Makeup look: Red lips

This is my update of a classic Old Hollywood look; winged eyeliner and red lips. As a makeup artist, this is one of the most requested. I believe people spend too much time worrying about the products themselves and not the technique. Kevyn Aucoin is my one of my favourite makeup artists and I admire him for not including the names of the products that he uses in his books. I have decided to include mostly what I used but more than that, I hope you can take something from the advice I recommend. And as always, makeup is open creativity and each to their own.

Base

Immediately after the shower I like to apply my moisturiser. The way I was taught at makeup school, was to rub the cream between your fingers and use your entire hands to sweep it around your face. Include your neck by sweeping upwards. My foundation I used today was Estee Lauder’s double wear. Applied with my hands and then buffed in using a foundation buffing brush. My powder was translucent by Makeup For Ever.

I used a Makeup For Ever cream concealer to brighten or highlight areas of my face and then I used this No7 ‘Instant Radiance’ concealer for my under eyes. If you find throughout the day your mascara or eyeliner is going under your eyes, I would make sure to add powder just under to help set the concealer.

Eyebrows

I used this MAC eyebrow pencil and then followed with a brown eyeshadow and brush. One mistake in the past I made was to overfill them in. I recommend focusing on the arch. I like to almost work round the edges and only fill a tiny bit at the inner corner with eyeshadow. Pencil in this area can sometimes look too harsh.

Eyes

The eyeshadow is not too complicated. I took this cream colour from Bobbi Brown called ‘Bone’, and pressed it onto my entire eye area. I then followed this using my bronzer and a big blending brush and blended around my crease. A bronzer can work better than a brown shadow which can be too contrasting. When applying your bronzer, follow your crease all the way so it goes near your inner corner.

Whilst I mentioned not wanting to focus too much on product, I have to say Bourjois create perfect eyeliners. The trick I found to applying mine, is to lift my eye up and draw the line and then use my fingers to stretch my eye to the side and go over it. When it comes to drawing the flick, I used my fingers to stretch to the side and up (almost diagonal). After applying, I take a fine brush and a black eyeshadow and press over the top. This is a good trick to help cover minor mistakes as well as helping to prevent eyeliner from smudging.

Cheeks

Red lipstick can take away the colour from your cheeks so I would say it is advisable to go for a good pink blush. With this look, I gave my cheeks a healthy ‘flush’ by really sweeping the brush across and blending more than usual. I applied a contour shade beforehand to add some structure to my face.

For an extra highlight, take a shimmer brick and sweep across your cheekbone. This one is from Benefit called ‘Sugarbomb’.

Lips

It’s highly advisable to use a lipliner when it comes to red. To help stop the lipstick from bleeding, apply concealer around the sides of the mouth and a darker shade underneath which can actually make the lips look bigger (if that is desired). When using the lipliner, it helps to balance your hand against your chin. Rather than move your mouth, use your hand to stretch out the mouth.

This lipstick colour is from Barry M, number ‘121’. For paler skin you may want to look for a red with a pinkish tone, olive skin suits an orange tone and darker skin suits more of a plum. That is just a general guideline.

my red lipstick look

To complete, I used L’oreal ‘million dollar lashes’ mascara with a hint of white eyeshadow in the inner corners. I also went back over my crease with the bronzer.