All The Makeup That MAC Can Make

A LOT of updates, plus a playlist for when it gets dark at 4pm 💄

Nov 09, 2023

It’s the first newsletter of the season! 🍂☕️ My highlight reel since the last issue: played a Nicstalgia [Spotify] DJ set at FEST, met Geri Halliwell Horner (!!!) at her book signing, was appointed to FWB’s Community Council (shoutout to Drew for writing a great piece about the process), contributed to Metalabel’s Collaboration Cookbook, read Britney’s memoir, dressed up as DUMP HIM-era Britney as well as a 50s Girl with my sister — a callback to the one halloween as kids where we dressed in coordination, and listened to 1989 (Taylor’s Version) for the first time in its entirety.

Looking forward! In November, we’ll have 3 Nicstalgia interview episodes. After that, I’m going to play with integrating a new format. Think of it like the happy medium between a YouTube deep dive and a fun TikTok PowerPoint night. I have a few topics I’m really excited to dig into – our tagline isn’t deep conversations about superficial things for nothing. Will also do a holiday small business gift guide, per usual, post-Thanksgiving. (Check out last year’s unhinged Christmas Issue if you haven’t already.)

Vulnerability Corner: On a personal note, as a creator/writer/personality who has consistently put out photo, audio, video, and written content on [insert social media platform du jour here] for the better part of a decade, I have gone through a RANGE of emotions that comes with tying your identity and self-worth to your public-facing presence. Having your sanity and artistic integrity tested incessantly by the cultural and social pressures of hobby monetization, identity financialization, attention maintenance, and the general dog-and-pony show of social media is tiring. I’ve been over it. Luckily I’ve started meeting and collaborating with people who feel the same way. After spending 2023 navigating where to go from here, I’ve finally gained some clarity. Now, I’m more open than ever as to how creativity, expression, connection, and fun manifest in my work and in day-to-day life.

All’s to say that people have been asking me in increasing frequency how they can support. So when you see the little section below, it represents my enthusiasm and faith in what I produce and my commitment to creating exciting things (i.e. my Physical Media Renaissance™ and Media Ephemerality projects!) without feeling guilty about the fact that money is the reason we exist. Anyway, this letter will continue to be free, and atm I don’t wanna paywall anything. Thank you as always for reading, I appreciate you! 🙏🤸🏻‍♀️

Support Nicstalgia by pledging a monthly or annual subscription for less than the cost of a Beanie Baby in 1997. (Patti the Platypus not included.)

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🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia

Tiffany Tarazi is featured on this week’s episode of Nicstalgia. She shares her journey from second-gen makeup artist to product developer to developing Nosta Beauty. We chat about home videos from the 90s vs. now, capturing both milestones and mundane aspects of day-to-day life for personal use vs. performative nature of social media (and how that changes once you become a parent yourself).

What makeup trend is coming back? What 90s makeup trend was Tiffany’s favorite? How does she make makeup that’s glittery and nostalgic yet doesn’t make me break out into hives like i did with Bath and Body Works glitter? We dive into all of the above, plus how doing our makeup has evolved over time, the Laguna Beach/Hollister-era self tanner epidemic, our hair removal nightmares, and whose makeup Tiffany would love to do on their world tour.

Watch/listen: YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts

📲 I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World

My fav things from the internet rn:
Super excited to be interviewed for Molly’s Music Moots™ column, where guests recommend a song and she reviews it. I had to choose “Venerdì” by my favorite Italian pop star Baby K, which Molly loved as an international representation of “fake rock”…or should we say, “Rock-l'œil”?

Venerdì is an unapologetically bratty Italian pop song about a Friday night of pure debauchery. My favorite line translates to, “Be yourself, but not too much; people are judging.”
It was my anthem as a 20-something in downtown Manhattan — resisting and resenting society’s expectations, knowing you’ll make mistakes but being generally indifferent to the consequences, feigning emotional availability, and becoming your own kind of imperfect hero.

Had a great conversation with Edmond of the virtual wardrobe platform Esoteric for WORLD OF ESO! We talk about nostalgia, everything being "-core" on TikTok being like the Mean Girls cafeteria tables, trend cycles, identity signifiers, and my 3 most cherished clothing items!!!

I was absolutely obsessed with Dirt’s Requiem for the DVD menu piece, as a highlight of my Physical Media Renaissance™ project has revisiting the bygone relic and essential digital worldbuilding touchpoint that is the DVD menu. Some of my personal faves include Sugar & Spice, Clueless, Mean Girls, and A Cinderella Story.

Also from Dirt (if you’re not subscribed, what are you doing?), I loved Our convenient reality, about reality shows x meta-narratives.

"Somehow, among all of it, we have convinced ourselves that we can know everything, in a desperate refusal of the fact that we can’t know anything at all."

I recently took a cross-country Delta flight, and noticeably, Perfetti Sconosciuti, my favorite Italian movie, was replaced by Perfectos Desconocidos, its Spanish remake. It actually holds the Guinness World Record for most remakes! This article explaining its worldwide cultural resonance (and why there is no English-language version 🥴) is super interesting. As someone who had a collection of Around The World Barbies, you will not be surprised to discover that I had a blast watching this compilation of Perfect Strangers movie trailers. The people have spoken re: the best Delta movies.

💿 Hey Mr. DJ, Put a [Playlist] On

Playlist of the week:
I have been many things – a dancer, karaoke star, host, bra model on local television, call center telemarketer (we got to wear Britney-esque headsets) – but I have never been a DJ. Curating playlists is one of my favorite pastimes, and nothing makes me happier than making a playlist and knowing what songs my companion will like.

When I was approached to be a poolside [Spotify] DJ at FEST this summer, I was like, ummmm YES ABSOLUTELY!!! So I compiled this bomb playlist of 90s-00s songs (naturally) and had the best time ever dancing and singing with my friends. A couple even came and found me across campus later because they wanted the Spotify link 🥲 (Can you tell my love language is words of affirmation??) So although it’s getting dark VERY early, and that makes me very sad, you can throw on this playlist while you’re cooking dinner in pitch blackness and mentally transport yourself to a summertime Nicstalgia Pool Party in a California desert.

All The Makeup That MAC Can Make

A LOT of updates, plus a playlist for when it gets dark at 4pm 💄

🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia

📲 I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World

💿 Hey Mr. DJ, Put a [Playlist] On

🧨 Spice Up Your Life

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