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· August 29, 2005 7:45 AM by
Dain
· August 29, 2005 2:13 PM by
Colleen Shirazi
· August 30, 2005 3:46 PM by
Dain
· August 31, 2005 1:54 PM by
Colleen Shirazi
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Posted by Colleen Shirazi, Sunday, August 28, 2005 5:29 PM (Eastern)
What really are those beauty essentials? Every cosmetic manufacturer seems to claim now that their product is a "go-to" beauty item. But is it?
For some time I have noticed on the forums, that everyone seems to own and frequently use one of those "blackened purple" eyepencils or liners.
Dain's post on Kevyn Aucoin (scroll down to "Prescriptives Softlining Pencil in Fig") rather sealed this impression, that this pencil had already replaced the dark brown or black eyeliner that was the "go-to" of yore.
I forget which entered my consciousness first, Audrey's MAC Permaplum or JennyB's Chanel Violet Smoke, but you might could do with a super dark, violet pencil or liner. Mine is the Permaplum (the Nars Babylon duo has something similar in powder shadow form).
Next up might be something like a sheer lipstick. (I know, I can hear Dain banging her head against the wall...hear me out.) Not sheer as in "why bother"; I am in complete agreement about that. I myself detest products that are sheer for the sake of sheer, that force you to pile on, scrape off product and then apply, or apply over a base.
But the sheer lipstick, is perhaps an evolved form of the "your lips but better" lipsticks that were the "go-to" before.
Hence, MAC Sophisto or Viva Glam V, or a very pigmented gloss like the Diane von Furstenberg Lipgloss Duet; something like that.
Then there is always the clear pink blush...MAC Angel, Nars Desire, Cargo Catalina. Here I almost hesitated because I wear my MAC Blushbaby as often as I do my Cargo Catalina, if not slightly more so. But there's no denying the various brands of pink...plain, clear, innocent pink...that seem to universally flatter.
The signature perfume is key, although that is much harder to generalize about. I can admit that my sig scent, Givenchy Organza, was embarrassingly easy for me to find. And before that, I would have been happy with Chanel No. 5; that is, before I developed a bad allergy to it.
Why Organza? It's not too sweet. But it is sweet. It's floral, but more than floral. It's relatively inexpensive and readily available, yet it's not ubiquitous. I never smell it on anyone else.
It's complex...not broodingly so (like my GF Ferre Lei/Her), yet womanly more than girly. It lasts all day in the EDP form. It has a bottle that is, get this, easy to use. That carved gown design...your thumb just fits into the waistline while you pop the golden top off...and the curl of the golden top, even that molds to the thumb of your other hand.
It's more than those factors, of course. I've come to believe that a signature scent becomes either more of a signature (if such a thing were possible) or less and less so, the more that you wear it.
Here there is a subtle entwining of memory with scent. This is the perfume I was wearing when I... (fill in the blank here) It's not conscious.
Oh well, I have to go now. Thanks for reading!
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August 29, 2005 7:45 AM,
Ohh... I don't object to sheer lipsticks objectively. They're lovely things, especially when MAC Lustres are involved. It's more the superabundance that I object to, the inability for a woman to find a "normal" lipstick that's as nice.
August 29, 2005 2:13 PM,
What irks me is the "why bother" sheer...where a lack of pigmentation passes for sheer. Okay it is sheer, but then there's nothing else to it.
August 30, 2005 3:46 PM,
Hey, the first purple-grey liner! It is Purple Heart, yeah?
August 31, 2005 1:54 PM,
That would be interesting... True, Purple Heart was the first fusion of grey and purple, with shimmer, that I can remember.
PH was in the end a bit too cool for me so I think the improvement (besides going into ubiquitous pencil form and making the purple darker) was to make the color more neutral.
Now, d'you think that Loco Cocoa lipstick will become the next go-to lip product?
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