Product: Maybelline Color Sensational Creamy Matte Lipstick in Divine Wine

Date Acquired: January or February 2020

Grade: A-

My mother has strong opinions about my lipstick choices, and she’s not shy about sharing those opinions. She has expressed distaste for some of my favorite lip products, such as Pat McGrath Madame Greige (“washes you out, like you’re not even wearing lipstick”), NARS Dolce Vita (“I know it’s supposed to be subtle, but there’s such a thing as too subtle”), Marc Jacobs Rei of Light (“too orange”), and Bite Rose Pearl gloss (“too glossy”). If it were up to her, I would wear nothing but dark reds, berries, and plums in matte or satin formulas. I agree that those colors are my most flattering, but a woman needs variety, you know? Well, some women do; my mom wore the same two shades of L’Oreal lipstick, Blushing Berry and Raspberries, every day for at least twenty years.

To protect me from my dangerous self-unflattering impulses, my mom occasionally buys me drugstore lipsticks (she also thinks I spend too much money on lipstick, of course) in colors she approves of. And that’s how I acquired Maybelline Divine Wine, though I can’t recall whether she gave it to me when I was visiting San Francisco last January or sent it in my Valentine’s Day care package the next month. She’s been wearing Maybelline makeup, mostly eyeliner, since the mid-’60s; talk about brand loyalty.