A beauty enthusiast's take on finding the perfect lip stick [Must read]

olamide olarewaju

June 19, 2015 11:23 AM

Initially I had no idea that lipsticks could do that or even how dark my lips had become till I noticed how people gasped, held their heads in awe and pointed with sheer recklessness whenever I dared to step out sans lipstick...

I am a lipstick whore! There I said it! I am the most inconsistent lipstick brand advocate. Trust me you know nothing of my type. I have been through it all… The expensives (that sliced my pockets!) and the old faithful (N250 lipstick from my mother’s days). This quest of mine was instigated by three very important lipstick factors...

The perfect colour (a cross between peach, light pink and light brown)

The perfect matte (dry enough not to gather stupidly at the edge of my lips when I talk yet slightly moist enough to keep my lips from looking like that of Nicholas Hoult’s in Mad Max: Fury Road)

The perfect price (I declare the days of pocket slicing and diving my lipstick when it falls over!)

Due to my shameless trysts with numerous lip stains, I landed an even bigger problem… Dark lips!! Initially I had no idea that lipsticks could do that or even how dark my lips had become till I noticed how people gasped, held their heads in awe and pointed with sheer recklessness whenever I dared to step out sans lipstick.

Thus another quest to right the wrong began. Google, my sister, the makeup artist I met that year, Cassabella attendants, and even my local make up retailer all offered different remedies ranging from doable to plain crazy including…

Scrubbing my lips with hydrogen peroxide… (Seriously guys?)

Scrubbing my lips with sugar (that’s like feeding coke to an addict…)

Quit smoking (errrr… I don’t!)

Stop wearing lipstick entirely (Excuse me, I said train the dog not shoot it!)

And the list goes on and on… After much had been said (by all) and done (by me), I came up with my own authentic solution to this heart rendering problem of mine…. .

There! Now everyone can go back to bed in peace.

Coco Olorunfemi is the Creative director of fashion website Coco Phemie. She is a style junkie, hopeless romantic and talented story writer. She breathes everything fashion and channels her passion for it into all her works. See more at

olamide olarewaju