Cut Crease Glitter & Red Lips

Hi peanuts!

The aforementioned title of this blog post represents two looks I’ve always been wary of. But before I get to that, let me begin with a short story.

My Mom The Nan does not wear eyeliner. She never has. When I was younger and I asked her about this she told me, “It just doesn’t look good on me.” After a few more times pestering her about it she finally explained herself. In her Home Ec class in the late 60’s, her teacher brought in a makeup consultant for a lesson. *Pause to consider how funny and horribly Stepford Wivesy this is.* The makeup lady did my mother’s makeup and declared that eyeliner just “did not suit her”. And as a result, she has NEVER worn it since.

THIS WAS IN 1969.

i share this story because like my dear mother, so many of us have closed ourselves off to certain things (makeup, clothing items, ideals) because of one small comment or incident from our past. Someone once told us we looked sallow in turquoise or that those sunglasses were too big for our face and we believed them. I mean…don’t get me wrong. A well-received piece of advice can be absolutely essential to saving a person from committing the worst crimes of fashion (ex: my mom not letting me buy Jnco jeans) but come on. We’ve got to push ourselves sometimes don’t we?

Enter: cut crease glitter eye shadow and a red lip.

It should first be pointed out that until the fairly recent popularity of items like glitter glue and Stila’s Magnificent Metals Glitter – this look would have never even been attempted.

You see, the complexity of this look lies within the precision of the application. First your cut crease must be well placed and blended adequately. Secondly, the glitter must hug the edge of that cut crease and the liquid liner without spreading all over the place. It’s a tricky look indeed.

I mustered up the courage to try this for an auction David and I attended with his Grandma at the synagogue. Took me a solid 30 minutes for JUST the eyes, but I am glad I embraced the challenge! What do you think?

Sorry about the sub-par photos, it was dark and I suck.

It was a sports theme!

NOW, onto red lips.

Red lips are tough for me and here is why. First, the maintenance. If I wear a red lip, I have to accept the fact that I will be checking my face all night to make sure I don’t look like Miranda Sings. Double the amount of checks if food and beverages are involved and LAWD help me if I cannot drink out of a straw.

Also, there is the delicate song and dance of selecting the proper shade. For me, too dark and my skin looks even more ghastly white than it is and too bright/warm and my teeth are yellow. A red-coral that leans on the cool side usually works best for me, but then there’s the issue of getting it to stay.

And before you ask, YES. I know ALL of the tricks to getting an ordinary lipstick to stay put. (Comment below if you’d like a post on that!). So why not get a red liquid lipstick you ask? Well, I don’t wear the color enough to necessitate a prestige brand and a dry, drugstore brand would just make my small, wrinkled lips look horrible.

Enter, this product:

Let it be noted that I DO NOT recommend this product to everyone.

The Covergirl Outlast lip products are a friggen’ doozy man. I have a few shades and hear is what to do: First, apply the “all-day colorcoat” and wait for that to dry, Read: THEE most uncomfortable product you’ll ever apply to your lips. Once it is dry, follow up with the moisturizing topcoat. I actually really love the topcoat product and use it over lots of other lip colors. The topcoat makes the horrible colorcoat wearable and best of all, SHINY! Which is what us older gals need to fill in those lines.

I wore this to the Gonzaga basketball game last week and loved it. The only thing to be careful of is to not apply too many layers of the topcoat because it will break the colorcoat down eventually.