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Meet the teenage ‘beauty boys’ coming for the cosmetics industry

Linda J. Picard

In March of 2019, 17-year-old Elliot Ceretti walked into his local convenience store with a couple of friends. He had been re-watching the 10th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and one of the show’s drag queens, Aquaria, had inspired an unfamiliar but exciting longing in Ceretti.

He loaded his basket with the cheapest makeup products he could find, and a glue stick to glue down his brows. When he got home that night, he waited until his mother and sister were asleep and locked himself in the bathroom, applying makeup like he had seen on the show. That night, he brought Ella Souflee, his drag persona, to life for the first time.

He went on like this for four months, sneaking into the bathroom after lights out to become Ella Souflee, until one day his mother walked into his room while he was in drag. She was surprised, but supportive,

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Are face masks wiping away the simple joy of cosmetics?

Linda J. Picard

“Lipstick is the best cosmetic there is,” Joan Collins once observed, shrewdly. Alas, not so much anymore – not now, when face masks are covering the lower half of our faces.

It could mean the end of lipstick as we know it. For millennia, lip cosmetics have been one of the ways for women and men to express themselves, to lift their spirits, to make their face stand out in the crowd.

Now we’re contemplating another unhappy consequence of coronavirus: the possibility that face masks will wipe away the simple joys of lipstick. 

Perish the thought, say lipstick lovers and cosmetic makers, nervously eyeing sales figures expected to fall this year, maybe as much as 11% according to one market prediction.

Lipstick fan Maya Allen, 27, the digital beauty editor for Marie Claire, whose lipstick collection tops 200, says there’s no doubt the pandemic in general and face

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Read Time : 1 Minutes

Are facemasks wiping away the simple joy of cosmetics?

Linda J. Picard
YSL lipsticks on display at a Sephora in in Los Angeles in 2018.
YSL lipsticks on display at a Sephora in in Los Angeles in 2018.

“Lipstick is the best cosmetic there is,” Joan Collins once observed, shrewdly. Alas, not so much anymore – not now when face masks are covering the lower half of our faces.

It could mean the end of lipstick as we know it. For millennia, lip cosmetics have been one of the ways for women and men to express themselves, to lift their spirits, to make their face stand out in the crowd.

Now we’re contemplating another unhappy consequence of coronavirus: the possibility that face masks will wipe away the simple joys of lipstick for the foreseeable future. 

Perish the thought, say lipstick lovers and cosmetic makers, nervously eyeing sales figures expected to fall this year, maybe as much as 11% according to one market prediction.

Lipstick fan Maya Allen, 27, the digital beauty editor for

… Read More