Top (old) • Similar options here and below | Pants • Nordstrom  | Shoes • Louise et Cie | Watch • Michael Kors | Sunglasses • Ray-Ban | Lip Pencil • M·A·C Redd or Ruby Woo | Lipstick • M·A·C Ruby Woo | Lip Gloss • M·A·C Ruby Woo

Every weekend as I scroll through Instagram I see women in their cute date-night outfits, getting ready to go out to dinner with their sweeties.  By the time Andy and I get home and decide to go out, I don’t want to change and I really don’t want to prevail on him to break out the camera and start snapping away.  I just want to eat!

However, last Friday I shopped my closet a bit and put this together.  Black and white always make a clean and crisp combination.  Throw on some red shoes for a dash of the unexpected and you’ve got a fun look that’s dressed-up casual.  I was surprised; I received so many compliments, especially on the shoes, so I thought I’d share the look.  I’ve had this sleeveless polo for awhile, and unfortunately couldn’t find the exact one to link here.  I did find some all-black and black with white trim versions that will work well.

The other accent pulling the look together is the red lip.  Do you have challenges with red lipstick?  I sure do.  Red seems to migrate into the annoying age lines around my lips.  You’ve seen what I’m talking about: the bleeding effect that defies the hardiest of lip liners.  Enter MAC Ruby Woo, a clay-based lip color that stays put.  (I always wondered what the little “C” stood for beside some of the MAC colors!)  Even with lip gloss I had no bleed issues. I was pretty excited. Looks like red lips are back in the mix!

What’s your favorite date night look?