My First Red Lipstick

This is a strange blog post, I'm not necessarily gonna review the product I bought but I am going to explain the story behind my purchase.
If you have ever read my blog post about the Clinique Chubby Stick range, you will know that I am not, or should I say have previously never been a fan of colour on my lips. Anything that draws attention to my lips has been a no go! Until now.....

My relationship with my lips is a strange one. Growing up, various terms were used to describe them by others ( you can imagine what they were ) which in turn made me fall out of love with them and be paranoid about drawing any sort of attention to them.
I first for in to make up heavily when I had my first job, spending money on a monthly basis on Dior and Benefit ranges but as experimental as I am with eye make up my lips would always have to be nude. I remember the lady in Dior, always requesting to put colour on my lips and I always declined. Still living in the fear of being called various names!
Now 10 years on, and many nude lipsticks and lip glosses later I have bought my first red lipstick.
Now to some people this may not seem a big deal... But to me it is.
Over the last few months, I have played about with a couple of lip stains and lip glosses and been a little bolder with colour but not anywhere near RED! My lovely friend Sheenie has been trying to convince me for ages that red will look great on me, but that strange paranoia has always still played in the back of my mind.

Yesterday was the day I took the plunge!
Debenhams were having one of their 10% off events and with Beauty Club points burning a hole in my pocket, I decided to take the opportunity to make my purchase. Plus, even better timing was my favourite make up artist Charlotte was in work so I headed to the Illamasqua counter.... Even Charlotte was shocked to hear my revelation that I wanted to try red on my lips ( again Charlotte is someone who has tried numerous times to convince me to try a little more colour on my lips )

I sat down and waited for Charlotte to apply the lipstick which was a matte raspberry shade named Salacious. When the reveal finally came, I was shocked and not as I normally am but shocked in a good way. I LOVED it. I promptly paid for my new lipstick and wore it the rest of the day, even reapplying.

Now here's the strange thing. Not only did I love the shade of the lipstick but I felt confident wearing it, almost like you would when power dressing for work or just after a fab haircut. I was almost empowered. I didn't mind people looking, in a way it made me feel sexy (it sounds strange but it really did) The feedback I've had since wearing it and showing some of my lovely twitter followers has made me feel great. I'm glad they like it.

I'm not saying I'm going to be wearing it to work, not just yet anyway... But I will be wearing it when I go out.

So thanks Illamasqua for helping me find my perfect first red lipstick and thanks to Charlotte for helping me out with the selection.

And a special thanks to Sheenie for nagging me long enough and convincing me that red would look great on me.

Rhian Xx
:o)