While the warmer months are a great time to give your skin a break from concealer and foundation, sun-kissed skin isn’t an excuse to forsake all makeup. Your smile needs TLC year round, and a well-done lip will keep your look natural and sexy.
So how do you put your best lip forward? Take your regular lip and AMPLIFY. Here’s how:
Step One: Apply a light layer of your everyday foundation and powder to your lip to create a matte surface. This will help your makeup stick.
Step Two: Use a nude (skin color) liner to lightly trace the inside of your natural lip.
Step Three: Fill in the remainder of your lip with the colored liner of your choice; then top with a shiny gloss.
Step Four: Dab a fine eyeshadow brush in shimmery gold or white eyeshadow and apply in between the peaks of your top lip and underneath the center of your bottom lip.
To add more volume, try a plumping lip gloss. Plumping lip glosses and me are thick as thieves. They’re potenially my favorite beauty product; and as a result, the number of glosses I’ve tried rivals the number of Nazi chicks Jesse James bedded.
My personal pick? Huge Lips Skinny Hips by PurpleLab. When I received this gloss in a gift bag, I was stoked on adding another plumper to my arsenal– but as it turns out, this is not just another plumper. This is the plumper. If I reach into my purse and come up with a gloss and it’s not HLSH, I throw it back in. Fisherman status.
While the gloss is enhanced with hoodia (hence the skinny hips), there a billion other reasons to LOVE this gloss. For one? It provides you with a smooth, non-sticky lip. Sticky lips are the mark of an amateur. If you accidentally acquire a sticky lip gloss, do yourself a favor and throw it out immediately. You’re not 12 (most likely), and things like glittery, cheap lip gloss do not belong in your purse.
Huge Lips Skinny Hips doesn’t pack that intense tingle that steers people away from lip plumpers (I tested this theory on a sensitive friend. The lips on my face are impervious to tingles). The four shades are also natural enough to match any skin tone. My shade of choice is Worship Kate, named after Founder Karen Robinovitz’s favorite skinny hipped lass, Kate Moss. I wonder if there’s extra hoodia in that one? I could use it.
If you’re in the market for a new gloss, I wholeheartedly suggest checking out Purple Lab. If you’re reluctant, try your luck in the giveaway they’re sponsoring with Closet Couture. Click here for a chance to win a ton of swag from Purple Lab! Don’t delay, you have until tomorrow to enter.
You can also check out Karen and Purple Lab today on HSN at 3 PM for a little mid-afternoon glam.
Disclosure: All products were provided for review. No monetary compensation was received for this review. All opinions belong to the author.
