No makeup bag is complete without a shade of classic red lipstick – and knowing how to wear it is essential to pulling off the quintessential sexy look.
1. Choose the right shade for your skin tone
First, identify whether you have cool or warm undertones in your skin. It’s been said that women with cool undertones should go with cool-toned lipsticks and warm undertones with warm – but it’s really all a question of how much you want the lipstick to pop against your skin. The darkness of your skin tone should also be taken in consideration. For example, lighter complexions look best with cool reds and darker complexions with warmer tones. This isn’t to say that the two can’t pull off the other – it will just stand out more and make a statement. In my photo, I am wearing MAC’s Ruby Woo lipstick with MAC’s lip liner in ‘Cherry’. ‘Ruby Woo’ is a blue-toned true red that I believe is very flattering on multiple types of skin tones. It isn’t too blue, so it almost falls into the neutral red category. ‘Russian Red’ by MAC is another great blue-toned red to try. If you’re looking for a great yellow-toned or warmer red, try MAC’s ‘Lady Danger’.
2. Wear Lip liner
I am such a strong advocate for lip liner and I especially can’t imagine wearing red lipstick without it! It not only can be used to make your lips look bigger but it also prevents the lipstick from feathering outside the lip line. If you want to give your lips a more fuller appearance, slightly outline outside the natural lip line and then fill in the rest of the lips to provide a solid base for the lipstick. This will also help the color to last longer.
3. Keep the rest of your makeup subtle
Red lips make a statement and you don’t want to overdo it by wearing too much eye makeup or blush. As you can see in my photo, I only wore liquid eye liner on the top of my eye, and left the bottom natural. Subtle cat eyes and red lips are a super easy way to pull together a very glam look for either day or night!
4. Have confidence
Ok this tip is rather lame but seriously, red lips are a symbol of power and also super glamorous so once you find a shade that flatters your skin tone that you feel confident in, don’t be afraid to rock it!
How do you perfect the red lip? Let me know your tips in the comments below! 🙂
I have been wearing Mac’s Russian Red for over a decade and my secret is as follows: line your lips in small strokes if you have any fine
lines around your upper lip join the 2points of the quipid’s bow in a straight line I picked this tip up on Wayne Goss’s web video, it looks so much better my lip looks plumper and well done Oh I forgot always
use a lip brush!!