It isn't uncommon for tech giants to throw a little shade at each other during major announcements. Samsung pokes fun at the iPhone X's notch, Google emphasizes its Pixel phone still has a headphone jack (may the iPhone's RIP), and, as consumers, we laugh because this is just a bunch of billionaires showing some playful competitive spirit.
But at its annual developers conference this week, Apple 's version of shade took on a very touchy, and timely, subject: Privacy and security online in a post-Cambridge Analytica era.
"We believe that your private data should remain private, not because you’ve done something wrong or you have something to hide, but because there can be a lot of sensitive data on your devices and we think you should be in control of who sees it," Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of software engineering, told the audience.
Federighi then launched into an overview of the security upgrades coming to Safari, Apple's default browser, on both laptops and iPhones. He pointed to a slide showing a standard online article, complete "like" and "share" buttons along the top, which connect to external social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and a comment section towards the bottom.
According to Federighi, those buttons and the comment section of a site can be used to track users — even if you don't click on them — without your permission. Using Facebook (insert shade here) as an example of one such company that uses cookies and website data, Federighi said Apple's new protections will require you to grant consent to this kind of activity tracking via a pop-up notification. This update is an expansion of the Intelligent Tracking Prevention tools Apple released last year, which limit how much information companies are able to receive about your browsing habits from site to site.
Federighi pointed to another common method data companies use to track you, known as fingerprinting: The device you use to browse has certain characteristics, such as any plug-ins and fonts you have downloaded, that let companies create a "fingerprint" and follow you online. Apple is introducing new tools that make this practice much more difficult, by removing characteristics that single out one device from another. Your laptop won't be unique anymore — at least not to data companies — and that's a good thing.
When the latest version of macOS (your Mac's software) rolls out later this year, it will also introduce new protections around the information you share with apps: You will be asked to give permission when an app wants to access your camera, microphone, message history, and mail — in the same way you already are for things such as location and photos.
Safari is not the only browser becoming woke to the need for greater privacy controls. Firefox has a do not track feature, as well as tracking protection, and Google Chrome also has a do not track tool (you need to enable it). However, Apple's efforts to disable fingerprinting seem especially promising.
You might be the kind of person who doesn't care what information companies have about you, and that's fine. After the Facebook data drama, those who said they weren't too concerned echoed a similar sentiment: All of my data is already out there anyways. For everyone who does care though, the option to know when your browsing is being tracked, and the ability to grant or revoke permission in those instances, is fantastic. It is, after all, your information.
Refinery29 has reached out to Facebook with a request for comment.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Today, Katherine Noel Frances Valentine died in her apartment in Manhattan, having taken her own life. Few would know her by the name she chose for herself just last year (Kate Valentine), but the name she had abandoned — Kate Spade — is as revered and recognized as Jack Daniels or Estée Lauder. The name change copped to the fact that Kate Spade, the woman, had become nearly inextricable from Kate Spade, the fashion label. In fact, even diehard fans would be surprised to know that the brand actually came first. As such, it’s a twisted sort of irony that it will continue to live long after the woman is gone.
Kate Spade’s relationship with her own name has taken a roundabout path that might seem whimsical at first glance. When Kate first wanted to name the handbag line she was creating with her boyfriend Andy Spade in 1993, she went by Katherine Brosnahan. After rejecting names like 'Olive' and ‘Alex Noel,' Kate told The New York Times in 1999 she finally gave into her boyfriend’s suggestion to combine both their names. When they later married, Kate took Andy’s last name and finally became Kate Spade, too.
In the six years that Kate helmed her company, the Kate Spade brand had ballooned in clout and ubiquity, much in part to how special it felt to carry her bag compared to anything else. The specific contours of that name — kate spade (mind the lowercase) — was as much a part of the brand’s allure as the discreet, parcel-like nylon bag the tiny labels came on. After all, in a decade of logos and branding, Kate Spade handbags were among the first to feature absolutely nothing. For many of us who associated wealth and success with interlocking C’s, F’s and LV’s, to see the sublime blankness of a Kate Spade backpack or shoulder bag was like waking up from a boring dream. Once you learned about what to call it — and who was responsible — the name Kate Spade became one of the worst-kept Shibboleths of the ‘90s that also contained fashion’s greatest secret: that you could have taste without being snobby, that you could love fashion and not its frills, that you could be the kind of person who needs to keep their papers on their person, to bring your lunch with you, and to require the constant accessibility of a day-planner, but look goddamn chic doing it all. Indeed, a woman could be many things. And in fact, our “contradictions” were not so much quirks and whimsies but rather evidence that women have long outgrown their labels.
At first, Kate Spade was handsomely rewarded. In 1999, she sold 56% of the company to Neiman Marcus Group. She sold the rest of it in 2006 to Liz Claiborne Inc, which later changed its own name to Fifth & Pacific, and then finally to Kate Spade & Company. She got $124 million for the deal (a big part of which was the intellectual property rights within her name), but the company had performed a full body snatch. The phenomenal omnipresence of the name Kate Spade meant that it would be impossible to use her own name in any future projects. According to Julie Zerbo from The Fashion Law, courts have been strict in holding that individuals do not have unfettered rights to use their own names in commercial capacities.
After 2006, Kate disappeared from public life for a decade as the brand she founded continued to make waves in the industry without her. When she reemerged last year after a decade away, the first thing she did was announce that she was legally changing her name, a decision that seemed extreme, considering that her previous name conveyed so much. Even more disconcertingly, she told press that she was changing it to promote a new accessories line, Frances Valentine — a mash-up of names found in her family tree. Cobbled together from her uncle’s middle name and relatives on her dad’s side, Frances Valentine — and Kate Valentine along with it — would represent a new start. “It is significant that she completely rebranded to Frances Valentine that was completely devoid of her name,” says Zerbo. “It is very unlikely that on the heels of selling her eponymous label and its intellectual property rights, she would have legally been able to use her name even if it was just by saying ‘Frances Valentine by Kate Spade.’”
“It kind of makes [me] sound kind of cool, like a rap star or something,” she told Business of Fashion last year during a publicity blitz. “But we’re not trying to be cheeky or coy. It really was to distinguish the name, and separate the two worlds. Obviously we’re super proud of Kate Spade and we want to be respective of both.” The line received lots of good-faith press upon launch as attestation to the goodwill the industry had for Kate. But Frances Valentine never won even a sliver of the customers or acclaim that her first line received, even though its merits were largely the same (it was modern, minimal, colorful, whimsical). Without the Kate Spade moniker, Kate Valentine and Frances Valentine always seemed like an imposter, even though it was the real-deal.
Kate Spade’s brand was compelling, even as it grew and transformed without her in its zombiefied, corporatized version. But unfiltered and pure, Kate Spade's vision for the world was intoxicating. Every once in awhile, I liked to click through The Selby ’s 2010 photo tour of the home she shared with her husband and daughter to reacquaint myself with her aesthetic world. With the initial windfall from the sale of her company, she and Andy Spade purchased a beautiful nine-bedroom apartment they filled with a mismatch of printed sofas, generations of family portraits, and dishes of chocolate eyeballs and candy cigarettes. It is grand but comfortable. Practical but performative. At the end of the slideshow is a handwritten note in which Kate was asked about to define what a good life was. She scribbled the answer confidently: “Family & Friends that are honest & loyal.”
Tellingly, Kate’s new company that she began, once again, with her business and life partner would take on no investors. A police source told The New York Post that they were looking into relationship problems. And while we’ll never fully grasp the intimate circumstances that led to her premature death (nor is it our right to know), a confluence of stressful and painful circumstances can exacerbate mental illness; if Kate’s Selby note was any indication, dishonesty and disloyalty in her personal life would be the ultimate betrayal. “Spade” was the name she chose as a wife, not only as a designer. “Spade” had already been rendered meaningless to her in one regard. Another challenge to that identity might have seriously complicated the good life she had defined and built for herself.
It is a testament to the power of her name — and the power of Kate Spade the woman — that nearly every publication has ignored the name that she chose for herself and is legally tied to: Kate Valentine. It is also a proof of the impact her original brand had on women that it comes as a surprise to most people that Kate Spade had not been affiliated with the brand for a long time. Kate Spade New York (the design house owned by Kate Spade & Company, now owned by Tapestry) put out a statement that clarified the distance in the same breath it eulogized her life, rendering the latter as an afterthought: “Kate has not been affiliated with the brand for more than a decade, she and her husband and creative partner, Andy, were the founders of our beloved brand. Kate will be dearly missed.”
In that 1999 interview with The NYT, Kate reminisced about how she and Andy finally decided on the name. “Andy kept saying the whole time, 'Kate Spade, Kate Spade — listen to how it sounds,” she recounted.
The paper noted correctly that the name sang. It still does.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
June 6, 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City, a revolutionary show about four independent women talking frankly about sex and their desires in New York. This story was originally published October 15, 2015.
One oft-quoted line from Sex and the City is Carrie's confession that she has spent $40,000 on shoes. While we haven't calculated how much we've spent on footwear over the course of a lifetime, $40,000 does seem steep.
There are at least a few things that SATC gets right about NYC. But it's safe to say that its portrayal of a journalist's fashion budget is far from realistic. Fur coats, Dior dresses, and a steady stream of Manolos and Louboutins? Please.
But of course, we wanted concrete proof. We chatted with shopping startup The Take to calculate just how much money a typical Carrie outfit costs. Surprise, surprise, those Ralph Lauren suits are not cheap. Click through to see what the most expensive item is for each of these iconic outfits.
The Classic Fur Coat (Season 6, Episode 20, February 2004) This is a Carrie classic — a luxurious fur coat, heels, and plenty of layers. Of course, some of the pieces were vintage, so we had to make some estimates. "We have exact prices for two of the products (the coat and the shoes), and the rest we estimated based on our research into vintage stores in New York City and what such items typically go for," Victor Miller, a fashion researcher says.
Coat: vintage, $200 at a consignment shop Dress: vintage silk, typically $900 to $1100 Vest: vintage, $40 to $80 Scarf: cashmere, $120 to $150 Belt: vintage, $120 to $150 Shoes: Manolo Blahnik Crisscross Slingbacks, $565 Total cost: $1945 to $2245
Photo: James Devaney/ WireImage/ Getty Images.
Business Carrie ( Sex and the City movie, 2008) Pair a Ralph Lauren suit with some Manolos, and you've got this classic Carrie look. "The clutch purse was the trickiest, but we have two close matches that hopefully get us in the right ballpark," Miller says.
Shirt: Ralph Lauren, $145 Suit: Ralph Lauren, $119 Tie: Ralph Lauren, $215 (current price) Shoes: Manolo Blahnik Tegna Patent Mary Jane Pump, $775 Brooch: Verdura Target Brooch, diamond and gold, $17,255 Clutch: approximately $3920 (the price of a very similar Judith Leiber Austrian Crystal Beaded Clutch) Total cost: $22,429
Photo: Brian Ach/ WireImage/ Getty Images.
Carrie's Newspaper Dress (Season 3, Episode 17, October 2000) Carrie's Dior newspaper dress was so iconic, Carrie wore it twice during Sex and the City 's run. Still, this was the hardest item for The Take to track down.
Dress: John Galliano for Christian Dior 2000 Spring Collection, approximately $1500 Shoes: Christian Louboutin, $3,325 Necklace: Chahan Minassian, $20,000 Bag: Bea Valdes, $4,340 Total cost: at least $23,825
Photo: Christopher Peterson/ BuzzFoto/ FilmMagic/ Getty Images
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
On Tuesday, Californians voted to remove Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky from the bench, the first judge in 86 years to be recalled in the state. Persky was best known for handing a six-month sentence to Brock Turner, sparking a national outcry in 2016.
Turner, then a 20-year-old Stanford University student, was convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault after attacking an unconscious woman next to a dumpster. Persky sentenced him to six months in prison, saying he feared a heavier sentence would have a "severe impact" on Turner. Prosecutors had asked for a six-year sentence, but the probation department didn't recommend jail time.
At the time, it didn't seem like Persky considered the impact the attack had on Emily Doe, the 23-year-old woman that was assaulted. Turner ended up being released after serving only three months in jail, though he also had to register as a sex offender. He is now trying to appeal his conviction.
In the wake of Turner's conviction, the state of California amended the loophole that allowed Persky to sentence him to only six months and the recall efforts began.
The campaign led by Michele Dauber, a Stanford University professor who also knows Doe. (The identity of the young woman assaulted by Turner has never been made public.)
“Tonight many, many voters voted against the culture of impunity for high-status perpetrators of sexual assault or domestic violence,” Dauber told The Washington Post. “This election expresses clearly that sexual assault, sexual violence is serious and it has to be taken seriously by elected officials. It’s a historical moment when women across all sectors of society are standing up saying enough is enough.”
Persky seldomly talked about his decision to sentence Turner to only six months in jail, but recently made news for comparing the unpopularity of the light sentencing to the unpopularity of Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision which led to school desegregation.
In a statement that appeared on the Santa Clara County ballot on Tuesday, Persky said: "As a prosecutor, I fought vigorously for victims. As a judge, my role is to consider both sides. California law requires every judge to consider rehabilitation and probation for first-time offenders. It’s not always popular, but it’s the law, and I took an oath to follow it without regard to public opinion or my opinions as a former prosecutor."
He has yet to comment publicly on the voters' decision to remove him from office.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
June 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City, a revolutionary show about four independent women talking frankly about sex and their desires in New York. This story was originally published on January 22, 2016.
When you were watching Sex and the City — either as a full-fledged grown-up or as a tween (once your parents went to sleep, duh) — did you ever stop and wonder if the fashion moments were actually legit? Sure, we recently learned that the sex scenes were, in fact, real. But did someone on the writing team really buy Vogue instead of dinner because it "fed her more?"
Though there's no proof that any of the farfetched fashion or shopping scenes actually happened IRL (Darren Star, we're looking to your for answers), we think these 12 scenes definitely couldhave. From Samantha Jones dropping Lucy Liu's name at Barneys (it's called using your connections, right?) to Charlotte's super-quick wedding dress search (because when it's the one, you just know), click through to see some of the most ludicrous fashion moments we're hoping were anything but fiction.
When Carrie reads a Vogue excerpt about an Oscar de la Renta dress to Aleksandr and he goes out and gets it for her from his "friend Oscar" the next day.
When Carrie pulls a Jennifer Lawrence and eats it in Dior.
When Carrie loses her necklace in Paris but then magically finds it in a hole at the bottom of her clutch.
Gif: Courtesy of Giphy.
When Miranda got non-Sapphire adult braces — way before they were seen on the Hood By Air runway.
Gif: Courtesy of Giphy.
When Carrie was held up by gunpoint, and corrected a thug for calling her purse a bag instead of a baguette seconds before he robbed her for her "fuckin' Blahniks."
Gif: Courtesy of Giphy.
When Samantha drops Lucy Liu's name to bypass the five-year waiting list for a Birkin.
When Carrie loses her shoes at her friend's apartment, and her friend "shoe-shames" her and refuses to pay to replace them. For the record, they cost $485 (the cheapest these days start at $595).
Gif: Courtesy of Giphy.
When Samantha wore the same Matthew Williamson dress as Miley Cyrus, because she was "50-fucking-two" and "gonna rock [it]" anyway.
When Miranda was feeling lonely on New Year's Eve, so she called Carrie to keep her company, and Carrie chose to trek through the snow in stilettos all the way to Chinatown.
When this entire episode happened.
When a pair of Manolos brought these two back together.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Only a couple of weeks into Trump's polarizing presidency, dating apps started noticing major changes in their users' behavior: OkCupid saw a 37% uptick in photo uploads from the same period last year. Her, the largest app for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women worldwide, noticed a huge increase in users and traffic, especially between January 22 and 29 of 2017. And eHarmony reported a 35% increase in communication since the election.
People tend to seek assurance in times of stress and instability. But when it comes to who they are seeking it from, it seems singles are increasingly flocking to those who are like-minded. LGBTQ+ people, in particular, have felt more marginalized since November 2016 after announcements like Trump's rollback of protections for transgender prisoners and the trans military ban.
Melissa Hobley, chief marketing officer at OkCupid, said this translates into more political filtering and an increase in politically charged discussion on the dating app.
"Those in the LGBTQ community are using political filters at unprecedented rates, and talking about politics on their profiles more than we have ever seen in the history of our brand," Hobley told Refinery29. "LGBTQ communities using political filters on OkCupid comes from the feeling that their rights are under attack by the current presidential administration. Many folks don't want to have the experience of talking to someone, going on a date, only to find that that they voted for Trump — because the stakes are very high."
Hobley said OkCupid has seen a 50% surge in LGBTQ+ singles talking about politics on their profiles from January 2017 to today. The top topics people are filtering for? Trump, gun violence, voting, and support of the ACLU.
That's why on Wednesday, Refinery29 is exclusively reporting, OkCupid and the ACLU launched the ACLU profile badge, which will be displayed on the profile of every member who has publicly responded "yes" to the question, "Do you support the ACLU?" Through the end of the summer, OkCupid will donate $1 to the ACLU for every user who sports the badge, to a maximum of $50,000. Similar to the Planned Parenthood badge the dating app rolled out in fall 2017, it'll let users filter out what the app's researchers say are some of today's biggest dating deal breakers.
The ACLU has defended the equal right to love in some of this country's most high-profile cases. Back in the 1960s, the organization represented Mildred and Richard Loving and helped strike down laws barring interracial marriage. In 2015, it helped win freedom for all to marry with the Obergefell v. Hodges decision. And just recently, it represented David Mullins and Charlie Craig, the gay couple that was turned away by a Colorado cake baker.
Ahead, seven LGBTQ+ people tell us about their experiences with dating in the Trump era. (Spoiler alert: Things have changed.)
"I've never filtered anyone simply over political beliefs. There was usually something else going on (i.e. holding a fish 9/10) and I bet if I'd matched and asked them about their political beliefs they would've been conservative. I feel discriminated against mainly with guys 'looking for a third,' which is not necessarily what my sexuality implies. Most people I match with don't care that I'm bi, but I don't like it when they're more interested in that than me."
— Dymond, 19, bisexual woman
"I go through long periods of just giving up online dating because I find it spiritually exhausting. I live in a pretty red area, and there are only so many straight white dudes holding up pictures of dead animals my queer heart can handle.
"I also have multiple chronic illnesses. While I'm finally at a place where I'm working and living what amounts to a normal life again (Woohoo!), I'm probably never going to be that girl who runs a marathon with you. Or travels the world with you. Everyone seems to be looking for their 'partner in crime,' and as soon as they hear the words 'chronic illness' people see this as a huge red check and run away."
— Kirsten, 29, bisexual/queer woman
"I think I've heard the classic, 'You're only dating women because you can't get a man' about 100 million times, when I reject a man after he said something sexist or something."
— Sarah, 26, queer/bisexual woman
"Pre-Trump, I would still give those who listed themselves as moderates or conservatives a chance. Now, I can’t stomach even being messaged by someone who would still choose to align themselves with those parties after the way the current administration has transformed their party values.
"A strange number of conservative men still seem to want to date (or try to have sex with) bisexual women despite supporting political figures who don’t believe we should have human rights. It boggles my mind that they think queer women could be attracted to them at all when they support the current administration."
— Linn, 24, bisexual woman
"I don't date Trump voters. If someone isn't politically aligned with basic human decency, I won't smash. I've been sent explicit hate messages on dating apps for being too femme, too trans, or too political. I'm very clear and very out on my dating profiles. I receive messages telling me I'm a man or I'm a woman, messages that gender me when I have explicitly written not to, messages that tell me all I need is a (cis) man to fuck me straight... It's disgusting, the amount of abuse thrown at me just for being honest about myself."
— Jack, 27, queer trans non-binary person
"I met up with one lesbian who was conservative/libertarian, and I might have been quicker to decide I couldn't do that in such polarized times.
"Someone, ostensibly a girl (no idea who it really was, of course), told me I just didn't know yet that my vagina was 'made for dick' and I'd grow up eventually."
— Sarah, 26, lesbian woman
"Being in New York, I live in such a bubble, so I think I'm far less likely to run into a gay Trump supporter than, say, in any red states. But I will definitely, without a doubt, swipe left on someone whose profile reads Trump anything. When dating, I feel discriminated against based on my physical appearance several times a day. But not for my political views."
— Landon, 25, gay man
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Astrology is total bullshit as far as I'm concerned, but honestly, I am such a Taurus. Consistent, practical, opinionated, and absurdly, almost comically stubborn on the one hand; sensual and overindulgent on the other, a lover of earthly pleasures with a keen eye for beauty and a vague yet unshakeable desire to sink into a large memory-foam bed made up with pristine white linens and big, fluffy pillows and emerge only to be fed lobster tails drenched in melted butter and guzzle (not sip) Champagne.
Being that I am so fueled by all that is lavish and decadent, I sometimes struggle to draw the line between the little delights that make life that much more enjoyable for the luxury-loving Taurus, and the fully gratuitous. It's the difference between savoring moments spent lingering quietly on a porch swing overlooking a field of roses at dusk with a cashmere blanket wrapped around your shoulders and fellow Taurus Barbra Streisand playing in the background and buying yourself a $1,500 box of eternity roses just because. And where, I wonder, does a bathroom cabinet fully stocked with plush, velvety, all-natural cotton pads fall on that continuum?
On an imagined compendium of Tiny Tweaks That Will Make You Feel Richer, I would rank upgrading from your regular old cotton balls to fancy cotton pads at the very top of the list, far above "maximizing your space" with elegant storage solutions and painting old furniture gold (as if suddenly your dingy first-floor studio will start to feel just like Versailles). I would rank it there because not only is it a simple thing that will instantly elevate your lifestyle, but it is actually a very economical one, in the grand scheme of things. Unlike the old Rite Aid-brand cotton balls that I, a plebe, once used to swipe various solutions onto my face, this extra soft, extra fancy cotton can be stretched and separated according to your needs; you can pull them apart and use one half now, one half later. Essentially, you get two for the price of one, which is always a good deal.
I am also convinced that this upgrade has made my skin better, smoother, clearer; a licensed medical professional says that this is all in my head. "The softer cotton and brand embellishments may add to the experience of using skin care, but certainly will not improve the results," says dermatologist Ted Lain, MD. "As long as the pads are 100% cotton, and not applied too abrasively, all of the different brands should be considered equivalent in their ability to apply the skin-care product and remove dead skin cells and other debris on the skin surface." But what if they're Chanel?
I am not a doctor, but what do I know is this: Sweeping off my makeup with a Shiseido Facial Cotton pad (165 for $10 — a steal!) doused in micellar water makes the whole tedious process feel borderline breezy; a few drops of Biologique Recherche's tingly, exhilarating P50 patted gently over my skin after cleansing each morning is an experience... that leaves me smelling like vinegar for 20 minutes, but an experience nonetheless. If it's really all about the little things in life, well, then this is the littlest one of all; this luxurious version of a utilitarian must is a minor expense to feel like the goddamn Queen of England. (She's a Taurus, too, by the way.)
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
June 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City, a revolutionary show about four independent women talking frankly about sex and their desires in New York. This story was originally published on August 24, 2016.
If you’re on Instagram and don’t yet follow @everyoutfitonsatc, we can’t really be friends. Sounds serious, but I stand by it — the sardonic account started by Lauren Garroni and Chelsea Fairless has some of the best critical fashion writing around today, even though it only tackles outfits worn by Carrie and the gang, and typically caps out at two sentences peppered with emoji. It explores the camp that Sex and the City fans appreciate in hindsight, and pokes holes in the pseudo-intellectualizing of really boring Carrie-isms that we love to hate on today. Like, how come Carrie is a sex columnist, but can’t seem to wrap her head around the idea of bisexuality? Or how come she can wear head-to-toe Chanel, but can’t afford a down payment?
Says Fairless, "When you look at her character objectively, she really is a deeply delusional human being. But, I don't think that there is anything problematic about her fashion sense. I'd rather look like Carrie at her most fashion victim-y than Taylor Swift."
Nearly 20 years after it first aired, Sex and City is now shorthand for fashion -fashion, for better or worse. And whether you only harbor a passing interest in fashion, an academic one, or a borderline-obsessive one, you can’t ever escape the Carrie conversation; you can literally talk about anything through an SATC lens. In the spirit of the show's applicable-to-everything-ness, we’ve asked Garroni and Fairless to “dress” the cast in contemporary labels and trends.
Though many of their ideas are outdated now (“I couldn’t help but wonder: Are men just women with balls? ”), Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha’s fashion-forwardness is not. "Carrie Bradshaw was the first contemporary character on TV that not only mixed high and low fashion, but exalted Chanel as highly as she did her cheap-o hoop earrings," Garroni says. "She’s inspiring because her style is relatable and aspirational at the same time, which can be frustrating. Vintage bodysuits I can buy. Versace Couture, I just have to lust over."
Here’s what they came up with.
Carrie Bradshaw In Gucci "Like every other fashionista, Carrie lives and breathes Alessandro Michele’s romantic new vision for Gucci. Unlike most of us, though, Carrie literally lives and breaths the new Gucci collection — head-to-heeled toe. The sheer pink top gives her yet another excuse to show the world her bra, and the towering platforms are a refreshing change from the Manolos of yesteryear."
Miranda Hobbes In Balenciaga "Miranda’s look has always [walked] the line between upscale and awkward, so it’s no surprise that she would be at home in Demna Gvasalia’s cocoon-shaped off-the-shoulder Balenciaga puffer coat. The embellished pumps add a shock of glamour to her tragically pedestrian Brooklyn existence."
Samantha Jones In Saint Laurent "No one does a spangly, Reagan-era thot look quite like Samantha. Between the exaggerated proportions and ostentatious accessories, Hedi Slimane’s final collection for Saint Laurent was practically made for her."
Charlotte York In Dolce & Gabbana "Charlotte is the Queen of UES Basic, so this floral Dolce & Gabbana dress perfectly suits her Uptown Mommy lifestyle. Which no doubt includes reading Goop newsletters, taking Barre classes, and posting too many pictures of her kids on Instagram."
Stanford Blatch In Walter Van Beirendonck "Stanford Blatch never shied away from expressing his queer identity through fashion. And neither did Antwerp’s favorite bear, Walter van Beirendonck. This cosmic pairing of unlikely fashion soulmates is heartwarming as fuck."
Steve Brady In Courreges "No one gives a shit what Steve wears. Even Steve doesn’t give a shit what Steve wears. But this faux-blue collar Courreges ensemble would actually look surprisingly chill on him."
Bunny MacDougal in Chanel "Some bitches never change. And Bunny is a ride or die chick when it comes to Chanel. She’s loves a good pink Chanel tweed suit as much as she (presumably) loves hating minorities and throwing back gimlets at the country club."
Aidan Shaw In Vetements "In 2016, fashion has finally and unfortunately come around to see Aidan’s way of Dadbod dressing. The instantly iconic Vetements/Levi's collab really speaks to his Canadian-tuxedo ways, but knowing him, he’ll ruin the look by adding a puka shell necklace. #FuckingAidan."
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
June 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City, a revolutionary show about four women talking frankly about sex and their desires in New York. This story was originally published on November 23, 2016.
I recently came upon a mystery photo of myself. I have ZERO recollection of the night, the place, the outfit (yikes), but based on one tiny detail — my cocktail — I can say with some confidence the approximate year the photo was taken and with whom I was hanging.
The cocktail is a cosmopolitan, which means I was deep in my Sex and the City phase, saying the word “fabulous” a lot, wearing high heels I couldn’t walk in, and rolling deep with my college friends Sara, Caitlin, and Jenny. The four of us fancied ourselves as the twentysomething versions of the four main SATC characters. In our youthful search for identity, we inhabited them: the way we talked, dressed, went out, drank, dated, talked about who we dated, and talked about sexwere all hugely inspired by the show.
I remember our conversations about who was which character. At the time, the highest praise was to be “the Carrie” of the group. To be “the Charlotte ” or “the Samantha” was endearing or empowering, respectively. But you know who no one wanted to be? “The Miranda.” Being called the Miranda meant that you:
A. Weren’t hot. (Remember how no one wanted to have a threesome with her?!)
B. Were kind of a heartless hard-ass.
C. Were work-obsessed and no fun/not spontaneous.
… And that you ate chocolate cake out of the garbage.
My negative view of Miranda stayed with me long after I had memorized every single line from every single episode and stopped watching the show. But you know what? I got it all wrong. Miranda Hobbes is actually the most badass character on SATC. And since I have seen the light on Miranda’s excellence, it’s has also shaken up the way I perceive the other characters, and even the show itself.
Until this October, I hadn’t watched a single episode of Sex and the City in about six years. But this insane election had me searching for something lighthearted, comforting, and familiar while I curled up in the fetal position on my bed. Putting the characters aside for one moment, I have to say that I was shocked to see how misandrist the show is, particularly in the early seasons. Carrie’s voice-over consistently qualifies men according to their earning power, social status, sexual reputation, and not much else. I watched some episodes with my boyfriend and found myself cringing at certain parts, trying to imagine if we were watching a show in which men discuss women in that way. (Oh wait, that show does exist — it’s called Entourage.)
Photo: New Line Cinema/REX/Shutterstock.
Furthermore, while I was in my 20s, I always viewed Carrie and Big through the lens of her perspective and experience. But watching it now, I don’t think I would have wanted to date Carrie either. She is needy, unclear, manipulative, and intrusive. For example, if you were spending time with your mom (at church!), and the person you were casually dating showed up when you had explicitly told them it was your alone time with your mom, what would you think?
Which brings me to Miranda: She is the only one who keeps it real for Carrie when it comes to Big. And, in fact, when all the women are sitting around the brunch table obsessing about men, Miranda is the one who gets up and tells them:
“All we talk about anymore is Big or balls or small dicks. How does it happen that four smart women have nothing to talk about but boyfriends? It’s like seventh grade but with bank accounts. What about us? What we think, we feel, we know — Christ! Does it always have to be about them? Just give me a call when you’re ready to talk about something besides men.”
It was rewatching that exact scene with 33-year-old eyes that made me realize my relationship to Miranda and, yes, even SATC had changed: When I was in my 20s, her freak-out felt boring and judgmental (ugh, typical Miranda). But now, I'm like, “Amen sister!”
Look, I understand that love and relationships are a central pillar to practically everyone’s life — but it’s just one pillar of many. When I was younger, maybe my life was not fully developed enough to realize that — it was all about friends and, well, fucking. But that changes as time goes on and realities of adulthood creep in. Miranda is the only one who seems to recognize that. She doesn’t compromise her career for men, she doesn’t look for validation from men, and she doesn’t look at marriage as (in her own words), “Okay, I’ve got a big rock on my finger, now I can stop pretending to care about my career.” She is also impermeable to judgement, like when Magda switches out her vibrator for the Virgin Mary. She’s the only one who doesn’t serially invite drama into her life, and doesn’t play out destructive patterns repeatedly. Looking at her now, I’d say Miranda is the only one of the four main characters with whom I would want to hang out on a regular basis. She may not be perfect or the most empathic character all the time, but at least she keeps it real 24/7.
I was curious to know if any of my friends have had similar Miranda awakenings in recent years. I emailed a few people and found that, indeed, everyone who watched the show with their thirtysomething eyes had experienced a total about-face. My friend Katelyn said, “You spend so much time with Carrie that of course she seems the most rounded character, the one you most sympathize with, but it’s classic Stockholm syndrome. Meanwhile, the only one who maintains any kind of grounding and actual (versus fantasy) relatability is Miranda. And maybe we see her as a badass because, in the spectacle of fantasy and conspicuous consumption and imbalance toward the heart or libido, Miranda is the rebel. She's the one who will walk out into the street looking like a dump, or get braces because it's practical.”
Another friend pointed out, “For me, people said I was 'The Miranda,' and I never wanted to hear that, because she was the non-hot one and was kind of snarky. I still feel that way about her, but the bigger thing that happened when I rewatched the show not too long ago is that I thought the show sucked. I used to love it, and now I find it obnoxious and unbearably lame. I was so surprised I felt that way.”
Indeed. It’s always a little sad to look around and see that your friends aren’t as fabulous as you thought they were. Carrie, Samantha, and Charlotte will always have a place in my heart — kind of like old friends I wish only the best, but with whom I've fallen out of touch. But as I continue to grow up, I want to grow into a smart, mature, confident, driven woman, who loves deeply, but also doesn’t take any shit from anyone. In other words, I’ll happily be the Miranda.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Update: On Wednesday, LVMH crowned Masayuki Ino’s streetwear label Doublet the grand prize winner of $353,145 and a year’s worth of mentorship from the luxury conglomerate, after beating out 1,300 other applicants. Ino founded Doublet in 2012, won the Tokyo New Designer Fashion Award in 2013, and the 2017 Tokyo Fashion Award.
“We were impressed by the contemporary resourcefulness that instills Masayuki Ino’s designs with an urban touch infused with fresh poetry,” executive vice president of Louis Vuitton and LVMH Prize founder Delphine Arnault said.
Emma Stone was on hand to present Ino the LVMH award, while Jaden Smith handed South Korean designer Rok Hwang’s London-based label Rokh the special prize of $176,572 and a year’s worth of tutelage.
This article was originally published on March 15, 2018.
LVMH just announced the nine finalists for its highly-regarded Young Fashion Designer Prize, which is awarded to fashion designers who have produced at least two collections and are under the age of 40. The group of men’s and women’s designers — which include A-Cold-Wall, Botter, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Doublet, Eckhaus Latta, Kwaidan Editions, Ludovic De Saint Sernin, Matthew Adams Dolan, and Rokh — are from all over the globe and have been chosen from a group of 20 semi-finalists by 48 international fashion heavyweights like J.W. Anderson, Nicolas Ghesquiére, Marc Jacobs, and Maria Grazia Chiuri among others. The competition was so stiff that Delphine Arnault, the director and executive vice president of LVMH, actually extended the number of finalists to nine instead of eight because it was so hard for the judges to narrow down their selections.
“This year saw a real diversity of talent, with two brands designing womenswear, two designing menswear, two both womenswear and menswear, while three create gender neutral fashion,” Arnault said in a press release. “I am moreover delighted that Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, a semi-finalist in 2017, has returned to the competition.” We will see who comes out on top after the finalists present their designs at the Foundation Louis Vuitton on June 6.
The winner of the competition will receive a grant of €300,000 (about $420,000 U.S.) and 12 months of assistance from a special LVMH team to help develop their company. The mentorship will focus on matters of intellectual property, sourcing, production and distribution, and marketing. In previous years, Marine Serre (2017), Grace Wales Bonner (2016), Marques’Almeida (2015), and Thomas Tait (2014) have each taken home the prize, and seen quite the success since.
Be sure to watch this space for updates on the competition.
Welcome toMoney Diaries, where we're tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We're asking millennials how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we're tracking every last dollar.
Today, as part ofYour Spending In Your State: an education program specialist working in education policy who makes $50,000 per year and spends some of her money this week on crab rangoon at a Thai restaurant.
Monthly Expenses Rent: $0 (I live with my boyfriend in a house that he owns. He pays the mortgage and I pay all the other bills. For our shared expenses, like food, we have a joint credit card that we use and then we split the bill each month.) Student Loan Payment: $167 Car Loan Payment: $324 Heating/Electric: $170 Water/Trash: $77 Phone Bill: $117 Car Insurance: $85 Internet & Cable: $176 Dog Poop Cleaner: $17 Netflix: $0 (We use my mom's account. Thanks, Mom!) Gym Membership: $29 Savings: I try to put in $300 each month (10% of my paycheck), but sometimes things happen...such as my impulse shopping habit. I'm trying to be better about saving money and spending less.
Day One
7 a.m. — I get to the office early today because I have a lot to get done before traveling out of town for work. I bring my own coffee and lunch today — I'm hoping I'll have time for a workout during my lunch break before heading out. I'm really bad about not eating breakfast (bad habit that I need to break), so I don't eat this morning.
11:30 a.m. — The morning is literally gone in the blink of an eye. I have an event to attend for a candidate announcing he's running for governor this year. I love election years; something about campaign season is so exciting to me. But because I almost forgot about this campaign event, I won't be able to go to the gym during my lunch break.
1 p.m. — After the campaign event, I run home to finish packing my bags and eat something before heading to my next event, where I'm teaching fifth graders about the Constitution and our founding fathers (though they could care less). On my way I stop at Sephora, because I've been scraping what's left of my Fenty foundation out of the bottle! I get a new bottle and somehow make it out of the store with just one thing. $57.24
6 p.m. — After a hectic day of running around, I finally get to my out of town work destination. I'm a state employee, so when I travel out of town I get to drive a state car and my hotel room is covered, which is really nice. I meet coworkers at a Thai restaurant for dinner and order crab rangoon for the table (my favorite), green tea, and spicy basil leaves. $22.08
Daily Total: $79.32
Day Two
6:45 a.m. — It's an early morning. Our board meeting starts at 8 a.m. but I like to get there early to get set up. I take advantage of the complimentary breakfast at the hotel and grab yogurt, granola, and coffee before heading out.
6 p.m. — The day has completely flown by! When I get back into town, I meet my boyfriend and all of our friends at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and beers for one of our friend's birthdays. $33
8:30 p.m. — After dinner, we take our friend to our favorite dive bar. (The bar is literally like Cheers — everyone knows everyone, all of our parents drank here when they were our age, and the owner coached my boyfriend in basketball when he was little, ha!) When it's your birthday, the bartender and owner always buy the first two rounds, so we took our friend to get his birthday drinks. This bar also has the best jukebox, and I always spend way too much money on it. Tonight I only spend $10, though, which I'm proud of myself for! I have two drinks ($15.50). $25.50
Daily Total: $58.50
Day Three
9 a.m. — I have a late start to my day today, but because I worked so much overtime yesterday at the board meeting, it's okay that I come in a little later than usual. On my way to the office, I stop and get a soy latte and a bagel. I'm feeling slightly hungover from last night — I swear I can't even have three drinks anymore without being hungover. $8.78
1 p.m. — On Fridays I get off early because I work overtime during the week. I usually leave around noon, but today I stay until 1 because I'm feeling a little guilty for coming in later (even though I worked so much yesterday *eye roll*). On my way home, I text my boyfriend (who took the day off because he wasn't "feeling well") and ask if he wants me to grab us lunch on my way home. I stop and get tacos for him and a bean and cheese burrito for me. Tacos and burritos are the cure-all to hangovers! $7.76 for my half. $7.76
5 p.m. — After a solid nap, I wake up feeling like a new person and apparently decide it's a good idea to spend $25.95 on a bandana from Barstool for our dog that says "Saturdays Are For The Good Boys." So there's that. We head over to my boyfriend's dad's house for dinner with his dad, brother, and nephew. $25.95
Daily Total: $42.49
Day Four
8:30 a.m. — I just have to say, it's so nice to wake up without an alarm. I meet one of my friends for yoga at our gym and then we go to brunch, get bottomless mimosas (obvi), and share a flight of avocado toast and a scrambler. SO GOOD! $27.35
12:30 p.m. — After brunch, we head to Target because I need to get new sheets and a comforter for our bed. Our dog ripped a little hole in our sheets, and then my BF put his foot through said hole getting into bed the other night — so now the hole is huge. We bought a king-sized bed last year and still use a queen comforter, so the time is now for new bedding. In my typical fashion, I can't leave Target without getting at least one other thing that I don't need, and end up getting new tea towels that say "Everyday I'm Brusselin" with brussels sprouts on them. $58.88
3 p.m. — After Target, I drop my friend off at her car and head to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner. We're having some of our couple friends over for dinner to watch the NCAA tournament (Go Duke!). I'm making the jalapeño tuna casserole from Chrissy Teigen's cookbook, Cravings. The total comes to $10.80 for my half (after splitting with my boyfriend). $10.80
Daily Total: $97.03
Day Five
8 a.m. — I wake up before my boyfriend, make myself coffee, and start breakfast for us. We already have everything I need, so I don't have to go to the store, which is always nice. I make us strawberry pancakes and bacon with fresh fruit, and then eat without him because I'm not letting these pancakes get cold!
12:30 p.m. — I head to the grocery store to get stuff for dinner and for game snacks. One of our friends is coming over for more NCAA tournament, and I'm making buffalo chicken dip, guacamole, salad, and potatoes for dinner. It's my boyfriend's turn to cook dinner, and he's grilling steaks and potatoes. $20.82
9 p.m. — I try to dedicate Sundays to self-care to get ready for the week ahead. Sometimes that means eating my body weight in buffalo chicken dip and dark chocolate, and other times it means an expensive face mask and bubble bath. Today is a mixture of both. I'm in bed by 9 p.m. with a clean house and a full belly, reading my book ( An American Marriage — AMAZING, btw) until I fell asleep.
Daily Total: $20.82
Day Six
8 a.m. — I'm trying really hard to tell myself to "think positive thoughts, live a positive life" — but Mondays suck. I make my coffee at home and pack whatever I can find for lunch because I'll make lunches for the week tonight after work.
1 p.m. — I usually pack lunch and eat in my office because I like to use my lunch hour to go to the gym. It's less crowded then, and the classes I like are usually during my lunch hour. Today I go to Body Pump, which kills me. When I get back to the office, I drink the soy protein drink I brought and eat a granola bar and veggie chips. My gym shoes are starting to wear out on the bottom, which is making the traction super slippery, so I order a new pair of Nikes. $54.97
5:30 p.m. — When I get home from work, I wait for my BF to finish working out and then we head to the grocery store together to get stuff for dinner. We're making a turkey white bean chili tonight in the Instant Pot. We pretty much have everything we need except for beans, green chilis, and onion. $2.36
7 p.m. — After we eat dinner, I make lunch for the week with stuff I already have at home. I try not to eat a lot of meat, so I make brown rice pasta with pesto and cherry tomatoes. I also download an app called You Need a Budget, which my brother-in-law and sister-in-law swear by. The first 34 days are free and after that it's $83 annually, which is about $7 a month. I'd like to get my yoga teaching certificate this fall, and it's super expensive to do that (about $3,000), so I'm trying to be more mindful and save up!
Daily Total: $57.33
Day Seven
7 a.m. — Back to the grind of my flex schedule, which means getting to work at 7 a.m. I surprisingly don't have too hard of a time waking up this morning! I grab my gym bag, pesto pasta bowl, and granola bar, and head out the door. When I get to the office this early, I'm usually the only one here, which I really enjoy because I can get a lot accomplished. I make coffee and get going on my to-do list.
12 p.m. — The workout class I want to go today isn't until 5 p.m., so I eat my lunch in my office and read articles during my lunch hour. I'm getting paid this Friday (thank goodness!), so I'm trying not to spend any money between now and then. But today our cable and internet bill automatically comes out of my account so there goes $176. Oh, and our poop guy payment (yes, we have a guy that comes and picks up the dog poop out of our backyard) was charged to our card today for the month.
6 p.m. — After my workout class, I head home and eat leftovers for dinner. We didn't plan on making anything for dinner tonight because we knew we'd be getting home a little later than usual. I enjoy alone time cleaning up the house, getting my gym bag ready for tomorrow, and reading before my BF gets home and we watch TV and get ready for bed.
Daily Total: $0
Money Diaries are meant to reflect individual women's experiences and do not necessarily reflect Refinery29's point of view. Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity or harmful behavior.
The first step to getting your financial life in order is tracking what you spend — to try on your own, check out our guide to managing your money every day. For more money diaries, click here.
Have a Money Diary you'd like to share? Right now, in addition to our ongoing diaries, we're looking for potential diarists along the following theme:
Your Spending In Your State:We want to run one Money Diary from a different state each week. Want to rep your state? Submithere!
Have questions about how to submit or our publishing process? Read our Money Diaries FAQ doc here:r29.co/mdfaqs
June 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City, a revolutionary show about four independent women talking frankly about sex and their desires in New York. This story was originally published on April 25, 2017.
Sex and the City inspired countless glittery and smoky-eye looks, deftly covered the politics of stashing your beauty essentials in your S.O.’s bathroom, and kept us busy playing catch up with Carrie’s long-to-lob, curly-to-straight, blonde-to-bronde hair changes. But of all the memorable beauty images that the show churned out, one of the most unshakable is that of Samantha Jones post-chemical peel. After getting an impromptu treatment, her skin looks burned to smithereens — or, as Carrie put it, “like beef carpaccio.”
But that was back in 2002, and we've come a long way since then. Sure, in-office peels still use concentrated alpha and beta hydroxy acids, gauged to penetrate the skin at a depth that at-home peels don’t reach in order to eat up dead cells that sit on the surface of the skin, de-gunk and tighten pores, even out skin tone, and stimulate collagen production. But unlike a beloved fictional character’s fictional results, actual outcomes are nothing like the charred faces that many of us have come to fear.
Skin pros have become masters at using a cocktail of acids to resurface the face without the burn. And options abound: Even those with sensitive skin can book an irritation-free peel as part of a HydraFacial, which produces very little tingling, if any, thanks to a wand that delivers the glycolic and salicylic acids to the skin, then lifts the gunk via a vortex-like vacuum that also deposits nutrients like antioxidants and hyaluronic acid at the same time. After an in-office peel done right, skin might be a bit pink, just like with some facials — or show no signs of irritation at all.
The advancements have made the treatment wildly popular as of late. According to a report released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons last year, chemical peels are nearly 20% more common than they were in 2000 and fell just behind Botox and fillers as the most requested minimally-invasive cosmetic procedure performed in 2016, with more than 1.36 million completed.
Dermatologist Annie Chiu, MD, notes that in-office peels administered by a pro who knows how to control intensity will produce the best results (i.e. brighter, more evenly-toned skin). But for those looking to maintain those results, or simply try a starter peel, at-home versions offer an easy way to get a healthy glow, particularly in the summertime. “Oil glands in general are more active in warmer weather, and with increased outdoor activity and sweating, this combination can lead to dull skin or clogged pores,” Dr. Chiu says. "At-home peels are a quick and easy way to give yourself a little glowing pick-me-up.”
Just like with in-office options, at-home peels vary in intensity. Newer formulations range from 25% AHA/BHA overnight masks that can be used up to twice a week (for oily and acne-prone skin) to spray-on liquids that act as a light chemical exfoliating treatment, with zero tingle (a perfect option for sensitive skin). See how to get in on the action at any intensity, ahead. But first, a word to the wise: No matter what option you try, be sure not to slack on sunscreen. Because a post-peel face without SPF is a surefire way to cop Samantha’s beet-red hue.
These exfoliating pads (from Kiehl's heiress Jami Morse Heidegger's brand) are one of the quickest, most painless ways to get your peel on — particularly for those with sensitive skin. Unlike some daily peel pads, their texture isn’t at all abrasive, and though AHAs are included (via sugar cane, bilberry, lemon, and other extracts), the exfoliating solution doesn’t make skin tingle upon contact.
This super gentle, mineral water-based peel contains hyaluronic acid and aloe extract, and is like nothing we’ve seen before. Spray it onto skin, then massage: You’ll see dead skin cells ball up and slough away thanks to fruit extracts in the formula — all without tingle, irritation, or having to rinse.
We love the idea of getting a brightening skin treatment that makes skin glow and makeup glide on before big events, but who has the time... or the money? This three-step system is our new go-to. After applying individual ampules of an exfoliator, gentle peel (which contains a cocktail of glycolic, citric, tartaric, malic, and lactic acids), and tightening serum, our skin looks bright, smooth, and selfie-ready.
This traditional rinse-off peel includes a whole roster of fruit extracts (including papaya, cherry, and agave) along with witch hazel and lactic acid to brighten and keep oily skin in check.
Peels and dry skin used to make horrible bedfellows, but as we said, things have evolved. If you're looking for a side of serious hydration with your exfoliation, swipe this swab soaked with lactice, glycolic, and hyaluronic acid, along with lots of fruit extracts, over your entire face, then smooth the sheet mask on top. Remove after 20 minutes, but don't rinse.
Activated charcoal and volcanic sand tag team to deeply clean skin and slough off rough, dry, dead cells. And you can see its brightening action work: After applying the gel, dead cells ball up before your very eyes.
Don’t want to pony up for an in-office peel? This three-step at-home system is a riff on the brand’s most popular in-spa treatment. Start by exfoliating skin with the included facial scrub, then apply the lemon facial peel (which contains AHA and BHAs), then finish with a soothing chamomile mask.
You name an ingredient known for its potent exfoliating power, this treatment has it. Glycolic, salicylic, and lactic acids, along with Australian caviar lime extract, make up the gentle peel component, and the Hungarian brand's patented mineral-water healing complex plumps, soothes, and restores balance. Just smooth a couple drops over skin two or three times a week after cleansing before applying moisturizer, and revel in your newly bright, clear complexion.
Some people hate the scent or texture of a traditional acid peel — and Bel Air-based celebrity facialist Angela Caglia gets that. So she created this glycolic-rich liquid-gel mask, which is naturally colored with purple sweet potato extract and scented with distilled rose petals, to give clients a way to deeply exfoliate and come out smelling like roses.
This gel-to-peel resurfacer also exfoliates by collecting dead skin cells into balls that are easily brushed away. It boasts stem cells from edelweiss, sea holly, and criste marine, and is excellent for sensitive skin types.
Diligent with your nighttime beauty routine? Then this overnight peel is for you. The dual-chamber bottle contains two formulas: Phase one, a gentle liquid formula, is designed to be used continually for 14 nights and contains 5% AHAs and phytic acid; phase two, used during the following two weeks, is a stronger solution with 9.5% glycolic acid and salicylic acid to help slough off dead skin and boost cell turnover.
For those with acne-prone and sensitive skin, daily peel pads can feel too harsh. These pink-tinted pads are gentle enough to be used daily (they contain just 1% salicylic acid and raspberry fruit extract to exfoliate) and are witch hazel-based to help control excess oil.
Here’s a fact to make you feel ancient: Sex and the City turns 20 this month. That’s right, the show that once taught us everything we needed to know about dating, friendship, and designer footwear is one year away from legal drinking age. And we all know what she’d be drinking on her birthday, too. Because more than any of the myriad things that became iconic by association during the franchise’s tenure – more than Manolos or Magnolia Bakery cupcakes or enormous flower pins – the Cosmo is practically synonymous with the Fab Four.
“I don’t know if there’s any other drink or even food that I could think of that is so closely associated with a show,” Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, author of a new book on the show titled Sex and the City and Us, tells Refinery29. “I think whatever you think of as the caricature of SATC, the Cosmo goes with it.”
The first time the Cosmo shows up on SATC is in the second episode of season two (in 1999), titled “The Awful Truth”. During a group dinner in honor of Carrie’s birthday, it quietly glistens from the table spaces next to Samantha and Stanford. Charlotte’s sipping Champagne, while Carrie’s swilling double vodkas on the rocks. The Cosmopolitan clearly hadn’t yet been established as A Thing within the show’s universe. It’s a subtle debut, which may be why so many people seem to remember the drink’s first appearance happening later in the season, in episode 7, “The Chicken Dance”, when the gang attends the wedding of Miranda’s interior decorator to her longtime crush. “Another Cosmopolitan, please,” Samantha says to the bartender, upset that she accidentally fucked the same guy she’d already hooked up with years before.
Despite its humble beginnings on the show, the drink is now so inextricably linked to it that asking why the Cosmo became such a phenomenon is a bit like asking why the show itself found its level of success. It’s pretty, it’s pink, it’s glamorous – all while maintaining an air of being just out of reach, and therefore maybe still worth striving for. And it’s important to remember that even as recently as the late ‘90s, the notion of successful, unattached, thirty-something women running around the city sipping cocktails and doing whatever they wanted was revolutionary. Think about all the things you imagined about adulthood – and then perhaps later decided to actually strive for – that were essentially whipped up by Candace Bushnell, Michael Patrick King, and the rest of the creative forces behind SATC. The apartments! The clothes! The freedom! The elaborate-seeming drinks in glasses as thin-stemmed and polished as your designer stilettos. None of that existed as part of the collective consciousness before, which is hard to imagine, given just how much it does now.
“There’s certain things on the show that you couldn’t do, because the costs were prohibitive, but something like a cupcake or a Cosmo was something you could afford,” hypothesizes Armstrong of the Cosmo fixation. “Even if it was an outrageously priced Cosmo, even if it was a $20 Cosmo, it’s still better than $500 Manolos. So you get a little piece of that, you get a little taste of it without having to take out a second mortgage or something in order to pay for it.”
Lauren Garroni, who co-runs the popular Instagram account Every Outfit on SATC, meanwhile, has a slightly different theory. She tells Refinery29: “For a show that was about sexuality and power, I think the Cosmopolitan was the female stand-in for a Martini. The Martini is so synonymous with James Bond and the alpha-male persona, that by having the girls favor [the] Cosmo, it felt like establishing these women as alphas in their world. Also it showed that these girls liked to drink, which I appreciated.”
What many people don’t realize is that the cocktail enjoyed a sweet life before the show – and may even be poised to have one long after it. Like so many great things, the Cosmopolitan was invented in New York. But not New York as it is today. This was gritty, crime-ridden, ’80s New York. A time when almost nobody had cell phones and you could be a struggling whatever and still afford to live in Manhattan and people like Madonna and Andy Warhol hung out together at the Odeon in Tribeca. In 1988, Toby Cecchini was in his first year of bartending at the downtown hotspot, and he was always experimenting with new drinks to feed to the waitresses and other staff.
He heard from a bartender friend about a cocktail they were making at the gay bars in San Francisco. It consisted of rail vodka, Rose’s lime juice, and Rose’s grenadine. It was, Cecchini tells Refinery29, “pretty but disgusting.” But he really liked the way that pink looked, so he came up with his own version, which had fresh lime juice, Cointreau, Absolut Citron – which had just debuted – and cranberry juice. It was good, but he didn’t think too much of it initially.
“Then the staff went nuts [for it] and it became kind of our staff drink,” he says. “And then some of the girls started introducing it to our regulars, but, you know, our regulars were everybody – Madonna, Sandra Bernhard, it was Lou Reed’s hangout, it was Basquiat and Warhol, it was Sam Shepard. It was everybody, everybody you’ve ever heard of.”
Everybody you’ve ever heard of, drinking Cosmos at the Odeon. Within months, Cecchini began seeing the drink – a dangerously quaffable sweet and sour concoction – at other downtown bars and restaurants. Within a year or two, he recalls, he was seeing it on billboards, advertised with Grand Marnier. Friends advised him to sue somebody, anybody, but it turns out, you can’t really patent a drink. What bothered him the most was that people weren’t – and still aren’t – even making it correctly, putting a half-ounce of lime juice and an orange twist with way too much cranberry juice.
The drink’s sudden, soaring popularity also drew the ire of his fellow bartenders, who quickly grew sick of making them. “The early ‘90s were just a blur of Cosmopolitans,” Cecchini remembers. “In New York City, the thing flamed brightly and then burned out. And then literally ten years later was when SATC picked up on it.”
That’s right, by the time Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and company began regularly sipping pink booze on TV screens around the country, their home city had already moved on. The rest of America, however, was very intrigued by what was going on in those tall, sloshy martini glasses.
“The show felt like dispatches from the epicenter of cool. Whatever the show decided to feature, from Magnolia Bakery to Cosmos, felt like the creators were co-signing on what was hip in New York at the moment,” Garroni recalls.
As SATC reached peak popularity, directly emulating the characters no longer became something cool women did, if it ever really was. Around the time the first movie debuted, in 2008, the whole SATC caricature was so overblown and cliche that even many of the show’s original superfans felt the need to distance themselves from it. But then, thanks to HBO reruns, it was suddenly at the fingertips of a whole new generation of women, many of whom were still kids when it first debuted.
“The Cosmopolitan has become the unofficial drink of what I will lovingly refer to as ‘the basic bitch,’” says Chelsea Fairless, Garroni’s partner in SATC -outfit cataloging. “Even though SATC was a very smart show, it became an integral part of basic culture.” It’s worth noting that Fairless is not the only person who mentioned the phrase “basic bitch” in connection with Cosmos when being interviewed for this story.
While bartenders may not have loved making countless Cosmos, the drink had a lasting impact on the industry that reached far beyond itself. According to New York-based drinks expert and educator Tess Rose Lampert, even after the Cosmo went the way of all good things, it helped usher in an era of specialty cocktails. “It became less about ordering that specific cocktail and more about just getting a good product all around,” she tells Refinery29.
Lampert says there were four main drinks that helped fill the Cosmo-shaped void in the hearts of the kind of striving career women whose intense jobs and dramatic personal lives often necessitate a serious happy hour. She points to margaritas and mojitos as classic girls night out fodder. “It’s not necessarily the same glamorous effect, but it has become a drink of choice for sure… especially with maybe like a fruit flavor,” she says. For those in the mood for something simpler, there’s the vodka soda or its sophisticated cousin, the Martini.
There’s also, of course, rosé, which has been growing in popularity since being christened by The New York Times in 2006 as “the summer drink to be seen with.” These days, however, it’s feeling dangerously close to the kind of overexposure that put the Cosmo into extinction.
Cecchini, who now owns and tends bar at the historic Long Island Bar in Brooklyn (which, it should come as no surprise, makes what New York Magazine has dubbed the very best Cosmo in town), says he has recently seen an uptick in Cosmo orders, and not just from folks who happen to know he’s the drink’s inventor.
“[It was] always just a few people coming in, asking for a Cosmopolitan. Suddenly now, I'm seeing like 20, 30+ orders a week for a Cosmopolitan,” Cecchini says. “I've definitely noticed more and more people are ordering them. And not just women.”
Armstrong, too, says she’s noticed people ordering them more, though she concedes it’s still the type of drink order one feels compelled to defend or shrug off. “I’ve seen a number of younger friends, in fact, people in their 20s and 30s [order it]. They still sort of apologize for it, like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m just getting one of these.’ They’re acknowledging the association but also just being like it’s refreshing and pretty and nice and this is what I want on a summer day.”
Perhaps the biggest sign of a Cosmo comeback, however, is the fact that trendy drink companies like Joia are making them in cans alongside classics like the Greyhound and the Moscow Mule. These days, as much as it would probably shock Carrie and Charlotte, the fact is that there’s nothing cooler than booze in a can.
The Cosmo may never again be as zeitgeisty as it was in the late ‘80s or as popular as it was in the early aughts. These days, it’s really more of an ironic drink order. Like asking for a PBR or a Jagerbomb, when you roll up to a bar and order a Cosmo, you’re telling the world that you’re well aware of the stereotypes associated with your beverage of choice and you simply don’t care. In that hipster-y way, the Cosmo may actually be one of the cooler things a person can request from the bar. And hey, even if it’s not, it’s still way less obvious than ordering a glass of rosé.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
June 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of Sex and the City, a revolutionary show about four independent women talking frankly about sex and their desires in New York. This story was originally published on March 25, 2016.
Designer labels, crazy outfits, and, well, Manolos: That's what Sex and the City is known for. Beauty doesn't typically pop into your head, unless you're thinking Carrie's Botticelli-esque head of hair. The ladies may have chatted about everything from funky spunk to shoe fetishes, but makeup was not an oft-discussed topic.
However, there are some serious beauty lessons to be learned from our favorite single Manhattanites (and Brooklynites: Never forget Miranda, the converted Park Slope mommy). SATC taught us to never trust New Yorkers who don't take the subway, but it also taught us how to properly hunt down a chemical peel. You may not have caught it on the first go-around, but given the chance, who turns down a reason to binge-watch revisit the show?
Ahead, find the sage foursome's untapped beauty advice.
Use the wind to your advantage — especially when you're sashaying away from an ex.
A really good lipstick — and quick compact check — will give you the power to do anything.
Your confidence should never be defined by the length of your hair.
Although she wasn't always the most financially sound, Carrie has a point. Go forth and restock your medicine cabinet now.
Finding your new signature scent can get complicated — and overwhelmingly pungent.
If you're thinking about dyeing your pubic hair, make sure you really think about it.
Investing time into your orgasms means saving a ton of money on your facials.
If you're not the type to go for Fifty Shades stuff — like Ms. York here — you can always "kink" your hair.
Pre-party chemical peels should be done with caution — or at home.
Via Tenor.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Getting out of bed with the perfect post-hookup hair — tousled, undone, rumpled — is one of those things that only happens on-screen. If you're having great sex, the reality is that your hair is going to be tangled and sweaty and all over the pillowcase after the fact. While we're certainly not going to discourage you from spending all day rolling around in the sheets, if you have other places to be and want hair that's messy, sexy, and full of volume, you're going to want to partner up with some products instead.
To get the secrets behind some bedhead looks we love, we went straight to the hairstylists on a few of our favorite shows: Girls, Sex and the City, and Scandal. They know the tricks for making hair look just right in the heat of the moment — and after. Ahead, the pro-approved tools and products that'll give you sex hair good enough for Samantha Jones.
The Show:Scandal The Pro:Tonya Cryer, key hairstylist
Photo: ABC/Photofest.
Use Powder For Grit We doubt you hop out from under the sheets with shiny ends (unless you went in wearing a hair mask), so embrace day-old hair or add grit if you just shampooed. Cryer suggests using powder for lift, volume, and realistic messiness. And while we usually would advise you to avoid putting dry shampoo on your ends, feel free to sprinkle a little on them this time around.
Sexy Hair Big Sexy Hair Powder Play Volumizing & Texturizing Powder, $16.95, available at Ulta Beauty.
Set Hair With A Bun, Not Rollers “Sometimes, to create hair that looks undone, I may give the hair a light blow-dry using my ceramic round brush,” Cryer tells us. Then, twist your hair into a bun and let it set until you need to head to set — or the office.
Olivia Garden Ceramic + Ion Thermal Hairbrush, $19.95, available at Ulta Beauty.
Don’t Be Afraid To Get Wet Wet-look hair can be seriously sexy. “To make [the actor] look sweaty, I may mist some mineral water around the hairline, add some mousse, and diffuse the hair so that it dries in place and looks wet," says Cryer of how she fakes a heavy horizontal-cardio workout.
Evian Mineral Water Spray, $12.50, available at Sephora.
The Show:Sex and the City The Pro:Sacha Quarles, key hairstylist on Sex and the City, Gangster Squad, and Men in Black 3
PHoto: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock.
Fake It 'Til You Make It Sarah Jessica Parker may have broken the news to us that her hair is not naturally curly, like Carrie Bradshaw's, but Quarles confessed that everyone needs some added texture before a steamy scene. The hero product of choice? Sumotech. Start with a small amount (seriously — less is more) of pomade, rub it in your hands to heat it up and soften it, then massage it through from roots to ends.
You Never Want To Be Sticky Your hair is meant to move — no matter its texture. So when you're rolling around in bed (or heading to your next Bumble date), you shouldn't feel any stiffness. Quarles loves this hairspray formula on set because it doesn't feel sticky and allows others to run their fingers through your hair while still keeping things in place.
L'Oréal Elnett Satin Extra Strong Hold Hair Spray, $14.99, available at Ulta Beauty.
The Show:Girls The Pro:Sherry Heart, hair designer on HBO's Girls and The Night Of
Photo: Courtesy of HBO.
Swap Texture Spray For Dry Shampoo Get ready to pull out all your favorite dry shampoos, because Heart says that this is the key to getting great texture. Her favorite? Amika Perk Up Dry Shampoo.
Ditch your comb or brush, which distributes natural oils and gives hair shine, which is the opposite of what you want. Instead, Heart suggests using your fingers. “I’ll go in and take my hand and go back and forth on the scalp. You’ll notice you’ll be getting lift from the scalp — and it’s amazing," she explains.
Amika Perk Up Dry Shampoo, $25, available Sephora.
Keep The Hairspray To A Minimum No hairspray? No problem. “If ever, I’ll spray it at the very beginning [of a scene], but it’s very light,” says Heart.
Kérastase Laque Dentelle, $28, available at Kérastase.
The Show:Girls The Pro:April Schuller, key hairstylist on Girls
Photo: Courtesy of HBO.
Switch Up Your Curling Irons First things first: Don’t section your hair and don’t brush it. Schuller says this ensures your look will be perfectly tousled and messy. Then, add curls at random, alternating barrel sizes for different layers and pieces. “Definitely don't curl all the hair. And don't curl each strand from top to bottom. Stray or straight pieces work great for this look,” Schuller tells us.
Harry Josh Pro Tools 2-in-1 Ceramic Marcel Curling Iron, $185, available at Dermstore.
Start From The Bottom Up Schuller agrees with Heart that embracing your natural texture is key — but there’s an important first step to pay attention to: shampoo. If you want to perfect your new everyday hairstyle, get started in the shower with a deep cleanse to prevent added buildup with product later on. You can even opt for a texturizing shampoo (John Frieda’s Beach Blonde is a cult-favorite among those with fine hair).
Living Proof Full Shampoo, $26, available at Living Proof.
Get Messy With It Some of us are always trying to tame flyaways, but Schuller works with them: "When trying to achieve the post-sex look, I'll work the dry shampoo in from every angle, sometimes creating a slightly fuzzy effect by rubbing my open palm on top of the head in a circular motion.” Finish off with some styling pomade to maintain a matte finish throughout the pieces.
Supremo Magic Move Hard, $24.94, available at Amazon.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Instagram is already a digital shopping mall, inspiration board, and celebrity news feed, but soon, it may become a bona fide video streaming service. Less than a month after Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed the app will add a "usage insights" feature letting users know how long they spend liking posts and tapping through Stories, there are new rumors that Instagram may soon allow the posting of videos up to an hour in length — something that would certainly increase users' time spent on the app.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the rumor, citing sources familiar with the feature. (Instagram declined to provide comment to Refinery29.) According to the report, only vertical videos, as opposed to horizontal, will be supported.
If the rumors are true, this would be a massive increase: Currently, Instagram only allows users to post videos up to 60 seconds long (with a minimum length of three seconds). The last time the app boosted its video allowance was in April 2016, when it quadrupled the length from 15 seconds to the current 60 seconds. Doing so involved significant work on the backend, including decreasing the file size of videos and changing how they were processed, to ensure there wouldn't be any lag time when streaming. Currently, the only real way around this time limit is live video — you can record a one-hour long live video on Stories and share that video for 24 hours after you shot it.
Videos that are an hour in length would be 60 times greater than the ones Instagram has allowed until now, and this would likely come with its own set of challenges. For one, Instagram would need to figure out how to make sure the video quality is not affected. But it would also need to find out how to let users stream videos without it destroying their battery life and using up all their data.
While the move would not be unexpected — it seems like every platform is getting in on original video these days, including Instagram's parent company, Facebook — it could come across as contradictory. If Instagram really does want to ensure users' time is spent in a "positive and intentional" way, how do hour-long videos fit into that mission? If you get sucked into watching someone's vacation footage for 60 minutes, would that count as a meaningful experience on the app?
You could definitely argue that it isn't Instagram's responsibility to police how people spend their time. However, this is the great paradox of the digital wellbeing trend sweeping Silicon Valley: In order to sell devices and ads, tech companies need to continue introducing new and improved features to attract — and maintain — audiences. How do companies accomplish that while proving to their users' that they have their best interests at heart? Which, right now, means promoting decreased screen time.
Moments after Apple announced plans to launch a suite of wellbeing tools, including a way to set app use limits and know how long you're on social media every day, reporters were quick to point out that the company also introduced two new features that will make users want to spend more time texting and playing on their iPhones — Animoji and Memoji.
It seems impossible to find a way to balance the two motivations — growing an audience and playing doctor to that audience's online health in order to maintain them as loyal customers. However, as more companies jump on board the wellbeing bandwagon, their features could start to work together in a way that is useful: Go ahead and watch longer videos on Instagram — just set a time limit on your iPhone before doing so.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Donald Trump bounced and nodded his way through the military choir's rendition of "God Bless America" during Tuesday's hastily put-together "Celebration of America " event at the White House, which lasted under 10 minutes.
Here's a transcript of Trump "singing" the patriotic tune (which was written by Irving Berlin, a Jewish songwriter who immigrated from the Russian Empire and was imprisoned in a pen at Ellis Island until immigration officials let him go):
"God bless America..." [uncertain, half-hearted mouth movements, nodding and bouncing] [slight smile and nod] "God bless America, my home sweet home. God bless America, my home... home!"
Of course, there are more words in "God Bless America." Words that many people learn in second-grade choir. Words that Trump, even if he doesn't know them, could have theoretically looked up before the event. But no. During a patriotism pageant that was his idea, he failed to do the very least and remember this great country's mountains, prairies, and oceans. (Maybe this makes sense given that he's on a roll to gut seemingly every environmental regulation there is.)
Back when he botched "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a football game in January, body language expert Patti Wood said that he seemed nervous and uncomfortable, like he was just trying to get through to the other side of an anxious situation.
This time around, he seemed less nervous, but the episode did reveal something else about him. Notice, said Wood, that he was onstage alone in front of the choir — no Melania (which is a whole other story) or anybody else. Why did he make that choice? "Was he trying to make it about himself?"
Trump didn't even attempt to sing the words he didn't know by looking around at the crowd, reading lips and making logical connections, which Wood said really stood out to her. People typically do those things when they're fully present, and singing together tends to unify people and bring them into the moment together, she said. "He's not able to join in and unify and be connected to the other people there," she told Refinery29.
"It shows his solitariness to me, how solitary he is," Wood said, adding that this suggests he spends a lot of time alone. This is in line with reports that he tends to retreat, placing a lock on his White House bedroom and getting two TVs installed there as soon as he got into office. "He's not unified with the crowd. Even energetically, he's kind of bouncing and nobody else is."
She added that he sings the few words he does know overly dramatically to compensate, making his lips "sort of fishlike." "I get the sense that by over-delivering, he is trying to tell us he knows some of the words."
Her point about Trump flying solo speaks to his stubbornness in decision-making, like when he disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from the White House because only a few players had planned to come, and invited the team's "fans" to his eight-minute singalong instead.
Only, as observers noted, the people in the crowd looked a lot more "like Republican staffers and lobbyists who were hastily summoned to the White House to fill out the audience" than green-jerseyed Eagles fans.
This faux-patriotism is the White House's latest attempt to capitalize on a cultural issue to draw even more of a wedge between voters. Ever since Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality against Black men, Trump has railed against football players who choose to kneel, calling them "sons of bitches" who should leave the country.
The Associated Press reported that the president told a "confidant" he plans to revive this conversation in the months leading up to the midterm elections because he thinks it will help Republicans win votes.
But although several Eagles players had criticized the NFL's new policy that requires players to stand for the national anthem or remain in their locker rooms, not one has mentioned it as their reason to skip the event.
Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins told the AP that he missed the ceremony "to avoid being used as any kind of pawn," and that with the staging of the ersatz event, a "decision was made to lie, and paint the picture that these players are anti-America, anti-flag, and anti-military."
It didn't quite work, though. Here's a tip: If you're going to lambast other people for their lack of a show of patriotism, please at least know the words to "God Bless America."
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Go ahead and set aside the farm-to-face herbal extracts and organic flower essences — just for a second. Right now, it's time to think back to chemistry class, and bring sulfur (atomic number 16, as you might recall) center stage in your skin-care routine.
The naturally-occurring mineral, found in everything from food to hot springs (via volcanoes) and the human body, is the underrated beauty ingredient we're stocking our bathroom cabinets with as we speak. Thanks to its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, sulfur is ideal for targeting blemishes and balancing out excess sebum production, which makes it perfect for oily, clogged pore -prone summer skin.
"Sulfur is most commonly used in products formulated for skin that is oily and acne-prone," explains Elena Arboleda, head aesthetician for Mario Badescu. "It encourages clarity, making it a lifesaver for those who tend to break out, and it dissolves dead skin cells at the surface of the skin, discouraging excess oil production."
Of course, what you might also remember about sulfur from your school days is that it smells. Bad. The formulations vary, but most brands won't offer you something that smells uncannily like rotten eggs, so don't fret — your roommates won't call 311 out of concern there's a gas leak in the bathroom.
The only major concern with using sulfur to address breakouts is that it can be drying and cause skin to flake should you get overenthusiastic with your treatment. Kate Somerville, founder of her eponymous skin-care brand, recommends using spot treatments no more than a few days in a row to avoid irritation. She also suggests looking for sulfur products that are specifically intended for daily use, to ensure that they're formulated with moisturizing and hydrating ingredients to help combat any potential dryness.
Whether it's targeted treatments you dab on pesky spots with a cotton bud, intensive masks you can leave on to zap zits overnight, or daily-usage products that set the tone for the rest of your routine, sulfur is our new hero ingredient, banishing excess shine and calamitous spots from here on out. Click ahead to shop our favorite ways to use the periodic table's best-kept skin-care secret.
Combining breakout-fighting powerhouse salicylic acid with 10% active sulfur and zinc oxide to prevent scarring, this teeny-tiny bottle is a wonder product for acne-prone skin.
This unique product's cult-favorite status (you'll recognize the telltale powdery-pink dots from thousands of Instagrams) is well-deserved: The potent concoction of calamine, zinc, sulfur, and salicylic acid zaps zits practically overnight without irritating already-sensitized skin.
This no-B.S. purifying mask, formulated by a dermatologist, combines sulfur with other hard-working clarifiers like grapefruit-seed oil and raspberry and grape extracts to eliminate breakouts, calm inflammation, and rejuvenate tired-looking skin all at once.
Thanks to the creamy texture and redness-soothing prickly pear, this intensive mask won't dry out aggravated skin, but that 5% colloidal sulfur is not messing around when it comes to putting an end to pesky breakouts.
Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, $42, available at Sephora
This multitasking treatment is lightweight and easily absorbed, which makes it perfect for layering under makeup during the day. Sulfur, vitamin B3, and glycolic acid work together to even out skin tone while tackling acne, too.
President Donald Trump granted clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, one of many people of color behind bars for life because of a nonviolent drug offense, Axios reported. The commutation of her sentence comes just days after the president met with Kim Kardashian West, a Johnson supporter, at the White House to discuss prison reform.
In 1993, she was arrested after working with a group of people who transported cocaine. The mother of four has said her involvement stemmed from hitting rock bottom in her personal life: In the early 1990s, she had gone through a divorce, a bankruptcy that led her to lose her house, and her youngest son was killed in a motorcycle accident.
Johnson alleges she never actually sold or dealt drugs, and that her role in the group was that of a "telephone mule" who passed messages along. Nevertheless, she was convicted of conspiracy to sell cocaine and money laundering, which led to a sentence of life plus 25 years in federal prison — despite it being her first offense.
Mass incarceration is one the United States's most urgent problems, particularly for people of color: America makes up about 5% of the global population but has about 21% of the world’s prisoners. For example, Black and white people use drugs at a similar rate, but the imprisonment rate for Black folks is more than five times the rate of white people.
Kardashian West took special interest in Johnson's case back in October. Since then, she recruited her lawyer Shawn Holley to help Johnson's clemency campaign and met with Trump's son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner to discuss the possibility of a pardon. After meeting the president in late May, Kardashian West tweeted: "I would like to thank President Trump for his time this afternoon. It is our hope that the President will grant clemency to Ms. Alice Marie Johnson who is serving a life sentence for a first-time, non-violent drug offense."
She added, "We are optimistic about Ms. Johnson’s future and hopeful that she —and so many like her — will get a second chance at life."
I would like to thank President Trump for his time this afternoon. It is our hope that the President will grant clemency to Ms. Alice Marie Johnson who is serving a life sentence for a first-time, non-violent drug offense.
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) May 31, 2018
We are optimistic about Ms. Johnson’s future and hopeful that she —and so many like her—will get a second chance at life.
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) May 31, 2018
President Barack Obama pardoned 231 individuals, many who had similar drug-related charges to those of Johnson's, in December 2016. It's unclear why she wasn't in the group.
So far, Trump has issued a half dozen pardons, including to Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff known for violating the civil rights of people of color who was convicted of contempt of the court last year; Irve Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in 2007; and conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations back in 2014.
On Twitter, Kardashian West celebrated the commutation, writing: "So grateful to @realDonaldTrump, Jared Kushner & to everyone who has showed compassion & contributed countless hours to this important moment for Ms. Alice Marie Johnson. Her commutation is inspirational & gives hope to so many others who are also deserving of a second chance."
She added: "I hope to continue this important work by working together with organizations who have been fighting this fight for much longer than I have and deserve the recognition."
So grateful to @realDonaldTrump, Jared Kushner & to everyone who has showed compassion & contributed countless hours to this important moment for Ms. Alice Marie Johnson. Her commutation is inspirational & gives hope to so many others who are also deserving of a second chance.
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) June 6, 2018
I hope to continue this important work by working together with organizations who have been fighting this fight for much longer than I have and deserve the recognition.
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) June 6, 2018
In a statement provided to Refinery29, Johnson's attorney Brittany K. Barnett said: "Justice has been served today, and it’s long overdue. Alice has more than paid her debt to society by serving over 21 years of a life-without-parole sentence as a nonviolent drug offender. Life in prison without the possibility of parole screams that a person is beyond hope, beyond redemption. And in Alice’s case, it is a punishment that absolutely did not fit the crime."
She continued, "President Trump saved Alice Johnson’s life today. We are extremely grateful and hope the President continues to use his clemency power to save lives."
This story was originally published at 12:20 p.m. It has since been updated to include a statement from Alice Marie Johnson's attorney.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
