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Post by A F Beauty
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Hi APJ,
I have been on this planet many years but in that time, I’ve never really cemented my relationship with lipstick. I have tried multiple variations, colours and brands. A few months back I was a maid of honour at a wedding and the bride asked me to bring a lipstick that I could wear for the day, or I could buy one from the makeup artist. I knew I had a few lippies on the go, so I gather them all to take with me so all eventualities were covered. I counted them; I have over 60 lipsticks!! With that many you’d think I was wearing lippy every day, but I’m not – I still struggle with colours and textures, things like how long it’ll wear, how it matches my clothes, my skin tone. Of all make up, this is my nemesis!
So it’s odd, you’ll be thinking, that I would choose to write about lipstick, but I’ve had a bit of an angels singing moment when it comes to lippy, so I thought I would share.
Last year on Australian TV a couple of twins on a cooking show would appear nightly with some variation of THE brightest lipstick I’ve ever seen and instead of thinking about the food, I’m thinking, “Why can’t I wear lipstick like that without looking like a clown. Harrumph!”
Bright Lipstick for EVERYONE!
Fast forward a few months and I’m celebrating my birthday and want to look lovely for the day, recalling that cooking show, I think to myself, “Dammit! I’m going to buy a new lippy to celebrate!” I wasn’t brave enough to head to a luxury store to buy a delicious lipstick, Chanel and Tom Ford stand out in my mind as future purchases! No, I was in Target, glamorama (!), I found a L’Oreal Colour Riche lipstick in shade Raspberry Rush. I put it on and I LOVE IT!! I swear heavenly trumpets played and angels sang.
Creamy texture, bright colour, texture not too soft, colour not quite pink, not quite red, not quite orange! For all occasions it has become my go-to lipstick, it is soft enough to apply lightly for work, or apply strongly for a night out. And since then, I’ve ventured more into colours and brightness, Maybelline ColorSensational in 904, Vivid Rose – bright but amazing and several of Revlon’s Lip Butters, a great first leap into colour, soft in texture but with varying colours – a gateway lipstick!
I thoroughly recommend you all to try just one bright lipstick – not just because I suggest it, but because… now this is our secret… people treat you differently. I know, I sound like a mental case and I’m prepared to be shouted down, but I feel people in shops are more engaging, the bus driver acknowledges me and the people at work – well I can tell they are bursting to comment.
Photo Stolen Flickr
I’d love to know your favourite lipstick, are you bold enough to try colour? Have you had an angels singing moment?
A F Beauty XX
Australian Perfume Junkies 
I am similarly reluctant about lipsticks, but so much so, that I only have maybe 5! I found my absolute favorite lipstick 5 or 6 years ago. Lancome’s L’Absolut Rouge in Rich Cashmere (American name). For me it is the perfect nude. My husband says “why do you wear that lipstick? It makes your lips look more like your lips than your lips do!”
Obviously, the perfect nude. Right?
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Definitely the perfect nude!! I’m going to check it out 🙂
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When I was younger and before I fell deep into depression I loved wearing lipstick. I’m quite pale so my skin tone suited anything dark and the opposite of orange, deep red, plum or berry shades were my favourites. Also for something lighter; lilac or rose shades, just nothing too “pink”. I think some of the luxe ones are so beautiful! But the drugstore ones do amazing colours and are great quality too PS. I know which twins you mean haha, I called them the ‘lipstick twins’, wasn’t a fan of them tbh lol.
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Your comment about plum or berry colours reminds me of the film, Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow – have you seen it? There was a lipstick she wore just after getting her hair makeover and it was the most beautiful purply plum! I remember watching that film and then scouring the shops for that colour, it really suited her blonde look. I want to watch that again now! And I agree, you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a great lipstick – which is definitely a good thing!
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Hey there A F Beauty,
I have a deep vermillion stage lipstick that I rarely apply. What I do use is a Ben Nye Plum Lip Liner then overlay a shimmer from Shu UeMura(?)
I can’t remember the last time I had a lipstick.
Portia xx
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Hey Portia, is your shimmer the same colour/tone as the lip pencil? I can understand for you, a lip liner has the lasting power you might not get from a lipstick. Do you mix up your colours? Next time you go makeup shopping I should tag along 😀
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Naah, I use a champagne shimmer eye shadow. It gives a lovely life to the dark lip line which I smudge into flesh lips.
I’d love for you to come to the theatre make up shop.
Portia xx
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Hello A F Beauty,
I have been waiting for your take on bright lipsticks! What a fun post! I do believe, like you said, that when you wear bright lipstick people treat you differently – in a good way!
Last year I went through a crazy lipstick quest. I was looking for the brightest red lipstick in the world. I tried almost everything in all price ranges before I finally realized that I didn’t want red at all. I was really looking for florescent orange. Mac Amplified Morange is the best neon orange for me…but I found a very close second in the amazingly cheap and color true Wet and Wild Long Lasting Matt 24 Carrot Gold (969). For red /orange I love their Putty Persimmon (970). I bought several more in this Wet an Wild line and I finally did hear the angels sing, not with red, orange or red/orange as I had expected but with a bright florescent pink called Dollhouse Pink (967). I use this lipstick almost everyday. Sadly the Chanels, Diors and Estees and even my old favs from Urban Decay have been thrown into a drawer in favor of Wet and Wild. My goodness – I wasted a lot of money on lipstick last year that I could have spent on perfume…
Azar xx
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Hey Azar, glad you liked the post 🙂
I know what you mean about having a quest for the *right* colour, but then realising it was slightly different, I think this was my dilemma too – we all get sucked into red being the ultimate colour or we reject some colours without seeing them on and like clothes, you can’t always tell.
SO glad you had your angels sing moment, I’m going to check out your top choices, I’ve never heard of brand Wet And Wild before here in Oz, seeing the pics online of the brand and that colour, WOW! looks thrilling!!
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Oh how I wish I could wear bright (or dark) lipsticks. On the rare occasions I have worn something other than a nude pink I agree that people do take more notice of you. I just feel when I smile/talk my upper lip goes really thin and wearing a bold lip colour just draws attention to it.
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Hey Tara, my mum had a similar slim upper lip, but I have to say, I never noticed when she smiled and I’m not sure many people would pay attention to that over a lovely smile 🙂
There are a few tricks you could try – there are suggestions to use a lipliner slightly outside your natural lip line to boost the lip – I’ve personally never tried this but I’ve seen it on pinterest and it seems quite successful, worth a go! The other thing you could try is to use a highlighter in the centre of your lips top and bottom to create illusion of fullness, you could do that with some highlighter cream or pat the centre of your lips with a dab of highlight powder or a shimmery pale eyeshadow and then blend slightly with a brush or little finger pat. Good luck!
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Thanks for the tips! Much appreciated.
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I remember that show, loved the lips!
Finally broke away from my usual lip-colour but darker than your own, yawn yawn. And found a hot pink Stila one called Amelia that my sister said was ‘bright isn’t it?’ So I knew I had it right. On my second one now. Revlon does those big crayons that are fun too.
I think bright lips exude confidence, but keep it neat and off your teeth!
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Hey Jackie, totally lol’d at your sister’s comment and you then knowing you had it right, brilliant! I have one of those Revlon crayons – I think it has a minty taste while being bright orange – headspin!
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Hi AF Beauty! I think I have Maybelline vivid rose as well. Amazing colour (it was an angel singing moment when I first swiped it), but it does soak all of the moisture from your lips – so I’ve strayed from the colorsensational range ever since.
My absolute favourite lipcolour is Revlon’s Cherries in the Snow. An oldie but a goodie. Revlon lipsticks (and nailpolishes) are so underrated amongst the current product junkie generation. I buy my Revlon stuff in the US, where they’re cheap as chips in Target.
For trendy and bright colours, I stick to drug store brands (with the exception of MAC now and again). I don’t have anything from Tom Ford, because to be honest, I wasn’t blown away by the formulation of his lipsticks. Serge Lutens didn’t impress me much either.
What has set the bar for me is an obscure Italian brand called Inuovi. http://www.inuovi.com/ In terms of texture and comfort of wear, Inuovi is perfection…
Want to try the new Nars range. It’s meant to be non-drying and long lasting. I’m tired of rechecking and touching up my lips every few hours. Life’s too short for that!
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Hey Willa, thanks for the comment! I’m surprised about that drying from the Maybelline pink, I’ve never noticed that – but I’m not great at keeping lippy *on* – it is usually gone within a couple of hours of applying. I have noticed it with the Rimmel Apocolips though, which has been a shame because the colours are great.
I’ve heard about Revlon’s Cherries in the Snow, it is of the same sort of legend as Rimmel’s Heather Shimmer – it was de rigeur when I was a teenager along with their Hide The Blemish for covering teen spots – good times!
I’m also shocked to hear that about Tom Ford’s lippy – I have friends who rave about it – I need to get out and try it – but so good to hear an opposing view – especially at that price point!! Also, any money saved on lippy can be spent on perfume, I am still hands in pockets walking past his perfumes in case of accidental purchases! 😀
I’ve not heard of inuovi before, I will look at them for upcoming purchases – depending on the shipping costs – some cost more to send than the products are worth!!
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I have too many lipsticks to count, from drugstore to super luxe and mostly wear high SPF lip balm instead. I’m very pale olive (yellow) and red-haired so bright pinks are my reds (Urban Decay Anarchy is wonderful) and rosy-mauves or bricks are my nudes (the sadly discontinued Revlon Color Burst lipsticks were my favorite but I’m in the U.S. So Revlon is easy to find.
Occasionally I really want a true bright red and my go-to is Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick in Redrum because it won’t end up all over my face and doesn’t feel totally disgusting like most long-wear lipsticks. I think he ships worldwide too.
Really, I have twice as much makeup as most women and daily I wear brown super-waterproof mascara and oodles of sunscreen (to keep me from having that fakey too-tan redhead look that Scarlett Johansson has in the second Captain America movie).
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Hey MikasMinion, thanks for the comment! I didn’t think I heard of Jeffree Star, but he himself rings a bell – just had a look at the website – some amazing colours, I wonder if he will branch out into other products?? I can totally imagine that red with your colouring, I reckon it would look great!
I think we just got Urban Decay via Sephora in Sydney, I will go and check out Anarchy. 🙂
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I have always liked bright lipsticks. My best friend in college and I went on a hunt for a good red lipstick. This was in the late 60’s when everything was pale. We finally found what we were looking for, very much on the cheap, in Woolworth’s.
Now my favorite red, I don’t know about angels singing, but I’m pretty happy with it, is Rouge Bunny Rouge Raw Silence. It’s recently been reformulated and I’ll have to go out to Twisted Lily in Brooklyn at some point to try it out.
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Hi Francesa, you’ve hit me up with another brand I’d not heard of before, Rouge Bunny Rouge – just checked out their website, looks very good – I will definitely order something probably to coincide with next visit to Europe.
Your 60’s story sounds like fun – probably repeated by every generation since! The universe seems to conspire against finding the perfect lipstick – I had to re-order my fave from the article on ebay after searching Sydney from high to low. 🙂
I’m loving all these new brands I’m learning about, thank you!
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Great post, and great responses! Chanel Rouge Allure Enigmatique and Revlon Wine With Everything are two of my favourites. Both are reds with a pink/purple hue to them, especially the Chanel. I can’t do orange or coral.
It’s true people treat you differently. Partly it may be because the extra confidence boost makes us behave differently? Shoes can have the same effect.
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Oooooh, annemarie, the Chanel lipsticks look so gooooood! These are the lipsticks you want to whip out for packaging kudos as much as lippy colour!!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks people treat you differently – as I re-read the post last night I wondered whether I should have edited out that part – but I’m glad you and others have supported my assertion – maybe it is the confidence boost? I shall try to test that by putting on my fave lippy while annoyed and see if it has the same effect, lol 😀
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Love this post, AF Beauty! When I let my hair go silver my lipsticks looked dull. Inspired by Linda Rodin, I decided to go bright. My favorite is Clinique Long Last Lipstick in “Ginger Flower,” a pretty pinky-coral. I also have some inexpensive lip balm from Covergirl Lip Perfection, in bright coral and bright pink, to make my more modest lipsticks pop a bit. Fun!
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Hey Fifi, I can totally see how hair colour would change your lipstick choices – even switching from brunette to blonde can require considerable changes in make up colours. I am not yet brave enough to succumb to grey hair, but if I can wear more bright lipsticks, that makes it less scary! Thanks for the comment!
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Wondeful post. I have worn red most of my life. A proper colour has a knock on effect. Not only do people treat you differently, you walk taller, have an extra hit of confidence and the best is that the older you get the better it looks. Axts like a face lift and looks fabulous with grey hair. (I like to think – hahahahaha). And there is a rd for everyone. You need time to look and a SA who is willing to help. MAC Ladybird is one I use a lot. Chanel do a gorgeous red lipgloss.
Red Bussis. xxxxx
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Axts? Uhm – no.
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Red lipstick and grey hair looks über fabulous!
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Hey Cookie Queen, that MAC Ladybug looks lovely! I agree about having a great SA – sometimes easier said than done! Grey hair and red would look gorgeous, agree with Tara! ❤
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Loved this post! I’ve been a lippy fan since my early teens, and even when I leave the house w/o other makeup, there will always be lipstick. Just because I love wearing it!
Reds have always been a staple in my lipstick wardrobe, but as I’ve gotten older my preferred hues have become brighter. But I can only carry off the super-pigmented brights if I’m otherwise wearing a full mug of slap.
I join Anne-Marie in her praise of Revlon’s Wine With Everything! Angels whispered “this *really* suits you – stock up!”. And I did, of course 😉
At my age, I have to be careful with red lipstick, which tend to bleed into the fine lines around my lips (unless I make an effort to employ liner/primer/powder etc.)
I can’t stand the feel of long-wear or matte lipstick, or the look of shimmery/metallics: I always go for ‘creme’ or semi-sheer formulations.
I adore orange, but ‘true orange’ and brownish orange make my teeth look yellow! However red-orange (‘rorange’) is awesome. I like to experiment with pinks, violet/plums, nudes and corals, but I’ve discovered that they can be quite unflattering on me unless they’re noticeably darker than my natural lip shade.
Because I love to experiment with lip colours, I’m a sucker for cheap brands like Ulta3 and ones from the $2 shops. I find Revlon consistently excellent. Out of my 40+ lippies, I currently own just a handful from luxury brands – mostly gifts or discards from friends. I do love a ‘prestige’ lipstick but I just can’t justify spending the money. Sorry for the long post (I just love lippy!).
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Hey Christine, thanks for the comment, I loved reading it, I can hear the passion in your voice from the way you write! 🙂
I also like to experiment with colour, I have really taken some risks with colour this past year and boy am I glad I did! I have dozens of lippies all variation of similar nude/neutral shades and it’s only really been the brights that have turned me around to lipstick of itself rather than just to finish the face – for the longest time whenever going out and wearing full makeup I would wear dramatic eye makeup and revert to a nude-ish lipgloss.
Now, I definitely feel I have more choices with colours and it’s great that there are so many well priced options, I don’t feel like I’m about to miss a mortgage payment by buying one lipstick!
Interesting observation about the lipstick shade versus your own lip colour, I will pay more attention to that for myself in future and see if it’s the same for me.
thanks again! 🙂
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Yes, two out of three fav things, perfume lipstick and books. I could read/ talk about these all the time. Enjoyable read and love the comments too. Looking forward to more.
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My favorite lippie? The one I have in my hand or am wearing at the moment. Lipstick is my all time favorite makeup item. Some gals can’t leave the house without mascara, I can’t leave the house without lipstick on. I kinda went overboard with the Tom Ford Lips and Boys collection. So many colors. Such a cute size. I’m with Val, a red lipstick is great on us gray haired gals.
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A serial lurker breaks cover – while adoring scent, I have always avoided makeup, then recently found myself playing with a lipstick. Being ultra pale (red head style) but with dark hair, I decided to be brave & try a bright bright, rather than adding to my paleness, and it has been fun – Ive ended up with wild cherry by Innoxa (it was in the shop), which has some orange involved… Have toyed with less obvious ones before, but this just clicked for whatever reason.
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