Last week, we asked you to tell us about your first time wearing red lipstick in exchange for some Jemma Kidd cosmetics from Market for Drama. And, unsurprisingly, many of you made it into an older relative’s makeup bag when you were young, and the results were hilarious, defiant, and heartwarming. But, astrolatry won for her story that brought tears to our eyes ...

Who doesn’t like a good deal on cosmetics without pressure from a salesperson? Market for Drama, a private online beauty site, offers up to 70 percent off high-end beauty products during its weekly shopping events. Shop online for brands like Jemma Kidd Professional Beauty, which offers multi-tasking cosmetics for busy beauty hounds. From March 2 to 5, Market for Drama will have Jemma Kidd products on sale, so you’ve got just enough time to join Market for Drama before this super opportunity passes you by. [Market for Drama]

WIN THIS! We’re giving away enough Jemma Kidd makeup to create the perfect classic face—a Define Stay-put Eye Liner in Mahogany, a Stardust Créme Shadow in Galaxy, an Ultimate Lipstick Duo in Scarlett, and a Lasting Tint: Semi Permanent, Waterproof Lash Colour in Brown—but you have to work if you want it! Leave a comment before 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, March 4, telling us about the first time you wore red lipstick. We’ll pick our favorite response and announce the winner on Friday, March 5. You must live in the U.S. or Canada to win. Good luck!

Like many women, my makeup routine is unchanging. I start with foundation, then a touch of blush, followed by a medium smoky eye made by lining my lower lids in dark brown eyeliner, and then apply a few coats of mascara. For the lips, a simple pink stain topped with Rosebud Salve. So, it’s really a wonder that I have an entire bathroom filled with unused eye shadows in every shade of the rainbow and lipsticks to last me a lifetime. The occasions these do get used? Once or twice a year when I decide to fashion a “bold” look, or during experimentation sessions that inevitably end with the makeup remover bottle.

However, there’s one little item in my arsenal of beauty products that I always come back to: a tube of classic red Chanel lipstick. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve applied this in preparation for a night (or day) out, and wiped if off before leaving the house, never once getting real use out of it. It’s not that it looks bad on me. Not at all. But it seems to throw off the balance of my look somehow. Sometimes I feel too slutty, or think I look like a teenager did my makeup, just going a bit too far with everything. Other times, the red lips staring back at me in the mirror seem to say something about who I am, or want to be. There’s a go-to gal. Am I a go-to gal? Or: There’s an insecure girl who read in some lady mag that wearing a coat of red lipstick makes you more confident.

It was after the Golden Globes this year that I became so in love with January Jones’ perfect lip hue (what some have been calling “the new red lip”), that I decided to hell with it. So last night, I lacquered up my mouth with my bright Chanel lipstick, took myself to a party, and decided to see what would happen.

The easiest way to give yourself an “Avatar” makeover is to paint your entire face blue or make out with a member of the Blue Man Group. Unfortunately, going that route does nothing for your complexion. Soon, however, you’ll be able to get “Avatar” pretty without looking like you left a sci-fi convention.

Makeup company Milani is about to release a line inspired by the film that will include a nail polish, lip gloss, and eye shadow. The cool thing about the products is that they’ll produce “3D” effects through holographic and light-reflecting properties. We’re not sure what 3D makeup is supposed to look like, but sounds intriguing. And oh yeah, the makeup will all be blue. If you haven’t already guessed. [Vogue.fr]

Contrary to popular belief, your mom wasn’t completely and totally trying to ruin your life when she said “No way Jose” when you wanted to start wearing makeup. She was merely responding to maternal intuition, because, turns out, all that mascara and lip gloss contains the kind of dangerous chemicals associated with cancer, infertility and hormone imbalance. And according to a new study by The Environmental Working Group, the younger a girl is when she starts caking it on, the greater the danger.

Great. And we thought all that smoking in the bathroom we did was bad for us.

Just like fusion food, collaborations are (almost) always a good thing. Why not mix two brilliant things together to end up with an even more amazing product? The latest: Lilly Pulitzer has teamed up with MAC cosmetics to create a line of polishes, glosses, and shadows in typical bright, Hamptons-esque colors. Starting Jan. 7, you can pick up the cosmetics, which range from $12-32, at any MAC store. The makeup line is kind of a refreshing look in contrast to the dark vampy looks we’ve been seeing lately for fall/winter. And their timing really is perfect, given turquoise is the new Pantone color for 2010. [New York]

Shadow insurance? What’s that? According to makeup company Too Faced, it’s a way to prevent fading, creasing, and blurring of your eyeshadow. At first glance, this product might seem like something you wouldn’t really need. After all, do you really have that much of an issue with your eye makeup?

How it works, after the jump!

You could credit Tarina Tarantino as the woman who made your lingering childhood obsession with Hello Kitty (and anything else pink and plastic) justifiable. The funky jewelry designer’s specialty is taking girly toy-like charms, Lucite gems, flowery cameos, and bows, and somehow turning them into accessories appropriate for adults. Now, the magenta-haired expert has launched a cosmetics line for Sephora, which brings the Tarina spirit to shimmery lip glosses, neon makeup compacts, brushes, and earthy eye shadows.

Tarina, who apparently started out as a makeup artist, was very involved in the production of the collection. This is the first “designer collaboration” to come from Sephora ... we wonder if they’ll curate more projects like this in a bid to become the Target of the beauty world. The line comes out later this winter, so keep your eyes peeled! (Not that you could miss the blindingly bright packaging.) Check out a few more pics after the jump. [Nylon]

‘Tis nearly the season of the dreaded flu shot. Those things hurt! And they make you feel awful for a day. Another alternative? LaRocca’s Shield Multi-Active lip balm contains bacteria-fighting ingredients like Camu Camu, a blend of amino acids and vitamin C, which helps strengthen your immune system. There’s also Cha de burge, which is another property used to help kill viruses. (Yeah, we’ve never heard of either of those before, either. But everything you read on the internet is true, right?)

“Anti-Microbal” elements aside, the balm also acts as a good lip moisturizer. Does it really fight off illness? We hear the psychosomatic benefits are wonderful. [$18, LaRoccaSkinCare.com via DailyCandy]

Part of the fun of makeup is getting to buy new products to add to your collection, and feeling satisfaction in having an array of choices and colors to use. If you’re like me, this means you like to buy pretty eyeshadows that you rarely use but keep around “just in case” you’re in the mood to do that ice blue liner thing you saw in last month’s Elle. Hello arsenal of teeny compacts, samples, and lip glosses for the masses! But still, I don’t like to part with any of these. I tend to keep them around.

If you’re the type who hordes makeup as well, you probably don’t pay too much attention to throwing out your products when you’re supposed to. Or, perhaps you don’t even consider that keeping things around for years is harmful, in which case you may want to check out these Beauty Alert stickers, which will remind you when to chuck out-of-date items (or just force you to do some cosmetic spring cleaning). And here’s why it’s important ...

Sacre bleu! L’Oreal has been found guilty of racial discrimination. The French high court, La Cour de Cassation, slapped the make-up giant with the guilty sticker after it was revealed that L’Oreal and the recruitment agency Adecco planned on using only white women as staff to sell their Garnier Fructis Style hair care line. Evidently, L’Oreal thinks their French clientele is more inclined to buy hair products from a white saleswoman. Anti-racist group SOS Racisme filed the lawsuit after viewing a fax sent out by Adecco advising recruiters to hire women that are “BBR” – “bleu, blanc, rouge”, a term meaning a white French person born to white French parents. This might explain why when 38.7 percent of candidates for the job were minorities, only 4.65 of the total hired were black, Asian, or Arab. The director who sent the fax told the court she only wanted the women to “express themselves correctly in French” when selling the shampoo. So a black or Arab woman fluent in French can’t talk about conditioner ? Lame. The Paris Appeal Court fined L’Oreal and Adecco and ordered them to pay SOS Rasicme damage costs. I guess we’re not all “worth it.” [Times Online]

Sam Fine is a makeup pro whose career has spanned more than 10 years. He’s made up almost everyone, including Tyra Banks, Vanessa Williams, and Jennifer Hudson. So we were totes excited to learn he’s releasing “Fine: The Basics of Beauty,” a DVD version of his

Fine Beauty, which promises to help the everyday woman get dolled up and look naturally gorgeous. The makeup master lets us in on the secret to bronze-y skin, pouty lips, and perfectly-arched brows by making up three women with different skin tones and beauty needs. Sounds exciting right? Well, in an evil plot to keep us from becoming our own Sam Fine, his website says the DVD was released last month, but we can’t find it anywhere. Who is this twisted person that would dangle a gem like this in front of our faces, but not deliver? We will keep checking Amazon, because when it comes to looking fine, we won’t be deterred!

The outside world is more like a Hooters restaurant than you previously thought: a new study says that men are more likely to tip a waitress if she looks pretty wearing makeup.

Researchers studied the tips received by two waitresses from 186 male and 98 female customers. Only one third of the dudes left a tip if the waitress wore a bare, makeup-less face. (Cheap bastards!) But after a beautician applied makeup to the servers, the number of men who tipped flew up to 51 percent. Not to mention that the size of the tips rose 25 percent. Hmm, it brings new meaning to the term “makeup tips,” doesn’t it?

Salma Hayek has beautifully smooth skin, and once she launches her anti-aging cosmetic line, we’ll have her beauty secrets. The line is inspired by Hayek’s grandmother Maria Luisa, who was a makeup artist and used to make her own cosmetics. According to Hayek, Maria Luisa’s skin remained wrinkle-free well into her nineties. “When she died at 96, of course her skin had sagged, but she didn’t have any wrinkles,” Hayek told InStyle. The makeup line will be a recreation of her grandmother’s lotions and potions, made from ingredients available only in Latin America. But we’re also sure it will contain some plum lipsticks and brown and aubergine shade eyeshadows, too, as those are Hayek’s favorites. [Female First]

There’s good news for the pack of nearly a dozen fashion mavens that came to my Halloween party dressed as Amy Winehouse: she’s launching her own line of cosmetics and accessories!  From hair scarves to liquid liner, the vamp style icon has been in talks this week to create products based on her unique look. Winehouse, who just hosted a makeover/sleepover party this week with Kelly Osborne and her goddaughter, has had her praises sung for more than her sweet 60’s style.  The five time Grammy Award winning voice is poised to send boring boho fashion into style rehab. From the looks of all her excited fans, it’ll be straight eye for the queer guy…and gals like me!  [The Sun]