In the nineties – 1994 or 1995, I think – I had the most amazing brown lipstick.
It was by Max Factor. Back then every girl had a lot of Max Factor products in her make-up bag. I was, without meaning to sound over the top, in love with that lipstick.
Somewhere between deep mahogany and tree bark, I thought the lipstick looked fantastic next to my pasty Scottish skin and would apply it to create a dense brown pout. Mind you, the nineties was a strange decade for fashion and beauty.
While it’s not in fashion any more, I still love that lipstick. I wish I had some now, even if only to remind me of my younger days, when I would wear it with a brown capped sleeved top and a pair of matching brown palazzo pants to complete the earthy look.
It’s probably obvious that I wore a lot of brown back then. My mum would say the colour matched my auburn hair, though you could argue I took that piece of advice a tad too far. I even had a pair of caramel, cream and brown heels, which I thought finished the whole look off splendidly. They probably didn’t.
After the overkill of that outfit I vowed that brown would no longer be part of my sartorial vocabulary. While I’ve largely kept that promise, there have been a few brown-toned items in my wardrobe over the years. I’ve avoided brown make-up as well, but that’s about to change. Fashion has once again tempted me to flirt with the dark side, although this time I’ll be opting for brown eye make-up rather than lipstick. Estee Lauder’s Bronze Dunes eye palette (£35), Nars Isolde palette (£23.50) and Boots’ No 7 Good Earth Stay Perfect Eyeshadow palette (£10) will all give you a trendy hint of brown.
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