Tuesday, March 25, 2008

red lips

Now that I have been wearing makeup for a while I am starting to get antsy to try new things with it. Normally I either wear just one or two colors on my eyes or a smokey eyes with a neutral glossy lip. I have been dying to try things the other way around with more emphasis on the lip and less on the eyes.

Red Lipstick

If you have never worn red before it is a challenge to shop for, at least for me, I felt like everything I put on made me look like a clown. One of the counter ladies recommended that I wear a color all day to see how i felt about it and I pass that on to you. By the end of the day I felt a lot more comfortable in it. Also I kept asking people if I looked ridiculous and nobody did.

Still finding THE perfect shade of red is still a hard thing to do and ultimately i decided to just bite the bullet and make a purchase. This way I can get used to wearing it and still be on the lookout for the perfect shade. I settled on this:


NARs Velvet lip pencil in Dragon Girl. You MUST line your lips to wear red or it will look silly and bleed all over your face. This product has the double blessing of operating as both liner and lipstick. My only quibble is that it is really dry so you need to use a primer or chapstick or something too. Nonetheless, I feel like i got a deal - two products in one!

Some additional red lips tips I have received are to either put some base or a neutral primer on your lips prior to applying the color OR to apply the color, blot, and then reapply. I have tried both and either will both prevent bleeding and also create a deeper more vibrant color.



I love the retro feel to this look and I've got a lot of compliments on it. It takes some balls to do it girls! This shade is still a little pinky to my liking so I'll keep looking. Your favorites in the comments are welcome!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does bring back those pictures of the 40's. Personally, I just trust the leftover wine from the night prior to do the red staining trick.

Anonymous said...

And wine has the added benefit of coloring your teeth to match...

At the risk of betraying my drugstore makeup origins (although it's hardly a secret that I'm frugal), I swear by Covergirl's Outlast - you put the color on with an applicator and it dries (so I've never needed lipliner with this stuff) then you just use a clear topcoat to make it shiny/keep your lips moist. I like it because once I put on the color, I don't have to do any touchups all day, although some people find that it dries out their lips too much.

And good for you for trying brighter colors! It's nice to have different looks...

Lakeview Coffee Joe said...

Must be something in the air. A relative pale woman in my guitar class last night showed up with bright red lipstick on. She didn't look as good as you do in it though. I approve.

alexis said...

hard to believe this is the same gal walking around amsterdam last summer in her hubby's plaid shirts!

Erin said...

You look so hot! Very retro and therefore I love it. Are you doing just mascara and/or liquid liner for the lighter eye? Liquid is so retro; I wish I were better at putting it on!

stef said...

Although I OWN liquid liner and have worn it in the past.(MOD eyes!) I am terrible at applying it. i think it just takes practice. I do have some shadow on but it is a very neutral pale brown, liner (mac, powder) on the top lid and loads of mascara