During a stint at MAC Cosmetics, I had the fortune of an all-day training onsite at one of their stores. We spent a lot of time discussing eye makeup—MAC's eyeshadows are legendary both in color range and color payoff—but towards the end, I was growing overwhelmed with the sheer number of color choices. Decision fatigue is the aptly coined termed for the ambivalent, I want it all, I don't know what I want, someone help me decide, it all looks good stream of thought that renders me hapless when getting ready in the morning.
"All these eye looks are great," I ventured to the training manager, "but what about lips and cheeks? Some of us look sickly without some color, but how do we pull off lip, cheek and eye makeup without looking like clowns?" She nodded knowingly. "It's really easy. The trick is to—no matter what—make sure that your lips and cheeks match. You can pull off any combination of eyes, lips and cheeks, as long as the latter two are the same shade."
And she's right, of course. But powder blushes render this very hard to maintain, and in the spirit of less is more, using one product to satisfy both needs makes much more sense. And after becoming wise about what's actually in it, who wants to ingest their blush?
Demure: a soft pink rose with a hint of mauve
Here's where the clean beauty industry makes things very easy. There are a few brands out there with color that are safe enough to use on the lips, including RMS Beauty, Vapour Organics Li, and Tata Harper. RMS's Lip2Cheek is buttery and sheer. Its principle ingredient is coconut oil, so there's no stickiness, but it does soften upon application once it hits the skin and warms up. RMS Beauty has gone mainstream, now offered at both J.Crew and Anthropologie (yaaay!). I've added the latter's impeccable swatches, which are very true to life.
Here's to looking pulled together, easily and with minimal effort.
Smile: a sheer coral with a retro feel
Demure (also used just on the cheeks) Used on a fresh day look on the wonderful website, sophiedahl.com
Beloved: a true red with just a hint of poppy
Demure (used just on the cheeks) from a J.Crew shoot. Photo by Brian Derballa.
Here, on Miranda Kerr, Rose-Marie Swift used Lip2Cheek in Rapture on her lips, with a slight bit added over the apple of her cheeks. (Photo from Vogue Australia.)
Here, Lip2Cheek in Promise is used as a blush on the cheeks. (All products used here are by RMS Beauty, check out their blog here for details on what else was used.)
Ingredients:
*Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, *Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, *Cera Alba (Beeswax), *Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit, *Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, *Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, * Mauritia Flexuosa Fruit (Buriti) Oil, Tocopherol (non-GMO), Helianthus Annus (Sunflower) seed Oil, Propolis Extract, Centella Asiatica Extract, *Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Extract, and may contain: [+/-Titanium Dioxide CI 77891, Iron Oxide CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499, Mica CI 77019]
*CERTIFIED ORGANIC
$36 RMS Beauty, The Detox Market, or Anthropologie.
