Lipstick speaks!

Despite not having written here for a couple of months, and having an enormous back-load of current beauty stuff to update you on, I couldn't help turning to my beauty nostalgia roots once more and delving back to the nineties and early noughties. Believe it or not, this blog started out to be a collection of memories and chats about make-up, beauty and life and a vehicle for me to tell my stories. Product reviews and advice posts came about as a natural evolution and catering to demand. I like creating those kind of posts too, but much more than that I like to write... and I like to remember.

So, the other day I went to mum's to pick up a couple of bits I'd left there and I finally brought home a make-up roll full of stuff I hadn't decided what to do with. Most of it very out of date and probably harbouring a few new life forms, but I didn't want to carelessly through stuff out without checking. Plus, if you know anything about me by now, you know I get emotionally attached to things. The older and mankier the thing, the more attached I get.

The bulk of the make-up roll was made up of lipsticks, but ones that I could never ever seem to be able to through away even though they had long expired. Pulling them out now has forced me to finally give them a voice before I lay them to rest in lipstick heaven.

Clinique 'Brick'

Hey, I'm Clinique 'Brick'. I am a gloriously rich, deep matte red! I was bought in Harrods in the autumn of 1997 with student grant money. It was the first term in the first year of uni and I was the lipstick du jour..... well actually 'du soir' would be more accurate since she would assemble herself in a mostly black combo of polyester black wide leg trousers and some sort of lacey black mesh top, diamante clip-on earrings and finishing off the look by applying me generously with a lip brush. I was worn with regularity and with pride. I made her feel very grown up and a little like her mum, who only ever wore red lipstick. She didn't quite know what look she was channeling at the time, but I was the queen of her little make-up bag. Plus, I was purchased on an outing with the first male friend she ever had, and he was a fundamental part of her life in her first years at uni. He encouraged her to experiment with make-up and fashion and she loved it. I am the first step in her evolution from frumpy teen to, um..... a bit less frumpy teen with a small dash of wannabe sexpot . Small steps, people, small steps.....

Guerlain 'Juliette'

Hello dolls, I'm 'Juliette' from the Guerlain mother-ship! I was bought in House of Fraser probably between 1998-9. She was with her friend O and, like always, they were shopping for make-up. There were sales, and I was in the reduced bin feeling lonely and unloved. She picked me up and put me on and it was a match made in heaven. I was a deep purple-y toned dark nude colour with a teensy flash of irridescent green. I sound odd, right? But it turns out that I was the only lipstick she ever finished right down to the bottom of the bullet! She spent a long time after trying to find a replacement for me but my colour was so unique that she ended up with a lot of duds on the way. I saw her through her years at uni and beyond and she kept me for over a decade, although empty, like a jewel in her extant make-up collection.

Guerlain.... oops, no name

Bonjour mes amies.....I am also from the house of Guerlain, but I was bought in Paris around about 2000. She was with O again and they found their way to my home boutique. She was going to buy another red shade, but she found me, a deep purple-nude. She liked me a lot, she wore me a decent amount, but I was a poor shade of my cousin Juliette and after a while she kind of put me aside. I used to have a little cap at the top which protected my mirror, revolutionary in my day!

Clinique 'Bronze'

What's up, babes? I'm Clinique Bronze and I was bought with another peachy shade in order to secure a GWP (gift with purchase), a lilac make-up bag with lots of mini treats, the kind of bonanza gift that Clinique used to do really well back then. She actually wanted my peachy sister more than me as she was forever trying to channel Shania Twain from the 'Man I feel like a woman' video. Shania had these gloriously full sexy peachy orange lips and Pandora wanted to look like that so badly. Check out the video to see what I mean.... she spent a decade trying to replicate that look. Sadly I wasn't much part of her plan and I slowly went a bit rancid. Dark times.

Chanel 'Santa Barbara'

Well hello there.... enough with all this Clinique rabble.... I'm from Chanel and my name is 'Santa Barbara'. I hail from the now extant Aqualumiere line. A plummy reddish brown shimmer, sheer and elegant but somewhat ageing for my mistress. I was yet another attempt at replacing that goddamn Guerlain Juliette. What did she have that I didn't, huh? I was used, and liked very much but I went missing in the bottom of a handbag sometime in the early noughties and was only found last year. How tragic....

Nous sommes les quatres camellias de Chanel! We were bought in Sephora in Rome after a particularly horrendous makeover in which she left the store looking like a drag queen who had complained he/she was not draggy enough and got an over-enthusiastic make-up artist to do his worst. That day she learned that her strong-featured face could not take that much make-up and, ignoring the product recommendations of aforementioned make-up artist, went ahead and bought us as an alternative to the 33 euro tube of glitter gloss. We were more beautiful before we were defiled with finger and brush. You can see which of us she liked the most. We are forever a memory of how much make-up our girl needs to stay a girl.



Hope you enjoyed these ramblings.... I also hope to be back writing more often. Keep smiling!