Who’s going to see Janelle Monae on her Dirty Computer Tour in Portland in June, you ask?  At an open air concert?  With a group of 20 fierce and feminist dance friends? Who dance to Janelle Monae weekly?*

Oh, just me. And Kellee!

It’s not like I’m excited or anything. I mean, just because I spent an hour on Saturday playing around with a makeup look for the concert ….

(Silver and iridescent Peacock-colored Lorac shadows, black Mac Penultimate liquid liner, my new Bare Minerals blush in Golden Gate, a nude Stila lip in Perla, Bliss contour palette)

I’m sure this is just the first of many such experimentations leading up to the concert, thanks to the ridiculous yet beautiful Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean eyeshadow palette I ended up with, after trading it with Miyako for a Smashbox palette last year, that has 20 vivid pirate-y shades in blues, greens, reds, silver, black, and more (there’s an old Makeup Monday post about that!)

Anyway, as always happens on a cyclical basis, I’ve gotten bored with the wonderful products I’ve been happily using for months, and I’m back deep in experiment phase.

For one thing, I’ve jumped on the CONTOUR bandwagon finally, and I’ll have a post on that soon, once my new products arrive from Sephora!

And, I learned a new upper-waterline eyeliner technique which is totally cool!

And, I’ve started on some new skincare products that I’ll report back about soon.

All this to say, makeup continues to be my delight and my solace in times that seem ever more despairing.  I mean, when did the smoky eye become a political issue, fer cryin’ out loud, when the wearer of that smoky eye spends her days lying, deceiving, and defending those who would destroy the Constitution? Looks like our political correspondents care more about making the powerful comfortable than holding them accountable.  George Orwell said it: “the further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”

Before I go: a little secret promotion for everyone who read this far:  comment substantively ON FACEBOOK on this post or on MakeupMonday – related themes in general, and I’ll enter your name in a drawing for a set of unused/barely tried products from my makeup and skin care drawer!  These are the products I’ve gotten in sets or Ipsy bags and never used, or used once and set aside. Brands include: Tarte, Urban Decay, It Cosmetics, Sabbatical Beauty, and more!   Fine print: it must be a substantial comment (ie, not just a “nice!” or “I love it!”) related to makeup  – mine, yours, somebody else’s – on Facebook. In a week I’ll collect the names, and do a random draw, and send a little box of goodies to the winner!

*Here we are in all our glory!

*My regular intro:

Welcome to #MakeupMonday, my weekly series on makeup; academic and postacademic job market and productivity posts will continue on Tuesday and Friday as usual.

Here is my weekly reminder:  I will not engage with makeup-shaming here or on any Facebook or Twitter comment threads. I support your right to not wear makeup, and anyone who dislikes makeup, disapproves of makeup, or wants to argue that no academic woman should be judged on the basis of makeup (which nobody is claiming anyway), I suggest you come back for my other posts on other topics.

For previous posts, see the following:

• Yes This Post Is About Long-Wear Lipcolor
• Welcome to Makeup Monday
• Why Makeup, Why Now?
• Face Makeup, The Basics
• Face Makeup, Getting Fancy
• All About Eyes
• Brows Get Their Own Post, Because Of Course They Do
• More on Lipsticks and Introducing Shae
• Big News on the Lipcolor Front!
• Travel Tips
• Introducing Sailor-J: The Makeup Blogger U Need When Ur Exposing Sexual Harassment in the Academy
• The Makeup Tool I Can’t Do Without
• Christmas Makeup
• Skin Care as Coping Mechanism and Catalyst
• How I Got My Lashes Back
• The Full-Beat Face
• Updates From Karen
• The Most Important Makeup Product-A Guest Post
• The Best Under-eye Product
• Beyonce’s Makeup Artist, Sir John
• A Great Lipcolor Sample From Sephora