I don’t wear much red lipstick. Is that a strange admission for a lipstick addict to make? Red is the iconic lip color, the color that we all think of when we hear the word “lipstick,” yet it’s rare that I reach for a true red: I prefer my reds sheer or burnt or plummy.… Read More Stress-Fueled Impulse Purchase #4: Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in 69
Name: Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple Date Purchased: November 2013 Grade: A Notes: After my last post, which took me forever to write, I thought I’d clear my palate with a quick installment of my Lipstick Chronology, now approaching its end: this is the penultimate post! I started my blog in early 2014, so… Read More Lipstick Chronology #34: Revlon Candy Apple
I like buying makeup to commemorate happy occasions. Lipsticks and nail polishes and eyeshadows function as little pins that secure my memories to the material world. That’s why I started my Lipstick Chronology (which reminds me, I haven’t added to the chronology since March). And that’s why, when I learned two weeks ago that my… Read More Beauty Abroad, Part 16: Topshop Rio Rio and London Beauty Shopping
If you’ve had Internet access in the past year, you’ve almost certainly heard of ColourPop, a small online-only brand with a formidable range of lipsticks, lip liners, and cream-to-powder eyeshadows, each a mere $5. Launched just last year, the brand has risen to prominence almost overnight, largely through partnering with popular bloggers and YouTube gurus.… Read More ColourPop Reviews, Part 1: Lippie Stix and Lippie Pencil in Frenchie
Names: Wet n Wild MegaLast Lipsticks in Stoplight Red and Purty Persimmon Dates of Purchase: September and October 2013 Grades: A-, A- Notes: Wet n Wild’s MegaLast lipsticks make me ask myself hard questions about my aesthetic threshold for makeup packaging. I’d like to believe that I’m the sort of person who cares more about… Read More Lipstick Chronology #32: Wet n Wild Stoplight Red and Purty Persimmon
Name: NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Mysterious Red Date Purchased: November 2013 Grade: A Notes: How excited am I to write this post? So excited that I broke my (never very strict, let’s be honest) Lipstick Chronology rule in order to review Mysterious Red out of order. It’s the holiday season, after all: what… Read More Lipstick Chronology #31: NARS Mysterious Red
If you’ve watched as many geisha documentaries as I have (she said, too casually), you’ll be familiar with the clichéd close-up shot of a geisha or maiko (apprentice geisha) painting her white-powdered lips with a brush dipped in rouge. The inevitability of this shot, in both Japanese and foreign documentaries, makes me roll my eyes… Read More Goldilocks and the Three Lip Brushes
It’s Christmas in August! By which I mean, it’s been so gray and gloomy in San Francisco that wearing gold eyeliner and brick-red matte lipstick–together, even–seems perfectly appropriate in early August. These are both recent purchases: I bought the eyeliner at a CVS in New York and the lipstick at an Ulta in Birmingham. I… Read More NYX for Eyes and Lips: Slide On Pencil in Glitzy Gold and Matte Lipstick in Alabama
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
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