Thanks, it's Vintage

Once a millennial, always a millennial.

This piece is an unedited and unfinished piece for my forthcoming book, “Lifetimes before 9am.” As a paid subscriber, you get a glimpse of the good stuff. Enjoy!

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It smells exactly the same as it did 25 years ago; kind of plasticky with a hint of vanilla.

I purse my lips and swipe the sticky liquid across each one a few times before mashing them together, feeling the mix of grit and glycerin along their surface.

I bring my face back closer to the mirror taking in the details of the most familiar face I know.

The tiny beauty mark under right eye, the piercing in my nose, the cleft in my chin that comes from my mothers side; I know these features so well and yet, there are new ones I can identify.

The small discoloration spot on my left cheek, the new wrinkles that have been etched into my forehead and around my mouth, the bags that form under my eyes, but it is still the face of my own, the one I wear throughout the days and have looked at through the mirror the past 37 years.

I pull my face back away from the mirror and admire the glitter sheen that is now across my lips, a small smile moving across them.

How different I am from the first time I held this tiny tube in my hands while I stood in a Claires, counting my allowance to see if I could afford the $3.00 price tag of popularity.

This lipgloss is a second chance, one that isn’t seen from the surface.