Ode to Ruby Red

It can take a lot of confidence to wear red lipstick.  Unbeknownst to me, her very existence is cause for alarm.  “Why do you wear that color?” a female colleague asked me with a huge dollop of teeth sucking scorn.  “Because I like it,” I shot back with equal hands on hip vigor.  “I just wear clear gloss,” she said as she sauntered off, convinced her choice was the clear winner.

Another time I stepped out of my apartment building on a warm spring day and passed my local fruit stand vendor, prepared to exchange our usual greeting, when he stared at my red lips as if the devil himself had appeared.  I’m sure if he had some holy water, he would have given me an extra shower that morning.

Now before you all start assuming I don’t know how to wear red lipstick and have a garish smear running across my face, I know the rules: natural, barely there make up with a matte lip and a hint of shine in the middle.  There are many ways to rock the red goddess, this one works for me.

When I asked a friend to accompany me to the Sephora at Columbus Circle to check out red lipsticks for this post, I was ill prepared for the violent reaction.  Granted this is a woman who vehemently wears no makeup, but I figured another brown skin tone from mine would be helpful in suggesting reds for black women.  We were assisted by a knowledgeable, Ghanaian woman named Vanessa, who turned out to have the patience of Job.  She needed it.

She first suggested a Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain in Always Red.  I marveled at the formula.  A strong pigmented red that went on matte, was easy to apply with the sponge applicator, but didn’t feel dry.  My friend’s reaction, “It looks clownish.”  Undaunted I asked to see lipstick formulas.  YSL (Yves Saint Laurent) had a new product, Rouge Volupte Shine that was very moist with a glossier, softer look.  I tried #4, Rouge in Danger, on my hand and my friend’s to see how it wore on red undertone and olive toned skin.  “This is poison, I would never wear this,” she said.  Ever the optimist, I tried to turn it around and asked Vanessa if there were any natural reds for my eco conscious sisters.  She showed us two lines, Josie Maran and Tarte.  Josie Maran’s Magic Marker lip and cheek stain in Flamenco, a blue red, literally felt like a wet magic marker that you would dot on your lips and cheeks and spread/apply with your fingertips.   Tarte’s Glamazon Pure Performance 12 Hour lipstick in Fierce was in the red orange family that is perfect for summer.  What caught my friend’s attention? Tarte’s lipstick tubes are made of wood.

Stick a fork in me, I was done.  I’m a girly girl, as my sister calls me.  I came out of the womb that way and makeup for me is fun.  It’s a chance to play, to express one’s self with color, be it subtle or bold.  I’m the girl who would give her friends makeovers, tweeze cousins’ eyebrows at Christmas family gatherings and honed my makeup artist skills on blonde, big-headed Barbie with the light blue eye shadow.  They didn’t make a black girl version, or I would have had that too.

So what gives, why is red so controversial, so provocative? So inflammatory that strangers and friends alike forego discretion and your feelings to disparage her presence?  London’s Daily Mail newspaper published findings from a study conducted by scientists at Manchester University that showed men were most attracted to women who wore red lipstick vs. another color or nothing at all.  Psychology Today has an interesting article entitled Red Alert: Science Discovers the Color of Sexual Attraction, which chronicled the very real, yet subconscious reaction that both men and women have to the color red.

Perhaps it is her sexual nature that disturbs and excites.  To wear her signals a “perceived” message too uncomfortable for some and right on for others.  I say wear her for yourself, wear her unencumbered, wear her just because you like it!