Day 21: The Lippie Lament, D-Word
by MUA's Cavewoman

The very first thing I ever bought from MAC Cosmetics was a lovely, pink-toned cream lipstick called Florian. This was back when the tubes had a flat top, and a black enamel band around the center with the letters M A C in gold inside the enamel. I went through my first Florian and went back for another one. It was the only lip color that I wore for years. That is, until that one day when I went back to buy another one, having used maybe four of them up already, and was told that this shade had been discontinued. There, I said it. The dreaded D-word. Every lipstick lover knows what I'm talking about. That perfect, long-sought-after shade, gone forever. We start scouring ebay and swap lists on MakeUpAlley and we hold our breath til the last seconds of the auction tick down, or we hope for a reply from our swapper, with a "yes" inside the note. No one told me back then, when I was buying Florian, that MAC is notorious for discontinuing lipstick colors. I'd have stocked up on my shade.

A few years ago, I discovered two beautiful MAC shades in the Amplified formula, which has come to be my favorite of all of the MAC lipstick formulas. Birds Of A Feather and Deliciously Rich are pretty, soft, muted My Lips But Better colors. I'm on my fourth Birds and my third Delicious. Long gone from MAC counters, I've resigned myself to the fact that I may not be able to get any more of these two shades. I bring them along on shopping trips and swatch them on the back of my hand, trying to find a perfect match in other cosmetic lines.

On a trip to New York City with Ms. Blogdorf, we met up with our NY friends for a visit to The Cosmetics Market, a quirky little store with a you-never-know-what-you'll-find-there inventory. Filled with banged-up boxes of old merchandise, oddball makeup lines, and discontinued products, it's fun to dig and discover. I found the Charles Of The Ritz there, and knowing this might be the end of the Ritz line forever, I bought the Tiddly Pink. We all ended up making purchases that day. It's a makeup lover's goldmine. I still have my beautiful retro-style Charles Of The Ritz compacts, black and glossy with pink lettering. JCPenney was the last retailer to carry the line. I wonder how one of the most elegant makeup lines of all time ended up in a mid-range mass retailer.

Coty was my Mom's brand of lipstick until it disappeared totally several years ago. You may find those cardboard boxes of face powder here and there, but where they really excelled was in lipsticks. I used their Stop It For Lips religiously. But here, for the young'uns, I present a Coty lipstick in an elegant, gold fluted case, which we used to buy for about two dollars. Note the slide-up mechanism, maybe you've never seen that before. This lipstick is probably over 20 years old, and it hasn't spoiled or turned rancid in the least. It still smells lovely, reminding me of the Frederic Malle fragrance called Lipstick Rose. I wonder if the perfumer, Ralf Schweiger, was thinking of Coty lipsticks when he created that beautiful sweet scent.

At the bottom, my biggest lament of all, and again from Coty, this is Nature's Lip Tint. I can't even show you what is inside. It is a hideous nub of what can only be described as thick yellow wax. But on the lips! On the lips it turns into my most perfect pink color, and it lasts all day. I took this lipstick with me to Italy, ten years ago. I've only once seen anything similar to it, a line on QVC called Fran Wilson's Moodmatchers. I think they are long gone, too.

Now you know that I am not lipstick-deprived, there are plenty enough here that I never have to buy another lipstick again. But a true lipstick lover will always look for the next perfect shade. In the meantime, I'll continue to bring my Birds and Deliciously along with me on shopping trips, hoping for an exact match. And I am also hoping that MAC is reading Blogdorfgoodman today and deciding to make a lipstick lover happy, and re-releasing those two beautiful shades. I won't ask for a re-release of Florian, I think that's too much to ask. But I wouldn't mind at all. Tell us your favorite discontinued lipsticks, and we can lament together!