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Fashion Voyeur

People will stare, make it worth their while.

Categories: Beauty, Pixie

The Secret to Growing in Showstopping Brows

This is the one you’ve been waiting for Voyeurs, the secret to my awesome brows…

I pick up a lot of compliments on my brows and with the hell I’ve put them through over the years they deserve every goddamn nice word they get.  I was a motherplucker in the 90’s, I didn’t go to quite the same extreme as Kate moss or Pamela Anderson but I definitely veered into apostrophe territory and for some reason they ended up way shorter overall than they should have been.

Kate Moss holding her ponytail over her haid looking sideways, early 90's
90’s Kate Moss
Pamela Anderson on a beach, early 90's wearing double denim
90’s Pamela Anderson

Now if you know anything about the laws of hair then you will know this:  The hair you want never grows, and the hair you don’t want grows at a rate of knots unless you intervene.  Ergo, the hair on my head is never as long as I would like, my eyebrows never grew back on their own, and my bush sprouts like wildfire.  In terms of growing back lost eyebrow hair, they definitely need an assist.

The arrival of Cara Delevingne on the modelling scene sparked a whole new trend for brows and changed the beauty industry completely.  With her thick, grown in brows that blew the “Facial Measuring” rules out the water, suddenly a new brow shape was king and with that trend came a new division of the beauty marketplace.

Close crop of Cara Delevingne's face with messy brows and pink lips

Brow gels, palettes, powders, waxes and serums flooded the shelves and overnight, brows became big business.  Next came the brow growth products from serums to ‘stickers’, there was a whole new range of products aimed at 90’s motherpluckers like me, claiming to be able to grow your brows back to their former glory.

Up until a few years ago my brows were thin and kinda looked ‘stuck on’, my efforts to grow them in over the years had been futile.  For every small amount of growth I’d get, some trigger happy Beauty Therapist would wax or tweeze it back off despite my protesting.  When you’ve waxed, tweezed and plucked for so long, you’ll know that any brow regrowth you’re lucky to see is different than it was before, it’s not uniform, the colour is different and the hair is more translucent due to damage to the follicles.  I spent a small fortune on RapidBrow, from the makers of the hugely successful Rapid Lash which claimed to grow back and also darken brows with regular use, in as little as three months.  Eighteen months down the line my brows showed no difference and at £37 for a tube that lasts a month, it’s a hefty investment to get nothing back from.

Pixie Tenenbaum at Centerparcs wearing a hat and braids pulling a face

So I did a little research, and there’s some science behind all of this so take a seat and settle in.  Why should you listen to me?  because I grew back the most awesome pair of brows from pretty much nothing.  Ready?  Here comes the science:

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH RAPIDLASH & RAPIDBROW?

If you used the product from the beginning then you’ll know that it used to be pretty effective.  Not any more.  Why so?  Well, RapidLash used to contain an active ingredient called isopropyl cloprostenate.  It’s an ingredient which has some molecular similarities to a medical active ingredient called bimatoprost.  Why am I telling you this?  Bimatoprost is an ingredient used in medication for the treatment of glaucoma, after extensive medical trials it was discovered that one of the side effects of its use in an eye drop formula was that it caused eyelashes to grow longer and darker in participants.  Something cosmeceutical manufacturer Allergan jumped on and harnessed in a product developed for the US aesthetics market called Latisse.

Still with me?  Allergan successfully brought a case against the makers of RapidLash outlining the similarities between the molecular makeup and performance of the two ingredients and used the years and years of patient trials as evidence which detailed benefits, side effects and potential risk factors.  RapidLash put forward a limited defence which contained no actual human research, all of their testing is, or had at the time, been done on animals.  Case closed.  RapidLash were ordered to remove isopropyl cloprostenate from all products in their line up.  However, and here’s the rub for any of you still using RapidLash, despite still being marketed in the same way, RapidLash and RapidBrow are little more than expensive conditioners and serums.  Ouch.  Still think shelling out £41 is a good investment for a product with no active ingredient?  Then consider this, RapidBrow came so much after the original RapidLash product that it never actually contained any active ingredient at all.

MIND BLOWN! SO WHAT DO I USE INSTEAD?

Well remember that potentially active ingredient Bimatoprost i told you about?  It’s available in a product in the UK designed to grow lashes, but because of it’s medical licensing and cosmeceutical benefits, it must be prescribed by an aesthetic doctor or nurse.  It’s not something you can just go ahead an buy on the web, but then nor do you need to be diagnosed with a medical condition to get it.  Let me explain…

Lumigan is a product that’s been crafted for the UK aesthetics market and it comes in two different formats.  The first is an eye drop bottle, the second is as individual eye droppers in a pack which lasts 2-3 months depending on how you use it.  The intention and the way it’s marketed is for growing eyelashes and it works, my lashes were ravaged by my addiction to lash extensions and I was at one point left with none at all.  Lumigan helped me grow them back quickly, however it’s also suitable for brow growth too.  I use it on both my lashes and brows – obviously this means I get through more of it in a shorter space of time but trust me, it’s worth it.  Apply with the brushes which come with it, leave to dry et voila.  Well, not quite et voila but it doesn’t take long to see results.

PIXIE TENENBAUM BEFORE & AFTER

SOLD! HOW CAN I GET IT?

You need to book a consultation with an aesthetic doctor or an aesthetic nurse with a prescribers license.  Once they’ve checked you over for any contra-indications and given you the lowdown on how to administer the product, you’re good to go.  You’ll find it marketed as Eyelash Growth Serum and the formulation and dose are the same whether you’re purchasing the product to use on brows or lashes.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

That’s a good question.  Depending on which aesthetic practitioner you choose (not all of them will prescribe Lumigan as one of their products), and whether you opt for the 0.1mg/ml or 0.3mg/ml strength,  it ranges from £40 – £120 and a lot of this is to do with the name of the practitioner, or the repackaging the clinic has done to make the product look prettier.   My advice?  If you’re serious about growing back your brows, find and buy the 0.3mg/ml product if you’re starting out & the 0.1mg/ml version for maintenance, at the cheapest provider.  You’re not buying expertise with the product, you’ll administer it yourself at home and throw the packaging away.  If you’re talking filler, wrinkle relaxing or any other type of aesthetic procedure which requires an injection then always choose expertise over cost but in this case, cost is king.

Personally I get mine on a private prescription from Dr Steven Land at Novellus Aesthetics in Newcastle where it retails for £65 and if it’s in stock, is dispensed the same day where it can be collected or shipped to you at your home address. Remember it’s a prescription only medication (POM) so there are guidelines with this, it requires a proper consultation with a Doctor, Steven talks through what the product is (it’s for lashes and brows as an aesthetic medicine), how to use it and what to do if you have an adverse reaction – I’ve never had one but some people using it for lashes have reported a minor change in the colour of their iris.

Lumigan 0.3mg/ml
Lumigan 0.3mg/ml
Lumigan Bottle 0.1 mg with brush
Lumigan 0.1mg/ml

WHAT DO I DO WITH IT?

Paint it sparingly on to your brows, or the parts around the existing brow shape where you want the hair to grow and leave it to dry before putting on moisturiser or makeup.  It’s that simple.  Using it for your lashes?  A very small amount along the lash line, any more is just waste.

HOW LONG BEFORE I LOOK LIKE CARA?

I saw a big difference to my brows within three months but everybody is different.  Trials for Latisse in the US reported participants seeing results to their lashes in as little as 4 weeks.  Persevere, it’s something that’s been proven to work and we all know that brows are big business that require commitment!

To complement your new brows, you’re going to need some products to keep them in check, look out for my Best Brow Products post so you can tame your face framers and be the envy of everyone you know…

Pixie xo

Categories: Uncategorized

Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty

“I want to be a purveyor of a certain silhouette, or a way of cutting, so that when I’m dead and gone people will know that the 21st century was started by Alexander McQueen.”

Unless you’ve been living under a seriously well hidden rock you’ll know that the V&A is currently hosting a retrospective of the career of designer Alexander McQueen and as far as exhibitions go, this one is pretty damn magnificent.  The Savage Beauty exhibition began its life at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and has since been expanded and tweaked for its hotly anticipated arrival in London, McQueen’s home, and the city where he honed his craft.

Savage Beauty is as raw as it gets, and walking around the exhibition so close to this body of work, it feels almost voyeuristic, like you’re viewing something sacred and holy which was meant to be kept secret…..

The exhibition is presented over ten rooms which aim to showcase the most prolific of themes that Alexander McQueen himself showed during his runway shows.  Savage Beauty takes you on a journey through McQueen’s entire career from his previously unseen 1992 MA graduate collection through to his final, incomplete FW10 collection.

images-2

As you enter Savage Beauty, the atmosphere is palpable, dark, eerie and bordering on uncomfortable, the air peppered with a recording of McQueen’s voice played over jutting soundbytes, an image of the late designer’s face is projected onto a black wall which slowly morphs into the Skull Lenticular.  The first section of the exhibition, London, concentrates on ten of  McQueen’s more famous early pieces spanning three collections: The Birds (S/S 1995), Highland Rape (A/W 1995) and The Hunger (S/S 1996) and runway footage is played behind the installation.  This is your first glimpse at the world and the mind of Lee Alexander McQueen and it’s beautifully poetic.

1. Installation view of 'London' gallery, Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty at the V&A (c) Victoria and Albert Museum London

The next room, Savage Mind, displays some of McQueen’s very early signature tailoring and his inventive cutting techniques, McQueen always designed from the side, saying that this was the best way to see all of the lumps and bumps and to decide how to skim these.  His Kickback Trousers for example, form a perfect semi-circle when laid out flat, but on the body they drape at the back of the knee and create a flattering elongated kickback shape at the back of the ankle.  In this room the famous “Bumster” trousers are displayed, although rather surprisingly from the front rather than the rear.  A sharp shouldered jacket featuring an image of Robert Campin’s The Thief to the Left Of Christ by the Master of Flemalle c.1430 from the FW97 It’s a jungle Out There collection gives an early glimpse into McQueen’s fascination with gothic symbolism.

2. Installation view of 'Savage Mind' gallery, Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty at the V&A (c) Victoria and Albert Museum London

Alexander_Mc_Queen ready to wear fall winter 1997/98 images-9

The Romantic Gothic room is breathtakingly beautiful, set in an eerily dark and atmospheric room, the display is almost too much to take in.  There are strong references to the Victorian Gothic aesthetic that McQueen excelled in, garments featuring hair as a centrepiece and the famous Black Swan takes centre stage, emanating a certain sadness that you can’t fail to feel when you look at this awesome display of craftsmanship.  It’s this particular room which holds pieces from McQueen’s final unfinished collection and it’s here that you feel part of an important moment in fashion history, McQueen was working on these pieces when he died and they’re dark and twisted and beautifully intricate.

“I don’t think like the average person in the street – I think quite perversely sometimes.”

images-13 Installation view of 'Romantic Gothic' gallery, Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty at the V&A (c) Victoria and Albert Museum London images-14

Romantic Primitivism takes us deeper into the mind of McQueen, in a room where the walls are adorned with skulls and bones reminiscent of a catacomb and in the ceiling a hanging bubble plays the short film Irere directed by McQueen and John Maybury to accompany the SS03 collection.  The smell of leather and skin hits you immediately and it’s the first time you appreciate just how close you actually are to these masterpieces.  This section of the exhibition explores McQueen’s interest in the animal world and in particular the survival of exotic creatures in the wild, his FW97 collection: It’s a Jungle Out There was inspired by the Thomson’s Gazelle with McQueen saying his interest was borne out of the fact that “the life of this particular creature is over before it has even begun”.

“Animals fascinate me because you can find a force of energy, a fear that also exists in sex……”

4._Installation_view_of_Romantic_Primitivism_gallery_Alexander_McQueen_Savage_Beauty_at_the_VA_c_Victoria_and_Albert_Museum_London-1024x738

The adjoining room houses the Romantic Nationalism section of the exhibit and it’s perhaps the most emotionally evoking room in the whole exhibition, and certainly the most dramatic.  Darkly romantic and rebellious, the pieces in this display make a clear statement about patriotism.

“As a place for inspiration Britain is the best in the world, you’re inspired by the anarchy in the country….”

Presented in a room of red walls, on the left plinth the MacQueen tartan takes pride of place and music specially composed by John Gosling is played, creating a sense of spine prickling drama, the dress worn by Sarah Jessica Parker to the 2006 Met Gala is displayed and up close, McQueen’s genius in cutting is evident, matching diamonds and creating lined patterns rather than matching the tartan repeat.  Pieces from the FW08 collection entitled The Girl Who Lived in the Tree are displayed on the right, a collection which was inspired by an Elm tree in the garden of McQueen’s country home near Fairlight cove in East Sussex and a story he created about it in his younger years.  The collection was tinged with irony and pastiche and very romantically nationalistic with swathes of red and white and a million feathers.

His patriotic loyalty is never more evident than in this room, McQueen was once asked about his heritage and what his Scottish roots mean to him, his reply? “Everything.”

images-1 fa3fabf3-7e10-49bf-8ca0-036fb0146603-620x395 5. Installation view of 'Romantic Nationalism' gallery, Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty at the V&A (c) Victoria and Albert Museum London

From here you make your way into the most breathtakingly heart wrenching room in the exhibition: The Cabinet of Curiosities.  This forms the beating heart of the exhibition and the room is double height featuring various screens showing runway footage and iconic pieces displayed in gallery format.  There are over 120 pieces on display in this one room and it’s understandably a lot to take in, it’s overwhelming, like a feast for the senses and when you first enter the room, you literally don’t know where to look.  In the centre of the room is the now iconic spray painted dress from No.13 SS99.  Just laying eyes on this dress pulls on my heart and I feel a real sense of privilege.  The installation is set up to mimic the positioning of Shalom Harlow as she stood centre stage on that spinning disc, minus the Fiat plant robots, and it’s such a powerful display that it actually moved me to tears and I wasn’t the only one who felt it.  There’s a real sense of awe in this room, just being amongst so many amazing pieces reminds you of what a talented and courageous designer McQueen was.  Throughout his entire career, No.13 was the only show that ever made the designer himself cry and when you’re there, right in front of it, you can understand why.

The Yashmak from McQueen’s SS00 Eye collection was painstakingly rebuilt for The Cabinet of Curiosities and is displayed in show on a screen nearby, other pieces on display in this room are the Armadillo boot, first introduced in the SS10 Plato’s Atlantis collection and worn by Lady Gaga in her promo for Bad Romance, the Butterfly headdress made by Philip Treacy for McQueen to accompany his SS08 La Dame Bleue collection and the mask and Crown of Thorns from the FW96 Dante collection.  This is a room that has been designed for viewing, there are bench seats in the centre and you could seriously spend all day looking at these objets de curiosite which have been staged so beautifully.

6. Installation view of  'Cabinet of Curiosities' gallery, Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty at the V&A (c) Victoria and Albert Museum London images-17 3. Spray painted dress, No. 13, SS 1999, Model - Shalom Harlow represented by dna model management New York, Image - Catwalking.

2. Butterfly headdress of hand-painted turkey feathers, Philip Treacy for Alexander McQueen, La Dame Bleu, Spring Summer 2008, copyright Anthea Sims images-7 IMG_1465

as you move through The Cabinet of Curiosities, you find yourself in a viewing area with a pyramid set up to display the haunting Pepper’s Ghost created for the finale to the FW06 The Widows of Colloden finale, using a technique pioneered by Harry Swan in the 19th century, the spectral image of Kate Moss is conjured and it is completely mesmerising.  For the short period of time that the spectre appears, the room is silent and the surrounding people are as transfixed as I am, the whole spectacle utterly draws you in and is tinged with an almost palpable sadness.  I spot more than one person wiping away tears as they exit this section of the exhibition and it’s hard not to be moved.  Not one to shy away from a spectacle, McQueen was fascinated by death and the macabre and insisted that “death is part of life, I‘ve always been fascinated with Victorian views of death…. when they used to take pictures of the dead.  It’s not about brushing it under the carpet like we do today, it’s about …celebrating someone’s life.  and I don’t think it’s a bad thing.  I think it’s a very sad thing but it’s [also] a very romantic thing because it means the end of a cycle and everything has an end… it gives room for new things to come behind you“.

There’s a real shift as you enter Romantic Exoticism, this section of the exhibition explores McQueen’s interest in eastern culture and influence.  On display are the designers take on traditional Japanese kimonos and silk trousers all with that dark twist synonymous with McQueen.

“Fashion can be really racist, looking at the clothes of other cultures as costumes.  It’s mundane and it’s old hat.  lets break down some barriers…”

7. Installation view of 'Romantic Exoticism' gallery, Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty at the V&A (c) Victoria and Albert Museum London 11. It's Only a Game, SS 2005. Image firstVIEW

At the end of this room is another sinister installation, one you are almost forced to take in.  Part of the SS01 Voss (AKA “Asylum”) runway show, McQueen put on a completely unexpected live finale based entirely on a 1983 Joel-Peter Wilkin photograph entitled “Sanitarium” which depicted a glass box housing a voluptuous, masked woman connected to a stuffed monkey via a breathing tube, McQueen selected fetish writer Michelle Olley to play the part in the finale and the image has become synonymous with the Voss collection.  McQueen later said of Voss: “It was about trying to trap something that wasn’t conventionally beautiful to show that beauty comes from within.  It’s to do with the politics of the world – the way life is – and what beauty is”

8. Installation view of 'Voss', Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty at the V&A (c) Victoria and Albert Museum London images-10 images-6

“I find beauty in the grotesque like most artists.  I have to force people to look at things…“

As you move away from the Earthy Voss display, you enter the Romantic Naturalism section and it’s exactly that.  There are flowers and beautiful delicate lace in the pieces in this room and it’s almost too pretty for words, each piece is displayed in its own glass case and each piece flows seamlessly into the next like a passionate and romantic story, the lace dress pierced by resin antlers from the FW06 The Widows of Culloden is centre left and up close appears almost fluid.  On the opposite side is the razor clam shells dress from the SS01 Voss collection as worn (and originally trashed) by Erin O’Connor and it’s a sight to behold.  Seeing this piece in print is one thing but being right up in front of it is another thing altogether, you simply can’t describe the craftsmanship and the beauty of this piece, it’s almost other-worldly.  McQueen wasn’t a designer to conform or be limited by materials and fabrics and took pleasure in using unexpected items to create his masterpieces.

“It was time to come out of the dark and into the light.”

9. Installation view of 'Romantic Naturalism' gallery, Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty at the V&A (c) Victoria and Albert Museum London  5. Tulle and lace dress with veil and antlers, Widows of Culloden, AW 2006-07. Model Raquel Zimmermann, Viva London. Image firstVIEW c381590c-bba2-498d-9e0b-bcf229f4c8b7-320x480 111111111

The finale of the exhibition is Plato’s Atlantis.  McQueen’s last fully realised collection shown for SS10 and based on a predicted future in which the polar ice cap would melt and life on earth would have to evolve in order to live beneath the ocean once more or perish; humanity would return to the place from where it came.  Displayed in front of a giant screen showing the same short film used in the runway show featuring Raquel Zimmerman writhing and twisting as she morphs into a semi-aquatic creature, Plato’s Atlantis is futuristic, fresh and delightfully strange.  This is the collection which unveiled the Armadillo boot silhouette for the first time, the Bell Jar dress and the JellyFish print which spawned so many high street tributes.  Hailed as McQueen’s greatest achievement, Plato’s Atlantis is so far removed from anything we’ve previously seen from the designer, and perhaps alluded to a new direction for him, sadly we’ll never know what McQueen had planned for us for beyond FW10 but we do know that it would have been spectacular, and awe-inspiring and beautiful.

10. Installation view of  'Platos Atlantis' gallery, Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty at the V&A (c) Victoria and Albert Museum London  Fashion Week e68204d0-8656-417f-892d-99e17a37b184-803x1020

If you’re a lover of fashion, and even if you’re not, the Savage Beauty exhibition at the V&A is an absolute must see, there is no doubt that you will be transfixed and it’s unlikely that such an incredible body of work from such an iconic designer will ever be on display like this again.  Curator Claire Wilcox was given unrestricted access to the McQueen archives in order to create this exhibition and has done an amazing job in creating the ambience to match each of the definitive themes featured here.  There are footnotes to each piece and in some cases these are hard to find and even harder to read given the sheer volume of people making their way through the exhibition at any time.  I would have loved to see more biographical information about McQueen, his heritage and his rise to become fashion’s enfant terrible, there are many subtle references to Isabella Blow, long time muse of Alexander McQueen but any reference to their tempestuous relationship is notably absent.  However, the exhibition was always going to be about the clothes.

I’ve talked you through what I took from the exhibition but at the risk of sounding like a cliché, this is something you need to experience for yourself, it’s so much more than just looking at beautiful clothes, it’s a feeling, an ambience, a collective experience for the senses.  So give yourself up to fashion and soak up the dark gothic atmosphere of Savage Beauty, and then go and do it all again because you’ll never get another opportunity to be a part of something of this magnitude and you’ll definitely leave there with more questions than you entered with but you’ll absolutely feel inspired.  And if you really do want to know more about Lee Alexander McQueen, splash out and buy the book that accompanies the exhibition, it’s a gorgeous book that you’ll pick up repeatedly in the days following your visit(s) to the exhibition.

“There is no way back for me now, I’m going to take you on journeys you’ve never dreamed were possible…”

Pixie x

The exhibition runs until August 2nd 2015 at the V&A Museum and tickets and further information can be found here: http:/www.vam.ac.uk/savagebeauty

All quotes used in this article are by Lee Alexander McQueen.

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Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, in partnership with Swarovski, supported by American Express, with thanks to M∙A∙C Cosmetics, technology partner Samsung and made possible with the co-operation of Alexander McQueen, runs from 14 March – 2 August 2015. www.vam.ac.uk/savagebeauty

Pixie Tenenbaum 2023

Pixie Tenenbaum 2023

People will stare, make it worth their while

Pixie Tenenbaum

FASHION VOYEUR

Freelance Fashion and Beauty Writer
Currently taking review slots
Hire Me: pixie.tenenbaum@gmail.com

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Had a lush day at the @WynyardHall #ChristmasFayre yesterday. Gorgeous crisp Winter weather, lovely company & some lovely sellers. All in the most beautiful setting

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