Friday 26 June
6:30-9pm
What does lipstick reveal about gender and sexuality? How do Marilyn Monroe and Hollywood glamour contribute to today's celebrity culture?
Join us for a night in which three beauty-savvy writers read from their recent or forthcoming books about beauty and star culture. American author Eileen G'Sell will read from her new book Lipstick (Bloomsbury 2026), joined by London-based authors Lucy Jane Santos and Cathy Lomax, who will read from Nobody’s Perfect: The Making of Some Like It Hot and Making Up the Star: Makeup, Femininity, Race and Ageing in Hollywood. Fresh Beauty Fix founder Julia Ferrari will lead a Q & A to follow.
Eileen G'Sell: Eileen G’Sell is a poet and culture critic who focuses on gender, sexuality, and economic class. G’Sell’s poetry has appeared in Poetry, Fence and The Boston Review; recent essays have appeared in The Baffler, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Current Affairs, Jacobin, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She serves as movie critic of The Hopkins Review, and makes frequent contributions to Hyperallergic and Reverse Shot. In 2023, she received the Rabkin Foundation award for visual arts journalism. Lipstick, her first book of nonfiction, joined Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series early 2026. She teaches writing and media studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
Lucy Jane Santos: Lucy Jane Santos is a writer, presenter and consultant who seeks out the surprising stories that sit at the edges of familiar history. Her work ranges across beauty, science, technology, popular entertainment and nightlife, uncovering fresh angles and new insights into the moments that have shaped the modern world. This expertise has led to historical consulting roles for film and television and to on-screen contributions in documentaries as seemingly diverse as Makeup: A Glamorous History (BBC2) and Mysteries of the Abandoned: Hidden America (Discovery +). Her research and commentary have also appeared in publications including History Today, BBC History Revealed, Vogue and the New York Post and in the London Transport Museum’s exhibition Art deco: the golden age of poster design. Her book Nobody’s Perfect: The Making of Some Like It Hot comes out in August from White Owl.
Cathy Lomax: Cathy Lomax is a London based painter. Her work is a contemporary and personal exploration of identity, beauty and celebrity through the lens of film, fashion and art history. Lomax has an MA Fine Art from Central St Martins and is the director of Transition Gallery in East London. She also edits two art and culture magazines, Arty and Garageland. In 2023 she completed a PhD at Queen Mary University of London in which she investigated the role of makeup in the Hollywood female star image. Her book Making Up the Star: Makeup, Femininity, Race and Ageing in Hollywood will be published early 2027.
Julia Ferrari is a beauty expert with 20+ years in the industry and the founder of Fresh Beauty Fix, a digital platform spotlighting sustainable and natural beauty. With experience across leading global brands including Neal’s Yard Remedies, Clinique, and Bourjois, she champions ethical, founder-led brands through storytelling-led content that connects conscious consumers with the ever-evolving beauty landscape.