I bought lipstick today. Maybelline Moisture Extreme in "Nude Blush" to be exact. The last time I purchased lipstick, I was twelve and on a cosmetics shopping spree with my Nana (a retired makeup artist and cosmetician). She told me that every girl needed red lipstick, so I bought one. I never wore it, though. I found lipstick (any color, any shade) made me look old, so for years my makeup bag was full of glosses and scented lip balms, but no lipstick. Just that one bottle of red Revlon lipstick from 1998 that I never wore and eventually threw out because it started to smell funny. I didn't even wear lipstick to prom, and EVERYBODY wears lipstick to prom.
Today, one of my co-workers was touching up her makeup at her desk and she asked me if I had any lipstick she could borrow. (Note to readers: that's a stupid thing to ask a girl with bronchitis. Don't try that at home.) I told her I didn't wear lipstick and she asked why.
The conversation went something like this:
"I tried it when I was twelve and it made me look old."
"Well, lipstick wasn't made for twelve year olds."
"Yeah but ..."
"Yeah but what? You're a grown up now. You should give it a second chance."
So after work, I went to London Drugs and bought lipstick. And then I skipped home like a giddy school girl and ran into my bathroom and tried it on. And you know what? It didn't make me look old. It didn't make me look like Cindy Crawford, either, but it did make me look a little more sophisticated and polished. As I puckered my lips together in front of the mirror, I decided that I kind of liked lipstick after all.
Just one more thing to add to the list of discoveries I'm making about the woman I'm becoming living here by the sea.
-xox-
that's a great story. thanks for sharing it. xox
ReplyDeleteThat’s a terrific story Steph - but what was your co-worker thinking!
ReplyDeleteSigh…our little Steph is all grown up now - she moved out and can still afford lipstick! ;)
See you soon.