Makeup and accessories

Last week, I ran into a friend from college, and told her that not only did I like her gold ballet flats, but that they looked familiar, since I have the same ones in black. She replied that she knew we had the same ones, since she'd read about it on my blog. Today I ran into a different college friend, who said that before she recognized me, she recognized the scarf from my blog photo. Gar! In other startling, scarf-related news, McCain's daughter, the one actively helping his campaign, sports the keffiyeh, which means that scarf has had its day. We don't assume Islamic fundamentalists love America just because they sometimes wear blue jeans.

Now onto makeup. Via Unfogged via Bamber I learned that it's hard shopping for makeup if your skin is dark. I've experienced the less politically-charged but equally frustrating problem of being too pale for all makeup, but looking ill without any (a problem Amber mentions in her post). Being told to go for the palest one means there's probably a paler shade that's your color, but they have to sell you something; not surprising it's the same story on both ends. It seems the ideal for all races is an often-unattainable honey-golden complexion (think the spectrum from Jessica Simpson to Tyra Banks). You cannot be too rich or too thin, but too pale is possible, so the analogy to plus-size shopping made in the comments to the post at Unfogged does not strike me as apt. Just like Israel is these days considered too Western for the West, certain Ashkenazi Jews (named Phoebe) are too pale for the Eurocentric makeup industry. As, I'm sure, are plenty of non-Jewish women, but I'm willing to accept that my ancestry may be overrepresented in the 'try the concealer that looks like chalk' category.

As for Amber's point, that "Everyone looks better with a little eyeliner. Even boys," I agree wholeheartedly,