Oh my, Mr Ford...

Ok, you're not exactly spoiling us because this lipstick costs an obscene amount of money. It's more like you're giving us the ultimate excuse to spoil ourselves by spaffing away on our weekly food budget on something completely pointless and also completely lustworthy. By making it more expensive you've made us want it more. Bet you feel pleased with yourself, don't you? I would.

This is the first full priced new frippery I have bought in quite some time now. Don't worry, normal service will resume shortly and I will be back at the jumble sales and charity shops ferreting around for bargains. But I have been working non stop recently, with a full time job and freelancing in every spare moment, and I felt like giving myself a proper reward, just one, before I give all the rest of my money to the bank to pay off my debts. So this is it. All £35 of it. It doesn't seem like much of a thing for £35 I know, but it feels like a very big treat indeed. Especially because I got the nice salesman in Selfridges to give it to me in a special Tom Ford bag. I know falling for the shiny packaging is stupid and shallow, but we can't all be Ghandi.

The only problem is that I'm scared to actually use it because I don't want to mess up its pristine-ness. Now that really is stupid. Who spends £35 on a really amazing lipstick they're scared to use?

Tom Ford lip colour in True Coral - Selfridges - £35

Lipstick love - Jemma Kidd makeup school ultimate duo in Scarlett

Although my heart is still set on owning Tom Ford's True Coral, I have found something to fill the bright lipstick shaped gap in my dull grey life.
I have to admit that Jemma Kidd's make-up range didn't instantly appeal. And if I'm honest it's mostly due to a bit of inverse snobbery about leggy blonde posh ex-models with impossibly successful lives. It's not exactly jealousy - I'm quite happy to never be known as an ex-model and JFK has a hold on my heart that no suave mutli-millionaire potential husband could challenge (although they are very welcome to try if it involves expensive gifts). And it's not a personal vendetta -  Jemma is probably lovely and I've never heard anyone who knows her say otherwise - but there's an off-putting aura of horsey smugness around the Kidds.
But I wish I'd been less prejudiced and looked past this a bit earlier, because it turns out that Jemma Kidd might actually know a thing or two about make up if her ultimate lipstick duo in scarlett is anything to go by. (Yes, having a hugely successful business running a make up school and producing an extensive range of products probably might be a pretty strong hint, but shhh.)
I bought it in an emergency - I forgot to take a good red lipstick to Vintage at Goodwood where Kidd's Make Up School range was on sale. I didn't expect it to be a new love, I just thought it would fill a gap for a weekend and then be resigned to the back of my makeup bag along with about seven other not-quite-right reds until the next clear out.
But I put it on and it was glorious. Not only that but it stayed. And the balm in the other end (hence the duo in its name) kept my lips soft and made the colour gentler although the colour does wear off a little faster if you use the balm. The red is very bright and slightly orangey so it won't be for everyone. But don't write it off without trying it.

You get a better idea of the colour in the shot with the flash on, but I apologise for the state of my hands which is far more visible - it's a combination of no money for manicures, anxious biting of the nails and surrounding skin due to stress and also a skin problem on my hands. You may also notice that the tube is looking less than pristine - it's been knocking around in my bag as I've been carrying it with me everywhere even when I leave the rest of my essentials at home or on non-make up days when the balm is very useful. 

Jemma Kidd Make Up School Ultimate Duo Lipstick in Scarlett is £13 and is available from her website, Space.NK and ASOS.