25 Tops: Hourglass Riviera

True story: orange used to be my favorite color. When I was a little girl, I noticed that all of the other kids liked blue, green, red, sometimes purple...pretty much every color in the 10-shade Crayola box got some love. Except for orange. Nobody liked orange! The fact of the matter is that I felt bad for orange. So I declared it my favorite color,

Now, don't misunderstand me; I really do like orange, and the warmer shades on the color wheel in general. But by the time I'd finished college, I'd admitted to myself that I wore mostly black and was drawn to red things. Alright, okay, red and black are my true blue favorite colors. I'm a walking, talking stereotype, and I've come to terms with that.

My coloring suggests that I should give orange makeup more of my time. Too many cool-toned pinks can make fair-skinned me look like a doll, and because orange is opposite to blue on the color wheel, the contrast can make my eyes pop. However, I'm just not drawn to it the way I'm drawn to red and fuchsia. I always feel quite chic and bold when I wear it, but slapping on some orange lipstick is not my first impulse.

Enter this photo from a Rae Morris makeup book. My God, that is fierce! I have to wear orange today!

...but still, I don't wear orange often. I don't know if I ever will--it's definitely not going to fly at work, and my mother absolutely hates it. I have 3 orange lipsticks, and I rarely wear them. It shouldn't be hard tofocus on those puppies and narrow this list down.

This is the second time I've worn Hourglass Opaque Rouge Liquid Lipstick in Riviera, and my sweet baby Jee, do I love this formulation! Pigmented, long-lasting, totally matte...what's not to love? It's also strangely...flattering? Riviera seems to have a great balance of red and yellow tones, so I don't look overly sallow, and my teeth look surprisingly white against my lips. This is a definite KEEP. Somebody remind me to wear this lipstick more often, and get me more of these HG liquid lipsticks, STAT!

Because I'm keeping Riviera, I've decided to PURGE my two MAC oranges: the limited edition Sounds Like Noise, a yellow-based orange with a satin finish, and Neon Orange, an amplified cream that's quite close to Riviera, but slightly more red. Sounds Like Noise is actually more difficult for me to purge than Neon Orange: while it's not as flattering, it's incredibly unique. But it's not going to get worn, so it deserves a better home.

Also examined this go-round: L'oreal Voluminous mascara in Carbon Black and the Dior DiorShow Maximizer. I used to love Voluminous, but it doesn't seem to do much for me now. It's difficult to remove, it clumps like crazy, and it flakes throughout the day. The Dior lash primer makes it bearable, however, by amping up the volume and seemingly preventing some of the flakes. I won't repurchase the L'oreal mascara, but that Maximizer? Cripes, it's hard to resist.


CURRENTLY IN THE KEEP PILE:
1. Hourglass ORLL in Muse
2. Hourglass ORLL in Riviera
3. Hourglass ORLL in Icon (mini size)
4. Chanel RAL in Dragon (DC)

CURRENTLY IN THE PURGE PILE:
1. MAC ACL in Neon Orange
2. MAC SL in Sounds Like Noise (LE)

CURRENTLY IN THE MAYBE PILE:
1. MAC ACL in Impassioned

KEEP SLOTS LEFT: 21

Also, just something funny: I hate the feeling of wet hair on my neck, so I tend to pull it up with a spin pin or a clip after I wash it. The other night, I felt pieces of hair falling out of my spin pin bun, but I was distracted by a video game, so I ignored it for about 2 hours. By the time I was ready to crawl in to bed, my head looked like this: