This is the season that induces the biggest Fashion Week stresses, the largest issue of Vogue, and the cicada-like emergence of a staple of autumnal looks: Scandinavian Pixie Knit Girl, vaguely-masculine color-accented Android, and sexy Librarian-cum-Secretary-cum-Forties Vixen.
This means, the red lip is back.
After a year of reveling in the nude, pink, champagne, and fuchsia glosses, Ms. M is now cracking-out her trusty tube of red.
Brick red.
Artists, psychologists, and fashion directors will lecture on the benefits of the blue-based red versus the yellow-based red, but Ms. M always comes back to the brick red. In unappetizing terms, it’s the color of dried blood. A bit brown, a bit earthy, but in full gloss, mate, or blotted form it’s magical.
Unlike blue-based reds that blot away to leave washed-out pink puckers, or glossy yellow-based fire-engine reds that only Dita Von Teese can pull off, the slightly brownish undertone of a brick red is kinder to a variety of skin tones.
So, layer it on (but only if you line your lips well); or blot it out and apply a sheer gloss on top for a Fall version of the year’s wettest look; or apply a thin layer with a bit of gold eye shadow dotted in the middle of your bottom lip to look fuller—and fiercer.
Love, Ms. M
p.s. image courtesy of http://www.brandsizzle.com/blog/2006/12/trends_buzzword.html
