Shopping Trip

Today, Ellen and I went to Sephora. It was interesting being around somebody who isn't really a makeup wearer in Sephora. We went to the one in Georgetown, because I figured they'd carry Nars. The first thing we went playing wih was the Lorac lipsticks. She showed me the one lipstick she's been known to wear and I found one almost identical to it, at which point I determined that it made her look pale and sort of wan. Nevertheless, Ellen kept gravitating back toward lipsticks that looked like that one. I kept trying to steer her toward something a little bit warmer. We both tried Martha, a sheer lippy color; it looked completely different on us, much darker on me.

After some deliberation and many things tried on, she selected Brooke, a matte medium nude shade. It looks great on and warms up her whole face.

For eyes, we tried a lot of different things. I liked the Longo Trio in Viva (pale shimmery peaches) on her, but I think she might do just as well with Nars All About Eve (pale shimmery beiges). What she ended up buying was the Hard Candy Eye Glider in Hype, a mauve-gray. Looked great on, I thought, very subtle. I wanted the same product in Shaggy, a bright green-yellow shimmer, but it was out of stock. The Hard Candy pencils are great because they have these little blending brushes at the ends.

On my recommendation, she also got the Sephora mascara in black. It's really good mascara!

Ellen's last purchase was the Nars Color Wash in Blow Up. It's a good product, I've been using it for the last couple of days. It wears pretty well, and I think it looks better on Ellen than it does on me. Her skin tone is a little warmer than mine, so it gives her some color without shrieking "I'm Wearing BLUSH!"

We found the right shade of powder foundation, which was Anna Sui #02. The shades in this line start at #00 for some reason, so when Ellen goes to buy a powder foundation, she's going to go to the third selection in whatever line she chooses. I thought the packaging on the Anna Sui was a little frooty.

Powder foundation, for anybody who's wondering, is a thing of beauty. When you apply it with a brush over the concealer you've applied very delicately and blended very well, it gives the look of flawless skin.

My other purchases were pretty tame: Urban Decay nail polish in SWF (pale pink shimmer with iridescent glitter), a couple of brushes (Stila blush blending, and Sephora travel lip), and a Stila four-pan compact so I don't have to haul my nine-pan with the broken top all over the place.

As we were leaving, I noticed that they actually had the Fresh Linden EDT in stock. This made me extra happy, as linden is one of my all-time favorite scents.

One year, I was walking with my mom and we passed this stand of beautifully fragrant trees. I couldn't get enough of the scent. I plucked a leaf and a flower from a low-hanging branch and went to a book about trees. I held the leaf up and compared it to the pictures I saw; after about half an hour, I determined that it was a linden. Since then, I've bought any linden-scented products I could find.

Now, the evil part. I had not expected Ellen to buy anything. I'll admit that I made her buy the lipstick, because it was really perfect on her. As we were leaving, I told her I was surprised how much she bought, and she said something about feeling like she should beacuse we'd spent so much time in there playing with their testers and using their stations.

Hah, I said. You'll get over that feeling; you have to if you don't want to go broke. Point being that when you go to try makeup on, you want to wear it around for a while. See what it looks like in natural light; how it feels after two hours.

In any case, I think my shopping spree of the past couple of months is over. I am going to need a couple of things in the next few months, but I can probably make do until then.

I can quit any time I want.

before - after