Loving autumn has replaced a personality for many people here on God’s internet. I’m not even exaggerating — I follow several American influencers who have been putting up their ‘fall decor’ and suffering in woolly jumpers since late August. It makes great content, I suppose, but it’s also plainly unhinged. And I’m an October baby (30 on October 8, thank you for the many cards and gifts and tokens of admiration)! Being an autumnal queen is my birthright. Yet still, I cannot muster the enthusiasm for ‘fall’ that these people exhibit.
I will say this, though: Autumn is just peak lipstick time for me. Something about the weather turning colder (though it really hasn’t this year, thanks global warming!) makes me want to grab the nearest burgundy lipstick and never let go.
Inspired by this cute video from one of my favourite YouTube beauty gurus, Julia Adams, I have picked some of my favourite autumnal lip colours to show you. (Trigger warning for exactly five pictures of my face. This trigger warning might be more for me than any of you.)
Fenty Beauty Mattemoiselle in Freckle Fiesta and Flamingo Acid
What better to begin with than a lipstick the colour of a pumpkin? I love the Fenty Mattemoiselle formula. I have four of them (Freckle Fiesta, Candy Venom, Spanked, and Flamingo Acid) and each one is smooth, highly pigmented, and generally a joy to wear. This “spiced terracotta” shade is so unique and festive. Yes, I said festive! I am Mariah Carey now.
Flamingo Acid, meanwhile, is a stunning berry shade (it looks pinker than it actually is in this photo… doing a great job there Valerie). I wore MAC Rebel all throughout college and this to me is a more grown-up version — less purple and hence a little more flattering on my skin tone. I loved Rebel, but in the wrong light it looked more “I have been drinking red wine” than "I am a woman intentionally wearing lipstick."
Pat McGrath Labs MatteTrance Lipstick in Guinevere
Do you remember the Great Pat McGrath Lipstick Sale of December 2020? I do. It was like #friendsofglossier, but intentional on the brand’s part — all the MatteTrance lipsticks were marked down from €40 to €13. An absolute steal! I picked up Guinevere and Flesh #3 and while both are lovely, the former is the deep red of dreams. These lipsticks are so creamy and rich. Forty whole beans’ worth of creamy and rich, I don’t know, but gorgeous all the same.
I feel like I have to be careful with dark lipsticks as they can give me “thin, villainous lips” (to quote Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova who was herself quoting Nip/Tuck). I find that overlining just a tiny bit and perfecting the edges with a lip brush counteracts this. A quick aside: God, I miss being able to wear dark/bold lipsticks every day without a mask messing my shit up. We’ll get there again!
Lisa Eldridge True Velvet Lip Colour in Velvet Decade
This is a risky one. We all saw Faye’s exploits with lipliner on Love Island this year. But this is Lisa Eldridge, so you know it’s going to be chic. Velvet Decade is a deep chocolate brown inspired by sepia fashion portraits of the 1920s, and it definitely gives me a flapper vibe. I love it with a glossy, champagne-pearl sheen on the eyes (I am wearing Haus Labs’ liquid eyeshadow in Retro in these photos, which is my number one for this) and lots of mascara. Feels like I should be doing the Charleston, drinking from a champagne coupe, and screeching things like “Horsefeathers!” and “I say, that gal sure knows her onions!” etc.
Lisa Eldridge True Velvet Lip Colour in Velvet Blush
And now for an autumnal shade that isn’t screaming “AUTUMN!” at you: Velvet Blush, a beautiful berry-pink. For me, this is a really nice everyday lip colour — Lisa recently released a less intense version, Velvet Blush Lightly, to cater to fairer skin tones, but personally I don’t find the OG to be too dark. I prefer shades like these for daily wear because so many traditional ‘nudes’ just wash me out. Pillow Talk is not ‘universal!’ Or at least it wasn’t until they added deeper tones to the range. It makes me look terrible unless I’m wearing a very dark smokey eye.
Again, Lisa has somehow created a shade that is unlike anything I’ve tried before. It calls to mind Bond Girl by Charlotte Tilbury (one of my favourite ‘my lips but better’ shades — but I’ve just seen that she’s renamed it M.I.Kiss? WTF?), but richer and more complex. I just feel really cute in it? Like, imagine I have a little hat and coat on and I’m heading off on a brisk walk around Phoenix Park. It’s cute!
I purchased three new Lisa Eldridge lipsticks in her latest restock: the Velvets Ribbon, Midnight, and Cinnabar. I can already tell that Midnight (a very deep plum) and Cinnabar (a burnt red-brown) are Autumn Lipsticks but it wouldn’t be right to include them since, well, I haven’t worn them yet. Just letting you know that they are now in rotation. What is your favourite autumnal lipstick? Or your favourite lipstick in general at the moment? I could probably talk about this all day.
Thank you for reading Vanity Project! As you may be able to tell, I took three of these photos on the same day and my lips are in bits in the mix 2006 right now. The things I do for this newsletter. See you next time!