I was trying in vain to catch up on some beauty news many moons ago and came across this article at Who What Wear - yet another on the history of red lipstick. There were a lot of things that... Read more →

Rejuvenique mask at the Museum of Failure. The golf club is an unrelated but equally ridiculous product. I had way too much fun at the traveling Museum of Failure pop-up, which is currently in Washington, D.C. until November 30. It's... Read more →

(image from soundingsonline.com) I was doing some digging on Ultra Sheen cosmetics after purchasing a great vintage display for it and stumbled across the name Bill Pinkney, who had a brief stint as a marketing executive for the company. As... Read more →

I admit I purchased this object without fully understanding what it was. I couldn't unearth any ads for Opaline1 and very little exists about the company. There were a couple calls for De Baranta-Windsor salespeople in 1898 for totally different... Read more →

Discussing various styles of face paint1 worn by different Indigenous peoples is critical for a better understanding of the history of cosmetics and recognizing that makeup outside of the modern industry exists. For many people across the globe, cosmetics beyond... Read more →

Consumers have come to expect a good measure of dishonesty in makeup marketing. But given the lack of strict regulations for cosmetics labeling in the U.S. ("clean" beauty, anyone?), companies have considerably more freedom to concoct some rather outlandish claims,... Read more →

I forget what I was looking for when I stumbled across beautician and stylist Eddie (Eadward) B. Deason (1921-1976). Like Blanche Hunter, Deason's story is incomplete. But the few things I could find are definitely worth highlighting. Deason opened several... Read more →

CW/TW: racist imagery and slurs for Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, and Black populations as well as those of Middle Eastern descent. It's been nearly a decade since I discussed one of the many ugly parts of the beauty industry: cultural appropriation... Read more →

It's another incomplete history, but I wanted to highlight the few bits I was able to locate about the makeup line founded by supermodel Naomi Sims, born on this day in 1948.1 (This post will not cover her collection of... Read more →

On average, the Museum receives one inquiry a week. It doesn't seem like much, but if it's something that can't be identified easily or a broad question about historic trends, they can take up quite a bit of time. Here... Read more →