A huge thank you to reader Catherine, whose comment on yesterday’s lipstick post alerted me to hammer thrower Gwen Berry and her blue lipstick. Berry won a gold medal at the Pan American games in Peru over the weekend. While she was on the podium with the American anthem playing, she raised a fist —…
makeup
NSFW Lipstick
I’m a lipstick lover, and I’ve been fascinated by color names since childhood, when I used to read the names on my mother’s lipsticks and wonder about the inspiration behind Revlon’s “Fire and Ice” and “Cherries in the Snow.” When lipstick names got edgier in the 1990s, I was so excited that I wrote a…
Put Lipslut’s Notorious RBG on Your Kisser!
I’m still trying to nail the formula for Wendy Brandes lipstick — yes, that’s a real project, in addition to my jewelry. The trouble is I’m as picky about lipstick as I am about jewelry, and getting a factory to make a large quantity of lip color that meets my standards is even more difficult…
What Wendy Would Have Worn: Met Gala 2017
I am normally confident that I already own the right ensemble for most occasions — even the occasions to which I’m not invited! While we regular people don’t get to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute benefit like we used to, that’s the outing I fantasize about the most because it’s an…
Throwback Thursday: Long-Term Trends and Lipstick
In 2013, I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post about the surprisingly long life of fashion trends — a story that grew out of my “Never Is the Next New Thing™” adage. CLICK HERE TO READ THE TREND STORY. For the story, I spoke to Sheila Aimette, vice president of U.S. content for WGSN,…
Awards for MrB and Barbaralee
A belated congratulations is due to MrB for being inducted into the Deadline Club’s New York Journalism Hall of Fame on November 19! I attended the celebratory lunch with him at Sardi’s. I forced MrB to do this #deadlineclub #selfie #coupleselfie #journalism #awards #halloffamer #smiles #proud A photo posted by Wendy Brandes (@wendybrandes) on Nov…
What Wendy Wore: Halloween With Ringo Starr
I like to catch Ringo Starr‘s show whenever he’s in town, so I got tickets for his October 31 concert at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. I figured I’d dress the part of a Beatles fan in the “Mod girl” outfit I’d worn once before for Halloween. It wasn’t until last week that I realized I’d…
Pet Peeve: Celebrity Profiles and SANS FARDS
I’ve been wondering if it is possible for a writer to profile a famous woman for a magazine without mentioning in the first paragraph that the woman in question is SANS FARDS (without makeup). The answer: It is not possible. Here is the first paragraph of Lynn Hirschberg’s profile of model Gigi Hadid, who is…
Looking Back: Mother and Daughter
As you can see, red lipstick runs in the family: BarbaraB and Nan on Aug. 1, 1996.
The Weeks in Review
The past two weeks have been wild around here! The big news was the announcement that the Columbia Daily Spectator — the undergraduate newspaper of my alma mater, Columbia University — would focus on its website, while reducing its printing schedule from five times a week to once a week. As the chairman of the…