I was skimming through vintage copies of Ebony magazine at archive.org, hoping to find some interesting and not widely known-about Black beauty pioneers. I struck paydirt with the February 1949 issue, which profiled a TV makeup artist named Blanche Hunter.... Read more →

I'm always so grateful when someone agrees to an interview with the Museum, and the one I'm featuring today is very special! You might remember the AstroLips lipstick line that was mentioned in the Museum's history of zodiac-themed makeup and... Read more →

You might remember I became obsessed with finding information on the Baby Doll makeup range back in the spring of 2017, when I came across their fabulously psychedelic and colorful ads from the late '60s. While I managed to acquire... Read more →

I really enjoyed the shorter bits of history that appeared between chapters in Lisa Eldridge's Face Paint. I liked the idea so much, in fact, that I decided to steal it and use it for my '90s makeup history book.... Read more →

Tooting my own horn again, apologies. But I was so excited to be interviewed for an article on the history of blush and its current resurgence (and in which I was referred to as an "expert"!) In case you haven't... Read more →

This post has been in the making for literally years. I finally conceded that I couldn't find a complete history of either Benefit's Glamourette compact, released in 2002, or the vintage compact it was based on, House of Platé's Trio-ette... Read more →

A few months ago I was perusing an auction site and came across this interesting-looking makeup case. As it turns out, it belonged to Hanna Rovina (1888-1980), a.k.a. the "first lady of Israeli theatre". (image from commons.wikimedia.org) (image from liveauctioneers.com)... Read more →

While hunting for vintage Christmas makeup a few months ago I stumbled across a brand from the 1960s called Holiday Magic. This won't be a complete history either of the brand or the man who founded it, but it's one... Read more →

"To borrow Dr. King's phrase all I had, too, was a dream. I got into the business mainly because Black women, myself included, had been searching for cosmetics that would look good on them for years. There just weren't any."... Read more →

Here's more makeup awesomeness from Korea. As usual I completely forget what I was looking for when I stumbled across a couple of articles describing the discovery of cosmetic containers in the tomb of an 18th-century princess, but it was... Read more →