I was raised on Clinique and wet n wild, Chanel No. 5 and Love’s Baby Soft. I love super-fancy makeup and the cheap stuff. I got fussed at in high school theatre class because I didn’t put on enough makeup. That oil-based stuff made me feel like I was suffocating.

I don’t wear a lot of makeup, but I do love lipstick/lip gloss and eyeliner. I rarely leave the house without those. If it’s early, I’ll only line my top lid. If it’s later, I’ll line the bottom lid, too. A smokey-eye for nighttime. Winged eyeliner is a part of my personality. I’ll also wear a little under-eye concealer and powder. If I don’t feel like doing anything much at all, I’ll wear extra red lipstick and put my sunglasses on.

Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Suede is my favorite cheap lipstick of the moment, and I always have Clinique Black Honey Almost Lipstick with me. It looks good on everyone! I also love Benefit’s Sugarbomb. I have about 25 lip glosses in my purse because if I see one I even think I might like, I get it. I once read that your lips can get “addicted” to lip gloss, so that’s obviously where I am. I stash them all over the house: on the kitchen sink, on the living room table, next to the toothpaste, next to the bed. I’m the same with bobby pins. My earrings, too. I can go from room to room and reach my hand out and find a pair of earrings, a bobby pin, and a lip gloss.

I’ve been in love with eyeliner ever since I was a little girl and saw Chrissie Hynde in the “Brass in Pocket” video on MTV. Covergirl Perfect Blend Eyeliner is my favorite cheap drugstore liner, and Punker is my favorite fancy liquid liner. I subscribe to both Birchbox and Glossybox so I get to try fancy, expensive new stuff/stuff I wouldn’t necessarily buy otherwise. I also like to wander around Walgreens and CVS and Target.

I do nothing to my hair but wash it with either Redken shampoo/conditioner or whatever other shampoo is in the shower at the time and put Mastey Oil Treatment in it. I am the laziest hair person because I just do not care. My hair is curly and pretty short right now, so it’s easy. I used to have super-long dreads and one day I was really sick and tired of them so I cut them off myself over the bathroom sink. I started greying early just like my dad and I used to think it made me look weird because I have such a baby face, but again, I’m too lazy to think about coloring my hair so I just let it stay grey. (Although the other day I did put a strip of blue chalk dye in it and I liked it a lot, so I’ll probably do that again.)

My favorite perfumes smell like cannabis and sandalwood and plums. My husband loves when I wear Viva La Juicy and I tease him about it. I only wear hippie deodorant. Trader Joe’s Natural is my favorite. I like Tom’s Wild Lavender too. If I’m not going out in the world, sometimes I won’t wear any at all. I like how my body smells naturally.

I’ll wash my face with almost anything, but Dermalogica is my favorite when I can afford it. I also love Simple Foaming Face Wash. The Anatomicals Puffy the Eye Bag Slayer Wake-Up Under Eye Patches are a special treat. I love those things. I also love masks. Sisley’s Black Rose Cream Mask smells so good (it’s hella expensive, but I get samples in my beauty boxes and those last a while!). I love Naobay Natural & Organic Oxygenating Cream Moisturizing and Oil of Olay Moisturizer with sunscreen. I try to use as many natural/organic products as I can. I love fresh products, like their Lotus Youth Preserve Face Creme and all of their fragrances.

I sleep in my eyeliner most of the time, but if I have on a lot of eye makeup I’ll take it off. I love the feeling of running the cool, wet makeup remover cotton ball across my eyelids. I floss and brush my teeth with cinnamon toothpaste and put on Badger Sleep Balm before I go to bed. Again, I love extra-fancy and plain things. Clicquot in a Dixie Cup.

Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker and writer from Kentucky. She is the author of Every Kiss a War (Mojave River Press, 2014). Her short story collection was a finalist for both the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction (2012) and the Iowa Short Fiction Award (2012). Her short story “Whiskey & Ribbons” won Editor’s Choice in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest (2011) and was listed as a notable story for storySouth’s Million Writers Award. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and has appeared in places like SmokeLong Quarterly, Little Fiction, Longform Fiction, Carve Magazine, Monkeybicycle<, Pithead Chapel, Gigantic Sequins, Folio, American Short Fiction (online), Midwestern Gothic, Juked, Word Riot,  Sundog Lit, The Rumpus, and many others. She and her husband Loran run a literary magazine called WhiskeyPaper. Find more at LeesaCrossSmith.com and WhiskeyPaper.com.