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Chances are you either love lipstick unconditionally, or just consider it an accessory for special occasions. At least, that’s been my findings among friends. I have to admit I’m a lipstick addict.


I once took a quiz along the lines of, “If you could only have one cosmetic, what would it be?” Many women said eyeliner, because they felt it made their eyes larger and more expressive. I had to go with lipstick, because I believed that the right shade livened up a girl’s face to make her look more “finished.” I think I was 13 at the time. I still feel the same way.


My mother had a huge collection of lipstick tubes, and I remember thinking how badly some of them smelled and tasted. They fascinated me, however, and the change they made to my mother fascinated me as well. She tried to match her lipstick with her clothes, and sometimes even put different colors on top of each other, which I thought was rather wild for an “old” person. I had a small collection of Bonnie Bell products as a preteen, and graduated to Cherry Chapstick in high school. At some point, the in-thing was to get little tubs of gloss to spread on with your fingers, and the popular girls wore either very pale tones or bright red. After I began working, I realized that a shimmer lipstick was the most flattering on me, and probably went through dozens of tubes of the stuff. Then, around the time of my wedding came the super shiny gloss, but it never seemed to stay on; I guess I either spoke too much or too often. It was just when I began to worry about my attachment to lipstick that I met another woman who felt the same as I did; not surprisingly, we became good friends.


We discussed our lipstick problems; we bought various colors to mix our own unique blends. We tried various forms of gloss before, in, and after regular lipstick application. We thinned the thick versions down with Vaseline. We were lipstick gurus.


You’d think that real life, marriage, and motherhood would have put my addiction on the back burner, but it didn’t. I still love it enough to wear it when at home, and to go out without it would make me feel stark naked. Even now, decades after my first practiced pout and tissue blotting of my tinted lips, I still blend my own colors. You’d think by now I’d have it down to a science, but I don’t. It’s always a new experience, and I’ve found that the way a lipstick looks in the tube isn’t the way it looks on my mouth. I’ve also found that mixing two colors before applying gives a completely different hue than applying two separate layers directly to my lips. I’ve no idea how many hours I’ve wasted in attempts to get just the right shade, and how many times I’ve wiped lipstick off in frustration, but it’s always a joy to hit upon just the right one.


Let’s face it-lipstick these days isn’t cheap. Quite often, mixing inexpensive brands, then applying the result with a lipstick brush, offers a professional result that is more flattering than one attained from dragging a tube over your mouth. Overly deep colors can be diluted with petroleum jelly or used with lip gloss, and if a brighter, darker, orange or blue tone is needed, simply buy another such color and mix it in slowly. Test the result on your lips in different lighting until satisfied. It may take several attempts, and quite a few tissues, but you’ll have the satisfaction of a truly individualized lipstick that’s the best for your coloring.


Who knows why some women get attached to certain forms of cosmetics? Some won’t leave the house without nail polish, while others must have blush or eye shadow to feel complete. I tend to side with a recent ad campaign of a famous designer, who had his group of 20 year old models display the new season’s line without a drop of face makeup, except for-you guessed it-red lipstick. They looked classical, sophisticated, and intriguing. That’s the power of that particular cosmetic, at least for those of us who feel life is too short to not look your best!