Book Crush: Women in Clothes

Imagine a book on style written by the cool girls that graduated high school two years before you did, and you have Women in Clothes. *sigh*

Now, I love to read. Damn it, do I love to read. And I don't discriminate, either. I've Sweet Valley High-ed it, me and Jo March cut our hair because sometimes you have to give the finger to your hair being your only beauty, and I've even dabbled in some Victorian-era erotica (reading it, I mean. There were a lot of underage prostitutes). But I have a particular affinity for beauty and fashion books.

I am however, sick of the lists of "Ten Things Every Woman MUST HAVE in Her Closet", and "Five Lipsticks You Gotta Have Before You're 30" and all that bullshit.  Don't get me wrong: I know a white button down shirt is versatile and putting on a Burberry trench coat WILL make me feel like Audrey Hepburn strolling along the Seine, but Lord. I'm ready to create my own lists.

That's where this book comes in. It has given me major LOLz (the story about the missing mittens is a favorite), and also made me super uncomfortable, and also really curious. It has provoked many thoughts.

Through a series of essays, surveys, and interviews (and some interesting pictures) stories are told of how women think when they're dressing. And there are even a couple of dudes thrown in. Instead of being prescriptive (i.e. You HAVE to have full brows; boobs are out, asses are in; NEVER wear red lipstick to a job interview), it really explores different women's taste, style, ability and desire to put a look together, and what's in it for them. I really felt like reading this book was like having a conversation. It made me think a lot about what's important to me on how I present myself to others, as well as myself. Totally fascinating read.

What are you guys reading?  Let me know!

PoK,

Monica

Autumn Inspiration: Glitter Lips

Hi there!

I don't know what it is about fall: the days getting chillier, the joy of a cozy night in with candles twinkling, and the roasting of gorgeous, caramelized vegetables in the oven.. all of that just makes me want to get ELBOWS DEEP into a bunch of sparkly beauty things.  I know that all the beauty books tell you that for women of a certain age (like, over 12), glitter is a big ol' no-no.  Well, I say, one of the great things about being a woman is setting the rules for myself.  Don't you just get chills thinking about setting your own beauty rules?  Is that just me?  Okay.  ;)

Well, I remember a night not too long ago that I was playing with Things Not Often Used in my beauty drawers (!), and I came across some MAC Glitter.  I found myself summarily intrigued by a gold glitter, and a BLACK.  I know, right!?  Now, MAC has some great glitters, and I find myself going to their Reflects line all the time (the Reflects are extremely fine glitters that add a sort of liquid, high glimmer finish).  But their straight up chunky glitter?  I'd never tried it, but I dove in.

3, 2, 1: POUT - Please excuse my selfie shadow, but the lighting on my face was EVERYTHING

My Adult Acne Story

Hi there!

So, this is something that's very close to my heart.  I pretty much struggled with acne from the age of 11 to 28.  I know.  I tried every treatment, from store-bought to infomercial to department store to estheticians/facials to prescripton (except Accutane), until, 17 years later, I finally found one that worked for me.  And I mean, it WORKED.

Before.  I couldn't press my lips completely together because my face was so swollen. :-/

After.  Can you feel the ENTHUSIASM!?

Red Lips en été .. Oh la la!

Hi guys!

Oh my goodness.  It's too hot and humid for me to wear a bright lip right now.  Everything just slides off my face, or I forget and start touching my mouth like a harlot, and pretty soon there's lipstick everywhere.  But I love them so much!  I just love bold lip colors; they really inspire me.  All of a sudden, I'm whisked to the poolside of an old French villa (it's been remodeled), and I'm in a leopard print bikini, a too-enormous-to-be-practical straw hat, and My Classic Red Lip, sipping on a pink lemonade (they have those at my Dream French Villa complete with Pool) through a straw…

...Sighhhhhh.  A girl can have beaucoup de rêves, non?  Well, in lieu of my French rendezvous (with myself), here's my take on the perfect red lip:

What's your favorite red?  I'd love to know!  Keep checking out the blog (and the YouTube channel)! I can't wait to hear from you. :)

P.S. Forgive my bouffant in this thumbnail.  Just forgive it.

My First Love.. Kevyn Aucoin's 'The Art of Makeup'

My tattered old copy.. please excuse my still photography skills ;)

I remember going into Barnes & Noble when I was a teenager in the late 90s *ahem*.  We had this really cool one in my hometown - it looked like some eccentric old man's home library, or like it belonged on Diagon Alley.  It was all dark wood, rich forest green carpeting and a rickety loft where the magazines and coffee shop were.  I was always petrified that the floor was going to cave in up there (and that there was a body in the elevator, but I digress).  It has since been replaced with a fancy-shmance B&N in a nicer part of town with better lighting and it's only one story, but it will always been the place where I fell in love, head-over-heels, for the first time, with the legendary, funny, and unbefuckinglievably talented Kevyn Aucoin.

Probs my favorite picture of his work.  Look at those dagger nails!

My best friend would always head to the fiction section, and I would always head to the fashion and art section.  Now, this was the '90s, and fashion and art and beauty (the like, 2 beauty books they had) were all housed in two or three shelves.  'The Art of Makeup' was this huge, formidable, gorgeous book on the very top shelf that I would gravitate toward every time we entered the store.  I looked at all of the pages, I obsessed over every detail.  At $35, it was prohibitively expensive for me, who only had an allowance when my mom felt like giving me one/remembered it/felt sorry for me.  So the BFF and I would go to the bookstore whenever we had free time (when we weren't eating pizza and watching the Mickey Mouse Club), and my torrid love affair would begin all over again with Kevyn and his book, my hands luridly caressing each page.  It was magic - the women he worked with looked real, they weren't photoshopped to death, their eyelashes weren't cartooned in; this was true, handcrafted artistry.  There's lighting, sure; there's different photography styles used, yes, and even some photoshopping.. but they still looked like real women.  Their beauty was enhanced by his artistic hands.  

J-Lo would be proud of Cindy (C-Crawf?) and her baby hairs.

Plenty of text to get the imagination rolling, too.  I <3 you, Kevyn.

I finally got the book for Christmas, and it was hard for me not to take it everywhere (it's enormous, but I still pined for it while I was at school).  This book was, and still is, so damn beautiful.  It doesn't clutter you with a bunch of brand names of must-have products you JUST GOTTA BUY (he had a very special philosophy on that), or step-by-step-you-must-do-it-in-this-way rules and regs (thanks, Bobbi Brown).  He has a bit of that, but really, it's designed to let your imagination fly with products you already have (but if you're having a Tina Turner moment, go out and buy the gold body paint).  I still feel like his apprentice when I read it; this book is his manual handed down to me, entrusted in my hands.  It was the first thing to really spark my imagination, and to continue to stoke the fire so many years later.  If you love makeup, and you don't have this book, don't wait.  You can actually get it for pretty cheap on Amazon (it's out of publication, so it won't be in B&N anymore).  He has other books available in the bookstores now, but this one is a real-deal treasure.  

Summer Lovin' 2014 - My Must Haves

Hi there!

What do I want in summer, you ask?  Easy.  I want to be well-moisturized, smell good at all times (NYC has a unique array of smells ready to pounce on you at any time, so I think, why not pounce back?), and I want to have a good book to lounge around with.  So, without further ado, I present my midsummer must have list of 2014:

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  A beautiful, witty, inspiring book that everyone's reading.  This ain't no Twilight, folks.

2.  Sally Hansen's Airbrush Legs in Deep Glow (heh).  Doesn't rub off, makes your legs look dynamite, and is completely essential.  Or as my friend Rebecca calls it, "Hose in a Can".

3.  Impress Press-On nails.  I'm cheesy, I know.  Just party like it's 1989, and spray some Aqua Net while your at it.  But it's a five-minute manicure, and they have a bunch of awesome colors.  THEY HAVE LEOPARD PRINT.  

4. Escada Taj Sunset.  Smell sweet enough to eat.  

5. The one-two punch of Sensai by Kanebo and Blinc mascaras.  They form tubes around my lashes and do not smudge all day, even in 84% humidity (thanks, New York).

6.  Neutrogena Body Oil in the light sesame scent.  THIS IS AMAZING.  Super light, smells deliciously unisex, and people will want to touch your skin.  Make sure you're around people you like.

7.  First Aid Beauty Ultra-Repair Cream.  My sensitive skin can FREAK OUT at any time of year.  It's like living with a really volatile roommate.  This works anywhere on the face and body and calms any itchy, rashy, flaky nonsense right on down.  

8.  One-two punch for lips:  MAC Lustering lipstick with More To Love lipliner.  I'm a lipliner girl.  Bury me with lipliner.  These two make a beautiful, juicy fruit punch shade on the lips.  Dive in to summer lips first.  Mwah!

That's it for my current favorites, guys!  What are some things you can't live without this summer?  Let me know in the comments below!

PoK,

Monica

Happy Birthday!!

So two major things are happening today:

Hi Bro!!*

First, my darling big brother is turning an even bigger 45 years old today...

And second…