I am a huge believer in the bold lip. The hard part is knowing what color to wear and how to wear it without looking like you let a kindergartener do your makeup. The absolute worst thing is looking great when you leave the house, but then glancing in a mirror halfway through your day and realizing that you’ve had lipstick on your tooth for hours (the worst part: no one told you). Or, seeing that your lip product bled onto your skin and now your mouth (and surrounding area) is a giant blob of color. As someone who regularly wears bright lip colors, I have experienced all of these problems, more than once. I am here to tell you what I’ve learned from countless Pinterest links and YouTube tutorials!
How to Do It:
1. Put on lip balm right when you wake up, and let it set before applying any color.
2. Line and fill your lips with either a pencil or a lip stain.
3. Apply a tiny bit of concealer around your lips so color won’t run onto your skin.
4. Use a small, round brush to apply lipstick.
5. Only brush on color to the point where your lips touch when your mouth is closed, or it will get on your teeth.
6. Apply a swipe of gloss, in either the same color as your lipstick or in clear, to the middle of your top and bottom lip. This will make your lips seem more full (don’t do this step if the color you are wearing is matte).
Dark skin tones tend to look best with bold, bright colors, while fair skin tends to look better with more muted colors, or colors with darker undertones. With this in mind, your eye color can also play into what shades will look best on you. Green eyes go well with violets, magenta, sangria, and red-orange; blue eyes are complemented by crimson, peach, dark currant (purple), and bright pinks. Brown eyes look best with plum, raspberry, coral, and cherry red, while hazel eyes pop with faded reds, eggplant, mauve, and pinkish-purples.
Nude lips go will with any eye color or skin tone. But, as a general rule, you should look for a pink nude so it doesn’t wash you out. Makeup artist Bobbi Brown recommends you go for a nude about two shades darker than your natural lip color. A nude lip can be a bold choice, depending how your wear your eye makeup.
For the extra bold girls out there: black or aquamarine lips are the next step. They are both big colors in the fashion world right now; take a look at Rihanna for blue/green or Kylie Jenner and Troian Bellisario for black.
If you wear a bold lip and a lot of eye shadow or liner, you are most likely going to end up looking over-the-top and too overdone. If that’s the look you’re going for, more power to you! If you’d rather keep it low-key and keep focus on your lips, here are some tips to do it:
- Go with bare eyes. That’s right, no makeup!
- Cover your entire lid with a brown or copper shadow, only up to the crease.
- Line only your top lashes. For this you can go with a plain line, or a black cat-eye.
- Cover your water line with white eyeliner – this will make your eyes look larger.
- Focus on your brows instead of eyes. Make them look bold and full (but not like you drew them on). This can be achieved by using an eye shadow a shade lighter than your hair to fill them, or a clear mascara to brush over them.
- Stick to just mascara (my personal favorite because my lashes are virtually non-existent).
- Contour your eyes by brushing a slightly darker shade than your skin tone into the crease of your eyelid.
- As a general rule, bold lips look best with a glowing complexion. However, if you cake on the makeup too thick it will take away from the lip.
What Type of Clothing Should You Wear a Bold Lip With?
ANYTHING! Or almost anything. That’s the beauty of the bold lip: it’s versatile. If you are just starting out with bold lips, you can never go wrong by pairing them with neutrals. However, if you’re looking for something more interesting and colorful, a good idea is to find an accent color in your outfit and wear the same color on your lips. If you are wearing colors you wouldn’t necessarily want to wear on your lips, look for colors with the same undertones, or the same shade. Sometimes wearing a lip color that is complementary to a color in your outfit can really make the color pop. For example, if you were wearing gold/mustard yellow, a plum lip would stand out because purple and yellow are complementary colors, and both shades have dark undertones.
The two times I would not advise wearing a bold lip are:
1. When you have a formal job interview. Unless you are going into a fashion/beauty related field, employers tend to prefer more low key, classic outfits and makeup. A bold lip may come off as an unprofessional choice.
2. If you are wearing workout clothes. Unless you are taking a note from DKNY and trying to make workout clothes chic (it can be done, but you need to be careful) a bold lip is just going to look out of place.