Beauty diaries: Red hot

Yours truly rockin' her bright red lipstick.

When I was in college, I had an obsession with "the smokey eye." For whatever reason, when I attempted aforementioned smokey eye, it didn't look sexy like I intended it to. I looked more like a little girl playing with her mother's makeup than Christina Aguilera in Dirty. When I tanned--and my skin morphed from fairly light to medium beige--I was magically able to pull it off. On  nights out with my friends, I rimmed my eyes with blackest black kohl liner and loaded up on Maybelline mascara.

The one beauty look I never dared to try, no matter how dark my tan, was the bright red lip. Naturally, I was quite surprised to be called out at a makeover/fundraiser/event last year: "You with the fair skin, we're going to try red lipstick on you! It's so hot right now!"

After they'd powdered my nose and glossed my lips, I actually liked what I saw. I ended up buying a tube of richly pigmented red lip gloss and a matching pencil to help the color stick. Since then, I've dabbed on the gloss for special events--or for nights out when I've been feeling frisky. More and more, I've been seeing the bright red lip, not just on fashion models, but on real women walking down the street.

And now, some inspiration. You so don't need a tan to pull this one off.

Image: YSL

Image: Pinterest

Image: Behind the Scenes Makeup