“My husband complimented me on my coral lipstick yesterday! And he hardly ever says anything about my appearance.” That was the beginning of a conversation I had with a friend last week–it got me wondering: What do men really notice about women? And why do men see us so differently than we see ourselves?

In a similar incident, I was telling a girl at the hair salon about inside bases. Explaining how you can completely change your look simply by switching out toppers and accessories. She added, “Or just change YOUR SHOES.”

One day she had been wearing her work uniform of head-to-toe black, and went home to change for an event that evening. She headed to the bedroom and came back in the same black outfit she’d worn to work. Her husband exclaimed: “YOU CHANGED YOUR CLOTHES…YOU LOOK GREAT!” In reality, all she had done was change her shoes–from black flats to bright orange heels. 

———————————->   WOW!

Some of you may recall page 107 of QUINTESSENTIAL STYLE, when our friend Lori asked her husband, Leroy, how he liked her new shade of lipstick. Leroy answered, “That’s kind of bright, don’t you think?” Lori promptly went to the bathroom, rubbed off the new lipstick and put on her old color, which was quite a bit duller.

When she returned to show Leroy, he blurted out: “Oh, hell, no! Go put on the new stuff. That color makes you look dead!”

(In the book we substituted “heck” for the aforementioned word. But, you get the point.) And yes, Lori did give me permission to use her name.

Of course men will always see us differently than we see ourselves, but if there’s one thing they do seem to notice, it’s color! As my co-author, Janna Beatty, says:

“COLOR is the FIRST thing seen, and the LAST thing remembered.”

To order your copy of Quintessential Style, click here.