What's going on in beauty this week, from head to toe and everything in between.
And yet I still can't cover a pockmark I got in 1979.
From Head...
Undercover: I've got to agree with BellaSugar:
The best concealer commercial ever, starring Zombie Boy in the only time you'll ever see him not be Zombie Boy.
...To Toe...
Fish pedicures ruled safe! Big news this week
from the UK's Health Protection Agency: “Provided that good standards of hygiene are followed by salons, members of the public are unlikely to get an infection from a fish spa pedicure," announced Dr. Hilary Kirkbride, consultant epidemiologist at the HPA. She then turned around, looked at the hundreds of small fish nibbling dead skin off the feet of people willing to pay for the privilege, and silently gagged.
...And Everything In Between:
When in doubt, market out: The newly emerging urban middle class in Asia and Latin America is making L'Oreal want to
play catch-up in those regions, as the company expects three-fourths of future growth to come from those markets. What's interesting here is that those markets are more resilient even in economic downturns than American, European, and Australian markets, as evidenced by the hand-wringing in
this piece about L'Oreal Down Under. (Between this and the news that
88% of Australian online beauty spending goes overseas, the Aussie market seems rife for some bright entrepreneurs to swoop in, I'm just sayin'...)
Fakeout: L'Oreal has a
wildly innovative campaign about "not faking it" linked to their Voluminous False Fiber Lashes Mascara! Gee, can't believe
nobody's thought of that before. I can't help but wonder how this ties into the idea that
authenticity is "getting old," as per the New York Times.
But you can recycle it, dahling: One of the Estee Lauder VPs on
the intersection of luxury beauty goods and the cry for sustainability: "Are luxury consumers ready for a radical swing in the look of their packaging? No, it's an evolution, not a revolution. Luxury consumers don't necessary want the sustainability of the pack branded all over." But, he adds, "Just because sustainability is not branded all over the pack, it doens't mean the consumer is not interested in it, and it doesn't mean it's not part of the brand's message."
Speaking of brand messaging: Estee Lauder
discovers the existence of Latinas.
"I want to stay behind the table": A profile of
Ariel Sharon's appetite, or rather, his seemingly fraught relationship with food. While I agree with Regan Chastain that you can't tell much about a fat person by looking at them
other than the fact that they're fat, as a journalist Matt Rees has spent enough time observing people to be able to tell us something potent about Sharon's inner life when he tells us about watching him devour a plate of cookies during the intifada.
Be all that you can be: The Army is considering some dress code changes, and the thought of banning French manicures and ponytails has been bandied about,
reports BellaSugar. Honestly, this sort of makes sense to me, not for reasons having to do with conformity but with practicality. Most French manicures are long, right? When my nails get long I can barely
type, let alone do the far more manually dextrous things that soldiers need to do, and ponytails are easily caught in things. I have zero desire to quash feminine expression in the Army but I can't say this targets the ladies unfairly.
And to think I got a C in geometry: Finally!
Math has shown us the perfect breast! This is supposed to reduce the number of poorly done breast augmentations, so therefore it falls under public service, right? Right! (via
Feminaust)
Occupy Tropes: Having already decided that Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street is grody gross-gross, let's look at
how it relates to Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Something I initially semi-appreciated about the Hot Chicks of OWS site was that it wasn't just stereotypically "hot" chicks: Diverse in not just race, but in age and "type," I begrudgingly had to admit that if nothing else, it could
possiblymaybe reflect a broader portrait of "hotness" than mainstream media would have you believe. I knew it was shaky ground, and The Society Pages outlines why: Fetishizing protesters as Manic Pixie Dream Girls isn't true diversity in the least.
All the pretty ladies: And just in case you're occupying (or walking down the street, or hanging out at a bar, or breathing in the presence of others) and, whaddya know, there's a hot chick there? Read
this guide to "Your Role as Observer" when a lady is strutting her stuff.
I choose my choice!: Two nice pieces on "choice feminism" and "consumer feminism" this week. Laurie Penny at The New Significance writes about
how as she advances in her career, she's expected to bring a new level of polish—that
is, consumer goods—to her presentation. "As women, everything we
wear is a statement, and we have no right to remain sartorially silent.
We negotiate a field of signifiers every time we open our wardrobes,
or, in my case, every time we rummage through the clothes-pile on the
bedroom floor." Coupled with
Jess's piece at XOJane—which
I'd sort of thought was all about "choice feminism," but I guess that's
why they have more than one writer?—do I sense a backlash? "Until the
woman who doesn’t want to be seen as sexually available can go out with
certainty that she won’t be harassed or ogled, your choice to turn heads
and revel in attention is a privileged one."
Arresting images: Not sure what to make of
this W fashion shoot from Ai Weiwei, a dissident Chinese artist, that features a model being faux-arrested. I normally get all humorless-lefty when I see fashion shoots co-opting social causes, but Weiwei has been held for his work, so there's a layer there that normally is absent. Hmm.
Kissyface: Capture the imprint of your kiss, then send it to this company and
they'll make art out of it. It'll go nicely with the art of your own DNA they can also cook up for
you. You
always have to be different, don't you?
"Health class taught me how to have an eating disorder": Jessica at XOJane on
how eating disorder education can actually trigger ED symptoms. This is a complicated topic—one that isn't fully explored here—but I'm glad to see it broached in this format. I proposed a similar story at a teen magazine years ago and my boss flat-out said, "There is
no way in hell we can run that story," the idea being that fighting fire with fire just adds to the inferno. For the record, I don't think ED education causes EDs any more than skinny models do, but I do think that we need to treat "awareness" with caution in neither glamourizing ED symptoms (wow! you can count her ribs, how awful!) nor stopping short in making it clear that EDs are complex, messy, often lifelong, and not a quick fix for generalized teen pain.
Adios Barbie on the LGBT community and eating disorders: Gay and bisexual men are at
increased risk for eating disorders, while lesbian and bisexual women suffer at the same rate as hetero women.
Fitspo vs. thinspo: Caitlin at Fit and Feminist on the sometimes-murky line between dedication to fitness and dedication to a disordered relationship with food and the body. "If you are prone to disordered eating, then the world of fitness must
seem like a safe harbor, a place to indulge your obsessions without
drawing criticism, because after all, you aren’t starving yourself
completely and you’re spending a lot of time in the gym. You’re just
being health-conscious!" Cameo at Verging on Serious frequently gets into this too, most recently with
her post on superstitions.
Wig out: A particularly delightful offering from Of Another Fashion, which posts vintage photos of fabulously dressed women of color, of
Chicago "wig clinic" owner Minerva Turner modeling one of her truly fantastic creations.
Why we're already pretty: It's no secret I adore Already Pretty, and
this entry, which sort of serves as a manifesto, explains exactly what it is about Sally's work that makes me take notice. "Whatever work you’ve chosen, whatever opus you’re creating, whatever battle you’re fighting, I want to arm you with confidence in your body and your style. Why?
So you can stop worrying about your outward presentation and focus on what’s important."
The crossroads of self-care: Medicinal Marzipan touches on a delicate subject with her typical grace:
weight loss in the Health at Every Size and self-acceptance communities. "Here’s the thing: ...I do love myself. It’s just that, for the first time in my life, I am understanding that sometimes loving yourself means wrangling yourself in when you’ve spiraled out of control.... You have to love yourself above everything else. But wanting to lose weight, or the act of weight loss when you’re feeding yourself the foods that make YOU feel good or moving in a way that YOU love, will not make you a body image warrior exile in my book."
