Even though my sister still calls me a tomboy (nobody uses that word anymore), I just love playing among the aisles of makeup at those huge cosmetics-playground stores like Sephora. But when it comes to actually buying stuff and using it, I'm a true minimalist. I don't like having to face so many choices every day, and don't like to see a mess of lipsticks and eyeliners in my makeup bag, half of them with their tops lost or broken. After awhile, there's just a pile of makeup soot at the bottom of the bag. So, I tend to settle on a favorite high quality item in each category and stick with it until something new comes along that entices me to make a change, the same way I do with jeans and bras. Like alot of women, I choose cosmetic products as much for their exterior design as for what's inside. I once had a favorite lipstick, and I bought it again and again until they stopped making it. That was a few years ago, and I've been searching for a new favorite ever since.

I think Mojo Cosmetics had me in mind when they came up with the TITAN refillable lipstick with refill cartridges (called "bullets"). Though I wonder about the expressions on the faces of the models gracing their website (one looks bored and the other looks possessed), I do love Mojo's beautifully designed and whimsical lipstick case, which comes in hand-polished titanium grey or pink. It's made of heat-and-crush resistant aerospace grade alloy (which I suppose would minimize melting in hot cars) and the brand name is laser etched on each case. An o-ring lets you carry it on a keychain or purse. Mojo's clever marketing materials make the case sound like a precision weapon: it has "revolutionary breech-loaded design & 4-piece construction," and "180 degree counter directional deep threating," and is "4-axis cnc machined" (whatever that means). It's all part of the fun because when you hold the pieces in your hand, they're cold to the touch and weighty, and you do sort of feel like you're loading a gun as you put the bullet in the case.