Hi, ladies! Thanks for all your wonderful tips and tricks to wearing red lips. Here’s a list featuring a few of your secrets. 🙂
1. Set Down the Tube and Grab a Brush
My secret to wearing reds like Lancome’s Absolute Rouge is to apply them using a MAC 316 Covered Lip Brush ($19).
With the 316’s firm, pointed tip I can really get in where I need to get, precisely controlling my lines and delivering the right amount of pigment for my look — kinda like drawing with a sharpened pencil versus trying to draw with a stubby crayon. When applying directly from a tube of lipstick, I’ll often end up with uneven color or color breaking outside the lines of the natural shape of my lips. Not cute, ladies!
2. Use a Waxy Lip Liner
Use a very waxy lip liner to keep your color from bleeding; apply very heavily and blot. It helps the color sink in, and, when it begins to fade, your lips will still look pretty and stained.
3. Smooth That Pucker
Bright red looks great on super smooth lips, so consider using a lip exfoliator every other day.
4. Beet Juice, Baby!
Apply beet juice to your lips before you go to sleep. If your lips are darkened from smoking, it’ll correct the problem better than lipstick. It produces a semi-permanent stain that doesn’t rub off. Be careful not to overdo it, though. What you want is a stain very similar to your natural lip color.
5. Line with a Cream Concealer
After you’re done applying a red lipstick, take a cream concealer or foundation and a 266 brush and line just outside your lips; blend any harsh lines into your skin. It cleans up any crooked lip liner you may have, covers red smudges and really makes your lips POP!
6. Ease into Red
To ease your way into wearing red on your lips, don’t jump straight into something bold and bright. Start with cranberry colored lip gloss or a brown based red.
7. Cargo The Reverse Lip Liner
Try using Cargo The Reverse Lip Liner, a flesh colored liner used outside your lip line, and then apply a very thin layer of balm before applying red lipstick.
8. Tone It Down
If you’re unsure about red, consider toning down bright red shades with a darker red like MAC Kirsch Mattene.
9. MAC Russian Red!
Look for MAC Russian Red. It’s the perfect blue-based red for nearly all skin tones, and, instead of going for a full-on red pout, smear on some Chapstick and dab until you’ve got a pretty, stained effect. It lasts all day long and works well if you’re a little shy when it comes to wearing red.
10. Line with a Flesh Toned Pencil
Line and fill in your lips with a flesh toned pencil onto which you apply your red lipstick. The liner helps define and hold the color while helping to prevent blurring and fading around the edges of your lips as your lipstick fades over the course of the day.
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
