In which we're talking blogs and lipstick, of course

1. You've always had great blog recommendations like Already Pretty, Domestic Sluttery, and My Marrakesh, just to name a few. I'd like to know what other blogosphere gems you follow but haven't mentioned!

2. Bonus Question! I'm a huge lipstick fan - particularly bright pinks for the summer and then of course the lovely red. However, I have the hardest time finding reds that don't make my teeth look yellow. You, on the other hand, always look so good in the reds. Did you ever have this yellow teeth issue? If you did, were there any particular shades or brands that worked well? I really want to try Lipstick Queen stuff but I'm afraid to buy something I can't wear again...

Food blogs I drop by quite a bit: Dinner: A Love Story, For the Love of Cooking, Homesick Texan, and Evil Shenanigans Baking Blog.

For general style and aesthetic enjoyment: Matchbook Mag, Hollister Hovey, Beyond the Pale.

Onto lipsticks! My skin is olive, so even though I don't deliberately tan, I darken rather than burn and my undertones are yellow. That means I have to wear cool makeup colors rather than warm. (That also applies to the clothes I wear.) My reds in particular always have to have a blue undertone to balance the yellow, and anything coral or peach makes me look like I have jaundice. People love to mock the whole Color Me Beautiful phenomenon of the 80s, but it was based on Bauhaus color theory and it worked. It educated people on warm and cool colors and how to use them to your advantage. (For the record, I'm a winter.) Once you know which types of colors suit you, it's much easier to translate that to makeup. My blue reds are divine for me but they would be far too harsh on someone with a pure peaches-and-cream complexion, just as an orange-red would make me look vile.

Lipstick Queen is divine, no doubt about it. If you want to experiment, try a drugstore with a satisfaction guarantee and peruse the L'Oreal or Revlon sections. It's much easier to justify experimenting when the lipstick is $8 as opposed to $30! When you've figured out what colors suit you, invest in some Lipstick Queen or Chanel or YSL. Yes, they are spendy, but the pigments are denser and they tend to last longer and look better than the drugstore versions. I generally wear red or nude, although I do have a very dark berry I like for fall and winter, and I have lately been trying out some rosier cool pinks--a good way of perking up your face in the summer when you don't tan.

Hope that helps!