The Power of Lipstick // National Lipstick Day

Happy National Lipstick day! 

Lipstick has become a large positive aspect of my life and it may seem strange but it's improved so much for me that I realised that lipstick has a power of it's own. And I wanted to share that.

If you follow my Instagram you'll have noticed that this passed year I have developed quite a love of lipsticks. 

I always admired lipstick on other people and wore it a lot at university (often it was a wobbly learning curve) , but over the years my confidence wearing it slipped away a bit and I stopped wearing it as much. With larger lips becoming such a popularity it has given me more confidence with my own lips and I started to gain back my confidence and comfortableness with showing them off with lipstick. The trend of matte lipsticks and liquid lipsticks certainly fuelled the fire and before I knew it my lipstick collection had grown rapidly.

Along with my collection, I found a new love for swatching and creating my own lip imagery. It was all a fluke and very much a path of discovery. I'd spent ages trying to photo my lipstick in different ways, even roping in my best chummy to try and take photos for me. Then one day with the Bellapierre Fierce lipstick I found a way of doing it that was fun, easy, reflective of my style and something that wasn't really done in the natural beauty community, something that I could shine in and I became hooked. Add in amazing support and comments from you guys and it's become quite a passion.

I remember being nervous about putting up the first swatches of the Fierce lipstick but after a wonderful response from everyone I knew it was something I could keep doing. Now I feel confident enough to play around with my own crazy colour mixes and blends and share them simply for fun.

You wouldn't think a tube of colour could change the way you feel about your body or give you confidence in your own appearance, but playing with lipstick has done that for me. Wearing a bold red matte liquid lipstick gives me major confidence. A pop of pink makes me feel happy and motivated, a nude makes me feel comfortable and 'put together' even if the rest of me is a bit of  a mess. It's amazing how colour can change your mindset. 

I love how it can also change up my look so easily, if i'm feeling pale I'll pop on a warmer toned lipstick and my face brightens up, if I'm conscious of my teeth one day I'll wear my most blue toned red to make them appear a little whiter. And on and on. Lipstick is powerful stuff. I've notice when I wear a red lipstick, people (especially bus drivers and shop assistants etc) make eye contact with me more and I get a lot more smiles and dialogue from people. I guess the brightness draws their eye and makes them connect with you rather than being in their own world, my face just another among the many. 

I now appreciate my lips a lot more. Even though when I'm looking at them close up & scrutinising my lips from every angle and now am highly aware of their 'flaws' and the 'flaws' on the rest of my face, I'm not worried about it so much. In fact it's just more fun to play and see how I can make them look different, bigger, smaller, thinner, plumper, more even, more uneven etc. Embracing flaws as a means of more diverse play. 

Lipstick has given me a creative outlet that gives me drive, motivation, passion and excitement. When I don't feel like writing, or drawing and painting in the traditional sense, I can sit down and paint my lips. My final results are never perfect like the lip art you see on Instagram and neither do I want it to be. I'm not airbrushing or using special lighting, I'm not editing and tweaking them and changing their shape digitally, just adding brightness and contrast. It's not talented whizz kid amazing stuff, but for me it's an outlet for expression, it teaches me to be patient, to try new colours, techniques, applications etc. I'm learning as I go. Who would have thought lipstick would teach me more about how to balance my hand or use a brush in a certain way? I didn't, but it is and I LOVE that. Lately I've even opened my mind and expanded my tastes to loving lipgloss, something that I used to hate! Look at me stepping out of my comfort zone and broadening my horizons. Sure it's 'only makeup' and not grounding breaking stuff, but on a personal level it's huge. It's even opening up some other avenues in my life that I'm excited to start working on both personally and professionally.

Lipstick has given me so much and I'm pretty excited to see what else will come from it in the future. So here's to The Power of Lipstick! I'd love to know why you guys love lipstick so much, let me know!