Lipstick and Pearls
I’ve lived in NYC for most of my adult life, but my roots are very southern. I grew up in Texas— my dad is a native Fort Worthian and my mom is a Texas transplant from Memphis. My dad’s mother, who was very involved in my upbringing and definitely gets the credit for my love of all things girly, grew up in Montgomery, Alabama before she made her way to Fort Worth. People in my life now are always shocked to hear the thick southern accents everyone has in my family. I must have lost mine along the way.
Growing up, I remember seeing the women at the beauty parlor having their hair teased and set—the higher the hair, the closer to Gd. My mother, who is pretty low-key by nature, never went on the front porch without her red lipstick and wore Platex gloves to preserve her bi-weekly manicure. My dad has been involved with the Miss America pageant system my whole life and I worshipped all the Miss Texas contestants with their perfectly coiffed, overly sprayed, blonde hair, rouged cheeks, and huge lashes. I even went on to compete in Miss Teen Texas and had my own blonde helmut-head beauty crisis at the ripe age of 15. Please don’t google it.
When I moved to NYC for college, I had a bit of a style identity crisis. I loved how effortless the New York girls looked with their bed-head hair and barely-there make up. They always looked cool and I always felt like I was trying too hard. I still feel this way sometimes. On the one hand, it can be chicer to show self-restraint with beauty. When you work to get flawless skin, wearing less make up is so liberating. But the truth is, when I don’t have my lashes, lipstick, and jewels, I don’t feel like myself. When I have the time, I like to take the extra few minutes to add a bit of glamour—that’s just what I love and I'm working to unapologetically embrace that. That being said, if you see someone on a weekday morning before 10 AM that sort of looks like a disheveled, tired version of me in sweats and a messy bun, feel free to wave.