How To Get The Perfect Red Lip
Red lipstick is striking. It is a classic look that all Hollywood celebrities must master. Marilyn Monroe rocked a red lip, along with Betty Boop. Gwen Stephani has mastered the red lip, and you might have noticed Taylor Swift at a Kansas City ballgame with her bright red lips. So, today, I’m going to show you how to get the perfect red lip because it is not just for celebrities.
The Steps To Getting The Perfect Red Lip
It might take a while to find the perfect color of red to match your skin tone. I love a blue/red, a Christmas red, and a pink/red. But I don’t think that orange/red looks good on me. You might be just the opposite, so experiment, experiment, experiment.
When putting on my makeup, I cover my lips with my foundation. This neutralizes the mauve color of my lips and helps the true color of the lipstick to show better.
Red isn’t a forgiving color, and every little mistake shows. I find it easier to use a lip liner to start with since it is easier to erase a tiny mistake versus an entire lip of color.
The first thing I do is find and outline my Cupid’s Bow. Some people like to make their lips larger than they are, so they go above their natural lips. I stick to my lip line, but I will adjust it to make them look symmetrical. We all have one side that will be longer or higher than the other.
Once I have my Cupid’s Bow in place, I continue to outline the entire lip.
Then, I color my lips with the liner. You don’t have to do this step, but I find that my lipstick seems to stay on longer when I use the lip liner to color the entire lips first.
The lip liner and lipstick are a perfect match, but you can see the color is deeper and richer looking once I add the lipstick.
I hate getting lipstick on straws, drinking glasses, or my hubby’s cheek, so I “set” the color with setting powder.
I usually use a brush and cover my lips a couple of times with the powder. It gives a nice matte finish, and the color doesn’t bleed onto things nearly as easily.
To get a crisp lip line, I use a white, ivory, or cream eyeliner to outline sections of my lips.
I line the Cupid’s Bow and the sides of my lower lips.
Then, I take a small, thin makeup brush to carefully blend in the whitish line. You’ll see it for a while since you know it is there, but no one else will know once it is blended in. I only use this brush for this job, and I clean it often to ensure it doesn’t get red on it and smear the white liner.
The products I used for this perfect red lip are:
- Thrive Maurjon Lip Filler Long-Wearing + Plumping Lip Liner™
- Thrive Maya Impact-FULL™ Smoothing Lipstick
- The Super Nudes Duo Liner is my favorite.
I followed the same steps as above but used Pat McGrath Labs LiquiLUST™: Legendary Wear Lipstick in the color Elson 4. Unfortunately, this lipstick is tough to find in stock. This is supposedly one of the lipsticks that Taylor Swift wears, so it is out of stock everywhere.
How To Get The Perfect Red Lip With A Lip Crayon
I’m using the NARS Powermatte High Intensity Lip Pencil in Dragon Girl for this look. It is a cross between a lip liner and a lipstick. I didn’t outline or color my lips with a lip liner; I just used the NARS lip pencil as an all-in-one.
I love this color, but it is more of a pink/red than a red/red. This is a color I’ll wear in spring and summer more than in fall and winter.
However, the Cruella 185 shade in the same lip pencil is one of my favorites. I like the deeper color, and I think this one is perfect for fall and winter.
The website called this a tan rose, so maybe it has a hint of brown to tone it down.
How To Get The Perfect Red Lip With A Lip Stain
If you’ve read my blog before, you might have read about my love for Chanel’s LE ROUGE DUO ULTRA TENUE Ultra Wear Lip Colour. I’ve worn Chanel’s lip stains for years, and I love the duo stick with the color on one end and a gloss on the other. These stains last all day long and aren’t as drying as most lip stains. This color is Daring Red, and I think it is the perfect Christmas red!
I hope this post was helpful. Be sure to let me know which is your favorite and if you wear red lipstick.
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Verse Of The Day
Romans 10:10
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
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I’ve always shied away from red, but maybe I should give it a try. It looks so pretty on you!
Like you, I love red lips! And, I too, stay away from the orange reds. Thank you for this great post. You’ve given me a couple of steps to consider. I have the Chanel duo in another shade but am definitely going to check out the Daring Red! 👄 💄
Tania, these red lip colors look good on you. Thanks for the extra tips to keep the color from bleeding into thin lines. Great post today!
I dont wear red lipstick but I like that Nars all in one pencil it was more of a ruby red. I will check it out. Thank You!
Red is my fav!! Im loving the 3rd color💋
I like wearing a red lipstick sometimes but never can find one that doesn’t enter the room before I do. How do you find out your skin tone to match the red. Thanks for the tips about how to put it on and make it stay
I love the Chanel lip stain color and picked that up. I usually wear cover girl outlast lip stains but they have not done a good job of updating their colors. I like how the stains are mix of stain and lipstick (not just a stain tint) but I don’t necessarily want a drastic matte. It made your teeth look really white too! I hope I have found a new favorite. Thank you for your recommendations !!!
I’m glad that you enjoyed this post ! Thank you for commenting. 😊
I can’t believe this post,I was just thinking a couple of days ago I wish Tania would do a post on the best red lipsticks. I guess because I’ve been seeing Taylor Swift’s signature red lips. I live close to kc mo, so everything is Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift right now. Great post, I’ve got the lipsticks in my cart.
Joan, I’ve always loved wearing a red lip when I’m at a party, on a date, and at Christmas time.
Thanks!!!!
Let me know if you decide to try my steps.
Red looks so good on you!
Thanks! 👄