If you know me IRL, you know I LOVE a good lipstick. Lipstick and sunglasses can absolutely make a whole look and, honestly, they can turn your mood around.
Whenever I’m frankly feeling BLAH, I grab one of my favorite tubes with a bold color. It won’t solve the issues of world peace, but it might brighten your mood (and face) a little bit.
Pro tip: Wear a bare (or barely there) face and do lipstick only. Remember sun protection tho. I’m 38. I can tell a big difference among my peers who have and have not worshipped the sun.
Let’s keep this simple:
PINK:
+ YSL Pink Celebration. This is my favorite deep Summer shade. It’s like 1960s Palm Spring.
+ MAC Candy Yum Yum. This is dense pigment FUCHSIA. I love the smell of MAC lipsticks, too. It takes me straight back to 1995 when I got my first tube at the makeup counter at the mall. I was 11 years old. It was the height of vampy 90s fashion. And the MAC counter people were the chicest thing I’d ever seen. Note: MAC lipsticks have the best pigment but can be drying over time. So make sure you hydrate well in your life. In general.
+ Gucci Rouge de Beaute Brillant in Vantine Fuchsia. Every time I’m in NYC, I pop in the Gucci shop on Wooster. It’s the best one in the world. It’s like walking into a lounge and there’s a bookstore and it’s very cozy and fabulous. Anyway, every time I pop in I treat myself to a new tube of Gucci lipstick. The current packaging (designed by Alessandro Michele as an homage to his grandmother) is really special. While you can get Gucci cosmetics at Sephora, Bergdorfs, etc., if you get it at a Gucci boutique, you get this little linen fabric Gucci bag and the swing bag that corresponds to whatever the current collection is. I save these to use as travel jewelry bags or to gift to friends with gourmet chocolates or edibles inside.
Can we pause a moment and just hold space for the creative genius of Ale? Read about the development of the lipstick collection here. And look at this gorgeous mood.
ORANGES
+ Gucci Matte Agatha Orange. I love their matte lipsticks, which do NOT dry out my lips!
+ Tom Ford Firestar. It is GLITTER. And it’s also discontinued, but only recently. So you can still find usable dead stock on the market!
REDS
+MAC Russian Red. The color swatch here is totally inaccurate. This red is deep and blue based. Very 90s. AND it was supposedly the lipstick worn by Carolyn Bassett Kennedy. HARD STOP. Go grab a tube for real. Be that gorgeous 90s babe.
+ Gucci Goldie Red in Rouge de Beaute Brillant line. This is a creamy pigmented silky balmy feeling. Not sticky. Doesn’t bleed into the lines of the lip. And FYI Goldie Red is the official Gucci red. Like, their signature. And it’s available in all the different lipstick lines.
+ Gucci Matte Odalie Red in matte. Can you tell I really love a dense and bright lipstick? Also, Gucci lipsticks are $44. Which is expensive for a lipstick, but a mini luxury that feels like an accessible splurge every once in a while.
Also— gift idea: gift one to a girlfriend. (My girl Katie gave me a new one for my bday and it was SOOOOO memorable and I think of her every time I put it on. Hey girl hey!)
+ Gucci Louisa Red in satin finish. This one is like if you drank a burgundy wine and made out with a hot vampire kind of color. It’s so sexy and really works well in this satin finish because you can easily give it that blur treatment. So SEXY.
+ Clinique Black Honey. Okay, this may be the wild card in the whole group. I have so many friends who remember their first makeup experience at Clinique. It’s like the counter that our moms took us to so we could learn proper skincare and feel a little grown up but without looking “made up.” (Oh, my god. I am aging myself. This sounds like freaking Betty Draper territory.)
But hear me out— Black Honey is THE SH*T. It’s super SUPER moisturizing with a hint of this deep wine lips color but looks so natural and faint. It almost feel like “mood ring lipstick”— you know, like it adapts to the ph and temperature of your lips. (Omg, another old lady moment— my Maw Maw Tot had Avon mood lipstick and the stick was GREEN but it made your lips PINK. Can we please bring this back too??)
Okay, what are your favorites??? Let me know!
xo
Morgan