Name: NARS Sheer Lipstick in Dolce Vita Date Purchased: Spring 2013 (and again on Monday!) Grade: A Notes: I did it! I repurchased NARS Dolce Vita after a few months spent trying to preserve the tiny nub that remained of my first tube. I have a weird psychological hangup about repurchasing makeup. A second tube… Read More Lipstick Chronology #24: NARS Dolce Vita
Names: Milani Color Statement Lipstick in Flamingo Pose and Sweet Nectar Date Purchased: Spring 2013 Grade: B Notes: I wish I liked Milani more than I do. It’s one of the only cruelty-free American drugstore brands left, and I mean entirely cruelty-free: it hasn’t expanded into China or sold out to a larger company that… Read More Lipstick Chronology #23: Milani Flamingo Pose and Sweet Nectar
Name: MAC Satin Lipstick in Pink Nouveau Date Purchased: Feb. 2013 Grade: A Notes: The end of one series means the resumption of another! It’s time for an installment of my Lipstick Chronology. For the past few months, I’ve been reviewing my lipsticks and lip glosses in the order in which I bought them. I… Read More Lipstick Chronology #22: MAC Pink Nouveau
I really shouldn’t be writing this. I have three other posts in the works: my long-postponed review of Illamasqua Zygomatic blush, my even longer-postponed musings on British vs. American beauty practices, and a contribution to the wave of introspection that has been sweeping the beauty blogosphere in recent weeks. I was all set to write… Read More A Creamsicle for the Summer Solstice: Revlon Matte Balm in Mischievous
As a result of moving to San Francisco at the age of seven and feeling deprived of “real seasons” for the next decade, I’m very faithful to the idea of seasonal colors. So long as there’s snow on the ground, I’m going to cling to my burgundy lipsticks and plum nail polishes. And when I… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 4: Back to Burgundy with Sleek and Rimmel
I rely on drugstore beauty brands for colors I feel ambivalent about, which means that I’ve amassed quite a few orange and warm red lipsticks from Revlon, Milani, and Maybelline. And, surprise, I’m still ambivalent about oranges and warm reds on my complexion. Is this because they really don’t suit me, or because I never… Read More Mandarin Lips and Mannequin Hands
Name: Maybelline Color Statement Lipstick in Ruby Star Date Purchased: February 2013 Grade: B Notes: Ruby Star was a gift from my mom, who included it in her annual Valentine’s package (aww). She thought she was sending me an unremarkable berry-red lipstick, not a berry-red lipstick with a raging case of disco fever. How wrong… Read More Lipstick Chronology #21: Maybelline Ruby Star
Name: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Fire and Ice Date Purchased: December 2012 Grade: A Notes: I’d like to believe that Fire and Ice, released in 1953, was a tribute to Robert Frost’s 1920 poem of the same name: Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted… Read More Lipstick Chronology #20: Revlon Fire and Ice, a Red for the Apocalypse
“His life was a constant war with insensate objects that fell apart, or attacked him, or refused to function, or viciously got themselves lost as soon as they entered the sphere of his existence.” This is Vladimir Nabokov’s description of Professor Timofey Pnin, the hapless protagonist of Pnin (1957), but it is also a perfect… Read More Noteworthy Neutrals: Revlon Sultry Matte Balm and Pink Truffle Lip Butter
Name: YSL Rouge Pur Couture #8 (Belle de Rose) Date of Purchase: Fall 2012 Grade: A Notes: Of all the YSL lip colors in existence, Belle de Rose must be one of the least swatched and blogged about, despite its starring role in a Lisa Eldridge video. I suspect that YSL’s flurry of new releases–Rouge… Read More Lipstick Chronology #16: YSL Belle de Rose
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