Gucci Beauty isn’t afraid to cause a stir. When the brand relaunched under creative director Alessandro Michele last spring, it put out bold ’80s style ads that not only showcased its beautiful new lipsticks, but model Dani Miller’s imperfect teeth. The comments section was a mix of comments both trolling and praising the images, and almost a year later the brand launched its first-ever mascara, which once again had the internet divided.
One of the images in the new campaign for Gucci’s Mascara L’Obscur features a close up on Miller’s eyelashes, which are covered in a clumpy coat of mascara to the point of looking like spider legs. I’m personally extremely into it, but the comments are divisive. While there are tons of heart, prayer hand, and fire emojis, there are also comments accusing the brand of joking, telling it to “rethink the concept,” and spider emojis galore.
Personally, I find Gucci to be one of the most interesting makeup brands in the current market. I love the subversive advertising paired with the traditionally feminine packaging, and it feels like the brand is actually doing something fresh and cool in an oversaturated space. I’m also obsessed with mascara, so I was excited to put L’Obscur to the test and see what all the fuss is about.
It’s impossible to talk about Mascara L’Obscure without mentioning the packaging. The pink and gold is so beautiful and feminine, it’s extremely heavy so it truly feels expensive, and I love the way the etched cap matches some of the lipstick cases. The brush is much smaller than I expected, with tiny rubber bristles and a pointed tip that’s designed to grab the smallest lashes at the top and bottom corners of your eyes, which also lengthens and separates, so you can get a minimal look or really load it on.
Gucci’s global makeup artist Thomas de Kluyver likes to use the brush to create two distinct looks, which he demonstrated on the brand’s Instagram. For the Classic Look—traditional length and separation—he recommends holding the brush horizontally and sweeping it through your lashes.
Ever since Lady Gaga floored critics and audiences alike with her performance in A Star Is Born last year, the world’s been waiting to see what movie she’ll do next. And now we know: Deadline reports the pop icon is slated to star in a film about the Gucci family, specifically the murder of the founder’s grandson.
Gaga will play Patrizia Reggiani, who was convicted in 1998 for arranging the murder of her husband, Maurizio Gucci. She was released from prison in 2016 after serving 18 years.
Ridley Scott, who’s directed several critically acclaimed movies, like The Martian and Gladiator, will helm this project. If his previous work is any indication, we’re in for another awards-season blockbuster. (Scott himself has amassed four Oscar nominations, while Lady Gaga scored a nomination for best actress and a best original song win for “Shallow,” the central tune in A Star Is Born.)
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Not much is known about the Gucci project at this time, but here are a few details.
The plot: From a script by Roberto Bentivegna based on Sara Gay Forden’s book, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed, the movie will center on the rise of the Gucci empire and its foray into the corporate world under CEO Domenico De Sole and creative director Tom Ford. Interspersed with this is the story of Reggiani, who had two daughters with Maurizio Gucci (he left her in 1985 for a younger woman). According to Deadline, Reggiani had a brain tumor removed, which her children blame for her actions involving Maurizio’s murder. But the tabloids weren’t as kind to the matriarch, dubbing her a scorned “Black Widow.”
The cast: Lady Gaga is the only actor attached to the project right now. That will surely change soon.
The moment my son arrived into the world, my attention was immediately diverted from the excruciating pain of childbirth. I could only focus on the new little life that was thrust onto my chest. The anticipation of his first breath and cry, the excitement to know his birth weight and length, and the curiosity to see the amount of hair on his head far outweighed anything going on with me after he exited my body.
When I left the delivery room, the shift from self to other continued as I entered the new parent game of monitoring the amount and frequency of my son’s excrement, how long he ate from each breast, and the progress of his umbilical cord healing. His needs were far greater than mine, and I willingly traded my usual self-care regimen—meditation, exercise, etc.—for changing diapers and singing lullabies.
“Self care” has become a polarizing term as of late, but it’s long been a significant part of my routine. As a journalist and an academic, I was used to rewarding myself with rest and luxury after an intense period of work. Last year, right before I knew I was pregnant, I bought myself a Louis Vuitton Neverfull after writing 250 pages for my master’s thesis in a shortened semester of two months. For me, indulgence has always been tied to great effort. Shopping has accompanied every milestone, from graduations to relationship goals to promotions. While I wouldn’t turn down a spa day, I tend to favor practicing a more tangible and lasting form of self-care that reminds me of a memorable achievement. My motto was “work hard, shop hard.”
But on the fourth of July, everything changed. As soon as my son was born, attending to my wants and needs became a very distant memory as the pressure to be a perfect parent mounted. Everyone had an opinion about everything on parenting and we were expected to be present and prepared 100 percent of the time. My husband was on paternity leave for two months, and fear and doubt clouded both of our minds. The first few weeks were a period of cruel adjustment. Gone were days of sleep, balance, and tranquility. I couldn’t justify taking a shower for five minutes by myself let alone think about buying a reward for gestating and birthing a human. We were just trying to survive.
I swapped out designer shoulder bags for the padded straps of a baby carrier and traded my La Perlas for snap-down nursing bras stuffed with absorbent pads.
I talked to a few of my mom friends who could relate. Kelly Dzioba, a stay-at-home mom to 10-month-old Mackenzie, describes, “You’re sleep deprived and unsure of your decisions. You’re lonely because your friends without children can’t identify. There was the transition of being a working woman who takes care of myself to having someone rely on me.”
I thought I was prepared, but I was startled by the transition into motherhood. I swapped out designer shoulder bags for the padded straps of a baby carrier and traded my La Perlas for snap-down nursing bras stuffed with absorbent pads. Desperate to shop for new things to complement the new me, I consulted the pediatrician: he warned us of harmful germs that festered in enclosed public spaces, so malls were out of the question. We were sequestered inside our apartment and I started to lose touch with who I was. Christina Sarangoulis, mom to 4-month-old Leo, sums it up: “After I had him, I spent a month in sweatpants and a T-shirt and ate whatever. It was some serious solitary confinement.”
But the initial anxiety and trepidation of caring for a newborn did pass. After the shock wore off, my husband asked me to pick out a piece of jewelry for my push present. If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase: “Push present” refers to a gift given to a new mother by her partner to celebrate her great effort in birthing their child. I chose a necklace with three diamonds in the shape of a triangle, a reminder of our new family of three. Travis Scott, on the other hand, bought Kylie Jenner a $1.4 million limited-edition Ferrari after she gave birth to baby girl Stormi last year. Scott’s push present made headlines, but they curiously didn’t mention what Kylie treated herself to after birthing Stormi. While it’s always nice to receive a gift, I think moms can feel empowered by choosing to celebrate and validate themselves after having a baby. I love my necklace and wear it proudly, but it wasn’t a gift I bought myself to acknowledge my own effort as I had regularly done before I became a mother.
Eventually, my husband went back to work and I navigated my way (still navigating, actually) through figuring out the balance between having child care, writing, and being a mom. After the baby’s vaccines, the doctor gave us the all-clear to go to mommy-and-me classes located in malls and shopping centers. My first car ride alone with the baby left me shaking and close to tears, but I got better with practice. Slowly, as I became accustomed to new routines and built confidence in myself as a mother, I began to look and feel more like who I was before my son came along. I started wearing clothes other than activewear, putting on a little bit of makeup, and shopping around the malls before the classes began. I also began developing the skill of discerning useful parenting advice from the well-intentioned but not so helpful.
Guilting voices compiled from baby books, television, and family members whispered, “how can you spend that much money on a purse when it could go towards a supply of diapers?”
Then, when the fanny pack trend exploded this season, I saw a window of opportunity to treat myself. A super extra-looking Gucci “belt bag” (as they’re now called) caught my eye, but I struggled with whether I should spend the nearly $1,000. As a new mom, it’s hard to justify any significant cost not associated with caring for your baby. There’s a concept of noble martyrdom in parenting: the delusion that the more you sacrifice yourself—your money, time, and sanity—the greater of a parent you are. Guilting voices compiled from baby books, television, and family members whispered, “how can you spend that much money on a purse when it could go towards a supply of diapers?”
But I just couldn’t get the Gucci purse off my mind. I looked at it repeatedly online and I went to the store to try it on multiple times, only to be deterred by price tag guilt. During the last excursion to the store, I asked a retail associate to take a picture of me wearing the belt bag. I rested one hand on the stroller’s edge. I popped my other arm up on my hip, highlighting the Gucci perched on my waist as the staff showered me with compliments. Both my son and I smiled at the photographer’s command. It felt so good to feel like me again.
PHOTO: Minhae Shim Roth
The author and her son, Maximillian
When I looked as the photo, I drowned out those judging parenting voices and justified that the bag would be my luxurious reward for the infinitely difficult work of creating, delivering, and raising a tiny human. It may sound silly, but buying that bag has helped reconcile the woman I was before with the mom I am now. “Work hard, shop hard” was my motto prior to mom life. And the hard work of having a baby shouldn’t be an exception to the rule. Not to mention, wearing it is helping me live out my cool mom dreams.
While a luxury purse was my way of treating myself, self-care for moms takes many different forms. My friend Julia Deshe, a former model and pilates instructor and mom to 6-month-old Bowie, indulges in high-end workout leggings from Ultracor: “They look kind of cool and work well when you’re going with your kid to the park, working out, or running errands all day. They make me look cute and feel like me.”
When their daughter turns 13 months, Kelly Dzioba and her husband are treating themselves to a couple’s trip to Hawaii. “We’ll go out and find incredible restaurants, go hiking through the rainforest, snorkeling, a helicopter tour of the Kauai coastline, lots of adventure,” she told me. “It’ll be both me and us time.”
And mom to 7-month-old Harrison and attorney Rachel Dapeer bought herself a Tiffany’s necklace. “I splurged and bought myself a necklace with my son’s initial. It makes me smile because it’s a constant reminder of what it’s meant to me to carry my son, and how lucky I am now to be his mom.”
When you become a new mother, you’re vulnerable and raw. It’s so easy to start feeling bad because of those dogmatic opinions from the multitude of mommy blogs, your parents or in-laws, or that random lady on the internet who says if you buy yourself a designer purse or high-end leggings, you’re a bad mom. Don’t listen to those voices. Choose to take care of yourself as a mom in whatever way you can and want. Choose to listen to your needs. Choose to love your child by loving and respecting yourself.
Next year, I’ll be a starting a Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley and freelancing while raising my 1-year old son with my husband. As more work and (possibly) more babies come along, I’ll need to get this self-care thing down to a science. But I’m not complaining. We moms deserve it.
Minhae Shim Roth is an essayist, journalist, and academic. She spends her time with her husband, Danny, and her son, Maximillian, in San Francisco.
A wise woman once said “I want all my clothes designer and I want someone else to buy ’em.” Unfortunately for most of us peasants, we aren’t pop icons like Kim Petras and cannot buy ourselves designer nor can we buy designer gifts for anyone else. Luckily even the most high-end of designers sell things that are somewhat affordable. They may not be the items that come to mind right away but they’re just as nice as anything else they sell and make great fancy gifts without the super fancy price tag.
See below for all the most affordable gifts from our favorite designers that you can get for your friend who wants someone else to buy ’em.
Makeup artist Gucci Westman’s glowy, is-she-or-isn’t-she-wearing-foundation signature look has made Jennifer Aniston and Kate Hudson longtime devotees. Now the vegetarian and mother of three is using her clean-living approach to inform her new makeup and skin care hybrid line, Westman Atelier. Bare-bones, the plot may sound familiar. Pat McGrath famously used her years of experience to craft her own line, as has a slew of models, makeup artists, and influencers—launching a makeup line is the hot new thing. But with our collective attention shifting to products free of chemicals, there’s room for a line that’s fresh, luxe, and kind to your skin. Ahead of the launch of her brand, which drops in May, we caught up with Westman to learn more about the products she uses to define her own distinct aesthetic, in the day to day and longterm.
Glamour: There are hundreds of new product lines out there. What makes yours different?
Gucci Westman: Bright, beautiful colors and incredible textures. My products have no silicones and are hyperconsciously crafted. I wanted them to melt into your skin. I have rosacea, so I wanted to do a foundation stick—I love the control of a stick—that was going to calm my skin down and work against redness.
Glamour: Have you always lived by a pared-back approach?
Gucci Westman: I spent my youth in the Swedish countryside, and my parents were super-duper hippies. Everything we ate, they made. Nothing was processed. My mother taught me to never wash my face with soap and to use olive oil and aloe to soothe it.
Glamour: How much time do you spend on your routine now?
Gucci Westman: Between makeup and skin care, 10 minutes. I like multitasking, so I exfoliate, then do a mask in the shower. I’m super into the SK-II Overnight Miracle Mask; it’s ridic. For makeup, Nars Bahama lip pencil or my blush in Petale are my signatures. And I wear my hair up with Odile Gilbert’s hair pin a lot.
Gucci Westman: The mole under my left eye. I tried to pick it off when I was little, but I couldn’t. Now I tell my kids it’s like an angel’s kiss, and it makes me feel nostalgic.
Glamour: What’s most beautiful to you in other women?
Gucci Westman: I like women with a distinct style. Like French women—so many of them look amazing and don’t overdo it. There’s a confidence that’s unspoken, a level of knowing when to stop. It’s just cool at any age.
She’s given us bops, she’s launched what’s arguably the best—or at least most inclusive—beauty collection of the year, and she was honored as a humanitarian for her charity work. So yeah, 2017 was good to Rihanna. But we should also never forget that Robyn Fenty is perhaps first and foremost a fashion icon, single-handedly capable of making us genuinely consider running out to buy a massive ruffled dress to wear with sneakers. The “Wild Thoughts” singer is back at it again, proving that her sock game is unparalleled, if occasionally unattainable.
The Internet lost its collective mind when the singer posted a picture Wednesday wearing Gucci knit socks that feature a crystal interlocking G pattern—as of publish time, her #OOTD post has almost 3 million likes and a close-up shot of the socks has more than 1 million likes. Oh, and the socks cost $1,340. Casual!
Rihanna paired the sparkly white socks with pointy white mules, a simple black slip dress, a high pony, an oversized puffer jacket, and, naturally, some reflective shades and a diamond choker. It’s only a matter of time before the Gucci socks sell out (yes, even at over a grand—the power of celeb influence is #real) so if you’re looking for a last-minute holiday splurge, well, it’s probably time to get shopping.
Also of note: that RiRi’s had such an impact on fashion this year that it was announced last month that she’s set to host the 2018 Met Gala in May alongside Amal Clooney and Donatella Versace, so again—Rihanna has unequivocally won 2017, even if she didn’t wear a pair of $1,340 socks like it’s no big thing.
