4 Books to Read Once You Find Out Today Is National Lipstick Day

Get Literary
July 29 2018
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It’s National Lipstick Day (July 29), and I’m reminded that my grandma used to say that I should never leave the house without lipstick on because you never know whom you’re going to meet. I don’t necessarily agree with that statement, especially because she never told me what would happen if I ended up seeing this person that I didn’t know I was going to meet with just my bare lips. Would they run away screaming? Turn into stone? Although her recommendation was a tad on the anti-feminist side, she did have some useful words of wisdom to share. Like when I was single and would complain to her about all the guys I was dating and their faults, she would often retort: “OK, now let’s talk about what’s wrong with you.” I’ll let you stew on that for a while. In honor of my dearly departed grandma Phoebe and her obsession with painted lips, I suggest that you read one of the following books while celebrating National Lipstick Day, which also happens to be my birthday (Happy Birthday to Me!).  

This post was originally published on GetLiterary.com.

The A to Z of Lipstick
by Poppy King

Poppy King is the founder of the beauty brand “Lipstick Queen,” and she has written a purse-sized primer on the history of lipstick with tips on how to use it. The book features a quote that I love: “Be with someone who ruins your lipstick—not your mascara.” That sounds like something Grandma Phoebe would have said, even if she didn’t actually.

One tip that I learned from this book and that I really, really needed was how to prevent lipstick from getting on your teeth. This always happens to me and I never seem to find out until I glance in the mirror and realize I’ve been walking around all day looking like I’ve been eating crayons.... This is what I learned! After you apply your favorite lipstick, put your index finger in your mouth, pucker up, and then pull your finger through your lips. This gets rid of all the lipstick on the inside of your mouth that gets on your lips.

There are a lot of really cute illustrations in this book too. It’s the perfect gift for that person you are struggling to find just the right something for National Lipstick Day.

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The A to Z of Lipstick
Poppy King

From Poppy King, founder of the premier cosmetics brand “Lipstick Queen,” comes the perfect guide to lipstick for every woman, from the savvy makeup aficionado to the lippie novice.Beautifully illustrated, The A to Z of Lipstick has everything you’ve ever wanted to know about lipstick in a charming, fun-to-flip-through package. Full of Poppy’s best “Lip Tips,” this gorgeous gift book will give you the low-down on everything from color choice and application tricks, to lipstick trends through the ages and how lipstick is made. Not sure whether to go glossy or matte? Need advice on the best shade for date night? Here is the classic and classy guide that every sophisticated makeup wearer needs. A cosmetics mogul from the age of eighteen, makeup expert Poppy King shares her twenty years of professional wisdom through this celebration of her favorite type of makeup. The Lipstick Queen has been featured in Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair, and many more for her insight into the best and most glamorous lip styles. Pocket-sized and as bright and bold as a well-lipsticked smile, The A to Z of Lipstick is a great gift for new lip product dabblers and lifelong lipstick lovers alike.

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4 Books to Read Once You Find Out Today Is National Lipstick Day

By Get Literary | July 29, 2018

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Social Creature
by Tara Isabella Burton

The best way to describe this book is The Talented Mr. Ripley meets Party Monster meets Black Mirror. Social Creature tells the story of two friends, Lavinia and Louise, who have a toxic, obsessive relationship that ends up with one of them dying. The novel takes place in exclusive New York City nightclubs, at decadent parties, and in fabulous apartments. Social Creature touches heavily upon what friendship really means in the digital age, especially when a life documented in Instagram or Facebook is often very different from what’s happening IRL. The art of the selfie is interwoven throughout this book—and what do you need in order to make an amazing selfie besides a forgiving filter? Makeup, of course! If you like twisted novels that explore the dark side of technology and narcissistic behavior, then this is the book for you!

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Social Creature
Tara Isabella Burton

They go through both bottles of champagne right there on the High Line, with nothing but the stars over them… They drink and Lavinia tells Louise about all the places they will go together, when they finish their stories, when they are both great writers-to Paris and to Rome and to Trieste… Lavinia will never go. She is going to die soon. Louise has nothing. Lavinia has everything. After a chance encounter, the two spiral into an intimate, intense, and possibly toxic friendship. A Talented Mr. Ripley for the digital age, this seductive story takes a classic tale of obsession and makes it irresistibly new.

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How to Murder Your Life
by Cat Marnell

Before I landed my dream job in publishing, I worked in the cosmetics industry, and one of the most controversial beauty editors at that time was Cat Marnell. Cat wrote unapologetically about her rabid drug and alcohol use for Vice in the column Amphetamine Logic,” and was the beauty editor for the now defunct xo Jane. Her memoir is a raw and candid story about juggling her rising career at some of the most prestigious fashion magazines: NylonTeen VogueGlamour, and Lucky, while her addiction took over her life. Cat Marnell is hilarious and will win you over with her raw sense of humor and cautionary tale. 

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How to Murder Your Life
Cat Marnell

From the New York Times bestselling author and former beauty editor Cat Marnell, a “vivid, maddening, heartbreaking, very funny, chaotic” (The New York Times) memoir of prescription drug addiction and self-sabotage, set in the glamorous world of fashion magazines and downtown nightclubs.At twenty-six, Cat Marnell was an associate beauty editor at Lucky, one of the top fashion magazines in America—and that’s all most people knew about her. But she hid a secret life. She was a prescription drug addict. She was also a “doctor shopper” who manipulated Upper East Side psychiatrists for pills, pills, and more pills; a lonely bulimic who spent hundreds of dollars a week on binge foods; a promiscuous party girl who danced barefoot on banquets; a weepy and hallucination-prone insomniac who would take anything—anything—to sleep. This is a tale of self-loathing, self-sabotage, and yes, self-tanner. It begins at a posh New England prep school—and with a prescription for the Attention Deficit Disorder medication Ritalin. It continues to New York, where we follow Marnell’s amphetamine-fueled rise from intern to editor through the beauty departments of NYLON, Teen Vogue, Glamour, and Lucky. We see her fight between ambition and addiction and how, inevitably, her disease threatens everything she worked so hard to achieve. From the Condé Nast building to seedy nightclubs, from doctors’ offices and mental hospitals, Marnell “treads a knife edge between glamorizing her own despair and rendering it with savage honesty.…with the skill of a pulp novelist” (The New York Times Book Review) what it is like to live in the wild, chaotic, often sinister world of a young female addict who can’t say no. Combining “all the intoxicating intrigue of a thriller and yet all the sobering pathos of a gifted writer’s true-life journey to recover her former health, happiness, ambitions, and identity” (Harper’s Bazaar), How to Murder Your Life is mesmerizing, revelatory, and necessary.

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MENTIONED IN:

4 Books to Read Once You Find Out Today Is National Lipstick Day

By Get Literary | July 29, 2018

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The Regulars
by Georgia Clark

You know how they say don’t judge a book by its cover? Well, it’s National Lipstick Day, so of course we’re going to be superficial like that! It would be remiss of me to write a post about books to read on National Lipstick Day without including The Regulars, a novel with a cover that features three beautiful pairs of matte lips.

Best friends Evie, Krista, and Willow are New York City girls in their mid-twenties with average looks who are facing the trifecta of quarter-life crises: they’re trying to make it in corporate America, struggling to navigate the chaotic world of online dating (fun fact: that’s how I met my husband!), and trying to make enough money to pay their rent.

Then they discover a magic tincture called Pretty that turns their so-called average looks into supermodel gorgeous, which leads to a whole new glamorous life for them. But Pretty has a dark side to it, and the three friends are forced to answer this burning philosophical question: What are you really willing to sacrifice to be pretty? Although this tincture sounds creepily amazing, I think I am going to stick to good old-fashioned lipstick, and I think you should too (but you’ll still want to read this book)!

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The Regulars
Georgia Clark

-Redbook Best of the Year Pick
-PopSugar’s Best Books of the Year
-Teen Vogue’s Best Books of the Year
-Reading with Robin 2016 Favorite

A fierce, feisty, and “compulsively delicious” (Redbook) debut with a magical twist about three ordinary, regular young women who suddenly have their fantasies come true…or do they?

Best friends Evie, Krista, and Willow are just trying to make it through their mid-twenties in New York. With average looks and typical quarter-life crises, they’re trying to make it up the corporate ladder, make sense of online dating, and make rent.

Until they come across Pretty, a magic tincture that makes them, well...gorgeous. Like, supermodel gorgeous. And it’s certainly not their fault if the sudden gift of beauty causes unexpected doors to open for them.

But there’s a dark side to Pretty, too, and as the gloss fades for these modern-day Cinderellas, there’s just one question left:

What would you sacrifice to be Pretty?

Wildly irreverent, blatantly sexy, and observed with pitch-perfect wit, The Regulars is a fresh, “twisted, modern-day take on Cinderella.” (InStyle), perfect for fans of Jennifer Close and Kevin Kwan.

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