Have you ever wondered if “Flawless” singer Beyoncé is actually human? A fan site recently nearly triggered a fan clash when they published unretouched images that seemingly confirm she is.

Quickly removed, the photos are outtakes from a photo shoot for L’Oreal which show the singer with visible pores, smile lines and heavy makeup.

“Due to the disdain of the BeyHive, we have removed the photos. We don’t want to cause any drama, nor do we wish to start fan wars. Some of the things we have seen posted were just horrible, and we don’t want any parts of it. We were just posting the photos to share the fact that our queen is naturally beautiful, at the same time she is just a regular woman.”

{The Beyonce World via Complex}

There are undoubtedly times when Photoshop goes overboard – altering body shapes and parts, significantly changing skin tone are both instances that meet with deserved criticism and examination. This is not one of those times.

Studio lighting is harsh and generally unforgiving, and close up professional photography will capture every tiny characteristic of human skin. Add on multiple layers of makeup which make for strong colors in a photo, and in the real world you have a magnifying glass for any bump, line or crevice.

At left, an unretouched outtake photo, and retouched advertisement at right.

While she may not have the rubber-like skin that results from a few Photoshop layers in real life, it appears that the Beyonce of unretouched photos is actually starting with a relatively smooth base. That’s not to mention the entire eye area, which is remarkably bagless and bright for someone who seems to work quite a bit.

If the singer ever had 99 problems, her pre-Photoshop appearance definitely isn’t one.

Today at Ohne Titel, however, milliner Gigi Burris created bows made of horsehair that mane master Jordan M fastened beneath undone knots. {Style.com}

Described as “something very simple,” our first impression was actually something very dead. While the effect is striking to be sure, it’s hard to imagine a cluster of hair creepily brushing against the back of your neck – or sticking to it, should a heat wave hit, to be as comfortable as an out of the way updo.

If anyone mistakes your hair accessory for a wounded animal clasping at the back of your neck, having to reattach it after good samaritans try to beat it off will probably get a bit cumbersome as well.

You’re looking at $250 worth of nail color

Christian Louboutin will be launching a full, 30-color range of nail polishes on August 31st, but kicked things off with Rouge Louboutin, a red that closely matches the signature soles of the designer’s shoes.

The bottle is pretty striking. The Rouge Louboutin cap measures in at an impressive eight inches, the same length of the heel on the Louboutin Ballerina Ultima shoe, which was featured in a David Lynch collaboration. {Fashionista}

The glass bottle is definitely closer in appearance to a perfume bottle, where $50 wouldn’t get a second look, but at $50, everything about the polish should be striking. Since it’s a recent release, there’s no word on the staying power, but the Nordstrom product page claims that two coats will give the finish of 20. The polish also claims to be “long wearing,” though there’s no specific timeframe included.

Most luxury products aren’t entirely about the quality or value of a product though, so leaving any questions around those two things aside, the price is still attention grabbing when you compare it to other luxury beauty brands. Tom Ford previously had one of the most expensive nail polish lines on the market, and even those shades topped out at $32. Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Dior and Yves Saint Laurent all hover in the $25-27 range.

Entirely nail focused brands, including salon favorites OPI and Essie, are usually $8-9.

Louboutin’s shoe customers can easily drop 20 times as much on a pair of shoes, so despite the high price tag, we can see a few people buying a bottle. While it’s not what we’d classify as affordable, it is something that fans who can’t buy into $1000 shoes will be able to afford.

Only success and time will tell if this is the first sign of nail polish prices following the upward trend of other luxury items.

Founder Grace Choi envisions making a new eyeshadow or lipstick as simple as pulling a color’s hex value, and clicking print. While this opens up a world of possibilities  for consumers, YouTube beauty vloggers (who already have considerable influence through demonstrations of purchased products) and the just plain adventurous makeup lovers who want green or blue lips like Rihanna, the printer seems like it would have potential with the drugstores selling standard cosmetics, and beauty companies as well.

Color is certainly an important part of makeup, but an equally important component are the base ingredients used. While pigments give a lipstick its color, it’s other ingredients that determine if it’s matte, shiny, sheer, frosted or creamy, and getting those right will likely take more than an ink cartridge.

With that in mind, drugstores with limited space to offer, and beauty brands with limited space to fill would likely jump at the opportunity to offer branded base ingredients, with consumer determined color selections. Not only could it become a leading indicator of color trends, but it would give brands a color selection just not possible in a brick and mortar beauty aisle, and drugstores something to do with the photo printing sections that still exist. Also, at a projected price of $300, the Mink may appeal to hardcore beauty addicts, but those with only occasional interest would likely find it more convenient to keep their makeup shopping habits as they are.

Nonetheless, the possibility of on demand beauty products has potential in various areas of the market, and Mink looks to be an impressive first step in establishing a potentially new market.
 via TechCrunch

According to Psychology Today, black women are scientifically comparatively unattractive and masculine looking. We think they're insane, scientifically and in general.

Psychology Today has removed an article on  “Why Black Women Are Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women,” but many – us included – are wondering why it was published in the first place.

The entire article is no longer available on the Psychology Today website, but has been screencapped in its entirety at Buzzfeed. Aside from the blatant racism, what we really have a problem with is the junk science behind the “study,” and the fact that no editor at Psychology Today saw fit to withhold such a controversial article in consideration of the fact that the entire study is based on very subjective opinions. Let’s go through a few, shall we?

To start with, the supposedly “subjective” rating of attractiveness is done by interviewers of undetermined racial backgrounds. Assuming these are all totally open minded interviewers, there’s still not much that can be done to make preferences objective. Beauty is and always has been in the eye of the beholder, and statistical procedures don’t change that at all.

So already this “study” is treating the opinions  of three people as fact. As non-scientists, that seems like reason enough to discard this article at the outset, but let’s continue on for more of  Kanazawa’s gems.

Then there’s the interesting note that Black men and women consider themselves more attractive than the interviewers do. Which is again the problem with this junk science in the first place. If you poll 3 Republicans about President Obama’s job performance, you’d probably get different results than you would if you polled 3 Democrats. This is no more “interesting” than noting that Democrats subjectively think liberal policies are better for the country when holding Republican opinions up as the “objective” base point.”

Not one single chart presented proves that black women are “objectively” less attractive than anyone else. Continuing on the basis of the opinion of 3 people – we assume none were black women – as fact makes everything else pretty worthless.

Then there’s the full on racist crap. The first paragraph posits that black women are comparatively fat and stupid compared to women of other races – but don’t get down on yourself about that black ladies: your unattractiveness isn’t tied to either of those!

It’s also not to the mutant African genes that black men and women possess. So that just leaves the “fact” that black people have too much testosterone which means men and women look more manly, and it doesn’t work in the favor of black women. While we’re on the subject of facts, we should also note that African and black are not always the same thing. Moroccan, Tunisian and North African people look different than those in Western Africa, who look different from those in East Africa, who look different from those in Southern Africa, and black people in America and the Caribbean (among other places) can look like a combination of all or none of the above. Thus making this ridiculous bunch of crap even more ridiculous.

There are fat, unattractive people of all races, and last we checked there’s no single race that can claim ownership of androgyny or women with masculine features.

While this study is offensive, it’s even more offensive that not a single person at Psychology Today thought that publishing a glorified Hot or Not survey based on the opinions of three men who aren’t that into black women as a factual study on the attractiveness of black women as a whole was a good idea. Note for the future: charts do not make idiocy scientific or factual, they just highlight the fact that even highly educated, supposedly scientific people can be idiots.

Ill advised permanent tattoos have made a few appearances in this space, we’ve seen everyone from Beyonce to Betsey Johnson revive the temporary tattoos of the ’90s, and now there are temporary lip tattoos from a company called Violent Lips. {Racked}

We have yet to see a single example that makes a good case for permanent lip (or facial) tattoos, so fakes are the best possible place to start with this idea, but do we really need zebra stripe lips?

Some of the options look like fun, but we’re a little nervous that things could head into an Ed Hardy-esque direction where it’s only a matter of time before the patterns get louder, tackier and more bedazzled as D-list reality stars make them famous. Not to mention the possibility of a combination of press-on lip prints with press-on eyeshadow prints (available here, if you’re interested), press-on nail polish prints that results in the kind of beauty press-on explosion normally only seen in a Ke$ha video.

Assuming that doesn’t happen, we’ll admit that a few of the patterns do look tempting, and if you’ve every wanted to do any Rocky Horror Picture Show-style videos, the red glitter option would be pretty amazing for that. Or, if you’re a fan of really shiny lips, but don’t want to eat glitter all night. We’re more than a little tempted by the rose print, and the pink animal prints have Nicki Minaj’s name written all over them – okay, technically they have animal print written all over them, but you get the idea. At $14.95 for a 3-pack, the price isn’t too bad, so that helps also.

Given the fleeting nature of these tattoos – according to the Violent Lips website, they last 4-8 hours, and the growing number of press-on beauty products we’re sure at least a few people will jump on this trend.

Diane von Furstenberg portrait by Chuck Close

In advance of  an exhibition at Beijing’s Pace Gallery, Diane von Furstenberg sat for a portrait with photographer Chuck Close weeks after a ski accident that left her with a broken nose and bruising. If all of that couldn’t make the iconic designer look bad, it should come as no surprise that the 64-year-old von Furstenberg’s wrinkles don’t have a chance at it either.

In an interview with Close for Harper’s Bazaar, von Furstenberg says “I gave up on my looks a long time ago. Beauty is perfect in its imperfections, so you just have to go with the imperfections.”

While von Furstenberg seems to be the beneficiary of good skin care, she’s eschewed more dramatic plastic surgery. Probably wise, since for every good cosmetic procedure, there’s at least one more that leaves the person looking worse than when they started.

Everyone ages differently, so cosmetic surgery may be a good choice for some people, but confidence and a fulfillment with life that’s more than skin deep is beautiful on everyone.

After the surgery, Leisz was unable to close her eyes completely or blink without effort. Blinking keeps eyes moistened, so Leisz has to use eyedrops to prevent damage to her eyes from drying and sleep with a humidifier. She also claims that she is unable to play tennis or raquetball, garden or swim. There was nothing to address why goggles or protective glasses wouldn’t enable Leisz to perform those activities, but she decided to sue Dr. Parker for the loss of eyelid function.

The verdict returned by a jury was mixed. While Leisz was awarded $115,000 and the jury found that Dr. Parker deviated from the standard of care by performing the surgery in the first place, they also rejected Leisz’s claim that she was not warned of the risk of incomplete eye closure. {NorthJersey.com}

Attorneys for both parties claimed the decision as a victory. Leisz’s lawyer said he was “happy to win a malpractice case, because theyâ€re so difficult.”

Parker’s attorney said “over the years Iâ€ve gotten to know a lot of doctors, and Dr. Parker is an extremely competent plastic surgeon. This is a woman who had 10 or more plastic surgeries. She certainly knew there were risks. The extremely modest judgment shows that the jury thought Dr. Parker was competent, too.”

Screenshot of Marilyn Leisz via Jezebel

After getting over the initial shock that this is coming from a Microsoft employee and not a Jersey Shore cast member, you’re probably wondering what fresh money smells like. For men, Patrick McCarthy (the aspiring fragrance entrepreneur) thinks it’s “the woody aroma of newly printed money with a bold fusion of fresh ocean breezes, and bright citrus notes are joined by rosemary, grass, and precious woods,” and “the clean scent of freshly minted bills” with pink grapefruit, mandarin, freesia, passionfruit, Hawaiian wedding flower and a soft hint of melon for women.

McCarthy told AOL {via the Hairpin} that the idea behind the fragrance came from a Japanese study that showed an increase in worker productivity when the smell of money was pumped through air vents, as well as “how much he enjoyed the scent of fresh, crisp bills” coming from the ATM.

Okay, we’ll go to certain levels of fantasy when it comes to fragrance marketing, but is it possible that someone would enjoy fresh, crisp bills coming their way simply for the fact that it means they’ve got a decent amount of money in the bank? Just a hunch. Considering that ATMs have been shown to have the same amount of bacteria as public toilets, we’re also going to take a gamble that you probably don’t want to wear all of the smells associated with money.

If your current scent just isn’t pulling in gold diggers or sugar daddies at the rate you’d like and you still want to see if Money passes the sniff test, His and Hers versions of the fragrance encased in shredded money are available online here.

Red hair had a bit of a resurgence in 2010 with the popularity of Mad Men star Christina Hendricks (who’s also a bottle redhead), naturally ginger haired Julianne Moore, and Rihanna’s primary colored locks. While it’s doubtful that red will replace blonde as the to-dye-for shade of celebrity (we’ll wait until Lindsay Lohan returns to her roots to make that call), it’s almost universally flattering  so we’re sure there are a few fans out there who will want to keep up with the trend.