Face Value is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Each week I share a mix of beauty launches, explainers and articles that stick in my head. It’s a slower, calmer way to keep up with beauty – and a bit of a diary of what’s going on behind the scenes at mamabella.

[I first published this several years ago but times have changed! So I wanted to give it a refresh with some new faves. Enjoy!] While I totally believe in splurging when something is that good, I also get very excited to find an incredible product that won’t cause heart palpitations when you look at your bank statement. I put together this list of under…

For makeup artist Nouha Semmar, great makeup starts with great skin. Every glam look begins long before foundation or blush enters the picture. It starts with hydration, preparation, and understanding how to make skin look healthy, radiant, and alive on camera.

(Photo Credit: Instagram)

As a former beauty trends editor, it’s safe to say I’ve tried and tested my fair share of makeup products. But while I’ve discovered plenty of impressive formulas along the way, only a select few have become true repeat purchases. Think of the following as my personal makeup ‘hall of fame’ – that is, the products that h…

The most radiant makeup always begins with skin care. That’s just a fact.

Like all career journeys, my path to becoming a beauty founder is a twisting, non-linear route. Believe it or not, I wasn’t even that interested in makeup in high school and college, a time when many begin heavily experimenting with it. How, then, did I get to the place I’m at today, launching

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

The Imaginarium Convention sits at the Holiday Inn Louisville East every July. It is in its 13th year. It runs three days, July 17-19 in 2026, and it is not a comic-con — it is a working creatives convention with a film festival, a cosplay contest, and a guest list that leans toward authors, illustrators, indie filmmakers, and the people who actually bu…

Barco rolled out its HDR cinema spec this spring and the first theatrical exhibitors are already running it. For the studios, this is a projection story. For us, it's a continuity story we have not had to deal with at this brightness range before.

Three of the biggest names in studio film walked onto the Produced By Conference stage at Universal yesterday and said the same thing. Different words. Same point.

Ryan Condal sat on the ATX TV Festival stage in Austin Saturday and walked through the production scale on House of the Dragon Season 3. The numbers HBO let him say on the record: 314 shooting days, 1,500 crew, 2,500 props, 25 tons of propane, 23 stunt performers set on fire in a single take. The reporting frames it as a new record for one shot on telev…

The Pantages Theater replica at Universal Studios Florida played its last performance on Tuesday, May 12. Thirty-six years.

Variety reported this month that Damien Leone is setting up Tortures of the Damned with Sam Raimi producing through Ghost House Pictures. Leone is also finishing the script on Terrifier 4 and aiming for spring 2026 pre-production. David Howard Thornton expected back as Art. Lauren LaVera expected back as Sienna. And the next Leone movie after that has R…

Arjen Tuiten picked up a MUAHS Guild nomination for special makeup prosthetics on One Battle After Another. The job was Sean Penn as Colonel Lockjaw. Specifically the third act, after Lockjaw survives a horrific car crash and the audience has to read him as a man who lived through what just happened to him without it pulling them out of the movie.

Sinners. Terrifier 3. The Substance. Longlegs. Weapons. Smile. M3GAN. The Wayans came back to parody the films audiences could not stop quoting. Almost every one of them was a practical makeup FX showcase. That is the receipt working artists should be filing.

As someone who really lived in the trenches of full-coverage foundation and the most matte lipstick imaginable, I have to tell you that I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the veil was lifted and we all became obsessed with the “your lips/face/whatever, but better” trend. My skin was thankful too, because suddenly it was able to breathe and I wasn’t …

Hello, hi there and a very warm welcome to the 48th edition of the journal! Thank you for being here, we have some super fun beauty talk ahead of us.

Hello, hello! How is everyone doing? I hope this week is bringing you lots of joy and moments of self-care. Today, I’m bringing you something super fun that had been on my list of things I wanted to do since I first started brainstorming for this newsletter. The number one compliment I get in my life is on my skin, number two or three (idk) is on my hai…

My world is pretty narrow when it comes to creating beauty content. That is to say, it’s narrow and deep. Imagine a well, not a lake. That’s because my ADHD chose a hyperfixation on makeup as an artistic material, human faces as the art surfaces. I don’t mean to overstate my purpose. I don’t think what I’m doing is saving lives. But I am …

Hello my darlings,

If I’m in public and sitting without headphones, it’s because I’m eavesdropping. And by a stroke of good luck (and the fact that it’s the basic epicenter of London), I find myself at abuelo in marylebone seated next to an influencer talent manager and the brand manager for a major beauty brand (