iris apfel, 90, for mac cosmetics

 
via The Insider:

The Today show featured a segment today on the recent changing attitudes towards aging and beauty led by the likes of Diane Keaton and Ellen DeGeneres, and featured none other than Iris Apfel, MAC's 90-year-old spokeswoman!

"We have had an insane love affair with youth," says Apfel, the legendary interior designer/fashion icon who's launched her own textile firm and worked at the White House for nine presidents. "Youth is beautiful and wonderful, but there's a lot more. Life doesn't stop when you're 30."

To this, we at re:thinking say Hallellujer, and you can read more here...

avon, estee (lauder) & mary (kay) testing cosmetics on animals

photo: Ecouterre

 Um, seriously, what the....?

via Ecouterre:

As American firms jostle for a piece of China’s $15-billion-and-growing cosmetics market, Avon, Mary Kay, and Esteé Lauder have quietly turned their backs on 20 years of “no animal testing” policies, according to People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals, which until recently counted all three among the largest mainstream names on its cruelty-free list. Although animal testing of cosmetics is neither required nor banned under U.S. law, the Chinese government continues to require skin- and eye-irritation tests before certain products can be marketed in the country. (Ecouterre)

continue reading...

nappy thoughts on the beheld

photo: courtesy of The Beheld

I've been a fan of Autumn Whitefield-Madrano, and her blog, The Beheld, where concepts of beauty are examined in myriad ways, for quite some time now.  So when she asked me if I would be interested in writing a piece on the word nappy, for her Thoughts on a Word series, I needed to stop, and breeaaaathe before answering, so as to form proper sentences.  ("Wait-what?! Stop it right now! Are you kidding me?! Yes! Yes! Yeessss!", wouldn't do.)

Well, the piece went live today (!!!) and it goes a little something like this:

"Nappy is, at the very least, to be handled with caution. It may mean diaper in some parts of the world, but that’s not the case at all, in these our United States of America. Here, nappy is combustible. Not everyone can say it and come away unscathed. Say it to, or even just near, the wrong person and it might just blow up in your face. In 2007, shock jock Don Imus found that out, and reminded us all about it, when he called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “some nappy-headed hoes.” The firestorm that ensued left him jobless in its wake. At the time, Lanita Jacobs-Huey, an associate professor of anthropology and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, expressed a view common among many African-Americans when she said, “When I hear it from someone who doesn’t understand the depth of pain, they just don’t have the right to say it.” See, nappy is a huge snag in the idea that we live in a post-racial society, because in large parts of the African-American community, nappy is a deep, deep wound rooted in slavery and Jim Crow" (...continue reading at The Beheld)

There's nothing quite like writing that inspires, and there's plenty of that at The Beheld, so I'm honored to see my work on the site, and doing inner cartwheels as a result.  If you have yet to check it out, do yourself the favor of running clicking over there right now.  Also, see The Beheld syndicated on The New Inquiry.  Comment, share, follow, like (if you do), tell a friend, and do let me know what you think...

viola davis natural - l.a. times magazine

photo:  Ruven Afanador

Do you know that I passed by these images several times, at news stands, and in magazine ads, thinking this was some gorgeous new model about to take the world by storm before realizing? 

photo:  Ruven Afanador

See more photos and continue reading:  Viola - LA Times Magazine

lianne la havas - forget

pure beauty ...

the photoshop effect

Yes, yes, I know, digital photo manipulation is everywhere.  This isn't new information.  Still, I came across this video on my facebook news feed today, and what stopped me cold was a comment my friend (who posted it) wrote:  "My daughter asked me why no one else has arm hair."



Tim Lynch, the photographer featured in the video at one point says:  "If you trained full-time as a pro-athlete with trainers and ate the way you were supposed to eat, you could probably get close, but who has time? You know, so I do it for you." 

*Le deep, deep sigh.*

This is on the cusp of being funny; the kind of funny that jumps in to save you from feeling the horror of the reality in all of its rawness. I mean, really people? Does this make sense? Is this just the next step in our beauty standard trajectory? 

As a freelance makeup artist, I ask these questions with mixed feelings.  When beauty brand Make Up For Ever released their "first unretouched make up ad" earlier this year, the irony of the ad, which emphasized a lack of deception, only to underscore the advertised products' ability to deceive (after all, isn't that what we're doing with cosmetics/make up?) wasn't lost on me.  

I enjoy wearing make up in my own life, and  experimenting with different looks, so, on the one hand, I feel like a bit of a participant in the madness.  I fool the eye with cosmetic products on clients and on myself.  I "wake-up" my under eye area every day with a touch of the perfect concealer. 

On the other hand I also make sure to remove any makeup from my face at the end of each day.  And my favorite kind of makeup application to practice is one that doesn't take the face I'm working on too far away from its reality.  So I play with makeup, but I never forget it as the game it is.  And my goal on every job, as futile as it may be, is to accomplish a makeup application that warrants no photo retouching.  I get that, by this point, at least according to this video, that makes me one of the last few dreamers in that realm.  But what can I say?  A lady's gotta dream.

What do you think?  Did you know that photo retouching was so widespread?  Do you care?  Any feelings on the subject?  'Cause I'm at a bit of a loss ... 

is this ad racist?

So, this craigslist ad was passed along via e-mail by a fellow makeup artist in New York City to a meet-up group I am a member of:

REAL FEMALE MAKE-UP ARTIST to be ON CAMERA (NYC)

---

Date: 2011-10-30, 12:12PM EDT
Reply to: see below ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

---

FEMALE MAKE-UP ARTIST, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian or Ethnically Ambiguous female, late 20's / early 30's who is a make-up artist in real life. Talent should be interesting, cool (but not too alternative, punky/grungy), real, engaging and personable with her clients. Almay really want someone who will offer up 'pro tips' -- the best way to apply. . . the best type of brush. . . how to blend color etc -- all in simple language. Good hands necessary.

Almay - Non-union Promo
Auditions: Weds, Nov. 2
Callbacks: Thurs. Nov 3 Afternoon
Shoots: Nov 13 and/or Nov. 14th
Location: NYC
Rate: $500 per day

E-mail Headshot (or even a current photo if a non-actor) with make-up experience and contact ASAP to

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hmm ... Now, (deep breath), yesterday, when I saw the ad, yes, it did cause my eyebrow to twitch.  But just a twitch.  I think it was a natural thing for me to notice how pointedly this ad was directed at every other ethnic combination a female could possible be, except one like me, an African-American woman. But the longer you've been a Black woman in America, the more racism in its myriad forms you've probably experienced, and as such, have learned to move on from.  You can't stop every single time and be shattered.  You learn that just because they don't see your beauty, doesn't mean it isn't there, plain as day.  And an ad that might as well read "All female make-up artists except African-American ones please audition ..." gets to being worth no more than the time it takes an eyebrow to twitch.

But then today, I noticed the e-mail thread had come to life with one artist expressing her belief that the ad is racist and saying that she is offended.  The majority of the reactions after her came from women who acknowledged that the ad might look racist, but maintained that it was just an example of the nature of the business, no different than, say, the need to cast a Black, or Latina model, in order to appeal to an ethnic audience.

It wasn't a huge hullabaloo, a small group of women discussing, but still, it gave me pause.  I wondered if I had grown so jaded I'd gone numb, like one of the complacent many it takes to perpetrate any kind of systemic injustice.  I wondered if I should have felt more than a brow twitch.  And if yes, who else should've been offended? Male make-up artists? Make up artists outside the specified age range?...
What say you?