Welcome to Venus of the Mind
A newsletter for those who like to look good and think deep.
Dear Aesthete,
Venus of the Mind is a newsletter membership designed for lovers of beauty and culture; for readers who like to look good and think deep. Here, at the nexus of aesthetics as philosophy, (a)esthetics as a trade, and aestheticism as a way of life, everything intersects in the name of beauty. No subject is off limits from Venus’s reach.
As a licensed master esthetician with over a decade of professional experience within and outside of the beauty industry, I see beauty as being relational in its essence.
Beauty can be both inherent and cultivated.
Beauty is simultaneously memetic and amorphous.
Beauty is passed on as material heritage and genetic memory.
Humans invest in beauty as social capital.
We grapple with beauty and the demand it places on us to contend with what we experience as ugly.
What holds our attention as “beautiful” reflects back to us our beliefs, our history, our conscious aspirations, and unconscious desires.
Beauty culture shapes the ongoing refashioning of the self from birth to grave.
Beauty culture itself is mutable, subject to time, geography, politics, collective survival, and competing visions of the world we all share.
Your Reader’s Experience
Venus of the Mind houses long form essays, insights, explorations, and musings at the nexus of beauty, culture, and beyond.
Where to start your next reading adventure?
First, contemplate “On Beauty & Being Here.”
Then, take a romantic stroll that will have you “Wandering in Italy.”
Deepening Your Experience
All Subscribers (Members & Non-Members) Receive
Four seasonal essays coinciding with every spring/autumn equinox & summer/winter solstice.
Newsletter Members Receive
Exclusive monthly insights at the nexus of everything beauty related and beyond. Including explorations into lifestyle, aesthetic philosophy, the (a)esthetic trades, domesticity, travel, and more.
Specialized beauty + culture lists, designed to feed your heart, mind, soul, and skin.
Explore the World ⬇️
Experience Beauty & Culture ⬇️
Venus of the Mind members also participate in an online beauty book club.
We meet every January, April, July, and October.
January 20, 2026 (3:30pm to 4:20pm EST) - The House of Beauty: Lessons from the Image Industry by writer and consultant Arabelle Sicardi.
April 2026 - Easy Beauty: A Memoir by Pulitzer Prize finalist and philosopher Chloé Cooper Jones.
July 2026 - On Eating, The Making & Unmaking of my Appetites by food and culture writer, educator, and consultant Alicia Kennedy.
October 2026 - Who Is Wellness For? by writer, culture worker, and educator Fariha Rósisín.
Walk the Path of Venus
Inside this newsletter membership, readers get to experience beauty as a relational source of enchantment, as a wellspring of life, and as a catalyst of change.
Onward,
All subscribers can accrue rewards towards a complementary membership whenever they refer a friend.
Five referrals = One Month Complementary Membership
Ten referrals = Three Months Complementary Membership
Fifteen referrals = Six Months Complementary Membership