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.
Free tools
Find out what suits your face
Three quick quizzes I wish every client took before buying makeup. No email, no sign-up, nothing uploaded.
What's my eye shape? The mirror quiz
Almond, round, hooded or monolid — plus the eyeliner, eyeshadow and mascara placement that works for your exact eyes.
Face shape calculator: what face shape am I?
Four measurements with a tape measure, your face shape, and exactly where your blush, contour and brows should go.
What's my undertone? The 60-second quiz
Warm, cool, neutral or olive — plus the foundation label, blush and lipstick shades that actually suit you.
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.
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 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.
Most brows only need brushing
Before you fill anything, brush your brows up and set them. For most of the faces I see, that is the whole job, and it takes thirty seconds.
Clinique Black Honey looks scary in the tube. Wear it anyway
A sheer, dark berry lipstick that adapts to almost every lip color, and is at its best when you ignore how you were taught to apply lipstick.
The bridal look I do most, step by step
Not the timeline, not the trial — the actual face, in the order I build it, and why each step is quieter than you would expect.
Why your foundation gets darker by lunchtime
Oxidation is real, it is predictable, and it is almost never fixed by buying a lighter shade of the same bottle.
Ghost lashes: skip mascara and still look awake
Ghost lashes are 2026's mascara-free trend: bare, curled, barely-there lashes. How to make it work, and what to do if your lashes are short or sparse.
How to do blurred lips (soft, not smeared)
Blurred lips are the lip trend of 2026: color pressed into the center and diffused outward. The method, the liners that work, and what to avoid.
Cloud skin makeup: what it is and how to get it
Cloud skin is the soft-focus base replacing glass skin — velvety, not flat, not shiny. How I build it in five steps, and the two powders that do it best.
How to do smudged eyeliner (tired girl liner)
Smudged kohl liner is the biggest eye trend this fall. Here is how a makeup artist does it so it looks lived-in on purpose, not like last night's makeup.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.