Last week, a busybody speculated aloud that my favorite red lipstick is full of lead that will give me cancer. (My reaction can be summed up by this 2008 post.) Right after that conversation, I saw that lots of news organizations were picking up a story about a pair of Dutch artists — Lernert Engelberts and Sander Plug — who applied a year’s worth of makeup in a single day to model Hannelore Knuts for a film called “Natural Beauty.”
Courtesy Nowness.com via the Daily Mail. Click for source.
Okay, interesting art project. But I’m annoyed by the news-site comments and self-flagellating blog posts saying, “Women are terrible! Look what we do to ourselves with all this makeup!” WTF? This project says nothing meaningful about your life. A year’s worth of anything in one day would be bad — vitamin C, antibiotics and carrots included. I certainly wouldn’t give Henry the dog a year’s worth of dog food in one day. He has no “off” switch and would eat till he exploded. But that doesn’t mean dog food is bad and that I should starve him all year. Jebus! Stop creating a moral and/or health issue out of a stunt. And don’t ever talk shit to me about my lipstick unless you’ve got an advanced degree in chemistry in one hand and a list of ingredients in the other. Kthxbai!
henry would like to do a year’s worth of ottoman posing in one day!
I think he already does!
People are f*cking insane.
I think that sums it up.
Don’t forget “fucking stupid.”
Just another day in standards that only apply to women and not men.
Well said!
This has me giggling. How about a years worth of toenail clippings? That would be gross too! Or a years worth of ebay buying, now that really WOULD be scary.
A year’s worth of anything is pretty frightening!
amazing that an art project is to have purpose ..
kind of like preparing for an attack of killer tomatoes
Your post sums up how I feel. : )
I saw that stupid video and couldn’t even finish it. It’s so boring and pointless.
What next? All the deodorant you wear in a year? Whoop-dee-doo!
And lead in your lipstick? oh my god. You should’ve said YES! I have the kiss of death! and leaned in for a smooch! 😉
Ha ha! When she said, “That probably has lead in it,” I said, “Awesome. I hope it has lots.” The fact that she continued the conversation after that was pretty mind-blowing. Why the FUCK do people think I care about their stupid ideas?
According to the papers, one week red wine will kill you, the next it will cure you of all ills. As long as your lipstick doesn’t have acid in it, then I don’t really get the issue. Women were using some very strange cosmetics throughout the last century and I doubt it caused them too much in the way of death.
That said, I was reading an article in a 1970 Nova about how ‘safe’ silicon injections directly into the breast tissue was…so who knows what we’ll discover in the years to come?
I love that you sit around reading 1970 Novas.
Ha! What else am I going to read? I also use original Biba make-up. According to convention, this is full of bad germs and will blind/maim/kill me.
Live fast, die young and leave a beautifully made-up corpse!
Way to stand up for your red, WendyB. People have way too much time on their hands. And of course, I have to ask: are those who point fingers crime-free? What of their personal toilettes and beauty habits?
I like MAC’s now-discontinued “Voile,” myself, so I’ll stand up for my gold. Until my stockpile runs out and I have to find something else.
They apparently forget that when they point a finger, four fingers are pointing back at themselves! A crazy part of this is the lipstick-hating woman was someone who was doing a JOB for me and now I’m never going to work with her again!
God dang, Wendy, if I ever need someone to do a virtual b*tch-slap for me, I am totally calling you!
I am at your service!
That is just idiotic. Doesn’t even make any practical sense!
Someone bitched about your red?! I don’t have any lead on me, but I do have a couple of steel toes that’ll do just as well.
My roomie’s cat also lacks an off switch when it comes to food; he always begs his mom to be fed all the time! It’s funny and sad at the same time hearing him go “Mew, mew, mew, mew, mew…”
That said, I don’t think a year’s worth of food would be enough for the kitty.
My old dog (the aptly named Mr. Chubbs) once broke into the dog food and ate till he was sick all over the house. More recently, Henry had somehow knocked the lid of the big plastic container we keep the food in and went in head first. I dragged him out by his hind legs.
haha Wendy i love this article and this whole Lipstick lead BS has been around for ages. You put it well! That’s the thing with the internet, some people are swayed so quickly to think like everybody else and not themselves.
I totally agree. Anything will give you cancer. One day broccoli is amazing for you and then they come up with a study that it causes some sort of cancer or other health issue. Coffee is good for you today, tomorrow we hear that it is not. And then they say it is good again. Same thing with chocolate. And are you EATING your lipstick for God’s sake? Now, if you smoked cigarettes, I could understand the health risk… but people continue to do that and avoid red lipstick?? dumb asses.
You know what annoys me? People who do yoga but smoke. WTF! Just stop it!
I don’t understand the hoopla about make up. You’re not a martyr if you don’t wear it and you’re not a witch if you do. Sure caring too much about your appearance is not a good attribute, but too much of anything isn’t good either!
Jesus fucking christ, I hate all that shit about the pitfalls of make-up. The naysayers can just fuck off about the lead in lipstick stupid urban myth. And I can say that because I have a PhD in medicine!
Bizarre!! What’s the point and who cares?
If someone said that about my red lipstick, they’d get a 6″ stiletto shoe up their ass.
XXX
Suzanne
All I can tell you is that GrammyRubi’s been wearing lipstick, eating chocolate, and drinking whiskey FOR YEARS. Did I mention that she just turned 98? I think she’s on to something.
I have an advance degree in chemistry, Biochemistry PhD in fact and yes I do still put all this crap on my face without the fear it will give me cancer, FFS!!!!
Ha, you tell ’em!