Made-Up: A True Story of Beauty Culture Under Late Capitalism, by Daphne B.; translated by Alex Manley. Coach House Books, 2022

This book turned out to be not quite what I expected; a collection of essays, it’s not just about beauty culture but a condemnation of capitalism in general. Now, this is not an angry screed that ‘others’ the people who follow beauty culture; the author spends hours watching Youtube beauty videos and lots of money buying makeup. She even obsessively watches vlogs by people she actively dislikes because of racist statements they’d made in the past. She watches the vloggers who have had scandals- scandals which increased the vlogger’s view, and, thus, their paychecks. She watches them not just for the makeup hints and buying suggestions, but because she finds them soothing. And, I have to admit, I get that. If I had the time, I might find myself doing the same, because despite my old hippie anti-capitalism views, I love makeup and beauty culture. B. has found a way to take that big contraction and make it… okay. (I don’t spend tons of money on beauty stuff, though)

The writing itself is lovely, which is surprising because it’s a translation. But I guess that shouldn’t really surprise me; B. is a poet and a translator herself. (I have no idea why someone else translated this book, originally written in French). I give it four stars.