1. No eyeliner, no shadow - just black mascara and perfectly groomed brows (lazy AND refreshingly spare for autumn)
2. Tinte Cosmetics Flavored Lipshine* in Haute Chocolate - an ever so slightly pinkish brown that goes with everything (even more appreciated now that I've forsaken all sweet things)
3. Scarves with everything, a la Selma Blair (who, dodgy haircuts notwithstanding, I sort of love)
*PR freebie
I just wanted to say that the Missoni scarf I'm wearing in this picture cost me $14.99, brand new in its box, from Filene's Basement at Union Square in New York. (I bought it four months ago, but when I was at Filene's Basement again last weekend, they had even more Missoni scarves going for a song.) I know it's considered gauche to talk about how much things costs, but I really don't care. It makes me happy to get bargains and to let people know where they can get them too. Eff etiquette.
(This is what MAC Mattene lipstick in Flattering looks like, btw.)
The pitch: A velvety, semi-matte lip color with the moisturizing emollience of a creamier product you'd expect to give more sheen. Think wearable vintage MAC matte for everyday.
My PR pack arrived yesterday, and I tried a beige-pink called Flattering for an event I hosted last night. It sure is creamy, but definitely still matte. (I find the science behind this more fascinating than stem cell research, I have to confess.)
I didn't use any pencil, and Mattene lasted through at least two Caffeine-Free Diet Cokes. There was still some color even after dinner. And they're not even pitching this as a long-lasting lipstick. I love this particular color, though am saddened by the fact that I am probably too old now to pull off the one I really want to try, a blood red called Classic Dame. Red is just so damned aging. I'll be beige-pink for life now, I guess.
Speaking of looks I'll never pull off, I am absolutely enchanted by this image for MAC's new Matte2 collection. Seriously, I'd put this on a wall in my house.
Boundless is the darkest, most red shade in the bunch sent to me by MAC. I put it on bare lips, no liner or lipstick. The results were sheer, shiny, and blessedly lacking in stickiness. For me, Boundless is not a great match, but it would be a fine standby gloss for an evening bag.
I decided to start playing with the MAC samples after a Saturday morning get-together with a friend got postponed until Tuesday. My friend called to tell me about her car woes just after I'd finished putting on makeup, timing which always strikes me as unfortunate. If she'd caught me just before, I would have gone back to bed, no question.
Instead, I did work around the house - it being far too hot even in the morning for any sane person to leave the air conditioned comforts of home - and was happy to have had some slap on my face when my new neighbors dropped by unannounced. Yes, at some point I will have to correct their mistaken impression that I put on eyeliner to clean the bathroom, but it made my maquillage seem like less of a wasteful tragedy.
Do you put on makeup even when you're spending the day alone, away from the harsh glare of both friends and strangers?
Here, again, I thought I'd juxtapose the gorgeous MAC photography with the "real life" application. I tend to prefer excess and drama when it comes to makeup, and subtle shades usually go right beneath my radar, but something about this soft look actually thrills me.
The Mineralize eyeshadow is made up of four colors that swirl together under the brush--so even though the color is far from bold, it has pearly depth and interest. This also makes it possible to wear a single color and have a lot of contour (I must take better close-in shots to post later). This is Quarry, made up of "sky blue, olive, coral and beige veining." The Mineralize Skinfinish on my cheeks is Gold Spill, put on with a loose brush and a light touch. The lipstick is Fast Lane ("mauve with silver pearl") from the Rush Metal line. I've been longing for a really wearable, sophisticated everyday lipstick combining creaminess, shine and pearl, and this is it--yes there is life after lip gloss.
If you like these, don't relegate them to the wish list, as they are special editions and won't be around forever. I would have walked right by every single one of these products in the store, and must thank MAC's PR department for the review samples.
If my skin tone looks particularly even, that's Nancy's Kiehl's Tinted Moisturizer, with a bit of MAC Studio Fix on the shiny bits. Along with MAC Zoom Lash mascara, and Stila Brown Definer, this is my new desert island kit, and outside the line of duty, I will likely be wearing this face pretty much every day until I am sick of myself.
As even a cursory glance at the Go Fug Yourself archives will reveal, Sienna Miller does not always get things right when it comes to her overall look. It's usually her clothes that let her down. But this time, even the GFY girls are giving her a hard time for the dramatic look she sported in Rome last week, while at a Valentino event and - the next day - on a shoot for the same designer.
It's a tad overwhelming. She just doesn't quite look like herself, as if this is her overly shiny and apple-cheeked wax replica, posed awkwardly as if she's ushering tourists into Madame Tussaud's Hall of Questionable Talent.
I have to say, though, that I like this very much. It's not an everyday look, and definitely not the sort of thing you'd wear to the office. But that looking not quite like herself is sort of the point: This is the sort of maquillage that conventional wisdom tells us is out of the realm of possibility for those who work in offices. It is the opposite of practical, transforming without being hideously distortive, and for that I think it is really quite brilliant.
The truth is, most of us don't have the courage to try a look like this, not in the privacy of our own bathrooms and certainly not before the world's press. If there is anything to admire in Sienna Miller, it is that she tries. Many people love to sneer at those who try, especially if they often fail, but she does fail exuberantly. I find that a winning quality in any person.
I was looking for something nude with a lot of sparkle, to replace a loved but lost product from Smashbox. That was a limited-edition holiday product, a lipstick rather than a gloss, and the density of sparkle was like the paint job on a lowrider Buick Riviera--layer upon layer of sparkle flake, essentially. This Victoria's Secret gloss is not what I was looking for, but it is great for daytime. It makes the nude lip more interesting to have a little shine going on.
Nancy Rommelmann writes...
I have never worn lipstick, partly because my eyes are too big and any color on my lips makes me look, I think, like Lucille Ball. But also, because when I have it on, I don't know what to do with my mouth. Imagine a four-year-old carrying a tray of china across a room toward the expectant grown-ups, and that's how steady I feel with anything more on my lips than a swipe of gloss.
Then last week, I was digging around in my teenage daughter's make-up, and came across a Nars lipstick, in Captiva, sort of the color of dried blood. On a whim I put it on and went about my day, which included short interactions with many men. And I felt really sexy. Not, I don't think, because the lipstick made me look any better, but because having it on was like carrying some sort of superhero raygun, a secret weapon that effected people without them knowing it. The lipstick, in short, was power.
I realize I might have realized all this before the age of 46.
Then two days ago, I read the quote Jack referenced, from Isabella Blow:
If you don't wear lipstick I can't talk to you. You need to have lips. They are very important for getting men.
I am not exactly trying to get men, having as I do a husband. A husband who, when I wear lip gloss, will not kiss me on the lips, saying, "It's too goopy." Perhaps not just goopy; perhaps juvenile.
I approached him last night with the Captiva, and the announcement that I was going to start wearing lipstick every day. Why, he asked? I said, because it made me feel both serious and sexy, as though I had just learned how to have orgasms. And how did he think it looked?
"It looks good," he said, and I could see in his eyes he meant it. But would he kiss me in it? He would, and did.
I put it on again this morning, and I do like it. This, though I think it is somewhat aging. No lipstick on top:
What else I learned while taking the photos:
1. The hair tint is not working.
2. If my face gets any thinner, I can be a stand-in for Katherine Harris.
3. I might need a different shade.
Color/application suggestions appreciated.
With eyes this strong, I shy away from my usual dark pink/red lips, for fear of looking like a deluded Barbie wannabe.
Today, that meant Chanel Glossimer in a very subtle, natural shade called Flirt Sarong. (Full disclosure: This gloss was a freebie from Chanel, one of many I received last week.)
Although I said I'm over gloss, the Glossimer range has me re-thinking that, as it's nowhere near as sticky as Lancome Juicy Tubes, MAC Lipglass, and all the other pretenders to the glassy lips throne. My hair hasn't stuck to my lips even once! Part of this is due to the fact that Glossimer just isn't as sticky - which means you also don't reach the dizzying heights of lacquer-like finish that you do with the likes of Lipglass. (This doesn't matter much to me, since I'm not living in 1983 or modelling for a Pulp album cover.) It is also partly due to my discovery of the fact that - hold on to your hats - hair spray can help keep hair off the face. It's true, it's true!)
In addition to Sarong, I'm also loving Summer Plum (the darkest in the Chanel summer color collection, though even it is still very natural, not even bordering on actual darkness), Seashell, and Sundress.
Something in me wants to hate these, because their subtlety really does border on the boring. The sad fact is, though, that you can wear the hell out of them with any colors you put on the rest of your face. (Pair them with different liners to mix up your own brilliant shade.) That, and the fact that the texture is actually wearable, means that these will see a lot of action in my life. In the end, this is the real test of whether or not a product is worth owning. As I noted in a previous post, I have seventeen makeup bags, spread over two continents, which are full of cosmetics that don't meet this criteria.
