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 …
makeup
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, …
Lighting That Cross-Examines You
Every time I catch my reflection in a gas station mirror—bathed in that harsh, overhead lighting that angles down like an accusation—I have to remind …
The Mirror Forgot Me
Someone Was Here Before Me
It clicks open like a secret.A compact, weighty in the hand, its gold edges dulled by years, its hinge a little stiff, like it hasn’t …