How To: Perfect High-Impact Color on Lips

Hi readers! 

I have expressed my excitement for autumn in previous posts, but I’d like to add one more reason to love this season: dark hued make up! Whereas spring/summer remind me of warmth (bronze), soft (pinks, corals) and light (shimmer, bright colors), fall/winter is much deeper, sharper and bold. My favorite make up look for this season is the combination of an even, clean complexion, sharp winged lined eye and a strong, wine red lip. For this blog post, I will be focusing on creating this perfect lip since I find this isn’t the most intuitive process, and have a few tricks up my sleeve to share. So let’s get to it!

Step 1 – Prep the lips. Most of the time, this just means apply a lip balm, but I usually get flaky lips when the weather gets cold or when I don’t drink enough water. To get around this, I wet my toothbrush and scrub at my lips VERY LIGHTLY, since lips are delicate. In addition to eliminating the dead skin, this motion encourages blood flow to the lips, which will have a natural plumping effect. Fabulous! There is also the option of making or buying a lip scrub, but ultimately I think those are a waste of time/money because your toothbrush literally does exactly the same exfoliation. Immediately following, I’ll apply lip balm and let it sit for a few minutes.

Step 2- Apply concealer to the area around your lips. This wasn’t intuitive to me, but it makes an enormous difference. Your natural lip color isn’t that different from your skin color, and when you wear lipstick, you want a clear delineation surrounding the mouth. Also, a lot of people have some darkening on the sides, so concealer helps to blend it away and clearly define the lip even before any color application.

Step 3 – Line the lips and don’t be afraid to ‘embellish’. I’ve seen a lot of celebrities with mouths that look super plump and voluminous on the red carpet, but when you see them in real life, their lips aren’t really that pronounced. Obviously, this is make up artistry at its finest, but it’s not something terribly difficult to achieve. What I like to do is trace my lips with a liner, and follow right outside that line to create some oomph. Also, I personally make my cupid’s bow more angular…which is a matter of preference – you could just as easily create a rounder cupid’s bow. Oh, this is also where the concealer will help in case you get a little too crazy with the pencil – it can act as an eraser!

Step 4  – Fill in with a lipstick, using super heavy application. Blot that off carefully so that a stain remains and apply a little powder – this creates a solid foundation of color that stays put. Then, reapply the lipstick. And, PLEASE, make sure the lipstick doesn’t get on your teeth. I wrap my lips around my pinky knuckle and pucker as pull my hand away, ensuring that any extra color stays far away from my pearly whites!

Step 5-  For maintenance – I’ve never had a lipstick last all day, but the worst is when it dries off and spreads outwardly, so that clean line you created earlier is now blurry. No matter, I just go around my mouth with a concealer again and reapply the lip balm (if you want a tinted look), followed by the lipstick.

I hope you enjoyed reading my post and that there were a few tips you can use for your next vampy look! Happy Autumn!

❤ Trace