It’s Glamour Week. Let’s Talk Lipstick

You will rarely hear me talking about products designed to make me prettier, mainly because it’s a boring topic. However, maybe I can make it un-boring today? For my loyal male readership, feel free to switch off right now, then again, this is potentially good knowledge to help you become better partners/spouses/brothers/fathers/etc…?

My recent purchases...

Here’s the thing. I’m 45. Based on this, I have approximately 30 years’ experience in the purchasing and wearing of lipstick. From the cheap offerings at Target as a teenager, all the way through to now; I’ve tried ‘em all, and no longer drop everything to try the latest shiny ‘thing’ because I know exactly what I want. My lipstick choice has been refined down to two. Number one is MAC, and 2^nd is Bobbi Brown - a recent entrant, when, once again, MAC let me down.

What do I look for in a lipstick? Very simple. It must be a moisturising matt. I have three colours: red for night; plus two day tones – a reddy brown and a purply brown. These three selections match my clothes and the simplicity of choice suits me. Once I worked out my brand and colours, life has been pretty simple on the lipstick front. I have one place to go and it’s done and dusted – important as I do not enjoy shopping.

As Singapore is quite a travel oriented place, all of my make-up buys are at Changi Airport. I don’t know if it’s any cheaper duty free, and I don’t care, I just like the convenience and it fills in the time waiting for flights. However MAC has been very disappointing of late, never having the colours I need. They told me the high street shops definitely have them (which has not been the case), so about 12 months ago, after yet another disappointment at MAC, I wandered over to Bobbi and bought my first lipstick there. It’s good enough – a bit “wet” – but it’s had reliable stocks and that’s important.

Until January 2015.

Not only did MAC have absolutely no stock of my lipstick – recently it had no stock at all - neither did Bobbi! Oh my god, #firstworldproblems. But here’s where it gets annoying. I find the lovely ladies selling cosmetics sweet but generally useless when it comes to giving advice on what lipstick does meet my very clear requirements – i.e. moisturising matt. I mean, how silly of me to expect a sales person to understand their products! Equally, they represent one brand, not all brands, so even though they’re not all that good on their own brand, it gets a whole lot worse when asking about other brands.

Mix this in with being at an airport, with a short timeframe to work within (so no time to explore all of the different options) and you’re pretty stumped. Buying at airports means sales advice is critical because you’re inevitably in a rush! Unfortunately, good advice is not happening and I recently got very annoyed by the whole thing. I don’t get annoyed very often really. In cases like this it’s because it’s just not important in the big scheme of things. It’s not life and death right? It’s bloody lipstick. BUT it is an inconvenience I’ve been dealing with for more than a year. A not happy Jan moment.

Because I couldn’t get help, I now have a selection (about a $300-400 investment that is completely useless to me - Mum should be happy when I hand them over) but at least I can offer a critique for others seeking new options in the lipstick game of life:

1. NARS – the new lipstick on the block and the cause of much excitement with the make-up ladies. They sold it to me so well, I bought two, even though the colours were completely wrong! But hey, excitement is excitement right? The verdict, it feels like you’re walking around with sandpaper on your lips all day, and by the end of the business day, it’s  all patchy and revolting after a few touch ups
2. NARS reminded me of my Versace experience with lipstick a few years back. Beautiful packaging, but my word, almost ripped my lips off it was so dry!
3. Burberry – who knew they did lipstick? And guess what, it’s pretty good. Like Bobbi, a bit wet, but it does the job
4. MAC – the ladies convinced me to try the Materialize Rich Lipstick and from a stay-on-one’s-lips-all-day capacity – my only real requirement when puckering up – it is completely USELESS
5. Chanel - this is a good evening lipstick, so I like it. But my real need is daytime work choices and by the end of the day after a few top ups, it tends to leave chunks of dry lipstick on your mouth – annoying!

So there you go, a little lipstick story and I would LOVE guidance on potential lipstick choices that do meet my requirements???? Anyone??? One caveat. It needs to be an international brand, as that is the world I live in.  

As a final point. Has anyone else noticed the wonderful things they are doing with magnets in lipsticks these days? It’s quite an art form. No idea what I’m talking about? Go and waste $300-400 on lipstick and you’ll see.

Yours, without the bollocks

Andrea