Why Can’t I Wear the Color That Makes Everyone Feel Attractive?
It's the name of a Grammy-nominated Taylor Swift album and it's the signature lip shade of my idol Lauren Conrad—but despite its popularity and cultural significance, the color red just isn't for me.
You see, I'm quite the colorful person. Both in my personality and what I wear, I would hardly use "dull" to describe me. If you take one slight glance into my closet, you'll immediately see a wide variety of everything from pinks to blues to oranges to browns to blacks to—heck, even green, which I don't love. And when it comes to my makeup, don't even get me started! I own every shade of lipstick imaginable and I am not afraid to rock any given eyeshadow hue when the timing feels appropriate.
But if you look closely at my collections of anything with color, noticeably missing is the color red (okay, there's that one top I see popping out). Listen, I've tried. You think I don't want to be one of those girls who swipes on a measly pop of red and walks out the door like they own the world? Yes, LC, I definitely envy you (well, for many other reasons, but this is the most relevant one).
I was at work a couple of weeks ago, browsing the web as usual, and came across a headline: "8 Ways Anyone Can Look More Attractive, According to Science." Naturally, I clicked. And just as naturally, two of the points that popped up were: "Have Red Lipstick Handy" and "Put on That Red Dress." Hmmm…
So I immediately read the article to my coworker Ashley and sighed at the fact that that is the one color I just cannot pull off in any regard. The brief convo ended, and later that day, it just so happened our other fellow writer Allison brought me a little gift—a Huda Beauty matte liquid lipstick in Mamacita ("spicy orange-red") just as a friendly gesture. Ashley and I immediately looked at each other, thinking about what we just discussed and Ashley came up with the idea for me to wear red in some capacity for a week straight.
I made my way to H&M, because I figured if I never wanted to wear an item again, at least I wouldn't break the bank with my trial. Sure enough, I found a pair of flowy red pants and I actually liked them. The good news: They fit and they looked cute. The bad news: It was 120 degrees in Palm Springs on the day I chose to wear them, and the dark bleeding dye from something I sat on stained these precious little pants. Not meant to be.
Next up? I had a birthday party to attend a few days later and decided to give Allison's gift a little whirl. Here I was, ready to step out in the open with bold red lips. Welp, sure enough, once applied, it was in fact a deep orange—nothin' I haven't worn before. So there went that.
Finally, as I prepared for a night out with a friend, I grabbed an untouched Estee Lauder rose red shade and decided to give it a go. I got a spray tan, flat-ironed my hair, threw on an all-black ensemble—and put the new pout to the test. Gotta say, I was feeling this look. I felt totally confident, almost to the point where I could, like, legit do this again.
So, with that, the next day I decided to take things a step further, and moved on to nails. Red nails are so classic. I mean who looks bad with red nails? Not only do they make the hands pop, but they're so elegant and feminine. Not. For. Me. As soon as I took the time to pile on the vibrant color, I couldn't wait to take it off. I met up with a couple of friends and thought the confidence would just flow through my body with every hand movement, but not so. As soon as I got home, to the nail polish remover I went. Again, why does LC make everything look so easy? Sigh.
I decided to give the experience one final go. I recently went to the Jake Miller concert in Los Angeles, and thought, what a perfect time to sport that flashy red on my lips! To my dismay, it didn't serve up the same confidence as it had the previous wear. I kept looking at myself in the mirror, trying to tell myself, it looks good! Maybe you're just being too hard on yourself. But no, honestly, it gave me like zero confidence. Below zero confidence, actually.
Moral of the story: Go with what ya know! If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. Okay, enough cliches, but seriously, I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and gave fiery red a try, but at the end of the day, I know I look much better in black, blue, purple, orange—anything but red. And that's okay! Just because LC can pull off a particular shade doesn't mean all of her fans are going to follow suit. I'm much more confident in the array of other colors I wear, and guess what? Not everyone can pull those off, so I guess we all have our things.
Pretty much anything sounds more appealing to me than wearing the color red—even wearing THESE bright blue eyebrows for a day.