Why are women who haven’t worn red lipstick before, so afraid of red lips?

Red is a bold choice of color and if you're a makeup novice, red automatically makes you feel like you're wearing a lot of makeup.  If not applied correctly, red can easily look overdone or cheap.

The Rules of Red    

The key to successfully wearing red lipstick is to make your lips be the feature you want to pop. Don’t expect to maintain the rest of your makeup routine.  Natural is the way to go.

The great part is you’ll need less makeup than you ever have before to feel put together.  That means no heavy eyeshadow, blush, brows, etc..  Your face should look clean with light makeup, a wash of champagne eyeshadow, liner on the top only - if you must.  Stick with basics for lining:  black, brown or charcoal.  

Red lips pair nicely with a soft bronzer on your cheeks instead of blush. Too much of everything will make you look like a tart!  

Also, groomed eyebrows are an absolute must to pull off red lips.  Red lips say "look at me, I'm confident and well put together" and with that means great looking brows!


The Safe Red

Gloss is a safer version of wearing red lips. It's a softer, more sheer look.  If you’re trying to keep it natural looking, using a lipliner will take that whole feeling away! If you want longer wearability, fill in your entire lip with a nude liner and then follow with a red gloss.  There's less room to make very noticeable lining mistakes that way!


Goof Proof Your Red

Light to medium skins look best in cooler reds and medium to dark skin tones look better in warmer reds.  You can reverse this if want to add extra drama.   Red lipsticks also tend to bleed more than any other lipcolor.  My favorite way of stopping that is to use Du Wop's Reverse Lipliner.  It works as a frame to keep your lipstick in place.  You apply it first and then apply your lip color.

The Red Alternative

Crimson lips are hot this season.  Bricks and wines are a more neutral version of the classic red lip and are more user friendly.  These colors also should be paired with a clean face and not too much makeup.