Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

"A Journey Through Purge-atory" is my ongoing, if not exactly regular, destashing series; here are my first and second posts. Today, let's get rid of some lipstick and polish! Lipsticks, left to right: YSL Glossy Stain in Rouge Gouache, Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Mauvy Night, Revlon Colorstay Ultimate Suede Lipstick in Supermodel, Maybelline Colorsensational Vivids in On Fire Red, Milani Amore Matte Lip Creme in Crush. YSL Rouge Gouache is three years old now, and the formula seems a little off: it's thicker than it used to be and it doesn't quite set on my lips. We had some good times together, Rouge Gouache, but I didn't wear you enough while you were still in decent condition, because it turns out that I like opaque glosses only in theory. Revlon Mauvy Night is one of my oldest lipsticks: I bought it in the summer of 2011 after seeing Midnight in Paris and falling in love with Marion Cotillard's dusky lip color. I did not, however, fall in lo...

I made my stage debut in 1996 at the age of eight, in my elementary school's production of The Phantom Tollbooth . I had two roles: the Spelling Bee (marred by a wardrobe malfunction: part of my headband fell off and I pouted for the rest of the scene) and the Senses Taker. For the second role, I wore a severe bun, a prim, high-necked brown dress, and a pair of fake glasses, and asked Milo and his companions to tell me "when you were born, where you were born, why you were born, the schools you've attended, the schools you haven't attended..." Years would pass before I understood that the name of my role was a pun on "census taker," and that the adult world didn't actually contain a career path based on taking people's senses, except perhaps anesthesiology. Years would pass, too, before I understood why asking someone which schools they hadn't attended and which people they hadn't met was so funny. In the spirit of the Senses Taker, I tho...

Greetings from San Francisco, where I've spent the past few days recovering from jetlag and dissertating at neighborhood coffee shops. With three days of the old year remaining, it's time to post a list I've been compiling for the past month or so: my 14 favorite beauty purchases of 2014! A few notes before we begin: These are new-to-me products (not repurchases) that I bought in 2014. Only three of them actually came out this year; the others belong to their brands' permanent collections. I don't chase the limited-edition rabbit unless his pocket watch is especially shiny. And I find that when I buy makeup because it's new, I'm more often disappointed than not. These are not necessarily the best-performing beauty products I bought this year; they're just the ones that I've enjoyed the most. Of course, nothing truly bad made this list, but some of the products listed below have minor flaws, and there are some technically flawless products I bought i...

In the last year, my local supermarket has begun stocking the latest OPI and Essie releases, which is both an incentive to go grocery shopping and a severe test of my willpower. I've been disenchanted with Essie for a while now, but OPI has impressed me over and over with the quality of its formula and the creativity of its shades. First Class Desires, whose bougie name cracks me up, is part of the 16-piece Holiday 2014 collection. The theme of this collection is rather mysterious. OPI reports that it's inspired by Gwen Stefani, but the shade names and colors are typically "holiday," and Stefani already lent her name to last year's holiday collection. Not that it really matters to me: I know almost nothing about Gwen Stefani except for that awkward Harajuku Girls phase in 2004. More important, from my magpie point of view, is that this polish is complex and sparkly and pretty much flawless. First Class Desires is a deep plum packed with gold microglitter. This p...

Greetings from Birmingham, Alabama! I've been here for a few days to see my boyfriend, who is visiting his parents. This means, of course, that I've also been to Ulta. The company has no outposts near where I live, and I have yet to see one in San Francisco, where my parents live, so what was I to do when I finally found myself in physical proximity to an Ulta? Not go? Come on. The great and unusual thing about Ulta is that it sells both drugstore and high(ish)-end products, as well as a few brands that I normally have to buy online, such as NYX and Zoya. The more expensive brands at Ulta (e.g. Urban Decay, Too Faced) tend to have a young target demographic: no Guerlain or YSL or even NARS, more's the pity. I tend to be less interested in those shelves than in the drugstore stuff and the overwhelming selection of nail polish. Today I picked up three nail polishes and a lipstick:  Left to right: OPI Eurso Euro (a birthday present for my stepmother--I already have a bottle)...