So I’m not exactly a huge makeup person. Sure, sometimes I’ll wear a little mascara during the week and I like to mix up my eye makeup when I go out, but I’m definitely not the type to be bold enough to wear lipstick, especially not on a regular basis. This week I decided to step out of my comfort zone and vamp up my makeup routine, simply by wearing lipstick every day. Here’s what happened:
Monday
I decided to go big on the first day, and I wore a bold red – “Cruella” lipstick pencil by NARS. While the color looked great, this product doesn’t exactly have the best staying power, so I didn’t even bother putting it on until after breakfast.
On Mondays I have Organic Chemistry Lab, and I way underestimated the risk of going four hours without a mirror. About three hours in, I noticed I managed to get product on the right shoulder of my sweater, so I wiped the sides of my lips and tried not to think about the big red stain on my outfit as I continued with my lab work.
About an hour later, just as lab was finishing up, I unlocked my phone and the Snapchat front camera opened up, and to my horror I realized I had a bright pink line smeared from my bottom lip to my chin. To make it worse, I then realized I could have easily had the smear on my face for the entirety of lab, while I was introducing myself to my new classmates. Great.
On the bright side, one of my coworkers complimented my lipstick later that afternoon.
Tuesday
After a bold first day, I decided to take it down a couple notches. Today I wore another NARS lipstick pencil in the pinky-nude shade “Rikugien,” and although I had similar issues with the lipstick not staying on too well, the color was close enough to my natural lip shade that I didn’t have to worry about big pink stains across my face. Despite having to constantly re-apply, it was much more convenient to wear a milder color, especially at the gym.
Wednesday
Today I turned it back up again with another bold red and wore “Certainly Red” by Revlon. This time around I had less trouble having it stay on since I used the apply-dab-repeat application technique and applied concealer around my lips to help keep a sharp edge and prevent bleeding.
I have lab again on Wednesday for Organic Chemistry and all was going well until I went to the bathroom after class to find that I had red lipstick all over my teeth. So much for not looking like hot mess. It wasn’t until later at work my boss told me about the “finger trick” to prevent lipstick from getting on your teeth:
Too bad I had already worn out my tongue from licking the front of my teeth all day.
That night my roommates and I headed to Blarney’s for Ladies Night (free drinks for ladies 11pm to 12pm for those who don’t know!!) and I decided to wear something even more bold – deep maroon. I had a sample of The Beauty Corp’s GRLPWR liquid lipstick in “Imma Bawse” that I finally felt ballsy enough to wear. I was actually pleasantly surprised for how well it stayed on through the night, and a teeny bit annoyed with how difficult it was to remove when I got home.
Thursday
Tuesday evening I had stopped at Target Express for a different shade to wear today, and ended up picking up NYX Lingerie liquid lipstick in a nude-ish rosewood shade “Exotic.” While this color stayed on much better throughout the day and throughout my meals, I admit I felt pretty silly wearing lipstick to the gym. At least it stayed put during my workout.
Friday
Today I went back to the NARS “Rikugien” since I only had one class and plenty of errands to run, and I wanted something simple that wouldn’t have me checking my teeth all day.
Throughout the week, besides just wearing lipstick, I also had to be sure I was wearing just enough eye makeup to balance out my bold lip colors, which isn’t something I love doing all the time. I don’t typically wear makeup everyday, if any at all, partly because I want to give my skin a break but more so because I’m lazy. Overall, although I didn’t enjoy the maintenance of wearing lipstick, my confidence in my ability to wear it – at least once in a while – and feeling like I can pull it off has gone way up, which made it worthwhile.