We’re back with another episode of The Review of Mess: a podcast collaboration between The Review of Beauty (by me, Jessica DeFino) and I <3 Mess (a fashion newsletter from Emily Kirkpatrick).

Today we’re talking about: Our new book club!, period blood as a fashion statement (or protest) [4:55], Kim Kardashian’s Elizabeth Taylor cosplay [10:45], Revlon’s inane lip gloss collab with Guy Fieri [19:26], the panopticon of surveillance culture by way of the Coldplay cheating scandal [26:30], heat damage is the hot new hair trend [38:30], Hailey Bieber’s perioral dermatitis [42:10], The Battle of Versailles’ impact on the modeling industry [47:25], Labubu as the embodiment of Sianne Ngai’s aesthetic theory of cuteness [59:00], Schiaparelli’s unsettling beating heart dress [1:13:38], and frozen cod as skincare [1:20:35]. Plus more!

Media we mentioned: The Lowbrow Book Club [Substack], So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed [Jon Ronson], So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed review [The Guardian], The Battle of Versailles [Robin Givhan], Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting [Sianne Ngai]

About the podcast: The Review of Mess is a podcast by Jessica DeFino and Emily Kirkpatrick that takes a critical look at the dregs of pop culture. Jessica is the writer behind The Review of Beauty, which has been called the newsletter “the beauty industry fears,” and Emily is the creator of I <3 Mess, a weekly roundup of the best of the worst celebrity fashion. Together, they dissect the biggest and dumbest celebrity happenings every month and give their unfiltered opinion on everything going on in the world of fashion and beauty.

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About the theme music: The Review of Mess theme song is “Hot Mess” by Carly Lind. Find more about Carly here and listen to her music here.

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