YES! Okay, my aunt told me once that you should wear a shade of lipstick that closely matches the shade of the inside of your lip. That way it looks natural. I mean, that's the point of good makeup, right? To look like you're not wearing any?
I wear Clinique Surprise, and the surprise is that from the tube, it doesn't look like it would look good on anyone, but it turns out it looks good on EVERYONE.
Don't do the math on your shoe closet either. The sum total of all the shoes you (meaning me) don't wear and don't even really like could have bought a pair of Christian Louboutins. Or a pony.
I'm suddenly feeling the urge for some Burt's Bees. Untinted.
Where it would really add up is my books or CDs. But I'm glad I have all of those. I'd rather have all my books than a hooker or a plane ticket.
The really scary part is how much mercury those probably contain. Ugh.
But London needs you!
Chapstick sets my asthma off.
okay... you're version of "not high maintenance" is very different to mine :) but i will say that when i was in NYC a few years back i couldnt resist sephora and ended up buying over $100 in lipgloss and cheek stain! four year later i've just finished that lipgloss and i swear i have no clue where the stain has gone, i dont think i ever used it!
when i say "not high maintenance" i mean that i dont own a single piece of makeup other than that lipgloss and a pot of burts bees that i got back last year! but i look at women that wear makeup and wish i could be like them... i just end up looking clownish...
i love your lip colour btw! it always looks magnificent!
If you use ketchup while messily eating fries, you will have yourself some cheap red lip paint.
I do know exactly what you mean though. I have 2 tubes of LORAC vitamin E stick in my purse; and each one costs more than it should cost to have soft lips. Aren't soft lips in the Constitution? I mean, it's a right, not a priviledge. Or it should be.
Reading this post made me scramble for my purse and apply the first lip-thing I saw. Even though I'm in the middle of drinking coffee.
I always have about four lip glosses and one or two lipsticks on me. It's a compulsion. Addiction?
Oh, Sarah. It's like you've found the reason my heart beats. I love lip covering things. I have as many as you, I'd say, though the minted rose is my go to. I use Benefit lip stain with that on top. It's a pretty, natural sort of red, like, yep, I've just been eating strawberries, so what? It seems we fall for similar shades, so can I recommend Almay 240 in Plum? It's what I'm usually wearing in the photos, and it rocks as a lip thing. To wit: no stickiness, no smell, doesn't dry out the lips, stays on for a long time, matches everything.
I see an Almay in there and it's so close on the spectrum.
Alright, I'll stop now before I fulfill my desire to go through and comment on every lip stick/ gloss you've pictured.
(Oh, wait! One more thing: I love love love that you rolled them up! Made my morning.)
I must be the one with the problem, cause I got giddy just looking at the photo.
Oh dear. Do I have a picture that could make you feel better about yourself quick smart.
I've been able to curb my love for body lotions but that has been replaced with face creams.
I love me some product. In fact, I would have a really scary photo if I didn't force myself to purge products every six months.
Also, I have to know. Did you clean those products and if you didn't how do you keep them looking so clean?
Ahh, we were separated at birth or something. I can't even count up all the lipsticks I own. And, like you, I keep them all in assorted pockets around the house.
My problem, though, is I invariably end up washing one, and ruining an entire wardrobe of clothes. That kinda sucks.
Yeah, I have to own Clinique Surprise now.
I kept trying to decipher which colors were pictured - and wondered why you don't have such-and-such color because I think it would great on you. We have many similar items, though I suppose it's from shopping at Sephora (and Bath & Body Works).
Hi, my name is Alyce and I'm a lip product addict.
Ship them to me please! Every time I get out to buy myself makeup, I remember this article I read when I was very young, which had pictures of the most unhappy-looking monkeys getting tested on. It made me throw up.
But looking at all those lip glosses make my heart lunge. I want it want it want it.
I'm all about natural-looking lipstick. It's just so much fun putting it on, and blotting. And my favourite (FAVOURITE) part of wearing lipstick/lip gloss is seeing it on the rim of my glass/mug. That makes me feel all grown-up and lady-like. :)
Alyce, if you view the picture at Flickr, I listed all of the product names and shades. Because I have more than one problem, apparently.
i love my burt's! blistex lipbalm is a tight second. in case you want to make it to 40 that's the direction I would suggest.
Gave up the lip gloss after my hair brushed past my mouth and then onto my shoulder, staining my favorite jacket. The end.
"...buying stuff to smear on my mouth and then leaving it in a coat pocket or old bag after three applications...they’re all basically the same color..."
OMG SERIOUSLY. ME.
I just accidently scream-laughed at work: "Here's where my financial advisor father has to go walk outside and count to one hundred and then cut his losses and focus solely on my brother from here on out."
I was my father's last 'offspring with financial stability' hope before moving to NY and spending it all on one month's rent. Sorry Dad, I'll keep the lip glosses to a minimum, promise.
my $24 lip gloss is still sitting almost full in the tube -- that MAC clear gloss (i just remembered it's called lip glass) that was so popular a couple of years ago. after getting my hair stuck in it the 3rd time, i put it away. now i just use burt's bees and occasionally some sugar gloss.
Sarah, You're not kidding. These items are hardly, if at all, used! They look brand new. Still have the slants, even. I might have a similar number of products, collected over many years, but they would include lots of stubs.
I have a self-feeding chapstick dependence (Burt's preferred, naturally); it began with the love of smearing but has ended with bleeding and constantly misplaced balm. Obviously, buy more balm is the only non-bloody-lipped answer.
I think the photo is pretty and pretty matters.
Also, I sincerely hope that avian chlamydia makes no one's mouth shiny or fruit-scented. It may be one of the last bits of sincerity I put out into this sarcastic world. And it seems worth it.
Sarah Brown, your lipsticks have the perfect angle!
All of my lipsticks become super-angled and pointy, invariably breaking off into my lap at very inopportune times.
I'm feeling pangs of jealousy. Over lipstick angles.
I am going to go get Clinique Surprise to add to this box: http://flickr.com/photos/jenandtonic/1724137827/
And you can't even see all the lip things.
Somehow all this lip smear interest makes me really happy.
Dude, seriously, I could NOT live without Burt's Bees chap stick after October. And yet, I'm forever losing my tube of it after 3 days, only to have to go buy a new one. Then, in April, when I don't need it anymore? IT MAGICALLY REAPPEARS.
I love you for posting your squishy, vulnerable, lip gloss-obsessed side.
Okay. Throw ALL OF THOSE out and get Cover Girl Lipslicks in "Daring," I swear to god. Do you believe me? You should believe me. I too used to have 39 different shades, many of them ridiculously pricey. but I kept coming back to that baby. $3.99 in Walgreens, a little less in Target. I'm telling you, it's the new black. Or the new pinky-red, I guess. Do it!
Taking this to a further, rather disturbing level...for some reason I love the shiny Clinique lipstick holder thingies and I have been known to use windex and a paper towel to keep them shiny. That was a bit hard to explain to my college roommates...LOL
Sarah Brown, I love you because my number one goal when I clicked through to the comments was to find out the name of the lipstick that doesn't even look like lipstick, and, blam!, I didn't even have to scroll down.
I've yet to figure out how to wear makeup without looking like a child bride, so, clearly, invisible makeup is the way to go!
Makeup used to be the one thing that I never felt guilty spending money on, because it made me so goddam happy (to buy, not to wear, since I also only utilize about 6% of what I buy). A few years ago I hit that mark that said if I don't start feeling guilty about it I will die in a gutter. Anyway, yes.
For years I wore the same Bobbi Brown lipstick (~$20 plus shipping). Imagine my delight when I found the exact shade in a Burts Bees for $3 at my local Rite Aid!!!!!
However, I can't bring myself to throw away all those empty Bobbi Brown tubes... surely I will need them someday, to dig out the dregs with a Q-tip... or is that just me?
I swear Miss Brown, you've got to be the most talented writer around. Who would have thought to write about this topic?
These made me laugh out loud and clap like a chimp:
"...the grown-up version of the 64 Crayola box..."
"...the cure for avian chlamydia sitting there on top of my bookshelf."
And I thought I had gone overboard in finding two misplaced tubes of Burt's lip balm. Glad to know it's so well loved.
i have a feeling you would not like to see my makeup drawer in my bathroom, the two in the spare and my caboodles case (don't laugh that i still have a caboodles case) full of random crap.
it all does come in handy for the yearly halloween party.
Most favorite Burt's Bees is actually the Lifeguard's Choice Weatherproofing Lip Balm. Kinda minty, feels like it's working to make your lips better. Downside is that if you wear it alone it gives you that lifeguard-zinc-oxide thing, as it tints kinda white (as you'll probably surmise when taking the cap off the tube). However, it works well under other lipsticks & will dim down the shade. It's not like I'm gonna buy a lighter shade--why buy one when I can buy two that combo so well? By paying for two, I waste a good 1/2 payment of my cell phone bill.
My personal favorite, which actually got me a compliment from a Benefit eyebrow waxer (yeah, during a Benefit eyebrow wax), is a trifecta of products--the BB 1st, MAC's Glammapuss matte lipstick, then top off with MAC's Viva Glam V Lipglass. A lovely natural looking slightly glossy shade is created, feels great, AND, the Viva Glam cost goes toward the MAC AIDS fund, AND MAC recycles their lipstick & compact cases (take 6 of each or a combo of both back to a MAC counter or store & get a free lipstick out of the deal). Charitable AND environmentally friendly lip color. Can you beat it?
The buzzkill is that Glammapuss turned out to be a limited edition color & you can't get it anymore. Did anyone bother to tell me that when I purchased a mere single tube? I'm still scraping the remains from the sides of the tube. Bastards.
Oh, & the other problem is that if I decided to drink a beverage of any kind, the color drifts away too quickly. One of my staff members, who starts 1/2 an hour after I'm already at work, didn't even know I wore lipstick until I recently started wearing MAC's Feel So Fine matte lipstick (with Spice lip liner, which I thought I was over), which sticks like glue & I actually have to wipe off at the END of my day. She says, "Oh look, you're wearing lipstick." Yeah, I've worn lipstick ever since you started working for me in Feb. 2006. It was fabulous at 9 a.m...9:30, maybe not so much.
Ever put a brand new shade you haven't even worn yet on your favorite 5 year old as part of her "Girl Ninja" Halloween costume? And found it looked better on her than it does on you? MAC's Craving amplified lipstick. Great. At least now I know what I'll be next Halloween.
I had no idea I had so much to say on this topic. It's official. I gotta get a life.
I recently moved and tried to add up the value of my many cosmetic products that I rarely used and only bought because I liked their names/colors/scents, and I very nearly decided that I did not deserve to move. So many of them were lip products. Perhaps I should be forced to move back to North Carolina. I work very near the Sephora on Broadway in Soho. I haven't been there yet. Maybe I won't go unless I'm actually out of something. It'll be a great eightieth birthday bash in 2059.
Oh my gosh! You have the lip infusion trackball system! My husband and I freaked out when we found that. It's such good stuff. I also just went in my purse to find it, and out of a morbid curiousity pulled out all the the lip glosses/lipsticks...
11. In one purse. And I don't even wear lipgloss.
this is amazing. your lipstick is my mother's nail polish. she has about 20 bottles of polish all different variations or the same color. to me. to her there must be a difference.
i love it. i love it. i love it.
Oh oh! Gap SPF 18 lip balm in Tangy Pomegranate?? Where oh where did you find that? My Gaps have all stopped selling it.
Is there anything more heartbreaking than when they discontinue your favorite lip balm/gloss?
I promise you that you don't have even close to a problem. This here is a picture of MY makeup stash. All the unlabeled drawers are eyeshadow, blush, and face powder. The leopard print boxes are 3 separate organizers, and my lip stuff fills one up entirely. Yeah. I definitely have a problem.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y294/nerdalicious2/Makeup/stash2007011.jpg
I'll admit my heathenism straight up: I have two of the $24 glosses, and they are fan-fucking-tastic. Not too sticky, not mirrorball shiny, and they last all day, even through meals.
Splurges aside, I'm addicted to Carmex. God save us all.
Sorry, doll. But you're a lightweight. At last count I had more than 282 lipsticks and glosses. Roughly three G's (or more, but I can't think about it as it makes my stomach hurt) worth of colored wax.
I bought a Vincent Longo gloss for $22 solely because it matched my lips so perfectly you couldn't tell I was wearing it.
And if I'm honest, I have to tell you I bought three tubes of it at one time. Lip gloss that no one could tell I was wearing. It was irresistible on a level I can't articulate. So I'm very glad that you can.