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How-To: Perfect Red Lips

Don’t be daunted by the perils of wearing red lipstick. At some point, we all must overcome the fear of looking like we’ve suffered a fruit punch overdose. And thanks to a few older lady-folks, we’ve seen the red-lipstick-on-the-teeth trick and know it can and should never be pulled off. We get it. To the untrained hand, red lipstick can be intimidating.

It’s important every gal knows how to do the red lip thing because a classic red lip instantly will pull any look together and polish it up. Matte red lips are totally old school glamour, and we love it, but we also love the modern edge that high-impact stains give lips.  Whichever you choose to rock, you should keep in mind the basics to achieving a flawless red pout. Check out or steps, and keep in mind exfoliating lips will be the best thing you can do if you’re prone to chapped lips and want an even color.

1. PREP your lips by patting them with your concealer or foundation – this helps keep color in place.

2. LINE lips with a red lip pencil slightly darker than your lipstick shade to add dimension. Start with cupid’s bow, usually that’s the most difficult part. Fill in lips completely with liner. Your lipstick officially won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

3. APPLY your lipstick by starting at the center and working outward. Keep your lips slightly pursed to ensure you’re tracing their shape perfectly.

4. FINISH lips by dusting a little bit of translucent powder over your lips, and add another coat of lipstick (you really mean business).

We spent some time wandering around Sephora and talking to some helpful ladies around the store who pointed us in the direction of their fav products. After some trial and error (the error mostly occured when I had to apply lip liner without assistance. I’d like to never do that again), here are our top picks:

LIPSTICK:

Make Up For Ever Intense Rouge Artist
8 – matte bright red sephora.com, $19

Make Up For Ever never disappoints. This is definitely an every-day
lipstick color – it’s red but not overpowering red. It’s look-at-me red but not
LOOK-AT-ME red. Like most true matte lipsticks, the major complaint about
this lip rouge is that it’s drying. To prevent this from over-drying lips, we
suggest applying a gloss as a finisher. Check out the bottom of our
recommendations for our fav gloss.

 

 

 

LIP PENCILS:

Bite Beauty High Pigment Matte Pencil,
pomegranate – rich red sephora.com, $24

Newer to the cosmetics scene, Bite Beauty is a Canadian company that
makes use out of the most natural materials around. Creamy and highly
pigmented, this pencil can be applied minimally for a stained effect.
For a more robust statement look, boldly cover entire lips. This pencil was
not as drying as we had feared it would be, and the color was intensely
gorgeous. Got so many compliments walking around the store with this on.
So naturally we bought it. Compliments for days.

 

 

Too Faced Perfect Lips Liner
perfect red – rich red, sephora.com, $17

Best in show for lip liners. Perfect red is just the right warm tone to add
dimension to any red lipstick shade. It goes on super smooth which we were
grateful for because we don’t like to try to pretend we can apply makeup like the pros.
We think this shade will compliment any red lipstick. If you want something smaller,
we suggest the Nano Lipliner from the Sephora line. It’s tiny enough to fit in your
purse for mid-day touchups and it’s only $5.

 

 

 

LIP STAIN:

Kat Von D Everlasting Love Liquid Lipstick
outlaw- brick red sephora.com, $19

With two easy but careful swipes and a lip smack, this color
was on. And we mean ON. We were told to wipe it off sooner
than later if we weren’t feelin’ it because once the color sets and dries,
it wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. It goes on shiny, but dries matte
so if you’re weirded out by super dry lips we definitely suggest picking up a
gloss or balm to apply over the top, or a lip conditioner to hydrate underneath.

 

 

 

 

 

GLOSS IT UP:

Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker
Extrme Plump collagen lip shine, sephora.com, $22

This is the big guns. The mother of all lip plumpers. After applying lipstick,
we slathered  this stuff on and in a matter of seconds we had to rush over to
a mirror and make sure our lips weren’t expanding over our entire face. We
swear that’s a good thing. This plumping gloss is INTENSE. You feel it in action
vibrating your lips while plumping, and when it’s done plumping, your lips are
left feeling silky smooth. Do it.

 

 

You might think our application steps are about 3 steps too many, but the extra time you put into your lips in the morning will eliminate the time you’d put in the rest of your day catching your reflection in other people’s sunglasses or car windows to make sure that you haven’t morphed into Ronald McDonald. Have any more recommendations? We’d love to hear! - JESSICA TUMIO

 

“Red lipstick is to beauty what the LBD is to fashion. The difference is that when you walk into a room wearing a red lip, people notice you” Francois Nars via InStyle Magazine

Tagged: best red lip stain, best red lipliner, best red lipstick, bite high pigment matte lip pencil. bite lip pencil, how to apply red lipstick, how to wear red lipstick, Jessica Tumio, kat von d liquid lipstick, lipstick application tips, make up for ever red lipstick, red lip liners, red lipstick tutorial, too faced perfect lips lip liner

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