The perfect nude.

This is about a lipstick shade. But not just any lipstick shade. The perfect nude lipstick is a wondrous and fabled thing. It can take 7 years off you. As it suggests, it's almost the same colour as your real lip. But not quite. It might be 10% pinker. Or 15% darker. It is different for every woman. It brings a freshness to your face no amount of expensive creams can. However, it is an elusive thing. Sometimes you think you've found it, but when you get it home, you realise it's just too dark and you look like you have a Nutella addiction.

A few years ago, I was rushing to Boots (10 minutes from home) to get some medicine for my ailing boyfriend, who was quite ill and in some pain in bed.
I had to walk through the John Lewis make-up department to get to Boots.
I saw Bobbi Brown had the new season nude shades in.

I was transfixed.

2 hours later, I sheepishly came home, tell-tale lipstick on. I felt terrible, I stuck my head around the bedroom door. My boyfriend was bent double in pain, he said, where have you been? Please give me painkillers.
My heart lurched. I had forgotten to go to Boots.

That, is the power of the perfect nude.