High heels for the lips

That's how Susanne Langmuir, founder of Bite Beauty, a Toronto-based cosmetics company that produces colourful lipsticks, describes her products.  "There's an instant gratification with a lipstick that's the right colour, it's like high heels for the lips," says Langmuir

It certainly is.  I can put my entire face on and look, well, dull.  But when I add the lipstick, the whole picture emerges.  I can also don my entire outfit, but it only snaps together when I step into my high heels.  Up I rise about three inches and instantly feel empowered. 

I think we all remember dressing up in our mother's clothes, shoes and hats and then plastering on lipstick.  I loved it.  I particularly loved watching my Aunt Pat, the younger and most glamorous of my mother's sisters, sitting in her boudoir in front of a large, tilting mirror applying that magic wand of womanhood, instantly transforming her into someone else.  The lipstick was the last touch, which she applied and then blotted with a tissue.  She always looked trendy and fashionable.  It fascinated me. 

"Glosses, by comparison, are the cosmetic equivalent of microwavable dinners," says an article by Sarah Hampson in The Globe and Mail.  "You slap the stuff on, anywhere, without looking and go."  Couldn't agree more.  Bold lipstick is a sign of lean-in, read-my-lips confidence.  You have to apply it carefully, like war paint, adds Hampson.

Read somewhere that women of  'a certain age', such as I, should avoid red lipstick and black eyeliner.  May have to re-think that one.