Picture this: You’re finally in bed after a long day of working at home, there’s 15 minutes left of Tiger King, and your eyes are starting to feel heavy. You turn over to your partner and coo, “Babe, can you please turn off the lights?” Neither of you wants to leave the soft folds of your bed sheets and perfectly fluffy pillows, but someone has to be the sacrificial lamb. Now, imagine the same scenario where neither of you has to exit the warm cocoon. Instead, a self-dimming, warm light lulls you both to sleep as the credits start to roll. The. Dream.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, that’s totally fair. Allow me to introduce you to The Casper Glow Light. I wrote about them earlier this month, but with coronavirus precautions in full swing, they’ve quickly become a staple in my new wind-down routine. The Glow Lights quickly trick my mind into off-mode after spending hours hunched over my laptop in a dimly lit apartment (who would ever think I’d miss working under fluorescents?).
These clever night lights are about the same size as my two-year-old succulents, and they are unlike anything else I own, making them one my favorite sleep discoveries. My home is the furthest thing from “smart”—for one, I’m paranoid of having too much tech in the house and for two, I think having a Siri or Alexa can be more hassle than they’re worth. But I made an exception to bring these little cuties into my place while testing products for Sleep Month—and what first sold me was the fact that, well, you can name them.
Before the lights arrived, I felt like any expecting parent would. I had a running list of names, but it wasn’t until they were fully charged and glowing that I had my epiphany. It was like they woke up and spoke to me. They come with preset names when you first sync them to the Casper App—I believe mine were Soho and Broadway—but I quickly changed them to Lux and Lumin (Latin names, obviously, because they’re chic) and grouped them as Solaris. (PS: The more Glow Lights you have, the more groups you can create.) Maybe it sounds silly to you but these were never just lights to me. I don’t have room for pets (or kids for that matter) in my current New York City apartment, so personifying these inanimate objects is as close as it gets for me and my boyfriend. And just as my mother mixes up mine and my brother’s name, I regularly forget who Lux and Lumin are (they look so alike…) but I love them both equally.
One of the most glorious things about the Casper Glow Light is that everything is synced to an app. It’s super easy to turn them on or off with a single tap. You can manually adjust the brightness by giving the lamps a gentle twist, or if you’re like me, you can use the digital controls and call it a night. I like to play with the settings—adjusting the brightness to my mood (from ‘Not bright at all’ to ‘As bright as can be’) and setting timers (15 minutes to 90 minutes) for when I want to sleep. You can also set wake-up alarms, which slowly fill your bedroom with soft light in the morning as opposed to the stress-inducing sound of a phone alarm going off at 6:30 a.m.
Other than setting timers to lull me to sleep or slowly wake me up, another way I get to use out of the Glow Lights is by using them as reading lamps. As mentioned, the lighting situation in my apartment is kind of dark—think moody, warm light—which makes it hard to read in the evenings. Since the Glow Lights are portable, I can keep one by my side or even hold it in my hand to illuminate the pages. The lights are also great for running into the bathroom or scurrying into the kitchen in the middle of the night. I can just give them a little shake and be on my merry way. Another great thing is that they hold their charge—unlike batteries on other home tech products I’ve tested. I’ll usually leave my Glow Lights on their charging dock when not in use, so they tend to last a few days without needing a recharge.
To say there’s a lot going on in Sorry to Bother You would be an understatement. The movie is fast-paced and forward-thinking, overflowing with looks that flash by. It’s a whirlwind, and though Boots Riley’s film clearly gets across its dystopian message, the makeup lover in me wanted to spend about two more hours staring at the beauty looks makeup designer Kirsten Coleman dreamed up for Detroit (Tessa Thompson), a performance artist and telemarketer alongside her on-screen boyfriend, Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield).
Especially considering that there are tons of Easter eggs packed into the film, heading back in for a second or third viewing would get the job done. But in lieu of that, unpacking the dimensions of Detroit’s beauty choices with Coleman was a more than welcome alternative, and one that adds another layer onto Thompson’s character. For those who haven’t seen the movie and clicked here out of pure fan love for Thompson, Detroit is a heroine unlike most we see onscreen. As the movie’s costume designer, Deirdra Govan, told Glamour, Detroit’s a self-made woman, and it feels revolutionary to see a female character express so clearly that she lives by no one’s rules other than her own. In her makeup, that means hot pink brow highlighter and golden lipstick, to name a few of her stand-out moments. As a character, she’s a moral counterpoint to Green’s shifting values; as a woman, she’s an example of opting out of society’s beauty norms, standing up for her outlook in all things, and making larger-than-life creativity look achievable in the day-to-day.
Glamour: What was the inspiration for Detroit’s makeup?
Kirsten Coleman: It was based around her character being Afropunk. It’s a really edgy, progressive style of wearing fashion and makeup by doing things you wouldn’t normally do. Putting eyeliner on your lips, or putting stickers or pieces of jewelry on parts of your face where they wouldn’t normally be applied. It’s a very artistic approach to makeup that I’ve always found very inspiring.
PHOTO: Pete Lee / Annapurna Pictures
Glamour: Why did you think that was a good fit for Detroit?
KC: She’s super independent, wild-spirited and wild-hearted. She’s very political, and she uses her entire body as a statement. Her clothing, her makeup, her hair—everything is a message. She doesn’t look at herself as a stereotypical form of a woman. She doesn’t use her body to be beautiful, she uses it as a statement. I respect that, because I think that everyone needs to be a little bit like her, and reshape how women are viewed in society. She doesn’t look at expressing herself the same way normal society would view women, and makeup, and beauty. It was all about re-approaching makeup and using things differently just ’cause. It might not even be super pretty, it’s just different.
Glamour: To me it was almost about disobedience, and breaking free of the norms of what you’re supposed to do.
KC: There’s rebellion there for sure, absolutely. And I think that was her thing—she had earrings that were penises covered in diamonds, you know? She was all about pushing the limits and making sure people noticed what she was trying to say. I appreciated her fierce fearlessness. She just wakes up, throws something on, paints something on her face, puts a bindi on and goes out the door. She’s constantly on the go, and she’ll change her makeup throughout the day. There’s a scene [where] they’re at a bar and she’s putting stickers on her hand as they’re talking. She’s constantly vibing on her look, because she’s constantly changing as well.
She knows what she wants. She’s very direct and honest, and she’s not passive, which is what this culture [teaches women] to be. I think that’s changing. I do hope people see this and look at Detroit, and go, ‘That’s the kind of the archetype I want to reflect, because she’s a strong woman and she doesn’t take any shit.’ I want people to look at this as a way of approaching life differently, and being risk takers. In general, just being a female in this lifetime, I think it’s good for women to have these different archetypes that are breaking out of the mold of women being expected to look a certain way. Women for thousands of years have been controlled by men, and that needs to stop.
PHOTO: Annapurna Pictures
Glamour: It seems like the idea of layers and special meaning was really important to the character. Blending all those influences must have been a challenge, especially drawing on other cultures with the bindi. How did you toe that line? Detroit is fearless, but appropriation is such an issue these days.
KC: What I like about Detroit and her approach with these things is that it’s like reassessing and reusing the things that we usually look at these cultures with. With the bindis, we had put bindis on her hands, on her nails, she’d have a bindi. There were these cool pieces on her hands, and I think it’s her way of re-approaching it. It goes back to how cultures look at beauty, how they express themselves. I think it’s a way of re-celebrating things in a new light. I think that was her mission. It’s not about misusing a culture’s influence, but it’s about recreating, re-exciting, re-celebrating it in a new way. If anything, someone would look at her and go, oh that’s different, look at that. Or, that’s kind of strange, and maybe does confuse me or frustrate me. But it’s not caring about what somebody thinks, and that’s always been her purpose.
Glamour: In terms of seeing things in a new light, the movie takes plausible ideas about things that are happening, like working conditions, and unionizing for wealth redistribution, and takes them to the next level. How did that translate through in the beauty choices?
KC: I think it’s a wake up call for people, that everything this movie expresses is just an accentuated version of what we live with everyday. It’s not far away. You can get caught up in all the glam, and money, all the things the world thinks that we need, but those aren’t the things that we need. It’s insane where we are politically as a culture, as America right now. It is a satire, and it’s sort of shoved in your face what the world really is. This film reminds me of The Handmaid’s Tale, which is another show that makes you think, “this could happen and it’s not that far off.”
I hope in general, it breaks the mold of expectations with makeup and how people look. Go home and be a little more experimental and take more risks, that’s definitely a message. I hope any woman who sees this film goes, “Hey, I can do that, and it doesn’t matter how old I am or what I do.” Be willing to take risks with yourself; be willing to push your own limits. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone will absolutely be a case of learning and experience, and that’s the only way you grow as a person.
PHOTO: Peter Prato / Annapurna Pictures
Glamour: Lastly, we couldn’t discuss Detroit’s makeup and not talk products. Which ones were essential to her look?
KC: I used a lot of Make Up For Ever artistry palettes and foundation; plus a bunch of LimeCrime lipstick, which they have in all these different wild colors. We also relied heavily on Glossier. I used its Boy Brow on Tessa. Even in her most nude moments, her brows were always thick and defined and dark, even if she had blond hair with different colors in it. I also used Anastasia Beverly Hills powder sometimes to begin her brow a little bit. She wore a lot of the Generation G lipstick in Leo—it’s her favorite color. When her eyes were more intense I’d keep her lips pretty natural.
And then I was a frequent at Michael’s craft supply store for stickers, jewelry, flowers, and feathers. Things that have different textures, like glitters, shimmers, and foil—anything to just put on her that would be different. I really liked using a lot of these millennial brands, which are a little more simple, girl-on-the-go makeup. I felt like that reflected Detroit.
