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. Keep reading »
