OCC description: blackened red
My rating:
The lowdown
I begin my OCC Lip Tar series with Black Dahlia because it is striking and loud yet surprisingly versatile, and has therefore become one of my standards both for fancy occasions and also when I'm just feeling a little vampy. This is the color that inspired me to start wearing my signature double-pointed cupid's bow, which I have dubbed Psyche's Despair (tutorial forthcoming), and is the first OCC Lip Tar I ever bought. I ordered it online after finding it had sold out in every Sephora I set foot in!
The color is gorgeous, and while application can come out a bit patchy, it is such a striking lip that as far as I'm concerned, this hardly matters. I love that lip tars come with special application brushes; you'll need them as it is extremely difficult to fully wash to tar out of a brush once used even if applying a brush cleaner. This lip tar tries to a completely non-sticky matte finish, which I absolutely love!
Elizabeth Short AKA the Black Dahlia, 1943, arrested for underaged drinking.
Equally as dark and fascinating as the lip color is its tragic namesake, Elizabeth Short, given the nickname "Black Dahlia" by the papers after her mutilated body was found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles in 1947. The brutality against Ms. Short did not end with her death; the tabloids enthralled the public with tales of a seductress who practically invited assault as her wanton lifestyle rendered her "victim material". Oh 1940s gender politics.
In my opinion, this lip color captures both the erotic mystique of this imaginary vixen/victimized woman as well as the darkness of the Black Dahlia murder and the event's treatment by media in the aftermath. The color, coupled with the name, creates an effect that evokes that odd way in which we identify sexiness in tragedy and the grotesque.
Images and reference from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dahlia
This is part of a series on OCC Lip Tars including:
Rock a loud lip!
Azara
