Kara McGrath

A Substack newsletter and community for Beauty & Wellness Lovers.

Pretty vessels, unique scents, and throws that will fill an entire house.

The toys, treats, and grooming tools every dog and cat lover on your list will actually find useful.

Olive & June's latest launch might finally make me give up regular polish.

Undereye concealer may be dead, but blush is still having its best summer ever. In particular, cream and liquid formulas seem to be reigning supreme. The latest launch to join that royal court is Hourglass Unreal Liquid Blush, and, folks? I am pledging my loyalty to its crown. If I’m being honest, this wasn’t a hard sell. Liquid is my preferred blush format and Hourglass remains one of my favorite luxury makeup brands. But the product far exceeded my already-high expectations. There are, in my o…

It’s not even Memorial Day yet and I am exhausted by the sunscreen discourse. We’ve already had our annual bout of a celebrity declaring they’ve sworn off SPF, this time under the guidance of a self-proclaimed wellness guru who cites our ancestors’ lack of Banana Boat as evidence that we don’t need the stuff. (As many have pointed out since, those ancestors were dying before the average onset age of skin cancer.) And this is coming on the heels of increasingly high-profile complaints that Americ…

There are plenty of “rules” about getting dressed and wearing makeup I picked up in the late nineties/early aughts that I’ve spent the last decade and a half trying to unlearn. (You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me etc., etc.) While I no longer feel compelled to add a belt to every outfit, I stand staunchly by the color theory that drove Almay’s Y2K-era Intense i-Color shadow palettes—which means my green eyes and I are big supporters of the burgundy mascara trend. Specif…

Mourning jewelry first found its way into western culture in the 16th century, when it became fashionable to wear memento mori (meaning “remember that you must die”) pieces that were decorated with “skeletons, coffins, skulls, worms, and crossbones,” historian Ann Louise Luthi wrote in her book Sentimental Jewellery. Eventually, the public moved away from these general reminders of their own inevitable demise and on to pieces that memorialized specific individuals who had already died. And what…

Bloomeffects Tulip Tint Lip & Cheek Balm creates a wash of color that’s subtle but super radiant. Allure’s Kara McGrath reviews the Allure Best of Beauty-winning coral tint.

Being engaged is exhausting. I’ve been officially affianced since last fall, and every moment of trying to plan a wedding has further convinced me that I’m a person who enjoys attending them, but would rather pull my French manicured nails out one by one than host a ceremony of my own. However, even if my partner and I do end up going the elopement route, there is one tradition I plan on following: picking a special wedding day perfume. “Fragrance has the power to evoke emotion in people and sce…