beauty rituals: 20 posts

The other day as I was helping my friend to find a new perfume, she remarked that the rules of dating have become very complicated, especially with the advent of new communication technologies. How long do you wait before you reply to his email, how fast should he text you back, etc? Thinking about this gives me a headache far faster than any of the latest celebrity fragrances. As I left my friend to select between Stella McCartney and Hermès Kelly Calèche, I went home to browse through the most famous manual on love for some dating guidance.

Continue reading →

Most makeup accessories I own are purely utilitarian, with looks to match. The exception, however, is my Caron powder puff. It is a feathery light orb of goose down, with a satin ribbon bow. The powder puff I selected is tinted bright fuchsia, although pastel pink, lemon yellow, peach, lavender and red were equally tempting. As I reach for it to put finishing touches on my makeup, I feel as if I am getting ready for a ball, rather than another day at the office. I do not know about you, but I certainly appreciate such fantasies to keep the weight of routine at bay.

Continue reading →

An excerpt from Annick Le Guérer’s excellent book Scent: the Mysterious and Essential Powers of Smell, co-authored with Philip Turner and Richard Miller. It provides a fascinating glimpse into the link between scents and sensuality.

“Throughout history there has been a link between perfumes and desire. When Circe sets out to seduce Ulysses, she employs powerful aromatic philtres. When the Queen of Sheba travels to Jerusalem, she seeks help in her campaign to win Solomon’s heart from the precious gums and spices of Araby she brings with her in her great caravan: “And she gave the king… of spices very great store… there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.” In this linkage of perfumes to sexuality and seduction we can discern two functions, both of which lead to a single result: the encouragement of sexual union.

Continue reading →

Do you remember “Sex and the City” episode, in which Carrie considers buying a pair of expensive shoes, knowing fully well that she has no money and that her credit card might be completely maxed out? According to the renowned traveler Ibn Battuta, women in the 13th century Arabia were prone to similar actions. Whatever the price of beauty might be, some were willing to pay it!

“The Meccans are very elegant and clean in their dress, and most of them wear white garments, which you always see fresh and snowy. They use a great deal of perfume and kohl… The Meccan women are extraordinarily beautiful and very pious and modest. They too make great use of perfumes to such a degree that they will spend the night hungry in order to buy perfumes with the price of their food… When one of these women goes away the odour of the perfume clings to the place after she has gone” (Gibb 1929, 76.)

Photography of henna by VeraKL

I have a photo of me as a 6 year old painting my lips with my mom’s lipstick. Everything about this picture makes me smile –the awkward way in which I am holding the little tube, the serious look on my face, the way I hold back my auburn curls with one hand while I try to paint a perfect cupid’s bow mouth. Yet, it was not just the rich red color that drew me to the lipstick. It was also the scent of rose and violet that I associated with glamour and beauty in my mind: a scent of my mother’s good night kiss as she was preparing to leave for the theater with my father.  The scent of lipstick had such a strong draw for me that it once made me surreptitiously reach for the black tube while my mom was not around and taste the waxy cream. Needless to say, that was not a pleasant introduction to lipstick. Since then, I have been using lipsticks for purposes other than gustatory, and I still have a soft spot for fragrant varieties. Likewise, in fragrances I find myself seeking out the makeup accords that suggest something glamorous and sophisticated, with a delicious touch of retro.

Continue reading →