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Peculiar Beauty
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Charmingly absurd vintage beauty tips and the latest in weird beauty news.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'peculiar beauty'
I Give Green Porno "The Most Passionate 20-Arm Embrace"
Time for a new season of Green Porno, the most important film project of our time. By now, I am sure you're aware that Isabella Rossellini spends much of her time in crafty getups, doing it with various oddball creatures. This season features anc...
Several Essential Links
1. This Max Factor creation was recently featured on Modern Mechanix. Reader Joanna just reminded me to post about it. I just recovered from an odd jaw ailment; actually could have used such a thing. 2. Chris Rock made a documentary about Africa...
The Glamour of the Dachshund
I am a dachshund fanatic. As I was clearing photos off my hard drive this week, I noticed how many pictures I have of the tiny, magical hounds in glamorous situations. The breed's distinct shape makes them ideal for use as punctuation, as in t...
I Am Flabbergasted
"Not only do they get to lose their love handles or chubby belly but they get to take part in saving the Earth." LipoDiesel Surely it's an elaborate holiday prank?...
I Have More To Say About Slim Tape
If you don't know what Slim Tape is, read the post below or click the link. I have been thinking about Slim Tape all morning and have decided that of ALL the garments and figure aids in history, this tape is the most horrifying thing to come acros...
Tone Your Upper Arms Instantly
Ever-vigilant reader, Gina just sent me the best link of the year: Slim Tape.I've written about the age old art of face taping before. And about a vintage Kotex ad that advised teens to tape their shoulder blades together for better posture. Bu...
Beautiful Corpses
“I’ve had people mention that they want their breasts to look perky when they’re dead." This article reports that plastic surgery techniques, such as line-filling, are on the rise in mortuaries. Actually I've been meaning to write something h...
You Look Terrible, I'm Calling An Ambulance
In 1961 Allan Grant shot these amazing photos of the Beauty Hospital of Dr. Robert A. Franklyn, in Bel Air, California. (LIFE) On occasion I've remarked to my sister that I need to go to the Hair Emergency Room. Now I know where that could once be...
Grace Kelly at the Fat Farm
So, continuing with Princess Luciana Avedon's The Beautiful People's Diet Book. Today I came across a passage that just begs to be blogged, considering my recent post. From the chapter, Weighing In at the Fat Farm: Vera Maxwell keeps a small p...
Exit Fat City Quick, Before You Marbelize Like a Steak!
"The five-pound limit turns out to be less fanatic than it seems. There is a physiological reason why it is easier to lose weight as soon as it is gained. Any medical student knows this. The explanation goes that when you first put on weight, the ...
Peculiar Beauty on Oprah
No, not me.Alert reader Sheila wrote to say that Oprah did a show today about unusual beauty standards and practices around the world. Go here for a bunch of great clips (I of course just watched them all).The lady at left is wearing a hejab that r...
Tramp On a Friday Night: Tips from The Beautiful People's Diet Book
There are the cheetahs of the world and the hippopotami. Much to my chagrin, I was built for the herd-- one year of negligence and you would find me by the riverbank, shifting my bulk in a vast hippopotamus sprawl! I've been re-reading the lat...
On My Favorite Color, and Threesomes
My sister and I spent years of our childhood obsessed with the 1982 movie Summer Loversin which Daryl Hannah and Peter Gallagher frolic around the Greek Isles with a French girlfriend. I guess we thought it would reveal the secrets of our debauc...
Tape Your Face Into a Lifelike Expression
The minute tape was first patented in 1925, people started using it for instant facelifts. Like many beauty hacks, this one originated with movie stars and pageant queens. Those women are largely held together with chewing gum and toothpicks.You ...
On Beauty Hacks
I've mentioned beauty hacks here a few times lately, and I have a sudden urge to make sure you know what I mean. I'll use the college-essay trick. As defined by Urban Dictionary, one definition of hack is to: "jury-rig or improvise something in...
The History of Glamour
Glamour, stories, ghosts, and conspiracy theories are among the things that occupy my mind. You probably read all about Theresa Duncan last year when she committed suicide. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can read the story here an...
I Am Screaming Inside
To get things rolling after a small and unplanned absence, I would like to share with you a few quotes which fall into a category I call, I'm Screaming Inside. These will serve to let you know how my week has been, to illuminate one of many reason...
A Black Dust-Up WIth Sun-In
Awww, my very own spam. I'm set up to get Google alerts about "Peculiar Beauty." I have just been alerted to one of those spammy, nonsense sites that exist to collect clicks. This is my first opportunity to read about myself or my work in spam ...
Sum of Your Parts
Thousands of years ago, I stood in front of a large, full-length mirror with a friend. We were out dancing at a club and had taken a break to reapply lipstick (this was in the early nineties, thus Coffee Bean by Revlon). "Look at you," my friend...
"You long for a great, blonde, Nordic horse who's going to put her foot in your face."
More from Quentin Crisp:"If you have gone through life wearing pink glasses, you will naturally think the world is essentially pink, while the world thinks of you only as The Person With The Pink Glasses. You may have always thought of yourself as ...
I've Fallen Victim to the Margarine Fallacy
Today's style tips are brought to you by this pair, my strict high-school principal, Mrs. Crabapple, and my sad-eyed guidance counselor, Mr. Hewitt. Just kidding. My high-school principal was a good-looking blond guy who played folk songs for u...
13 Pounds Away From Love
Readers Chris W. and Stacy O. just sent me this brilliant vintage ad. Click to enlarge and read the saga of Kitty, an overeater, who is unable to compete with a lithe blond at the pool. Luckily Kitty's undermining friend steps in to tell her abou...
Slimming Jeans
I am sort of at a loss for words today so thought I'd show you something likely to leave you in a similar state. Why bother with finding the proper cut of jeans to make you appear slimmer when you could be wearing jeans that actually reduce your s...
"Personal Style Advances With Age"
Important new blog alert! Advanced Style does what the Sartorialist does, but does it with older subjects. More about charm than chicness. The adorable lady at left wears a hat from Tiffany's. More importantly she wears it utterly without iro...
How to Be a Virgin With Style and Grace
"Perhaps it simply never occurs to you that the twenty-seven minutes you spend in front of your multibulb makeup mirror applying all those perfumed balms and paints is not vanity but a reflection of good manners."So true. It's polite to be pretty; ...
Stacy Cohen Part 2: Sexy Spirituality
Last week, I introduced you to the deeply peculiar Stacy Cohen and her "opulent" lifestyle book, The Kosher Billionaire's Secret Recipe. What with all the photos of Stacy, photos of Stacy in front of her jet, and photos of Stacy writhing around in ...
"There Are No Ugly Women, Only Lazy Ones"
That's a quote from Helena Rubinstein. And on her first visit to this country, she famously said, “All the American women had purple noses and gray lips and their faces were chalk white from terrible powder. I recognized that the United States...
Stacy Cohen Part 1: Please Don't Ask Me to Cease and Desist
This is the book I've been crowing about: The Kosher Billionaire's Secret Recipe. You'll notice it's not a vintage beauty book. It is ostensibly a kosher cookbook, published just last year. And why has it taken me so long to share? Because St...
Welcome New Readers and Who Wants a Present? You?
If Gretchen Rubin sent you from The Happiness Project, welcome! And I just realized (I'm new at this) that I have a bunch of new subscribers, so welcome to all of you, too. If you would like to subscribe, here you go. You should be able to use ...
Piece of Work: Helen Gurley Brown
Reader QuiteLight recently mentioned her collection of Helen Gurley Brown books. You know HGB-- she edited Cosmopolitan magazine for thousands of years after rising to fame with the classic Sex and the Single Girl in 1963. Helen has always encour...
