Correcting Techniques: All About Lips!!!

                 Your lips are the second biggest attention getters on your face. They can be bright or pale, but as long as they are beautifully finished with color they give a focus to the face. And they make your eye makeup seem that much more important.

                 To find the perfect lip proportion for your face, draw an imaginary line from the inner rim of the iris of your eye (when staring straight ahead) down to the corners of your mouth. This is the ideal width for your lips. No lip liner or color should extend beyond this point.

                  If you start by outlining your lips with pencil, your lip color will stay within the boundaries with less likelihood of “bleeding” into the lines around your mouth. And your lip shape will be prettily defined. Nothing makes as much difference as this. When selecting your lip pencil shade, go only about half a tone darker than your normal lipstick color. The brown line that some women think looks more natural only tends to make the mouth recede.

               Start with the pencil in the middle of your lower lip and line outward to the corners. Repeat the same center-to-corner technique on top. For lip color that lasts longer than even the longest-lasting lipstick, fill in lips with the pencil. Powder, then put your lipstick over.

               Always use a lipstick brush to apply lipstick, but do not put the brush directly to the tube. Instead, scrape a small amount of lipstick off with a tiny plastic spatula. This softens the lipstick into a butter like consistency and makes it much easier to apply. Dip the brush into it, really roll it around, and coat the tip with color. To apply, start with the brush smack in the center of your lower lip and spread the color out evenly from there. Do not begin at the corners of your lips, or you’ll glob all the color at the narrowest spot. Follow these techniques:

• Crinkly Lips – Use lots of shine to draw attention away from the crinkles. A matte finish only makes lines more obvious. Just apply color and gloss. Don’t outline lips with a darker pencil; don’t powder. Just remember, the more your lips shine, the less your crinkles will show. Use petroleum jelly at bedtime to soften lips through the night.
• Thick Lips – Cover your lips with base. Use a pencil half a shade darker then your lipstick to draw your ideal lip shape just inside your natural lip line. Powder over to soften the line. Fill in your new lip shape with lipstick.
• Thin Lips – Apply base over your lips. Then outline the shape you want above your natural lip line with a pencil in a shade darker than your principal lipstick color. Next, use a small, thin brush to apply a shade of lipstick in the same color family as the pencil to the area between the pencil line and the natural lip line. Powder over. Finally, apply your principal lipstick color, up to and covering the original darker pencil line.
• Flat Lips – Add curvature by filling in lips with color, except at the center. Use a lighter, iridescent shade at the center or add a spot of gloss. Don’t powder. It’s the shine that gives the shape.
• Puckered Lips – Smooth out the tiny vertical lines around the mouth by stretching your lips between the second and third fingers so that lip color goes on evenly. First, outline lips with a dry pencil. The less greasy the color is just at the ridge of lip line, the less it will bleed into the tiny lines. Powder over pencil and fill in with lipstick, just to the inside rim of the pencil line.
• Uneven Lips – Cover lips with base. Balance any uneven part by outlining the desired shape with a darker lip pencil. Fill in the area between the pencil line and the natural lip line with a dark lipstick in the same range as the lip pencil. Powder, then apply a lighter lipstick shade to the entire mouth, up to and covering the drawn line.
• Droopy Lips – Cover the natural lip line at corners with a concealer stick. Blend well. Lift the outer corners with a pencil line. Begin by extending the lower lip, taking the line upward. It should touch and go just a bit above the upper lip corner. Then extend the upper lip line to meet it. Set and soften the pencil line with powder and fill in with color.

Hope this helps y’all out, see you next week with Step by Step to a Perfect Makeup! xoxo Ashley