I suppose I could have feigned a cool, Parisian nonchalance, but I just had to know what she was wearing.
While shopping on the Champs-Élysées this weekend, I found myself alongside this girl with the most perfect stamp of red lipstick – not too matte, not too glossy – and minimal other makeup. Her look was striking, but not the least bit contrived. And honestly, I don't even remember what outfit she wore (a burlap sack?), her lips were that freaking powerful.
If you love red lipstick like I do, surely you can relate to that rush of oh-my-God-what-color-IS-that panic/excitement when you see a shade that gorge.
So I asked her.
To my surprise, it was eye shadow. Shu Uemura's Cream Eye Shadow in a candy apple color, to be exact.
"I paint it on with a lip brush," she said, casually playing show-and-tell with the pot of cream shadow she uses. "It stays on forever."
She also added a dab of clear gloss on top of the color to keep her lips looking moist. (It is, after all, eye shadow -- not a cushy, emollient lipstick -- that's on her lips.)
So I ducked into the nearby Sephora to try it for myself, and sure enough, the color lasted from afternoon through the early hours of the a.m., surviving a dinner with buttery chunks of bread, soup, an entree, and bubbly champagne. I was sold.
Unfortunately, I found out that you can't buy the red shade of Shu's Cream Eye Shadow in the States (likely due to some party pooper FDA regulation), but you can find a nice substitute in the Make Up For Ever Flash Shadow in Red 17 ($18).
I wouldn't have thought to use a cream shadow as a lip color, but sometimes you have to go someplace else, or, cliché as it sounds, ask a pretty French woman, to get some beauty inspiration.