Last night, we ventured uptown to the Tom Ford boutique for a lesson in lipstick. We were both amused (by the prohibitive cost of a tube of Ford’s new beauty enhancer–$45), bewildered (by the gorgeous colors), and finally, very impressed. We have very different lipstick “needs,” so we’ve both provided reviews:

Lauren: As some of you may remember, I’ve been searching for the perfect red lipstick. I thought I’d found it in Nars’ Heat Wave (which is a great semi-matte orange red, but a little dry). That is, until last night, when I found about five red lipsticks–and a few other colors, too–that are more perfect than I could ever imagine.

Tom Ford (with the help of his beauty backer Estée Lauder) has created a lipstick wardrobe–not that any of us every thought we needed a lipstick wardrobe. The twelve colors in his debut collection range from the starkest nude to the blackest berry. And they’re all beautiful. Most are matte, some have a bit of a sheen, but all work. I was, of course, drawn to the corals and reds and pinks, and today I’ve chosen to don Ginger Fawn, a soft coral. The craziest part? It’s so soft. The color is the matte I love, without the dry, cracking feeling other lipsticks create. At $45 a tube, I can’t say I’d be running out to buy the entire wardrobe, but I would invest in one or two pieces.

Britt: I’ve always had trouble with lipstick because my lips are asymmetrical, so bright red looks silly, and they’re also very pink which means my natural color shows through anything pale. But I love a smoky-eyed, nude-lipped look and I’ve tried my fair share of options over the years–nothing’s worked. This morning, I put on Tom Ford’s Blush Nude and it was perfect. It had just enough pink in it to blend into my natural lip color, but it still looked nude, and it’s so soft it feels like chapstick. Would I spend $45 on lipstick? Never. But now that I have it I’ll wear it everyday.