MAGIC MARKERS

Lip stains are back - but it's a secret!

Staining your dress: bad.

Staining your shoes: bad.

Staining your lips: good. And now, easier than ever.

When CoverGirl announced that they were releasing Outlast Lipstain, just about everyone in the beauty biz flipped out. Besides the fact that it’s shaped like a marker and gives your lips the perfect flush of matte color, it’s like a resurrected version of Urban Decay’s much-beloved, now-discontinued Ink Lip Stain. CoverGirl's version is new and improved and, at $7.49, way cheaper than anything else remotely like it on the market.

But, of course, there was a rub: the stain wouldn’t be in stores until January. That meant no slightly red lips to holiday parties or perfectly pink lips to New Year’s fetes, which we weren’t happy about.

Rather than grin (with stain-less lips) and bear it, we dug around a bit and discovered that we don’t even need to leave our computer to get the Outlast Lipstains right now. That’s right, drugstore.com secretly got a shipment and has all ten colors available. Which means that you’ve still got until the end of the week to place an order and get it in time to wear to Christmas dinner.

Finally, a holiday season sans lipstick rings on your champagne glass - that's reason enough to celebrate.
REBECCA WILLA DAVIS

$7.49 at drugstore.com



This story was published on December 15, 2008.