We’re all for being fearless with fashion, but when our experimentation ends up scaring the bejaysus out of children (SOMEONE, THINK OF THE CHILDREN!), we’re happy enough to cut our losses and accept defeat.
While we may have thought that the clown contouring fad was out there, blue lipstick – a new favourite of Kylie Jenner – has become one of THE hottest beauty and style trends of the summer; and it’s certainly an intimidating one.
Heavily filtered or not, most of us are humble enough to concede that Kylie looks freaking awesome in her Instagram posts, but does that mean we can all pull off a Kylie Kit-inspired look?
We decided to take it to the streets (well, Dundrum Town Centre, to be exact), to investigate!
While the light-blue ‘Skylie’ lip-kit has sent shockwaves throughout the beauty industry, I really didn’t see how the shade was going to flatter me in ANY way; so I decided to channel the trend with MAC’s limited edition ‘Matte Royal’.
This dramatic shade is described as a “deep blue with a matte finish”, and while it looks more indigo in some lights, it does a great job of tinging the skin around my lips PROPER blue!
After applying a heavy layer of my blueish-purple lippie and snapping a quick selfie, I felt tentatively confident that this would go down well among Dundrum’s Sunday crowd. I was a fearless fashionista embracing something a little different, and the worst that could happen was someone would talk about how ‘mort’ I was behind my back.
I could not have been more wrong!
Unless I happened to be walking around with a stream of toilet paper hanging out the back of my jeans, this lipstick was not a hit. Indeed, unlike the pleasant nods and compliments my beloved turban attracted, reactions to my blue lipstick ranged from irritation to pure fear.
I received a few puzzled glances from grown women like myself, who obviously thought it was a bit much for the day that was in it – fair enough. But it was the reaction of the children I met while running my errands that completely surprised and amused me – they were TERRIFIED!
At one point, while waiting for a friend outside of the bathrooms, I watched a four-year-old’s face contract with fear to the point where I legitimately thought she was going to burst into tears. Did she think I was a witch? A little bit, I reckon.
To give you a bit of context, I was wearing an outfit of black ripped jeans, a pink jersey and a multi-coloured tropical print bomber jacket; if I had been going for a gothic look, I had definitely swung a miss!
Maybe the child is just sensitive, or upset about something else, I assured myself. There was only one way to prove it – I proceeded to flash my biggest smile at every child who did a double-take when they crossed my path, and each of their reactions mirrored that of the first: while the slightly older children just stared at me in what I took to be confusion, the tiny tots legit thought I had just hitched a ride from Oz on a broomstick!
I would genuinely have loved to snap and share photos of these poor tots’ reactions, but that would be both illegal and creepy.
I’m not totally writing off the blue lipstick trend – one or two teens seemed intrigued, which admittedly made me feel like one of the ‘cool kids’; then I remembered that I’m 27, and even just using the phrase ‘cool kids’ makes me a giant loser.
Verdict: keep away from small children.
