Bobbi Brown - The Seventh Sphinx

My initial lipstick acquisition phases centered around reds and oranges, then deep red wine shades, so, for someone who has a lot of lipstick, pink is relatively underrepresented. Or, it was.

We’ve done some catching up, pink and I.

One of the most recommended shades was MAC Please Me, a matte mid-tone rose pink. This is right on the border of being too pale for me, that region of the spectrum of yellow-based pink that makes me look ill/green, from which I have to go either brighter (toward neon) or darker to find a shade that doesn’t jar.

It’s surely partly a mental block of my own as well, I concede. I don’t wear pale pinks, so I always think they look off. That said, paired with a slightly darker liner (this lipstick is better with a liner, anyway, not opaque enough on its own), I can totally work with this.

Look who put on eyeliner! That’s Bobbi Brown gel liner.

I’m willing to experiment to push the boundaries of how pale I can go before things get weird. Ideally I will at the same time shift those boundaries, expanding the realm of color open to me. [Of course the entire realm of color is open to me…but I am not open to it.]

Rimmel Exaggerate lip liner in Pure with MAC Please Me in the center, Koh Gen Do Aqua Foundation (still loving) with Rouge Bunny Rouge Impalpable Finishing Powder (also really like, though I’m going back and forth between that and the Charlotte Tilbury pressed powder, with is fantastic). Chanel Cream Blush in Affinite, which you can’t exactly see but which you would notice if it weren’t there. Played about with my Lorac Pro palette, even! Eyeshadow! And the brow perfection going on is MAC Pro Longwear Brow Set in Bold Brunette, pretty emphatically not my shade, several shades darker than my real brow color, but just the thing when I want to get the brows really dark but still natural. Officially I prefer Benefit Gimme Brow in Light/Medium for going just a teeny bit darker and grooming into place.

Barry M Nail Jelly in Satsuma.

Bobbi Brown Pink Coral (wearing here), Japonesque #3 (wearing here), Tom Ford Love Lust (wearing here)

Here are a few of the blushes I’m reaching for so far this spring. The Bobbi Brown blush I’ve mentioned before, it’s the brightest and the only non-shimmery blush in this crowd. The Japonesque blush is just a fraction darker, with some fine, subtle gold shimmer, and the Tom Ford blush is more muted and peachy with a comparable amount of gold shimmer, a sophisticated cousin of the Japonesque shade. With Love Lust I’m more likely to do a (subtle) 80s diva streak up the cheekbone rather than a pop on the apples of the cheeks. Milani blush in Luminoso is a great drugstore alternative, about $10 and with a similar effect on the cheeks in terms of the quality of the shimmer (high, fine). Though more distinctly coral/peach the shade is quite sheer (I can see this as a positive, easier not to put too much on in one go). I mention it here anyway because I reach for it under the same circumstances and for the same reasons I would reach for any of these pinks.

Clockwise from the top: Tom Ford Love Lust, Milani Luminoso, Japonesque #3, Bobbi Brown Pink Coral

One of these blushes is often virtually the only makeup I use for the day, with perhaps a little highlighter and tinted lip balm (maybe some bronzer, mascara…OK, OK. Virtually). If I only have time to do one thing, though, that thing is always adding a bit of blush. Blush, for me, gives the maximum payoff for the minimum effort, an instant infusion of life into the face.

These are great blushes at any time of year, really. Like any that suit you. A good pink blush will see you through all weather.

Tag: Bobbi Brown

please me

spring pinks