So it's 12:11am on a Sunday as I write this. Instead of going out and being my f.a.b.u.l.o.u.s. self rocking the dance floor at a local watering hole I'm at home. In theory "writing essays that don't write themselves". Last month of uni ever has that effect on your social life.
Really I'm watching early 90s British crime drama. Prime Suspect for the win! Helen Mirren rawks those early 90s power suits like its nobodies business. I was actually going to do a post about her. I digress.
I'm thinking about lipstick. To a certain degree and depth I never thought possible.
Last time I was home Mom suggested that I'm at a place in my life where I need to start wearing lipstick. It's never really been on my radar. I always thought of myself as a "no fuss" kind of woman when it comes to my lips. I wear Burts Bees lipbalm. Perhaps Benetint or those new-fangled Covergirl lipstick markers if I need a pick me up.
Then it hit me. Vanessa Paradis spoke to me from the pages of Vogue.
I NEED LIPSTICK.
Not just any lipstick. I want THAT lipstick.
The problem is this revelation from the heavens came to me when I was already back in the backwater I go to school in. The only place you'll find any incarnation of lipstick is at Shoppers Drug Mart. I'm a snob. A huge snob. I don't buy makeup at a drug store. Drug stores are where you get contraceptives, bobby pins and toothpaste. I go to reputable beauty emporiums. Between the Holts makeup counters and Sephora my self worth and bank account are covered. And my face. Yes, that's the important part.
I needed to purchase some self worth. And STAT. I texted my dahling roommate Cara in caps "I NEED LIPSTICK". I forget exactly what she replied, but it was a concerned mumble along the lines of "what's going on NOW? And should I be concerned?" Yes dahling. Yes, you should be very concerned.
I marched over to the drug store on a quest to find the first lipstick I'd ever purchase. I'm wary of the makeup sections at drug stores with their tacky fragrances, common packaging, questionable ingredients and even more questionable quality. The snob that resides deep in my soul wont consider most of the drudge lining the shelves under the florescent lighting. I walked once down the isle and back eying the selection. I took a second turn back and forth. I barely looked at any of the shades or read the sales pitches on the ads beside the products. I knew I wouldn't be purchasing any of this swill. I went back to the Quo display where I started at and knew I'd return to. It's Shoppers in house "high end" brand. My inner snob will accept it, so I began to examine the various offerings pulling the testers out of the slots and holding the shades up to the light. A-ha. I examine a tube called Flaunt. Finally one that resembled, in the tube at least, the colour I'd seen in the Chanel ad. Understated, yet sexy. Colorful, but not obvious. Perhaps a little more subdued then the Chanel I was attempting to mimic. Knowing I'd probably get herpes, HIV and gonorrhea from testing the lipstick in a drugstore on my lips, I put a swatch on the back of my hand. Nice. This should do. I purchased and walked out feeling elated, fresh and dare I say.....womanly. For about 15 minutes before retail therapy wore off.
When I got home I tore the packaging off to try on my very first lipstick. It looks good. I don't magically look like Vanessa Paradis. There is no tacky fragrance and the product goes on nicely. Dare I say I kind of like it. Since purchasing I try to put it on whenever I remember. It makes going out in fuck me heels and cleaning the toilet glamorous in equal measure. Life is too fleeting to be short on glamor at any single moment.
I cede it is no Chanel. That shade in the ad would be perfect on me. It would make me feel as glamorous and sexy as Vanessa Paradis and that's what a perfect shade does.
I'll be home in about a month complete university. Firstly, I'm going to drink myself into a stupor so deep I forget the past 5 years of my education. When I've slept off the hangover I'm going to clean myself up and go to go to the Holts makeup counters.
I'm going to buy a Chanel lipstick. And it's going to change my life.
Xoxo
Erin
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