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Yesterday I bought myself a new tube of colorful, spring lipstick and I thought about Elizabeth Taylor. Don't know why, but when buying something that makes me feel a little more glamorous, I think of her. Today we mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Elizabeth Taylor, coincidentally. Perhaps Ms. Taylor's spirit directed me toward the perfect shade of spring pink. (wink)
I don't know about other women but for me, the world's been maybe just a tad less colorful this past year. True, we hadn't seen much of the divine Ms. Liz (she once said she hated being called "Liz") in recent years because of declining health, still, it just felt like a part of my inner diva died with her last year.
I'm quite sure she probably didn't want to be seen much, anyway, given the dreadful way age and illness tends to rob even the most glamorous women of their beauty. It happens to all of us, eventually. Like this iconic actress who collected husbands and diamonds and who made DIVA a household word, I believe I, too, would have become reclusive. Vanity? Yes, but that's just how I think I would behave if I were once the most beautiful actress in the world.
I find it ironic that Ms. Taylor died the first few days of spring, since she remains, in my eyes, the pinnacle of fashion and beauty. This is because springtime brings out a woman's inner diva. This time of year, I get the bug to color my world. Like flowers opening their petals to the first warm breeze, we peel off layers of clothes, get pedicures to bare our toes and break out the bright colorful wardrobes and make-up.
I imagine Ms. Taylor loved springtime and with her resources, she certainly didn't need to worry about a budget even if she never needed a stitch of clothing or an ounce of makeup to look beautiful. Her lovely violet eyes and mutated double-rowed eyelashes, alone, could stop traffic. Yesterday as I browsed the make-up section, I thought about how Ms. Taylor selected her lipsticks. Did she rely on an assistant or a makeup artist, or did she, like me, enjoy "playing" with various makeups? She probably had plenty of help but something tells me a queen bee like Ms. Taylor would have called her own shots even with something as minuscule as the perfect shade of red lipstick.
Along with lipsticks, I fall prey EVERY YEAR to new perfumes and that, too, reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor, who basically started the trend of celebrities coming out with their own scents. Today you can't walk past the perfume counter at Macy's or Dillard's without seeing a celebrity perfume, thanks to Elizabeth Taylor.
Even if I'm wearing jeans and a torn tank top, I feel like a diva when I am wearing a new scent of perfume or a new shade of lipstick. In my little world, I become Liz Taylor.
Maybe it goes back further than that. Despite how bone tired she was, my own mother would swipe on lipstick and dab a little perfume behind each ear just before my dad came home, even if she had no place to go and was wearing raggedy old house clothes. I used to never understand that. Why bother, I'd tell myself as a teenager. You're only staying home.
Yet today I find myself doing the same thing. I could be out running errands all day, carpooling, volunteering at school, working out, making dinner or even scrubbing floors, but when the day morphs into evening I get the yen to get my pretty on. Down comes the ponytail or off comes the baseball cap. On goes the lipstick.
I hope it's appreciated by my husband and even my own daughter and viewed as something I do for them rather than in the name of vanity. I know in my own case, regarding my mom, it certainly was appreciated and even endearing. We even buried her with her favorite bottle of Chanel No. 5 in her pocket. (OK, so I emptied the remaining perfume into MY bottle of course, I wasn't gonna let THAT perfume go to waste!) The point is, we did that because, like Ms. Taylor, mom was all about getting her pretty on.....and so am I. It's a crazy, time-pressed world filled with stress, deadlines, angst, betrayals and politics....yet making things just a tiny bit prettier just seems to make it all easier to take.
So despite my everyday, never-ending to-do list.... no matter how tired I get, I do my level best, especially at this time of year, to channel MY inner diva like Ms. Taylor.... I try my best to carve out some "me" time....to work out, to style my hair, manicure my nails, pedicure my toenails.....and yesterday, I selected the perfect shade of pink lipstick. I hope all ladies out there will do the same because, I think deep down, Ms. Taylor would approve.
