MY OWN WHITE ROSE (THE LIPSTICK PAPERS WEEKEND REVIEW)

ROSE gardens, poetry and hymns -- welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review and the book A History of the Fragrant Rose!

This is a lovely little book by Allen Paterson, an experienced horticulturalist, who trained at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, and is now the director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Ontario, Canada. 

The book features numerous colored illustrations, and contains chapters on the history of the rose, rose gardens, the rose in botany and medicine, and the rose in poetry. The chapters on history begin from antiquity to end in modern times!

According to legend, the rose springs from the blood of the Goddess Aphrodite. While running to meet her lover Adonis, Aphrodite stumbles on a thorn: her blood runs down to earth to produce the beautiful flower!

The rose is sacred both to Aphrodite and to the Virgin Mary, the rose and Queen of Heaven!

If you want to hear a beautiful 1970s (psychedelic) Greek song about a white rose, copy paste this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36NAcFRORpA
Άσπρο μου Ρόδο, means My own white rose in Greek, and the performer is the fabled Greek singer Marinella!

BOUTIQUE OPENING (AND THE CHARLOTTE BRONTE FASHION SENSE)

TODAY, the coolest thing happened when I went to the opening of a friend's boutique! I had lately been thinking how much I wanted a white, knit summer jacket, and found it exactly!!! You can't get better than this!

The boutique in question is Riva boutique in my hometown, an old and beloved place, which has moved to a larger and brighter location! Here is myself with the owner, Ms Rena Katsi.

The launch of the new store featured an amazing collection of summer wear, from jeans to maxi knit dresses, pretty blouses, bags and all sorts of accessories! Lace is everywhere too, and I was impressed. Everything is in pastel, romantic style, with clothes for every occasion. 

Lipstick for today was my electric pink from Estee Lauder!
Nothing beats lipstick and nothing beats pink. One of the most annoying scenes in literature is, for me, the moment when Lucy Snowe in Charlotte Bronte's Villette expresses dislike for a pink dress. Eventually, Lucy agrees to wear the pink silk since she can combine it with a black lace mantilla. Looking at herself in the mirror, she is surprised at how well everything seems to suit her. No surprise here for me! You can't go wrong with pink.

I had a lovely time at the opening and I wish them all the best with the new store!

FORTUNE TELLING AND BEAUTY ADVICE

A GIRLS' NIGHT is great for fortune-telling, as my last night's outing with girl friends proves! One of my friends is an expert in various types of fortune telling and read my coffee cup!

Reading fortune from coffee or tea leaves is called tasseography or tasseomancy. Here in Cyprus, it is a long and favorite tradition: we are in the intersection of East, Oriental and West, so our culture and tradition is kaleidoscopic and varied!

Of course, our preferred method of tasseography has to do with coffee: tea is not popular here. In fact, I didn't know that you could read the fortune from tea leaves until I started studying English literature! I found it in a novel, though I am not sure I remember which ;-)

To read the coffee cup, you drink the coffee first, then put the cup upside down in the plate. You wait for about 15 minutes for the coffee dregs to run down, and you read the patterns inside the cup! Coffee reading goes back to the medieval period, and is full of complex symbolism. My friend's reading was mainly good news, and I have high hopes that it will be accurate! This is because her references to the recent past were spot-on, though it was something she did not know about.

We also talked about beauty and beauty advice, and I got that tip, which apparently comes down from the very old and very wise tradition of Smyrna. (Smyrna is a famous Greek city, now in modern Turkey, which had a long tradition of healers, botanists, soothsayers, sorcerers and beauty experts). If you want to be wrinkle-free, you should apply to your face aloe vera mixed in blender with cognac! Do this every day and you will have no wrinkles whatsoever.

(I don't know about the dosage here, so if you are going to try this do it with extreme caution. If I try it myself I will let you know. I don't have a blender, fresh aloe or cognac, so it is currently in my "to do" list).

Girls' nights out are productive, relaxing and tremendously fun. As you can see, they are also essential in continuing the female tradition of herbalism and beauty expertise! xxx

OUR MEDITERRANEAN EVENING GARDEN AND MOON

TONIGHT I went to a poetry evening, with poetry from my friend Yiota Dimitriou, and reading and song by the actress Elena Hadjiafxenti!  

Though I was friends with Yiota, I did not know her poetry, and I have to say I loved it!!! The poems are pretty, sensitive, personal and contain a variety of images, allusions and experiences -- train journeys, maps, gardening, The Little Prince. Most of all, I think, the poems are original and true: true to emotion and true to themselves. For my beloved Romantics, truth was the condition for good poetry.

Also, the presentation by Elena was original and atmospheric, almost oneiric. I loved her choice of costume -- the flowing, white evening dress with the lace gloves tied very well with our Mediterranean evening garden and moon! It was all so beautiful!

Poetry, summer and friends are, I believe, an unbeatable combination. Have a good night, wherever you are, always with beauty and a book! xxx

SEXY, CLEVER AND FEISTY (MY HOMETOWN BOUTIQUE)

TODAY I visited the new place for a well-known and old boutique in my hometown, and here I am! I remember this boutique since I was a teenager, and I wish them all the best for the new location!

Opening a new shop is always hopeful and adventurous in real life, as in fiction -- I am thinking, for example, of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, where Miss Matty has to open a shop late in life, for survival reasons. In A Woman of Substance, Emma Harte starts a lucrative business career from a small pastry shop in Leeds; in real life, Helena Rubinstein's story begins in a small shop in an obscure Australian town. Though Anastasia Steele only works at Clayton's, she's not the owner, she and Christian Grey have an amazing scene in the store!!!!!!!!!

Opening a store or restaurant is thus always a key event, even in those dreadful Maeve Binchy romances. Some of you may cry, "but Maeve Binchy is one of the best-known romance writers"! I know, yet I dislike her fiction, which most of the time is quite improbable -- think of The Glass Lake. We all have to be meek, plain and plainly dressed. The sexy blonde woman is always empty (Tara Road, Circle of Friends). You know how much this makes me angry. To say that blonde, glamorous and sexy women are empty is as misogynistic as to say that plain brunettes cannot be sexy. In my fiction, I always aim to break stereotypes -- one of the ways I do it is by making the protagonist always blonde, sexy, clever and feisty!

I think the one novel I like from Maeve Binchy is Evening Class, but again that book contains the motif of the beautiful blonde who makes mistakes and does not find happiness.

To get back to my hometown boutique. They have an official opening for the new store this weekend: I can't wait! I will check it out and write all about it in The Lipstick Papers! xxx

THE LIPSTICK RING AND MARITAL ADVICE FROM GEORGE CLOONEY

GETTING ready to go out and listening to marital advice from George Clooney is the best! I can't tell you how George's marriage will turn out, though I wish him all the best -- what I can tell you is how great he sounds about it! 

I loved it when he said that he is proud to be married to such a beautiful and clever woman as Amal Alamoudhin, that he admires her for all she has achieved and that, as he put it, "I am proud to be around". Generally, "proud" is the epithet that run through his discourse. 

As we feminists never tire of saying, it is a strong and admirable man who can be married to a woman he perceives as somehow "superior". A woman's strength is not off-putting, though of course not all women can be strong. And the same goes for men too.

To finish the piece with fashion and lipstick, please note my lipstick ring! Lipstick is not only the Queen of cosmetics, it also makes a lovely accessory!

Have a beautiful Saturday night and be well, xxx

IT'S CALLED MAKE-UP

HERE is the make-up apparatus for the early 20th century, according to The Saturday Review: lipstick, rouge, powder in various colors, kohl and eyebrow pencil. And here is myself deep in make-up study!

The term make-up was popularized by Max Factor, but I have found it in periodicals as early as 1886. In All the Year Round, Charles Dickens reports that "the whole tribe of cosmetics" is called "make-up" in "theatrical parlance".

The "tribe of cosmetics" was totally distrusted by 19th century conventional minds, and even fashion and beauty columns would not recommend it as late as 1893 (as I saw today in an April 1893 edition of the Bow Bells Magazine).

I am currently working with 19th century periodicals in order to write an article on Victorian beauty discourse from the periodical press. Thanks to the Internet and digitization, we no longer have to travel to Britain to read Victorian magazines!

I will keep you posted on my findings in future posts. Meanwhile, have a good evening, and be well! xxx

CHARLOTTE BRONTE, HAIRDRESSING AND HOW TO MAKE LIFE BEAUTIFUL

IT was such a beautiful day today! Summer's here, and I feel good! In summer, I come out of hibernation and feel wonderful. I relish the heat and I relish the moment I throw off sweaters and cardigans to put on the T-shirts and summer tops.

First stop was the hairdresser, and here I am:

In literature, one of my favorite hairdressing scenes comes from Charlotte Bronte's Villette. Lucy Snowe, the novel's odd and unsympathetic protagonist, cannot believe how much prettier she looks after having her hair done. This is on the occasion of the principal's fete at their school. Madame Beck, the said principal, treats her students and staff with hairdressing, a great dinner and a ball on the day of her fete. Lucy is impressed at how a bit of pampering can change her appearance. Throughout the book, Lucy believes she is plain and even ugly, though it is probably her own sense of inferiority which makes her think so! 

My next stop was the bookstore, where you can see me leafing through Jane Eyre, an all-time favorite! Jane does not share Lucy's sense of inferiority about her appearance. Jane knows that she is not a beauty, but she likes to dress well and look nice.

Then I went to the seashore with friends, and generally had a swell time. 

It was a long day, where I saw old friends, talked a lot and exchanged news. A day as long as life. I once wrote a poem about this, how some days seem to enclose all of our lives.

And I think that it is days like these which make life beautiful. :-)

DO IT IN STYLE (HOMER'S ODYSSEY, A PAIR OF NEW JEANS AND STARBUCKS COFFEE)

TODAY I premiered my new pair of jeans, which I bought from Eponymo Fashion here in Cyprus! I had a long day ahead of me, so I thought I might as well do it in style. Here is the new pair -- pretty, trendy and very comfortable!

It's been a while since I had bought a new pair of jeans, and the reason was not lack of funds (though my budget is always tight). The reason was that I hate the skinny type of jean which has been in fashion for a while -- too long a while, if you ask me. The skinny leg does not suit me, but this is not the reason I never wear skinny jeans. As far as fashion goes, I am in favor of the maxim, "if you like it, wear it". If I sit down to think who likes or doesn't like what I wear I will go crazy, so I act on my own instinct alone. What I hated about skinny jeans was the uncomfortable way they feel on the leg, the way they seem to make every body type look ugly, and the actual feet seem enormous. No skinny jeans for me!

In the picture you can see me in Starbucks Coffee. How amazed I was to see the art on the Starbucks cup! It's amazing, and a brilliant idea!

The mermaid is such a beautiful and exciting figure, that it can go anywhere and take any form. How unhappy I am when I read the mermaid/ siren episode in the Odyssey! The sirens in the Odyssey are supposedly all wrong, and sing a magic song which drives sailors to destruction. Cunning Odysseus instructs his companions to seal their ears with wax and tie Odysseus himself on the ship's mast. While he listens to the song, Odysseus starts to beg his companions to untie him so that he can go join the sirens. However, the ears of the companions are sealed, and they are deaf to Odysseus's pleas (which was the point of the wax in the ears).

Odysseus does not comment on the sirens' song, and Homer does not enlighten us either. After all, no mortal except Odysseys has ever heard the song and lived. In real life, we call a siren's song anything attractive yet destructive too, anything impossible which may lead someone to ruin.

On the other hand, the song may have been a song of self-protection, to guard the beautiful yet defenseless sirens from armed or dangerous men!

Have a beautiful night and be well! xxx

THE LIPSTICK PAPERS WEEKEND REVIEW

HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Tonight we have A Girl's Guide to Etiquette, by Sandra Deeble!

This is a lovely book, with a lot of advice on etiquette and manners, from how to be a good guest to dating, from "how to be a gorgeous hostess" to how to be a good guest.

The advice is sensible and down to earth: "Don't accept invites to things you don't want to go to". I loved the piece on office affairs: pros and cons, never date a married person, at work or otherwise, affairs with the boss not advisable, with acknowledgment that, of course, an affair with the boss can have a happy ending! Especially if that boss happens to be Christian Grey! (This comment mine, it does not come from the book).

Etiquette can be often trickier than we think, and I believe this book helps to find a balance between personal inclinations and good manners. It's a slim and attractive volume, with very pretty illustrations. I totally recommend!

Have a good night, always with beauty and a book! xxx

CHARLES DICKENS AND JANE AUSTEN PUT THIS TO GOOD EFFECT

HERE I am today at the Soloneion book centre in Nicosia, doing what I love best, i.e. reading! Other favorite activities include, inter alia, writing and buying lipstick, of course! No lipstick today, today it was books! I bought a volume of collected stories about plants, with illustrations, and a book about money. I really love to read about money, though I have none myself (except just enough to buy books & lipstick). Books and lipstick can buy happiness, but money cannot. Happiness comes from within, and has nothing to do with lack of trouble or lack of money. A confident person can feel happy midst trouble and economic difficulty. Charles Dickens and Jane Austen put this to good effect. Ebeneezer Scroodge, Dickens's miserable rich protagonist in A Christmas Carol is world famous, but the idea that money may bring misery is everywhere in Dickens, from Dombey and Son to Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend! And who would change Elinor or Marianne Dashwood for their rich sister-in-law Fanny, in Austen's Sense and Sensibility? Reading is happiness, and can be absolutely free. Have a happy afternoon!

NEW LIPSTICK AND THE JANE EYRE OPENING SCENE

MONDAY was a great day, coz I bought new lipstick!!! Nothing beats a new lipstick buy to make me feel good. In the pictures you can see me getting it on. I bought a lovely new color, Estee Lauder's Magnetic Magenta, a cross between pink and red. I also bought another Pink Lolita, which is, for me, the Princess of Lipsticks! I live with the nightmare that it will be withdrawn. Certainly, life is less tough with a bit of lipstick! As for books, today I ordered Nature's Engraver, about the life of Thomas Bewick, by Jenny Uglow (I am getting addicted to Uglow's writing). In case you didn't know, Bewick is the artist whose illustrated book little Jane Eyre is reading in the famous opening scene! Bewick's book for birds takes Jane into the world of fairy tale and fantasy. Jane, like myself, like all of us, turns to beauty for help in life's troubles. I hope you all had a good start to the week!

THE LIPSTICK PAPERS WEEKEND REVIEW

HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Tonight we have Elizabeth Gaskell, a biography by Jenny Uglow! Here I am holding the book today:

Elizabeth Gaskell is a favorite Victorian writer for me, though I don't love all of her books, and certainly her religiosity makes me cringe. Long passages in her books sound a lot like church sermons; still, the Victorians were like this, they felt the need to preach and sermonize to no end. I guess I love Elizabeth Gaskell's way with the pen -- there is a delicacy to her writing which I find very appealing. I have found the same delicacy in the hand of Samuel Richardson, who wrote Clarissa and Pamela, and also with Byron, in his letters and journals.

Jenny Uglow, who wrote this biography, writes beautifully as well. Her language is thick and full; you feel satisfied and content when you read her writing. 

Uglow is an amazing historian, and handles theme and content excellently well. Her books contain history, fact and literature in just the right dose!

I have just started Elizabeth Gaskell, and I am enjoying it very much! It is precise, well-written and enjoyable. The cover and spine are beautiful and make a very pretty addition to the book-shelf. The photographs and illustrations section could have been larger, though.

I wish you a good night, always with beauty and a book! xxx

SOME LIPSTICKS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

WITH black, nothing beats the Pink Lolita! Here I am, with my favorite lipstick at my favorite cafe! I love all my lipsticks equally, but some lipsticks are more equal than others. The Pink Lolita is certainly best of the best. I'm doing one of the things I love here, which is marking student papers.

My literary news is that I have started Ouida's Under Two Flags and I like it so far! Ouida is an aesthete (part of the 19th century aesthetic movement) which means two things: 1) her protagonist has many things in common with Wilde's Dorian in The Picture of Dorian Gray, i.e., among others, 2) he is exceptionally beautiful! This makes the book perfect for me: you know my ideas about beauty in books. If the woman is to be a beauty object, the same must go for the man. The male protagonist's nickname in the book is "Beauty", because of his exceptional appearance. I don't think that you can get better than this!

MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS OLD

TODAY'S lipstick is a lovely shade of pink from Guerlain! I love this lipstick because it's easy to spread and has a moist texture that is lovely on the lips. Guerlain has a first when it comes to lipstick; I think they were the first to use the lip stick instead of the lip paint. Can you believe that my knit top in the picture is more than twenty years old? It's true. Inasmuch as I love to shop clothes when my budget allows, I love old clothes too! I take care of my clothes and wear them for decades. This top I bought from River Island in London in 1993 and have been wearing it since!

NAOMI WOLF, TOO, HAS SAID THAT MAKE UP IS GREAT

CURRENTLY reading original periodical texts from the Victorian era, to write an article, and am bursting with outrage at someone writing in --shock horror!-- All the Year Round, Charles Dickens's magazine! He says that only desperate women use make-up, older women, who make a caricature of beauty, and imitate the "savage peoples" who paint themselves!

Grrrrrr! I cannot begin to list those insulted by this guy: women, racial groups, older women, you name them!

My aim is to produce a review and outline of Victorian beauty discourse from periodical and other sources (not tried before for the Victorians). I am sure I will find more friendly texts. The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, for example, is more tolerant, provided that make up is discreet. I will keep you posted!

We feminists now counter these arguments against make up. Not all of feminism approves make up, but there is a branch which does. Third Wave feminists like the lipstick feminists, Riot Grrrl and Girlie approve of make up and speak for a woman's right to enhance her own beauty and appearance if she wants to. Naomi Wolf, too, has said that make up is great so long as we do not feel inadequate without it.

Have a good day and be well!
P.S. I hope the writer in All the Year Round is not Dickens himself. I love Dickens so much. Gr!

THE TUSCAN TOWN OF MAREMMA

The books by Ouida have arrived! I'm talking about In Maremma and Under Two Flags. These are two of Ouida's most popular novels (she was famous in the Victorian era). I used the Tuscan town of Maremma in one of my own romances, so I look forward to reading. From a quick look, the ending is not too good frown emoticon As you know, a bad ending goes against my own philosophy. I never understood the reasons for bad endings, but there you go. Anyway, I will review Ouida for the page as soon as I read the books! Have a good start to the week xxx

THE LIPSTICK PAPERS WEEKEND REVIEW

HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! Tonight we got the book Bound to Please, by Leigh Summers!

This is a book on the history of the Victorian corset, published by Berg. Berg has produced lovely books on history, beauty and fashion; Bound to Please is no exception.

Leigh Summers has carried out excellent historical enquiry into the Victorian corsets, and has studied public records such as newspapers, advertisements, company listings and so on, to write on how the corset was produced, advertised and consumed in the 19th century. In doing so, she has brought forward the names of female corset designers and manufacturers, and the ways corsets were worn and used by women from all social classes.

Moreover, the book is full of pretty illustrations and photographs from the 19th century.

I totally recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the corset, women and fashion, or in the material culture and practices of the Victorian era!

Have a good evening, always with beauty and a book! xxx