Beauty: Basic Lip

Hello hello!  So, we're on our final basic makeup tutorial.  Last, but certainly not least, we have LIPS!  Let me start by telling you how much I love lips.  As a little girl, I thought that lipstick was the very last word in makeup.  To heck with all the other stuff, gimme a tube of lipstick to make me feel like a beautiful grown-up lady!  I grew up enthralled by Hollywood movie scenes where elegant, glamourous ladies would pull out their compacts and apply lipstick with perfect precision right out of the tube.  Thus, along with eyes, lips have always been favorite feature to play up.

Of course, when done improperly, lips can also get a little out of control.  I went through some bad lipstick days where I thought it was cute to wear really dark lipliner with shimmery pale lipstick.

Yuck!  Not hot.  I'm not sure what I was thinking at the time.  I also went through a dark purple lipstick phase as well.

 I'm sure aubergine can be very classy on the catwalk, but definitely not for every day.

Alright, so let's get to the point.  We're going to do a basic lip in a natural nude tone.  This is my favorite lip look of all time.  It's pretty much a no-fail lip that will go with any color, any time, day or evening.  The basic ingredients are as follows:

Lip Liner

This is my holy grail of all lip liner.  It's a discontinued product in limited supply that I am only able to get through eBay, which means I shouldn't be telling anyone this if I want to continue to use it, but it's so awesome that I have to share.  This is Smashbox's lip liner in Smashing Muse.  It's a sheer, creamy, rosy-nude color that is perfect to wear under any lipstick or lipgloss.  It glides on satiny-smooth and gives you a soft, translucent line as opposed to a harsh, solid line like most lip pencils.  I don't know what I'll do when it's gone.  I've been loyal to this product for at least 5 years.  You can get yours for under $6 at my supplier here: Smashbox Smashing Muse

Lip Gloss

For this look, I'm going to use my new favorite lipgloss of the moment, which happens to be a brand owned by a good friend of mine.

Christal Clear lipgloss in Heather.  This is a sheer, creamy gloss that's a fleshy-nude color with a hint of pink.  It's non-sticky and very moisturizing so it double as a balm.  You can get yours here:  Christal Clear Gloss

Lip Defining Brush

Again, I'm going to have to turn to E.L.F. Cosmetics.  Seriously, they should pay me to be their spokesperson.  Their lip defining brush is the best lip brush I've used to date and it only cost me $1.

Here's the link: E.L.F. Lip Defining Brush  It's actually out of stock right at this moment, but not to worry, I saw it at Target just the other day for the same price.  You would also save money on shipping if you go that route.

Ok, so we start with bare lips:

Yes, I am puckering

Using your lip pencil, shape your lips by drawing right on your lipline.  For a fuller lip, you can line just a smidge outside of your natural lipline.  Less is more, overdoing lipliner will inevitably lead to the clown effect and we don't want that.

If you're using a sheer lip pencil, like me, the effect is going to be very subtle, in fact, barely there.  This is what I'm going for, however, a very natural look.  Lip lining is actually a two-step process if you want your lips to look even and tidy.  Next, you'll want to fill in your lips with the same liner as if it were lipstick.  This will secure your lipgloss and minimize lip color from bleeding outside of your lipline. 

Once you've completed this step, your lips should look sort of like this:

Unlike my bare lips above, these fully lined lips are an even, matte tone and are just a touch fuller.

The last step is color.  You can use gloss or lipstick, whichever you prefer.  I like using glosses because I like a sheer, natural lip.  Lipsticks, for the most part, make my lips feel heavy and thick.  Of course, dense lipgloss will feel the same.  Therefore I stick to lightweight glosses or even sheer lipsticks.

Using your lip brush, pick up a little bit of gloss.  You can add more as you go along if necessary.  I like using a lip brush because you get more precision than applying color straight from the tube or with the included applicator.  I start by dotting a bit on the centers of my top and bottom lip.

Next, spread the gloss so that it forms an even coat on your lips, taking care to keep the edges as clean as possible.  Try not to let your gloss run past the lip liner.

Great!  Now you're done.  Easy as pie, no?

My goal was a sheer, even coat of rosy-nude color with a subtle sheen.  Here is a small photo collage of the bare, liner, and lipgloss results so you can compare the differences.  They're subtle, but notable.

Well, there you have it!  Hope this post has been helpful.  For next time, let's not play it safe and break our neutral rule by trying a daring lip color, such as a sultry red or a shocking fuschia.  That oughta be fun. :)

Hugs,

Cat