Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Pretty Red Lip Gloss

Oh, such a fun title!  It was fun, really.  Friday night I went out with an older coworker of mine.  And by (barely) older, I mean like four years.  She's married, successful, wonderful, mature and just that much wiser than me. And she's gorgeous.  So yes, it was a little bit of an intimidating prospect to go out on the town with her and her friends.  (Thank goodness for Halloween costumes - we could all look like idiots.)

So my natural instinct was to hit the mall before we could hit Main Street.  Not that I could wear anything new (I was dressing up like a cowgirl - not too terribly dorky) but I needed a little pick-me-up.  So I stopped by the make-up counter where Dana, the unsuspecting Macy's employee, humored me for ten minutes while I tried to describe to her exactly what I wanted. 

I didn't learn how to apply make-up until I was in college.  And while my morning make-up routine changed drastically when I started working in commercial real estate, I've always kept it simple enough that I can do it in ten minutes in the car on the way to the office.  My incredibly young-looking mother maintains her complexion with a little moisturizer and chap stick so I come by my affinity for simplicity naturally. 

Every lip gloss, lip stick, etc. that I've owned has been pale pink and girly.  Pretty, but not sexy.  I mean, I'm going to wear it to work (heaven forbid I have a separate one for work and one for going out), class and the bar so it has to be neutral.  Apparently at twenty-eight I didn't really know what neutral meant so Dana and I had a good laugh.  I wanted color, but not like a crazy red lipstick.  I wanted neutral color (??) apparently.  Anyhow, the jargon still alludes me but this redish clearish gloss is actually quite flattering and makes me feel (look?) a tad bit more grown up. 

So a little pretty red lip gloss changed my night.  OK, I lie.  It didn't.  But it changed how I felt.  I'm sure nobody noticed (I went out with strangers; they didn't know me pre-lip gloss), but I felt like I could handle the new situation with a little sparkle on my lips. And a ridiculous cowboy hat. 

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