I can remember it as if it were yesterday: My mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner and I burst in from the dining room. “Mom, look at meeee,” I said with all the excitement my 8-year-old self could muster. I had on bright pink lipstick from a makeup kit given to me for my birthday. The kit contained three lipsticks of varying pink shades and three eyeshadows of lighter pink hues. I was over the moon to finally wear makeup, and as long as I was wearing it in the house—as instructed by my mother—it was fair game.
My mother told me that bright pink lipstick looked horrible on me. She's a soft-spoken, proud member of the baby boomer generation. Her formative years were in the 1950s, and in her mind, only white women wear bubblegum pink makeup, while women of color wear golden tones, red, purples, or brownish nudes.
