The title of this post is inspired by one of Serge Lutens’ Rose Perfumes - “Sa Majeste, La Rose”. It’s a fitting name for an ode to a veritable queen in fragrance. I feel that a red lip has the same status of royalty in the world of beauty. It’s classic, timeless, and has been interpreted and re-interpreted countlessly over generations. My grandmother would only ever wear it as a demure smudge, my mother likes her red dark and mixed with lots of brown, my sister wears hers on special occasions, and I like my reds as bright as they can possibly come. And if I could, I would wear a red lip every day. There has been so much that has been said about red lips (a personal favourite is Rachel Felder’s Red Lipstick), and my voice is just one of many but for me, a red lip is powerful. The woman who wears a red lip looks the world in the eye to say that she will not be ignored. When a woman puts on a red lip, she tells the world that she is unafraid of judgement and that she will express herself no matter how much anyone tries to diminish her voice, her self-expression, or her strength. When a woman puts on a red lip, she asserts and affirms her existence and her presence in whatever room she is in. I say all this with the qualification that in history (and to this day in certain parts of the world), a red lip can be interpreted in ways that are not favourable to women. Therefore, for me, when a woman puts on a red lip for herself, and because she wants to, she performs a revolutionary act - because while you can interpret a red lip many different ways depending on where you live in the world, one thing is for certain - you cannot ignore it.

This post is one of a series of posts on the red lip - I want to walk you through my favourite red mattes, red satins, orangey-reds, darker reds, etc. Today, I decided to begin with a round up of some of the most beautiful red lippies I own. This is not an exhaustive list - mostly because I forgot to include some and those will be featured in subsequent posts. The reason I want to talk about them is because some of these lipsticks are truly works of art. They are so beautifully designed, the bullets are so exquisitely crafted, and the juice inside is so luxurious on the lips, that it is hard to ignore them. Admittedly, some of these are expensive - and I promise I will have a post soon on affordable (but amazing) reds; but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy just looking at these if you are not thinking of buying, or if you are, then I hope you find a perfect red lipstick here to splurge on.

I’ll first talk about the design of some of these bullets, and the next section will be on the juice inside. I couldn’t get a good photo of the Lisa Eldrige lipstick but will be working on an upcoming post on all her lipsticks - they are beautiful!

Design

Hourglass Confessions Ultra-Slim High Intensity Lipstick
These, to me anyway, appear inspired by fancy ciggerette holders. This a slim, delicate bullet but don’t let the delicate appearance fool you - this is a heavy one. The material it is made of is of very high quality and very weigthy in my hand. These are refillable, so you can buy this beautiful, pointy case and keep filling it with whatever color you want. I have this in the color I crave. (Swatched below). The formula is rich, highly pigmented, creamy, and it lasts.(swatched below).

Note: The lipstick on the extreme right is YSL’s Rouge Pur Couture Satin Lipstick in 119.

Swatches

As the swatches below show, these lipsticks vary in terms of how cool and warm they are, what their opacity is, and their exact shade. Some may look similar in shade - and they are - but I think that for me, they all wear a little differently on my lips.

So this is it - my first roundup of the very pretty red lipsticks that I have and that I love. As I mentioned earlier, I will be doing a series of posts on red lipsticks and I hope that you enjoy them. I think one doesn’t have to necessarily go running to buy these lipsticks or be a regular wearer of red (like me!) in order to appreciate how beautiful these bullets are and how carefully the red pigments inside them have been formulated and designed. Let me know if you have any questions. I have linked them (where possible) to websites where you can go purchase them if you want to but I will not earn anything if you do. This post was a labor of love and I hope the beauty of these lipsticks gives you as much joy as it does to me.