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Digital Audiobook
The House of Beauty by Arabelle Sicardi

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The House of Beauty

Publisher
Highbridge Company
Publish Date
2 December 2025
Run Time
6 hours 58 minutes
Format
Audiobook
$13.95

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What to expect

"When I tell you that beauty is a monster, I need you to know it is my favorite kind."

So begins Arabelle Sicardi’s blazingly original collection of essays. A former beauty editor, Arabelle has devoted their entire adult life to the subject of beauty―they have analyzed it, criticized it, praised it, benefited from it, loathed it. Now, in The House of Beauty, they get to the contradictions at the heart of it: beauty and horror, two sides of the same coin.

With their signature blend of intellectual rigor and poetic sensibility, Arabelle explores how beauty myths are crafted, sold, and weaponized, from corporate boardrooms to your local nail salon. Follow alongside Arabelle as they trace the global trail of the shimmering mica in your beauty products, choose-your-own-adventure-style, or journey into the past to unearth the sinister connection between fragrance and fascism. Bear witness as they visit a tech convention focused on the next horrifying frontier of body modification, or as they ask what's at stake in the braids we weave in our hair. Sharp yet tender in their observations, Arabelle challenges listeners to reconsider beauty as more than a product of consumption, inviting a vision of beauty rooted in community and self-care, one that transcends industry-driven ideals.

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Details

Author
Arabelle Sicardi
Narrator
Arabelle Sicardi
Duration
6 hours 58 minutes
Release Date
2 December 2025
ISBN
9781696622127
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Highbridge Company
Genre
Society and culture: general, Memoirs, Cosmetics, hair and beauty, Feminism and feminist theory

Synopsis

"When I tell you that beauty is a monster, I need you to know it is my favorite kind."So begins Arabelle Sicardi’s blazingly original collection of essays. A former beauty editor, Arabelle has devoted their entire adult life to the subject of beauty―they have analyzed it, criticized it, praised it, benefited from it, loathed it. Now, in The House of Beauty, they get to the contradictions at the heart of it: beauty and horror, two sides of the same coin.With their signature blend of intellectual rigor and poetic sensibility, Arabelle explores how beauty myths are crafted, sold, and weaponized, from corporate boardrooms to your local nail salon. Follow alongside Arabelle as they trace the global trail of the shimmering mica in your beauty products, choose-your-own-adventure-style, or journey into the past to unearth the sinister connection between fragrance and fascism. Bear witness as they visit a tech convention focused on the next horrifying frontier of body modification, or as they ask what's at stake in the braids we weave in our hair. Sharp yet tender in their observations, Arabelle challenges listeners to reconsider beauty as more than a product of consumption, inviting a vision of beauty rooted in community and self-care, one that transcends industry-driven ideals.

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