And now for something completely different...

Tis the season for red lipsticks, and while my favorite one is still my NARS Jungle Red, a very close second has shown up. There's sort of a story in how I acquired the products, so I had better tell that first...

My boyfriend was doing some work for magazine, and they were doing a review on 29 Cosmetics and it's creator, Lydia Mondavi, of Mondavi Winery fame. It was named after highway 29 that runs through the heart of the great Napa Valley, so it was off to Napa with a car full of gear, trudging around though vineyards, and cramping up my arms holding a reflector while we waited for the sun to come into just the right position. Anything to get the shot, right?


Anyway, after all my dedicated photo assisting, and my boyfriend's charming witticisms, we were taken back to the house by Lydia herself, and her husband Robert Mondavi, Jr. After given more wine to drink then we should have before needing to drive home, they gifted us with six fresh chicken eggs, a mason jar of honey comb, four bottles of their private label winery MEDUSA, a chunk of catnip, and the promise to send us assorted cosmetics. I received three eyeshadow quads of good color coordination, but the real star was the three lipsticks.

They all three have witty names, "Smokin' Cab", "Sinful Zin", and my favorite "Call me a Cab". They have a beautiful rich color, a surprisingly light and moisturizing texture, enriched with grapeseed extract and a sunscreen and they still stayed on! Thirteen shades are available, plus the rest of the fairly extensive line exclusively from Neiman Marcus. Everything in the line contains that grapeseed extract. This is a beautiful thing because grapeseed, like wine, is very high in anti-oxidants. Just in case we have some newcomers, anti-oxidants help combat free-radical damage, which along with sun damage are the two more preventable forms of aging.

"Call me a Cab" is my favorite 'true' red, and at $24 each, they're very reasonably priced for a luxury cosmetics brand thats going to help me from aging prematurely. They also make a fantastic lip scrub ("First Crush"), and moisturizing lip treatment as well ("Hint of Honey"). Read about the rest of the line at www.29cosmetics.com and available exclusively from Nieman Marcus