Emily Weiss of http://www.intothegloss.com just knows the right people. As a beauty editor for Vogue, she’s got the connections that’ll make you cringe with envy (I don’t know about you, but when I’m envious I cringe). Here, she’s filmed her girl Violette (a ridiculously talented Dior representative) showing us how to contour and highlight for a fresh-faced look reminiscent of neoclassicist paintings. Brilliant. Be sure to check out her blog that features a full post on this video!
“I always love your little buns”.
I remember my friend Bonnie saying that to me one afternoon about my hair. I’d done what I do so often these days: twirled it up into a little knot and wrapped an elastic around it. I am always wearing my hair in a topknot. And no, not a perfectly Pinterest-ed “sock bun” that looks so sixties-chic with volume and hairspray. It’s a tiny little knot, just sitting there at the top of my head, flattering my face in no way whatsoever. But I love it.
However, I wasn’t always comfortable giving in to this style. In the autumn of 2010 I was extraordinarily busy with a social science teaching internship at a high school. Prior to starting the school year I’d had visions of beautifully crafted outfits and blown-out hair every day, impressing my students with my abilities to grade their papers, develop stimulating and challenging lesson plans, and look amazing without missing a step (and how foolish I was to not foresee that you can pretty much afford to choose one of those options- the others go down the drain).
By November, the hair was being ignored. But by “ignored” I mean it was being carelessly and quickly twisted up into one of these little “samurai buns”, as another friend once called it. At first I felt ridiculous. I mean, sometimes it was still wet and my hair was just sitting there as this pathetic little ball at the top of my head. I even named it my ‘I-give-up bun’.
Over time though, my feelings began to change toward my little buns. I’d seen this picture of Jessica Hart in an issue of Harper’s Bazaar, and this model was wearing her hair just like mine! And it didn’t look half bad. I remember thinking, ‘If a model with a serious career like Jessica’s can wear her hair like this and just not care how people feel about it (even though it looked great regardless), then so can I.’
I instantly felt at peace with my little buns, or after learning their proper name, my topknots.
I’m a top-knotter for life, now. There’s something so French about just tossing up your hair like that, because you don’t really care about how it turns out and yet just that mentality manages to add this sense of chic to it that’s so hard to articulate. I guess that’s what they mean when they refer to je ne sais quois.
I started wearing a lot of glitter in seventh grade. I know everyone did in junior high of my generation, but I really can’t communicate to you quite how much I wore. Just trust me. There are no pictures, but believe me when I say I left a literal trail everywhere I went.
Things have evolved since then, and I’ve never lost my devotion to the beauty department. I remember blowing a twenty-five dollar gift card all on one Chanel Glossimer during my freshman year of high school. I did a presentation on makeup artistry, complete with a demonstration, in eighth grade during language arts (for which I received a big, fat ‘A+’, by the way). I wander around Nordstrom in the beauty department with the hope that some kindly, drooling for sales commission representative of Dior will ask that fateful question, “May I try couple things on you today?!”
So here’s my basic mission statement:
I’m here to share my passion for the beauty department, which includes makeup, skin-care, and hair. I’m here to inform readers on what I use, where I go, and what I do to keep that passion well-fueled. I consider my audience to be anyone and everyone who has ever touched a makeup brush or a curling rod and either used it like a professional or has quietly muttered to themselves, ‘What. Do. I. Do.’ Whether you stick strictly to your local pharmacy for your routine or you settle for nothing less than the La Mer counter at Neiman Marcus, I believe I may have a little sumpin’ sumpin’ to share with you.
xo,
McKenna
thebrightblush 