Grappa is a famous grape-y brandy out of Italy. It also happens to be the name of my favorite new lipstick by Borghese.

I received this super-intense, super-intimidating color over the summer while I was exploring my new (at the time) love for lipcolor. Out of the box – as you can see – this color is a little scary.  Is it red? Is it purple?  Is it…brown?  What is going on?

Jen and I stared at this color for weeks and weeks.  Jen frequently told me that I should try it.  I frequently told her that I was scared.  But we came upon a day recently when fear just didn’t matter, and I picked it up, put it on my face, and I’m ever so glad I did.  (Isn’t that how it always seems to work?)

It was just as confusing after I put it on as it was before.  Was it purple? Grappa sounds like “grape,” so…  It’s a toss-up.  To me, it looks like the perfect, silent-movie-star shade of red. It’s warm enough to be daytime wearable, but still icy enough to be really, really exciting.

Doesn’t it seem to make everything moodier?  I sort of love that. Mind you, this is about three solid layers of the stuff, so it’s pretty dark, but I’m also wearing it right now (and, embarrassingly I look EXACTLY the same – down to the sweater) and with only one”coat,” it’s nice and mellow, but still standy-outty.

Borghese seems to make all of my favorite lip colors. This is from their B Moisture line which has B vitamins in it, and never seems to dry out.  I tried a lipstick yesterday that, after about 20 minutes, felt like it was flaking off my mouth.  If you want a disgusting and opposite-of-how-fashion-works feeling, try wearing lipstick that dries out your skin so much that it flakes.  Gross.  No wonder I keep coming back to Borghese.

(I keep practicing my charming-but-coy wink.  It’s not going so well.)

If you’re in love with this color (many of my girlfriends have become a bit MUST HAVE about it – Hi Lou!) you can snag it from the Borghese website for $24.

Would you ever wear a purple lipstick? Is Grappa your style?

PS – Happy Black Friday!! I’m off to brave the storm!