Luxe lips

Doctors have a test they perform on women patients, known as The Lipstick Test. They enter the hospital room and observe whether she has applied lipstick. It's a barometer of her mood, her engagement with the world.

Lipstick's been in my kit since my teens, but I took an extended hiatus in late 20's till mid-30's. I thought it looked harsh, and figured I had enough colour without it.

Then one winter day in the mid '80s, egged on by a visiting goddess-friend, I painted my lips with her Guerlain Pretty in Pink. A French guy at work went (in a proper businesslike way)
nuts, blowing kisses and beaming approval. Two other men asked me if I wanted to sit with them at lunch. After work I walked straight to the nearest Guerlain counter, dropped about a hundred bucks and never looked back.

When I'm working a long day, I wear one of the paint-on semipermanents (Cover Girl Outlast is the best-lasting), because anything else wears off in 20 minutes. But for colour choice, I prefer the lusher moisturizing lipsticks.


Every once in a while I find a shade so luminous, so deep-yet-subtle, and so irresistible, I shout, "I found it!" Often, these transcendant colours flatter nearly everyone. Mine, on Anne Hathaway, above, is Lancome Rouge Sensation in Luxe.

Though loyal to Luxe, I feel like treating myself to another shade, just for a change. What is your favourite colour for summer (and brand, so we can find it)?



Comments

I love Chanel Sirocco - it's a pink that is like my lips just a little more intense.

My favourite red is Chanel Dragon - a little deeper so not garish, but a lovely cool colour to complement my complexion.
Duchesse said…
Imogen: Do you find the Chanel lipsticks last?
Deb said…
I don't go anywhere without Bobbi Brown Roseberry, it just makes me happy! I also adore Clinique Pink Chocolate for days when I feel the need to be more subdued. It's a matte color perfect for my skin and a great everyday color.
Susan B said…
I am a lipstick *junkie*! It's the one thing I never go without (even if just a gloss).

My lips are always dry, so the "long lasting" varieties tend to not look or feel good to me. Right now I'm loving the Laura Mercier "stick glosses" (lipstick format, but smooth and a little sheer) in Baked Earth and Rosewater. I also love Dior Addict in #530 when I want something brighter (that one is a coral-pink, which mon mari says looks "pretty!"

I love the Chanel ones that come in a tube with a brush (in Creme Brulee and Petit Four) but the tube only lasts about three weeks, even though I end up applying less than other lippies, and it's too expensive to keep restocking, so I use only occasionally.

I'm going to try that Lancome Luxe, looks like a color that would work for me.
Susan B said…
Oh, and I also like to experiment with mixing different colors of lipsticks with glosses, you can really customize that way.
mette said…
I like Chanel Provocative. Usually I use a liner ( Dior, Holiday Red or a bit of eyeshadow color ( ! ) with it . Chanel´s eye shadow colors are great too. I don´t have a special summer lipstick,
Anonymous said…
Julie Hewitt "Kiki" is a great nude summer color.
SewingLibrarian said…
Rubellite by Estee Lauder. I look good in these rosy pink colors, but I think everyone has to find her own best color based on her eyes, hair, and skin.
Yes these ones do - they're the Infarouge range I think and stay on pretty well. I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel with my Sirocco now. I got them duty free some years back (probably in 2001), they've lasted well!

Not, that I wear the same one every day - I tend to swap around lots and wear gloss a lot too.
~Tessa~Scoffs said…
I want to try Imogen's colors - they "sound" so good. I recently ran out of my MAC Skew and need to replenish. I often score with those Lancome "gift with purchase" freebies - sometimes they seem like they were custom made for me...and sometimes not.
Anonymous said…
I love lipstick, I'm always buying them and playing with them but as for remembering to put them on before I go out - well I'm not so good at that part. It's true though, I always remember when I'm happy with myself/life.
Also I don't think that lipstick looks that good on me, though if I could just find the right colour...
WendyB said…
My favorite color year-round is Lasting Lust by Mac: http://wbjewelry.blogspot.com/2008/07/red-lipstick-1-macs-lasting-lust.html
Mardel said…
I love lipsticks and always have quite a few in rotation. My lips are also dry and the long lasting varieties tend to look really aging on me. Chanel lasts though, as do a few others. My favorites right now are Trish McEvoy Sparkling Cherry, and Imogen's favorite, Canel Sirocco. My constant standbys are a 3 Custom Color Specialist remake of Chanel's Metal Bronze (which is long since discontinued, and one of the few really warm colors that look fabulous on my cool skin with sallow overtones) and a cheapy I picked up on vacation when I lost a favorite lipstick: L'oreal's Make Me Blush, which always looks pretty on me and lasts for ever.
Anjela's Day said…
I just bought my favourite MAC lipstick Pink Nouveau and a new one called Crème Cup!
The former I have worn in summer for a couple of years.It looks like Pepto Bismol pink but it just looks great with my pale skin and blue eyes. It sounds pretty radical but I like soft pink too.
I don't feel I look good with the reds. I am going to look at Lancome now.Thanks Duchesse...
Duchesse said…
Everyone: I now have your suggestions n a wallet card. (Thank god for testers, you Chanel wearers will bankrupt me.)

To anyone who needs a semi-permanent that's not hard on lips and really lasts, I like Almay, a drugstore brand.

Is Julie Hewitt carried at Sephora?
lady jicky said…
Estee Lauder's Rosa Rosa. A nice subtle pink. Very moist too.
CompassRose said…
I love lipstick, on other people. On me, a real coating of lippy makes me look old; it really brings out my smile lines (the ones called "marionette" by plastic surgeons) - not exactly a feature I'm looking to play up.

I can get away with a light, smudged coating of a colour that's pretty much the same as my lips when bitten. MAC's Del Rio was a good one, until I started reacting to MAC lipsticks and they peeled bits of skin off my mouth. Right now I wear mostly hints of Revlon Colourstay in Fabulous Fig, which I carefully matched with my old MAC in the cosmetics aisle of Shoppers Drug Mart. It's much more moisturising than the old superstay lipsticks I wore a decade ago (I went through a period of deeply unflattering dark reddish browns, heavily applied) but lasts very well.

Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey is an absolutely beautiful colour for summer on many people, very subtle, a bit more colour than a gloss. It still has that annoying hairtrapping gloss stickiness though; I have a tube, but every time I wear it I remember why I don't.
CompassRose said…
Although - I must say, is that doctor thing true? Seriously? Because dudes, I am not going to feck with lipstick if I'm in hospital. If the docs are lucky, I might have my hair up in a clip. Maybe. Sheersh. They might look to see if I feel well enough to read - but lipstick? In hospital? Give me a break.
ViKi said…
Based on your post I immediately bought a tube of Luxe. I didn't even try it on and it is a fantastic color for me. Thank you for your insight. Now to get a pair of jellies!
s. said…
Makeupalley.com is a fabulous website in which "regular" women discuss and rate various makeups. I get all sorts of ideas for lipsticks I want to try there.

A few years ago, I was all about muddy, muted or dark lipstick. But these days, pinky and fresh colours seem much more exciting. Oh. And a clean red lipstick with all other makeup polished but minimal.
Duchesse said…
s.: I'm on MakeupAlley from time to time to get the scoop on products- good site.
Duchesse said…
s.: Muriel Dombret of Clothes in Ottawa does twice-yearly trunk shows in Toronto, you might enjoy.

Beautiful, simple clothes.

Email: info@murieldombret.com
Anonymous said…
Oh I am a lipstick NUT. I strongly prefer the NARS lippies, they have very good staying power and aren't as drying as a stain (I'm inches from 40 and have crazy dry skin, if you dry me out I get dessicated looking and it adds 15 years, easy).

My go-to color that adds glow and makes me look young and rested and happy is NARS' new "outsider" lippie. It is less orange and more rosy than in the pics online. Don't be scared off by it being a metallic or having flecks, they don't come off as the sort of thing better left to twenty-two year olds I promise. It will perk up your whole face.

For a non muddy neutral that works when you want a strong and serious but not dour look, NARS "Mindgame" is fantastic. I use it as a good neutral when I want to do a heavier eye.

I also like the Laura Mercier gloss sticks, the Poppy is a fantastic light glaze summer red that gives a bitten look to the lip and makes them seem fuller. Not harsh, not aging to the face at all, great texture. The gloss stick "Baby Lips" is possibly the best YLBB pink lippie ever made, if it lasted six hours I'd marry it.
Duchesse said…
fountaingirl: I'm picking those Nars colours up tomorrow, why not, it's my birthday.

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