1) We had a small fail yesterday, a mixup about whose turn it was to post.  No worries, everyone’s fine.  We’ll be back Monday.

2) A question for contact lens wearers. I wore contacts during the Jurassic era, when pterodactyls flew overhead and — if your lens popped out at the Skynyrd concert — you got down on the beer-soaked stadium floor and crawled around looking for it.   Times have changed, I hear.  I’m getting Diva her long-desired contacts this summer.   She’s fairly nearsighted with mild astigmatism.  I’m sure there are dozens of great choices, but does anyone have a particular brand/regimen (daily?  weekly?) or other insights regarding disposables that they’d like to share?

3) My ongoing clothing re-assessment/thoughts.  As I’ve said before, and as perfumista visitors to my Sacred Walk-In Closet may have noticed, I’m a pattern whore.  I have a magpie’s eye for color as well.  Part of it, I’m sure, is my inherent, lifelong tendency to look at clothes as “costume,” with plenty of vintage pieces.  Part of it is my skin — jewel tones look good on me.  And part of it might be that because I’m small, I feel comfortable with (or even strengthened by) eye-catching fabric patterns, assuming they’re scaled correctly, neither girlishly dainty nor too large.

For some reason, though, I’ve really been drawn to simple, more muted colors recently.  Lots of solid browns, grays, blues and the occasional tan that doesn’t make me look washed out.   Those are all harder colors for me to hit right, but there’s something about, say, a gunmetal-gray cotton shirt these days that I love, paired with jeans, a single piece of jewelry, and a cognac-colored purse or wedges.    It doesn’t make sense at all.  This is usually when I’m breaking out my tropical-print linen trousers and my tangerine sweaters.  But I’m enjoying the ride.  Are any of you in the middle of reassessments or unexpected shifts in your usual style?

March

It’s Memorial Day weekend here and between today’s event at Art With Flowers (familiar and new faces there from the blog, so much fun!) and also Diva’s 16^th birthday today, and her party, and All That Entailed, including brunch for her and her friends and a shopping trip… I’m a bit tired.  But I smell amazing, if I do say so myself.  (Keiko Mecheri Paname on left arm, L’Artisan Nuit de Tubereuse on right arm, vintage Diorissimo EDT on back of right hand.)

This weekend my nephew, whom we all love very much, came home to us Saturday from his tour of duty in Afghanistan, and we are grateful to have him back, in a way I can’t put into words on here right now.  I’m grateful for all my family, from Hecate and Buckethead on up to my dad, who’ll be turning 88 in a couple of weeks.

When I was growing up, on Memorial Day we’d drive around the cemetery next door (as I’ve mentioned, it’s a literal stone’s throw from dad’s house) and put flowers on the graves of my mother’s family.  I never knew any of her people, but it always felt special and even a bit magical – our childhood wonderland/playground infused with a sense of mystery and responsibility.  In my memories, the sky was unfailingly blue.  My sister and I toted the water buckets from the pumps to fill up the flower vases.   My mom is right there in a shady part of the cemetery under a big old oak tree, next to her folks.   Some years the flowers were bought, and other years they’ve been cut from the huge wild rose bush that still grows next to the gravel driveway, with its prickly stems and fragrant open-faced white blooms that tend to open just in time for this weekend.  I have a cutting from that bush, which is growing like mad in my own back yard.

For me, cemeteries are for the living.  I’m glad I have a place to go and say hi, to sit on the grass and think, to pay my respects to ancestors I never met.   I also try, every day, to remember look up from the daily distractions and think of that cloudless sky, and to open my arms and my heart, even if it’s only a little (and sometimes that’s all I can manage) to those around me who are still here to be loved.   Right this second it’s those twins, who are giggling in their room way past their bedtime and arguing over which night light to use.  Everyone’s a little caked up (sugar!) and sunburned (pool!)   On another night I’d be cross and fuss at them.  But I’m going to go give them another hush, and then step outside and say hi to the fireflies.  It’s sultry out there, my favorite kind of summer evening.

PS  — I went into American Apparel at the mall for the first time in my life, with the teenagers, and up on the checkout counters they have some very cool nail polish colors — the bottles look sort of like the StrangeBeautiful ones.   They are all matte (I think), I didn’t have time to fully investigate.   I have no idea how they wear, but they’re 3 for $15.

March

When I did the nude makeup post, Carter made a suggestion for a particular look (I think it was a combo of an eyeshadow, eyeliner and lipstick?) that sounded lovely.  I said I’d like to do a post where people could submit their favorite makeup looks, and … here it is.  You’re invited to submit in comments one of your favorite “looks” – whether it’s built around a particular feature, like a smoky eye, or highlights a much-beloved product is up to you.

For the purposes of commenting, we’ll assume the basic prep (e.g., sunscreen, foundation) has been done, unless you want to pimp a particular foundation or tinted moisturizer – in which case, go right ahead!  This is the time of year when lots of folks — including our male readers — are looking for sunscreen suggestions.

Also please add information about your skin tone/eye coloring etc., if you think it would be relevant to readers.

Have fun!  I won’t be replying to comments, but I’ll be reading them, looking for ideas …

* * *

Okay, here’s mine:  March’s Five-Minute, Ten-Hour face, built around my new toy – the nude lip.   I’m pale with hazel eyes.

On eyelids: Bobbi Brown cream shadow in Slate (a matte greige), applied with a brush.  It hides my pinkish lids and makes my eyes stand out, but it’s still neutral and subtle.

Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner in Black Plum (my BB gels do not budge) and/or, if I’m feeling the heightened drama, more penciling at the lashline with MAC Powerpoint pencil in Permaplum.

Mascara: Blinc (a tubular mascara that does not flake or irritate my eyes)

Cheeks:  MAC Strada, the perfect neutral cheek powder, with a very light touch of pink on the apples, not too far forward (NARS Penny Lane cream or Sephora Rose Rebelle 1 matte powder.)

Nude lip:  NARS Chelsea Girls (lip lacquer) – OR — Shu Uemura lipstick in 318M (“matte neutral pink, warm undertone”) which is as nude and matte as I can go while avoiding the brown-lips-of-death look (note the WARM undertone.  No beige here!)  If the Shu’s too extreme you can gloss it.  They have some great nudie colors and I think the clear tube is fun, link to their lipstick here.

A pinky-sized dab of MAC Shroom, a very pale moonlight shimmer, on the inner eyes next to the tear ducts, and above my lips on my cupid’s bow.

March

Happy Mother’s Day, those of you who partake.  Those of you with mothers.  Those of you who are mothers — in all senses of the word… I’m enjoying the freakishly cold weather here in D.C. again, playing with the sprogs, and going to Diva’s belly dancing concert later.

Anyone get or give any good loot for Mother’s Day?   Hecate gave me a couple of cards she made herself, bless her.  She’s got her own terrarium of roly-polys she’s collected.  I hope she remembers to leave the lid on.  Anyhow, I think I might buy meself a wee bottle o’perrrrfume online.  I deserve it, yes?   Today’s scent was Eau des Merveilles, I haven’t worn it in forever and forgot how much I like it.

I got a call from the Big Cheese this morning — he’s in a place called Dali (?) which is in China, he’s hanging out with a couple from Amsterdam and having fun.  He’s been gone since April, coming home the end of this month, I think.  He’s talking about some train they can take to Tibet that goes through a pass so high each seat has its own oxygen mask.  Here’s a photo (up top) he took on his nine-hour bike ride in Yangshou.

Also, regular Posse commenter and D.C. friend Sariah took off on a year-long adventure around the world, here’s a link to her travel blog.  I love to travel, albeit less exotically, and I’m married to Mr. Travel himself.  I’m looking forward to following Sariah’s adventures and I thought you might be interested as well.

So, that’s it.  I’m offline today, living life rather than blogging about it.  Cheers.  See you tomorrow.

March

Comments are fixed — YAY!!!  Come back tomorrow, let’s take another crack at the Top Ten of Spring, which I’ll re-post.  In the meantime…

In the past two years, we’ve tackled all sorts of makeup/lipstick issues – red lips, YLBB shades (“your lips but better”), pink lips, mascaras, more red lips, foundations, plenty of, and I’m sure some other things I’ve forgotten.  As I’ve said before – I am no expert on makeup, I’m just an enthusiastic amateur who’s willing and ready to play and experiment, and I always come away from these blog exchanges with new ideas and products to try.

Many women say “there is no right red lipstick for me,” but in my opinion, nothing has been more difficult or elusive than an attractive nude-lip makeup look. I think it’s particularly tricky for those of us who are fairly pale, and who are thus in danger of looking like corpses or store-mannequin freaks in a too-pale flesh-toned lipstick.

Why did I keep pursuing this goal?  Two reasons: first, because I’m pigheaded.  Second, as I slide into middle age, I believe that YLBB/nude lipsticks, done with the right shades, are really soft and flattering and youthful looking.  Gone (for me anyway) are my goth-lip makeup days.  Mostly, subtle is better, at least during the daytime.

I wish I had a dollar for every time during the past two years that I have asked a makeup sales associate at any given makeup counter to show me a nude lip and wound up with something awful.  The general drill: they apply lipstick X, then frown and say, uh … that’s not what I was expecting.  Which brings me to my first pronouncement – I think a successful nude lip, more than any other shade in the crayon box, is the most difficult to hit correctly and the most dependent on your personal skin tone and lip coloring.

I have pale skin with ruddy undertones, and quite pigmented lips, and along the edges my lips are almost purplish. I think this has allowed me to pull off warmer lipcolors that shouldn’t work on me – pinks veering into coral – because my underlying lip tone shifts lipstick colors toward cool.  Cool-tones pinks and reds read strongly cool-toned on me.  And finally, some of those vampy wines that in theory would look great on me?  Look terrible.  Bluish-black.  Instant Morticia Addams territory.  No thanks.

So the “nude” lip was mostly a disaster because, for instance, lipsticks and pencils that read truly nude – neutral toned – on their own are bluish-brown on my lips.  No no no.   However.  There’ve been a couple breakthroughs recently, hence this post.

First off, I realized a flaw in my approach.  Instead of hitting Lancome, Chanel, Bobbi Brown, D&G, Shiseido, yadda yadda to try their two or three nudes I went (HUGE DUH MOMENT) to The Nude Mothership – aka MAC.  I’m sure a bunch of you are MAC fans already but seriously, if you’re going to go nude, why not start with the line that, probably owing to their younger demographic target, has more nude lipsticks, pencils, liners, blushes, glosses, etc. than any other line out there?  I found an SA I liked, picked a rainy Tuesday morning when nobody was there (not an option for all of you, I realize) and asked her to show me nudes until one of us ran off screaming, and that I promised I’d buy a pack of MAC wipes if all else failed.

And so we proceeded.  The first three, five or nine were, predictably, disasters (insert smiling emoticon here.)  Because – yo – my lips, they’re blue.  However, as she started to tinker … first, we came up with a lip pencil that we liked on its own so much that I decided I’d be getting that — MAC Boldly Bare.

Now, I’m going to stop here and make A Second Important Pronouncement, which is/was perhaps Screamingly Obvious to Every Other Woman on the Planet, maybe I just missed the memo: if you’re pale (like me) and/or you have pigmented lips (like me), then I don’t care how opaque that lippie is you’re trying to wear – you’re going to have to lighten up your lip tone first if you expect to get the full effect of the nude.

And how are you going to do that?  Well, one classic makeup school of thought has you foundation your entire face – including eyelids (to delete redness) and lips (to remove color) and start from there.  That’s a little extreme for me, but I’m info-sharing.  Gina the makeup artist who may drop by here today, is not a fan of foundation on the lips, which she finds chalky — she recommends a pencil.  However, I will confess that I’ve gotten decent results in this department by applying, with my fingertip, a very very lightly dabbed application of my trusty Lancome Effacernes concealer, or a lightly sponged application of Make Up Forever Liquid foundation.  I’m not erasing all the color into freaky-mannequin-territory so much as lightening my lips several shades and making the color neutral.  The other way you can do this is with the aforementioned lip pencil – so go to town.  Go to MAC.  They’ve got like 20 nude lip pencils; one of them will look good, right?  In theory.  The nice thing about the pencil is that you can draw in and create a clearly defined nude border.

Once you’ve achieved a lighter-toned lip, here’s the first experimenting I did – I have a bunch of YLBB colors (pinky-nude, coral-nude, nudie-rose, etc.)   Ordinarily they go straight on my lips and – voila, YLBB.  But if I put them on top of my new, pale lip, they’re a whole different color!  They are, for the most part, a successful quasi-nude shade that is significantly lighter than YLBB, and the best part is: I already own them!

Which brings me to the next bit, the philosophical/color values debate and discussion: what constitutes a “nude” lip?  To me, nude lips can and do overlap with YLBB colors.  Depending on your skin tone, and how pale you are, your best “nude” is likely to be a slightly pinky nude – an actual hint of color – rather than a true flesh-toned nude.  Furthermore, if we look at the beautiful Queens of Nude, like Beyonce and J-Lo, if we study what “nude” is on them – often it’s not their precise skin tone.  Nope, the lips are very slightly lighter, darker, pinker, glossier, whatever.  I think us pale girls are more likely to find success in a pinky nude, perhaps, than a light beige.

What about makeup?  Well, a lot of women like to pair a nude lip with a defined or smokey eye — like J-Lo up there.  Or you can go light and natural on the eyecolor as well.  I definitely feel more of a need for blush with a nude lip.  And I’ll say it again – in general, when trying lippies and pencils, the most success I’ve had has been with things that are slightly warm-toned or pinky, not neutral beige, which tends to read blue on me.  Your Results May Vary.

So what was this fabulous lipgloss Gina told me about when I was whining about my nude-lip fail?  Fine, if you try nothing else, at least go try this!!  Gina recommended NARS Chelsea Girls lip lacquer, since I was so wild for their uber-hot-pink NARS Hotwired Lip Lacquer gloss pot, which I blogged about awhile ago.  (No, I don’t love the gloss-pot format; I’d prefer a wand, I use a lip brush with mine.)  Chelsea Girls in the pot looks … sort of like original Chap-Stik in terms of color?  Meh.  Weird flesh pink.  I’ll warn you right now, when I tried it at Sephora, for the first minute or two I was pretty … eh about it.  I swear, it must take a bit to warm up and melt into the lips.  So.  Give it a few minutes and take another look.  This is the only lip product I’ve found that gives me a truly nude lip of the non-corpse, non-cool, no-purple, instant gratification variety, with no lip prep involved – I can put it straight on my (okay, non-dried and fully conditioned) lips without any color correction, just like a regular lipgloss, and it looks great.  And it stays.  Gorgeous, gorgeous color.  I would never have tried it on my own.  Thanks, Gina.   BTW, yes, sticking the applicator in the tester pot in Sephora skeeves me out too; there’s no way to really sterilize it.  Good luck with that.

I did try, while I was there, the new NARS nude lippie, which is a sheer glossy number called Cruising from their Spring collection, and which is supposed to be All That.  On me, as on a number of folks in reviews on MUA, it’s essentially $24 Chap-Stik – not enough pigment.  So I passed on that.  But lots of other people love it.

Finally, and then I’ll shut up and turn it over to you – this discussion wouldn’t be complete without a mention of mannequin hands – which, for the uninitiated, is nail polish in a shade that is close to the wearer’s skin tone. It’s a fun topic on the nailpolish boards and blogs — I provided that link so you can see for yourself.   I tried on a color, OPI Tickle My France-y, thinking it would be taupey, but it’s mannequin-ish — only slightly different than my skin tone.   Well, guess what?  If you haven’t played Disappearing Fingernails yourself, a light nude beige is, in fact, incredibly chic looking.  I wore France-y to Paris – had a pro mani done ahead of time and took the bottle along for touch-ups.  It goes with everything, doesn’t clash, stays tidy and looks elegant.  My only caveat is that to me it’s very much a short-trimmed-nail look, I do think it looks bizarre on long nails.  What are some of your favorite mannequin hand colors?

Okay – now, your turn!   Do you hate the nude look?  Love it?  Tell us which lines and shades of nude lips you’ve had success with.   Are all lip pencils too drying for you?  Where do you draw the line between YLBB and a true “nude” look?  If you’ve deployed the nude lip, what do you tend to do about the rest of your face in terms of makeup?  How do you keep from looking washed out?  (On me, blush is pretty much mandatory with the nude lip.)  Which shades of nail polish have you used for mannequin hands?  Or feel free to add any other questions, comments, etc. on nude makeup looks that you want.

photo: Jennifer Lopez, Glamour magazine, July 2007

March