Simply Red

Dress - Macy's, Belt - Target, Shoes - F21, Sunnies - Foster Grant

Ever since I got all dolled up for my friend's recent "I Love Lucy" themed bridal shower, I have been tempted to try rocking a bright red lip on a regular day. I don't know if you've noticed, but I rarely rock lipstick at all, let alone a bright red lip color, unless it's for a special occasion. Why the madness? When I was in high school, lipstick was the only makeup my mother let me wear on a daily basis (I know, insert gasp here), and so I made it a point to wear all sorts of dark and bright colored lipstick. After I graduated and the sky became the limit when it came to makeup, I started focusing much more on eyeshadows, eyeliners, mascaras and such, and my lips went from bright to muted to nude to nonexistent.

Wearing bright lipstick with dark eye makeup always makes me look like a drag queen (as Boyfriend will so helpfully point out), and if I can only have one, I will always pick eye makeup because it is totally my safety blanket. See, my eyes are my least favorite feature. Okay, okay, so that's putting it mildly. I went through years of adolescent angst where I even hated them. But with shadow and eyeliner, I feel much better about them, and if that means going lipstick-less, then I'll go lipstick-less. But after the "I Love Lucy" party, I realized how fun lipstick can be, so I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. On this day, I wore minimal liner, no eyeshadow, but a bright red lip with this chambray dress. Turns out I DON'T always need my eye makeup safety blanket, and now I feel like a whole new world of makeup has been opened up for me: LIPSTICK. Boyfriend is probably groaning while reading this because he knows that finding a new shopping need is like catnip to me. He has good reason to groan because lipsticks... here I COME.

What's the one "safety blanket" you can't leave the house without?