Much virtual ink has been spilled over the past few days over the Oxford Dictionary's choice of "selfie" for 2013 word of the year. But I've noticed among the chorus of opinions on the social media self portrait an annoying trend: the selfie evangelist. Selfies are just dandy, they say, because they're a way for people…
Sociologists like to say that gender identities are socially constructed. That just means that what it is, and what it means, to be male or female is at least partly the outcome of social interaction between people – visible through the rules, attitudes, media, or ideals in the social world.
No one has gray hair on purpose, k? Gray hair is only something old people or weird early agers have or people who don't know better. Something people have who've decided to not "fix" the problem everyone else can see plain as day. But Kate Middleton left her house recently with gray hairs and didn't plan in advance for…
The compound used in chemical peels—the anti-aging procedure performed by dermatologists—is raising concern after a growing number of studies suggest it could be a carcinogen. It turns out that pouring acid all over your face could actually be dangerous. Huh.
Once, on a blind date in my twenties, a guy I instantly didn't like realized this and said something hilariously awful by date's end: "You're a bitch, and you're not even pretty enough to be a bitch." It's funny because I totally was pretty enough. No, it's funny because HE LOOKED LIKE AN AARDVARK. Actually, it's awful, …
Like the eponymous witches of Roald Dahl's The Witches, all of the heterosexual women in the world have conspired together to hide their true appearances (talons; baldness; square feet) from all men. How deep does this conspiracy go? Well, according to a new study, the average woman will wait four weeks and one day…
If you're more partial to maximum makeup, people might want to make the sex with you, but there could be a detrimental effect on whether they like or trust you. Okay, science, tell us something sexist we didn't know already.
Ladies: things are wrong. Things are wrong with me, and they're wrong with you. Other (perfect) people don't have things wrong, but we do, you and me. And if we fix the things that are wrong by purchasing products and services, the wrongness will sort of drift away and we'll garner the admiration we so crave — or at…
Did anyone else miss the day when girls got good at applying makeup? I must've been out sick when some magical fairies came in and taught us how to apply tangerine bronze to create cheekbones and purple eye liner to make green eyes pop. When I put on those things, I actually look like a jack-o-lantern. And not a cute…
Young women's internet-fueled obsession with the "thigh gap"—which is that thing where your thighs don't touch and therefore it's "better" (cool made-up garbage, beauty myth!)—is raising concerns among eating disorder professionals. For most women, a thigh gap is a physiological impossibility, not a goal that's attainable …
I read or hear about beauty and women about every single day. Partly, I'm in it, so to speak — the rabbit hole of things women think and talk about. But also it just comes up a lot in the background of conversations about being alive. And it's always pretty much in the exact same way: Women are supposed to be…
Cosmetic procedures requiring injectables and implants have been around for a while. But apparently now the quest for a youthful look is not about filling in wrinkles in the face but making sure the face stays frozen in time like a wooly mammoth.
I remember when I first learned about blackheads. I was a not-quite-teenager and I had come to terms with the fact that zits were looming in my future—weathering the years of ruined photos and traumarama school dances (lol/cry @ the idea that I'd ever get asked to a dance) seemed like a rousing, communal rite of…
Musician Siwan Clark has written a song called "The Armpit Song" in which she sings Regina Spektor-style about the woeful plight of the modern day American woman. Specifically, how she's "sick of being hassled into getting vajazzled." Tell that to Jennifer Love Hewitt
Thanks to the ubiquitous cheeky shorts trend, these days, you can't angrily chuck an iPhone without hitting some teen in the exposed buttcheeks. Some naysayers might say that this is Bad because won't somebody think of the intact hymens? or that it's Harmful because what about those of us with buttcheeks we don't wish …
Huzzah. Another physical flaw for women to cash in the ol' 401k over. Conventional wisdom has long held that plastic surgery can "fix" most signs of terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad female aging, but the two surefire "tells" that you're dealing with a closet crone are the neck and the hands. Now that neck lifts have…
Jennifer Tress was inspired to write her new book You're Not Pretty Enough after being told just that by her ex-husband. If it sounds like the stuff that rom-coms are made of, the movie hasn't been optioned just yet, but it's only a matter of time her message is turned into a story of an ugly duckling who is saved…
Almost the entirety of the non-white world is plagued with the never-ending desire to appear as "western" as possible. Whether that means whitening creams in India, blond hair in Egypt, or eyelid fold procedures in South Korea, the western (read: caucasian) beauty standard has permeated across virtually all…
As previously discussed, South Korea has the highest per capita rates of plastic surgery in the world. We've seen plenty of smiley, radiant "after" photos, but artist Ji Yeo has taken "right after" pictures: Haunting photographs of women in recovery rooms, bruised, bandaged, wounded.
Emma Stone sat down with Cosmo to talk about her one huge beauty secret. (Spolier alert: she doesn't have one, and wants to know if you can help her out.)
Why do nail polishes have names? Not brand names — color names, like Essie's Ballet Slippers? Sure, naming polishes is a fun way to add personality to the products and make them memorable, but unless it includes a word that clearly describes the color, they're ultimately arbitrary and have absolutely no bearing on the …
Have you ever found yourself at a bar, party or other happening place looking to hook up someone, only to realize you are surrounded by people you are not attracted to, even kinda? You blink, rub your eyes, and take another long swig of your wild ale, and take stock again. Long sigh. Nope, there's not a doable creature …
Fucking Sephora, man. There's nothing like it. Part store, part museum, part laboratory, part psychologist. Densely packed with products, brightly lit as an operating room, gleaming like a jewelry counter, frenzied like a factory, Sephora is not just a cosmetics store. It's a beacon, a flame to which women flit and…
While, these days, "platinum blonde" is commonly used to describe hair color, the term actually wasn't coined until the thirties when Howard Hughes wanted to come up with a moniker to increase the popularity of actress Jean Harlow. Eventually, his publicity director came up with the "Platinum Blonde." Back then, Harlow's…
If you are alive and female, you are all too aware of your own prettiness factor. And how could you not be? We spend our lives being told exactly where we rank by one person or another, not to mention offered an ideal example constantly, and sometimes (if you've ever walked through a shopping district) at literally…
Big boobs and butts are perhaps losing their appeal since the number of people enhancing them cosmetically has declined for the first time in six years (notably, when Kim Kardashian Superstar was released). Meanwhile, procedures involving the face are on the rise, mostly due to aging baby boomers.
The European Union is set to ban the sale of cosmetics and personal-care products that were tested on animals (or contain ingredients that were). The ban goes into effect on March 11, and it will have major implications for the global cosmetics industry.
Why is it so hard
If you've ever cursed the depilatory gods for why you feel you must shave your pits for summertime or wax your entire pubic area so that no man should tremble asunder at the sight of one errant hair, you've probably reached into the typical goody bag of suspects in search of a guilty party: pop culture, lady mags,…
Okay. Apparently this is the newest thing in face science. You spit in a jar. Then a fake scientist looks at your spit and is like, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, YES, birch and phoenix feather! This will do nicely!" And they hand you a jar of customized face goop that "matches" your spit, and you go home and goop up your face with it.…
