It’s been pretty solidly established by now that I like to wear pink: after years of claiming that “I usually don’t like pink but this skirt/dress/lipstick/doughnut is rather nice” I had to admit that saying this twice a week possibly hints at something. So I like pink. What does change, though, is the specific hue I happen to be obsessed with. The palest blush? Dirty, dusky pink? Almost lilac? An apricot-tinted shade? Proper candy pink? Fuchsia? I’ve done them all.

My current obsession is rosy pink. A relative to my beloved muted, dusty pinks, the colour I have in mind is a bit warmer, more intense and has a touch of red. I’ve been liking it for a while, but the seriousness of my condition became apparent last weekend when I saw a sweater by H&M in exactly the right hue. I bought it immediately. I also bought a sequin skirt of similar colour – it can look different depending on the light, but it is generally pretty stunning.

I’ve been drawn to rose pink in make-up, too. One of my best buys in Japan turned out to be a lip gloss (shimmering lip jam!) by Three called Dreamers Awaken. It’s rosier than my usual mauve-y pinks and looks absolutely gorgeous (a post on my high-end makeup haul from Japan is coming up very soon). Charlotte Tilbury’s Amazing Grace can almost be called an old favourite by now and belongs to the same colour family: they say it’s a “vintage tea rose”. It’s maybe a tiny bit too wholesome for the look I have in mind, but beautiful nevertheless. Rose pink is also fantastic for cheeks: I don’t have an exact match, but the Canmake Lip & Gel in Cherry Fromage, although a bit lighter, fits the tonality well.

Colours are difficult to describe without a visual reference and sometimes even a visual is misleading. Things look different on pictures than in real life and screens distort and confuse. But it’s less about the exact shade and more about the mood anyway, as is true for most things. In her memoir Just Kids, Patti Smith described the sky being a bruised rose colour. I have no idea what shade the New York sky actually was on that day, but that’s the colour I mean.