"Excuse Me, While I Kiss The Sky - Purple Hazed Lips All Around"

If you pay attention to color trends while walking city streets, passing by retail display windows and advertisement campaigns, you will notice that pinks with hues ranging from bubble gum to magenta, and purples from royal and lilac are the colors of choice over the past few years. We see it with Target's back to school products, bedding, and packaging, Flor's carpet tile trends, Ikea furniture pieces, music videos, and runway fashions. It has helped to capture our ears  in the past with song titles from legendary musicians like Prince's "Purple Rain" and Jimmy Hendrix's, "Purple Haze". Those soldriers that represent the heart and courage of our country are awarded purple heart medals from the President of the United States. Purple is used to represent royalty and things that are majestic and rich in culture (that's why its my favorite color).


It appeals to our eyes on magazine covers like the October 2009 Essence cover featuring Mary J. Blige and celebrities alike are opting for a gradient of purples on their nails. Purple is now the color of choice for lips on and off the runway. Purple is the "it" color that has trickled down from wall color, objects in our home, clothes, nails and now our pouting kissers. 

Have you seen the latest Alicia Keys "Try To Sleep With A Broken Heart" video with the purple tint/color wash? She is portrayed as a superwoman (which should have been used for the "Superwoman" video, right?) where her aurora, powers, "super suit", and lips radiate with the popular color. Well, if you haven't seen it, how about  LeToya's video for "Regret" featuring Ludacris? Yeah, she has purple lips too, but please note that she and Keys not only share the same lip hue but they also have embarrassingly chose the same French derived Balmain studded leather jacket to wear (yes the designer that produced Beyonce's famous Michael Jackson inspired jacket). 



Would I say that the purple lip trend is a good one? Yes, because it's an alternative to our black nail and lip trend, but please be cautious - purple and yellow are complimentary colors on the color wheel meaning that one color brings out the richness and vibrancy of the other. That means in layman terms if you are going to pout around the purple lips, your teeth better not be yellow. The other catch is that if your teeth are the whitest of white the contrast from the purple against your teeth will then give them a blueish tint as LeToya's do in her video (ha ha). It's kind of like, wearing white lipstick - if only you could imagine it will make your teeth look yellow. 


I love purple but I think I'll have to pass on this trend. I'll just stick to rimming my eyes with royal color and pairing it with a nude lip. I've given you fair warning, so it's up to you to decide if you want to give your man a kiss with those lips and make him look like he's dead (Ah ha! That may be the reason why in Key's video she can't  touch her man without killing him!). 


I'll leave you with a bit of Jimmy Hendrix's Purple Haze. (And we know he 'aint talking about a woman - D12 and Eminem's "Purple Pills" can attest to that!) 


Purple haze all in my brain 
Lately things just don't seem the same 
Actin' funny, but I don't know why 
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky 

Purple haze all around 
Don't know if I'm comin' up or down 
Am I happy or in misery? 
Whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me 

Help me help me 
Oh no no... no 

Yeah 
Purple haze all in my eyes 
Don't know if it's day or night 
You've got me blowin, blowin my mind 
Is it tomorrow or just the end of time? 

No, help me aw yeah! oh no no oh help me...