Ok, this is going to be a silly post, but I have to confess: I have an obsession with dark red lipstick. I'm pretty certain my youtube videos and pretty much every picture on my Facebook page highlights this fact. I gleefully admit that I have been wearing the same color in different makeup brands since I was in high school, and I am starting to seriously wonder why I can't adjust to other colors that I buy but never care to wear more than once (a repeat situation that somehow provides me the false notion that I am about to embark on a new "look," only to wind up frantically searching for my usual dark crimson red somewhere in my makeup kit). There is a strange comfort that I find in that color - an element of embedded contrast that I personally like to believe actually enhances my beauty. I have indeed for the past few years struggled with varying up my lip color look. I have recently settled on NARS Scarlett Empress - a deep red that satisfies my need for a deep crimson look that does not fade away after I drink my morning coffee (like so many lipsticks do). I liked NARS so much that I decided to go out of my element within this great (and my new fave) makeup brand and invest in a deep pink color - and for some weird reason, I can't get into this deep pink look, even when my outfit calls for the occasion to experiment with pink lip color (this actually happened again yesterday when I sported a cute pink cowneck top ensemble).
I would like to say that my obsession with red lips comes from my personal conclusion that dark red lips look the best on brown skin tones (a proposition that I stand by with a peculiar vengeance), but I think it may go deeper. Perhaps I am nervous about experimenting outside of a particular makeup look, that perhaps my penchant for red lips has to do with my desire to remain in a particular "beauty comfort zone", outside of which I may feel a bit uncomfortable. Only through watching various makeup youtue videos have I recently begun to experiment with primer and various eyeshadow colors (I plan to blog and make a youtube video soon about those various experiments). However, I have yet to feel as comfortable with experimenting with various lip color tones, particularly those that in my opinion contrast but beautifully coincide with brown skin tones. But I am open to your comments on this topic, so please feel free to enlighten me with your opinion about lipsticks on various skin tones if you want to! :) 
My Obsession with Dark Red Lipstick
Making Your Beauty Work for YOU
What is it about black eyeliner and mascara that really "gets" me? It pulls me in like candy draws a five year old, and I've been researching the best eyeliner and mascara that best suits me for years! I have even gone so far as to take some time during my travels to Europe and Asia to look for different types of makeup, hoping that perhaps markets abroad may offer a different and perhaps better melange of options.
It is very important to figure out what you like most about yourself and have fun enhancing it and playing it up to your advantage. I am very much about playing with eye makeup because I love the shape of my eyes (almond shape) and my eye color (brown), and I am very self-aware of what works/doesn't work for me. Make makeup work for you, rather than the other way around. Too often women walk up to beauty counters or stores for a "fix" - to be dazzled by the glitter and glitz of the makeup packaging, only to be disappointed by the resulting effect of the makeup on their face. And such disappointment doesn't exactly come cheap - the product that is now collecting dust on your shelf is the same product that somehow convinced you to shell out a whole bunch of cash to purchase it. (At times I wonder if the majority of the cost of the product is due to the glitzy packaging! That's a shame...).
That's why I very much encourage you to buy makeup and experiment with makeup with an agenda - if you even have to make a list before you go to the beauty store (I do this!), I encourage you to do so. And even before you leave your home, make sure to spend at least a minute or two studying your features in the mirror to figure out how EXACTLY you want to play with your look. When I say EXACTLY, I mean it - you want to nail your new look down to a science. The same way an artist knows how he wants his painting to look and buys the required materials to make it work, you need to study your palette and have a strong idea of what you are looking for, so you don't go out and waste money and time on a product that you will subsequently be a major disappointment (I've been there!).
I also encourage you to expand your perception of your best features. For example, you may think that your lips are your best feature, not realizing that if you shaped up your eyebrows and perhaps applied a little bronzer, you would make your look even more spicy. Every woman has SEVERAL features to play up, but we tend to focus on maybe only one or two features, probably because we don't always appreciate all of our features, or because people constantly compliment us on one particular feature and we therefore pay more attention it, rather than embracing more than just one great feature.
And if you think you don't have a great feature, I very much challenge you on that belief. I can find a great feature on just about anybody, so there is not much you could do to make me think otherwise if I took a look at you. Everyone is uniquely beautiful, and women have been blessed with a bounty of options to play their beauty up to their unique advantage - so have fun and explore your beauty!
