Tag: Rouge Bunny Rouge

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please me

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.

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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.

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the autumn/winter palette

So-called autumn colors are consistently my favorites, regardless of the season. Deep jewel tones, warm earth tones, any color a leaf might conceivably turn, the dark, sophisticated cousins of their spring/summer counterparts. There’s a lot of overlap between classic autumn and classic winter shades and I don’t make much of a distinction, though if forced I would say it is the warm, rusty, browned shades that dominate the autumn palette, and the winter palette substitutes that warmth for still more heavily saturated jewel tones.* Ex. the turn from the oxblood lip to the deep, blue-toned red lip (or burgundy to bordeaux). Ex. the turn from copper and gold to amethyst and jade.

*Jewel tones meaning (at least, I mean) colors somewhere on the spectrum of a true gemstone color, just darker or lighter, paler or more vibrant. A questionable phrase as the terms jewel and gem are hazy, and could really be said to include every color thanks to the diversity of minerals, but when we talk about beauty and fashion we understand the term to mean saturated and vibrant, often dark colors. So, OK, fine. Jewel tones.

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I like this transitional period wherein it’s not too late (I mean, it’s never too late) to evoke the rust and copper of autumn, and the muted violets, rosy reds, and deep greens of winter are fair game. I’m especially into plummy, bordeaux shades this year. Definitely another burgundy/bordeaux lip round up coming soon. Will be telling you more about some of my favorites pictured here as well, mostly quite new, and some real beauties.

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Really the only thing to do with piles of beautifully colored objects is to arrange endless configurations of them. Right? I, at least, never tire of this.

For me makeup is only fractionally about the medium/texture/formula, and primarily about the color. I am not even shopping for a category, sometimes, not a blush or a lipstick or a shadow (many of these can be multi-purpose, anyway), I am shopping for a color. An excellent formula is then a happy bonus. I have a few lipsticks that are lovely in texture but a little eh color-wise, and they don’t get much love. On the other hand I have some mediocre shadows that I make work because I like the colors so well.

Color is also the most dangerously effective justification for getting another thing, makeup-wise. I think I may accurately blame much of my stash on color preoccupation.

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