Beauty

There are two types of girls in December: the ones who booked their Christmas nails back in November, and the ones frantically painting candy canes at midnight on the 23rd with polish that expired two years ago. I have been both. The first one has a much nicer holiday. Because here’s the thing about Christmas…

8:00 a.m.: day-three hair, roots gone shiny, avoiding your own reflection. 8:03 a.m.: satin square tied at the nape, two loose strands pulled out front, and suddenly the whole thing reads as intentional. Three minutes. That’s the entire distance between “I give up” and “she woke up like this on purpose,” and it’s why bandana…

Forget everything you’ve seen in those over-the-top Halloween roundups. The dripping blood, the 3D eyeballs, the prosthetic wounds, the talons that make it impossible to open a can of seltzer. None of it is required. I call the alternative spooky girl energy: nails and makeup that are clearly in on the holiday but still look…

Scroll any nail feed in September and 9 out of 10 fall manicures are the exact same burgundy. Beautiful? Sure. But when every hand at brunch matches, “seasonal” starts to feel like a uniform. I say this with love, as a reformed burgundy-by-default girl myself. For years my entire autumn personality was one wine-colored bottle.…

Think a Thanksgiving manicure means tiny turkeys on your fingertips? Not even close. That’s the assumption I want to challenge today, because the best Thanksgiving nails are the ones nobody can date to a specific holiday. I speak from experience. I did the cartoon turkey accent nail one year, thought it was hilarious for approximately…

Do you wash your hair the night before you want to style it? And paint your nails right after moisturizing your hands? If you said yes to either, that’s your answer. Those two habits are why your bun slides out during a 75-minute lecture and why your manicure chips before syllabus week is over. Here’s…

Most wedding makeup disasters happen the exact same way: the eye look that was perfect at 2 p.m. is a gray smudge under the eyes by the first dance. Different brides, different budgets, same sad crease. And here’s the part that should make you feel better: it’s almost never the eyeshadow’s fault, or yours. It’s…

How many weeks should one braiding appointment actually last? Usually around six weeks with good care. Not one week. Not “until day nine when the frizz takes over.” Six whole weeks of waking up with your hair already done. And yet most of us tap out somewhere around week two. The parts get fuzzy, the…

Hair finished at 9am. Photos at 10. Car door opens at 11 and the ocean air hits you like a wall. By the first shot on the sand, you’re holding your whole head with one hand. Sound familiar? That’s the part nobody puts on the mood board. Beach wedding hairstyles get pinned by the thousands…

Have you been using a palm full of heavy gel to get your front pieces to lay flat? That is exactly why your hair looks greasy instead of sleek. The clean, polished aesthetic is everywhere right now, but recreating these looks at home usually ends in a sticky, frustrating mess. You wash your hair, try…

Unpopular opinion: blunt cuts aren’t for everyone. Asking your stylist to just trim straight across the bottom is the fastest way to make your hair look flat and lifeless. A solid block of hair rarely does anyone any favors. If you want that bouncy, expensive, glamorous aesthetic that takes over your feed, you need to…

Eyelash extensions skip the whole mascara routine: no clumps, no smudges by mid-afternoon, no strip-lash glue when you’re already late. Below are 12 eyelash extension styles worth showing your lash tech, the words that help you ask for them, and the habits that decide whether your set lasts two weeks or three days. Pinterest has…