Totally Unsolicited Endorsements

Trying to apply method to madness, I wanted to have a semi-recurring feature whereby I can simply rave about how cool something is, or how much easier it's made my life, or... whatever. I hardly claim to be a trendsetter, but being "out there" as much as I am, I'm bound to stumble onto interesting stuff that you might want to know about. If we saw each other all the time, I would just mention whatever "it" is the next time we're out for a cocktail. As it is, I'm pretty much sitting here cocktailing with my computer for the forseeable future, so this is the next best thing.

Today's inaugural endorsement comes in response to a question that N.Terza asked the other night at her (belated) Thanksgiving dinner: "does anyone have a good recommendation for c-h-a-p-p-e-d lips?" (she spelled, so her five year old son would not know that she was indeed inquiring about HIS lips, clearly he's not happy with whatever solution she's found to date.)

Why, yes, (as I realized just this minute), I do. Courtesy of Delta Airlines. Now there's not much I love about the airlines these days, and indeed the list of a gazillion things that they should be doing differently is the subject of another rant entirely, but someone at Delta was smart enough to partner with L'Occitane cosmetics (or perhaps that was the other way around?) to provide samples of their anti-drying lip balm in their "overnight kits" in the business class seats.

I am a self-confessed lip girl. I once said in jest to the Unassuming Princess (on her first day of work with me years ago) that her only job was to tell me when my lipstick needed replenishing. I consider myself an amateur conneisseur of lip products, and my cosmetics basket is a graveyard of products that didn't work. So it comes with some authority that THIS is the most amazing lipbalm I've ever tried: Soft, silky (not waxy like Chapstick, not menthol-ly like Carmex or Blistex). Sort of buttery, liquid silk being caressed onto your lips. At $10 a pop, it's no small investment, either (and you can't just find it at the checkout at your local drugstore). But one swipe, and I'm totally hooked and will gladly shell out the $10 in the future. (As will the woman who was seated in seat 2F, a fact we spent at least 2 full minutes - a lifetime in idle airline chatter - discussing).

Mighty smart target marketing, L'Occitane. No one really "tests" lip balms in stores (eeeeew!) and virtually no one I know would shell out $10 a tube for something unknown. But put a free sample of it in a dry-air environment (airplane) with a marketplace that you KNOW can afford to buy it (biz class pax), and VOILA ('ecco la!'in Italian)... converted raving fans. I probably travel Delta and get upgraded often enough that I can keep myself supplied for life with free samples. But now that I've told all of YOU; their $$$$ were well spent. Go forth and be moistened.