The Classic Red Lip

This post is for my cousin Kate who has requested it on numerous occasions. Sorry for the delay Kate, hope this lives up to your expectations!

The classic red lip is the little black dress of the makeup world. It is a look that never dates, it is very simple to create, and it will take you anywhere. This post is full of tips and tricks to help you create a timeless red lip.

Firstly, you need to make sure your lips are in good condition. Colourful lipstick will show up any dryness. Exfoliating your lips is very straightforward, if you don’t suffer from dry or chapped lips then just rub a towel over them to exfoliate. If dry lips is a problem then you need to be doing a more intense exfoliation routine; mix up your own exfoliator, I personally love a mixture of coconut oil and brown sugar. Scrub your lips once a week (but be gentle) and make sure you’re using a good moisturizer/balm on them. I like to apply my lipstick to bare lips, it tends to hold better. There are some lip primers on the market but I never had any luck with them, if you have, let me know.

Picking the right shade of red can be tricky. I always say that reds with a blue base make teeth look whiter. However, trying to figure out if a red lipstick has blue in it can be confusing, the best thing to do is try out a few different shades of red and pick the one that suits your complexion best. I think the paler you are the brighter the shade and the warner your skin tone the deeper the red. Darker colours can make lips look thinner so if you have smaller lips go for brighter reds. But there are thousands of red lipsticks on the market, play around with a few and get advice. Usually a makeup artists will know exactly what red to suggest by just looking at you so take their help!

Lip liners are optional. Liner can be used after lipstick application to even out the edges, or before application to hold the lipstick in place and stop it from bleeding. Liner can really add definition to lips. It’s not a necessity though as newer lipsticks are designed to stay in place and not to bleed. I tend to forego the liner, but that’s just a personal preference. If you do opt for liner just make sure it blends well with the lipstick so that you’re not left with an outline!

Applying a bold colour lipstick can be intimidating. It needs to be precise and accurate. Whether you use a lip brush, or apply the lipstick directly, you need to be careful. I prefer to skip the brush and just use the lipstick bullet. Most bullets are shaped well but after a while they lose their shape, when this happens I will start using a brush. The most important thing is precision, you need to follow the natural line of your lips and whether you achieve this with the bullet or a brush is a completely personal choice.

The one major mistake people make when applying red lipstick (or any bright colour) is to just make up the shape of their lips. Unfortunately if you are unhappy with the shape of your lips there are few options other than going under the knife! I will outline a simple trick for making your lips look fuller, but please stick with the natural shape of your lips when applying lipstick.

Lipstick should always be the final step of your makeup routine. I like a red lip to be matte rather than glossy so I always blot with a tissue. This creates a matte effect and it also helps you avoid too much transfer. To make your lips look fuller a little highlighting and contouring goes a long way. Using a narrow eye shadow brush I apply highlighter to my cupids bow. This is where light naturally falls so adding a subtle highlighter to this area will make the upper lip look fuller. Shadow naturally falls under your bottom lip. Using a fluffy eye shadow brush I take a very small amount of bronzer and sweep it under my bottom lip. Make sure you blend this out so that it doesn’t look obvious. This will make your bottom lip fuller. Done subtly highlighting and contouring will help make lips look fuller and more defined.

Anyone can rock a red lip, I love how it looks on blondes, but then again Megan Fox brings a Hollywood glamour to a red lip with her dark hair. Either way, you can’t go wrong. It is, however, important that the rest of your makeup is very, very subtle. Well defined eyebrows will add balance to the face when you are wearing a red lip. For the eyes themselves I like to wear a strong cat eye liner. The classic look calls for a very dark black winged liner. Have a look at my photos below to see how I apply the liner. If you want to skip the liner step do, just make sure to go big and bold with the lashes. Mascara is hugely important. You want to aim for big, dark, fluttering lashes to compliment the bold lip. I always choose to wear falsies when I am going with the classic red lip, I think they add glamour, but if you want to avoid the falsies, have a look at my post about the baby powder trick. Doing this simple trick will add a lot of glamour and volume to your lashes without having to apply falsies. When I am going with such a simple eyeliner application, I like to add just a touch of depth to my eyelids by deepening my crease with a brown eyeshadow. I simply use an eyeshadow brush and apply the brown shade to my crease area. It is important to be precise and to blend so that the darkened crease is very subtle.

I think the classic red lip look is very glamourous, for this reason I like to make sure the rest of my makeup, namely my face, is on an equal footing. I like to highlight and contour because this creates dimension on the face which in turn will add to the glamour of the overall look. Have a look at my highlighting and contouring post for a step by step guide.

As I have said, the classic red lip look is a very glamourous look, it tends to speak for itself so you don’t want to wear clothes that will clash with it. Neutral tones, or the classic black will do this makeup look justice. Avoid too much colour in your outfit, it’s not everything that will match red. I like to wear this look with a red nail varnish, a lot of people might think this is too matchy matchy, but I think it’s fun. A dark nail varnish will look fab, but so too will a pale pink or nude colour. I would just avoid bright, flashy colours. Keep it simple.

There you have it. Follow these rules and you’ll be set:

1) touch ups are necessary, keep an eye on your lips throughout the day/night

2) it will get on your teeth. This is when having a secret code with friends really pays off, remember, a true friend is a friend who tells you when there is lipstick on your teeth!

3) remember what you were told as a child; “colour within the lines”, don’t try to change the natural shape of your lips.

4) Go big or go home, but only with either the eyes or the lips, NOT BOTH!