makeup

HOW TO WEAR BRIGHT LIPSTICK ON THINNER LIPS

TUTORIAL + PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMY NADINE, GRAPHIC DESIGN BY EUNICE CHUN

A lot of us who aren’t endowed with big plump lips are intimidated by bright lipstick, fearing it will only make our lips look smaller. But there is a little subtle trick we can do to make them look a little plumper. Because any time we highlight something, we make it appear “raised” out. So never rock a red lip without doing this ever again! Here’s how:

TOOLS:

• Your Favorite Concealer — After all the years in this industry trying everything on everyone, I have narrowed it down three favorite concealer sticks in three different price ranges: this one ($$$), this one ($$) and this one ($).
• Your Favorite Bright Lipstick — I used this matte lip pencil above and for the fuller lip shot I used this high pigment lip pencil. As you can see, the NARS one is more matte than the Bite Beauty one and I personally like the little hint of shine.
• An EyeShadow Buffing Brush — Of course the brush I used in this tutorial has just been discontinued (how uncouth!) but try this shading brush instead.

STEPS:

1. Dab the buffing brush across the top of the concealer stick to load it up.
2. Start at an outer corner and sweep the brush along the perimeter of the lip area towards the cupid’s bow.
3. Continue sweeping the brush from the cupid’s bow to the other corner.
4. Repeat on the bottom lip perimeter.
5. Now buff it in along the top lip perimeter.
6. And continue buffing it in along the bottom lip perimeter.
7. Finish by filling in the lip area with the bright lip color like you usually would!