Get ready to feel nostalgic with our new monthly column, TBB (Throwback Beauty), where Adriana Ermter revisits the past to highlight comeback trends…
Kissy-face lips in drunken wine hues are having a repeat fashion moment and we’re loving it. Smeary and sexy, they’re the imperfectly perfect way to show that you may or may not have kissed a guy (or a girl) and liked it. After all, we’d expect nothing less from the look that was inspired more than three decades ago by ’90s, punk-grunge princess Courtney Love.
The “Pretty on the Inside” singer and songwriter made unconventional beauty pretty on the outside with her coveted IDGAF attitude, slept-in makeup and ripped stockings with Doc Marten’s and a satin slip dress. (Heck, she may have even had a tube of Clinique’s Black Honey, the original and perhaps most iconic berried-wine lip hue, circa 1971, stuffed down her bra.) And while her approach to a good Bordeaux lip hue was predominantly heavy handed, the versatile shade was quickly embraced by anyone who was anyone, including the then wild child Drew Barrymore, Friends famous Courtney Cox and pop sensation Ginger Spice.
Later in 2007, after watching model after model show up for New York, Paris, Milan and London Fashion Week castings with bedhead and last night’s vino on their lips, backstage makeup artists were inspired to bring Love’s look back. Slightly pared down and this time with a dry, wine-stained effect, the look was sent down more than one runway and was once again an instant hit.
Fast forward to right now and we’re happily falling back into the easy-to-wear trend (that never, really, ever completely went away), courtesy of this season’s new batch of BA bosses. From the muted cabernet sauvignon on Cara Delevigne and the matte merlot on Rihanna to Katy Perry’s bold Malbec and Kendall Jenner’s young pinot noir this new incarnation of the wine-enhanced style can be worn in a range of shades. Application is as equally personal, be it worn dark, defined, subtle or best of all, finger-dabbed on for a blurry Love-like effect.
Get your wine on with these three great lip hues:
Clinique Almost Lipstick in “Black Honey,” $22, available at the Hudson’s Bay.
CoverGirl Outlast All-day Colour + Gloss in “Deep Burgundy,” $11.99, available at Shoppers Drug Mart
Estee Lauder Pure Color Envy Sculpting Lipstick in “Reckless” Satin Finish, $34, available at department stores.
