There’s a strange irony in watching a physique competition: the bodies onstage are finely tuned, chiseled, radiant. They look like the epitome of health. And …
makeup
When Avoidance and Obsession Speak the Same Language
Some people avoid mirrors like they hold secrets too cruel to confront. Others can’t seem to look away, as if more staring might eventually yield …
Eating Our Skincare, Wearing Our Growth
“Eating our skincare” might sound like a wellness trend or a cheeky phrase — but it’s actually a return to something very real: beauty rooted …
What We Don’t Say, We Wear
Hemingway once wrote what might be the world’s shortest tragedy: For sale, baby shoes, never worn. Just six words—and yet the silence between them is deafening. It’s …
What Even Is an Aesthetician? (And What Am I?)
The word aesthetician began not in a salon or a studio, but in philosophy. It comes from the Greek aisthētikos, meaning “of sense perception”—a word used to describe …
What Aesthetics Can Open Up
Many of us have walked into a gym for the first time not because we were chasing health, but because we were chasing an aesthetic. …
Getting Ready in Someone Else’s House
A reflection on borrowed spaces, fragmented selves, and the relief of returning to your own mirror. There’s a particular kind of vulnerability that comes from …
Field Notes from the Makeup Chair
I wish I could photograph the moment before someone says what they really mean. It usually happens around minute 27. The eyes are halfway done. …
Beauty and the Border Between Days
What we do in the in-between matters most. There is a hush to the moments between day and night.A subtle shift you can feel more …
Smiling: The Original Cosmetic
When we think about cosmetics, we often imagine the jars, tubes, and brushes — the colors and textures we apply to our faces to highlight, …