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While the rest of America argues over what really matters (the South Carolina Debate and our future president, Stephen Colbert), I spent the weekend caught up in a tussle over red lipstick. There I was, watching the Golden Globes with a glass of red and a couple thousand of my Twitter friends when Claire Danes crossed the stage. I retweeted one woman's snarky slap-down over all the "whore red lipstick" she was seeing only to have another friend issue a cease-and-desist over the red lipstick-hating.
I think it's really hard to get red lipstick right. You have to calibrate the lip color just so -- for your complexion, your hair, your dress, the lighting. But I actually think a few stars Sunday night nailed the look. Here's my list of ladies who rocked the red lips -- and a couple who seemed to drown in a red lipstick tide.
Claire Danes was the woman who inspired that first snarky anti-red Tweet, and here's why: To me it's just too severe a look. She's already in that stiff-looking black and white dress. I guess she'd need a bold lip to balance it out, but she ends up looking like the lipstick is wearing her. Throw in her typically serious demeanor (not that that's a bad thing in itself) and it's a chilly, harsh look.
Angelina Jolie: I know this look is highly controversial, but to me it was genius. Her ivory pallor and the bee-stung lips, mirrored by that red slash atop her silvery-white pillar dress. And her dark hair and those thick eyelashes anchored it all together. Yes, she's an alien from another planet and we'd all like her to eat a sandwich every once in a while, but other than that, I thought she looked spectacular.
Glee star Naya Rivera stood out a sea of pale-face ladies with her dark red lipstick on olive skin -- and take it from an olive-skinned woman when I tell you that it's especially hard for us to find a red that doesn't turn our skin sallow. I thought Naya's dress was a little dull, but she can definitely hold that red lipstick.
Missi Pyle is adorable in The Artist, and you would think red lipstick and a yellow dress would be a total winner, but somehow, something is just off with these hues. It's like like they're cancelling each other out -- the darker overlay on the skirt kind of saps all the energy out of the whole look.
Compare this with The Killing's Mireille Enos, who also wore red lips with a yellow dress. Only in this case, her buttery-yellow dress floats below her almost-edgy-dark red lipstick. It totally works.
Who do you think wore a red lip well at the Golden Globes this weekend?
Image via Frazer Harrison/Getty
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