IN WHICH I REFLECT ON THE POWER OF LIPSTICK ON HIS COLLAR.
Few prerogatives are more feminine than enhancing our facial features with makeup: it is an essential part of our mystique. In that sense, makeup addresses all three components: Glamour, Attractiveness and Sexiness, in the GAS that powers a smokin’ hot presentation.
It’s hard to imagine there was a time when women who wore makeup were considered low-class and “cheap,” — actress “floozies” or downright prostitutes. Prior to that, yes, there were isolated cultures and periods when it was acceptable: Cleopatra and other Egyptians knew how to rock a smoky, kohl-rimmed eye; and eighteenth century aristocrats powdered, painted and rouged themselves into prettiness, even pencilling in the pretense of a beauty mark, the rage at the time.
Through it all, women have pinched their cheeks and bitten their lips to look prettier for a man: think Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind. She knew just what to do to summon the pink flush that occurs naturally in sexually aroused, receptive women, and so is an irresistible pull to men.
Makeup is a natural inclination for many of us — we’re instinctively decorative creatures, interested in making anything: a face, a room, an outfit — more beautiful. The fact that, in general, we have this tendency, while men do not, makes makeup very sexy and attractive: once again, Lust resides in that gap of contrast. It’s what we don’t have in common with the opposite sex that so often determines the Dick Magnet, as well as the Chick Magnet.
Consider how little girls gravitate toward makeup at an early age — the Goddess within beckons them to party with pretty. Because that’s what it is, just having fun, being artistic, with our face as the canvas.
In seventh grade, annoyingly forbidden to wear makeup, my first truly fab purchase was a Slicker whistle lipstick in the palest frosted pink, on a chain — I’d seen it in a Yardley commercial on my favorite show, The Monkees (“Slicker over, Slicker under, Slicker alone…”). The goal, of course, was to look like the model in the ad, Jean Shrimpton.
Alas, that didn’t happen. But makeup does make a huge difference. Ever see a super model or other celebrity known for their beauty, without makeup? It’s rare among us to not be enhanced by it. And for those of us with fair features, especially, what a lifesaver! The sun takes away my eyelashes and brows, and my trusty friend Maybelline’s there to put them back where they belong. Meanwhile, my girl Cover’s there to erase the under-eye shadows of a hangover I’d rather not wear for all to see.
Life’s too short for bland neutrality: Color me HOT.
Yours truly,
