The journal

Everything I'd tell you
in the chair.

Technique, honest product opinions and the occasional argument with something the industry insists on. Four new posts a month, no email required.

Big test

The lash serum project

Eight months, ten serums, four sets of lashes. The long-form comparison and the full review of the one that won.

Danny Rose at his studio table behind the ten eyelash serums he tested
Tested & ranked10 serums · 8 months

The 10 best eyelash serums of 2026

I bought ten, tested them on four faces over eight months, and ranked them on what actually matters — starting with the ingredient nobody mentions at the counter.
The gold Feel1 eyelash serum tube and its fine brush applicator
Full review12-week test

The one that won: Feel1 Peptide Serum, 12 weeks in

Week-by-week notes, the ingredient list decoded, what changed and what didn't — plus the two reasons it might still not be for you.

A bride-to-be sitting by a window in a white t-shirt and headband during a makeup trial, brushes laid out on a white towel in the foreground
Inside the kit· 6 min

What actually happens in a bridal trial, minute by minute

Ninety minutes in somebody's living room, and almost none of it is the part people expect. Here is the whole thing, including what I write down.
Danny Rose in a client's bathroom mirror before dawn, pressing the back of a cold metal spoon under one eye, phone in the other hand
Technique· 8 min

What can I use instead of an eye patch? A spoon

A cold spoon, two minutes of tapping, a drugstore caffeine roller and a concealer triangle get a bride most of the way by six a.m. When a patch still wins.
Danny Rose taking a phone selfie in the aisle of a Korean beauty store on 32nd Street, shelves of sheet masks and eye patches behind him
Unpopular opinion· 9 min

What do Koreans use under their eyes? Hydration

Mostly hydration, not coverage: a cold hydrogel patch, a watery layer and far less concealer. What I buy on 32nd Street and what stays in my kit.
Two foundation shades swatched side by side on the back of a hand, with a third patch below where the two have been mixed together with a flat brush
Technique· 6 min

Nobody is one foundation shade, and that is why yours never quite matches

The shade that matches you in October is wrong in July, and the one that matches your cheek is wrong on your jaw. Two bottles, mixed, solves it for good.
A jar of Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder open on a white towel next to a velour puff and a fluffy powder brush
Product review· 5 min

The setting powder that has been in my kit for eleven years

Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder is brilliant at one specific thing, and almost everyone uses ten times too much of it.
Two small dots of peach cream corrector on the under-eye area, one being tapped in with a fingertip
Technique· 6 min

The under-eye that no concealer covers needs peach, not more concealer

Blue-grey shadow is a color problem, and stacking more skin-toned concealer on top of it only turns it ashy. A thin layer of the right peach solves it in one step.
Close-up of concealer being applied in a triangle under the eye, blended with a fingertip in daylight
Technique· 6 min

Your concealer isn't the problem — where you put it is

Almost everyone applies it in the one place that makes tiredness more obvious, not less. Here is the shape that actually works.
A woman patting foundation into her cheek with a damp sponge, half her face still bare
Unpopular opinion· 6 min

You probably don't need primer

It is the most-bought step in makeup and the one I most often remove from people's routines. Here is when it earns its place — and when it is just an extra layer.
Warm pink blush swept high across the cheekbone toward the temple on freckled skin
Technique· 7 min

Blush height changes your face more than contour ever will

Everyone is putting it in the same place, roughly two centimetres too low. Moving it up is the fastest change you can make to how your face reads.
Estée Lauder Double Wear, MAC Pro Longwear Concealer, Rare Beauty Soft Pinch blush and Charlotte Tilbury setting spray laid out on a white towel
Product review· 7 min

Four products that genuinely survive a nine-hour day

The long-wear things I take to every event booking in New York — what each one is brilliant at, and how to get the most out of it.
Close-up of a teal liner drawn along the upper lash line with an otherwise bare, glowing eye
The look· 6 min

The teal eye I put on almost everyone

The color people are most convinced will not suit them, and the five-minute version I have done on more faces than any other look in my book.
Two hands lifting a large handful of brushes out of an open kit bag
Inside the kit· 6 min

What's actually in my kit — and what's been in there unused for a year

A working makeup artist's bag, honestly inventoried. Including the drawer of brushes I bought at one in the morning and have never once picked up.