"The bubbles aren't all in the champagne…."

You've already got the manual, Madame ("How to Win Friends, Kick Ass & Influence People"), and you already have the head for it. Now, here are your tools.

Ideas to help you build your own, unique style, the style you were meant to have, the style you unabashedly take with you wherever you go, leaving others to ponder, "How does she do it?".

The Joys of Red Lipstick.
On the set of CNN Headline News, my red lipstick generated as much mail as the day's headlines. Women wanted to know where to find the color, and men wanted to know where to find me (but that's a whole other story that we ought to talk about sometime, just for a giggle). Actually, it was a blend of several lipsticks, and the blending went on all night on the set.

The truth is that the right shade of red can be very flattering to a woman. It brings out our own, natural color; some days we may add the lightest dusting of complimentary blush, depending on our mood and our clothes. The more a woman wears red, the more it becomes part of her. After awhile, we just forget we're wearing it.. which makes it such fun when we detect a little more respect from the bag boy at the supermarket, and maybe a bit of a distance from a male colleague who suddenly seems cautious because he isn't really sure which track our train is running on. Wonderful, unexpected things happen.

The other night at a business reception, I reached in my purse and produced the prototype for Lynne Russell Red lipstick. Thirty minutes later, four other women were wearing it, including a lovely blonde woman who had walked in wearing a luscious, pale peach color. A male acquaintance who looked very proper in his business suit walked by, saw her new lips, and exclaimed, "Ooooo, honey, you better cool that down!"

Now here's the rest of the story: You can have fun all by yourself. Want to pretend you're in a European café? Wherever you are, whip out a lovely little compact mirror and touch up your luscious mouthÉ slowly. Enjoy it. Give yourself a little wink and tell yourself with a smile in your eyes that you look fabulous. You've just had a moment. Oh, la la.

Now to the bedroom.
Not every light in a home has to be a reading light, especially in the bedroom. This is not a MENSA meeting. Light pink bulbs are marketed commercially almost everywhere, and they're an improvement. But it's the very deep pink ones, and the amber ones, that are the object of your search. They can be a challenge to find, but they're worth every second it took to look up "light bulbs" in the yellow pages and find the funky little store that sells mostly just to restaurants and hotels.

These bulbs are flattering, they're suggestive, and they don't work by remote control… which you're going to hide anyway, if you haven't already chewed through the damned cable connection to the TV in the bedroom, thereby providing a more equitable method of determining what — or who — gets watched at night. (He'll thank you later.)

And, these little babies are portable. On trips, by yourself or with a companion, pack the amber bulbs along with the moisturizer. Just don't leave them behind when you check out. And take an extra, sheer nightgown to toss over the gymnasium-like light nearest the bed. Lace makes lovely patterns on the wall.

If this doesn't give you a night to write about in your Palm Pilot, it won't be your fault. And anyway, the lighting made you feel alive, didn't it? That's all it's about.