Black Gurl, BIG Lips!!

Black Gurl, BIG lips!

Sausage Lips, Soup coolers, Duck Mouf (Mouth, again just depends on where you are in the country) all insults usually used to describe someone with full lips. Not sure if it’s society or whatever but growing up dark skinned with BIG lips seemed to carry a negative connotation. I felt limited!!! However, I kept’em clean though!! LOL nice and greased because dark skinned with BIG chapped lips would be whole nother issue! For years VASELINE was my friend! Then I discovered Blistex, from Blistex to Carmex! But my lip chap addiction is a whole nother post! Point is, I only felt that I could wear clear or neutral colors on my lips, all because I wanted to draw the least amount of attention to this God given exaggerated feature.

It’s funny how instead of accepting the things you cannot change, your first reaction is usually to try and disguise/mask the “issue”. It was so bad that I tricked myself into thinking that color was not for me! I think I had begun to imagine myself with some neon orange lipstick or something....every time I would try a color, that was the image reflecting back at me! I know, I know, crazy right. As I always say…you are your worst critic (feature post alert), so even if I felt like my lips resembled those off the art work from the show Goodtimes, I’m positive now that it ain’t that bad! (Yes, I am aware that ain’t is not a word)

Now I must say, the guys added to the confidence change on this one too! I know it’s called self esteem but everyone likes to feel that they’re attractive to the opposite sex or same sex… whatever floats your boat. So the attention these LIPS got when I got a little older was cool. That’s when the sausage converted to luscious, Soup turned to nice, and Duck mouth became pretty! =) It wasn’t until I saw the cover Fantasia’s latest album did I want to venture off into the land of color! Yes it was that recent!!!

She had on PURPLE and I LOVED it! Hell her lips were as big if not bigger, than mine! I called my Mary Kay consultant and went for it; and to my surprise it was cute. WHO would’ve thunk it! Next  color on my list…RED Ha! On a roll and real ambitious but hmmm not so much! LOL Yeah that was a FAIL but I was determined to figure it out and here is what I came up with… the top lip is what SCARES people! I figure if I put the brighter color on the bottom and darker on the top it might work. And Whhaaalah! I figured out what works for me!! Check out the pics below and tell me what you think!

If you are generally a happy person, overtime you grow to appreciate the differences between you and the world! I’m in the process of doing, constantly figuring out what works for me! =)

Sincerely,

E. Louise

***All Lipsticks used are Mary Kay***

*Lips are all Moistened

*Outline lips with Mocha Brown lip liner (optional)

Add Color (Rich Fig) used here on outter areas

Add lighter color (Sheer Blush) on inner areas of the lips

***Purple Kisses***

Here is the Red!!! *Same rules apply*

Should Keri and I own the same shirt??? Who wore it better!!! I'm biased! LOL

I was browsing through the net, in search of new hairstyles and look at what I found!!! This picture of Ms. Keri Baby on Celeb Photos rocking the same shirt I sported for New Year's Eve 2010! Should we own the same shirt??? *shoulder shrug* and a pat on the back for me! I knew my style was on the right track! Who wore it better? Be easy on me!

Shirt: KnowStyle

Tights: Citi Trends ($3.00 buy)

Boots: Steve Madden

Necklace: Ashley Stewart

Saturday Night LIVE!!!

Sequence is HOT HOT HOT!!! This skirt is a designer orginal! I'me By: J. Thomas who just so happens to be my BFF!! (Shameless plug I know)

Belt and Accesories: Ashley Stewart
Blazer : Sag Harbor/JC Penny

Complementary style has NO size limitations!

Plainly put I am what others may consider a tall, shapely, southern girl with big feet!!! =) Attempting to find my place in the world by turning what I once considered an insecurity into an asset! I must say that this evolving thing has been quite the experience. I have always been the “larger one” in the group and luckily for me I can’t recall many times when I was taunted by the “MEAN KIDS” about it.  I’m sure things were said but maybe I just didn’t hear them. Not that I needed anyone to point out the obvious though…. I can remember standing in front of the mirror at the age of ten wondering why my hips poked out in a way that other girls’ hips my age didn’t, EVEN thinking of ideas that I could make them “Stay in”!!!

I think the period of acceptance began when I was in the ninth grade and the term “THICK” was often being used by the boys to describe me.  THICK….sounds a whole lot better than big-boned, big gul (girl just depends on where you are in the country), corn bread fed (o_0), husky, hefty, big sexy (my all time favorite) and FAT!  The clothing industry seemed to realize that there was a greater need for plus sizes and I discovered stores such as Lane Bryant, Ashley Stewart, Old Navy, Simply Fashion etc. Yep! High school was when I coined the term “This looks good on me!” On the down side I often got the non compliment from others….” You dress really nice to be your size” THIS still urks me!!! Why can’t I just dress nice???? But I digress. High school was when I discovered FASHION!!

Oh how I wish it was that simple! I wonder why after looking back the picture is always clearer. Hmmp… may never know the answer to that one, but I can say that I searched high and low looking for something that I LOVED doing, my passion, my happy sort to speak. Not realizing that your passion is usually what comes natural to you. I thought that everyone had night visions of outfits that would go together, and hair styles that would go with those outfits. I thought everyone passed by a dress in the store and said “That would look good on such and such…” It wasn’t until my sister absolutely refused to shop for herself (so that I could shop for her) , my friends constantly called  to see if I can come up with any ideas of what they should wear, when I couldn’t go out in public without  someone stopping me to ask “Where did you get that from?” or until co-workers were waiting @ my desk looking forward to see what I would be wearing on that day, did I began to see that Fashion excites me!!! (Giddy)

By no way am I claiming to be the “fashionista” or the expert, in fact I try to stray away from those labels. What I do know is what I have is not forced but a natural flow of ideas that mesh well. Fashion isn’t about WHAT you wear, but HOW to wear what WORKS for you! AND that Complementary style has no size limitations!

By. E Louise….