Gimme red!

(Published yesterday...)

I got my first red lipstick when I was about 14 years old – perhaps a little too young for such a blatantly adult and seductive shade, but vital for a dance performance on stage, where red was about the only colour that looked decent in those brilliant arc lights and served well to show up every nuance of expression on the face and, more specifically, with every quiver of adolescent lips trying to speak of emotions they could not possibly have experienced at the time. The brand that I got was Lakme and the lovely true red did its trick not just for the dance, but for me. I felt grown up and strangely womanly, with a knowledge of dark secrets that every woman should have. Ever since, red has been a bon mot in my lipstick drawer.

Today, as I graze hopefully along the myriad cosmetic counters that stores all over the city have sprouted, I see brands that I once saw only on trips abroad or in fashion glossies. From Dior to Chanel, Clarins to Clinique, colour cosmetics with international labels are de rigueur in almost every make-up kit. And even as foundation and base have overtaken the lipsticks that women favour buying in a time of economic tightness, red lipstick has remained a symbol of almost-defiance, waiting in the fashion wings to re-emerge cyclically at regular intervals but never really vanishing completely. Now every cosmetic company offers up various shades of red in various forms, from liners to glosses, tints to long-stays, with names as seductive as Deborah’s Atomic Red Matte (Rs560), Lakme’s Nine to Five Red Hot (Rs375), Oriflame’s lip gloss crayon in Slightly Scarlet (Rs179) and Vision’s V Vibes Lip Gloss in Hottie (Rs129). There are the vaguely ‘toughie’ versions, most hard to find but well worth the hunt, with Dominatrix Red from Max Factor, Paloma Picasso’s true red ($35) embodied in that wonderful advertisement where she is all wicked red mouth, Rimmel London’s Lasting Finish Lipstick in Alarm, Red Reinvented from Revlon, Lady Danger from MAC, Red Lizard from Nars, Clinique’s long last soft matte Red Hot and Dior’s Red Premiere 752 (numbers always make me wonder what they stand for). All these are poised on shelves cheek by jowl with equivalents from Bourgeois (which you can find in stores here, at fairly high prices, but what lovely products!), Arcancil, Maybelline, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Diana of London and others, including the more local Tips and Toes, the once easily available Biotique, and some that have entirely dubious origins and strange labels. There is, of course, stuff from Laura Mercier, Bobbi Brown, Rimmel, Yves St Laurent, and more names than can be articulated by my nicely reddened lips.

It is, I find, not really necessary to pay a lot of money to be beautiful. As dermatologist/cosmetologist Dr Rekha Sheth says, “There are cheaper branded products, since some brands do include less expensive product lines” in their formulation. “The active ingredient could cost less, so the price could come down.” However, she maintains that “Brands are much more reliable. Since the FDA approves the colours used – as in the primary pigment in red lipstick, for one – brands have to follow the set rules,” which does ensure a certain degree of quality control. She does warn that red, especially, can discolour the lips if used constantly. “And there are also too many cheap versions available,” some of which may not be advisable for use.

But, in addition to these cautions, like all things oddly naughty, red lipstick is not easy to wear. It needs to be meticulously applied, with neat liner limiting its outline, since the brilliance of the colour tends to bleed – which could make the user look as if she has had a vampiric feast. It cannot be married to darkly lined eyes unless the user has the chutzpah to carry it off. And it is traditionally a night-time, non-work-wear colour, though it does add a wonderful note of drama and assertiveness to any woman who struts her stuff at the office in it. Every woman should, at least once in a while. And that is not one of her secrets...