A Marc Jacobs Beaty deep dive

I kind of missed the first incarnation of Marc Jacobs Beauty. But I’ve never heard the end of it. My friend Akaila is still in active mourning over the mascara. When the line relaunched, I was invited to a press preview, and I didn’t go. I think I was reporting or something or out of town. Or maybe I just didn’t feel like listening to people talk about makeup, who can say. But I did ask for as much of the line as possible sent to my home to try out and did over the last couple of weeks. For science, and for you.

Big picture thoughts: It’s not for me but it might be for you. Formulas are all over the place, which I’ll break down below. Colors are not for the barely-there practitioners of Westman Atelier. Not that you need to be one or the other by any means, but I’m just never going to wear a metallic red-black lipstick. The packaging made me truly wonder if I had brain damage or was actively losing intelligence à la Flowers for Algernon as I had a real rough time opening a lot of it. Packaging is adorable but if you have limited space or any kind of organizers, they will be hard to fit. And finally, a word on names. I hate them. I guess they are going for a demographic that’s not me, but with “born star” and “attention please” they seem like they’re going for Gen Z but I suspect Gen Z would find it embarrassing.

Born Star eyeshadow