The modern day beauty industry was built on scaffolding that’s starting to rot: filters, referral codes, marketing gimmicks, and the manufactured scarcity of “limited editions.” …
Makeup Tips
What Is It About Progress?
What is it about progress that is so incredibly difficult to see in real time? It exists in the smallest of knowings and subtle shifts …
What Enlarges Me, What Diminishes Me?
James Hollis offers a deceptively simple compass for navigating life’s endless choices: What enlarges me, and what diminishes me? At first glance, it feels almost too straightforward—like …
What Makes Me Come Alive
Sometimes I wonder if I’m chasing beauty, or if beauty has been chasing me all along. My favorite kind of beauty lives in the in-between. …
Am I Investing in What Makes Me Come Alive?
There’s a question I return to again and again, both in beauty and in life:Am I investing in what makes me come alive? It’s easy …
The Mirror of Desire: Beauty and the Pull of What Others Want
Why do we want what we want? René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire says our desires are rarely born in isolation. We don’t simply want something because …
What Color is a Mirror?
We like to think of mirrors as neutral, faithful witnesses to what’s “really there.” But even science tells us this isn’t true. A mirror leans …
The Gentle Art of Seeing Ourselves Clearly
Acceptance is often misunderstood. It isn’t giving up or apathy. And it certainly isn’t about pretending we love every single thing we see in the …
Dust on the Lipstick Tube
There comes a stage in grief where anger has burned itself out, bargaining has collapsed, and even denial feels too exhausting to maintain. What’s left …
Bartering with the Body We Love and Fear
If anger is a war cry, bargaining is a back and forth dialogue with the Self: Maybe if I just… We strike deals in the mirror …