What About Your Lips?

I think I too often overlook the importance of moisturizing my lips.

I say this only because I have spent substantial time in the last six months priming my face with creams and serums to ready it for the disaster that is gravity — calamity set to strike at any moment between now and the time that I am, let’s say, 35.

I have woken up at least as many times as I can count on both my hands to face a mirror that exposes a reflection that tells an accurate tale of transience. If when Beyoncé sang, “I woke up like this,” the this in question was regarding her changing face and the new lines and marks of (dis)color(ation) she finds with each closer look into a micro-mirror, I can totally get behind her sentiment. If she means that she hasn’t aged a millisecond since her 17th birthday, though, excuse me while I shriek into a pillow.

Just kidding, I’ve edited my thesis. I may have previously believed that my maintenance mantra should mandate that I do not contract wrinkles but I’m already ready to throw in the baby-face towel and let those skin-constructed barcodes assume my upper lip and cheeks and nose so forth.

I’ve had a series permeating my forehead for years now and you know what my dad has to say about that? Those are indentations of knowledge. I think he’s right.

Here’s the thing about my lips, though. I’m using them to tell my story and while, yes, the supposition is that said story should and will get better with age, that can only be the case if I’m editing and reworking and maintaining the plot line. I think my lips deserve the same treatment and frankly, not since the last time I purchased Lip Smackers have I felt so compelled to innervate these babies. Enter vbeauté’s Lip Spread Anti-aging Tinting Lip Gloss. I know it sounds vaguely like it could be hummus, but it’s not.

Now, I know what you’re thinking — I thought the same thing.

Anti-age, what?

Tinting, what?

GLOSS? What?

But here’s the thing — lips crack and dehydrate and get burnt and get really pissed off when we don’t have humidifiers counterbalancing the climatic woes that come with winter. So, applying some rendition of a balm really is in our best interest. Furthermore, too, using one that is of the tinted variety, but not quite as abrasive as that Moroccan one we tested last spring, discharges the spirit of youthful glow. In the case of vbeauté’s, the gloss reacts to your pH balance and offers a tint indigenous to you, which, if you think about it, makes it not unlike an iPhone or an iPad or any Apple product really. Why? Because while the lip gloss is uniform and accessible to all, it reacts to your use.

Cool!

Finally, on the topic of gloss, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to appear better put together without actually, you know, getting together. I’ve hit a ceiling with my capacity to withstand the demons of Instagram telling me that I look like a meth addict or to put some damn makeup on. And as canvassed in last week’s post on red nail polish, I’m not sure I want my lips to continue on the red hue trajectory. Integrating a fairly diffident lip gloss to my upkeep program seems like a viable option.

This way, the next time Beyoncé sings, “I woke up like this,” I can just be like, ditto.

Part 1 of 1 in collaboration with vbeauté. Photographed blouse from Asos.