Keep Wearing Lipstick

by A Daily Dose Of Glamour

I remember the first time I ever wore lipstick. I was 7 years old and my mother had just taken me for what was to be the first traumatic experience of my childhood; a haircut that took away my much loved long hair, full of big thick curls and left me with a short pixie cut. I use to love my long hair so much that I remember spending way too much time before school brushing and flipping it over my head over and over until it looked full and fluffier (what can I say, I wanted to be a Charlie’s Angel and thought I had the hair to pull it off). Reflecting back on the change in my look, I can appreciate now just how gamine and adorable I probably (hopefully) looked. At the time though, I just remember feeling like I had lost my femininity. I felt like a boy. In fact I felt like a boy so much that I kept saying it over and over in the car on the ride home. Until mom couldn’t take it any longer. She reached into her purse and handed me a tube of red lipstick. She told me to wear that and tell me if I still felt like a boy. It worked (well at least for the car ride home where I promptly produced fresh tears as proof to my father just how upset I really was). I remember sitting in front of the flipped down mirror applying lipstick on my small tiny lips until I had a few layers of red, enough to look like a 7 year old tarte. Throughout most of my life though I stayed far away from any color on my lips (except for a brief stint in high school where I religiously wore Cover Girl’s Toasted Almond). It hasn’t been until recently that I began to feel confident enough to wear a color on my lips other than my natural with a touch of gloss. I don’t know if its wearing lipstick itself, or the act of putting it on that makes me feel like a grown up lady. But it does. Is there anything else a woman can acceptably do in public besides applying lipstick that announces to the world ‘ I am a woman and I want to be noticed’? I can’t think of it. #83 Keep Wearing Lipstick from ‘100 Ways to Age with Grace, Elegance & Joie De Vivre‘ via Live the Charmed Life.

Below are a few of my favorite shades of Red, almost all are universal and should work for most skin tones:

An iconic red, Revlon Fire & Ice $7

MAC Russian Red, a beautiful blue based red that is an almost universally flattering red. $15

MAC Lady Danger, a bright poppy red with almost a touch of orange. A classic red in my opinion. $15

Another classic color from MAC Ruby Woo, a beautiful red that goes on matte. Its a stunning shade with a lot of wearability. Be sure to apply this over moisturized lips as it can be a touch drying. $15