Holiday Lips: No Time to Be Shy

The holidays are no time to be shy about lip color, and to me they mean it’s time to break out the reds and berries. If you are a neutral-gloss-wearing type who never wears a strong color on your mouth, now’s the time to upgrade to muted red or a berry stain. If, on the other hand, your makeup bag is already bursting with saturated these colors, now is the time of year to go full-on, especially at night and especially for parties, or to even deepen your shades with a bit of black.

My all-time favorite red, as I've said here before, is Giorgio Armani Rouge d’Armani #400 (not 401 as inexplicably recommended by Lucky in their September 2010 red lipstick piece – it’s way too orange). A close second and quite an unsung hero among reds is NARS’s Red Lizard. While everyone is falling all over themselves over Lancome’s Absolute Rouge, NARS’s Jungle Red and MAC’s Russian Red, Red Lizard is an incredibly flattering shade and a much truer, richer red than these, although its texture is just a tad dry. Further along the glossy spectrum, one product stands alone (please forgive me, I've said this before, too): Chanel’s Dragon Satin Lip Lacquer. Applied generously with the wand, it’s rich, saturated and striking. Patted down with your finger or a tissue it’s muted more like a stain. A more recent addition to my makeup bag is a lifesaver for on-the-subway-on-the-way-to-the-party touchups: NARS’s Cruella Velvet Matte Lip Pencil. So quick and so easy, I often wear it during the day, but I have long extolled the virtues of wearing red lips all the time so if you're not up for this don't despair. If you have a darker complexion or are a woman of color, MAC’s Ruby Woo will be a knockout on you. For fairer-skinned among us, this color looks clownish, but I have literally stopped Asian and African American women on the street and asked them what they are wearing and often this is the color.

In the berry family, the home run in my opinion is Chanel’s Lune Rousse. As a member of the Rouge Coco line, its texture couldn’t be more perfect, it feels like a dream going on and lasts seemingly forever. Despite all the press about Ballet Russe (it has seemed to show up in every magazine lately), I find it too severe. Other lovely berry shades are MAC’s old standby Diva and Lancome’s Le Rouge Absolu in Merlot.

If you’ve already ventured into red and berry territory and want to turn it up a notch, add a dab of MAC Lipmix in Black to your lipcolor. Lipmix is the next generation following Mattene lipstick in Midnight Media from a couple of years ago that sold out so fast everyone’s heads were spinning.

If all this is still too much for you and you still have the urge to leave your lips neutral, I’ll leave you with one idea that I stumbled upon last New Year’s: swipe a bit of sheer orange gloss over your usual lipstick for a festive pop of color that will go with just about anything but will help your look stand out. My personal favorite – because it’s not too orange-y – is Smashbox’s Alluring. Use it over a neutral pencil, on top of your usual neutral color, or even combined with a stronger color (I use it in the center of my top and bottom lips even over red when I’m going out at night).

Happy holidays!

Grey Eyes: Never Out of Style

Why is everyone just now “re”-discovering grey eyeshadow and liner? It’s always been terribly chic and beautiful, infinitely wearable on most eye colors both day and night.  The benefit of everyone liking it now is that most of the makeup lines are producing their own versions of grey, be it gunmetal, silver, pewter or platinum. Still, some are better than others…

If you’re just joining the grey brigade, I recommend doing one of two things: 1) try Givenchy’s Le Prisme Mono Eyeshadow in Hip Grey because, for your money, you get essentially four different shades of grey, from matte to shimmer, that you can blend to varying effect; or 2) choose one of Sephora’s many takes on grey and silver from their Colorful Mono Eyeshadow Collection. At $12 a pop, you can afford to make a mistake, try several at a time or mix a couple together.

If you want to commit to one grey to start, you can’t go wrong with Laura Mercier’s Celestial. Just voted one of Allure’s Best of Beauty eyeshadows, I agree it’s lovely, but if you’re looking at Laura Mercier’s shadows you should also check out Black Ice, which is advertised as black but reads as gray and has more depth than Celestial. A little further along the shimmer spectrum but totally wearable is NARS Night Life. The name notwithstanding, I wear this color day or night. It has some shimmer, but not so much that it’s overpowering. Sweep it lightly all over – by itself or over a matte neutral color – or build it up on its own. 

For the grey neophyte who wants a true smoky eye, Smashbox has you covered. With its new Smoky Eye Kit, a holiday three-piece set containing Gunmetal platinum shadow, Obsidian shadow and Caviar cream liner, plus a step-by-step guide, you can’t go wrong (plus the price is half what the three products would be on their own).

If you’re feeling brave and you have some holiday parties coming up, there are two must-have greys/silvers, but they are real statement-makers, so don’t use them unless you mean it. First up is Urban Decay Stardust in Void. Not for the faint of heart, this shadow goes beyond shimmer and provides all-out sparkly irredescence (if you’re not quite ready for this commitment but you like the shade, try Urban Decay’s Heavy Metal Glitter Liner instead).

At the maximum saturation point on the spectrum, which I save for really special occasions, is Illamasqua Liquid Metal. The greys in this extraordinary British cosmetics line are Phenomena (Molten Silver) and Surge (Molten Pewter). My only advice when working with the Liquid Metal line is to practice with them when you have some free time…don’t wait until 15 minutes before you have to leave for a party or you’ll be cursing, making a mess and starting all over (trust me...this advice comes from hard-earned experience). They go on easily but they do migrate and then they dry and stay put, including on your fingers, so be prepared to use some eye makeup remover on your hands. If you choose to use eyliner, use it on top of these after they dry.

So there you have it. Be chic and beautiful with your grey eyes and don’t let anyone tell you they are ever out of fashion.

The Lavender Life (La Vie Lavande)

My love affair with lavender began when I was a tiny little person taking baths in my grandmother's bathtub whenever I visited her. She always had Yardley English Lavender Soap, which I not only thought was exotic and rare but also made me feel terribly grown up (I didn't find out until much later that it was available at most drug stores, but I never loved it any less).

About 15 years ago, the company changed the formula, the bar, the packaging, everything...no longer an ovoid brownish bar in an old-fashioned box, it became a light purple bar just like every other lavender on the market, in a matching purple and more modern box. Even the fragrance changed. I didn't love it so much anymore.

I had to seek out another lavender.  I moved on to fancier brands...The Body Shop...L'Occitane en Provence...Caswell & Massey...Crabtree & Evelyn. Many were lovely but each had its own fatal flaw - maybe a synthetic fragrance, or some - like Pre de Provence - which promised exfoliation with its tiny pieces of actual lavender in the soap (this, let me assure you, only leaves you with little twiggy stuff you need to rinse off and is really annoying).

The clouds parted when I discovered Kiss My Face. Their Lavender and Olive bar soap, apart from being incredibly moisturizing, smells like lavender should smell, lasts forever, and (I know this is going to sound weird) dissolves nicely, without jagged edges and those strange layers that some bar soaps get after a week or two on the side of your tub. Their Lavender and Shea Moisture Shave makes shaving well, maybe not fun, but at least not the chore it can be, and it comes in a handy pump that acknowledges that we have our razor in one hand and are probably standing on one foot in the shower so we can't be bothered with any two-handed maneuver to dispense shave cream without risking concussion.

A new addition to the Kiss My Face lavender line is its Lavender Mandarin Castile Peace Soap. It's just generally beyond fabulous and smells divine. You can wash literally anything with it, and 10% of profits from each product sold supports Seeds of Peace and its mission to help young people from regions of conflict develop the leadership skills necessary to advance reconciliation and coexistence. So far, I've used it as bubble bath, laundry soap, jewelry cleaner and to clean pretty much our whole bathroom. It's amazing and does good at the same time. What could be better? 

If you're not clean and fragrant enough at this point, you might want to complete your Lavender Life with my most recent discovery - EO's All Purpose Lavender Sanitizing Cleansing Wipes, especially if you live in a city where public transportation is a part of your daily life. Available online and at Whole Foods, I whip one of these out after a long haul on the subway, it comes away filthy and my hands smell delightful. In the summer it's refreshing and in the winter I feel protected from flu germs.

Now that's the Lavender Life.