A Victorian beauty manual, Kabuki makeup brush, Revlon red lipstick, a brooch and a vintage copy of the Girl Scouts handbook surround a vintage-inspired frame.
This is my portrait of thrifted femininity.
The topic of what it means to be feminine has always been a bit contradictory for me. While I’m always educating myself on issues of gendered equality and resisting the advertising machine for body type and beauty expectations, I do admittedly spend a considerable amount of money on keeping up appearances, so to speak.
Sure, I find thrifted and bargain clothes and accessories that I love immensely. But when it comes to skin care and cosmetics, I find myself blissfully wandering the aisles of Sephora with glassy, wide eyes in amazement of all the pretty, pretty things.
And what’s so wrong with that, really?
Perhaps the money I spend on looking like a celebrity with a team of professional stylists is partially funded by the incredible savings on all of the awesome, kitsch, vintage oddities I have affordably bought secondhand.
Am I right?
9 comments:
Your portrait is beautiful. I love the look of skincare and beauty product. Designed to beguile- they have delicious packaging.
I make my own skincare stuff now and haven't looked back though, it's far superior and cheaper than Sephora stuff. Of course, blogs posts on that are in the works .. ;)
Ya know, half the battle is fighting the allure of the packaging at Sephora. Everything looks so magical in there. It's not even fair. Actually, I made a few Christmas gifts for friends, and for myself. A natural face scrub and an eye de-puffing mask. And everybody loves them! Go figure, ha ha.
But try as I might, I can't make cosmetics. And I just love the Benefit line at Sephora. The good news is that the products seem to last five times longer than the drug store brands. So I do use less, if it's any consolation. Sometimes even I'm amazed by the anomaly that is myself: A b-horror watching, thrifting feminist with way too many cosmetics.
Wow this is so gorgeous!! Love the frame!
Thanks, Carrie. It was a buck at The Philly Aids Thrift. A great find for me, woo woo!
The cosmetic counters at Bloomies do to me what Sephora does to you. I don't even go out to work anymore but those counters call me, especially Chanel, which is all I used when I was working. You are saving a bundle with your thrift store shopping and deserve to pamper your skin. It's the only one we get.
P.S. The frame is lovely!
Thanks for the wise words, Nancy. I agree, what I save in thrifted goods I do spend elsewhere, ie. Sephora. And Chanel is just lovely. I do admire people like Van though, who commit to creating their own homemade beauty products. I've tried it with mild success on a few face scrubs and masks. But sometimes it's nice to get dolled up.
I have tried to make my own also but I have the world's most sensitive skin, and some element of rosacea so can't get near things like witch hazel or alcohol. Chanel never irritated my skin - just cannot afford it now. I did find a new bottle of my favorite perfume at my favorite haunt - Impact - and I have not bought any recently because of cost, but for $15.00 for Ombre Rose, who could pass it up?
Oh that is a nice find for $15. I have rather sensitive skin too. But all of the natural scrubs I made seemed to help some. Honey, citrus rinds, protein powder, cucumber, vitamin e oil...it was all rather nice. A bit messy, though.
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