Lust doesn’t have to arrive naked. Sometimes it wears a full face of makeup and never breaks eye contact. In the world of beauty, lust is …
Makeup Studio
Cosmetic Wrath
Some cosmetic applications don’t derive from celebration. They’re an act of survival. It sharpens in the aftermath of being overlooked, underestimated, or discarded. Wrath in beauty …
The Green-Eyed Mirror: Envy in the Age of Beauty
If pride makes us believe we’re the fairest of them all, envy makes us quietly furious that someone else is. In the world of beauty, envy …
Pride: The Crown We’re Afraid to Take Off
Pride is the sin with the best posture. It walks into a room with the confidence of someone who’s already been seen and approved and …
The Sins We Wear
We like to believe our beauty routines are rituals of self-care, self-expression, even self-love. And often, they are. But behind every action and product promise, …
I Keep Thinking about Daylilies
There’s a myth we keep feeding: that beauty should last forever, the goal is longevity and makeup should stay on through rainstorms, heartbreaks, and time …
Father Time and Mother Nature: The Parents of Beauty
We don’t often picture Father Time and Mother Nature at the same table, but in the world of beauty, they are always in conversation, sometimes …
One-Way Mirror: Beauty, Boundaries, and the Illusion of Being Seen
There’s something quite infuriating about the phrase “I’ll see you next time” when it comes from the glowing face of a beauty influencer, staring into …
Honesty in Flux
Elvis Presley became an Elvis impersonator before he died. Somewhere along the way, the origin blurred with the echo. He began to play the predictable, …
“Make Yourself at Home” (But Where Is That?)
There’s a phrase people say when they’re being welcoming: “make yourself at home.” But as a kid, that sentence always left me a little confused. …