Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

When I first declared my no-buy three weeks ago, I predicted that my willpower would be tested severely. Instead, I immediately felt a sense of unaccustomed freedom. I'd grown used to thinking of my beauty purchases as stress relievers, but I hadn't considered that they might actually be a source of stress. Every new purchase brought pleasure and excitement, but never without an undercurrent of guilt and worry: can I really afford this? do I really need it? will I really use it, or will it end up gathering dust? And now those anxious questions are gone. My no-buy has liberated me to play with the makeup I already own instead of constantly plotting to buy something new. I mean, ask me in a month whether I still feel this way, but for now? I'm pretty content, and I'm glad I caught an incipient problem before it became more serious. My plan for 2016 is to try a Monika-style low-buy (no more than two new items per month), but with a couple of no-buy months thrown in. Step...

Three weeks into my no-buy, I'm not feeling any great temptation to get something new, but I do find myself adding a worrisome number of items to my "buy in 2016" wishlist. In the interest of self-distraction, I think I'd better get back to reviewing the stuff I picked up during my stress-shopping phase in September and October. Introducing my newest blush (and, to my credit, one of only two blushes that I bought this year): Urban Decay Rapture. Despite my longtime devotion to all things plum, I didn't own a plum blush until Rapture. NARS Mata Hari is a medium cool pink with a slight plum tone, and Sleek Flushed is a warm berry red, but neither blush is quite purple enough to qualify for inclusion in my favorite makeup color category. So when Urban Decay had a sitewide 20%-off sale in October, I bought not only the Revolution Lipstick in 69 , but also the blush version of Rapture, the lipstick I've been wearing constantly this fall. Rapture the lipstick has...

All right, technically the NARS Semi-Matte Lipstick in 413 BLKR has been around since Fall 2013. But it's my standout lipstick acquisition of this fall, so there. I've had it for two weeks and have worn it on almost half those days. I can't stop. It's just too good. I forget how exactly I became fixated on this lipstick. Maybe it was when I was planning my birthday visit to New York and I remembered that the NARS flagship store was close to our hotel. Or maybe I just happened upon 413 BLKR during one of my many stress-relieving swatch explorations in October. Nothing soothes me more than emptying my mind, opening my browser, and clicking through image after image of cherry red, coral, plum, deep brown. I tell myself that I can sink into the swirling depths of material desire and emerge just as I was, but that rarely happens. More often I surface with a particular lipstick name clinging to my brain like a barnacle. In the spirit of my current no-buy , I'm going to g...

I've bought a lot of makeup in the last two or three months, and I've bought it largely due to stress. I've alluded to this lightheartedly with my "Stress-Fueled Impulse Purchase" series, but it's time to acknowledge that I have to stop buying new stuff, at least for a while. Liz's last post as the Beauty Reductionista prompted some much-needed self-reflection. I'm not even close to being in debt, and I don't feel like my shopping habits are out of control, but I'm definitely guilty of emotional purchases. I'd wager it's happened to most people reading this post: you become fixated on one product and tell yourself that this is it , the one thing that will complete your collection. After you buy this thing, you'll be spoiled for all other things ever after. Come to think of it, buying this thing is a wise preventative measure, because the thing will be so superlatively great that you'll never have to buy another thing like it. S...

I don't wear much red lipstick. Is that a strange admission for a lipstick addict to make? Red is the iconic lip color, the color that we all think of when we hear the word "lipstick," yet it's rare that I reach for a true red: I prefer my reds sheer or burnt or plummy. When I wear bright red lipstick, I worry that I'm inadvertently advertising myself as a certain kind of person. In my mind, a red-lipped person is bold, friendly, outspoken. At a party, she's more likely to make conversation with strangers than to hide in the kitchen, her only companion a handful of pretzels. In other words, I've somehow gotten it into my head that red lipstick is reserved for extroverts and for introverts who can fake extroversion successfully. And, well, I can't always fake it. And if I can't fake it, I'd rather not be wearing a lipstick that suggests I can. I don't want my appearance to promise something that my personality can't deliver. Or maybe ...