The Truth About Butter Biscuit Blondes

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). For this installment, we invited Mother Jones reporter Inae Oh to talk about “In Your Face: The Brutal Aesthetics of MAGA,” her recent investigation into Mar-a-Lago Face, conservative makeup, and more.

Today we’re talking about: A potential live podcast event in NYC!, wired garments that simulate wind [5:10] and makeup that mimics weather [12:50], the irony of Allure joining Substack [13:50], the red carpet’s pleaser problem [21:25], Jacquemus and Louis Vuitton are launching beauty lines [30:22], why all beauty is “fast beauty” [33:15], Kim Kardashian covers Perfect magazine with her Tesla robot [40:40], a deep-dive into MAGA aesthetics with Inae Oh [56:00], Meghan Markle’s messy ShopMy account [1:26:40], Mindy Kaling’s ugly Kelly bag bling [1:30:50], and “butter biscuit blonde” highlights [1:34:00]. Plus more!

Media we mentioned: “In Your Face: The Brutal Aesthetics of MAGA” [Mother Jones], “Why ‘Allure’ joined Substack” [Embedded], “long live the female founder” [as seen on], “Would you eat at a reSTOREant?” [Shop Rat], “Elisa’s ‘Elle Decor’ Era & Kim K’s Skky Fall” [Puck], “Influencer Brands Often Fail. Does Meghan Markle's Stand a Chance?” [Back Row]

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.

Subscribe to receive future podcast posts in your inbox:

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.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jessicadefino.substack.com/subscribe