My New Color of the Year: Summer Red

The official Color of the Year this year is Tangerine Tango, a vibrant and rich orange perfect for summer. This is according to Pantone, “the standard language for color communication from designer to manufacturer to retailer to customer.” The news of this has affected fashion, home design and cosmetics and is such a big deal that Sephora has created displays of orange products so vast that you literally have to walk around them whenever you enter one of their larger stores. There’s even a free brochure about the new orange cosmetics and how to use them. Of course, with my yellow-based skintone, pure orange makes me look, well, kind of dead. So I have found myself gravitating back to all my deep, rich blue-based reds which are much more appropriate for fall and winter, all the while yearning for a new color to feel fresh for spring and summer.

Then one recent day I saw this gorgeous profile photo of my friend Sophia Lucas on Facebook, where her beautiful red lips were bright and just a little bit sheer. With her dark hair and eyes her lipstick looked so chic…perfect for summer! What red is this, I immediately asked her, expecting the answer to be from some fancy highbrow brand I had somehow missed. The answer was shocking: Are You Red-dy by Maybelline, she told me. Upon purchase, I discovered a creamy texture, lovely coverage in one coat (and the option of practically a whole different matte color if you blot just once), and all this for a grand total of $5.50-$7.50, depending upon which drugstore you choose. It looked great on me, as I had hoped, and when I lined it up on the back of my hand against a few of my other reds, I saw that though it is a pink-based red, the difference is in fact its little shot of orange.

Now I was inspired. I had the cornerstone of a summer red trifecta that could only be completed with nails and cheeks.  For nails I turned to Anita Rivas, a.k.a., City Girl in Red Lipstick, one of my favorite blogs, who had recommended Nars Dovima as the ideal red manicure/pedicure. This was a red I had many times passed over in the bottle as too orange, but now was willing to a try. Once on it's stunning. And not that I want to be all match-matchy, but it does match the lipstick as if they are made for each other.

For cheeks, I already owned the most perfect red cream blush, Nars Cactus Flower, but had never noticed its orange shimmery undertones. It has to be used judiciously, but when it is, it can lend a perfect natural glow to cheeks that enhances – and doesn’t compete with – red lipstick the way that pink or peach blush does.

Now with my own Color of the Year, Summer Red, I’m ready for the weather to change.