Meet the Staff: The Sketchbook
· Blog Home
· Profile
· MySpace
· Contact Us
· FAQ/TOS
Older Articles
· Montale Jasmin Full review part 1
· And another...
· Culture Notes: Music Mix
· Beauty Notes: The Best Updo of All Time
· Dr. Hauschka lipstick #09, Dolce (pics)
· Beauty Notes: A Permanent Skincare Routine?
· Beauty Notes: Informal Plans
· Culture Notes: Youtube & perfume
· Dr. Hauschka lipstick #01, Amoroso (pics)
· Culture Notes: Wait For Me (Sean Lennon)
Comments
· September 4, 2007 1:36 PM by
Colleen Shirazi
· September 5, 2007 4:41 AM by
Dain
· September 5, 2007 11:44 AM by
Colleen Shirazi
Archives
· Beauty Blog (2003-2004)
· Fashion Blog (archive)
· New Releases Blog (archive)
· Beauty Articles (archive)
· April 2005
· May 2005
· June 2005
· July 2005
· August 2005
· September 2005
· October 2005
· November 2005
· December 2005
· January 2006
· February 2006
· March 2006
· April 2006
· May 2006
· June 2006
· July 2006
· August 2006
· September 2006
· October 2006
· November 2006
· December 2006
· January 2007
· February 2007
· March 2007
· April 2007
· May 2007
· June 2007
· July 2007
· August 2007
· September 2007
· October 2007
· November 2007
· December 2007
· January 2008
· February 2008
· March 2008
· April 2008
· May 2008
· June 2008
· July 2008
Recent blog posts:
Links
Barneys
refinery29
The Sartorialist
Jargol
Perfume Shrine
Ambre Gris
Polyvore
The Fashioniste
The Powder Group
LA-Story.com
Dain's Literary Attempts
Colleen's Beading Blog
Colleen's Adult Acne Blog
The Beauty Blog Network
Eponym Blog Directory.
TBF Project:Blog
The Lipstick Page Forums Beauty & Fashion Blog
Beauty Notes: Kimora Lee Simmons Baby Phat Golden Goddess
Beauty Notes: Kimora Lee Simmons Baby Phat Golden Goddess
Posted by Dain, Tuesday, September 04, 2007 12:55 PM (Eastern)
High fashion needs celebrity endorsement, a truth widespread enough to be reflected in how often actresses grace (or, perhaps more accurately, "pose awkwardly with tits akimbo and legs spread open and hair blowin' in the wind machine") the covers of magazines. The first "Style Bible" of America was not Vogue, but the Sears-Roebuck catalog. Time has not changed much. Maybe the fashions and spending habits and print technology have changed, but you need only open Lucky to find that a successful fashion magazine is more or less a glorified (read: cleverly edited) catalog, while the art-journal variety is surprisingly-on-second-thought-not-at-all-surprisingly rare. Not too long ago, if you saw a celebrity on the cover of Vogue, it was because she was a compelling woman in some way. Nowadays, you need a celebrity on the cover just to sell the damn magazine.But perfume is a different animal. Celebrity tends to work against it. For some reason, it's almost entirely certain that a celebrity perfume will be an egotistical B-lister. A woman like Grace Kelly might commission her own perfume from Creed for her wedding, Marilyn Munroe may coyly slip that she wears only Chanel No. 5 to bed, but perfume is so intimate that to mass-market your name as a scent seems downright vulgar. When Givenchy tried to sell the private cocktail that Audrey Hepburn wore, so the goes the infamous story, the usually calm, impeccably poised Hepburn expressed a rare moment of pique, "C'est l'interdit!" (literally: that's forbidden!). It's called L'Interdit, though the swill they sell in stores is not at all like the original.
I can understand, if you're rich and famous enough, maybe you'd like a bespoke perfume. It is childish, but romantic. But selling it is a different story.
I ask you, who the hell does Kimora Lee Simmons think she is? Plenty of celebrities are silly, but like most human beings, they possess redeeming characteristics. For example, Posh worries that while she thinks her husband's version of the couple's newly launched Beckham Intimately will have little difficulty, who would want to smell like her? By and large, Posh dwells in the lower echelons of celebrity, but I like her better for having said something so... well... realistic. Kimora Lee Simmons, whose face begs the question, "If you have plastic surgery that obvious, isn't it obvious that you are a desperate, desperate woman?", is not one of those redeemable celebrities. There are many celebrities without talent, they make it up elsewhere, but I have no use for vulgar narcissists who have nothing to offer but narcissistic vulgarity*. I've read interviews; the woman appalls me, I see spots, I am allergic to boastful fools.But I have a perverse spirit even at my most sluggish. I was in CVS earlier this morning to buy L'Oréal HIP black gel liner (yay for drugstore! though honestly, this is like, $3 less than MAC), which is incidentally an excellent product. Gel liners are fantastic: the intensity of a liquid, the creaminess of a pencil, the impeccability of a powder. And, unlike all three, it's the least likely to smear. This is my first gel liner, and I can't compare the quality to others, but I find it satisfactory: the black is somewhat softer than I'd like, but it veers towards brown instead of blue (a sign of better quality pigment, I feel), and I doubt anyone's gonna notice when I tightline. But I saw Baby Phat Golden Goddess (there is a certain fitness to naming products, and this one... ach, what an awful woman, this is who she thinks she is) on display and said the devil possessed me to spritz it on.
It's not that bad. I thought it might smell like crotch. It does have a 12-year-old prostitute vibe to my nose, but that's only because I really dislike anything fruity, even citrus I don't tolerate well. This smells like fruity-floral candy, in an absolutely generic way; this this where all those discontinued Bath & Body Works scents go to die.
*There are entire companies of vulgar narcissists of meagre beauty and mediocre talent in Hollywood. But, you know, at least Paris Hilton has entertainment value. However thinly.
Labels: baby phat, beauty notes, celebrity, l'oreal, perfume
subscribe
in a reader
September 4, 2007 1:36 PM,
Wasn't it Godey's Lady's Book?
Oh bleh, celebrities... I don't know how to put it better, but the media overload on them is not directed toward educated people. These are not educated people themselves; when they open their mouths, they're not going to discuss post-Roosevelt, as opposed to post-Reagan, America. In fact to me they are emblems of the latter. Pure capitalism, uncut with anything else.
It could be worse...much much worse. At least I keep telling myself that.
September 5, 2007 4:41 AM,
I think you're probably right. I entirely forgot about Godey's Lady's Book.
September 5, 2007 11:44 AM,
Nope, you're right. We've undoubtedly been far more influenced by the Sears catalog. lol
Post a comment (NO SPAM)
Links to this post:
Create a Link