The Other Kind of Brazilian Beauty.

Last week, I had my first brush with a Brazilian bikini wax. Well, let’s face it, I just overheard other people learning how to do one and I pretty much broke out in hives — but don’t worry, my turn to wield the wax is coming up in a few weeks, and you’ll get every gory detail.

But this experience reminded me that when it comes to beauty standards, Brazil is known for a lot more than its disdain for body hair. My friend Melissa of I Heart Daily, was in Rio de Janeiro a couple of weeks ago to cover their Fashion Week and sent me a handful of runway beauty shots so insane, I obviously had to share them with you all.

Runway fashion is so odd and other worldly, I have a hard time getting it to fit with the kinds of beauty standards (be skinny/free of all body hair and pores) that I’m learning to enforce over at Beauty U and that we more generally encounter from the fashion industry. Is this art? Cracked-out designers grasping at straws to get attention for their clothing lines? How to reconcile the above versions of beauty with the pressure these models face to stay clothes-hanger-skinny?

I’m still digging out from under over here (we just moved house, hence the BSP radio silence* over the past few days!) so I’m going to let these pictures say thousands of words… and encourage you all to provide a caption for your favorite (or weigh in on any of my musings above) in the comments.

*Never fear. I’ll be back up to usual blogging speed later this week — and have oh so much beauty school news to report. Stay tuned!

[Photos: © AGÊNCIA FOTOSITE.]