For those of you late for the ride on red lips, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do because there’s a new lip color in town and her name is Orange (pronounced OR-WRENCH).

I touched on the orange lip last year and if you didn’t rock it then, now is the time to give her a go. The bold hue is best complimented with a fairly understated face and a bad attitude–needed for all the naysayers trying to blot out your shine.

If you’re ready to be bold, check out my tips for finding the right orange:

Fair Skin (think Nicole Kidman or Kelly Osbourne): Try a more modest pinky-orange. Anything too dark and bright can be too much for your fair skin. Try MAC Lipstick in CB 96 or Make Up For Ever Lipstick in Pinkish Orange 403

Medium Skin (think Sarah Jessica Parker or Rachel Bilson): Try a medium pumpkin-ish orange like MAC Lipstick in Meltdown.

Tanned Skin (think Jessica Alba or Eva Mendez): Go for a bright warm orange like Make Up For Ever Lipstick in Flourescent Orange 201.

Olive Skin (think Padma Lakshmi or Lakshmi Menon): Go for a neutral orange like MAC Lipstick in So Chaud.

Dark Skin (think Gabrielle Union or Alek Wek): Brighter hues show up so beautifully on darker skin tones, so be bold and try an orange like MAC Lipstick in Morange.

More Make Up For Ever…

Don’t get too caught up in racial or ethnic backgrounds when it comes to skin color. People of different racial or ethnic backgrounds can have similar coloring and therefore can wear similar makeup shades. The suggestions I made above are to help you narrow down your choices, but are not absolutes-–you can definitely try shades for a skin tone that differs from yours (for instance MAC Lipstick in Morange can be worn by a multitude of tones). The general idea is the darker your skin, the deeper and brighter you can go with your lip color.

P.S. For a completely FIRE lip combo that’s definitely not for the tame, try MAC Lady Danger Lipstick with Make Up For Ever Waterproof Lip Pencil in 17C and then top it off with Illamasqua Intense Lipgloss in Temper. Hey, you either go hard or go home!

Jennifer Lopez wore one of my favorite makeup looks at the Oscars Sunday night. If you loved the look as well, Temptalia reveals the following NARS products were used to create her look:

Orgasm Illuminator
Enchanted Cream Blush (NEW for Summer 2010; try Gueule de Nuit Cream Blush for a similar effect)
Desire Blush (cotton candy pink)
Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base (NEW for Summer 2010, Available May 1st)
D. Gorgeous Single Eyeshadow (a matte dusty lilac)
Brousse Duo Eyeshadow (sable and black violet)
Larger Than Life Volumizing Mascara
Cruising Lipstick (nude pink)
Sweet Dreams Lip Gloss (pink with gold shimmer)

And here are my tips on how to get the look:
1. Beautiful makeup starts with beautiful skin and groomed brows, so cleanse, tone, and moisturize your skin according to your skin type and make sure your brows are properly manicured.
2. Apply a foundation of your choice and set it with a loose powder (I love Becca Foundation Stick and Fine Loose Finishing Powder)
3. Apply an eyeshadow base (try MAC Paint or Urban Decay Primer Potion until NARS Smudge Proof is available) all over the eyes to ensure eyeshadow stays intact and doesn’t crease.
4. Apply D. Gorgeous eyeshadow all over the lid including the brow bone with a soft blending brush like MAC #224. Then apply the dark violet side of the Brousse Eyeshadow Duo in the crease using a heavy blending brush like MAC #217. Line your eyes with an eyeliner brush like MAC #226 with the sable side of Brousse. Finish with several coats of Larger Than Life Volumizing Mascara.
5. Apply Desire blush on your cheeks with an angled blush brush like MAC #168. Use either a foundation brush or your clean fingers to gently apply Orgasm Illuminator to the tops of the cheekbones, the bridge of the nose, the tip of the chin, and at the temples for a gorgeous peachy-pink glow for all skin tones.
6. Apply Cruising Lipstick to your lips with a brush like MAC #242. Then top it off with Sweat Dreams Lip Gloss.

Grab the products needed here:

P.S. Don’t forget to enter the FSL Cosmetics Lipgloss Giveaway! Entries must be in by TOMORROW Thursday, March 11, 2010

If I were to go off my “not spending more than $6 on mascara” strike, I’d be ALL OVER YSL’s new Luxurious Mascara in Noir Radical. I love their Luxurious Mascara and now the formula and brush combination I love is bolder in a new deeeeeep black hue. A mascara this dark has the extra benefit of giving the illusion of thicker, more dense lashes and with the Faux Cils formula, you’re already getting lashes so long and voluminous they appear fake.

I’m all over this after I balance my checkbook. Should you be so inclined, grab it over at YSL:

P.S. Don’t forget to enter the FSL Cosmetics Lipgloss Giveaway! Entries must be in by Thursday, March 11, 2010.

Whether you like your makeup colorful and bold, or natural and dewy, MAC has got you covered this spring/summer. Check it out:

Get the looks here.

Get the looks here.

This past weekend I journeyed to a far away land called New Jersey on a quest to sample some Red Velvet Pancakes I saw on my local news at a cute breakfast/brunch/lunch spot called Toast in Montclair. To my dismay, they weren’t offering the red, delicious pancakes on Saturday when I was there (odd enough they had a limited one-week engagement of the pancakes but were offering them every other day during that time). The food and the service was excellent even without the Red Velvet Pancakes.

So while still in the Garden State with my peeps, we decided to hightail it to the Mall at Short Hills. While there I spent hours walking around stores like Gucci, Neiman Marcus, and of course Sephora. A short trip to Macy’s uncovered a pair of BCBGeneration Michy boots originally $159 on sale for $47! Then get this, since I had a $20 off a $50 purchase coupon, I got a $2.95 of knee high socks to bring my total to the eligible amount and scored my boots (and the socks I’ll never wear) for $30! Sweeet. Check them out:

The heel is about 4 1/4 inches but includes a 1/2 in platform to make walking a lot easier. I’m sure I’ve told you all that even though I stand 5′9″ tall barefoot, I love a 4 inch (and sometimes 5) heel.

I also hit up the Bobbi Brown counter and picked up Pot Rouge for Lips and Cheeks in Cabo Coral (which I want to return because all of a sudden now it doesn’t show up as vividly when I got home–maybe I can use it as a base for my other coral blushes). I also hit up MAC for Pro Longwear in Lasting Lust, a gorgeous bright orange-red.

And since maybe I felt I hadn’t killed my debit card enough, I headed over to the NARS counter at Neiman Marcus and wound up with their Blush in Amour (which I’ve never seen at Sephora) and their Aqua Gel Hydrator. I had buyers’ remorse immediately after charging the $76 price tag of the Hydrator and the $26 price tag of the blush to my Neiman’s card (I wanted to pay debit, but they only take Neiman’s cards, American Express, and cash *shrugs*). But I just looked through my bag and noticed that they hooked me up with a slew of good samples—including a mini NARS Multiple and NARS Orgasm nail polish.