the sky wore grey, you wore red

On the second consecutive stormy day, there is nothing like staying home, drinking hot lemon & barley, and wearing a big men's jersey with holes at the wrist that you can put your thumbs through.

However, this isn't always possible. Sometimes you're not unemployed. Sometimes you have to put on pants, and brave the elements. And on those days, there is nothing like red lipstick.

Actually, any day and all weather is good for any lipstick. But there's something about red lipstick on a wintry day that makes you feel like you're asserting yourself against the elements; looking the sky full in the face (assuming the lipstick is one that stays), and saying The Greyer You Get, The Better I Look, So Go Ahead. I DARE You. (Maybe best not to say this while standing near tall trees, power poles, cliffs, or sea-walls. Or at the beginning of the day. Or before getting on a bus - DEFINITELY not before that.)

I'm a big fan of lipstick, and its ability to transform. I have pink lipstick, which makes me feel '60s (and a little bit weird?), and I have purple, which makes me feel tough (partly because it's called Rebel, so I have Rebel Rebel in my head when I put it on) and I have maroon, which makes me feel like Robert Smith (I don't know why; he favours lighter colours), and I have Russian Red. But my heart belongs to MAC Ruby Woo. The lipstick of all lipsticks. Wearing anything else is just for the sake of it, and sometimes, life's too short for that. 

I'm reminded of winter school holidays one year, when I was about thirteen or fourteen. Every night, when everyone had gone to bed, I would put on a movie, and bask in my solitude. And every night of those two weeks, I watched the same movie: Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility. I'd try to watch other things, but it always felt like I was just cheating myself, and after a painful fifteen minutes I'd eject it, put on Sense and Sensibility, and breathe a sigh of relief as the sound of horses' hooves and Fanny's awful voice filled the sitting-room.

Ruby Woo is like Sense and Sensibility was that year. My commitment to it is like that of Israel Dagg to a high ball. When I wear it, I feel like an ADULT. It's probably not surprising that I have two spare tubes ready for when the two in rotation run out. I often describe banana as the potato of the fruit world. Well, Ruby Woo is the banana of the lipstick world.

Anyway, all of this was supposed to be a quick introduction so I could lay this link on you, which was on Jezebel a month or so ago: an FDA chart of lead content in lipstick. 400 lipsticks have been analysed, and while no lipstick is perfect (fish scales abound, and the chemicals...), lead really ain't good, so you might wanna do a ctrl-f of what you wear, and cross your fingers.

Lastly, here's a song for a stormy day. May the rain subside, but Zeppelin and Ruby Woo rule forEVER.