Red Lip : Subtle to Dramatic

Today, I decided to have a little experiment with some of my red lip products. Typically, I find red lipstick to be too high maintenance. However, I have also started getting into brighter lip products, so, I thought I'd give red another chance. I've photographed my journey which begins with a simple red lip butter and ends with something a bit more dramatic. I will also mention that what you see in the photographs is only a fraction of the vibrancy I see in front of the mirror. I haven't quite gotten the nack of taking these pictures without the colors looking a little bit washed out. C'est La Vie!

The supplies that I started out with were my Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Candy Apple, Le Maquillage Concealer, Lip, and Cheek Palette, and my Real Techniques Detailer Brush. I added a fourth item later.

First, I started out by moisturizing my lips with Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Candy Apple.

As you can see, it gives a very subtle, wearable, daytime red. Normally, I would stop here simply out of laziness. However, for the purposes of writing this post, I endeavored on.

 Using the red color from my Le Maquillage Concealer, Lip, and Cheek Palette, I added a more opaque red pigment in order to make my red lip more bright.

If I were to have stopped after this step, I would say this was the perfect red lip for a glamorous evening out in a pretty dress. (Ha! She must be dreaming...I fantasize about evenings like those!)

I wanted to give a bit of contour to the look, so I used the deeper burgundy color from the same palette and applied to the outer edges of the lips only.

I still wasn't quite satisfied, and there is this lovely gold shade in the palette...

Oh, but, now, you can barely see the contouring anymore...ugh!

Back to the makeup bin she goes. And, what does she find? Black eyeliner...

Tada...here it is...my bold, contoured, golden, glimmery red lip. The next time I get whisked off for a romantic evening and have fifteen minutes just to dedicate to my lips, I will definitely go for this. I'm quite pleased with it.

I'm calling this last photo "The Ugly Truth" because it seems appropriate and because I'm quite tired now.