Red Lizard

A couple of months ago I found a tube of Nars lipstick sitting on top of a trash can in the Mission.

Well, a couple of friends and I found the lipstick in addition to a red Dooney & Burke bag and an empty bottle of Tylenol. The sight puzzled us. Why would there be an expensive bag and an expensive tube of lipstick left on top of a trash can? We checked for a wallet hoping to find id, but finding neither we guessed that this person had been mugged and whoever took her purse didn’t want it, the lipstick, or the Tylenol. However these items arrived on top of the trash can, it sure looked like they were abandoned for good.

One of my friends, who was visiting from out of town, convinced the other girl to take the bag, and me to take the lipstick. I don’t remember how she persuaded me, but I remember hesitantly putting it into my bag. It seemed really unsanitary to use a complete stranger’s lipstick. I know friends borrow lipstick from friends all the time, and products at make-up counters are used by a stream of strangers all day, but something about finding it on the trash can didn’t sit well with me. My friend suggested that I cut off a centimeter or so of the lipstick and maybe that would make it usable.

So I took it home and absent-mindedly dropped it on my dresser. It stayed there, and every day I saw this random tube of lipstick – Nars lipstick – that I wanted to use but couldn’t bring myself to. It just felt too weird. And besides, who even knew if the color would look good on me? But looking at that tube of lipstick day in and day out made me want one of my own. And I’ve been getting curious about having a red lipstick anyway, so I finally went to Sephora yesterday.

Not knowing much about make-up I proceeded to try on just about every red I could find. The first Nars shade I tried, Red Lizard might have looked good, but I had no idea. Maybe Heat Wave was my color? After an hour or so of wandering from station to station, applying, rubbing off and re-appying, I finally asked someone for help. She dutifully found a few shades for me but I didn’t like any of them. So I asked her opinion on Red Lizard – she loved it! So that’s what I bought. After an hour and a half or so of lipstick shopping I bought the very first shade I tried on.

When I came home it occurred to me that I had never checked the shade of that found tube of lipstick. And wouldn’t you know… it was Red Lizard too!