Sezane dress
Linjer ring (c/o) (similar)
Maris Pearl Co. earrings (c/o) (similar)
Location: Osborne Village – Winnipeg, Manitoba
French style wisdom suggests we should all have a signature shade of red lipstick. I’m not sure that I really agree. But I still have one, and it came into my life totally unexpectedly.
It was May 2010. I hadn’t started blogging yet, but I was bored at work and keen to experiment with my style as my wedding approached. Before a night out – at our favourite bar in Vancouver at the time, Lickerish – I went shopping with a not-particularly-close girlfriend. We picked out outfits. I wanted, I told her, a red lipstick for the occasion, and suggested we go to Sephora.
I described this friend as not-particularly-close to help you understand her response, which seemed meant for someone other than me. “But you never wear red lipstick. Why would you waste money on an expensive one from Sephora when you can just get one from the drug store?”
Clearly, she didn’t know me very well. And wasn’t aware of my penchant for happily wasting money on lovely luxury items, regardless of how much use they might get once I own them. We didn’t have that, or much else, in common. In fact, that was one of the last nights out we ever had together.
But, suitably shamed for wanting to spend money on something I really loved, not just a cheap alternative, I chose a red from London Drugs: L’Oreal’s British Red. The tube looked predictably cheap and tacky, but the colour was pretty perfect. I wound up wearing the shade on repeat after that, night out after night out… and almost every day of the year we lived in Paris, too. In spite of the less than ideal circumstances under which it came into my make-up bag, I came to love it. Eventually, I thought of it as, “my red.”
Tastes change as time goes on, though. I got tired of kissing red lipstick off on all of my teacups at work and eventually retired most of the red shades in my lipstick collection. A couple of years ago, I threw most of the old tubes away, with the exception of a couple of shades I really love – a Tom Ford red, and a Givenchy – for special occasions.
And then, we all had to start wearing masks. I believe in this practise wholeheartedly, but I’m contrary by nature. Wearing lipstick under a mask is ridiculous and impractical so naturally, I can’t help myself. All of a sudden, I wanted to wear red lipstick all the time again.
So, I started digging through my make-up collection. And much to my surprise, buried at the bottom of one of my (many) make-up boxes was my old tube of British Red. Yes, the one from 2010. I can’t believe that it never ran out, never mind that it somehow missed the great lipstick purge of 2019. Over a decade old and completely dried out, it was no good for anything except a trip to the garbage can. But finding that tube brought back so many happy memories that I felt compelled to replace it.
British Red is still available, at a budget friendly price point, at local drug stores. I found it on sale for $7.49. The tube remains a distasteful shade of frosted gold and a strange rounded square shape. But the red is exactly like I remember, and, for better or worse, it’s my shade now. It still kisses off on all my teacups. And inside all of my masks. But I can’t help loving it, anyway.
My go-to lipstick is a NARS pale pink shade. Does L’Oreal (in exactly the tube you describe) make pretty much exactly the same shade? Yes. But I unfailingly always want the perceived luxury of the NARS version, regardless of the cost.
Courtney ~ Sartorial Sidelines
Because I of course had to, I immediately googled “L’Oreal British Red” and the first hit at Target revealed an updated shiny gold round tube – so you might want to order another 😂😂😂
I’m probably with your ex-friend when it comes to trying makeup, I’d rather toss out something I spent less than $20 on if I end up never using it!
Also love seeing this dress, glad you still have it, as I know it hasn’t made an appearance in a while!