The Monroe-esque full red lip has always been a hit or miss to replicate. The ones of us who rock it, rock it with aplomb but there are still some of us who have a love hate relationship with the look. Well, here are a few tips, tricks and hacks to rock the red lip like your favourite celeb!
1. A clear canvas
Unlike the other looks, when you rock a darker lip or a bright lip, you need to make sure your lips can hold on to the colour without any peels offs. So before you swipe on your lippie, rub some lip balm or petroleum jelly on your lips and lightly scrub your lips with a toothbrush for a minute or so and then wipe away the dry skin and lip balm with a tissue. You could use a lip scrub for the same too.
POPxo recommends: Nivea Original Care Lip Balm (Rs 130); Forest Essentials Lip Scrub – Cane Sugar (Rs 525)
2. Pick your hue
You’d think red is red, but there are so many shades to red! You need to understand your skin’s tone and undertone (more blue veins would mean you’re a cool tone and more green veins means warm) and according to that, you can pick a variety of reds from bright to deep. Of course, do take your comfort into account as well. If you aren’t okay with a bright red, go in for a deeper hue.
POPxo recommends: L’Oreal Paris Pure Reds Color Riche Collection Star Lipstick Collection (Rs 995)
3. Texture Time
Matte or glossy or creamy? These questions are important, depending on your look. If you’re looking for more oomph, go glossy or if you prefer a formal understated vibe you could go matte. You could always top a regular matte lippie with gloss. This choice will also depend on the kind of wear that you are looking at. If you want something long lasting, then you might want to stick to matte because a creamy finish wouldn’t have the staying power.
POPxo recommends: Maybelline New York Color Show Lipstick Ruby Twilight-208 (Rs 325); SUGAR Matte As Hell Crayon Lipstick – 01 Scarlett O’Hara (Red) With Free Sharpener (Rs 899); NYX Professional Makeup Intense Butter Gloss – Apple Crisp (Rs 575)
4. Conceal the canvas
After you scrub your lip, dab on a little bit of foundation or concealer over your lip. This makes sure your colour pops perfectly and if you’re looking at overlining, it makes that process easy.
POPxo recommends: L.A. Girl Pro Conceal HD (Rs 595)
5. Line and fill
Contrary to popular belief, instead of just outlining your lips, lining them and then filling them in increases the staying power of the lip colour. Ideally, if you have the same shade as your lip colour it is perfect, but if you don’t, you could use a nude lip liner.
POPxo recommends: Colorbar Definer Lip Liner – Creamy Nude, (Rs 599); Deborah 24 Ore Lip Liner Pencil – 9 Red (Rs 450)
6. Blot, then blot again.
Blotting is essential when it comes to getting the application of any lipstick/liner right. Once you are done filling in with the lip liner, use a tissue and dab slightly over your lips and in between your lips so the excess is taken off. For added oomph, take a single ply of the tissue and put it over your lips. Now dust on some translucent powder/baby powder to set your base. In case of a matte lippie, you could do this step after applying the lipstick too.
POPxo recommends: L.A Girl HD Pro Setting Powder – Translucent (Rs 1,000)
7. Follow through with lipstick
Now just top this up with your lipstick. After the first coat, blot (for matte lipsticks) over and in between the lips and then see if you need another coat to make the colour more vibrant.
POPxo recommends: M.A.C Retro Matte Lipstick – Ruby Woo (Rs 1,500); Maybelline New York Superstay 24 Color 2 Step Lipstick – 035 Keep It Red (Rs 600)
8. Always have eye make-up on
This is crucial friends! Please make sure your eyes have at least some amount of make-up to complement the bold lip. If nothing make sure you line your eyes with kohl and add a few coats of mascara.
POPxo recommends: M.A.C In Extreme Dimension Waterproof Mascara Lash – Dimensional Black (Rs 1,990); Lakme Absolute Kohl Ultimate Kajal – Black (Rs. 725)
9. Veer away from crazy eyes
Yes I know what I said above, always have make-up on, but do not go nuts. Ideally, when you are going for a red lip, you should keep the rest of the makeup pretty muted. So go for a simple cat-eye or kohl rimmed eyes and minimal or no coloured eye shadow at all.
POPxo recommends: NYX Professional Makeup The Curve Jet Black (Rs 2,500)
10. Be fearless babe!
Now that you have that fantastic red lip, flaunt what you got! Day, night, party, meeting – wherever you are sporting this, strut your stuff with panache, you gorgeous thing!
POPxo recommends: Nykaa MATTE-ilicious Lip Crayon – Fired Up 08 (Rs 650)