Pinky Tuscadero

This weekend we went to the Berkshires to pick up No. One Son and his impressive pile of seriously filthy socks from sleepaway camp. I am now back in the scrum of my three boys, so naturally I had to bust out my girly pinks today. As Pinky Tuscadero showed us all, it's a vile myth that redheads can't rock pink.

On the eyes I used MAC Expensive Pink on the lid, with Brown Down in the crease and Mylar on the browbone. I love Expensive Pink, as it's salmon enough to work with my coloring, with just the right amount of gold shimmer to look warm and illuminating but not glittery. On the cheeks I used MAC Mineralize blush in Dainty. On the lips I'm scraping the bottom of a tube of Clinique Different Lipstick in Rose Taffy.

With all that pink I knew I needed a scent including rose, but I didn't want the full-throttle rose experience of Two, Five & Seven. I went for BPAL Endymion, which includes d'Anjou pear, Lily of the Valley, bois du rose, and white musk. This is a funny one on me, because I can't really make out the pear as a distinct note, but it's definitely there adding a little juicy fruit to the florals. The musk gives it a nice warm undertone, and it's white musk so it doesn't do the horrible sour thing that darker musks do on me. This one goes through a phase on my skin that makes it smell quite soapy, as if a bar of Ivory had hung out for a while with some rose. It's not unpleasant at all, but it's not generally what I'm looking for. Fortunately, once that passes I'm left with a pretty warm, light floral with a touch of pear.

My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose

Today I (finally) got myself into my fitted black puff sleeve blouse and black pencil skirt, which I consider a triumph in light of the post-baby body stuff. Naturally, this black-on-black look required red accessories. So I put on my wonderful Cole Haan lipstick red patent leather peeptoe slingbacks and whipped out a really killer red lipstick: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics' Lip Tar in Strutter. Lip Tar is an unusual product, in that it's a liquid that comes in a tube applicator with an angled plastic dispenser end like a lip gloss, but it's really a long-wearing liquid lipstick that is best applied with a brush. Sometimes when you're looking at color swatches you see that some users don't get this, and instead apply it like a gloss, with a goopy effect. But that's WRONG.

Anyway, I brushed on my Strutter, making sure to line first to keep the stuff from migrating into the fine lines that have crept up on me and appeared around my lips when I wasn't looking. On the eyes I did a very simple pale neutral, using Urban Decay Virgin on the lid and Naked in the crease (b0th from the justifiably adored Naked Palette) and did a nice sort of retro black line on the upper lid using NYX Felt Tip Liner in Jet Black, which even a eyeliner idiot like me can get to work. And I looked great! Crisp black blouse and skirt, deep red lips, a defined but subtle eye.

At some point in the afternoon, though, I went to touch up my lipstick and discovered that the bit of balm I'd applied, coupled with the clear e.l.f. Lip Lock Pencil had conspired to mush my gorgeous red lipstick all around my lips, but skipping over the area where the pencil had been applied so I looked like the result of the unholy union of Baby Jane and The Joker. My eyeshadow, I realized, lacked precision. I've already ranted about my frustrations with getting red lipstick to stay where I put it here, but I thought I'd nailed that down. This Lip Tar is going to last longer than actuarial tables will have me live, so I'd better get my act together.

Anyway, I smelled good, that I know. I wore Two, Five, and Seven, so I smelled like a rose garden.

Today's Scent

This morning, with temperatures in the 90s predicted and insane humidity, I put on my lightest summer dress -- cap sleeves, faux-wrap bodice, circle skirt, black and white snake print with black sash -- and decided to go with something fresh and rose. I picked BPAL's Two, Five & Seven, described thusly:

A huge bouquet of squished rose petals: Bulgarian rose, Somalian rose, Turkish rose, Damascus rose, red and white rose, tea rose, wine rose, shrub roses, rose, rose, rose…

…and just an itty bitty bit of green grass.

I have a problem wearing many roses, such as tea rose, which instantly turns to soap on my skin, but this one stays really true. It smells like a big bouquet of fresh-cut roses, or like walking through a rose garden where the grass has recently been mowed and watered. What I love is that the rose is not one-note, it takes into account the fact that not all varieties of roses smell alike, so it's wonderfully layered, and the grass adds freshness.

Makeup also contained a revelation. I've been using shimmery nudes on my lids for years, colors like Urban Decay Sin, which is a muted nude pink, but there was always something a little off with my skin tone. Today I busted out NYX's Skin Tight, which is a shimmery peach and WHAMMO, that's my skin, only better. I did that over the whole lid (with a base of MAC Paint Pot in Painterly), added a line of NYX felt tip black liner and their Propel My Eyes mascara in black, and I had a great neutral but finished eye that was just enough retro to go with my dress.