Lipstick Rules

I spend a lot of time thinking about lipstick. 

I am openly enthusiastic about any balm, gloss, salve, paste, oil or spackle that the purveyors of lip products would like me to consume.  Is the perfect peachy pink urban legend? Will I ever find it?  What if it’s limited edition?  Where’s the closest Sephora? Does Tom Ford lipstick EVER go on sale?  These are the questions with which I often grapple. 

A glimpse into my makeup bag.  And my mind.

With that small taste of what’s happening in my mind, it may surprise you to learn that I also have a long-time interest in all things personal growth.  No episode of Oprah or Super Soul Sunday goes unwatched in my home.  I believe Deepak Chopra when he tells me we are all One.  I am determined not to judge anyone but the Housewives on Bravo.  I make sincere attempts at daily meditation, balancing my chakras, eating lots of green things,  “consciously parenting” and “consciously partnering” when I remember.  I give my time and money to others when I can and own a couple of dogs.  In summary, I am aware that a life filled with happiness, peace and joy is “an inside job,” and I consider myself, for the most part,  ON THE JOB.   

So, how do you reconcile a deep, passionate love of all things lip with an understanding that achieving happiness, peace and joy is an “inside job”?  At a glance, one could easily conclude that coveting Giorgio Armani Rouge D’Armani lipstick in #508 is, at best, an “outside job” or, at worst, giving into the larger idea that a women’s value can be based on how well she presents herself.  It would appear lipstick and, say, yoga fundamentally don’t match up.  A frivolous waste of time, energy, and, most of all, money. Right?  

No way.  Yoga and lipstick can match up and I’d bet my Tom Ford Lip Color Matte in Pink Tease on it.

Stay with me here.  What if applying lipstick at intervals throughout the day is not merely compliance to some superficial beauty expectation thrust upon women by society, but instead a way to pause, momentarily, the mayhem in our too-busy lives?  What if we apply lipstick as a way to treat ourselves to a bit of luxury and self-care multiple times a day?  What’s more of an “inside job” than self-care, people?  Swipe on some Shiseido’s Benefiance Full Correction Lip Treatment and tell me your soul doesn't feel as nourished as your lips! 

A stretch?  Perhaps.  After years of occasional shame spirals fueled by the question of whether or not lipstick lust is an acceptable hobby, it finally occurred to me that wearing lipstick has nothing to do with how I need or want other people to perceive me.  I realized that I don’t put on a red lip (or, more accurately, Nars Audacious lipstick in Michiyo) so that the stranger at Whole Foods thinks I’ve got my life super together.  I swipe on my Bobbi Brown Pale Pink Lipstick for me.  I have learned to embrace the fact that I occasionally (frequently) daydream about the perfect eye-popping pink.   Love of lipstick is a part of my "inside job". 

I told you I think about lipstick a lot.

What surprisingly shallow things are a part of your "inside job"?

Keely