Red, She Said

Giving red lipstick another try...

Hello, Gorgeous!

If I had to describe my go-to lip color it would be a plum/mauve mashup with (lots of) gloss on demand. It’s flattering, it matches pretty much anything, and it’s easy to manage. But I wasn’t always this practical. Long before Taylor Swift even knew what an era was, I committed to my red era.

My red era

From about the time that I hit my 19th birthday —and for more than the decade or so that followed—my signature lip color was red. Bold, stark, in your face scarlet, vermillion or ruby, at all times and in all ways. But trends change. Times change. People change. And so I veered away from my bold pop of color to variations of something safer and consistently flattering.

Why I started avoiding red

Despite my tendencies toward relentless positivity, like most women with my 40th birthday well in the rearview mirror, I feel the pressures of society to stay forever young. And so I worried that wearing red lipstick, might age me more. Would it leak into the fine lines near my mouth? Would bright red lips draw attention to my dreaded marionette lines running from my nostrils and down my face? Probably. And so I shelved the red.

While I flirted with brick and purple and fuchsia, I still never felt entirely comfortable wearing red lipstick again. Until last week.

Reclaiming red lips

My sister* told me about an irresistable Clinique Lipstick bundle. Four lipsticks for $26.25 (value $112). The colors were incredible. Two mauvey shades I’d wear for sure and a perfect neutral. I was less thrilled about the bright red also included with the quartet, but figured it was still a great deal. Here’s what happened next.

I tried all four colors. Three of them were cute and safe. They were flattering and easy to use. And then out of curiosity, I tried the red. I’m not going to say that I was self-conscious, because who are we kidding? I’ll try pretty much any makeup product out there, but I wasn’t entirely sure about it. Until the compliments started rolling in. And, man did I get compliments on my bright red lips. Pretty much anyone I ran into commented on how great I looked. People who knew me well, zeroed in on the red lipstick effect.

Red alert (which is also the name of the red Clinique lipstick in question!)

As women of a certain age, we’re often told that we’re invisible to society. We’re not. For the most part we’re simply comfortable enough to choose looks that we prefer rather than trying to prove something to anyone else. And for me, that means starting to re-embrace the bold red lips that were once such a strong part of who I was or might still be.

Clinique Kisses Makeup Set is $26.25 on Clinique.com.

Do you wear bold makeup colors including red lips, or are you more mellow? Meet me in the comment section to discuss!

Rachel, Your beauty concierge 💋

*Kiki, for the two of you reading this who still don’t know her.