Butthole Beauty, Ancestral Skincare, & More
A charcuterie of articles and updates.
I’m taking my time on a multi-article series tentatively titled “Doll Parts” — subjects include tween skincare, Pat McGrath’s porcelain doll makeup at Margiela, the role beauty plays in Poor Things, the general “girlhood” discourse, etc. — but in the meantime, I thought I’d share some updates from around the internet. A charcuterie of beauty content, if you will.
First, my 2024 beauty predictions are coming true. On December 29, I envisioned the emergence of an “asshole care” category. On January 10, founder Katie Sturino announced the launch of Megababe’s new “butthole cleanser.” (I know many of you thought I was joking about this, but alas, I was not.) I also predicted that “skincare packaging and marketing will become more kid-friendly” in an effort to attract/cater to adolescent/teen customers — a rapidly growing, much-publicized market — and I think Mara’s new font may be an example of that. The brand usually uses a sleek, sophisticated sans serif; in contrast, this uneven, blobby, appears-to-be-hand-drawn-with-a-marker typeface reads as childish. (I asked Mara what was up with the rebrand via DM and they said they “wanted to give a fresh new vibe to our newest product.”) Catch up on the rest of my 2024 predictions here. (The post was originally for paid subscribers, but it’s free for everyone now — enjoy!)
I was profiled in the latest issue of Country & Town House Magazine!
Ultimately, Jessica doesn’t hate beauty – only the industry built up around it. ‘I think beauty as a concept – true beauty, real beauty – has the power to be a political tool, and to be something that is empowering, to be a force for self expression. In order for it to be those things, we have to critique all the ways it’s being called that and actually doing something else, like the majority of the way industrialised beauty is used today as a form of control, complacency or consumerism.’
She continues: ‘I think beauty is inherently radical. In order to restore it to its radical roots, we have to deconstruct how it has been commodified and sold to us and framed as something that you can buy in a bottle when it’s really this spiritual, radical force that we crave as human beings. I think it is essential to the project of human flourishing. And in order to get back to that radical nature of beauty, we have to fight the boring thing that beauty has become, which is just something mass produced and pumped into a bottle. That’s so boring. That’s not beauty.’
Read the rest of my interview with Amy Wakeham here.
I talked to the brilliant Halima Jibril for her latest piece in Dazed Beauty: “Can skincare ever exist separately from harmful beauty ideals?” You should really read the whole thing, but here’s a quick excerpt:
It’s also important to remember that your skin is alive. Like a jungle, it is home to different microorganisms that truly take care of our skin and body. While it might feel unsettling to learn that we have tiny mites that live on the surface of our skin, they remind us that our skin is part of something much bigger than our physical appearance. “If you research the skin microbiome, you find out that you have microorganisms on your skin that can be traced back to at least three generations,” DeFino explains. “Parts of our ancestors live on our skin as part of the built-in care of our body, and I just think that’s so beautiful. Once I started learning those little things, it made this urge to eradicate layers upon layers of my skin in service to the beauty standard less appealing.”
Finally, I was on a guest on NPR’s Here & Now last month. I tried to convince listeners to see glitter for what it is: not a source of “empowerment” for girls and women, but literal garbage. (Hot tip: If “empowerment” is what you’re after, try living according to your values!) Give it a listen.
Curious what you think about Katie Sturino's work in body positivity/body acceptance and fat activism in light of her position as the head of a beauty brand? My perception of Megababe is that it is a brand who champions products for all body sizes and markets itself that way, which is great. But where does fat activism end and beauty liberation begin? Often times people in bigger bodies feel an inordinate amount of pressure to extra super conform to skin/makeup/hair beauty standards. I don't have any concrete thoughts myself, just thinking aloud.
I would be curious to read a post about examples or a “how-to” on authentic, non-commodified, embodied representations of beauty. We have all been so brainwashed and wired by industry and image, that it’s hard sometimes for me to envision what the opposite is of the concepts that you so adeptly critique. As a mother of two young girls, this has been on my mind for a while. Where I have found some themes that feel true, are in posts about teaching children (and ourselves) to trust our own thoughts, and our own bodies from a young age. To not silence instinct, and to hone and trust one’s signals and inner wisdom - as one example. Would be so curious to hear your take.