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