Literary Thoughts on the New Makeup Line Dear Dahlia

vor 3 years

A dark lady tries out a full-face fairy fantasy.

I am very much into the darkness.

My makeup routine involves daily dark lips. If there is eye shadow, it is red. If I am going out, a dot to the side of my eye. I like severity. Drama. Dark romance. FEAR!

During the turning of the year, when I found myself with a bit of alone time and an inescapable, innate sense of guilt at binging TV shows, I began reading the 16th century English epic poem The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. For those still reading this post, I adore your sense of curiosity and acceptance, thank you.

The Faerie Queene is an allegorical tale meant to examine different virtues, to question them, and to push them forward. My favorite character is of course Acrasia, the seductress of knights. She is an archetype used through many other tales, including a John Keats poem ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci.’ She is a powerful amazon woman. She is bisexual. She resides in a ‘bower of bliss,’ a sexual utopia of delight. LOVE her.

Anyway, there are a number of girls and women taking the form of fairies and queens and virgins and female knights to choose from as your favorite within the pages of this book. My usual delight in the dark turned a bit more fantasy-oriented in a different direction. I have turned my chin from the dungeon dominatrixes to ogle the garden nymphs for a little while. It’s nice over here. And then, as if by magic, the day I returned to the office with my hair in midsommar braids, a beautiful marbled box awaited me on my desk, from a lovely new makeup line called Dear Dahlia.

Dear Dahlia is a newly released luxury vegan makeup line from South Korea. The packaging and the shades are incredibly girly, with names for the pallets ranging from Tea Party to Secret Garden. Many shades of pinks, many delicate nudes, lots of glitters and shimmers. No intimidating colors or contours to be found. On any other month, I would have shrieked in horror. But they launched in Germany at a good time! My secret garden fantasies are being realized! Today I am wearing a liquid eyeshadow named ‘ Paradise Shine Eye Sequins .’ It’s super glossy (but not sticky) and it looks like I slept in an English garden and was awoken to a shower of dew drops gracing me.A colleague commented that I look well rested. Thank you! I’m not!

I am really into this Dear Dahlia line. I think it is very sweet. It is indeed for a specific kind of make up wearer who prefers the tame, the buildable, the glow, the blush, the gloss, but I like that they have stuck to their initial inspiration rather than trying to appeal to all. It makes the Experience more special, as if I am being spoken to directly and that my fantasies are being understood.

As a plus, the products are vegan. I personally do not mind beeswax in my lipstick or horse hair in my powder brushes, but I am incredibly conscious of what I put on my face and where it comes from. This commitment on their behalf takes out a lot of the guesswork on my end. They also enrich their makeup with ingredients such as dahlia flower extract, shea butter, and an array of natural oils (argan, jojoba, sweet almond: I am a big promoter of oils on the skin!) At times I fall wary of the vegan ethos, because it means there is then more room for chemicals. With Dear Dahlia, this is not the case. Thank you!

All in all, I recommend this line. I recommend the book! I especially recommend both at the same time. Catch you behind the rose bush, babes.

If interested in trying out your own Faerie Queen looks, you can find Dear Dahlia products on their site and they are also carried in Douglas stores around Germany