Any Time Someone Compliments My Lips, It's Because of This Lipstick Equation

I go through fits and phases when it comes to lipstick. Weirdly, I used to be obsessed with lipstick in high school and college—unflattering shades of pasty pink for the former and darker, borderline 90s-esque shades for the latter—before kind of petering out once I became of legal drinking age. Post-college, I began to glom onto low-maintenance tinted balms and stains, a propensity that continued even as I began my career in beauty. Even though I suddenly had access to a steady stream of lipstick from any and every brand, my stubborn case of lipstick fatigue didn’t budge, and I still preferred easy-breezy lippie options. Again, any product with the word "tinted” in it was completely my jam. Then, of course, came a worldwide pandemic, and mandated mask-wearing pretty much made lipsticks feel completely obsolete.

Of course, there are still a lot of unknowns and masks are still very much a thing right now, but after subsisting on a low-cal diet of lip products over the past few years, I’m finally ready to get back on the lipstick bandwagon, and honestly, I’ve been having so much fun. I still love my collection of balms, stains, and plumpers that enhance my natural lip color, but recently, I’ve been gravitating to bolder lipstick hues that are just a tad darker than my natural color to give me that "your lips but better" vibe. I’ve even dabbled in red once or twice!

Funny thing, though, because there is one lipstick and lip gloss combo I’ve been wearing more than any other recently, and whether it’s someone in real life (in an Aritzia dressing room, most recently) or online (so many DMs!) I’ve been getting a ton of questions. Never have I ever received so many compliments about what I’m wearing on my lips, so I thought I would pay homage to my go-to dynamic duo as of late, Tom Ford’s Lip Color Lipstick in Pussycat ($62), topped with a light coat of the brand’s Gloss Luxe Lip Gloss in Aura ($62).

Without a doubt, they’re both investment pieces, but now that the Pussycat + Aura equation has become my signature, I can’t seem to go without it. Color me obsessed with all things Tom Ford, but the rich lipstick formulas are truly on another level—beautifully pigmented and brimming with hydrating, gleam-inducing ingredients like Soja seed extract, Brazilian murumuru butter, and chamomilla flower oil.

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This article was published at an earlier date and has since been updated.