Review: Bourgeois Rouge Edition Velvet Liquid Lipstick in Hot Pepper

If you’re going to try a red lip, tonight’s the night, my beauties.

I know that, if it’s not your thing, it can feel like you’re wearing someone else’s clothes, but it is important to experiment with make-up.

Truly it is. Because what worked with your face and your personality five years ago may have significantly shifted. Did you know that, in a seven-year cycle, most cells in the human body will have replaced themselves? So you are under no obligation to be the person you were then because you are substantially different on a cellular level now. Transformed. Reinvented.

Back to the red lip. You don’t have to go full throttle straight off the starting block. There are an awful lot of new lip launches that boast a matte, powdery, buildable effect and many of them are incredibly wearable — but also pricey. I would direct you towards Bourjois (love this brand, I used to use a pot of its brown eyeshadow to attempt contouring when I was 14) Rouge Edition Velvet in hot pepper. Honestly priced, it has a luxurious feel and is singularly easy to handle. Dab on with a finger for a bitten lip/freshly kissed effect. One coat (nice, soft-flocked applicator) for a cloudy, fresh, effortlessly vague red; two coats for a bold, matte, modern look.

There is something empowering about a change — even if it’s lipstick. Something freeing. A whisper that suggests, if we develop that muscle, that appetite,

that willingness to approach the day to day a little differently, we might get braver and bolder and then… anything could happen. Explore, my beauties. Go forth. And I wish you all the most sensational Christmas.

Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet, £3.40, at feelunique.com