Red Badge of Courage

Soccer moms (lemme hear ya!) in New England don't usually go in for bright red lipstick, but this sideline sistah says...

Go Team!!
Gwen Stefani by Herb Ritts

...why not swipe on some sizzle, who cares especially if it is a foggy, moody Monday morning!

Recently I scampered about Bloomingdale's NYC for a fifteen minute caffeinated spending spree. On the hit list: new jeans, new lipstick. After scoring some dashing denim, I dove into cosmetic cloud nine at the MAC makeup counter.

Ladies, let's be frank--when a darling italian man in a leather hip pouch filled with sable brushes and pots of gloss tells you to wear red lipstick, you do it. No questions asked, grazie very much.

This stuff takes your slightly mussed ponytail from "oh, whatever" to "ooh la la" in two seconds:

MAC Brave Lipstick and Cherry Lipliner 

So be "Brave", be bold and remember our foremothers, who got the party started in the following excerpt taken from the October 8, 1938 article "Her Lipstick is a Woman's 'Red Badge of Courage'" by Ruth Millett in Alabama's Times Daily News:

...Lipstick and nail polish have become symbols to women. They give us courage, help us to hold up our heads among women, to meet men with assurance. They are badges of femininity and desirability...A mother who even through depression and relief who manages to keep her lips and nails bright and gay as other women's certainly would be a happier influence [on her family] than the woman whose unpainted lips and unpolished nails cried out  the drabness of poverty. 

Let's hear it for keeping up with Mrs. Jones...