Guest Post Popping My Lipstick Cherry ...

Nancy Rommelmann writes...

I have never worn lipstick, partly because my eyes are too big and anycolor on my lips makes me look, I think, like Lucille Ball. But also,because when I have it on, I don't know what to do with my mouth.Imagine a four-year-old carrying a tray of china across a room towardthe expectant grown-ups, and that's how steady I feel with anythingmore on my lips than a swipe of gloss.

Then last week, I was digging around in my teenage daughter's make-up,and came across a Nars lipstick, in Captiva, sort of the color of driedblood. On a whim I put it on and went about my day, which includedshort interactions with many men. And I felt really sexy. Not, I don'tthink, because the lipstick made me look any better, but because havingit on was like carrying some sort of superhero raygun, a secret weaponthat effected people without them knowing it. The lipstick, in short,was power.

I realize I might have realized all this before the age of 46.

Then two days ago, I read the quote Jack referenced, from Isabella Blow:

If you don't wear lipstick I can't talk to you. You need to have lips. They are very important for getting men.

I am not exactly trying to get men, having as I do a husband. A husbandwho, when I wear lip gloss, will not kiss me on the lips, saying, "It'stoo goopy." Perhaps not just goopy; perhaps juvenile.

I approached him last night with the Captiva, and the announcement thatI was going to start wearing lipstick every day. Why, he asked? I said,because it made me feel both serious and sexy, as though I had justlearned how to have orgasms. And how did he think it looked?

"It looks good," he said, and I could see in his eyes he meant it. But would he kiss me in it? He would, and did.

I put it on again this morning, and I do like it. This, though I think it is somewhat aging. No lipstick on top:

What else I learned while taking the photos: