NARS Audacious Lipstick in 'Lana'. I swatched this radiant orangey-red color a few weeks ago and promised myself I'd buy it only if I finally got my act in gear and started tracking every day in #weightwatchers. Two weeks later, I was down three pounds, just in time to pick up this (and a few other lovely goodies) in the Sephora Friends & Family sale. I guess if anything will get me motivated, it's a seriously sexy red lipstick.
Charlotte Tilbury Tell Laura
Charlotte Tilbury Hot Lips (Matte Revolution) in 'Tell Laura'. Ugh, this is just so perfect. I'm going to see if I can wait like maybe... 4 paychecks before I buy my next color in this formula. I feel magnificent in these lips.
Clinique Ruby Pop
Clinique Pop Matte Lip Color + Primer in 'Ruby Pop'. A cheerful pinky red almost exactly the color of Dorothy's slippers, I like to imagine her as MAC Ruby Woo's goody-two-shoes little sister.
Marc Jacobs So Sofia
Marc Jacobs Le Marc lipstick in 'So Sofia'. Wore this for my Mother's Day brunch today, paired with sunglasses, a pancake or 4, and 2 mimosas: a combination I highly recommend on Mother's Day and all the days. Super creamy and saturated, it's almost a neon red. Pretty killer. Go Marc go!
NARS Grace
NARS Audacious Lipstick in 'Grace'. The last of my 3 Audacious colors, this one's not quite red, not quite pink, not quite coral, but quite entirely fabulous. Each of the Audacious colors are named for a certain Hollywood starlet, and I'm assuming this color's namesake is Grace Kelly. Speaking of Grace Kelly, have you all heard of a podcast called You Must Remember This? I heard Sali Hughes mention it once and checked it out for the first time last week, and discovered it's the most incredible resource for Old Hollywood Gossip Junkies like myself. I listened to the stories on Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Grace Kelly, and I learned such delicious dirt about all three women that I didn't know before. Highly recommended listening, especially while wearing your vampiest red lipstick.
Chanel Coromandel
Chanel Rouge Allure in no. 98 'Coromandel'. I was inspired to pick up this color after watching Mary Greenwell expertly apply it to Sali Hughes' face in the behind-the-scenes shoot for Sali's brilliant book Pretty Honest. Little did I know, through further research via Lisa Eldridge's #makeupmoment blog posts, that Coromandel was also used on a couple marvelous leading ladies in recent films: by Ivana Primorac on Kiera Knightly in the sultry library scene in 'Atonement' and by Morag Ross on Cate Blanchett in the mesmerizing, gorgeous film 'Carol'. As if I needed more reasons to feel special wearing fancy red lipstick. 💄
Burberry Orange Red
Burberry Lip Velvet in 'Orange Red'. Once my tube of MAC 'So Chaud' became loved to a millimeter of its life, I decided to graduate to the big guns and found this Amazon in a Tube at the Burberry counter. What Burberry's marketing team lacks in imaginative naming, they more than make up for in luxurious packaging: the magnetic closure is everything and THE BULLET IS EMBOSSED IN PLAID, PEOPLE. All that, and it manages to stay put well past 3pm. 'So Chaud' was fun while she lasted, but now that I'm past 35, I don't mind spending $35 on a tube of lipstick to feel fancy.
Revlon Fire & Ice
Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in 'Fire & Ice'. In Pretty Iconic, in the same Revlon entry as 'Cherries in the Snow', Sali Hughes told a touching story about what this color in particular meant to her and her friend. The nostalgic, evocative power of makeup makes me happy and is nothing to be sneezed at. 💄💫
MAC Ruby Woo
The one. The only. The unfuckwithable.
MAC So Chaud
MAC 'So Chaud': first MAC lipstick purchase and my forever signature red, now beloved beyond recognition. ❤💄❤
When I had the brainstorm of creating an Instagram account all about my lipstick collection, I decided it was only fitting to name the account after my first grownup lipstick purchase; hence "EmilySoChaud".