Lip Service
When doing your lips, you have options for the size, shape and color. Changes to any of these can produce dramatically different looks for you.
An important choice is whether you line your lips first with a lip pencil. Using a pencil to create a sharp, distinct line also lets you create a subtle new shape and size. And I have to emphasize the word subtle. When lining your lips, it's easy to get carried away and give yourself "fish lips".
Typically, if you have thin lips, you can draw a line that is just outside your natural lips. If you already have full lips, draw a line that is just inside your natural lip line. If you have a full lower lip but a thin upper lip, combine the two techniques.
Whatever you opt to do, try to maintain some balance and symmetry in the size and shape of your lips. It takes, and here's that word again, some practice, but eventually you will develop your own technique and look. Remember that wearing makeup is supposed to be fun.
Once you've lined your lips the next step is to fill in with some color. The color you use to fill in can be the same as the color you use to line your lips or it can contrast. If you opt for a different color, then typically the fill color is a lighter shade. You can also use the liner to fill in your lips
Those who take a somewhat conservative approach to makeup will tell you that using a dark liner and a lighter fill color is very '80s and that no one does it anymore. Whatever. If you like it, do it. Just do it well, that's all.
Some cosmetics companies make a pencil that is a dual liner and color and the two are designed to work together. Merle Norman's Lip Pencil Plus is one of the best I've seen, but at $16.00 somewhat expensive. What I like about them though is that the color combinations are perfect and you can always be sure that they will be able to supply you with exactly the same color next season when you need a refill.
A similar approach to a lip pencil is to use a regular tube-style lipstick and a lip brush. These brushes are somewhat smaller than an eye shadow brush but larger than an eye liner brush. The brush can also be used to fill in your lips. One word of advice: when you put the lip color on the brush, take the color from the side of the lipstick tube, not the tip. The tip of the lipstick is curved to the contour of your lips and dabbing at it with the brush will ruin the shape.
Typically, when I apply foundation I try to get as much coverage as possible and some foundation gets on my lips. Before I apply lipstick I'll apply a bit of skin lotion to my lips and, using a tissue, remove the excess foundation from my lips. I'll also use a Q-tip to clean away foundation from around my lips where I want to apply lipstick. This way, lining my lips becomes a matter of tracing.
Lining your lips first creates a more dramatic and "made-up" look. I'm comfortable with that for myself, even during the day, but you may prefer a more understated look.
The more conventional approach is to simply apply lipstick from the tube, using the tip of the lipstick to trace your lips. For me, I find that this works fine for applying a bit more color as the evening passes, but the broad, flat tip of the lipstick is too hard to work with when I'm trying to "define" my lips. And this where choices in the shape of your lips comes in.
Makeup "fashion" changes over time just the way clothing fashion does. Certain "looks" are in now, out later. A great example is blue eye shadow, which has made a comeback as part of the current love affair with all things retro.
But with makeup, as with clothing, color is not the only fashion aspect that changes. Take skirts, for example. The length changes, the location and number of slits, fabric and so on.
With "face fashion" there are also factors such as length, thickness and shape of eyebrows. The current trendy shape and size of the mouth is also subject to fashion whims.
In the 1920s, for example, a small, bow-shaped mouth was the fashion trend. In the '40s and '50s, Hollywood sex symbols opted for a much fuller, pouting look, while in the1960s a broad, full mouth and a more natural look was the ideal look to have, as seen on Peggy Lipton or Kathryn Ross. Here are some very good drawings and descriptions of some classic lip styles over time.
In the 1970s lip "gloss" was popular, while in the 1980s a matte finish was a must. Trendy colors have literally run the spectrum from pink to red to brown to plum. Furthermore, the coverage can vary between full to sheer to almost translucent.
But keeping up with the current fashion trends is not only time consuming, it is financially risky. I like to play with new colors or products every now and then, but it's been only over the past year or so that I noticed an unusual thing happening: I was actually using up makeup and replacing it with more of the same!
I can't tell you how disorienting that was at first, until I realized that I had settled on a look I liked and had been sticking with it. I've also been getting out a lot, meeting a lot of people and doing a lot of new things as Yvonne, so I'm reluctant to rock the boat right now.
Another aspect of lip shape is the shape and size of the space in the center of the upper lip - the "dip" just below the nostrils. My own preference is to shape this with curved lines, but some people like to make the shape more angular and pointed. How wide the space is will also dramatically change your look. Again, I prefer a rounded deep "V" shape while others prefer a wider, more angular shape.
You may opt to make you mouth look smaller rather than larger by not applying color or liner all the way back into the corners. In this case, you may want to camouflage the uncolored parts of your lips with foundation.
The point is, you first should determine the look you want, and then set out to create it. If you like it, stay with it. If not, change it. To do this, you need to know what the options are, and since a picture is worth a thousand words (and I've already gone past a thousand words), look at the photos in fashion magazines. Take note of lipstick color, luster, shape, liner and so on. In some magazines, they will actually indicate what brand and color of makeup the models are wearing.
An excellent book to examine is Kevyn Aucoin's second publication Making Faces. Rather than a how-to primer on basic makeup, Aucoin instead gives dozens of examples showing how to achieve a certain, classic look, drawing from almost a century of makeup styles and fashions. He recreates these looks on the famous and the not-so-famous (and in one case a male friend!). I don't recommend trying to exactly duplicate his work, but you will come away with a head full of ideas, and one or two new tricks. On top of that, I love his attitude towards makeup - screw conventional wisdom and do what you enjoy. A deal at $30.00, worth it at twice the price.
To help you out, here are a few useful links to places that can provide additonal informations, tips, ideas and products.
website is a great place to go to buy all your cosmetics.
. Author of "Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me".
