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How to Create the Perfect Pout?

perfect poutThere are a few tricks to creating the perfect lined and painted lips, whether it be stunning red lips you are after, or the latest fashion shades ranging fuschia, burgundy or aurbergine. Let’s go step-by-step to create the perfect pout no matter which shade you choose or whether you’re after a modern matte finish or a gloss that makes them pop!

 

Prepping your lips

It looks terrible when lipstick gets trapped within chapped dry lips. So make sure you prep your lips and they are in good condition before you decide to wear a strong lipstick colour. This means doing a lip scrub every now and then along with applying a nourishing lip balm. Just like we exfoliate our faces and bodies to remove dry dead skin cells, we need to give the same care and attention to our lips.

You can create your own scrub at home by easily mixing salt or sugar with a bit of honey or cleanser. Alternatively just exfoliate your lips when you are exfoliating your face with the same product. Make sure  that you apply that nourishing and soothing lip balm after exfoliating to return moisture and keep lips plump. Applying a colour-free plant-based lip balm before going to bed will do the trick.

Lip Liner

Now that your lips are in great condition its time to grab that colour you’ve been dying to wear!

1. Apply a small amount of your colour free lip balm to add a bit of moisture to your lips and to allow your lip liner to glide over your lips rather than pull on them.

2. With a sharpened lip pencil make the tip slightly smooth and rounded by pressing into the back of your hand.

Bold Matte Fuschia Lip Perfect Pout

Bold Matte Fuschia Lip

3. Let’s firstly shape the middle of your top lip. From the top two peaks of your cupids bow (bow shape at the middle of your top lip) draw a line down toward the centre of the top lip. Repeat this for the other side as well. Stay as close to your natural lip line as possible and do it in one stroke to keep a fluid line.

4. From your original starting point run the pencil in a light flicking motion along each side of the top lip for about 5mm each side to create a nice curve.

5. Jump down to the bottom lip, create your base line in the middle of the bottom lip.

Now it is time to connect the sides of your lips to the centres that you have already penciled in…

6. Starting from the left hand corner of your mouth, keep your lip relaxed but open your mouth slightly so you can clearly see where you will be drawing the line. With a steady hand begin to draw upwards towards the top of your lip. Short sure strokes will look better than one long wonky one, so if you need to, create the line with short flicks of the pencil until the lip line is fully coloured. Repeat this for the other side of your top lip.

7. The same rule and technique applies to completing your bottom lip line. Start from the corner and work your way down to the base line.

A good technique is to roll the tip of the pencil along its side into the lip from the line you are creating in order to make a smooth line. Having a bit of extra colour on the lips will later aid in blending the liner in with the lipstick. So don’t think you have to do a perfect 1 millimetre thick line around the lips, unless that is the look you are going for; think stand out lipliner of the 90’s!

Lipstick Time!

The best way to create the perfect pout is to use a lip brush. This will allow you to attain a precise application. So…

1. Apply a very small amount of lipstick to your brush by lightly wiping it back and forth on the lipstick.

2. First apply the lipstick to the middle of your bottom lip evenly dispersing the colour. Pay particular attention to blending the lip liner with the lipstick to create one even colour.

3. Repeat step 2 with your top lip.

4. Now put slightly more colour onto your brush and build up the colour, concentrating on the middle of your lips, both top and bottom.

Deep Aubergine Satin Perfect Pout

Deep Aubergine Satin Lip

For a Lasting Finish

  • Lightly blot lips with a tissue to remove top shine, reapply lipstick.

For a Matte Finish

  • Use a matte lipstick to begin with and also blot lips with a tissue to remove any top shine, reapply lipstick and blot again.

For a Gloss Finish

  • Add a top coat of gloss concentrating on the middle of your lips only (not the corners – to avoid colour bleeding).

It may seem like a lot of steps, but the whole application will not take more than 5 to 10 minutes, depending how much practice you have. Remember the more frequently you do it, the better you will get at it as well!