The Power of Lipstick

I am sitting on the train, following the rules when someone inevitably breaks one of them. A man getting off the train commented on how lovely the flower in my hair was, just before breezing past me and shuffling up the stairs. Although it is wonderful to get compliments, the real reason this is worth noting is because at that very minute I was contemplating “the power of lipstick”.

During a week-long visit with Dancing Classrooms, one of the instructors gently used this phrase to emphasize the importance of feeling professional. She called it, The Power of Lipstick. Since that time, I have been running my own extremely rudimentary experiments with this idea and many that have stemmed from it. For instance, “If lipstick makes me feel more powerful, will people see me as being more powerful?” Or even stranger, “Would someone give me better service if I were wearing lipstick?”

Over the last few months, I have been testing these … theories in a variety of ways. I have seen many of the same store clerks and cashiers during this time, and received mixed results.

One lovely Saturday, I threw my hair in a ponytail and made a trip to the supermarket in yoga pants. But I made sure to swipe on some lipstick before I left the house. At the deli counter, I spoke with a young man that I order my coldcuts from almost every Saturday. After asking me if I wanted to sample anything (for the first time ever) he asked me if it was my first time in the store. I simply raised an eyebrow and said, “I have been coming here for three years.”

Ok, so what about women? Men, no offense, are easily befuddled when it comes to ladies. But would women react any differently?

Recently, as I opened the door to our school and greeted a parent, she immediately noted how nice I looked. I wiped the sweat running down my right temple, tied the laces of my dirty converse sneakers and decided not to tell her I had just come from a wild game of T.V. tag. And then I checked my lipstick. Still there.

I got a grand total of six compliments on how ‘cute’ I looked from moms and nannies that day.

Sidebar: I wore my favorite, super cute dress and NO lipstick the next day and no one said ANYTHING! L

I don’t know what this says about society or sexism or…..anything really. But what I do know is that I have discovered a love for lipstick that I never had before. For the first time in my life, I carry lipstick in my purse. When I put on that lipstick, I am making a commitment to be some kind of fancy today; maybe just a little fancy, maybe full time fancy. Who knows? And I also know that without it, my smile is just as bright and my face is just as lovely.

So would the man on the train still have complimented me if I wasn’t wearing lipstick today? Maybe, maybe not. But that doesn’t change the fact that I would have felt down right adorable anyway.