#2507 I want to wear red lipstick

 As I've gotten older, I've noticed that my lips are losing whatever pigment they once had. They seem to be just kind of the same color as my skin but a little more pink (just a little). I don't really give it much thought until I notice other women with lip color. Of course these days, you don't see a lot of lips because of the masks. My hair stylist wears lipstick even though she wears a mask. The last time I was having my hair cut, she got a call and slipped her mask off to talk and I was delighted by her lip color. One of my WW coaches is amazing at wearing what she calls "lippies". Her gloss game is strong.

I had a friend at work who always wore red lipstick and it looked so pretty. It was bold yet demure at the same time. I have tried, pretty unsuccessfully, to wear lipstick in the past. It doesn't stay on very long. It doesn't look pretty on me like it does on my friend. Maybe I just haven't found my signature shade. Also, I hate it when it smudges on a straw of the rim of a cup. I don't know why, but that bugs the crap of me. I'm pretty sure Taylor Swift's red lipstick never smudges. 

Still, my skin-tone lips have been bringing me down lately. I have felt the urge to put color on them. Through my Ipsy make-up bags, I have received a lipstick and a couple of lip glosses. I like the color of the lipstick until I put it on my lips, then I didn't think it looked very good. The lip glosses are fine. One is tinted and the other is clear. I put on that lipstick then the clear gloss and it looked okay but didn't last very long. The tinted lip gloss is kind of gummy. I don't like that, but I do like the color, so maybe I'll keep working on it.

See, that's the thing: I'm just not all that skilled with make-up products. I can smear on some eye shadow and swoosh on some mascara, but I worry that I'm over-doing it so I tend to have a very light hand and then it doesn't look like I'm wearing make-up anyway. I want to look natural, but better. I'm just not very good at that kind of thing. For awhile I just gave up, then I got the Ipsy subscription and decided to try again.

In the latest Ipsy bag that I received today, I got some red lip stain. I was excited! This is it! This is how I'm going to get into red lipstick! 

The lip stain comes in a little tube like a lip gloss. I unscrewed the lid, pulled out the applicator, and spread a little on my (very dry) lips. It was kinda splotchy, like I did a bad job of smoothing it on my lips, so I put what I thought was a little on my upper lip and then smooshed my lips together like you see ladies do in the movies. It still looked awful, so I used my finger to rub it on my lips. That was a huge mistake. The red lip stain sort of went all over my mouth so I ended up looking a bit like Heath Ledger's Joker.

https://www.businessinsider.com/heath-ledger-dark-knight-joker-diary-2015-8

Seriously. I peeked around that corner at T, who was sitting on the floor in the hallway playing with the dogs, and he said, "Shit, Mom. That does not look good. It's kinda scary." He was being kind. It was hella scary.

I grabbed my trusty jar of coconut oil and get the stain off and that wasn't good either. Mac smelled the coconut oil and came in to investigate. I looked at her and I swear that her eyes widened and she got the heck up out of the bathroom. I scared my dog. I looked like Heath's Joker even more. The red stain may have been up on my cheeks like in the photo above. I kinda wished I had taken a photo, but I didn't have my phone with me. Probably a good thing.

Eventually, after a bit of scrubbing and a (now ruined) washcloth, my lips are back to skin color. I'm a little bit afraid of that lip stain. The color is really pretty, but I clearly need some practice. A little bit goes a long way, I think. 

So I guess that I'm thankful for masks because the mask hides my dry, sickly-looking lips. But oh how I want to wear lip color! Stay tuned for updates.