Sometimes it's nice to think of your makeup bag as a collection instead of just a pile of stuff. Patterns appear; stories take shape. We could go on with the flowery language, but with the understanding that specificity is the hallmark of good storytelling, an interesting concept emerged: What if one person detailed one part of their routine, focusing on one kind of product? Like when Maluca Mala told us she had three distinct lip looks that occasionally overlapped. Read and see:

'My lipcolor depends on how I feel when I wake up that morning and what I’m doing that day. Am I feeling kind of sexy or am I just feeling chill? Am I going to be photographed or going on a date? I’m really inspired by the '90s and Kevyn Aucoin and his whole palette of brown. Most of what I wear falls in that monochromatic family. So I’ll put on lip balm, and then when I’m doing the rest of my face, I’ll brush put a little bit of Lancôme Maquicomplet Concealer in Caramel on my lips. That helps whatever I use next really stick.

I just got the Sephora Nano Lip Liner in Cheery Chestnut and I love it. It’s a short stick, and I’ll probably use it up in the next month. It’s a darker brown so I’ll wear it if I’ve got a soft eyeliner on and not much shadow or anything else. It’s also a good date lipstick! It gives me that hot, darker lip color—but it also doesn’t look like I tried that hard, you know? It’s totally different from wearing a red lip, which screams ‘I want to impress you.’ Lip liners are good for dates in general because they don’t rub off so quickly if you're kissing. You definitely don’t want to make out with a red lipstick on—it gets messy and all over everything.

My makeup artist gave me this MAC Lipstick called Kinda Sexy. It’s what I use for photoshoots and taking pictures. It makes my lips really pop. I’m wearing it right now and I think they look really lush. Sometimes, if I’m going for the Pamela Anderson 'I’m a stripper' look, I’ll line my lips and use Kinda Sexy because the line will show. But I only do that occasionally.

And then I use this NYX Mega Shine Lipgloss in Sugar Pie because when I use a gloss, I want it to sparkle. It’s moisturizing, shiny, but not sticky—so it works for every day. I also like NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Abu Dhabi. I don’t have it with me, but it’s so fuckin’ good. It’s in a lip gloss bottle but it feels like a lipstick and it turns matte once you apply it. It’s kind of brown like my skintone, so it’s really cool.

The most important thing about lips, though, is that they’re moisturized. It doesn't matter if you wear color on them or not—chapped lips are never good. So whether I wear lip color or not, I always have a lip balm in my bag. Right now it’s Retreat, which is all-natural. As long as you stay moisturized, everything is going to be radiant.”

—as told to ITG

Photographed by Tom Newton.