At Prada, You're Never Fully Dressed Without Smile #151

Uniform. The word does not ususally inspire…well, much of anything. But what if the uniform was dictated to you by Miuccia Prada? Then it wouldn't be so bad, would it? But this brilliant arbiter of style - or at least her company - didn't stop at clothes for this particular uniform. She went all the way to the sexy red lips. 

I discovered this quite by accident while browsing the Prada boutique for Things I Cannot Afford in the Temple of Happiness (Bloomingdale’s), where I was chatting with a lovely young woman (Danielle, pictured) with fantastic red lips and asked her if she happened to know what color it was she was wearing. I do this all the time with total strangers, but her answer surprised me. “Lancome #151,”’ she said definitively. I couldn’t believe she knew the number so I probed further. You know the number?? “Yes," she said. "It’s the same one we all wear,” at which point I glanced around the boutique and noticed that everyone, irrespective of age, haircolor or ethnicity, had the same red lips. All the salesgirls are handed a tube when they are hired along with their Prada patent bow belts. 


I had never heard of such a thing! I had heard of wearing uniforms to work, of course, but never of dictating the makeup of one's employees, particularly something that is such a statement as red lipstick. What if it didn't look good on everyone? But this one did! Here was a diverse group of women, and yet #151 (Avant Garde Red, by the way) looked great on all of them. How could there be a universal red I had not yet stumbled upon? 

After asking Danielle if I could take her photo and write about her, I immediately searched online to try and find something about this fascinating phenomenon of making lipstick part of a uniform - or about Prada doing it first - and found virtually nothing. Why not, I wondered? Red lipstick is strong, powerful and makes a statement. Why not make something like that part of the image you are projecting for women's clothing, accessories and fragrance? 


Anyone who reads this blog (or who even knows me, for that matter) knows that I think red lipstick is appropriate for everything from a night on the town to taking out the trash, so it should absolutely be part of a day at work at a fashion house. And to make it a required part of the uniform? Well, that just ensures that everyone looks equally fabulous. 

When You're Faithful to Your Lipstick and Your Lipstick Doesn't Return the Favor...

Monogamy: the condition or practice of having a single mate during a period of time

This implies an agreement between two parties, yes? So, what happens when one party is monogamous and the other party is not? Well, many of us are unfortunately familiar with this, right?

But what if your monogamous relationship is with your lipstick? That is to say, you have used none other than this one lipstick for years. Then one day, just like in any other relationship, you notice little things…like it’s not so easy to find anymore. It’s not on the front display shelf anymore. Maybe you have to ask for it specially, or “it’s in the back.” Maybe it’s just constantly out of stock. So you do the thing you know you’re never supposed to do for fear of getting the answer you don’t want to get: you ask what's going on. And what you find out is that it’s being discontinued. Like any betrayal, you never know the real reason it’s being discontinued, and if you ask, you probably will not be told the truth; all you know is that someday soon you will not be able to get it anymore, and you go into a panic.

This is happening to my friend Maggie, except that it’s not just any lipstick. It’s the only lipstick she wears, and, more than that, it’s the only makeup she wears. Period. When I found out about this, quite by accident one night by complimenting her on how great her lipstick looked (because I pay attention to these things), she told me of her challenge and her mission to find every last tube of MAC Lip Gelee in Moistly (terrible name) left in the New York City area or online. I understand her devotion. An already gorgeous girl with perfect skin, this not-quite-a-gloss, not-quite-a-lipstick with just a subtle punch of berry stain totally lights up her face.

I told her of my own journey, having survived a betrayal many years ago when Aveda pulled its Redwood Cerise lipstick for no apparent reason and I made my husband drive me around Manhattan to every Aveda store one Saturday, Visa card in hand, buying them all. I still have two tubes left. Of course it’s worth noting that my backlash to that betrayal was nothing like Maggie's: I did not pledge undying allegiance to my color. Instead, I turned into a lipstick whore, abandoning my color and wearing anything that came along, to the point where I now carry around at least 10 lipsticks in different shades to suit my mood and clothing. I even had to buy a bigger makeup bag to suit my loose lips.

But I digress...this is not Maggie’s style, so I pledged to help her find what was left in New York of what is rightfully hers. Her three solid months of work has yielded a total of 13 tubes, procured from online scores, back rooms at MAC counters at Macy’s, and as far afield as a Neiman Marcus or two. Now her friends know of her plight and when they find a tube, she gets them as gifts.

With this cushion of time, I have advised her to refrigerate all of them and when she gets down to her last tube and a half, she is to keep the full tube for herself to use, and bring the half to one of the great miracles of modern makeup, Three Custom Color, handily located in Manhattan on 22nd Street. In addition to their own roster of their own extraordinary products – blushes that make you look like you just came in off the ski slopes and lipsticks named after New York dance clubs from the ‘80s – they will literally replicate for you your long-lost anything…not just lipstick but blush, foundation, powder, brow gel, you name it. Even my very own Redwood Cerise is already in their database.

Are they a miracle? Kind of...or maybe they're just the nice, solid relationship you've been looking for all this time.

High Tea with Jo Malone

I am reminded now of how remiss I've been in never writing here of the fragrance genius that is Jo Malone, the British maven of natural fragrance blends, but going to the launch event for her new Tea Fragrance Blends at Bloomingdale's has slapped me on the wrist for my oversight.

For this was no average launch event. This was High Tea, complete with reserved invitation, service of three different teas, scones, finger sandwiches, waiters, china, silver and three-tiered dessert stands. Here we were, a group of Jo Malone groupies, all chit-chatting with one another about favorite Jo Malone fragrances, least favorites, what had been discontinued and what was best as a gift. All this taking place in a beautifully appointed tiny corner of Bloomingdale’s on the main floor while the rest of the store was a veritable zoo.

Enter Shaun Rowan, a Brit, of course, who explained the importance not only of High Tea, the inspiration for the new Limited Edition Tea Fragrance line comprising Fresh Mint Leaf, Earl Grey & Cucumber and, my personal favorite, Assam and Grapefruit – but of tea in general to British culture. While he gave us a verbal history of Jo Malone and her various inspirations, we were given an olfactory history with paper strips, often being asked to guess the fragrance (being groupies, most of the women knew immediately what they were smelling). The suspense was building. What is Jo Malone's most popular fragrance to date, he asked. Well, I knew that one...mine...English Pear and Freesia, which I stumbled upon as a sample merely two weeks after its introduction while buying a holiday gift for a friend. This was important because the same perfumer, Christine Nigel, who developed English Pear and Freesia, developed the three Tea Fragrances. He definitely had our attention.

Now this is where Blogger needs a fragrance function...how to describe them. They do, in fact, smell like tea...all of them. But, like all Jo Malone fragrances, they are so much more complex than that. If you simply went by her names you would be doing yourself a disservice because there is such complexity beneath the name. The Fresh Mint Leaf smells like, well, fresh mint leaf and will appeal to those who like an herb aroma on themselves, but underneath it is a little violet and water jasmine for depth, so on the skin it doesn't smell like a tea or cooking herb at all. When you first smell Earl Grey and Cucumber you do get the Earl Grey, but then you get the coolness of the cucumber, but it's anchored by vanilla and musk. The Assam and Grapefruit is, in my opinion, the most complex. It wasn't just that I was served some Assam Black Tea while smelling the aroma on a strip, but then I actually tried the scent, and it was intoxicating. As with all of them, you do get the tea scent, but underneath this one is some star anise, almond and vanilla (which I usually find too sweet but in this case works just fine), as well as cardamom, almond and a touch of patchouli, which Shaun kept describing as the "follow me, young man" factor in Jo Malone's fragrances. I'll take that.

That said, the wonderful thing about all Jo Malone scents is that you don’t have to apply them and then walk around a department store for two hours waiting for them to dry down, change and possibly turn on you. Her fragrances are so natural and pure that what you spray on and love is likely to turn into something you love even more. In fact, if there is any change in the fragrance at all, it's usually for the better (I’ve been seen on the subway voraciously smelling my own arm on the way home). Good thing, since Shaun taunted us by saying there were only 10 bottles of this one and 8 bottles of that one left of these limited edition fragrances. The stampede was real. Don't let these get away from you.

It's a Green! It's a Blue! It's a Gray! No, It's...Black Pearl

If you're suffering from the least little bit of black nail polish malaise, which I assure you I am, there is salvation in this little bottle. Two coats of Chanel's new spring color, Black Pearl, and you have several colors in one. It's like those old-fashioned postcards that give you one view of a landscape and then with a tilt of your hand a completely different view. That's just how this is, except your color choices range from a wonderful pearlescent-seafoam green to an indescribable shade of blue to - finally - an enigmatic grayish black.

With all this versatility of color, you'd think this would be a totally wearable shade for day and night, but I didn't find it to be so. I found it to be great for evening, but pretty heavy for day, and I say that with a lot of snow on the ground in New York, walking around pretty bundled up, so I can only imagine I will feel less like wearing it during the day once the weather warms up. I had a couple of evening events that it was perfect for, but during the day I confess I thought it actually looked a little silly. That said, it is a nice departure from the pinks and lavenders so common in springtime so I'm looking forward to trying it again then.

Now, I have no problem dropping $25 on a Chanel polish (for me it's worth the quality of everything from the lacquer, pigments and brush to the way it lasts), but I do acknowledge that others may not feel the same way. So for those people, this is an especially good color because you literally do get several colors in one. For my money Black Pearl just may be a new and wonderful twist on the black manicure, which has grown so tiresome of late. Why, Black Pearl may be the new black!

Give Yourself a Hand

With most women’s skincare energies (understandably) focused on their faces, they very often forget that the thing that can often give away their age – sometimes prematurely – is their hands. While we may be unrelenting about putting sunscreen on our faces and necks, how often do we all walk out the door with sunscreen on the backs of our hands? Probably seldom to never. Then we’re encouraged to repeatedly wash our hands to stave off cold and flu germs, we slather bacterial gels all over them and we wipe them down with sanitizing wipes. These harsh drying habits are further compounded by winter weather, during which many of us cast aside our gloves because we can’t use our touch screens with them on. At best, then, we’re exposing our hands more and moisturizing them less. They take quite a beating, especially this time of year.

If you only have dryness, you can consider yourself fortunate, and begin to take preventive measures now, such as using a handcream with an SPF of at least 15 every day, and yes (I know it’s a hassle) re-applying after you wash your hands. If you’re not so lucky and you’ve started to see even the faintest brown spots (they come out more when you get a little sun), there are a number of products at different price points that can help reduce their appearance, as well as some at-home remedies such as lemon, or prescriptions such as hydroquinone.

I’ve seen a couple of brown spots crop up on my hands – no doubt from my carefree youth dousing myself in baby oil beginning the first day of spring like all my friends – and have had to remind myself again and again to protect my hands before I leave the apartment. One thing that’s made it easier is I just put a little of my face cream (Kinerase Daily Defense Cream - specifically designed to protect and heal sun-damaged skin) right on my hands during my morning routine. Any kind of sunscreen you can use on your face is suitable for your hands.

But many companies now make great products specifically for this particular challenge. One of my favorites is Clarins’ Age Control Hand Lotion. Non-greasy, with natural ingredients and a fragrance to die for, it makes you want to reapply just to smell it again and again (although the price makes you think twice about doing that). On the more affordable end, Dove’s ProAge Hand Cream sports an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) content to support cell turnover in the skin. Even better on price, and SPF, Neutrogena’s Age Shield Hand Cream at $5.99 with an SPF of 30 is such a great buy and so small and cheap you can afford to keep one at home and drop one in your bag!

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.