Lipstick Display!

Originally I started off with a maze like idea, inspired by the above picture. My original model was done with foam core. Unfortunately, thanks to some rain and a shuttle ride...it didn't make it. But i'm not too heartbroken about that one. The model was very bulky and confusing (kinda like a maze...should've guessed that one). In the end, I thought it was more distracting then artisitc. Instead of framing my lipsticks, it seemed to really take away from the product I was selling.


So I began thinking again, I was reminded by a conversation I had had on the phone with my mother the previous day. She was telling me how not to get so caught up in an alice and wonderland theme and not too go all out and start making everything "topsy turvey"....and I thought "what a great idea, a topsey turvey model" Literally in a minute I had this sketch drawn and was immediately obsessed with the idea.

Then of course came the oh so obvious question of how to design this and with what. I already knew that I wanted a ledge all the way around each tier of my model, so when you came to the sharp edge on the high side, I could make a small pocket for my lipstick to sit in. Originally, I thought about using foam but since I'd had no previous experience usin foam or sculpting of any kind, I decided to instead make a wire model and paper mache.

At the time, this sounded like a really awesome idea, I'd have a light model and it was still relatively sturdy. That is of  course until I was reminded that I hadn't paper mached since I was 8 and for good reason. My model was very delicate...too delicate and the wire mesh model didn't allow for the clean edges I had really wanted. And of course half of it collapsed by the time it actually dried (i'm really hoping this is not a pattern)

Any way, I'm convinced that chipboard is the way to go and yes I'm doing it cake style. Treating each tier as its own seperate piece and then I'll be able to stack them all up. Since I still want a smooth surface, which I obviosuly won't get with curved chipboard. I'm going to experiment with plaster of paris or heavier paper (maybe oaktag) or something similar

A Box is a Box...but why?!?

So I spent this past week catching up on some thinking and really getting a good grip on where I wanted my box to be and what I wanted to become. After some digging into my subconscious, I returned to the question "Why lace?"...simple yet there was something aparent that I was missing and it was frankly driving my crazy. While on yet another visit to the fabric store, the gentlemen who owns the shop asked me if I sew and that's why I have such an eye for fabric. Well of course that was it, not only did I sew but both of my grandmothers and most importantly my great grandmother made lace.

Now, without going into my whole family history since it's completely unnecessary, I'll cut right to the chase. My great grandmothers lace is treated like the Holy Grail...in fact if my mother or grandmother found the holy grail I don't think they'd give it up for that lace. There is not too many pieces left, but what they have they covet and if i could show you, you'd see why. The attention to detail is unimaginable. How one woman could have the paitence and talent to create something like that I might never understand. But there is one thing i know, it's that attention to detail that I want for my lipstick.

It's that detail I would want a customer to feel while walking from the store. Not just that they had bought a great lipstick but that they'd walked away with something just for them. After all the goal is "Glamour for All"! And what better way to inforce you're own inner beauty then the package that it comes home in.

My first idea had been to spray paint on plastic...yes the design was transferred and it was beautiful but still not the box I wanted to give away my lipstick in

 My second idea was to glue the lace drectly to the plastic box which turned out to be even more gorgeous but for some reason still wasn't sitting well with me. So I began thinking but why a box, when boxes are used for so many other things, I have to make it more personal



So then came my first satchel (for lack of a better word) I'd kept the top and bottom still hard with disguised plastic but the design just didn't flow like I wanted it too and the closure was definitely an issue.

So I reverted back to my old ways, merging the two by making a wooden box with the spray paint lace overlay. Painting the inside crimson (like my lips from the advertisement) and having matching lace spill out into a draw string. I loved this box but somehow the two elements seemed to be competeing with one another.

 And so my final model was born. One beautiful drawstring pouch that allowed for my product to peak out from underneath. The lace (dyed my gunmetal blue with acrylic ink) didn't compete with the case, instead It simply allowed the product to stannd for itself. The lace only a small reminder of the beauy in "Glamour for All"



The label came from a makeup deisgn I'd seen in my research of MAC cosmetics. I liked the edgier feel of the label and felt it to be in true character of what MAC would have done. But that's not all...

On the back, I simply could stop myself from adding this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson "Though we travel the world to find beauty, we must carry it with us or we find it not"....If this didn't singlehandly describe "Glamour for All" Then I don't know what would. This is the exact thought I want every woman who enters my store to leave with because glamour should extend far beyond the bounds of a makeup studio. I see the glamour in what some women would describe as their "ordinary" features. My hope is only that they leave knowing that makeup only enhances the beauty they already have and I'd like for their little lace case to be a constant reminder of their inner glamour girl