17 Interesting tips to beat your Lip Makeup Game

Hello Sprinkles!

As I received a lot of positive feedback on my blog post 15 Easy Eye Makeup Tips to improve Your Skills, I decided that I would continue sharing this type of series, but changing the focus on to Lips. So here is a list of 17 tips and hacks from how to correct your lip shape with lipstick, to how to avoid everyday problems with your lipstick application.

Without further ado, let’s get started:

1. Make your lipstick stay on longer
This makeup tip never gets old. To make your lipstick stay on longer, after applying a coat of it, place a tissue on your lips and dust translucent powder on top. The colour will set and it will last longer.

2. Avoid lipstick on your teeth
I’ve been using this tip ever since I discovered it. Once you finish applying your lipstick, put a clean finger in your mouth and close your lips around it. Now, pull the finger out. Look at your finger. Yes, that’s the excess lipstick on it. Smile freely, thank me later.

3. Gradient lips using 2 lipsticks
I learned this trick from my favorite Korean youtubers. For a natural looking gradient lip, use 2 lipsticks, a light one and a dark one. The light shade goes on the outer part of your lips, while the darkest shade goes on the inner part. If you are in a hurry or just have 1 lipstick with you, only apply the darkest shade.

4. Use a Q tip to soften your lip contour

Sometimes I struggle so much when I contour my lips, especially if I use a dark lipliner and I need to achieve a straight line. While watching one of my favorite makeup artists, Katie Jane Hughes, I saw her using a Q tip to soften her red lip contour edges and I loved that effect! The colour was diffused and the edges were subtle. Sometimes, if you can’t achieve something, try doing it the other way!

5. Use your eyebrow pencil as a lip liner

It may feel waxier, due to the brow pencil formula, but when you don’t have a brown lip liner and you want a soft contrast with your lipstick, try using your brow pencil. You can also use it only to darken the corners of your mouth.

6. Make your lips look fuller with a gloss

If you want to give the illusion of fuller lips without lip fillers, after applying your favorite lipstick, place a lighter or transparent gloss shade on the middle of your lips, the gloss will capture the light on the middle of the lip making it look as if you have fuller lips.

7. Ignore your coupid’s bow

to make your lips look fuller and rounder, draw over your cupid’s bow when drawing your lips. Just ignore it and continue lining your lips. Once you are done, just apply lipstick and you will see the difference. Of course, don’t overdraw your lips too much.

8. Overdraw your lips for volume

If you want to overdraw your lips, make sure to use a nude shade lip liner and lipstick. Use the lip pencil to overdraw your lips, going a few mm over your natural lip line and then apply your favourite nude lipstick.

9. Lip liner for longer stay

Especially when applying red lipstick, use a red lip liner all over your lips, it will make your colour application even, plus your red lipstick will last longer as it has a base to grip onto.

10. Fix your broken lipstick
It’s a lovely day, it’s hot and while you are applying your favourite lipstick, it breaks in 2… don’t worry! As written in this step by step tuorial by l’Oreal Paris, you only need a lighter and a q-tip to fix it. Even both of the broken sides with the q-tip, then use a lighter to slightly soften those edges. Place them together, if needed use the lighter to make the parts combine better. Place the lipstick back into its bullet and put it into the fridge for 30 mins. Your lipstick is 1 again.

11. Make your full lips look smaller
Some of us have full lips and would like to make them appear smaller, then this trick his for you. Line your lips making sure not to go over your natural lip line. Use a dark lip shade as dark shades make things appear smaller and flat.

12. Oversized lips correction
If you have oversize lips and you feel that they dominate your face, the trick is to drive attention away. First of all, don’t use dark lipsticks and try emphasizing your eyes with makeup or your cheeks so that people will not focus on your lips.

13. Do it in reverse!
Especially when you are doing a dark lip, sometimes it’s better to apply your lipstick first and then line your lips, why? Because it will help you see where you need to adjust that lip.

14. Where to test your lipstick
This tip has completely changed my way of testing lipstick. I read it long time ago in a book by Makeup Artist Rae Morris and I’ve been using it ever since. When you need to test lipsticks, do it on your fingertips. Why? Because it’s hygienic (compared to the lips) and the colour of our fingertips is darker than the rest of our hand due to blood vessels, so it resembles more our natural lip colour.

15. Your perfect lip shade
According to Makeup Artist Bobbi Brown the perfect lip shade is a shade that is 1 or 2 shades darker than your natural lip colour.

16. Use Lipstick to make your teeth look whiter
To make your teeth look whiter, you need a lipstick with a blue undertone. Remember that colour correction works with complementary colours. Shades that can help are violets, burgundies, wines and plums. You can also find red lipsticks with blue undertones, like these ones here.

17. Create your own Lip shade
Never wished you had the same lipstick shade as your favourite eyeshadow? You only need 2 ingredients to create it! Shea lip butter and that eyeshadow. Heat the amount of shea lip butter that you need on a mixing surface and then add some eyeshadow powder that you scrapped previously. Mix them together and your custom lipstick is done.

Have you ever tried any of these tips? Which one will you be trying?

xoxo,
Frankie