Day 57 – Wore an unusual lipstick colour

I am an avid lipstick wearer. My Nanna never left the house without her lipstick on, my mum doesn’t either, and it’s certainly a very rare occasion for me to have a bare lip. Red is my colour of choice, and it’s not often I stray from it: I associate it so much with my identity that it was even one of the first things I wanted to include in my self-portrait. I feel a little bit more powerful with my lipstick on: I walk with my head held high, and like I can face anything that comes. I wore it all during my chemotherapy sessions, it acted like an extra layer of armour and confidence in an otherwise scary time. I love it.

With that being said, I have never ventured outside my comfort zone with colour, so it was interesting when I received a suggestion to try a new colour. I’ve never tried any darker colours, so I picked out a deep, plummy purple to try.

Germany isn’t big on bright coloured lipsticks (I often get a lot of looks if I wear a particularly bright red) so I found it quite difficult to find a really dramatic colour at a cheap price, but I was confident this would give me a totally different look.

As soon as I put it on, I was disappointed – it didn’t look dramatic at all. I was expecting it to be matte, but it went on quite shiny, which I think toned it down a bit. I wish I’d picked a more extreme colour for the challenge as it turned out to not be that challenging after all.

But, focusing on the silver linings – I actually loved it! I will absolutely wear this colour again, and I definitely wouldn’t have picked it if it wasn’t for this challenge. Overall, a mixed success but I’ll maybe try this again with a really different colour some other time.