This is going to sound dramatic, but without this lip gloss I wouldn’t be here… here as a Rouge18 intern, that is. This product launched my lip product obsession, an obsession which blossomed into eyeshadow, brow products, and ultimately makeup and skincare in general.

I was in Oxford, U.K. wandering around the shops, when I came across the 3D Hyrda Lipgloss in #21 Brun Rose in a Kiko Milano store. I tried it on and marveled at how it was basically the perfect nude (with a rosy hint) gloss for me. Finding a nude that complements my skin tone is a mighty task, so naturally I was taken aback. I wore the lip gloss out of the store and went home and spent several minutes looking in the mirror to verify that I liked it in different lights.

Having confirmed that this was an investment I wanted to make, I went back to the store a few days later to purchase the gloss. But it was nowhere to be found! I asked the salespeople and they confirmed that Brun Rose was out of stock, and that I should come back in a few days. I wasn’t too worried. This is the digital age; I could just order it online. When I went home, I saw Brun Rose was out of stock online as well! From then on I went back into Kiko Milano every few days, checked to see if the gloss had been restocked, and was disappointed every time. For MONTHS. The worst part is that the 3D Hyrda Lipgloss comes in 30 colors, yet somehow Brun Rose seemed to be the only one out of stock.

After months of waiting, Brun Rose came back in stock online and I hurried to buy 2. However, the damage was already done—I was hooked. You see, during the several weeks of checking to see if the store had restocked Brun Rose, I went searching for other colors like it. I basically developed a lipstick obsession during this time. It was as if, to fill the gaping hole in my makeup bag, I was looking for surrogate Brun Roses. My lipstick collection grew from zero to about 11 lipsticks plus a lipstick palette. On almost any free weekend, I searched several stores for lip shades that caught my fancy (even those that looked nothing like Brun Rose).

I guess you could say this story has a happy ending. Brun Rose finally became available and the experience sparked the makeup (and later skincare) journey that ultimately led me here.

—Obianuju Enworom