{"id":1435212,"date":"2026-01-15T17:45:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1435212"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:45:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T14:45:05","slug":"welcome-to-the-return-of-print-beauty-manuals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1435212","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Return of Print Beauty Manuals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Makeup<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Welcome to the Return of Print Beauty Manuals<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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By <\/span> Kristina Rodulfo<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Angelo Pennetta<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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When you open the scarlet red box set from nail-care brand Celisse, you\u2019ll not only find a pristine flat lay of their whole collection, but also a delightful relic: a print manual. \u201cSimple Steps to Beautiful, Healthy Nails\u201d it promises, along with step-by-step instructions on shaping, buffing, and painting your own nails with accompanying visuals. The little booklet is a tactile respite in the age of blink-and-you\u2019ll-miss-it video tutorials made more to serve the algorithm than actually educate. It\u2019s part of a larger trend of new-guard beauty brands embracing old-school print.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re so inundated by digital content,\u201d Jessica Blumenthal, cofounder and CEO of Celisse, says. \u201cDoing your nails at home is an offline moment where you can just sit down with your manual. You don\u2019t have to pick up your phone.\u201d Blumenthal found inspiration from 1920s and 1930s beauty packaging while developing the manual with designer Kat Jones. \u201cThese Cutex manuals kept popping up on eBay, and I bought one called \u2018How to Have Lovely Nails.\u2019 It\u2019s more of a catalog, but on the other side, it does show some technique,\u201d she added, noting it was a key reference in developing their \u201cmodern heirloom\u201d brand identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a 12-year-old, I was reading a magazine or looking at Klutz [books],\u201d adds Celisse\u2019s other cofounder Holly Falcone, whose experiences as a professional nail artist inform the manual\u2019s friendly, straight-talking tips and tricks. \u201cThere was no YouTube.\u201d Manuals like Celisse\u2019s harken back to a time before social media, when you learned about technique from books like Kevyn Aucoin\u2019s Making Faces<\/em>. Instead of 15-second \u201chow-tos\u201d with rapidly cut clips, a print manual offers thoughtfully designed two-dimensional tutorials that counteract the overwhelming stream of videos on your feed and encourage you to slow down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love designing physical ephemera; doing things digitally all the time is soul-sucking,\u201d says Annie Kreighbaum, founder and president of Kraum, a newly launched brand of micro brushes designed for detailing (think, applying product into the inner corners of your eyes or achieving a razor-sharp wing). \u201cWhen you\u2019re watching a tutorial online, you\u2019re going at the pace of the person you\u2019re watching. It\u2019s one of the most frustrating things about trying to learn digitally\u2014information is all bite-sized, and if you can\u2019t keep up, you have to actively press buttons and engage with your device to go at your own pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kreighbaum collaborated with designer Adriana Deleo, with whom she had previously worked on early packaging at Glossier, to create Kraum\u2019s 40-page manual. The detailed instructions and accompanying illustrations were all written and drawn, impressively, by Kreighbaum herself. \u201cHalf of what Kraum offers to customers is education,\u201d she adds. Like Blumenthal, she found inspiration from beauty packaging of yesteryear\u2014particularly Chanel makeup from the \u201990s and 2000s, which would include diagrams for applying lipstick and eyeshadow. \u201cI always thought their style of line drawing was chic,\u201d she says, also citing Bob Ross as \u201ca huge inspiration for educating on different brush types and hand tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Print manuals are not only an opportunity to tap into a collective desire for more analog escapism, but also a key tool for bringing a customer closer to a brand\u2019s story. For example, Heretic Parfum debuted a holiday collaboration with the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust that celebrates the late illustrator and author\u2019s \u201cmischief and magic\u201d with both fragrance gifts and an 80-page A Misfits Manual<\/em>. It\u2019s less of a traditional guide offering follow-along instructions and more a visual feast of photos, illustrations, character stories (starring the likes of Dita Von Teese), and \u201cadvice for surviving the holidays when your temperament leans toward Gothic,\u201d as described by Douglas Little, master perfumer and founder of Heretic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOur philosophy is to create worlds as much as we create perfumes, and the Gorey manual is a natural extension of that world-building,\u201d Little says of the DEA\/Studio-designed material. Like Blumenthal, he found inspiration in beauty-world ephemera, such as instructional booklets in vintage perfume sets or 1930s grooming manuals. \u201cThere is something fascinating about how beauty once required a guide, a shared language of ritual. The manual borrows from those traditions; I wanted to resurrect that sense of theatricality, but with a wink,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

All of the vintage references from Little, Kreighbaum, and Falcone prove that beauty instruction manuals are not new\u2014Smashbox\u2019s Step-by-Step contour kit has included a face map indicating where to apply bronzer and highlighter since 2007\u2014but the digital-first world they are being created in is incredibly different. Every detail in our short-attention economy is pointed and intentional, but also because creating print materials isn\u2019t without pitfalls. \u201cGiving the customer this elevated experience comes at a significant cost to us,\u201d Blumenthal says, noting that the Celisse manual costs $2 a unit and is included in every first purchase, regardless of amount. \u201cIn the beginning, I was like, we\u2019ll see what the reaction is, and maybe we\u2019ll discontinue it or move it to digital. It\u2019s a pretty big hit for us, but the engagement around it has been so strong that we\u2019ll continue to produce it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kreighbaum also notes that creating the Kraum manual was a steep learning curve. \u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of custom products, but the design and engineering involved with printing a book is very complicated!\u201d she says, explaining how she went through multiple rounds to get the manual size just right to lift out of the Kraum set box. \u201cThat ended up being very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the added hurdle of creating a physical object, the founders we spoke to all agreed it was well worth the effort. There are some thoughtful details you just can\u2019t replicate on digital. For example, the Celisse booklet has a \u201cthis book belongs to\u201d-style section in the front for writing in your name. Kraum\u2019s imprint of different brush strokes on the page is a helpful reference for understanding how to use the tools. The Heretic manual has double-page spreads that don\u2019t have the same heft on a 5-inch screen.<\/p>\n

These manuals scratch the nostalgia itch, sure, but also exemplify a greater desire for offline, focused activities that can serve as a salve for our dwindling attention spans. In the same way that more and more people try to build morning routines without social media, seek daily activities that lower cortisol, and travel to digital detox resorts, we\u2019re all craving more analog moments in our beauty routines, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing anything on IG and TikTok is such a distraction. I\u2019m glad to try to find ways for people to disengage from their phones, but still learn something,\u201d Kreighbaum says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are longing for something they can hold, smell, dog-ear, and keep on a coffee table like a small talisman,\u201d Little adds. \u201cThe manual is a deliberate slowdown\u2026it asks the reader to pause, to explore a world that does not vanish with a swipe. The manual gives beauty a soul again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Have a beauty or wellness trend you\u2019re curious about? We want to know! Send<\/em>\u00a0Vogue\u2019s senior beauty & wellness editor an email at\u00a0beauty@vogue.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: http:\/\/vogue.com\/article\/the-return-of-print-beauty-manuals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Makeup Welcome to the Return of Print Beauty Manuals By Kristina Rodulfo January 15, 2026 Angelo Pennetta When you open the scarlet red box set from nail-care brand Celisse, you\u2019ll not only find a pristine flat lay of their whole collection, but also a delightful relic: a print manual. \u201cSimple Steps to Beautiful, Healthy Nails\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-1435212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-vogue-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1435212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1435212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1435212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1435212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}