BEAUTY NEVER DIES (IN MEMORIAM)

Stylish Brigitte Bardot hat on the beach for Christmas in Limassol! The weather was really beautiful for Christmas. However, the forecast for the next few days is dreary 😢

What gave a sad note to a nice break was, of course, the death of beloved artist George Michael. George was not only a musical genius and a good man, he accompanied both beautiful and tough moments all through my teenage and young years. His songs were iconic and unique. I remember once they said on the radio that Careless Whispers is one of the songs that is recognizable anywhere on the planet. As for Last Christmas? It's probably the definition of iconic. You realize that the festive season arrives when stations start playing it.

It just so happened that George Michael left us at Christmas. However, I will agree with something Cliff Richard said in an interview on LBC just a few hours before George died: even while we grieve, we must be grateful and raise a glass because we had such a good person in our lives (Sir Cliff was talking about some deaths in his family). I felt the same when two dearest uncles and my collie Lady died. I am grateful they existed and I had them with me for as long as I did.

So, a big thank you to George Michael, thank you for the music and the beauty all through the years! George was a beautiful man, and beauty never dies 💝
#GeorgeMichael #CliffRichard #beauty #LastChristmas #Cyprus#Limassol #CarelessWhispers #LBC

HORSE RIDING AND THE LIPSTICK CHRISTMAS TREE

If there was a competition for best Christmas tree, the lipstick tree would certainly win, here in The Lipstick Papers at least!!! Lipstick is simply the best, even on the Christmas tree 💄💋💋

About the origins of decorated trees for religious celebrations , I think they may even go back to the Ancient Greeks. Generally, the Xmas tree is thought to be German. I was listening to a radio program the other day, where a guy who had done research into Christmas customs said that the origins of the Christmas tree go back to the German religious plays (in England they called them morality plays, I believe). These plays were staged at Christmas and normally featured a decorated tree to represent the creation of the world in Eden. Eventually, a tree like that started to be decorated for the holiday itself.

Now, in Ancient Greece, they used to decorate large olive branches in a holiday dedicated to the Goddess Athena (Αθηνά). I don't have the book I read this from with me, so I am not sure exactly what religious holiday that was. The Olympian religion featured many celebrations that involved singing, decorating, confection making, even horse riding. Many of these customs were carried to the Christian celebrations.

But not horse riding, I'm afraid!

Have a good day and a happy holiday, always with beauty and a book! 💖💋💝🎄💄💄💄🎄
#lipstick #Christmas #MerryChristmas #ChristmasTree #celebrations#holidays #happyholidays #Cyprus #beauty #TheLipstickPapers#books

THE BEST GIFT MONEY CAN BUY (GREAT EXPECTATIONS AND FIFTY SHADES FACE OFF)

What is better than a lot of books? A lot of books, plus cookies plus Christmas, of course! Here I am yesterday at Soloneion Book Centre in Nicosia. They have nice corners where you can relax with your books and have some refreshments too. I go to Soloneion only once in a while, which makes it all the more special!

The amazing sweater and luxury coat (you will see it better in a future post) are from Terranova. Beautiful quality and cheap. I love fashion and lipstick, as much as I love books!

In the third picture, you can see two of my new books. A fantastic housekeeping volume, and a wonderful new edition of Great Expectations. For me, Great Expectations is the best novel ever written. I love it more than The Picture of Dorian Gray, I even love it more than Fifty Shades of Grey!!!!

Books are the greatest companions (except after dogs and cats) and the best gift money can buy. I wish you a Christmas with many books! Xxx 

💄💄💄💝💝💝💋💋💋
#GreatExpectations #CharlesDickens #FiftyShadesofGrey#ThePictureofDorianGray #Victorians #Christmas #books #Terranova#fashion #lipstick

ALMOST VERBATIM

Oh, those fascinating Victorian etiquette articles! Women's periodicals are full of conduct and advice articles. Lessons are over for Christmas and I am deep into my Victorians research. For me, the Victorians are amazingly intriguing. I never tire to read Victorian writing, and the more I read, the more I want to read.

This particular article, which I copied almost verbatim today, is called The Girl in Society. It was published in the weekly magazine Bow Bells on July 27, 1888. The article is full of strictures against vanity and says that girls care nothing for the society of boys and find them boring. When a girl grows up, she will start to like young men, but even then contact should be controlled by parents or guardians.

In true Victorian style, there is ambiguity. Despite the strictures, the writer believes that friendship between young men and women is good, because it familiarizes them with each other.

How alien all these seem now to us!!! How alien we will seem ourselves to men and women in 2216!

Have a good evening, always with beauty and a book! 💄💝😀💋👠❤💖💋💋💋💄
#Victorians #girls and #boys #writing #periodicals #gender #research#TheLipstickPapers #lipstick #beauty #books

ALL SORTS OF WONDERFUL RELATED SEARCHES

One of the most powerful, for me, scenes in English literature happens before a dressing table! I am referring to the scene in Great Expectations, where the protagonist Pip begs Estella not to marry the villain Bentley Drummle. Pip weeps openly, his hot tears falling on Estella's hands. The two are standing in Miss Havisham's wrecked boudoir, in front of the dilapidated dressing table, and with the spectral figure of Miss Havisham observing them horrified.

Great Expectations is a novel with strong Gothic elements. Here I am next to an antique but by no means dilapidated dressing table! This 60s and 70s tall style is fantastic. I love dressing tables at least as much as I love writing desks. Google "dressing table" and you get all sorts of wonderful related searches: "makeup vanity table", "vanity table with lights", "vanity table with lighted mirror"! You think nothing but glamor, beauty, fame! Bliss!!!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art held a dressing table exhibition from December 2013 to April 2014. The website entry has a history of the dressing table: it began as an ornament box in antiquity and reached its luxury apogee in 17th century France, where the poudreuse and shave table resulted in what we know today as the dressing table.

The term vanity table has misogynistic undertones for me and I never use it. Misogynists undermine women for wanting to look beautiful, consider beautiful women as silly, but salivate when they see a beautiful or sexy woman. Hypocrisy anyone? Myself, as a lipstick feminist, declare that women have a right to beauty!

In Great Expectations, Miss Havisham fell victim to love and was ruined by a love affair. However, it seems clear in the novel that things could have been otherwise- she could, and should, have chosen to recover and love again. Pip and Estella eventually get a second chance to build a life from the start.

Have a good night, always with beauty and a book! ❤️👠💋💝💄💄💄
#GreatExpectations #Victorians #CharlesDickens #feminism#dressingtable #makeup #lipstick #Gothic #MissHavisham #Estella#romance #MetropolitanMuseumofArt