All spiffed up and only missing my lipstick, I was in the truck with my ladies, on route to a baby shower. I opened my purse, dug for my lipliner, and pulled down the sun flap mirror as I did so. But when I looked down at my hand, I discovered one of my lipsticks had exploded! And not just any lipstick, it was a RED one.
So there was now heavily pigmented red crème all over my hands, all the other lipsticks and glosses, and the inside of my cosmetic bag. The culprit was my NYC Retro Red, whose cap doesn’t close very securely. I had a moment of panic that it might be my beloved Russian Red by MAC that had broken. If that were the case, my afternoon would well and truly have been ruined.
I was able to slip into the party, and into the bathroom without much trouble, cleaned up the mess on my hands and surviving comrades, and I emerged at the party refreshed and red-lipped. Thank goodness I keep all the lip products in a separate bag in my purse!
I’ve never had an issue like this with a lipstick before. Lip glosses, I find, often tend to squirt up into their screw-cap threads a little every time you close it, and then end up drooling all over your handbag. I learned this lesson the hard way, which is why I now bag my lip products separately. Not that I wear gloss often anymore. The few times I do, I find myself unhappy with the slimy texture, the stickiness, the lack of colour, and the way it seems to transfer magically into my hair even though I have it pulled away from my face.
Not to mention, wearing lipstick instantly makes your face looked pulled together. Especially red. In fact, I find when I wear red, I can wear nothing but mascara on my eyes and only a little blush for colour, and it looks like I’ve spent ages perfecting my makeup.
Lucille Ball
The doe-eyed eyeliner look hadn’t come about yet, in the 1940s. But do note her beautiful exaggerated 40s upper lip!
Now if only I could learn to schedule it into my morning, so I can leave the house with red lips instead of sitting in the car at my destination applying in tiny mirrors…
Red Shoes Vintage 