A Word on Makeup

I was one of those little girls who got caught red handed in front of her mom's makeup mirror with bright blue eyeshadow on and lipstick smeared across my face. I've always loved makeup. It's just so great!


As much as I love my makeup, I actually don't wear that much of it. And while I have about 50 dramatic shades of eyeshadow I wear on special occasions, for the most part I use two basic eyeshadows every single day. Maybelline Silken Taupe and Maybelline Rose Tints. Lately both of these eyeshadows have been getting more and more dangerously low so last weekend I set out to replenish my supply.

You can imagine my initial frustration and then panic when each and every drug store I went to did not have either of these eye shadows. What is a girl to do!? After calling to several other drug stores (I bothered ten in all) and determining not one in the Boston area had what I was looking for, I took my search online. A quick stop at Maybelline.com confirmed that these shadows are still being made, and a few minutes later I had a shopping cart at Walgreens.com full of three of each kind of eyeshadow. Yes, six shadows in total. What does this say about me? I'm not sure I want to know. I kind of felt like Elaine when she's stocking up on her sponges...

Back to my mom's makeup drawer. Besides Maybelline Great Lash Mascara, the one thing I distinctly remember my mom (and my aunts and both of my grandmothers) having is Smith's Lip Balm. Maybe that's why today they are the two staples of my makeup drawer. On days when I don't really feel like wearing makeup (which are far more frequent than you might think) I just throw on some mascara and that lip balm and I can take on the world.

The thing I love most about Smith's lip balm is that it's been around forever. You can check out their website here. It's a family run business that started in Woodsboro, MD as a drugstore and has now evolved into a veritable empire. The lip balm is seriously amazing. It's the best I've ever found, even better than Burt's Bees (and that's saying a lot). I put it on my lips every night before I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning my lips feel incredible. My personal favorite is the Minted Rose Lip Balm. I don't know what I love more, the flavor and feel of it on my lips, or the amazing vintage inspired tin it comes in.

Original Tin from early 1900s:


Today's Minted Rose Lip Balm:


So pretty and feminine, right? Love it. And nothing could be more true than the little caption on the picture: "Simple Happiness." Sometimes all you need is something little to make you feel pretty, you know?

And that is all I have to say about that. Now go get dolled up.