On The Bright Side...

One of the best things about New York Fashion Week (besides the after parties and free-flowing backstage booze) is the way it always seems to usher in the next season.  It's seemingly appropriate then, that though yesterday morning was quite blustery on the sidewalk outside the Karen Walker Autumn/Winter 2011 show, today was full of bright sunshine with only a delicate breeze that smelled--dare I say it--like the first few days of spring.

There's nothing like seeing visions of your future wardrobe float down the runway to make you really wish the weather would hurry up and change already.  But actually in a way, Karen's collection for fall seems fitting for this in-between season that is upon us right now; as FabSugar reports, it reflects a "juxtaposition of joy and drudgery" which is just so very...February.

On the bright side, just as fashion forecasts for fall cool down by the end of this Fashion Week, the weather forecast for Friday optimistically heats up to a spring-like 60 degrees.

And though we won't see Karen's A/W designs until September, I don't see why we couldn't borrow inspiration from her bold bright beauty looks (created by Shiseido) to spice up our tail-end-of-winter blues.  Focus was on sizzling coral lips and super-flushed cheeks: try Shiseido's Shimmering Rouge in Sizzle and philosophy's the supernatural cream blush in Look On The Bright Side...a rather suitable name, don't you think?

xoxo, Pretty.

Blue Valentine

Number of Miles on the Treadmill: 2.25
Number of Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies with Heart Shaped Icing: 1
Number of Valentines: 0
Today's Lip Gloss: The I-Don't-Have-Any-Valentines-To-Impress-Au-Naturale-Appeal of Jurlique Love Balm.

My Favorite Valentine's Day Memory (read as: let's forget this one ever happened, and remember the one that made you happiest): 

I was 17, a senior in high school with big dreams and a bright future, madly "in love" with a boy I barely knew.  His parents were out of town, his house was empty and we sat awkwardly in his kitchen--me nervously eating Sweethearts out of bowl, him struggling to keep up our witty banter.  For lack of anything better to say, I let him in on a little, innocent secret:  I had a Sweetheart eating ritual. I could never eat just one--first I'd spill a few into my hand, construct a sentence out of the phrases, then take it apart one delicious candy at a time.  It was the writer in me--I couldn't let the words go to waste.

As if it were the cue he'd been waiting for all night, he reached across the table, spilled the entire bowl of sweethearts on the table, and said with a grin, "this should keep us busy for a while."  I don't remember anything else from that night, really, except for this moment.  A moment lasting 10, 15 minutes tops.  Combing over the table, heads dangerously close, hands touching as we picked up Sweethearts and arranged them into strings of phrases, laughing when our sentences didn't make any sense, smiling as we ate away our words.

I was in CVS on 18th and Park this afternoon, buying a Valentine for my roommate, when I noticed a bag of Sweethearts.  I hovered next to them for a long time, picked the bag up in my hand, contemplated all of the sentences I could make and then eat, but ultimately put the bag back on the shelf.  I wouldn’t have anyone to make sentences with this year.

But now I suppose that isn’t entirely true, is it?  I can make Sweetheart sentences with you:

Now I WONDER about THAT SMILE.

We were just TWO HEARTS making SMALL TALK for a while.

"I LOVE YOU," I said.  "You are a RISING STAR," he replied,

"but you'll never hear me say: "MARRY ME."'

Give it a try, trust me it's fun (even if you're unhappily single and prefer to make sad poems out of your candies ie: above).  Of course, using real Sweethearts are recommended.  It’s much better when you can literally indulge in the candy of your labor.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Sweethearts.

xoxo, Pretty.

The funny thing about breakups...

The funny thing about breakups is that though debilitating at first, they can actually inspire you to do extraordinary things.  They'll make you want to cut your hair.  (Bangs? Yes, please!)  They'll inspire you to redecorate your apartment. (How many times can one visit Anthropologie in the course of a single weekend?  The answer is as many times as one would like!)  They'll make you run faster and longer than you ever thought possible. (Did I really just run 2 consecutive miles? In less than 20 minutes? And I'm still...alive?! Yes. Yes. And Yes!)  Breakups will inspire you to face your biggest fears (like managing your personal finances), read piles and piles of books that you've been meaning to get to for years, caulk your bathroom tub, and, as you can see, breakups will even inspire you to start a blog.

And so, World Wide Web, here I am.  I have arrived, broken hearted but not broken spirited, prepared to bare all in the name of love and beauty.   The truth is, I'm a single, twenty-something beauty publicist living in Manhattan with lip gloss up to my eye balls and men as far as my mascared eyes can see.  But as we all know, there's only one true shade and only one true soul mate (not to be confused with COVERGIRL Lip Perfection Lipstick in Soul Mate) out there for us.  And, lovely readers, I am determined to find both.

I originally came up with the idea for Love, Loss, and Lip Gloss almost two years ago, when just another one of your typical New York bachelors stopped returning my phone calls.  I wanted to get back into writing and thought the blog would be the best way to mix what I knew best:  beauty and dating.  But life got in the way--work got busy, the seasons changed, I grew lazy with the idea of actually putting pen to paper--er, well, finger to keyboard.  Then, in April of last year, I met a guy that actually made me think I'd have to ditch the "loss" part of my blog title; he really made my life just "love and lip gloss".  For eight happy months the idea of my blog sat perched high on the proverbial shelf, collecting dust, until December when it all came crashing down.  Suddenly "loss" was back, meaning serious business.  And so in picking up the pieces of everything that once was, I decided that this time I'm finally going to do it.  I'm ready to share my love of beauty, discover the beauty in letting go, and prove (to myself, if not anyone else) that love will ultimately prevail...even in this big, bad city.  I will test lipsticks and glosses tirelessly--until my lips are permanently stained and my hands look like a painter's palette.  I will heal my broken heart, get back on that horse, and date with no abandon.  These are my adventures in love and beauty.




xoxo, Pretty.