between:
Avon today: A succinct, helpful overview of the situation at Avon with CEO Andrea Jung's departure and what it means for the traditionally woman-friendly company. Also good for kids! Let's play "spot the makeup puns": "By 2005, the firm was looking blemished." I count five. How many do you count?
Plus, it's an anagram of "expands": An examination of the shifting role of spandex in our culture. Is it the fabric of democracy? (via Decoding Dress, who wisely included a disclaimer that some of the language may be fat-shaming)
Photoshopped: An outline of the baby steps being taken in the ad industry regarding the misuse of photo retouching that misrepresents what a product is supposed to do. I'm still sorting out my feelings on this but I feel like this is a decent overview of the state of the industry.
Scandal in blue: Custom-color-blending cosmetics firm sues two former employees for stealing trade secrets.
Long, hard winter: Procter & Gamble is instituting a hiring freeze. For the rest of 2011. Which, at press time, was five business days.
Mostly off-topic but 'tis the season: This is just about the best last-minute gift guide ever. Recommends buying a Kindle for "your sister's tiara toddler" and preloading it with The Beauty Myth, and the suggestions for the other colorful characters in your life are similarly spot-on (does everyone have a conspiracy theorist in-law?).
Saudi shopping: The trials of being a Saudi cosmetics salesman. "They offer suggestions on what color would suit me best and what product would look more beautiful on me. These sentences are considered harassment in our society,” says a shopper—difficult enough for a sales force to navigate, complicated by Saudi's large expat community, which is used to a more aggressive sales technique.
Past "metrosexual": Interesting that this Times trend piece about men's skincare is being both yawned at and critiqued. ("If beauty companies don’t coddle us with allusions to 'frat culture,' we might just feel, oh, I don’t know, gay or something," writes J. Bryan Lowder in Slate.) Haven't we already run this story?
Beauty queens: Fascinating newsreel featuring Miss Fat and Beautiful, a pageant from 1960s London. We've been working for a long while on size acceptance, it seems; how much longer will it take?
Eat it: Sort of Freaking Out about ingestible "nutricosmetics," which are supposed to be all the rage for 2012. And how does that intersect with confectioner Ladurée releasing a new cosmetics line, hmmm?
You don't say: Rundown of advertisers' slow wake-up: Women over 50! Exist! And they wear makeup! And they have more disposable cash than younger women!
Smelling over seventy: Fragrance blog Mimi Froufrou on what's behind "grandma smell" (the perfume kind), and then swiftly critiques it too. (Incidentally, I'm not a perfume person for the most part but this blog has continually interesting insights and is worth checking out for a slightly off-the-beaten-path beauty blog.)
Nature's balm: Innovative program from Mary Kay, which has a strong record of helping domestic violence victims: the Nature Explore Classroom Women's Shelter Program, which aims to bring the therapeutic benefits of nature to children who, for safety reasons, must have restricted access to public areas like parks. Normally I get all "this seems like a way of seeming like you're supporting women but you're actually not," but A) Mary Kay has an excellent record on helping domestic violence causes, and B) this seems like the sort of thing that has come out of actual fieldwork and recognition that children who are affected by domestic violence have special concerns.
Pole Dance USA: Could pole dancing become an Olympic sport? (via Tits and Sass)
Defensive tackle: Two women's football players share their thoughts on lingerie football, which I still can't believe actually exists in this dimension. (via Fit and Feminist)
Bra books! Hourglassy reviews two tomes dedicated to our brassieres, and yes, one of them is called Busted.
Closet curation: Decoding Dress, as a kickoff to a closet overhaul, looks at the difference between managing one's wardrobe and curating it.
In defense of beauty: An old post from a beauty blogger I just found about the ways in which dismissing beauty as frivolous undermines its real power. "I think there’s a misguided belief that beauty is exclusive and unattainable, and makes people feel that they can’t be a part of it. I don’t believe that this can be true because the idea of beauty is so subjective and multi-dimensional; nobody can tell you what beauty is, only what it means to them."
From Head...
For all you who found The Beheld through my no-shampoo experiment: Have you thought about conditioner-only washing? This gorgeous head of hair might convince you to give it a try.
...To Toe...
Father Christmas at your fingertips: Desperately tried to find a Santa pedicure and failed. But how's this?
...And Everything In Between:
Avon today: A succinct, helpful overview of the situation at Avon with CEO Andrea Jung's departure and what it means for the traditionally woman-friendly company. Also good for kids! Let's play "spot the makeup puns": "By 2005, the firm was looking blemished." I count five. How many do you count?
Where would we be without
spandex? (Awesome pic is of episode 2 of
The Weird Girls Project, "Spandex Attack")
The Weird Girls Project, "Spandex Attack")
Plus, it's an anagram of "expands": An examination of the shifting role of spandex in our culture. Is it the fabric of democracy? (via Decoding Dress, who wisely included a disclaimer that some of the language may be fat-shaming)
Photoshopped: An outline of the baby steps being taken in the ad industry regarding the misuse of photo retouching that misrepresents what a product is supposed to do. I'm still sorting out my feelings on this but I feel like this is a decent overview of the state of the industry.
Scandal in blue: Custom-color-blending cosmetics firm sues two former employees for stealing trade secrets.
Long, hard winter: Procter & Gamble is instituting a hiring freeze. For the rest of 2011. Which, at press time, was five business days.
Mostly off-topic but 'tis the season: This is just about the best last-minute gift guide ever. Recommends buying a Kindle for "your sister's tiara toddler" and preloading it with The Beauty Myth, and the suggestions for the other colorful characters in your life are similarly spot-on (does everyone have a conspiracy theorist in-law?).
Saudi shopping: The trials of being a Saudi cosmetics salesman. "They offer suggestions on what color would suit me best and what product would look more beautiful on me. These sentences are considered harassment in our society,” says a shopper—difficult enough for a sales force to navigate, complicated by Saudi's large expat community, which is used to a more aggressive sales technique.
Past "metrosexual": Interesting that this Times trend piece about men's skincare is being both yawned at and critiqued. ("If beauty companies don’t coddle us with allusions to 'frat culture,' we might just feel, oh, I don’t know, gay or something," writes J. Bryan Lowder in Slate.) Haven't we already run this story?
Beauty queens: Fascinating newsreel featuring Miss Fat and Beautiful, a pageant from 1960s London. We've been working for a long while on size acceptance, it seems; how much longer will it take?
Eat it: Sort of Freaking Out about ingestible "nutricosmetics," which are supposed to be all the rage for 2012. And how does that intersect with confectioner Ladurée releasing a new cosmetics line, hmmm?
You don't say: Rundown of advertisers' slow wake-up: Women over 50! Exist! And they wear makeup! And they have more disposable cash than younger women!
Smelling over seventy: Fragrance blog Mimi Froufrou on what's behind "grandma smell" (the perfume kind), and then swiftly critiques it too. (Incidentally, I'm not a perfume person for the most part but this blog has continually interesting insights and is worth checking out for a slightly off-the-beaten-path beauty blog.)
Nature's balm: Innovative program from Mary Kay, which has a strong record of helping domestic violence victims: the Nature Explore Classroom Women's Shelter Program, which aims to bring the therapeutic benefits of nature to children who, for safety reasons, must have restricted access to public areas like parks. Normally I get all "this seems like a way of seeming like you're supporting women but you're actually not," but A) Mary Kay has an excellent record on helping domestic violence causes, and B) this seems like the sort of thing that has come out of actual fieldwork and recognition that children who are affected by domestic violence have special concerns.
Pole Dance USA: Could pole dancing become an Olympic sport? (via Tits and Sass)
Defensive tackle: Two women's football players share their thoughts on lingerie football, which I still can't believe actually exists in this dimension. (via Fit and Feminist)
Bra books! Hourglassy reviews two tomes dedicated to our brassieres, and yes, one of them is called Busted.
Closet curation: Decoding Dress, as a kickoff to a closet overhaul, looks at the difference between managing one's wardrobe and curating it.
In defense of beauty: An old post from a beauty blogger I just found about the ways in which dismissing beauty as frivolous undermines its real power. "I think there’s a misguided belief that beauty is exclusive and unattainable, and makes people feel that they can’t be a part of it. I don’t believe that this can be true because the idea of beauty is so subjective and multi-dimensional; nobody can tell you what beauty is, only what it means to them."