Your Personal Makeup Artist Make Up Tips, Tricks, and Techniques from Professional Make Up Artists

Where do you even begin to have beautiful and sexy red lips? Red lipstick is something that is both dramatic and classic, but it needs to be done correctly to have the desired effect. Firstly, I would like to say how important it is to tone down the rest of your makeup, especially your eye makeup, so that you don't look overdone. The very best advice that I can offer you is to focus on making your skin is completely flawless so that the red lips will stand out by themselves. Think of classic film stars from the 50s as an inspiration for this type of red lipstick. If you notice, their faces looked completely flawless, and they often just wore black eyeliner and mascara. Personally, I would recommend to only wear mascara so that your lips will stand out even more. This will give you an innocent and beautiful look, without looking too overdone.

 You will also want to focus on darkening your eyebrows if they are naturally light because the whole point of this red and vibrant lipstick is to bring out your best features. Again, liken this to a 50s film star that had defined eyebrows and eyelashes, with the focus being on the vibrant red lips.

Firstly, you will want to line your lips with a complementary lip liner shade so that the lipstick doesn't bleed out. It is important that the lip liner shade does match the lipstick, since you are using such bold colors, otherwise it will look obvious and harsh. From there, I do recommend using a lip brush to paint on the red color so that it looks more natural and silky on the lips. The best way to finish off this red lipstick look is by then painting on a clear gloss, or red tinted gloss, with your lip brush to allow your lips to shine and stand out.

The other most important key with the red lipstick application is to choose a red shade that will best complement your own skin tone. Obviously, every woman has a different skin tone, so the color of red that you will use depends directly on your own skin's undertones. Red is not simply red, but every red shade has either a yellow or orange undertone, or a deep blue undertone. The orange undertones will work best for golden and yellow undertones of skin, and the blue undertones work best for pink undertoned skin with cool shades. If your skin has pink undertones, then go for a deeper red color with a blue undertones. If your skin is more golden with yellow undertones, then look for a warmer red shade that has orange or brown undertones. Once you start to look at the variety of red lipsticks that are available, it will be so easy to see what type of undertones there are, making red lipstick not really red after all. You have to think about these undertones when you are selecting a red lipstick because that is what really counts as to whether this color will flatter you or not.

The next thing to consider is whether or not you need to minimize the shape of your lips. Many women have large lips that they want to flaunt, like Angelina Jolie, but if you are looking to minimize your large lips, then it is best to use a darker red shade that will make them appear smaller. On the flipside, if you have smaller and thinner lips that you are looking to pump up, look for a brighter red shade with lighter hues to make your lips stand out. Also, gloss will reflect light and cause your lips to look larger, which is great for small lips. However, if you are trying to make your large lips look smaller, then go for a matte red lip color in a darker hue that will absorb light and not make your lips appear as full.

Finally, use the simple tip of applying a lip primer or your own foundation to your lips before the lipstick application. If you are using foundation on your lips, then you will also apply powder to them, just as if they were your own facial skin. This works best to have the lip pigments adhere to your skin perfectly and stay for a longer period of time. You can use this same trick by dusting translucent powder onto your lipstick before you apply your gloss, which will cause it to set and stay for a longer wear. Then all you have to do is pucker up!