Vino de Amor

A friend of mine paid me a nice compliment yesterday. She said I looked very “fresh.” Was my hair different? Had I lost weight? What was it? she asked.

To tell you the truth, I had barely put any makeup on at all. I’ve still been feeling rundown from the not-flu flu that I recently had, so it’s been about all I could do to work up enough gumption to put my face on in the morning. If you know me at all though, you know I have to be nearly dead to leave the house with no makeup, so that morning I’d slung on a little blush, some powder, and some mascara. I finished off with a brand new lipstick. Vino de Amor it’s called. It’s red.

Few things are as exciting or as satisfying to me as a brand new lipstick, especially a red one. There’s nothing like that first time you give a little twist and it peeks out from it’s shiny tube, unblemished, it’s perfect point ready to trace the outline of your mouth into a flawless pout. The rich color glides on and transforms your pale and sallow face into a bright and healthy visage. With a quick blot on a tissue, your color is set for the day, just like you are.

Red lipstick can flat cure what ails you.

I had a roommate in college who would make up her entire face and never put on any lipstick. That’s like fixing a decadent ice cream sundae and not putting a cherry on the top. What’s the point?

And while a new lipstick can be as exciting as a first date, your old stand-by, tried-and-true lipsticks are worth their weight in gold-colored wax. You know the one. That color you’ve had since high school that still looks good on you (I have two — Loreal’s Mauved and Clinique’s Raspberry Glacé). The one that’s worn down almost to the bottom but you can still get some good out of it.

Speaking of wearing down a lipstick, I’ve always been fascinated by how different women wear down a lipstick in different ways. I tend to wear mine down to where it’s lower in the center and higher on two sides. I’ve seen some women whose lipsticks are either at a sharp angle or who wear it to almost a point in the middle. Have you ever noticed this phenomena or is it just me? How does your lipstick wind up? I really want to know.

Fresh. That’s what my friend called me. Fresh. I thought that was a purely lovely thing to say. Maybe I’ll stick with my post-sickness make-up routine for a while. Maybe I’ll wear red lipstick more often.