Beauty Bytes: September 7, 2012

Photo by Charles Ommanney

Ever notice that the women of Fox News wear a lot of makeup? Many of my fashion colleagues assume it’s an accident resulting from letting the Prom Queen take over the makeup department. But no, it’s no accident – it’s called the “Fox Glam”, and those orders for more makeup come from the top. Liza Mundy, Washington Post journalist and author of The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family, has experienced The Glam herself. She explores the topic for The Atlantic, interviewing several experts, including yours truly, who tells what the makeup artist is really thinking. “Foxy Ladies” – The Atlantic.

• Are we psyching ourselves into having body issues? Both fashion/fitness magazines and feminist rhetoric would have us assume that it’s almost inevitable, with our imperfections meeting the cruel, cruel world and whatnot. But does the narrative surrounding both this assumption and its individual stories force us into assuming that we must have body issues? Autumn Whitefield-Madrano of The Beheld questions the therapeutic narrative and how it might not relate to the 60% of women who like their bodies just fine. The Beheld.

• We in Fashion can be dramatic lot, and Fashion Week does involve a grueling schedule. But is it like going out in the wilderness à la Survivorman? The semiannual spate of “Fashion Week Survival Kit” slideshows seems to assume that it is. So before you click any of the links to my favorite ones, let’s pause for a moment and remember our fallen comrades, who ran out of lip balm a full twenty blocks from the beauty closet. Goddess Huntress. Opening Ceremony. Oyster Magazine. Allure.

• Katie Holmes is not only debuting her new clothing line, she has also signed on with Bobbi Brown cosmetics as their first ever “face”. She will also be collaborating on a capsule collection of color cosmetics, due fall 2013. Boy, some of these celebrities really know how to land on their feet… Women’s Wear Daily.

Being a beautiful woman amidst rampant political scandals can seriously ruin your reputation. If it’s the fifteenth century, and you’re the illegitimate daughter of The Pope and his mistress, your beauty and dysfunctional family politics are going to seal your public relations doom. Lucrezia Borgia, who was widely rumored to have a hollow ring so that she could poison her enemies while seducing them, gets another look in Jennifer Wright’s Shelved Dolls series. The Gloss.