Lipstick Love (Or: Some Things Are Worth Waking Up Your Mom For)

I'm not a particularly girly-girl. I left the dating scene not long after I entered it. (Same guy, nearly 24 years--whoa!) I don't wear foundation (partly a reaction to all the goopy stuff I wore during years of high school theater), though I do moisturize. I will not not wear high heels--a fact that caused me great consternation when starting my first professional job 20 years ago, when I had a terrible time finding decent flats (a situation that has changed for the better). I like pretty shoes, but I have big, wide feet with narrow heels, so I struggle to find well-fitting (and low-heeled!) shoes of any kind.

But I do enjoy some makeup, especially the kind that adds color. Especially lipstick. The little bag of essentials I carry in my purse contains a comb, mascara, mirror, and lipstick from at least four manufacturers, both fancy and drugstore variety. MAC, Bourjois, L'Oreal, Maybelline--if it looks good, I'll buy it. It's not a true visit with my mom without a trip to Burlington Mall--first to Sephora to try on all kinds of stuff, then across the hall to the MAC store, just for lipstick.

For years, my mom's Holy Grail has been to find a substitute for a lipstick that Revlon made. It was part of the Moon Drops line, but not just any Moon Drops lipstick. Each color came with a solid tube of moisturizer right up the middle--so you got nice color and your lips felt great all day: soft and smooth. As far as I can tell, they stopped making it several years ago, and Mom has mourned it's loss ever since.

So imagine my surprise and pleasure when I discovered Maybelline Moisture Extreme Lipcolor, with moisturizer built right in. It looked promising, the colors were nice, and it cost $4 at my local Bed, Bath, & Beyond (which for some reason now carries makeup and hair products). I bought a tube in Rosy Glow. Heaven! Great color, none of that weird dryness that some lipsticks give you. I couldn't wait to tell Mom.

But the next time I hit BB&B, stickers all over my lipstick announced that the store was discontinuing my Moisture Extreme! Aaagh! I finally found a virtual replacement for the old Revlon Moon Drops formula, and now it was disappearing! Fortunately, they were selling it for about $2.50 a tube, so I whipped out my cell phone to call Mom.

"Hi, Harvey," I said to my step-dad. "Get Mom on the phone please."

"She's asleep. I don't want to wake her."

"This is IMPORTANT. Wake her up, please."

"I don't see what could be that important..." Just then, I heard my mom in the background. Apparently our bickering had woken her up. (Oops.)

"Mom--listen, I finally found the perfect lipstick and now the store is discontinuing it," I said. "I don't know if it just means the colors are changing or they won't carry it at all or what. But I have to hoard it now."

She gave me her color preferences as we conferred. This one was too brown, another too orange, another too red. I picked ten tubes of varying shades of rose and plum, some duplicates. We can sort it out at Thanksgiving when she comes. (And based on the link, it looks like Maybelline is still making it, though I'll have to hunt down a new supply. But when it comes to lipstick, better safe than sorry.)

"Sorry I woke you up, Mom," I said.

"Oh, Honey, it was important. Some things are worth waking up for."