G L I M P S E
This publication was created and designed by Helen Stigge. It is set in Bembo, a serif typeface created in 1929 by the Monotype Corporation. It is based on designs cut in 1496 by Fancesco Griffo. The italic version, created calligrapher Alfred Fairbank, is based on work by Giovanni Antonio Tagliente, a calligrapher in the 1520s. Another typeface used is Essonnes, a 21st century serif typeface designed by the JTD type foundry, who describes it as ‘born of a union between Didot experimentation, late Victorian extravagance, and contemporary pragmatism.’
Glimpse by Helen Stigge
FOREWARD In theory, this publication is a collection of 100 chapsticks and lip sticks. In reality, it’s actually about the people behind them. I am a compulsive chapstick user. I think in total I keep chapstick in about five different places in my home. In a way, my lips are almost a symbol of my mental and physical health. But while I may not be able to easily get rid of my anxiety or depression, I can fairly easily make my lips healthy. Lipstick becomes a second layer to that sort of mask that I wear against the ever present eyes of the world. As soon as I put on a bright red, I am capable and intimidating. It hides my fears. So with these thoughts in mind, I wondered what I could learn about other people both through their words and an almost voyeuristic look into their personal spaces. I wanted this publication to reflect these ideas by giving the words and images of nine people, a platform to be heard and seen. By not cluttering the page with extraneous objects I hoped to create a space that encouraged thought and reflection on the unique perspectives each person holds towards lipsticks and chapsticks.
Helen Stigge
SELECTED READINGS 8
Lipstick, Etc., Ruth Wallsgrove
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Lipstick, Laura Jensen
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Time to Uncover, Alicia Keyes
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Lipstick, Mary Karr
PEOPLE 19
Caitlin Schwarz
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Samantha Evans
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Chelsea Akyeampong
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Emily Bargar
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Sam Lettieri
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Emily Gauger
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Christine Page
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Allison Sutton
LIPSTICK, ETC. Ruth Wallsgrove
What do you think about lipstick? About shaved legs? About skirts? Do they matter - one way or the other? It's fair to say that feminists don't just disagree on whether these are good or bad things, but even how much they care. Take lipstick. It seems to me we have at least three traditional kinds of views around 1. That lipstick is a sexist trapping. 2. That lipstick is a necessary evil, camouflage to get by in a patriarchal world. 3. That whatever you want to put on your face is fine with me. - and a more recent contender 4. That lipstick is erotic. We have to survive with contradictions: even feminists often need to believe mutually exclusive things to stay sane. But which of these are indeed contradictory? If you ask me, I can espouse any of them, depending on who I'm talking to.That is, if I'm talking to a woman who isn't a feminist, I'm unlikely to tell her she's letting down the revolution by wearing lipstick. Unless severely provoked, I would try to avoid giving a lecture on make-up and its role in male domination at all. I would (silently) think (2) and publically act (3). If I'm talking to a feminist who's wearing it, on the other hand, I would probably say that I did feel let down. I might understand that not to wear it would be, for her, one battle too many - the necessary evil bit, as long as she were suitably apologetic. I might well not make a point of it - one battle too many for me. But I wouldn't easily feel calm, or cool - hey, it's only make-up. Because I do believe (1). Lipstick is not innately bad (it isn't innately anything), but in our society it means something, and I don't like what it means. But what do I say when a lesbian feminist says she wears it because she finds it erotic, or a symbol of erotic freedom -because, for example, it was something her parents wouldn’t let her put on? I don’t find it so myself, but just because it doesn’t turn me on I can’t insist that it not turn on any other woman. More to the point, there’s unfortunately no contradiction between it being a sexist trapping and some women finding it erotic. I can believe them both.
I have to say that for me it symbolises sexism without being sexy. And I think I should insist that she agree it isn’t a product of a gender-free culture, and doesn’t come free of sexist symbolism. But in the city culture I inhabit, few women wear lipstick as a matter of routine, or because it is expected anymore. Among my lesbian feminist friends, lipstick isn’t going to work as camouflage. Even with lipstick on, few observers would think they looked like anything other than dykes, which remains a fairly radical image. So I find I mind less. If they don’t say it doesn’t matter, and don’t wear it to get by - does it matter? Shaved legs make me a little less cool. The very fact that we are forced to shave our legs in straight office work or make sure no one ever sees them bare impinges too much one my life. Lipstick isn’t a serious problem, where I am. But shaved legs -well! They symbolise not merely sexism in general but the subordination of women at work, enforcing a powerless nakedness in precisely that area women most hope for equality. Not to put too fine a point on it, I hate shaved legs. This isn’t to say I love my unshaved legs: but I hate the fact that we’re made to feel so ambivalent about unavoidable things about our bodies, such as leg hairs. I was never tempted to wear lipstick, but sometimes I wonder how much easier my life would be in sexist society if I shaved my legs. (Sometimes I think it is only because I have feminists to go home to who would think shaving one’s legs weird, unerotic, uncool that I don’t succumb - of such things is courage made.) So of course I am less
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sympathetic to feminists who do succumb. I make a stand. We all have to make stands, or go under. However... Yes, of course I wear skirts (or why else would I worry so about hairy legs?) I like skirts, I’ve always worn skirts, I’ve tended to drift to the end of the room where feminists said nice things about skirts. I don’t even really know what I think about them. I would say I do feel moderately sexy in skirts, sometimes, and that I wear them as much for how they make me feel about myself as anything - not because I feel pressured to wear them. Except that, if I didn’t just happen to wear skirts, people at work might very well pressure me to do so. And if shaved legs are enforced on us primarily as a mark of subordination at work (rather than as a mark of heterosexuality) skirts can definitely signal both subordination and sexuality. So I certainly can’t play the heavy.
a stand on something that is hard to give up is more noble, of course, but personal stands can only have a limited effect - how much pain is worth it? If it gets in the way of collective action, I’d say forget it. Feminism is not about martyrdom - not until they come and shoot us. The only thing that makes me angry is willful unawareness that other feminists do care, and have thought about the issue. To shave your legs without thinking isn’t in itself a sin; to do it without thought once another feminist has explained how it troubles her might be. I can’t say it doesn’t matter, because it has and continues to matter to lots of us. Or perhaps what I’m saying is only this: don’t expect to be taken as thoughtful on the issue if you’ve never stopped to think about it. Half-baked excuses for any action may not be treated with the greatest respect.
Intellectually, I suspect anything we are supposed to do - wearing lipstick, shaving legs, choosing skirts. They are all both symbols and mechanisms of male domination: we do not just end up doing them, or wanting to do them. Few things, if any, in our society are gender-neutral -what we do with our bodies particularly so. As feminists we must analyse, not accept, even if we then choose to camouflage ourselves or decide that other things matter more or embrace the (un-gender-neutral) pleasures we get from them. We can’t demand that other feminists make the same choices: we can demand of each other that each of us makes some hard choices sometimes, even if for each of us what is difficult is different. Making a stand not to do something you don’t want to do is no big deal - fine, but don’t expect medals. You still have to understand that it might be harder for someone else. Making
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LIPSTICK Laura Jensen
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Cosmetics are your noble benefactors, far away at department stores where the counter girls glare at your pale face, thinking you shoplift. You try a perfume and carry it at your now-royal wrist through all the rest. The store is crowded and terrible. The lips of the women are red like alleys of cardinals, eyes are green like alleys of bamboo. But none of the colognes is like the scent of snow on bamboo, or rutted snow by the trees where cardinals slum alertly, saying light. Morning. In the alley of now the dusk is trying out the garbage cans. Among them I am looking around at the dark after squashing down the trash somehow. Suspended in the heavens of the third floor, steam is still blurring my mirror, soap still haunting the air. My lipstick clings, cosmetic, reassuring, its scent feminine and hearty. Dream: I am an Oriental print. I turned to walk down the road after companions when suddenly my face stopped living, a window painted shut. Of me there were single hairs, brown with damp, I was looking up. In the white air by me there was printed an emblem in a black square, a signature. I was what was there.
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TIME TO UNCOVER Alicia Keyes
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We all get to a point in our lives (especially girls) where we try to be perfect.
Before I started my new album, I wrote a list of all the things that I was sick of. And one was how much women are brainwashed into feeling like we have to be skinny, or sexy, or desirable, or perfect. One of the many things I was tired of was the constant judgment of women. The constant stereotyping through every medium that makes us feel like being a normal size is not normal, and heaven forbid if you’re plus-size. Or the constant message that being sexy means being naked.
Does it start somewhere in second grade after picture day when you wear your frizzy hair out 'cause your mama says it's beautiful but all your "friends" laugh at you? You grab the brush and gel and pull your beautiful big hair back into the tightest ponytail you possibly can to contain your unique hair in a bun — hiding a piece of who you are in order to fit into a picture of what others seem to see as perfection.
All of it is so frustrating and so freakin’ impossible.
Yeah, that's one moment.
I realized that during this process, I wrote a lot of songs about masks filled with metaphors about hiding.
Or how about in junior high school? Where all the "pretty" girls are wearing lipstick and eyeliner and mascara. Some of them are so skilled they even look like those models in every magazine you ever read — the ones who made you feel slightly uncomfortable with yourself or misrepresented or just unseen.
I needed these songs because I was really feeling those insecur ities. I was finally uncovering just how much I censored myself, and it scared me. Who was I anyway?
It's another moment where some piece of you realizes that to fit in or be thought of as beautiful, you have to cover up to be a bit closer to perfect. Yeah, that's another one. Trust me, it didn't just end in junior high. I remember when I first started to be in the public eye. Oh my gawd! Everyone had something to say. "She's so hard, she acts like a boy, she must be gay, she should be more feminine!" But the truth is, I was just from New York, and everyone I knew acted like that. In the streets of New York you had to be tough, you HAD to be hard, people needed to know that you weren't scared to fight! But this wasn't the streets of New York. This was the harsh, judgmental world of entertainment and my biggest test yet. I started, more than ever, to become a chameleon. Never fully being who I was, but constantly changing so all the "they's" would accept me.
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Did I even know HOW to be brutally honest anymore? Who I wanted to be? I didn’t know the answers exactly, but I desperately wanted to. In one song I wrote, called “When a Girl Can’t Be Herself,” it says, In the morning from the minute that I wake up / What if I don’t want to put on all that makeup / Who says I must conceal what I’m made of / Maybe all this Maybelline is covering my self-esteem No disrespect to Maybelline, the word just worked after the maybe. But the truth is … I was really starting to feel like that — that, as I am, I was not good enough for the world to see. This started manifesting on many levels, and it was not healthy. Every time I left the house, I would be worried if I didn’t put on makeup: What if someone wanted a picture?? What if they POSTED it??? These were the insecure, superficial, but honest thoughts I was thinking. And all of it, one way or another, was based too much on what other people thought of me. I found my way to meditation, and I started focusing on clarity and a deeper knowing of myself. I focused on cultivating strength and conviction and put a practice in place to learn more about the real me.
“the truth is … I was really starting to feel like that — that, as I am, I was not good enough for the world to see.”
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And I promised I would approach things differently this time regarding my image and allow my real self, as is, to come through. Time passed after I wrote “When a Girl Can’t Be Herself,” and I didn’t think about it much. I guess I got busy and was too focused on creating the music to think about it so specifically. It wasn’t until I walked into one of my first shoots for my new album recently that the issue was front and center again. I’d just come from the gym, had a scarf under my baseball cap, and the beautiful photographer Paola (never met a Paola I didn’t like) said, “I have to shoot you right now, like this! The music is raw and real, and these photos have to be too!” I was shocked. Instantly, I became a bit nervous and slightly uncomfortable. My face was totally raw. I had on a sweatshirt! As far as I was concerned, this was my quick run-to-the-shootso-I-can-get-ready look, not the actual photo-shoot look. So I asked her, “Now?! Like right now? I want to be real, but this might be too real!!” And that was it. She started to shoot me. It was just a plain white background, me and the photographer intimately relating, me and that baseball hat and scarf and a bunch of invisible magic circulating. And I swear it is the strongest, most empowered, most free, and most honestly beautiful that I have ever felt. I felt powerful because my initial intentions realized themselves. My desire to listen to myself, to tear down the walls I built over all those years, to be full of purpose, and to be myself! The universe was listening to those things I’d promised myself, or maybe I was just finally listening to the universe, but however it goes, that’s how this whole #nomakeup thing began. Once the photo I took with Paola came out as the artwork for my new song “In Common,” it was that truth that resonated with others who posted #nomakeup selfies in response to this real and raw me. I hope to God it’s a revolution. ‘Cause I don’t want to cover up anymore. Not my face, not my mind, not my soul, not my thoughts, not my dreams, not my struggles, not my emotional growth. Nothing. Alicia Keys is a 15-time Grammy® Award-winning singer/songwriter/producer, an accomplished actress, a New York Times best-selling author, an entrepreneur and a powerful force in the world of activism.
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LIPSTICK Mary Karr It's Paris where a cigarette is my flashlight and a guidebook illuminates my mouth: Bong Jewr, Mong sewr Bare leetz. This is my vacation, but all night I've untangled alleys. When I pucker into my compact I see a woman stranded under fat white lilac trees and the sky of Paris, threaded with champagne corks, shot off balconies like messages that will never be caught. I study the map. I try to imagine the trail of white smoke my jet must have left behind, like the wet smear of my tongue licking closed this envelope. Some people never learn how to make a good impression, and my lips leave two red wings on the back of an aerogram. Inside it says, I'm gone; eat your heart out. It's Paris makes me speak this strange language. I strike a match on the zipper of my jeans to check a street sign. It's the Roo of Burdens, and I shake the whole world dark again.
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CAITLIN SCHWARZ 22. Major(s): Art History Q: How does wearing lipstick make you feel? Does society influence this for you? A:Whenever I wear lipstick I feel like I am putting on this new persona, somewhat like a costume for the day. If it’s a light color I feel ethereal, dark I feel gothic and mysterious, and red makes me feel like a classic woman from the 1950s. The choice of lipstick can completely change my outlook for the day, if I go dark I feel like a badass and if I go for a sweeter tone I want to be a fairy that day. I would choose dark shades over light though because I am a scorpio and I feel like a nice dark plum embodies that. Society influences me a bit. I feel hesitant to where dark lipstick when I have work or class because I don’t want to stand out or be the center of attention. I have yet to wear my black lipstick, which I keep at home in my vanity. I would like to get over this though because I feel most myself when I am wearing lipstick. I feel put together and self-confidant in not only my looks, but also my identity. Q: When did you start wearing chapstick? Lipstick? A: I have used chapstick for as long as I can remember. It has always been a stocking stuffer that I’ve gotten for Christmas. When I was in elementary school my mom sold Avon and she would always give me the little lipsticks to play dress up with. I didn’t really start wearing lipstick in public until my late middle school years. My affinity for dark colors flourished during my upperclassmen years of high school and continue to today.
Q: Practical or Fanciful? A: Fanciful.
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Location: Bedroom dresser, top drawer. Maybelline, “Luxurious Lilac” (Lipstick/Stain), Used Milani, “Black Cherry” (Lipstick), Used Revlon, “Shameless” (Lipstick), Almost Gone Almay, “Truffle Kiss” (Tinted Lipgloss), Used Milani, “Ruby Valentine” (Lipstick), Used Sephora, N/A (Lipstick), Barely Used NYX, “Copenhagen” (Lipstick), Used NYX, “Transylvania” (Lipstick), Used Yves Saint Laurent, “Number 8 (?)” (Lipstick), Used Maybelline, “Fresh Fuschia,” (Lipstick/Stain), Used NYX, “Moscow,” (Lipstick), Used
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Location: Bedroom dresser, top drawer. Burt’s Bees, “Pear and Coconut” (Lip Balm), Used
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Location: Backpack, last pocket. Burt’s Bees, “Rejuvenating Acai Berry” (Lip Balm), Used
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Location: Top of bedroom dresser. Milani, “Teddy Bare” (Lipstick), Used Blistex, N/A (Lip Balm), Used
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CHELSEA AKYEAMPONG 18. Major(s): Global Studies/Pre-Law Q: When did you start wearing chapstick? Lipstick? A: When I was younger, around 5 or so, my mom would put makeup on me. She would put eyeshadow and lipstick on me. I remember that she would put the eyeshadow all the way up to my eyebrow and I felt like a clown.
Q: How does wearing lipstick make you feel? Does society influence this for you? A: Lipstick makes me feel grown as if I am no longer a child. I see older women wearing it all the time and it looks good on them so when I do it, it’s like a confidence booster. Although, I tend to feel self-conscious about what I put on my lips because people make fun of my lips. My lips are thick but small which is unusual for people where I come from. Everyone assumes that all Africans have huge lips and I don’t which makes me feel insecure so I have to make sure that I choose the right color and shade. I’m obsessed with African fashion/makeup and I aspire to make my lipstick look the ones in the Nigerian Traditional Bridal Imagess. Q: Does price matter when choosing lipstuff? A: Yes, price does matter. I was brought up to believe that name brands did not always mean better quality so when I’m at the Dollar store and I see a nice shade of lipstick, I will buy it. I’m not the type of person spend alot of money on material items but if I truly adore something, I will not hesitate to buy it(so long as it is under $50). After seeing my bill for my course books, anything $100 or less is a blessing!
Q: Practical or Fanciful? A: Fanciful.
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Location: Make-up Bag, Dresser Colormates, “Soft Plum” (Lip Crayon), Used
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SAM LETTIERI 21. Major(s): Accounting Q: Chapstick or Lipstick? Brand and Color? A: Chapstick (moving toward tinted ones). I’m an avid chapstick user and my favorite is Nivea by far (or Lobello when in Europe). I haven’t quite found my favorite brand of lipstick yet, but I’m trying out different ones. Colorwise I tend to go for muted mauve nudes.
Q: How does wearing lipstick make you feel? Does society influence this for you? A: It definitely makes me feel glamorous when I find a color that works for me, but sometimes it feels like I upped my game a bit too much. I think that anyone who wants to wear or not wear lipstick should be able to make their own decision. I’m still trying to figure out if I’m a “lipstick person” and I know many women who are not (like my mom and many of her friends). To be honest, I think everyone should wear chapstick cause who wouldn’t want soft lips? Q: When did you start wearing chapstick? Lipstick? A: Chapstick when I was 5 or 6 probably because my mom decided that lips had to have sunscreen all the time and then my friends and I had a huge Smackers collection in 5th grade (until mono started going around). Lipstick not until I studied abroad in London (20-21).
Q: Practical or Fanciful? A: Practical.
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Location: Bedroom Desk Smith’s, “Rosebud Salve” (Lip Balm), Barely Used Labello, “Classic Care” (Lip Balm), Used Blistex, “Lip Medex” (Lip Balm), Almost Gone
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Location: Purse Nivea, “A Kiss of Smoothness” (Lip Balm), Used
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Location: Jar by Bathroom Sink Revlon, “Kisses” (Lipstick), Barely Used Clinique, “Whoppin’ Watermelon” (Lipstick), Used Clinique, “Chunkiest Caramel” (Lipstick), Used Sephora, “Charmer” (Lipstick), Barely Used Burt’s Bees, “Red Dahlia” (Lip Balm), Barely Used
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CHRISTINE PAGE 21. Major(s): Psychology and Cognitive Science Q: How does wearing lipstick make you feel? Does society influence this for you? A: I’ll start by saying that even though I love lipstick, it can make me feel a little self-concious. Only in the way that I feel like I have to make sure it’s not running or fading or on my teeth. But I don’t think that’s societally influenced or anything. I think it’s just me wanting to be look put together. Somehow though, lipstick also makes me feel so confident. It’s paradoxical, I know, but it’s true. Maybe I just wish I could have the color and the finish without all the maintenance. It may be small, but I think lipstick can be so empowering. I don’t know what it is about it. Somedays I wear it and I feel like a whole different person. I feel like I could take on the world. I even have a playlist on my computer called “kill you with my lipstick,” that’s filled with songs that make me feel powerful, feminine, or both. I guess, in a way, I feel like it’s a feminist statement in a way. It’s taking something that women were expected wear solely for men’s pleasure (i.e. makeup in general) and reclaiming it for something that makes the woman feel beautiful in her own skin and on her own turns. Q: Does price matter when choosing lipstuff? A: I would say yes. I think that’s why I turn to NYX and e.l.f. I also like finding reviews online of the best drugstore brands. I bought my Too Faced lipstick with a Sephora giftcard someone gave me for my birthday. I was $21, but I think it was worth it in the end. While my other lipsticks are still good quality, I do notice a difference. I love it, but I don’t think I would spend that much on a regular basis.
Q: Countryside or City? A: Both.
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Location: Purse Nyx, “Copenhagen” (Lipstick), Used Nyx, “Cannes” (Lipstick), Used Nyx, “Transylvania” (Lipstick), Used Too Faced, “Nude Beach” (Lipstick), Used e.l.f., “Cranberry” (Lipstick), Barely Used e.l.f.,“Berry Sorbet” (Lipstick), Barely Used e.l.f., “Dash of Pink” (Lipstick), Barely Used
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“I even have a playlist on my computer called “kill you with my lipstick,” that’s filled with songs that make me feel powerful, feminine, or both.”
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SAMANTHA EVANS 27. Major(s): BFA, Emphasis: Graphic Design Q: When did you start wearing chapstick? Lipstick? A:I have been using chapstick since elementary school. I compulsively apply it as an adult. In middle school and high school, I was into clear lip glosses but never really liked the texture. To this day, I rarely wear a gloss. I bought my first lipstick maybe 4 or 5 years ago when red lips really started becoming fashionable again. I actually first bought red lipstick because my friend told me of a statistic that women who rock red lips while waitressing make 25% more in tips, and being a full-time waitress, I was at least going to try that out. I’m not sure if I made any more money than I would have if I wasn’t wearing lipstick, but it pushed me into the world of being more experimental with my makeup. I should wear lipstick more often because it really completes a look and I have so many great shades, but I often forget about it.
Q: How does wearing lipstick make you feel? Does society influence this for you? A: When I first started wearing lipstick, I felt paranoid that it was getting smeared all over my face or that it was wearing off and looked like shit. As I wore it more, I became more comfortable and confident with the longevity. Now, lipstick makes me feel beautiful and powerful. Q: Does price matter when choosing lipstuff? A: No, I am not frugal. Quality reigns. Q: Fanciful or Practical? A: Practical, but a little fancy.
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Location: Nightstand Fresh, “Sugar Advanced Therapy, Mint” (Lip Balm), Used
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Location: Cosmetic Stand, Bathroom Counter Nars, “Dragon Girl” (Lipstick), Almost Gone Nars, “New Lover” (Lip Gloss), Used Nars, “Dolce Vita” (Lipstick), Barely Used Nars, “Never Say Never” (Lipstick), Barely Used Nars, “Cruella” (Lipstick), New Nars, “YU” (Lipstick), Barely Used Loc, “Punchline” (Lip Gloss Stick), Barely Used Bite, “Mimosa,” Barely Used (Lipstick) Clinique, “Raspberry” (Lipgloss/Balm), Barely Used Bare Minerals Moxie “Daredevil” (Lipgloss), Used Burt’s Bees, “Sweet Violet” (Lip Balm), Used Albeit, “Dahlia” (Lipstick), Used Ilia, “Shell Shock” (Lip Conditioner), Barely Used Ilia, “Crimson & Clover” (Lip Conditioner), Barely Used Bite, “Juniper” (Lipstick), Barely Used Clinique, “Matte Plum” (Lipstick), Barely Used Fresh, “Sugar (Mini)” (Lip Balm), Used Fresh, “Sugar Rose (Mini)” (Lip Balm), Used
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Location: Purse Pocket Fresh, “Sugar Rose Extreme” (Lip Balm), Used Fresh, “Sugar” (Lip Balm), Almost Gone Glossier, “Coconut Balm Dotcom” (Lip Balm), Used Arrow, “Boost Color Enhancing Lipbalm” (Lip Balm), Almost Gone
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EMILY BARGAR 18. Major(s): French Q: How do you choose what you’ll buy? A: I chose what I’ll buy based on the color and the price. I usually go for a nice red or pink and I tend to buy things that aren’t overly expensive. I also try to buy stuff that is cruelty-free because I don’t want my money going to a company that abuses animals.
Q: How does wearing lipstick make you feel? Does society influence this for you? A: I feel pretty fierce when I wear lipstick. I feel like it’s a bit of a confidence booster as well, because I feel more glamorous when I wear lipstick, especially red. I get influenced to try new shades when I see a celebrity or someone wearing a shade that I really like. Seeing people rocking these bold shades of lipstick makes me want to try more bold colors. Q: When did you start wearing chapstick? Lipstick? A: I’ve been wearing chapstick for as long as I can remember. I remember always buying the flavored Lipsmackers in elementary school and applying them all the time because I thought they tasted good. I didn’t really start wearing lipstick regualarly until my senior year of high school. Up until then I would only wear lipstick when I did theater things. Other than theater I only wore chapstick or lipgloss.
Q: City or Countryside? A: City.
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Location: Make-Up Bag, Backpack e.l.f., “Rich Red” (Lipstick), Used e.l.f., “Berry Sorbet” (Lipstick), Used e.l.f., “Bare Kiss” (Tinted Lip Balm), Used e.l.f., “Pink Umbrellas” (Jumbo Lip Gloss Stick), Barely Used e.l.f., “Pink Petal” (Lip Stain), Barely Used Glam & Beauty, N/A (Lip Gloss Stick), Barely Used Glam & Beauty, N/A (Lip Gloss Stick), Barely Used Lancome, “Strawberry Dove” (Lipstick), Used Softlips, “Vanilla” (Lip Balm), Used EOS, “Summer Fruit” (Lip Balm), Almost Gone
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EMILY GAUGER 21. Major(s): Graphic Design Q: Chapstick or Lipstick? Brand and Color? A: Chapstick is an always, lipstick is an every once in a while. I put chapstick on every night before bed and every morning because I hate the feeling of dry lips. Lipstick is maybe once every two weeks or once a month. I’m definitely not brand loyal when it comes to lipstick because I’ve never bought it for myself. When I wear, I go for a cherry red. I want to venture to other deeper colors but that has yet to happen. When it comes to chapstick, I definitely just stick to chapstick brand.
Q: How does wearing lipstick make you feel? Does society influence this for you? A: Wearing lipstick makes me feel bold, powerful, confident, fashion-conscious, fun, etc. I feel great while wearing it. I don’t wear it often, though, because I don’t want it to become a mask that I hide behind in order to feel those things. I try to feel that way without wearing it, but it’s just so easy to have all those feelings when I do have it on. I can’t really say if society has an influence on me. I’ve never really thought about it, but now as I’m reflecting on it, I think it does for sure. All the lipstick commercials make the women in them look powerful and strong and thats why you’re supposed to buy them, so you can be like those women. Q: Are you brand loyal? A: Nope, I get whatever looks pretty. Q: City or Countryside? A: City.
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Location: Backpack Chapstick, “Vanilla Cupcake” (Lip Balm), Used
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Location: Nightstand N/A, N/A (Lip Balm), Used
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Location: Bathroom, Left Drawer Chapstick, “Original” (Lip Balm), Used
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Location: Bathroom, Right Drawer Pop, “Crimson” (Lipstick), Used Mary Kay, “Rose Retro” (Lipstick), Barely Used Bombshell, “French Kiss” (Colored Lip Balm), Barely Used
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ALLISON SUTTON 22. Major(s): BFA, Graphic Design Q: How does wearing lipstick make you feel? Does society influence this for you? A: Lipstick makes me feel like I have my life a little more together than I actually do and I definitely find it empowering to wear and give me confidence. But other times I find it annoying if I have to keep applying it and I find that it can sometimes be high-maintence to wear. Q: When did you start wearing chapstick? Lipstick? A: I have been wearing chapstick for as long as I can remember. I used to bring some to elementary school everyday as a kid, especially in the winter since I would walk to school and then get chapped lips. As far as lipstick goes, I used to make concontions in the bathroom with my little sister where we would mix a bunch of lotions and makeup together and then cover our faces with it. Then I took a break from lipstick from the time I was a kid up until being a senior in high school. Now I only wear it for special occassions or if I feel like I look dead and need to brighten my face a little.
Q: Do you do research before you purchase? A: I usually will buy products based on what the youtube make gurus say is hot and has good reviews. Otherwise I will usually see something at the store that seems appealing, research it, and then decide if I want to buy it or not. I am pretty loyal to my chapstick brands so that I don’t switch those up too often.
Q: Fanciful or Practical? A: Practical.
glimpse
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glimpse
Location: Wallet Burts Bees, “Red Dahlia” (Tinted Lip Balm), Almost Gone, Smith’s “Rosebud Salve” (Lip Balm), Used
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Chelsea Akyeampong, Emily Bargar, Samantha Evans, Emily Gauger, Sam Lettieri, Christine Page, Caitlin Schwarz, and Allison Sutton for answering my questions and allowing me to document a personal aspect of their lives.
SELECTED READINGS Wallsgrove, Ruth. “Lipstick, Etc.” Off Our Backs, Inc. November 30, 1990. Jensen, Laura. “Lipstick.” The Iowa Review. Winter, 10, no. 1 (2979): 63. Keyes, Alicia. "Time to Uncover." Lenny Letter. May 31, 2016. lennyletter.com. Karr, Mary. “Lipstick.” Poetry. 138, no. 3 (June 1981): 136.